Paranormal belief and the conjunction fallacy: Controlling for temporal relatedness and potential surprise differentials in component events

Recent research suggests paranormal believers are especially prone to the ‘conjunction fallacy’. The current study extends this work by presenting believers and non‐believers with eight paranormal plus eight non‐paranormal scenarios. Participants were given either a paranormal or virtually identical non‐paranormal version of each scenario. Of these, half incorporated component events which were (virtually) co‐occurring with half including components which were temporally disjointed. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA; controlling for gender and maths/stats/psychology qualifications) found believers made more conjunction errors than non‐believers. Neither event type (paranormal vs. non‐paranormal) nor components' temporal relationship (co‐occurring vs. disjointed) had a significant effect on conjunction biases. Believers' tendency to produce larger conjunctive estimates was unrelated to group differences in component probability estimates (surprise values) and further, could not be attributed to group differences in the perceived functional relationship between component and conjunctive events. Possible explanations are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Women's perceptions and labeling of sexual harassment in academia before and after the Hill-Thomas hearings

Two years before the Hill—Thomas sexual harassment hearings, Jaschik and Fretz (1991) had sixty female undergraduates view videotapes of a male teaching assistant sexually harassing a female undergraduate as he evaluated her term paper. Seventy percent of subjects were Caucasian, 8% were African-American, 20% were Asian-American, and 2% were identified as of another race. Following the videos, subjects completed measures of perceptions of the teaching assistant. To explore the effects of the hearings on women's perceptions of sexual harassment, this study replicated the earlier one. In this study, 81% of subjects were Caucasian, 10% were African-American, 6% were Asian-American, and 2% were identified as of another race. Using Fisher's Exact Probability Test, results indicated that while women in 1992 were as likely as women in 1989 to label behaviors as harassment when directly asked about it (p= .16), women in 1992 were significantly more likely to spontaneously label the behaviors as harassment (p= .02), suggesting that publicity from the hearings may have increased women's sensitivity to the issue of sexual harassment, although other possible explanations for the changes are also explored.     

Effects of type of responding on memory/visual search: Responding just “yes” or just “no” can lead to inflexible performance

Interactions of stimulus consistency and type of responding were examined during perceptual learning. Subjects performed hybrid memory-visual search tasks over extended consistent and varied mapping practice. Response conditions required subjects to respond to both the presence and absence of a target, only when a target was present or only when a target was not present. After training, the subjects were transferred to a different response condition. The results indicate that: (1) performance on search tasks with stimuli that are variably mapped show no qualitative changes attributable to manipulation of response format; (2) improvement due to consistent mapping (CM) practice is attenuated in the no-only response condition; (3) yes-only CM training attenuates the subjects ability to transfer to no-only responding; and (4) yes/no CM training leads to the greatest improvement and transfer when compared with other responding conditions. The practice and transfer data support and extend previous research investigating effects of response set in memory/visual search and help to delineate factors that facilitate or inhibit reduction of load effects in memory and visual search.     

Factors predicting the use of technology: findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE)

The successful adoption of technology is becoming increasingly important to functional independence. The present article reports findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) on the use of technology among community-dwelling adults. The sample included 1,204 individuals ranging in age from 18-91 years. All participants completed a battery that included measures of demographic characteristics, self-rated health, experience with technology, attitudes toward computers, and component cognitive abilities. Findings indicate that the older adults were less likely than younger adults to use technology in general, computers, and the World Wide Web. The results also indicate that computer anxiety, fluid intelligence, and crystallized intelligence were important predictors of the use of technology. The relationship between age and adoption of technology was mediated by cognitive abilities, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety. These findings are discussed in terms of training strategies to promote technology adoption.     

