Are we more moral than we think? Exploring the role of affect in moral behavior and moral forecasting

Can people accurately predict how they will act in a moral dilemma? Our research suggests that in some situations, they cannot, and that emotions play a pivotal role in this dissociation between behavior and forecasting. In the current experiment, individuals in a moral action condition cheated significantly less on a math task than participants in a forecasting condition predicted they themselves would cheat. Furthermore, we found that participants in the action condition displayed significantly more physiological arousal, as measured by preejection period, skin conductance response (SCR), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and that the underestimation effect was mediated by SCR and RSA together. This research suggests that the affective arousal present during real-life moral dilemmas may not be fully engaged during moral forecasting, and that this may account for the moral forecasting errors that individuals make. This research has the potential to inform past work in the field of moral psychology, which has largely ignored actual behavior.     

Age-related positivity effects and autobiographical memory detail: evidence from a past/future source memory task

This study investigated whether the age-related positivity effect strengthens specific event details in autobiographical memory. Participants retrieved past events or imagined future events in response to neutral or emotional cue words. Older adults rated each kind of event more positively than younger adults, demonstrating an age-related positivity effect. We next administered a source memory test. Participants were given the same cue words and tried to retrieve the previously generated event and its source (past or future). Accuracy on this source test should depend on the recollection of specific details about the earlier generated events, providing a more objective measure of those details than subjective ratings. We found that source accuracy was greater for positive than negative future events in both age groups, suggesting that positive future events were more detailed. In contrast, valence did not affect source accuracy for past events in either age group, suggesting that positive and negative past events were equally detailed. Although ageing can bias people to focus on positive aspects of experience, this bias does not appear to strengthen the availability of details for positive relative to negative past events.     

A correction for recruitment bias in norms derived from meta-analysis

Normative comparisons are an integral component of neuropsychological test interpretation and provide the basis for an inference of abnormal function and impairment. In order to remedy a deficit of normative standards for a large number of neuropsychology tests, Mitrushina, Boone, Razani, and D'Elia (2005) used the meta-analysis of studies that incorporated normal volunteers to create a type of normative standard for many tests in neuropsychology that were not adequately normed in the past. The present study examined this method by contrasting meta-analysis norms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R; Wechsler, 1981) with its published quota norms. The study examined 12 experimental studies of the WAIS-R that included normal, control volunteers (N = 2,147). These were combined by meta-analysis, and the summary scores were compared. The meta-analysis revealed a significant sampling bias with studies recruiting more White and higher educated respondents than indicated by the U.S. Census. This bias was successfully corrected using Monte Carlo simulation and adjustments for quota sampling. The corrections could be applied to all meta-analysis norms currently in use and bring them in line with the U.S. Census demographics.     

Attitudes and Beliefs of African-Americans Toward Genetics,Genetic Testing,and Sickle Cell Disease Education and Awareness

Research among African-Americans indicates this population perceives sickle cell (SCD) to be a serious disease and sickle cell trait (SCT) screening an important intervention. However, studies have consistently demonstrated a lower than desired uptake of SCD education, inadequate knowledge regarding personal and family trait status, and a low perceived susceptibility of giving birth to a child with the disease. We examined general attitudes and beliefs regarding genetics and genetic testing including prenatal testing and newborn screening; we used this information as the foundation to more specifically assess attitudes and beliefs regarding SCD and perceived barriers to SCD education and awareness. Thirty-five African-American adult men and women participated in one of four focus groups. Thematic analysis identified that both prenatal testing and newborn screening are acceptable forms of genetic testing. Based largely on their personal experiences, participants possessed an understanding of the natural progression of SCD but had a limited understanding of the inheritance and probable risk of giving birth to a child with the disease. Barriers to education and greater awareness of SCD were classified as personal, familial, and societal. Community based interventions focused on sharing the stories of individuals with first-hand experiences with SCD should be considered.     

Relationship of Adult Representations of Childhood Parenting and Personality Tendencies to Adult Stressors and Political Ideology

Undergraduate students in a Southeastern US University (n = 232) responded to an inventory that included retrospective measures of their parents’ style of parenting (authoritarian vs. authoritative) and their own childhood psychological tendencies (insecurity vs. confidence), as well as their adult stressors and political orientation. Authoritative parenting positively correlated with childhood confidence and negatively correlated with both childhood insecurity and adult stressors. Conversely, authoritarian parenting was positively associated with childhood insecurity and adult stressors but was not significantly correlated with childhood confidence. For the most part, parenting styles, early childhood tendencies, and adult stressors were unrelated to adult political ideology, contrary to previous longitudinal research reporting these connections.     

Serial-position effects for lures in short-term recognition memory

Serial-position curves for targets in short-term recognition memory show modest primacy and marked recency. To construct serial-position curves for lures, we tested orthographic neighbours of study words and assigned each lure to the position of its studied neighbour. The curve for lures was parallel to that for targets. In Experiment 2, only half the lures were neighbours of study words; the other half overlapped a study word by a single letter. The serial-position curve for neighbours of study items was now flatter than the curve for targets. The results are inconsistent with theories in which any factor that benefits targets must hinder lures. Instead, they demand a decision mechanism that assigns a role to item-specific information, as well as to general familiarity information, such as dual-process theory.     

One-month-old human infants learn about the social world while they sleep

Although infants display preferences for social stimuli early in their lives, we know relatively little about the mechanisms of infant learning about the social world. In the current set of studies, 1-month-old infants underwent an adapted eyeblink conditioning paradigm to examine learning to both 'social' and non-social cues. While infants were asleep, they were presented with either a 'social' stimulus (a female voice) or one of two non-social stimuli (tone or backward voice) followed by an airpuff presented to the eyelid. Infants in the experimental groups displayed increased learning across trials, regardless of stimulus type. However, infants conditioned to the 'social' stimulus showed increased learning compared to infants conditioned to either of the non-social stimuli. These results suggest a mechanism by which learning about the social world occurs early in life and the power of ecologically valid cues in facilitating that learning.     

Examining the effects of stereotype threat on test-taking behaviors

This study examines the relationship between stereotype threat and individual test-taking behaviors. Previous research has examined the impact of stereotype threat on test scores, but little research has examined the impact of stereotype threat on the test-taking behaviors impacting those scores. Using a pre-post experimental design, stereotype threat was manipulated and test-taking behaviors (e.g., time spent per item, response changes) were measured while completing verbal ability items before and after the manipulation. The results indicated that stereotype threat minimally impacted time-related test-taking behaviors, but did impact behaviors related to response changes. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Implementation intentions and prospective memory among older adults: an investigation of the role of frontal lobe function

Prospective memory (PM) among older adults has been shown to be influenced by frontal lobe (FL) function. An implementation intention (e.g., 'if situation X occurs, I will do Y') is a mnemonic strategy that may be particularly beneficial for individuals with low-FL function, as it has been suggested that implementation intentions produce heightened accessibility to environmental cues, and automatic triggering of previously formed intentions. The present study investigated the effectiveness of implementation intentions among 32 older adults characterized as possessing high- or low-FL function. Participants were placed into one of two conditions: Read-Only or Implementation Intentions, before being tested on a laboratory prospective memory task. Results indicated that older adults with high-FL composite scores demonstrated better PM than those with low-FL scores, and that those who made implementation intentions outperformed those who simply read task instructions. Of particular interest is the finding that high-FL participants benefited from implementation intentions, suggesting that implementation intentions may improve PM of all older adults regardless of FL function. Theoretical underpinnings of implementation intentions are discussed in the context of FL function.