Detecting Faking on the Rorschach: Computer Versus Expert Clinical Judgment: A Reply to Cohen

Cohen's contributions (this issue) to the dialogue through his critique of our study (Kahn, Fox, & Rhode, 1988) is confusing and Tends to cloud, rather than clarify the issues, The main problem with his analysis is that it is based on several inaccurate representations of what is stated in our study, resulting in spurious conclusions.     

Significance of Rorschach Response Modified by Responses to Other Projective Tests

Suggestions are offered for distinguishing those instances in which a disturbed Rorschach may indicate a need for psychotherapy from those in which psychotherapy is not indicated. Two contrasting cases are presented. The difference lies not so much in the quality of the Rorschach per se as in the quality of supporting and supplementary test results. The Kinetic Family Drawing, the Lowenfeld Mosaic, the level and balance of verbal and performance IQ scores, and the nature of visual and perceptual problems are used.     

Emotions in sport: Perceived effects on attention,concentration, and performance

This study explored attentional patterns associated with positive and negative emotions during sport competition, and athletes' perceptions of the consequences of these attentional changes for concentration and performance. Sixty‐nine athletes completed the Sport Emotion Questionnaire following a national softball competition. They also retrospectively reported their perceptions of how emotions influenced their attention, concentration, and sport performance. Excitement and happiness were more closely associated with concentration than anxiety, dejection, and anger. Although excitement demanded more attention than the negative emotions, the positive emotions were perceived as more likely to lead to a performance‐relevant focus and automatic physical movements, both of which were beneficial for concentration and performance. Emotional intensity increased these effects.     

Impaired artificial grammar learning in agrammatism

It is often assumed that language is supported by domain-specific neural mechanisms, in part based on neuropsychological data from aphasia. If, however, language relies on domain-general mechanisms, it would be expected that deficits in non-linguistic cognitive processing should co-occur with aphasia. In this paper, we report a study of sequential learning by agrammatic aphasic patients and control participants matched for age, socio-economic status and non-verbal intelligence. Participants were first exposed to strings derived from an artificial grammar after which they were asked to classify a set of new strings, some of which were generated by the same grammar whereas others were not. Although both groups of participants performed well in the training phase of the experiment, only the control participants were able to classify novel test items better than chance. The results show that breakdown of language in agrammatic aphasia is associated with an impairment in artificial grammar learning, indicating damage to domain-general neural mechanisms subserving both language and sequential learning.     

Temporal patterns of behavior from the scheduling of psychology quizzes

Temporal patterns of behavior have been observed in real-life performances such as bill passing in the U.S. Congress, in-class studying, and quiz taking. However, the practical utility of understanding these patterns has not been evaluated. The current study demonstrated the presence of temporal patterns of quiz taking in a university-level introductory psychology course and used these patterns to manage the traffic of quiz takers in a computerized testing lab. Results are discussed in terms of the applications of tracking temporal response patterns.     

Do the “Savage Origins” of Tattoos Cast a Prejudicial Shadow on Contemporary Tattooed Individuals?

We investigated whether increases in tattooing rates and designs have eradicated or altered traditional delinquent tattooing stereotypes. We tested the perceived suitability of tattooed and non‐tattooed individuals for 2 different jobs. Affective evaluations mediated judgments of job suitability, with those displaying traditional tattoos being rated as less suitable for employment than those who were not tattooed and those displaying contemporary tattoos. Those with a contemporary tattoo were judged in the same manner as those who were not tattooed (even by observers who neither had a tattoo nor were considering getting one). These results suggest that the savage associations of tattooing continue for some, but suggest that for other tattoo enthusiasts, a new stereotype has emerged reflecting a shift toward respectability.     

Spontaneous and Reflexive Cognitions Related to Spousal Abuse: The Role of Experiences of Violence

The aim of this study was to investigate the recognition of violent behaviors, assessment of their severity, and reaction time in recognizing violent behaviors among individuals (91 men, 122 women) who have been exposed to spousal abuse, either as victim or aggressor, and those who have not reported such experiences. Results indicate a relation between the rapidity with which participants recognized a behavior, number of behaviors recognized, and assessment of the severity of such behaviors. Moreover, participants recognized physical violence more readily than psychological violence, and rated physical violence more severely. Finally, the experience of violence in a couple, as perpetrator or as victim, was linked to reaction time for each type of violence.     

Moving memories: Behavioral synchrony and memory for self and others

Establishing and maintaining connections with others is central to a fulfilling social life. In this respect, behavioral coordination provides one avenue by which interpersonal linkages can be formed. Drawing from the dynamical systems approach, the present research explored whether temporary interpersonal connections founded on coordinated behavior influence memory for self and others. To do so, we measured participants’ incidental recall of self and other-relevant information after a period of either in-phase or anti-phase interpersonal coordination. While participants in the less stable anti-phase condition demonstrated the typical memory advantage for self-related compared to other-related information, this effect was eliminated when participant and confederate movements displayed in-phase coordination. These results are discussed with respect to the interplay between the systems that support interpersonal synchrony and basic social-cognitive processing.     

Factors impacting emergence of behavioral control by underselected stimuli in humans after reduction of control by overselected stimuli

Stimulus overselectivity occurs when only one of potentially many aspects of the environment controls behavior. Adult participants were trained and tested on a trial-and-error discrimination learning task while engaging in a concurrent load task, and overselectivity emerged. When responding to the overselected stimulus was reduced by reinforcing a novel stimulus in the presence of the previously overselected stimulus in a second trial-and-error discrimination task, behavioral control by the underselected stimulus became stronger. However, this result was only found under certain circumstances: when there was substantial overselectivity in the first training phase; when control by the underselected stimulus in the first phase was particularly low; and when there was effective reduction in the behavioral control exerted by the previously overselected stimuli. The emergence of behavioral control by the underselected stimulus suggests that overselectivity is not simply due to an attention deficit, because for the emergence to occur, the stimuli must have been attended to and learned about in the training phase; but that a range of additional learning factors may play a role.