Family Functioning among Rural Teens and Caregivers: Interactive Influence on Teen Dating Violence

Multi-informant assessment of family functioning is considered best practice in research and clinical settings. However, in the area of teen dating violence, multi-informant assessment of family functioning has received limited attention. The current study investigated whether and to what extent caregiver and adolescent perceptions of family functioning interact in their influence on adolescent dating violence. Participants were 493 adolescents and their primary caregivers from a rural southeastern community in the United States. As hypothesized, a paired-samples t test showed that adolescents’ scores on the family functioning measure were significantly lower than their caregivers’ scores. Logistic regressions revealed that adolescents’ positive views of family functioning were significantly associated with a lower likelihood of dating violence victimization but not perpetration and that caregivers’ views on family functioning moderated the impact of adolescent-reported family functioning on both dating violence outcomes. Post hoc analyses showed that adolescents with negative perceptions of family environment were most likely to be victims and perpetrators of dating violence when their parents also reported more negative views of family environment. The article concludes with a discussion of how these findings can: (a) advance our understanding of the impact of family functioning on teen dating relationships and (b) inform practical efforts aimed at preventing dating aggression among teens.     

Common neuropsychological deficits associated with stroke survivors' impaired performance on a useful field of view test

Useful field of view is a measure of information processing in peripheral vision that has potential for predicting impaired driving performance. The present study was performed to examine whether common neuropsychological deficits resulting from stroke might be associated with useful field of view impairment. 46 stroke survivors had impaired useful field of view test performance when compared to individuals without stroke (t30.6= -4.33, p<.001). The impairments in useful field of view of stroke survivors were associated with impaired peripheral fields, slowed processing speeds, and diminished attention. Such impairment was not localized to lesions in any particular brain area. Results allow the inference that common neuropsychological impairments may have contributed to inefficient extraction of visual information from peripheral vision.     

Screening for cognitive impairment in the elderly: Impact of physical function measures added to cognitive screening instruments

This study examines the relationship between cognitive impairment and impaired physical function to determine if the sensitivity and specificity of the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) can be improved by the addition of physical function measures. One hundred and sixty-two subjects from the Nova Scotia sample of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging were studied. Subjects were tested using the 3MS and physical function measures prior to undertaking a detailed clinical examination. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to determine optimal cutpoints for the 3MS and a new 3MS score which included physical function measures. While the 3MS distinguished demented from unimpaired subjects (.9618), it showed less efficiency for classification of unimpaired subjects and subjects who have cognitive impairment without dementia (.7536). the addition of physical function data increased performance of the 3MS in its ability to discriminate unimpaired from demented subjects (.9854), but not significantly. the relationship between cognitive impairment and functional impairment needs clearer definition in cognitively impaired yet non-demented individuals. the addition of widely used function measures is inadequate in improving the parameters of the 3MS as a screening instrument.     

The role of executive functions in human prospective interval timing

Human timing is thought to be based on the output of an internal clock. Whilst the functioning of this clock is well documented, it is unclear which other cognitive resources may moderate timing. Brown (2006) and Rattat (2010) suggest that the central executive of working memory may be recruited during timing. However it seems likely that the fractionated executive component processes identified by Miyake et al. (2000) and Fisk and Sharp (2004) may differentially contribute to timing performance; further exploration of this was the aim of the present study. An interference paradigm was employed in which participants completed an interval production task, and tasks which have been shown to tap the four key executive component processes (shifting, inhibition, updating and access) under single and dual-task conditions. Comparison of single and dual-task performance indicated that timing always became more variable when concurrently performing a second task. Bidirectional interference only occurred between the interval production task and the memory updating task, implying that both tasks are competing for the same executive resource of updating. There was no evidence in the current study to suggest that switching, inhibition or access was involved in timing, however they may be recruited under more difficult task conditions.     

Aberrations in emotional processing of violence-dependent stimuli are the core features of sadism

Psychopathy and sadism are personality traits that share emotional deficits and propensity towards violence. However, sadism should be based on additional affective aberrations: pleasant emotional responses to hurting others or witnessing others in pain. In Study 1 (N = 116) emotional responses to violent and peaceful images and their associations with the subclinical trait sadism are analyzed. The results showed that elevated positive emotions when observing violent stimuli and negative emotions as a reaction to peaceful stimuli predicted sadism, even when variance of psychopathy was controlled in the analysis. In Study 2 (N = 156) implicit associations between violence-dependent stimuli (measured by IAT task) and terms describing positive and negative emotions are analyzed. Again, lower negative associations to violent stimuli predicted sadism, together with psychopathic trait of callous affect. The obtained results provide additional clarification of emotional processes in subclinical sadism.