Appreciation,Analysis, and Critique: <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion</Emphasis> and the Future of Conversion Studies

This article provides an introduction to the essays in this issue on the Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion, edited by Lewis Rambo and Charles Farhadian. After briefly discussing the origins of these essays in a session sponsored by the Religious Conversions Group at the 2015 American Academy of Religion annual meeting, as well as some of the broad historical trends and problems in the study of conversion(s), the essay provides a summary of each author’s contributions and suggests that one particular topic—healing—deserves more attention in the study of conversion than it has heretofore enjoyed.     

A Place for Individual Differences in What Everyone Knows About What Everyone Does: Positive Affect,Cognitive Processes,and Cognitive Experiential Self Theory

Individual differences are often incorporated into experimental research to elucidate inconsistent effects. We argue that the inclusion of such differences into established and seemingly straightforward findings is imperative to the goal of reaching a more complete understanding about the processes of interest. Drawing on research on the cognitive effects of positive affect, we illustrate how integrating individual differences in cognitive processing styles to this literature might lead to a more nuanced understanding of the impact of affect on cognitive processes. The addition of individual differences to psychological research should be seen as a means to a thorough scientific comprehension of a topic rather than as burdensome caveats to otherwise straightforward findings.     

The role of causal discourse structure in narrative writing

All writers produce text content and ideally connect it together according to discourse conventions. We investigate whether a particularly strong discourse convention, the need for causal coherence in narratives, can predict the kind of text writers will produce. Causality has been found to be a significant discourse factor in reading comprehension and hence can be expected to determine also what writers produce during composition. In Experiment 1, writers composed short continuations at various points throughout a simple narrative, whereas in Experiment 2, writers composed continuations to complete several narratives. The results indicate that causality indeed plays a major role in composition. Writers tend to produce new text in such a way that it is causally connected to the prior text. Furthermore, writers favored causal relations of necessity or of necessity and sufficiency while largely avoiding relations of sufficiency alone, which suggests a general discourse constraint to be maximally informative (e.g., Grice, 1975).     

Immediate antecedents of cigarette smoking: an analysis of unrestricted smoking patterns

Theory suggests that cigarette smoking is under stimulus control and that affect is a key trigger for smoking. A previous study (S. Shiftman et al., 2002) showed little relationship between affect and smoking, but this relationship could have been suppressed by the impact of smoking restrictions. The study evaluated these associations in a 1988 sample that was subject to few smoking restrictions. Smokers (N = 28) not seeking treatment used palmtop computers to record context and affect prior to smoking (n = 2217 observations) and also at random times when not smoking (n = 2,380). Comparisons showed little relationship between smoking and affect. Smoking was associated with particular activities and locations. Urge to smoke was the strongest predictor of smoking. The results replicated the findings of S. Shiffman et al. (2002).     

The effect of applicant influence tactics on recruiter perceptions of fit and hiring recommendations: a field study

The present study examined the effect of applicant influence-tactic use on recruiter perceptions of fit. Two tactics, ingratiation and self-promotion, were expected to have positive effects on recruiter perceptions of fit and on recruiter hiring recommendations. In addition, the authors expected recruiter fit perceptions to mediate the relationship between applicant influence tactics and recruiter hiring recommendations. Results suggested that ingratiation had a positive effect on perceived fit and recruiter hiring recommendations (and indirectly, on receipt of a job offer). In addition, perceived fit mediated the relationship between ingratiation and hiring recommendations. The effects of self-promotion on fit and hiring recommendations were generally weak and nonsignificant. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Support for a continuous (single-process) model of recognition memory and source memory

Does memory retrieval occur in a continuous or an all-or-none manner? The shape of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) has been used to answer this question, with curvilinear and linear memory ROCs indicating continuous and all-or-none retrieval processes, respectively. Signal detection models (e.g., the unequal variance model) correspond to a continuous retrieval process, whereas threshold models (including the multinomial model and the recollection component of the dual-process model) correspond to an all-or-none process. In studies of source memory, Slotnick et al. (2000) and others have observed curvilinear ROCs (supporting the unequal variance model), whereas Yonelinas (1999) observed linear ROCs (supporting the dual-process model). We resolve these seemingly inconsistent results, showing that source memory ROCs are naturally curvilinear but can appear linear when nondiagnostic source information is included in the analysis. Furthermore, the unequal variance model accounted for both recognition memory and source memory ROCs, supporting a continuous process of memory retrieval.     

