Expectancy Accessibility, Alcohol Expectancies, and Intentions to Consume Alcohol

Drug use tends to correlate more strongly with positive expectancies than with negative expectancies. The expectancy-accessibility model provides one explanation for this disparity. This model suggests that the association between positive expectancies of a drug's effects and intentions to use the drug are larger because positive expectancies are often more accessible in memory. Previous work supports the model for positive expectancies and intentions to use smokeless tobacco. Positive expectancies correlated significantly with intentions to use smokeless tobacco only when they were primed in memory. The current study attempted to extend these findings to alcohol consumption. Positive expectancies correlated significantly with intentions to drink when they were primed in memory, as the model predicts. Nevertheless, positive expectancies also correlated significantly with intentions when negative expectancies were primed. In addition, negative expectancies were not associated with intentions to drink, regardless of priming condition. These latter results are not consistent with the model. These findings suggest that the expectancy-accessibility model may be limited.     

Effects of stimulus variability on perception and representation of spoken words in memory

A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the effects of stimulus variability on the memory representations for spoken words. A serial recall task was used to study the effects of changes in speaking rate, talker variability, and overall amplitude on the initial encoding, rehearsal, and recall of lists of spoken words. Interstimulus interval (ISI) was manipulated to determine the time course and nature of processing. The results indicated that at short ISIs, variations in both talker and speaking rate imposed a processing cost that was reflected in poorer serial recall for the primacy portion of word lists. At longer ISIs, however, variation in talker characteristics resulted in improved recall in initial list positions, whereas variation in speaking rate had no effect on recall performance. Amplitude variability had no effect on serial recall across all ISIs. Taken together, these results suggest that encoding of stimulus dimensions such as talker characteristics, speaking rate, and overall amplitude may be the result of distinct perceptual operations. The effects of these sources of stimulus variability in speech are discussed with regard to perceptual saliency, processing demands, and memory representation for spoken words.     

Cardiac change scale: A brief, self-report research measure

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief, self-report measure of the degree of perceived change resulting from cardiac illness. Life change has been widely recognized as stressful, but it is usually assessed with generic checklists of events which have been found wanting in terms of reliability and validity. The proposed measure was designed to assess life change in factors commonly reported to be important in recovery from cardiac illness. The Cardiac Change Scale was found to have very good internal consistency and acceptable test-retest reliability. The construct and criterion validity of the Cardiac Change Scale were supported.     

Shape constancy and theory of mind: is there a link?

In three experiments, children aged between 4 and 7 years viewed a circular disc oriented at a slant. The disc was made of luminous material and situated in a darkened chamber. Children of all ages exaggerated the circularity of the disc when they knew that the object was really a circle (the circle task), and the effect was greatest in the younger members of the sample. Crucially, however, a group of children in Experiment 3 who viewed an identical shape that they knew emanated from an actual ellipse did not exaggerate circularity. In the second experiment, children tackled three standard theory of mind tasks in addition to the circle task mentioned above. A significant correlation emerged (even with age partialed) between the extent of exaggeration made by those who knew that the shape was a circle and ability to pass the theory of mind tests. It seems knowledge of reality contaminates judgements of appearance in the circle task. This might be the same bias that features in realist errors in theory of mind tasks.     

Delay or probability discounting in a model of impulsive behavior: effect of alcohol

Little is known about the acute effects of drugs of abuse on impulsivity and self-control. In this study, impulsivity was assessed in humans using a computer task that measured delay and probability discounting. Discounting describes how much the value of a reward (or punisher) is decreased when its occurrence is either delayed or uncertain. Twenty-four healthy adult volunteers ingested a moderate dose of ethanol (0.5 or 0.8 g/kg ethanol: n = 12 at each dose) or placebo before completing the discounting task. In the task the participants were given a series of choices between a small, immediate, certain amount of money and $10 that was either delayed (0, 2, 30, 180, or 365 days) or probabilistic (i.e., certainty of receipt was 1.0, .9, .75, .5, or .25). The point at which each individual was indifferent between the smaller immediate or certain reward and the $10 delayed or probabilistic reward was identified using an adjusting-amount procedure. The results indicated that (a) delay and probability discounting were well described by a hyperbolic function; (b) delay and probability discounting were positively correlated within subjects; (c) delay and probability discounting were moderately correlated with personality measures of impulsivity; and (d) alcohol had no effect on discounting.     

