Looking forward to looking backward: the misprediction of regret

Decisions are powerfully affected by anticipated regret, and people anticipate feeling more regret when they lose by a narrow margin than when they lose by a wide margin. But research suggests that people are remarkably good at avoiding self-blame, and hence they may be better at avoiding regret than they realize. Four studies measured people's anticipations and experiences of regret and self-blame. In Study 1, students overestimated how much more regret they would feel when they "nearly won" than when they "clearly lost" a contest. In Studies 2, 3a, and 3b, subway riders overestimated how much more regret and self-blame they would feel if they "nearly caught" their trains than if they "clearly missed" their trains. These results suggest that people are less susceptible to regret than they imagine, and that decision makers who pay to avoid future regrets may be buying emotional insurance that they do not actually need.     

Spatial coupling affects both homologous and non-homologous limbs

The present study examined the interaction between limb movements in space. The amount of interaction was measured by how much moving one limb affected the movement of another limb. Participants were 24 right-handed university students (19 female, mean age=19 years). The task was to draw lines with the right hand while moving another limb in lines or circles of different sizes. Significant coupling effects were found between both homologous and non-homologous limbs. Movement of the right hand was most strongly affected by the left hand, less by the right foot, and least by the left foot, consistent with the functional cerebral distance model. This effect of limb was observed only in the major dimension along which movement was not restrained. Both the limb and dimension effects were reduced when the trajectory of motion decreased in size.     

Sense of coherence, negative life events and appraisal of physical health among university students

We examined the stress-buffering effects of the ‘sense of coherence' among 116 undergraduates (70 females and 46 males) with a mean age of 18.6 years. Self-reported physical well-being and psychological distress were assessed on two occasions separated by two months. Assessment of the sense of coherence occurred at time-one, whereas assessment of negative life-events for the past year occurred at time-two. Sense of coherence correlated negatively with negative life events and reported psychological symptoms of both occasions, and negative life events correlated positively with both assessments of psychological distress. Negative life events correlated positively with physical ailments reported for both occasions only among students low in sense of coherence; this significant correlation persisted after accounting for the relationship between psychological and physical symptoms. We discuss the possible salubrious effects of a sense of coherence on the health appraisals of young adults experiencing stress.     

THE UTILITY OF CURRICULUM-BASED MEASUREMENT FOR EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF METHYLPHENIDATE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Two case studies were conducted to investigate the utility of curriculum-based measurement of math and reading for evaluating the effects of methylphenidate on the academic performance of 2 students diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Following baseline measurement, double-blind placebo-controlled procedures were employed to evaluate each student's response to three levels (5 mg, 10 mg, and 15 mg) of the medication. Results of the first study suggest that the curriculum-based measures were sensitive indicators of the student's response to medication. This finding was replicated in the second study. In the second study, when the student's follow-up dose of medication was based on trial-phase data, follow-up performance was improved compared to baseline performance. These case studies suggest that further research is warranted on the utility of curriculum-based measurements for monitoring and evaluating stimulant medication interventions with children with this disorder.     

Mencius,Hume, and the virtue of humanity: sources of benevolent moral development

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we elucidate the moral psychology and what we might call the moral sociology of Mencius and of Hume, and we argue for three claims. First, we demonstrate that there are strong similarities between Mencius and Hume concerning some of the principal psychological sources of the virtue of humanity. Second, we show that there are strong similarities between the two concerning some of the principal social sources of the virtue of humanity. Third, we argue that there are related, though weaker, similarities between Mencius and Hume concerning some of the principal cognitive sources of the virtue of humanity. We conclude by suggesting that the number and nature of these similarities demonstrate the need for future research on the conceptual connections between Confucian and Humean moral philosophy, especially on the psychological and social sources of benevolent moral development.     

The perception of causality in infancy

Michotte proposed a rationalist theory of the origin of the human capacity to represent causal relations among events. He suggested that the input analyzer that underlies the causal perception in launching, entraining, and expulsion events is innate and is the ultimate source of all causal representations. We review the literature on infant causal representations, providing evidence that launching, entraining and expulsion events are interpreted causally by young infants. However, there is as of yet no good evidence that these representations are innate. Furthermore, there is considerable evidence that these representations are not the sole source of the human capacity for causal representation.     

Mispredicting the hedonic benefits of segregated gains

The hedonic benefit of a gain (e.g., receiving $100) may be increased by segregating it into smaller units that are distributed over time (e.g., receiving $50 on each of 2 days). However, if these units are too small (e.g., receiving 1 cent on each of 10,000 days), they may fall beneath the person's hedonic limen and have no hedonic benefit at all. Do people know where their limens lie? In 6 experiments, participants predicted that the hedonic benefit of a large gain would be increased by segregating it into smaller units, and they were right; but participants also predicted that the hedonic benefit of a small gain would be increased by segregating it into smaller units, and they were wrong. Segregation of small gains decreased rather than increased hedonic benefit. These experiments suggest that people may underestimate the value of the hedonic limen and thus may oversegregate small gains.     

The theory of planned behavior as a model of heavy episodic drinking among college students.

This study provided a simultaneous confirmatory test of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in predicting heavy episodic drinking (HED) among college students. It was hypothesized that past HED, drinking attitudes, subjective norms, and drinking refusal self-efficacy would predict intention, which would, in turn, predict future HED. Participants consisted of 131 college drinkers (63% women) who reported having engaged in HED in the previous 2 weeks. Participants were recruited and completed questionnaires within the context of a larger intervention study (see Collins & Carey, 2005). Latent factor structural equation modeling was used to test the ability of the TPB to predict HED. Chi-square tests and fit indices indicated good fit for the final structural models. Self-efficacy and attitudes but not subjective norms significantly predicted baseline intention, and intention and past HED predicted future HED. Contrary to hypotheses, however, a structural model excluding past HED provided a better fit than a model including it. Although further studies must be conducted before a definitive conclusion is reached, a TPB model excluding past behavior, which is arguably more parsimonious and theory driven, may predict HED among college drinkers better than a model including past behavior.     

On the relation between the acquisition of singular-plural morpho-syntax and the conceptual distinction between one and more than one

We investigated the relationship between the acquisition of singular-plural morpho-syntax and children's representation of the distinction between singular and plural sets. Experiment 1 tested 18-month-olds using the manual-search paradigm and found that, like 14-month-olds (Feigenson & Carey, 2005), they distinguished three objects from one but not four objects from one. Thus, they failed to represent four objects as 'plural' or 'more than one'. Experiment 2 found that children continued to fail at the 1 vs. 4 manual-search task at 20 months of age, even when told, via explicit morpho-syntactic singular-plural cues, that one or many balls are being hidden. However, 22- and 24-month-olds succeeded both with and without verbal cues. Parental report data indicated that most 22- and 24-month-olds, but few 20-month-olds, had begun producing plural nouns in their speech. Also, the success among the older children was due to those children who had reportedly begun producing plural nouns. We discuss a possible role for language acquisition in children's deployment of set-based quantification and the distinction between singular and plural sets.