Interpretation biases in angry and anxious individuals

Although previous research has demonstrated many similarities between anxious and angry individuals, few studies have compared the degree and direction to which they exhibit cognitive biases in the presence of threat. The present study was a preliminary investigation of 28 angry participants, 30 anxious participants, and 26 non-angry/non-anxious participants who rated the likelihood of various explanations to account for ambiguous but potentially threatening events described in short prose passages. Angry participants rated the likelihood of positive explanations for ambiguous events lower than non-angry/non-anxious participants. Angry participants rated the likelihood of anger-related explanations higher than anxious and non-angry/non-anxious participants, and both angry and anxious participants rated anxiety-related explanations as being more likely than non-angry/non-anxious participants. Thus, both angry and anxious participants demonstrated a negative interpretation bias, although the bias was more pervasive in angry participants.     

Five year research update (1996-2000): evaluations for competence to stand trial (adjudicative competence)

This article reviews and evaluates publications during 1996-2000 with relevance for assessments of competence to stand trial (also known as adjudicative competence). The review focuses specifically on articles that provide new concepts or data supported by research or case analyses. The studies are reviewed under the following headings: (i) the systemic context of evaluations of adjudicative competence (AC); (ii) conceptual guidelines for AC evaluations; (iii) research on AC assessment methods; (iv) empirical correlates of AC judgments and psycholegal abilities; (v) quality of AC evaluations and reports; (vi) interpretation of AC evaluation data; (vii) issues in AC assessment of special populations (e.g., juveniles, persons with mental retardation, and women); and (viii) treatment to restore competence. Suggestions are offered for further research to advance the quality of clinical evaluations of adjudicative competence.     

Enhancing Training Efficiency and Effectiveness Through the Use of Dyad Training

The authors examined the effect of inserting observation practice and undirected dialog into the rest interval between practice trials on the learning of a complex task (stabilometer). Training protocols in which learners practice in pairs (dyads) result in increases in learning efficiency, but the critical issue is the effect on learning effectiveness. Three groups of participants (n = 12 in each group) practiced maintaining their balance on a stabilometer. One group practiced individually, and the other 2 groups practiced in dyads in which 1 performer practiced the task while the other observed. In the dyad-alternate condition, participants alternated between physical, observational, and dialog practice on each trial, whereas in the dyad-control condition, subjects completed all trials on 1 form of practice (either physical or observational practice) before engaging in the other form. The results indicated that the dyad-alternate group initially performed more poorly but quickly overtook the individual group, and the performance advantage of the dyad-alternate group was maintained on the delayed retention test. When the different forms of practice were performed consecutively, as in the dyad-control group, acquisition and retention performance was generally poorer than when they were alternated. Those results suggest that one can combine the benefits of physical practice, observation, and dialog between learners in an interactive way to produce an effective and efficient learning protocol.     

Dynamic effects of self-efficacy on smoking lapse and relapse.

Self-efficacy (SE) is thought to be critical to success in smoking cessation both as an individual difference and as a dynamic process after a quit attempt. In this study, 214 smokers used palm-top computers to record day-to-day variations in SE during 4 weeks after quitting. SE remained at high and stable levels prior to a 1st lapse but decreased and became more variable thereafter. The authors used event history models with time-varying covariates to assess the effect of daily SE on lapse and relapse risk. Daily SE measures predicted an initial lapse on the subsequent day. However, this relationship was accounted for by stable baseline differences in SE (assessed by questionnaire), rather than by day-to-day dynamics in SE. Progression from 1st lapse to relapse was also examined. In this instance, daily SE predicted subsequent relapse risk, even when baseline SE and concurrent smoking were accounted for, suggesting the importance of SE dynamics for this stage of the relapse process.