The effect of subliminal oedipal and competitive stimulation on dart throwing: another miss

Silverman and his associates have reported that subliminal presentation of oedipally relevant competitive stimuli can modify dart-throwing performance in male subjects. This study replicated their paradigm, but also examined the effects on performance of nonoedipal competitive stimuli. Our results failed to support Silverman's. Both types of subliminally presented competitive stimuli failed to have any systematic effect on dart-throwing performance.     

EVALUATION OF ATTITUDE SURVEY TRANSLATIONS: AN INVESTIGATION USING ITEM RESPONSE THEORY

The fidelity of a translated survey instrument used to measure attitudes toward mental health was evaluated using statistical methods based on item response theory. Data from French and German versions of the attitude survey were analyzed, and items that displayed differential item functioning (dif) were identified. Item characteristic curves (ICCs) were examined to determine whether the source of dif could be attributed to errors in translation or differences in cultural experiences or knowledge. The proposal by Humphreys and Hulin for using ICCs to determine the source of dif is evaluated.     

The interactive effects of request form and speaker status on judgments of requests

The interactive effects of request form and speaker status on judgments of requests were investigated in a laboratory study of metapragmatics. College students (N=132) read scenarios in which speakers made requests of them. Speakers were higher in status, peers, or lower in status than the subjects, and the requests were imperatives with semantic aggravators, embedded imperatives, or permission directives with semantic softeners. Subjects rated the speakers with respect to how rude/polite, humble/arrogant, and powerful/weak they were being. Significant interactions were obtained for the first two ratings, indicating that the speaker status effect was stronger with permission directives than with the other requests. These findings suggest that listeners view unexpectedly indirect requests as more impolite and sarcastic than requests used in other situations and, more generally, that language meaning is a function of both form and context.     

Attitudes and behavior: An information integration perspective

The relationship between attitudes, beliefs, and behavior was investigated in the context of a behavioral alternative model of attitudes and Anderson's information integration theory. Forty teenagers indicated their attitudes toward using each of seven methods of birth control. The attitudes were used to predict self-reports of contraceptive behavior. Functional measurement methodology was applied to understand the informational bases of the attitudes. In general, the data were supportive of the theoretical framework.     

Personalized versus standard role plays in the assessment of depressed patients' social skill

Chronically depressed outpatients participated in a study of the role-play assessment of social skill. Patients role-played a series of standard situations typical of those employed in social-skills research and additional scenes drawn from critical situations in their personal lives. These “personalized” role-play situations were perceived as more relevant by patients and resulted in more discomfort and less skillful interpersonal behavior than standard scenes. Behavioral measures derived from personalized role plays were also found to be more strongly related to measures of depression than the same measures derived from the standard role-play scenes. Implications of these findings for the role-play assessment of social skill are discussed.     

Awareness is awareness is awareness? Decomposing different aspects of awareness and their role in operant learning of pain sensitivity

Regarding awareness as a consistent concept has contributed to the controversy about implicit learning. The present study emphasized the importance of distinguishing aspects of awareness in order to determine whether learning is implicit. By decomposing awareness into awareness of contingencies, of the procedure being a learning task, and of the reinforcing stimuli, it was demonstrated that implicit operant learning modulated pain sensitivity. All of these aspects of awareness were demonstrated to not be necessary for learning. Additionally, discrimination of contingencies was not necessary on different levels of processing as demonstrated by a verbal and a behavioral method. It was demonstrated that explicit cognitive processes about one's own behavior, impaired learning, even though these cognitions were not immediately related to the learning process. The results of this study are of special interest in the context of pain, since implicit operant learning can explain the gradual development of hypersensitivity in chronic pain.