Genetic and environmental contributions to loneliness in children

This report presents the results of the first behavioral genetic studies of children's loneliness. Data were collected using both an adoption design and a twin-sibling design. As part of the Colorado Adoption Project, 133 sibling pairs (69 biologically related pairs and 64 unrelated pairs in adoptive families) completed a general loneliness scale when they were 9, 10, 11, and 12 years old. As part of the San Diego Sibling Study, 142 sibling pairs (22 monozygotic twin, 40 dizygotic twin, and 80 full-sibling pairs) between the ages of 8 and 14 years old completed a scale assessing loneliness at school. Both studies showed significant heritability and nonshared environmental influences for children's loneliness.     

Color term knowledge does not affect categorical perception of color in toddlers

Categorical perception of color is shown when colors from the same category are discriminated less easily than equivalently spaced colors that cross a category boundary. The current experiments tested various models of categorical perception. Experiment 1 tested for categorical responding in 2- to 4-year-olds, the age range for the onset establishment of color term knowledge. Experiment 2 tested for categorical responding in Himba toddlers, whose language segments the color space differently from the way in which the English language does so. Experiment 3 manipulated the conditions of the task to explore whether the categorical responding in Experiments 1 and 2 was equivalent to categorical perception. Categorical perception was shown irrespective of naming and was not stronger in those children with more developed color term knowledge. Cross-cultural differences in the extent of categorical perception were not found. These findings support universalistic models of color categorization and suggest that color term knowledge does not modify categorical perception, at least during the early stages of childhood.     

Emotional Responses to APO E Genotype Disclosure for Alzheimer Disease

The purpose of our study is to assess the emotional responses to disclosing APO E genotype to asymptomatic older adults at increased risk for Alzheimer disease (AD). This is a longitudinal cohort study of volunteer subjects who were aged 50 years or over, asymptomatic for (AD), had a family history of AD, passed a psychological assessment, and participated in pre- and post-test genetic counseling and three follow-up visits over 10 months. We analyzed responses by three emotional constructs: depressed, worried, and relieved. Three hundred and twenty-eight subjects were screened, 76 received their APO E genotype. When emotional responses occurred it was immediate, between baseline and the 1 month follow-up. Emotional reactions did not change significantly past 1 month. Our results suggest that for emotionally stable persons, disclosing results of their APO E genotype, high risk subjects did not report more depression or worry and low risk subjects felt relieved by knowing the results. Future studies should evaluate the risks of disclosure to family members involved in the diagnostic work-up of a relative and include subjects from a broader range of emotional stability and socioeconomic background.     

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.     

Pseudodiagnosticity

Subjects selected data in order to decide from which of two ‘islands’ an ‘archeological find’ had come. The results replicated two established phenomena in cognitive psychology: (1) the tendency to ignore base rate data given individuating information, and (2) the tendency to seek confirmatory evidence.The major outcome of the study was, however, to reveal a new phenomenon in information search. Subjects displayed a surprising and strong tendency to seek diagnostically worthless information. They then altered their conclusion based on that information. For example, subjects who had already obtained P(D₁/H₁) selected P(D₂/H₁) when P(D₁/H₂) was equally easily available, and when they had no relevant experience to bring to bear on the estimation of P(D₁/H₂). This phenomenon, which appears to be a wholly dysfunctional cognitive tendency, was labeled pseudodiagnosticity.     

Consequences of confirmation and disconfirmation in a simulated research environment

Advanced undergraduate science majors attempted for approximately 10h each to discover the laws governing a dynamic system. The system included 27 fixed objects, some of which influenced the direction of a moving particle. At a given time, any one screen of a nine-screen matrix could be observed on a plasma display screen. Confirmatory strategies were the rule, even though half the subjects had been carefully instructed in strong inference. Falsification was counterproductive for some subjects. It seems that a firm base of inductive generalizations, supported by confirmatory research, is a prerequisite to useful implementation of a falsification strategy.     

Measuring reaction time with millisecond accuracy using the TRS-80 microcomputer

A machine language subroutine is proposed for measuring reaction time with millisecond accuracy using the TRS-80 microcomputer. This timer is accurate to 1 msec in the first 30,000 msec and to 5 msec in the first 65,000 msec (1 part in 10,000).     

Confirmation bias in a simulated research environment: An experimental study of scientific inference

Numerous authors (e.g., Popper, 1959) argue that scientists should try to falsify rather than confirm theories. However, recent empirical work (Wason and Johnson-Laird, 1972) suggests the existence of a confirmation bias, at least on abstract problems. Using a more realistic, computer controlled environment modeled after a real research setting, subjects in this study first formulated hypotheses about the laws governing events occurring in the environment. They then chose between pairs of environments in which they could: (I) make observations which would probably confirm these hypotheses, or (2) test alternative hypotheses. Strong evidence for a confirmation bias involving failure to choose environments allowing tests of alternative hypotheses was found. However, when subjects did obtain explicit falsifying information, they used this information to reject incorrect hypotheses.     

A model for group therapy with latency-age boys

This paper describes a model of group therapy with latency-age boys 9 through 12 years old. Usually parents and families are involved in family therapy while a boy is in group therapy. The model described here is appropriate for outpatient or inpatient treatment and has been used extensively by the author in a variety of settings.