The universality of warmth and competence: A response to brands as intentional agents

Considerable effort has been devoted towards the understanding of the ways in which people interact with brands. However, little attention has been paid to the personal differences that may impact these interactions. The framework for brands as intentional agents by Kervyn, Fiske, and Malone (this issue) is the groundbreaking application of almost three decades of research on warmth and competence as predictors of interpersonal stereotypes to the realm of brands. Our paper argues that demographic differences impact interactions with brands and offer additional explanatory power to the framework. Findings support conclusions of Kervyn et al., but they also suggest the importance of age, education, and income on warmth and competence evaluations.     

Influence of spatial environment on maze learning in an African mole-rat

In subterranean species where excavation is energetically expensive, efficient spatial navigation is vital to reducing the costs of locating important resources such as food and mates. While spatial navigational ability is positively correlated with sociality in subterranean mammals, we have a less clear understanding of the role of habitat complexity on navigational ability. We tested spatial navigational ability and memory in 12-18-month captive Natal mole-rats (Cryptomys hottentotus natalensis) maintained in a simple environment with no environmental enrichment and newly captured wild individuals from natural, complex burrow systems. In maze trials, mole-rats captured freshly from the wild made significantly fewer navigational errors, were more likely to successfully navigate the maze, travelled shorter distances and as a consequence, completed the maze in less time. Male mole-rats from both experimental treatments were more likely to complete the maze than females. Memory retention of the maze was tested on day two, seven, 30 and 60, respectively. The results were variable, although both groups showed a significant memory retention 60?days after testing. Our results highlight the potential importance of the environment (microhabitat complexity) on spatial cognitive performance in mole-rats.     

License to sin: Self‐licensing as a mechanism underlying hedonic consumption

Hedonic overconsumption is often considered to be caused by impulsive factors. The current paper investigates whether self‐licensing, relying on reasons to justify subsequent gratification, can also be included as a significant contributor to hedonic consumption. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether self‐licensing can account for an increase in hedonic consumption while ruling out impulsive factors such as resource depletion, negative affect, and visceral state as alternative explanations. A pilot study indicated that perceiving oneself as having invested greater effort and thus having a self‐licensing cue did not lead to a decline in self‐control capacity compared with not having a self‐licensing cue. The main study employed the same procedure and established that having a licensing cue did lead to increased snack intake while controlling for impulsive factors. Together, these studies support the notion that self‐licensing is a separate mechanism leading to hedonic gratification independent of impulsive factors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

125 years of perceptual-motor skill research

This article celebrates the contribution that the American Journal of Psychology (AJP) has made to the area of perceptual-motor skill over its 125-year history. We highlight the articles published in AJP and trace the technical and theoretical developments that stem from this groundbreaking work. Included in our overview are AJP articles on the excitability of the motor system, motor learning, adaptation to visual rearrangement, the ecological approach to perception and action, and the measurement of human handedness. We conclude by identifying a number of areas associated with perceptual-motor skill where AJP continues to make an important contribution.     

Written exposure as an intervention for PTSD: A randomized clinical trial with motor vehicle accident survivors

The present study examined the efficacy of a brief, written exposure therapy (WET) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants were 46 adults with a current primary diagnosis of motor vehicle accident-related PTSD. Participants were randomly assigned to either WET or a waitlist (WL) condition. Independent assessments took place at baseline and 6-, 18-, and 30-weeks post baseline (WL condition not assessed at 30 weeks). Participants assigned to WET showed significant reductions in PTSD symptom severity at 6- and 18-week post-baseline, relative to WL participants, with large between-group effect sizes. In addition, significantly fewer WET participants met diagnostic criteria for PTSD at both the 6- and 18-week post-baseline assessments, relative to WL participants. Treatment gains were maintained for the WET participants at the 30-week post baseline assessment. Notably, only 9% of participants dropped out of WET and the WET participants reported a high degree of satisfaction with the treatment. These findings suggest that a brief, written exposure treatment may efficaciously treat PTSD. Future research should examine whether WET is efficacious with other PTSD samples, as well as compare the efficacy of WET with that of evidence-based treatments for PTSD.     

Breaking habits with implementation intentions: a test of underlying processes

Implementation intentions specifying the replacement of a habitual response with an alternative response in a critical situation can overrule habits. In three experiments the cognitive effects of such counterhabitual implementation intentions were investigated. Results showed that implementation intentions eliminated the cognitive advantage of the habitual means in the "horse race" with the alternative response. That is, in the control condition, the habitual means was more accessible than the alternative means on encountering the critical situation, but this was no longer the case when implementation intentions were formulated. However, the cognitive advantage of the habitual means was not immediately replaced by an automatic activation of the alternative means. This suggests that formulating counterhabitual implementation intentions increases individuals' flexibility to choose which behavior to perform in the critical situation but that actual behavior will depart from their habits only to the extent that individuals have strong alternative goal intentions.