Relative Clause Attachment: Nondeterminism in Japanese Parsing

Like many other languages, Japanese is ambiguous about the potential attachment sites of a relative clause which appears alongside a complex noun phrase. One important class of parsing theories (nondeterministic accounts) predicts that the relative clause will initially be attached to the first available host and later assigned to an alternative site, following the intervention of certain discourse processes. An alternative (deterministic) account maintains that the preliminary attachment site remains unchanged throughout the course of processing the sentence. The results of a questionnaire and a self-paced reading study with Japanese materials of this kind provided evidence of phased attachment first to one noun host and then to another. It is argued that these results are compatible only with nondeterministic accounts of parsing.     

Effects of linear and angular velocity on 2-, 4-, and 6-month-olds'' visual pursuit behaviors

We report on a study with 12 infants at each of 2, 4, and 6 months of age which examines the effects on infant visual pursuit of varying the target linear velocity (m/s) and the target angular velocity (deg/s) independently. Tracking performance is described in terms of five behaviors which characterize infant performance as a tracking trial unfolds: time to initial capture, duration of initial tracking, duration of initial break in tracking, frequency of interruptions in tracking, and mean duration of all tracking intervals. Interruptions in tracking become more frequent as linear velocity increases but less frequent as angular velocity increases. The mean duration of later tracking intervals is diminished relative to the duration of earlier tracking intervals in 4- and 6-month-olds, but not in the 2-month-olds. Differences in angular velocity may account for the conflicting reports of disruptions in object permanence studies relying on a visual tracking paradigm.     

Response Style Theory Revisited: Gender Differences and Stereotypes in Rumination and Distraction

Response Style Theory [S. Nolen-Hoeksema (1987) “Sex Differences in Unipolar Depression: Evidence and Theory,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 101, pp. 259–282] suggests that, when depressed, women ruminate on their sad feelings while men distract themselves from theirs. We sought to examine this gender difference in more detail. In Study 1, 155 students provided stereotype ratings or self-reports of responses to depression. The stereotype ratings conformed precisely to Response Style Theory yet exaggerated self-reported gender differences, especially for men. In Study 2, 40 roommate pairs completed a similar set of ratings. Again, other-ratings conformed exactly to Response Style Theory's predictions while self-ratings showed a more moderated pattern. In both studies, women reported ruminating more than did men, yet men and women were equally likely to report distraction. We conclude by examining several hypotheses for the discrepancies between stereotypes and self-reports for men as well as the increased rates of rumination among women.     

From Logos to Pathos in Social Psychology and Academic Argumentation: Reconciling Postmodernism and Positivism in a Sociology of Persuasion

This paper argues that one can empirically test, via positivist methods, the post-modern attack on positivist epistemologies: Postmodern perspectives hold Knowledge and Truth to be intersubjective, consensus-driven social constructions. But traditional scientific approaches to knowledge, exemplified here by the cognitive social psychology of persuasion, seem oblivious to this and continue to detach the study of attitudes, beliefs, and emotions from that of knowledge, facts, and reason. Abandoning these artificial distinctions in both epistemology and method would enable this social psychology, reconstituted as a Sociology of Persuasion, to contribute greatly to illuminating the processes of Truth and Knowledge construction in social interaction. Moreover, this would facilitate academic engagement in civic discourse.     

Rectangles may appear to reverse like trapezia when they rotate at an uneven rate.

A 1983-1985 theory by Mitchell and Power predicts that, when rotating rectangles undergo certain kinds of speed fluctuation, they should appear to reverse just as trapezia do. The prediction is partially confirmed. One of two 'mimic' rectangles underwent apparent reversals more often than a control rectangle undergoing even rotation and in the same places as rotating trapezia. However, its reversal frequency was less than those of the trapezia, and a second 'mimic' slowed an inappropriate distribution of reversals round the cycle. These anomalies call for some modification to Mitchell and Power's theory, but minor qualifications may be sufficient.