Semantic context effects in visual word recognition: An analysis of semantic strategies

Using a procedure that isolates the facilitatory and interfering effects of a semantic context, the present study examines two distinct patterns of context effects. One pattern shows a dominance of facilitation for target words in a related context, and the other pattern shows a dominance of interference for target words in an unrelated context. The controlling factor seems to be the overall characteristics of the stimulus list. For materials that include semantic relationships that are consistent in the strength of the relationships, facilitation dominance obtains. For materials that include a wide range of semantic relationship strengths, interference dominance results. These two patterns of facilitation and interference are attributed to two semantic strategies available to subjects for using context information. The explication of the strategies includes a theoretical treatment of the present data.     

Ordinal properties of perceived average duration: simultaneous and sequential presentations

When a subject evaluates the duration of two simultaneous events, the perceived durations are combined in a nonlinear manner, whereas comparable evaluations of successive events yield linear combinations. Fifty-four subjects rated average durations of pairs of time intervals ranging from 0.5 s to 10.0 s. The intervals making up a pair were presented successively and simultaneously on separate occasions within the same presentation sequence. The order of data was consistent with models previously proposed for perceived average duration. A nonmetric analysis of the combined ordinal data from both conditions yielded a single set of measures of perceived duration with ratio-scale properties. The common scale for the two conditions is consistent with differences in results from simultaneous and successive monitoring of time intervals, stemming from differences in the way duration information is combined rather than how it is perceived. the derived scale is related to physical time by a power function with a 1.06 exponent.     

Cultural Mistrust of Mental Health Professionals Among Black Males Transitioning from Foster Care

We examined cultural mistrust of mental health professionals among Black males who are transitioning from the foster care system (N = 74) and its relationship to their level of satisfaction with child welfare services and the frequency of negative social contextual experiences. Results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that the level of satisfaction with child welfare services moderated the relationship between negative social contextual experiences and cultural mistrust of mental health professionals. Specifically, more frequent negative social contextual experiences were related to greater cultural mistrust of mental health professionals for Black males reporting low satisfaction with child welfare services, but not for those reporting high satisfaction with child welfare services. Implications for service delivery are discussed.     

The contact hypothesis revisited: status bias in the reduction of implicit prejudice in the United States and Lebanon

Although 50 years of research demonstrate that friendly intergroup contact reduces intergroup prejudice, the findings are based solely on self-reported, explicit prejudice. In two parallel experiments examining intergroup contact and prejudice-between Whites and Blacks in the United States (Experiment 1) and between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon (Experiment 2)-we examined whether intergroup status differences moderate contact effects on implicit prejudice, as well as explicit prejudice. Both experiments replicated the standard effect of contact on explicit prejudice. They also demonstrated that intergroup contact reduces implicit prejudice among low-status groups. In Experiment 1, the implicit prejudice of Blacks toward Whites (but not Whites toward Blacks) was reduced as a function of friendly contact. In Experiment 2, the implicit prejudice of Muslims toward Christians (but not Christians toward Muslims) was reduced as a function of friendly contact.