Memory structure in the processing of advertising messages: how is unusual information represented?

Two models of memory structure--schema-copy-plus-tag (Graesser & Nakamura, 1982; Schmidt & Sherman, 1984) and associative-network/depth-of-processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972; Hastie & Kumar, 1979)--were tested in a 2 x 2 between-subjects design. Type of argument (typical vs. atypical) and measurement interval (immediate vs. 2-day delay in recognition and recall) were manipulated in a print-advertising context. Results indicated that atypical arguments (unusual information) prompt deeper processing of the entire message (implying an associative-network memory structure) rather than some part of the message (as would be hypothesized by the schema-copy-plus-tag formulation) and that this effect prevails under both immediate- and delayed-measurement conditions.     

MacProbe: A Macintosh-based experimenter’s workstation for the cognitive sciences

MacProbe is a program that turns an Apple Macintosh with a 68020 processor or greater and a floating point unit into an experimenter’s workstation for implementing a large class of experimental paradigms characteristic of the interdisciplinary fields constituting the cognitive sciences. The core of MacProbe is a structured, interpreted programming language with over 200 high-level commands that provide support for all facets of experimentation from design and presentation of visual and auditory probes, to real-time experiment control, to the analyses and management of experimental data and the presentation of results. The programming language is supplemented by a graphical user interface for such tasks as text and waveform editing and determining the placement of visual probes.     

Strength of Subordinates’ Upward Influence Tactics and Gender Congruency Effects1

An empirical investigation with 117 superior-subordinate dyads examines the moderating effects of subordinate gender on the relationships between the strength of upward influence tactics and three outcome variables: performance ratings, psychosocial mentoring functions, and career-related mentoring functions. The results support predictions that men who employ stronger upward influence tactics obtain higher performance ratings and more career-related mentoring functions, and women who employ weaker upward influence tactics obtain more psychosocial mentoring functions. Implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Stress and family health

This study investigates the difference between perceived everyday individual stress and levels of family health. Subjects completed the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale (FACES III), the Derogatis Stress Profile, and a personal data form. Quota sampling of 121 subjects was used to obtain 25 subjects in each of three groups: balanced, mid-range, and extreme family types. Individuals identified as members of mid-range families reported less overall stress than balanced or extreme family members. Significant differences appeared between the balanced and mid-range groups. Balanced individual family members reported slightly higher levels of stress than extreme family members.     

Individual differences in Stroop dilution: tests of the attention-capture hypothesis.

Kahneman and Chajczyk (1983) found that naming a colored bar was slowed when a color word was nearby but that this decrement was reduced when a neutral word was also present. This has been referred to as the dilution effect. They accounted for their results with an attention-capture hypothesis. Response time distributions to stimuli that contained a color word and a neutral word within individuals were examined. The dilution effect did not appear within individuals. Some individuals exhibited strong Stroop interference effects, whereas others exhibited no interference. Experiment 2 showed that the interference pattern within individuals was consistent across days. Experiment 3 showed that performance could not be explained by a selection strategy that was based on word length. These experiments showed that performance in a color-plus-neutral word condition reflects a systematic pattern of interference or noninterference that varies across individuals.     

Rules all the way down: Consumer behaviour from the standpoint of the ‘ONE behavioural’ research programme

This article sets out a unified behavioural research programme that integrates compatible elements of old, new and evolutionary behavioural approaches to economics as an alternative to the dominant unified approach to economics based on rational choice theory and a Walrasian view of market coordination. However, the proposed programme can also be viewed as a general framework for interdisciplinary research on consumer behaviour. It employs the view of scientific research programmes proposed by Lakatos, setting out groups of ‘hard-core’ propositions and their associated ‘do’ and ‘do not’ rules for the conduct of researchers. The unifying theme is that evolution in the economy (and in human systems more generally) entails the creation, adoption and abandonment of rules for dealing effectively with open-ended choice problems that are bedevilled by infinite regress problems and cognitive challenges that people seek to address via personal repertoires of hierarchically related rules. To anticipate behaviour, researchers need to develop knowledge of these rules (including heuristics and routines), their functionality and the processes by which they get changed or prove difficult to change even where they cause problems.     

On the need for structurally competent counselling and psychotherapy: Neoliberal ideology,disability and the psy disciplines

This article highlights and problematises the psy disciplines' articulations with neoliberalism, with a particular focus upon disability and upon counselling and psychotherapy. Recent years have witnessed burgeoning scholarly interest in the potential complicities of the psy professions in a neoliberal agenda of individualisation, pathologisation and responsibilisation of human suffering. Such complicities are, in state therapy settings, driven by a growing need for these professions to offer cost-effective, evidence-based interventions to secure funding in an increasingly competitive market. Whilst the entwining of neoliberal ideology with therapy practices may be innocuous for some, it is contended that disabled people may be at particular risk of harm. A case is then made for training and practice to foreground structural competency, an awareness of how therapy encounters and client concerns are shaped by socio-structural factors, including, but not limited to, politics and political ideology. This would require not only an appreciation of the sociopolitical context in which therapy unfolds and its indubitable shaping of subjectivities, but also greater recognition of disability as a source of social inequity and oppression, as opposed to an individual phenomenon. Moreover, structural competency would require theoretical and demographic diversity in training and practice, which, in turn, would necessitate identifying and addressing barriers to inclusion for disabled people. Points raised are deemed of particular importance given the emergence of long COVID.     

Samoan adolescents in American Samoa and Hawaii: Comparison of youth violence and youth development indicators: A study by the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center

Samoan youths are critically under-studied in research on youth violence prevention and adolescent development. When Samoan adolescents are included in research investigations, they are typically obscured into the much larger aggregated categories of “Pacific Islanders” or “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” The present study is one of the first to examine Samoans exclusively and compare the differences between Samoan youths residing in American Samoa and those residing in Hawaii. In an effort to gauge the acculturative processes of adolescents in American Samoan and Hawaii, the present study compared these two groups' self-reports of violence, substance use, grade-point average, scholastic aspirations, importance of religion, ethnic identity, parenting discipline style, and family support. Overall, the results indicated higher rates among Samoan adolescents in Hawaii as compared to those in American Samoa on one violence item and on substance use indicators (i.e., alcohol and marijuana). Samoan adolescents in American Samoa also reported higher levels of protective factors related to the importance of religion (especially for girls), ethnic identity, and family support. However, Samoan adolescents in Hawaii had higher scholastic aspirations than those in American Samoa, despite having lower grade-point averages. In general, Samoan students who did not self-report engaging in violence had higher rates of protective factors as compared to those who indicated engaging in violence. Statistically significant interactions reflected more complex effects. The implications of these findings in conjunction with the results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) are discussed in the context of Samoan culture, acculturation, and youth development.