Self-prioritization and perceptual matching: The effects of temporal construal

Recent research has revealed that self-referential processing enhances perceptual judgments — the so-called self-prioritization effect. The extent and origin of this effect remains unknown, however. Noting the multifaceted nature of the self, here we hypothesized that temporal influences on self-construal (i.e., past/future-self continuity) may serve as an important determinant of stimulus prioritization. Specifically, as representations of the self increase in abstraction as a function of temporal distance (i.e., distance from now), self-prioritization may only emerge when stimuli are associated with the current self. The results of three experiments supported this prediction. Self-relevance only enhanced performance in a standard perceptual-matching task when stimuli (i.e., geometric shapes) were connected with the current self; representations of the self in the future (Expts. 1 & 2) and past (Expt. 3) failed to facilitate decision making. To identify the processes underlying task performance, data were interrogated using a hierarchical drift diffusion model (HDDM) approach. Results of these analyses revealed that self-prioritization was underpinned by a stimulus bias (i.e., rate of information uptake). Collectively, these findings elucidate when and how self-relevance influences decisional processing.     

Creating and Sustaining Gender Diversity in Sport Organizations

Past diversity frameworks have focused on the desired end state of diversity management strategies (i.e., cultures that value diversity and capitalize on the benefits that differences can bring to the organization) but have largely failed to highlight the methods of creating such change. A model is proposed that addresses this gap in the literature. Specifically, I argue that political, functional, and social pressures will call into question the legitimacy of the institutionalized nature of gender inequality in sport organizations. These pressures are then thought to result in employee commitment to and behavioral support for gender diversity initiatives. The relationship between the pressures for deinstitutionalization and commitment to gender diversity are thought to be moderated by four factors: the presence of change teams, education, top management support, and systemic integration. Contributions and future directions are discussed.     

Reactions to Physical Contact Among Coaches and Players: The Influence of Coach Sex, Player Sex, and Attitudes Toward Women

The purpose of the current study was to examine factors that impact people's reactions to physical contact by an athletics coach toward a player. Participants (82 undergraduate students in the U.S.) took part in a 2 (coach sex) × 2 (player sex) experiment aimed at assessing their perceived appropriateness of the coach striking the player and their preferred consequences for that action. Hierarchical regression analysis provided support for a coach sex × player sex × participant attitudes toward women interaction in predicting the perceived appropriateness of the physical contact. Multinomial logistic regression then indicated that perceived appropriateness was inversely related to the severity of the preferred consequences for the coach. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications.     

Rebus puzzles as insight problems

Research on insight-the phenomenon of suddenly solving an apparently intransigent problem--has been hampered because stimulus problems have been few, ad hoc, heterogeneous, and difficult to solve. Responding to the need for a larger pool of problems of a similar type and of varying level of difficulty, we report an experiment testing the validity of rebuses as insight problems. A rebus combines verbal and visual clues to a common phrase, such as PAINS ("growing pains"). Solving a rebus requires breaking implicit assumptions of normal reading, similar to the restructuring required in insight. We hypothesized that, the more implicit assumptions are involved, the more difficult the solution. The results of a two-part experiment supported the hypothesis, with participants solving more problems involving one assumption than they did problems involving two or more. Also, rebus performance correlated significantly with self-rated insight and with scores on remote associates, but not with general verbal ability. The findings suggest that rebus puzzles may be a useful source of theoretically grounded insight problems.     

Improving health outcomes among youth with poorly controlled type I diabetes: the role of treatment fidelity in a randomized clinical trial of multisystemic therapy.

The purpose of the study was to assess whether therapist treatment fidelity was a predictor of treatment outcome in a randomized clinical trial of multisystemic therapy with 10- to 16-year-old youths with chronically poorly controlled Type I diabetes (N = 40). Treatment fidelity was assessed by objective ratings of therapy sessions and questionnaires completed by caregivers and by therapists. Relationships between fidelity measures were assessed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test whether high fidelity would lead to improved regimen adherence and to improved metabolic control outcomes via regimen adherence. Objective ratings of treatment fidelity were significantly related to therapist-reported but not to caregiver-reported treatment fidelity. SEM results supported a completely mediated pathway between treatment fidelity and metabolic control, with regimen adherence mediating the relationship. Results suggest that conducting complex behavioral interventions with a high degree of fidelity can improve treatment outcomes among youths with chronic illnesses.     

