Heart rate deceleration after erroneous responses

Summary In an eight-choice reaction task, the influence of erroneous responses upon the temporary changes in the level of heart rate (HR) was studied. It was shown that after errors there was a short-term deceleration of the HR-level, while after correct responses an accelerating tendency was found. This phenomenon has to be regarded as an additional source of fluctuations of the HR-level. Therefore, it has to be taken into account when suppression of sinus arrhythmia is used for assessing the level of mental load.     

Decision-Making in Married and Unrelated Couples

The decision-making performance of 20 married and 20 synthetic couples, all college students, was compared using the Ferreira-Winter Questionnaire technique. Married couples showed (a) greater spontaneous agreement with each other prior to conjoint discussion, (b) less politeness, (c) more intrusive interruptions, and (d) a lesser exchange of explicit information between husband and wife. Although married couples arrived at more "democratic" or representative decisions in a faster time, this was due to their greater degree of prior shared values and interests. The effects of the history and context of the relationship between subjects upon their pattern of communication and possible contrasts between normal and abnormal couples are discussed.     

Commentary: Tending the Garden of Personality

ABSTRACT In this Commentary for the special issue of the Journal of Personality, we discuss the uses and limitations of taxonomies in personality, drawing on the role of taxonomic efforts in other sciences. We endorse Mc Adams's concept of several “levels” (perhaps three: traits, motives and cognitive structures, and core unity themas or identity) for ordering and arranging the major variables of personality. We argue that these levels should be considered independent and distinct: Each level has its own range of convenience, and no level can be reduced to any other level. We suggest that the concept of conflict—within and across levels—is a useful way to understand certain problematic cases. Finally, we argue that the social macrocontext (gender, class, race, culture, and history) has unfortunately been neglected in most personality theories and taxonomies of variables. We illustrate the importance of social macrocontext with a brief discussion of the case of Maya Angelou.     

Estimation of Transient Error in Cognitive Ability Scales

In response to Schmidt, Le, and Ilies' (2003) call for further assessment of transient error variance in measures of key individual difference variables, the current study examines transient error estimates for eight speeded cognitive ability scales and a composite scale. One hundred twenty‐three participants were tested on two occasions with a 1‐week interval between administrations. Estimates of transient error ranged from a low of .01 to a high of .18, with an average value of .09. The coefficient of equivalence, based on the split‐half method, resulted in overestimates of reliability by as little as 1.90% to as much as 25.96%, with an average 12.96%.     

Visuotactile apparent motion

This article compares the properties of apparent motion between a light and a touch with apparent motion between either two lights or two touches. Visual and tactile stimulators were attached to the tips of the two index fingers that were held apart at different distances. Subjects rated the quality of apparent motion between each stimulus combination for a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Subjects reported perceiving apparent motion between all three stimulus combinations. For light-light visual apparent motion, the preferred SOA and the direction threshold SOAs increased as the distance between the stimuli increased (consistent with Korte's third law of apparent motion). Touch-touch apparent motion also obeyed Korte's third law, but over a smaller range of distances, showing that proprioceptive information concerning the position of the fingers is integrated into the tactile motion system. The threshold and preferred SOAs for visuotactile apparent motion did not vary with distance, suggesting a different mechanism for multimodal apparent motion.     

Sowing Patriotism,But Reaping Nationalism? Consequences of Exposure to the American Flag

The American flag is a frequently displayed national symbol in the United States. Given its high visibility and importance, the present research examines the consequences of exposure to the flag on Americans' sense of national attachment. We hypothesized that the flag would increase patriotism, defined as love and commitment to one's country, and nationalism, defined as a sense of superiority over others. Two experimental studies supported the idea that the American flag increased nationalism, but not necessarily patriotism. The discussion focuses on the practices surrounding the American flag and its implications for the reproduction of American national identity.     

Identification of everyday objects on the basis of silhouette and outline versions

Line drawings of everyday objects were modified into silhouettes by filling-in the complete area enclosed by boundary contours, and outline versions were created by extracting the contours from the silhouettes. A large number of participants was asked to try to identify these silhouette and outline versions in experiment 1. Identifiability ranged from 0% to 100% correct responses with a large range in-between. Several kinds of errors and several reasons for difficulties with identification emerged in our data set. In experiment 2, we compared the original identification rates to those of inverted silhouettes (white figures on a black background), and in experiment 3 we compared the original identification rates of objects with filled-in holes or background parts to those of versions without filling-in. These stimuli and identification norms are useful for additional research on priming and context effects of object identification, neuropsychological deficits of object identification, and all kinds of studies with silhouettes where the role of top down knowledge could be of interest.     

Expanding the g-nexus: Further evidence regarding the relations among national IQ, religiosity and national health outcomes

The current study seeks to better understand how religiosity and health are positioned within the g-nexus. Specifically, the degree to which differences in average IQ across nations is associated with differences in national religiosity (i.e., belief rate) and national health statistics independent of differences in national wealth is examined. Consistent with expectations, results show that, independent of national wealth and belief rate, IQ has a positive influence on national health as indicated by fertility rate, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, and deaths due to HIV/AIDS, and life expectancy. Additionally, as hypothesized, IQ and belief rate interacted to influence reproductive health (i.e., fertility rate, infant- and maternal mortality). Specifically, high IQ acts as a buffer against the negative effects of belief rate; when IQ is high belief rate has no effect, but when IQ is low belief rate has a strong negative effect. The pattern of findings from this study, combined with previous research, serve to confirm that general cognitive ability (i.e., the g-factor) is an important and central node within a larger nexus of psychological and social variables. Theoretical and epidemiological implications are discussed.