Relationship between gender and knowledge of U.S. state names and locations

Two experiments were conducted to assess gender differences in knowledge of U.S. state names and locations. Subjects for both experiments were drawn from a population that was approximately 95% Caucasian, 2% Native American, 1% Black, 1% Asian, and 1% Hispanic. Experiment 1 demonstrated superior male performance with respect to ability to correctly label state outlines on a blank map. Providing subjects with a list of state names (as a recall aid) resulted in performance deficits that were of equivalent magnitude for both males and females. It is suggested that this may have changed subjects' labeling strategy. Experiment 2, which assessed ability to list state names, showed no gender differences and no effect for providing a blank map (as a recall aid). Therefore, the performance differences obtained in Experiment 1 appear mediated by a gender difference in geographical knowledge and not by a gender difference in knowledge of state names. Implications of geographical knowledge deficits are briefly discussed.     

Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies—A Framework for Studying Personality Change

The importance of personality for predicting life outcomes in the domains of love, work, and health is well established, as is evidence that personality traits, while relatively stable, can change. However, little is known about the sources and processes that drive changes in personality traits and how such changes might impact important life outcomes. In this paper, we make the case that the research paradigms and methodological approaches commonly used in personality psychology need to be revised to advance our understanding of the sources and processes of personality change. We propose Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies as a framework for studying personality change that can address the limitations of current methods, and we discuss strategies for overcoming some of the challenges associated with Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Hostility, job attitudes, and workplace deviance: test of a multilevel model

The authors tested a model, inspired by affective events theory (H. M. Weiss & R. Cropanzano, 1996), that examines the dynamic nature of emotions at work, work attitudes, and workplace deviance. Sixty-four employees completed daily surveys over 3 weeks, reporting their mood, job satisfaction, perceived interpersonal treatment, and deviance. Supervisors and significant others also evaluated employees' workplace deviance and trait hostility, respectively. Over half of the total variance in workplace deviance was within-individual, and this intraindividual variance was predicted by momentary hostility, interpersonal justice, and job satisfaction. Moreover, trait hostility moderated the interpersonal justice-state hostility relation such that perceived injustice was more strongly related to state hostility for individuals high in trait hostility.     

Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies

The present study used meta-analytic techniques (number of samples = 92) to determine the patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course. Results showed that people increase in measures of social dominance (a facet of extraversion), conscientiousness, and emotional stability, especially in young adulthood (age 20 to 40). In contrast, people increase on measures of social vitality (a 2nd facet of extraversion) and openness in adolescence but then decrease in both of these domains in old age. Agreeableness changed only in old age. Of the 6 trait categories, 4 demonstrated significant change in middle and old age. Gender and attrition had minimal effects on change, whereas longer studies and studies based on younger cohorts showed greater change.     

The effect of age and role information on expectations for big five personality traits

In four studies, the authors investigated the extent to which expectations for personality traits in age-graded roles correspond to patterns of personality trait change across the life course. In Studies 1 (N = 43) and 2 (N = 126), the authors examined the age-graded roles of high school student, college student, parent, and grandparent and found that expectations for how people behave in these age-graded roles showed strong parallels to the documented pattern of personality trait development and that this pattern of expectations was largely shared by younger and older participants. In Studies 3 (N = 252) and 4 (N = 123), the authors separated age and role information (e.g., marital, parental, and employment status) and found that people use both sources of information independently in forming expectations of others. The implications for understanding the interplay of expectations and personality trait development are discussed.     

Up or down: the influence of upcoming reinforcement on consummatory and operant behavior

Research has shown that animal subjects that are given a chance to consume a low-valued substance will consume less of it if a high-valued substance will soon be available than they would if the low-valued substance were to remain available (negative consummatory contrast). Research has also shown that subjects that lever press for a low-valued reinforcer will press the lever more often for that reinforcer if they will soon be able to lever press for a high-valued reinforcer than they would if they continue to press for the low-valued reinforcer (positive induction). The present study investigated these different changes in behavior across 3 experiments. The results suggest that the occurrence of contrast or induction does not depend on the type of substances that are used. We argue that further investigation of the contrast vs. induction issue is warranted because it has empirical, theoretical, and applied implications.     

Induction in variants of White's effect: common or separate mechanisms?

In White's display the gray target surrounded more by black than white appears darker than the target of the same physical luminance surrounded more by white than black. Several subsequent studies have shown that this effect occurs only when the luminance of the test regions lies between the minimum and maximum luminance values of the inducing stripes. With targets either lighter or darker than both inducing stripes, the direction of the effect is reversed and the effect is known as the 'inverted' White's effect. Views differ on whether the classical and inverted White's effects are mediated by common or separate underlying mechanisms. We varied the aspect ratio of the test and inducing regions in the classical and inverted White's effects. Consistent with previously reported findings, we found that the direction of the classical effect did not depend on the amount of black or white border in immediate contact with the test patch. On the other hand, perceived lightness in the inverted White's effect was affected by such variations, suggesting that induction in classical and inverted White's configurations is governed by different mechanisms. These results confirm the critical importance of the interaction between luminance and geometric relationships in induced brightness.     

Modal completion in the Poggendorff illusion: support for the depth-processing theory

The Poggendorff illusion is one of the most prominent geometrical-optical illusions and has attracted enduring interest for more than a hundred years. Most modern theories explain the illusion by postulating various kinds of distortion of the "test" component of the figure by the context or the inducing component. They make no reference to the importance of processes involved in three-dimensional scene perception for understanding the illusion. We measured the strength of the Poggendorff illusion in configurations containing solid inducing surfaces as opposed to the usual parallel lines. The surface, oblique-line, and background luminances were manipulated separately to create configurations consistent with modal completion of the obliques in front of the surface. The marked decrease in the size of the illusion in conditions favoring modal completion is consistent with claims that perceived spatial layout is a major determinant of the Poggendorff illusion.     

Predicting the home location of serial offenders: a preliminary comparison of the accuracy of human judges with a geographic profiling system

The accuracy with which human judges, before and after 'training', could predict the likely home location of serial offenders was compared with predictions produced by a geographic profiling system known as Dragnet. All predictions were derived from ten spatial displays, one for each of ten different U.S. serial murderers, indicating five crime locations. In all conditions participants were asked to place an 'X' on each spatial display corresponding to where they thought the offender lived. In the control condition, a comparison was made between the accuracy of these predictions for 21 participants on two separate occasions a few minutes apart. In the experimental condition, between their first and second predictions the 21 participants were given two heuristics to follow--distance-decay and circle hypothesis. Results showed that participants with no previous knowledge of geographic profiling were able to use the two heuristics to improve the accuracy of their predictions. The overall accuracy of the second set of predictions for the experimental group was also not significantly different from the accuracy of predictions generated by Dragnet.