The Effects of Acute Alcohol Intoxication on Person Memory: The Stereotypical Drunk1

Research has suggested that acute alcohol intoxication disrupts cognitive functioning by reducing the availability of executive resources for person perception. The present study tested the prediction that this effect would increase stereotype application during impression formation by reducing the encoding of nonstereotypical information. Participants were instructed to complete an impression-formation task following consumption of low, medium, or high doses of alcohol. This task involved the encoding of both stereotypical and neutral material. A subsequent free-recall test demonstrated that alcohol significantly decreased participants' encoding of neutral information, but did not affect the memorability of stereotypical information. These findings are discussed in relation to models of both stereotyping and alcohol intoxication.     

Attitudes and evaluations: a social cognitive neuroscience perspective

Automatic evaluations are crucial for survival, but conscious self-reflection enables the formulation of nuanced evaluations to serve long-term goals. To operate effectively, both automatic and reflective evaluative processes need to integrate stored representations from previous experience (attitudes) with current contexts and goals, but contexts and goals have a more prominent role in reflective evaluation. Recent neuroimaging data provide new insights into the structure and function of evaluation and the dynamic ways that attitudes and reflective processing contribute to evaluation. In this paper, we propose a new iterative-reprocessing (IR) model of the neural bases of evaluation that highlights the role of the prefrontal cortex in the reprocessing of evaluative information. This model makes predictions that inform social-cognitive and cognitive-neuroscientific accounts of evaluation.     

Integrating information about location and value of resources by white-faced saki monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pithecia pithecia</Emphasis>)

Most studies of spatial memory in primates focus on species that inhabit large home ranges and have dispersed, patchy resources. Researchers assume that primates use memory to minimize distances traveled between resources. We investigated the use of spatial memory in a group of six white-faced sakis (Pithecia pithecia) on 12.8-ha Round Island, Guri Lake, Venezuela during a period of fruit abundance. The sakis’ movements were analyzed with logistic regressions, a predictive computer model and a computer model that simulates movements. We considered all the resources available to the sakis and compared observed distances to predicted distances from a computer model for foragers who know nothing about the location of resources. Surprisingly, the observed distances were four times greater than the predicted distances, suggesting that the sakis passed by a majority of the available fruit trees without feeding. The odds of visiting a food tree, however, were significantly increased if the tree had been visited in the previous 3 days and had more than 100 fruit. The sakis’ preferred resources were highly productive fruit trees, Capparis trees, and trees with water holes. They traveled efficiently to these sites. The sakis choice of feeding sites indicate that they combined knowledge acquired by repeatedly traveling through their home range with ‘what’ and ‘where’ information gained from individual visits to resources. Although the sakis’ foraging choices increased the distance they traveled overall, choosing more valued sites allowed the group to minimize intragroup feeding competition, maintain intergroup dominance over important resources, and monitor the state of resources throughout their home range. The sakis’ foraging decisions appear to have used spatial memory, elements of episodic-like memory and social and nutritional considerations. This contribution is part of the Special Issue “A Socioecological Perspective on Primate Cognition” (Cunningham and Janson 2007).     

The University and Social Justice

Considerations of social justice pertain to universities with respect to reserved spaces for applicants from disadvantaged groups, targeted hiring, differential student fees or faculty workloads and salaries, and similarly contested matters. This paper displaces debates over what constitutes just allocation of university resources from those over theories of justice in general to those about alternative visions of the proper goal of universities. To this end, educational and democratic theories of John Dewey are drawn on as an alternative to elitist conceptions and the implications of these competing viewpoints for specific justice-related issues are explicated.