Distraction,attentional conflict,and drivelike behavior

Two studies provide evidence supporting a distraction-conflict view of social facilitation effects. Study 1 demonstrated that presence of an audience produced drivelike effects on the latency and vigor of a motor response. This effect, however, only occurred when attending to the audience caused attentional conflict. Study 2 demonstrated that in a two-task setting, attentional conflict, resulting from having to choose which task to work on, led to poorer performance on a complex copying task (p < .01, one tailed) and a larger percentage of dominant responses on J. L. Cohen and J. H. Davis' (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973, 27, 74–85) hidden word task (p < .04, one tailed), relative to a yoked control. Study 2 is consistent with earlier reports that choice heightens drivelike effects, while Study 1 indicates that attentional conflict contributes to social facilitation phenomena.     

Differential associative conditioning and olfactory discrimination in the spiny lobster Panulirus argus

A differential aversive associative conditioning paradigm was used to assess the ability of the spiny lobster Panulirus argus both to associatively learn not to respond to the odorant stimulus to which it was conditioned and to discriminate between odorants. The paradigm consisted of pairing an aversive stimulus (pseudopredator) with a conditioned chemical stimulus (shrimp mixture). Four artificial mixtures (crab, mullet, oyster, and shrimp), each at 0.05 and 0.5 mM, were presented to the animals prior to, during, and following conditioning to both concentrations of the shrimp mixture. Pre- vs postconditioning changes in three types of behavioral responses (and an index based on a composite of these three behaviors) were used as indicators of learned aversions. Olfactory discrimination abilities were determined by comparing the aversion to the conditioned mixture with the aversions to the three nonconditioned mixtures. A high degree of associative learning was attained after 10 pairings of the pseudopredator with the shrimp mixture over a period of 5 test days. According to the aversion index, animals conditioned to shrimp mixture perceived crab mixture as being more similar to shrimp mixture than were mullet and oyster mixtures, but all three nonconditioned mixtures were perceived as being significantly different from the shrimp mixture. These results are in concordance with results of a cluster analysis based on the mixture compositions, which indicates that shrimp and crab mixtures are compositionally similar, while mullet and oyster mixtures are compositionally distinct from the shrimp mixture.     

Congruence,personality pattern,and satisfaction in college women

One hundred and twenty-nine female undergraduates took the Barron's Ego Strength Scale, the Levenson Locus of Control Scale, and the Holland VPI. Congruence scores were calculated using three-letter codes from the VPI and expressed major choice. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that congruent subjects were significantly more consistent and reported higher levels of certainty and perceived congruence. No satisfaction differences were found. Results are discussed with respect to Holland's theory and previous research on the correlates of congruent person-environment interactions.     

The development of change detection

Changes to a scene often go unnoticed if the objects of the change are unattended, making change detection an index of where attention is focused during scene perception. We measured change detection in school-age children and young adults by repeatedly alternating two versions of an image. To provide an age-fair assessment we used a bimanual choice rather than open-ended verbal responses. The difference in detection speed and accuracy between 50-ms versus 250-ms blank screens between views indexed change detection in short-term visual memory independent of sensory and response processes. Younger children were significantly less efficient than older participants, especially when an object changed color or had a part deleted. Changes in object orientation were detected more readily. These results point to important differences in the perceptual reality of younger and older children.     

The Moderating Effect of Prior Experience in Consumers' Use of User-Image Based Versus Utilitarian Cues in Brand Attitude

In this paper, we address the question of whether prior experience with a product moderates the extent to which the use of user-image based cues and utilitarian cues are predictive of brand attitude. Specifically, high experience consumers were expected to focus more on utilitarian cues and low experience consumers to focus on user-image based cues. Results of two studies generally support these predictions.     

Unit Social Cohesion in the Israeli Military as a Case Study of “Don't Ask,Don't Tell”

U.S. military policy “Don't Ask Don't Tell” (DADT) restricted integration of gays in the U.S. military based on the premise that knowledge of gay peers would decrease interpersonal bonds among unit members. Despite the heated debate over DADT, this social cohesion thesis, reflecting the tensions of homosocial desire, has not been tested empirically. The Israeli military provides an operative case‐study for this thesis, given its nonexclusionary policy and intensive combat experience. Measures of perceived social cohesion and knowledge of gay peers were obtained from a sample of 417 combat and noncombat male soldiers using an inventory of interpersonal emotions towards unit members. A MANOVA of social cohesion by knowledge of gay peers and combat/noncombat unit yielded the hypothesized increase in cohesion in combat versus noncombat units. Yet contrary to the DADT premise, knowledge of gay peers did not yield decreased social cohesion. Comparisons with the U.S. military are presented, suggesting in both cases a loose coupling between stated policies and soldiers' experience on the ground. Implications of these findings for the reassessment of DADT and its repeal are discussed.     

Crime Type,Perceived Stereotypicality,and Memory Biases: A Contextual Model of Eyewitness Identification

The fallibility of eyewitness identifications is well documented. Nevertheless, research has yet to assess the possibility that the type of crime committed systematically influences who eyewitnesses mistakenly identify. We address this oversight by presenting a contextual model of eyewitness identification (CMEI). The CMEI asserts that discrete crimes automatically activate distinct stereotypes about a perpetrator's appearance. Depending on the congruence between these stereotypes and the perpetrator's actual appearance, eyewitnesses will remember the perpetrator as appearing more (or less) representative of his or her group (i.e., higher or lower on perceived stereotypicality). Estimator and system variables are posited to affect identifications at different stages of the identification process. The literatures on stereotype activation, perceived stereotypicality, and stereotype‐consistent memory biases are reviewed to support the CMEI. Our conceptual integration provides a model of eyewitness identification that explains when mistaken identifications are likely to occur and who they are likely to affect. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.