Are People Polite to Computers? Responses to Computer-Based Interviewing Systems1

The present studies were designed to test whether people are “polite” to computers. Among people, an interviewer who directly asks about him- or herself will receive more positive and less varied responses than if the same question is posed by a third party. Two studies were designed to determine if the same phenomenon occurs in human–computer interaction. In the first study (N= 30), participants performed a task with a text-based computer and were then interviewed about the performance of that computer on 1 of 3 loci: (a) the same computer, (b) a paper-and-pencil questionnaire, or (c) a different (but identical) text-based computer. Consistent with the politeness prediction, same-computer participants evaluated the computer more positively and more homogeneously than did either paper-and-pencil or different-computer participants. Study 2 (N= 30) replicated the results with voice-based computers. Implications for computer-based interviewing are discussed.     

Mood and alcohol consumption: an experience sampling test of the self-medication hypothesis

In this investigation the authors applied the experience sampling method to prospectively test the self-medication hypothesis. In vivo reports gathered in the context of daily life demonstrated that nervousness was the only negative mood state to predict increases in alcohol consumption later in the course of the day. Further examination of this within-person relationship demonstrated that men were more likely to consume alcohol when nervous than were women, but this association was unrelated to family history of alcoholism, problem drinking patterns, or trait anxiety and depression. Consistent with the self-medication hypothesis, cross-sectional analyses also confirmed that alcohol consumption was generally associated with lower levels of nervousness; this effect varied by several demographic and clinical variables. These findings are discussed in terms of the diversity of reasons for alcohol consumption and their potential for explaining problem drinking.     

Do we know how we cope? Relating daily coping reports to global and time-limited retrospective assessments

The current study examined the concordance among daily, trait (global retrospective), and time-limited retrospective reports of coping. A sample of 93 adults completed the COPE (C. S. Carver, M. F. Scheier, & J. K. Weintraub, 1989) prior to recording coping with the day's most negative event for 30 consecutive days. At the end of daily data collection, participants recalled to what extent they used each of 16 coping strategies over the past 30 days. Whereas findings indicate generally good concordance between daily and time-limited retrospective reports, concordance between global and daily reports was weak. Only limited evidence was found for systematic individual differences in concordance. Time-limited reports appear to be an adequate, though not ideal, method of determining usual patterns of coping with stress.     

Calendrical savants: exceptionality and practice

The exceptionality of the skills of calendrical savants and the role of practice were investigated. Experiment 1 compared four autistic calendrical savants to Professor Conway, a distinguished mathematician with calendrical skills. Professor Conway answered questions over a greater range of years but some savants knew more calendrical regularities. Experiment 2 studied the development of a calendrical savant's ability to answer date questions for very remote future years. He started by making written calculations and progressed to mental calculation. His variation in response time for remote dates was similar to that for near dates. The findings are consistent with the view that calendrical savants develop their skills through practice.     

Self- and Interactive Regulation: Treating a Patient with AD/HD

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), only recently diagnosed in adults, usually is treated by medication and coaching. This article presents a psychoanalytic treatment of an AD/HD patient, taking account of the development of self-regulation in terms of interactive social exchanges, as well as neurobiologically based factors. The patient's gains in cognition and affect management opened the way for development of empathic capacity after the therapist began integrating ideas and methods from the AD/HD theoretical literature with Beebe and Lachmann's (1994, 1998) model of self-and mutual regulation. The key idea from the AD/HD research (Barkley, 1997b) is that the disorder is at root a deficit in the capacity to inhibit response to internal and external stimuli long enough to allow time for reflection, affect management, planning, and other executive functions that neuroscience links with the prefrontal cortex and other areas of the brain.     

Jane E. Myers: The Evolution of an Advocate

This profile highlights Jane E. Myers's journey to becoming a leader in the counseling profession through her roles as a rehabilitation counselor, counselor educator, supervisor, mentor, and advocate. Her legacy is explored through her narrative of the evolution of her distinguished career, from early pivotal childhood experiences to her current professional passions. No matter how well the reader knows Dr. Myers, the authors believe that additional insight will be gained about this inspiring woman through this profile.     

Studies of Emotional Reactions VI. Cardiac Responses

Wild-strain male house mice were fostered at birth onto conspecifics, deer mice, or domestic Norway rats. In adulthood, their flesh-eating preferences were tested by allowing them to feed from freshly asphyxiated conspecifics and either deer mice or rats. The mice ate significantly more conspecific flesh than contraspecific flesh, except when the flesh offered was that of the contraspecies upon which the mouse had been fostered at birth. The failure of cross-species-fostered mice to discriminate between their own species and their foster species in flesh-preference tests is attributed to their having learned early in life to respond to the foster species in the same way they normally respond to conspecifics, that is, by approaching them, investigating them, and, when finding them dead, feeding upon them.