Circular structure of the MCMI-III personality disorder scales.

Millon's (1987) circular model of personality disorders was examined in a large sample of psychiatric patients (N = 2,366) who completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III; Millon, 1997) as part of routine assessment after presentation for treatment. Principal components analyses were conducted to identify the first two dimensions in MCMI-III base rate scores, weighted and unweighted raw scores, and nonoverlapping scale scores. Similar analyses were made on these scores when acquiescence was partialled out. Circular plots of the scales were examined against Millon's hypothesized arrangement and the model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Results replicated those of Strack, Lorr, and Campbell (1990) with the MCMI-II. Millon's horizontal Impassive-Expressive dimension was recovered in both regular and residual scores but the vertical axis appeared to represent an Impulsivity-Compulsivity dimension rather than the Autonomous-Enmeshed continuum envisioned by Millon. Although scale order followed Millon's predictions for the most part, a number of departures from theoretical expectations were noted and none of the score sets yielded a good fit to the hypothetical structure. Millon's model appears to have promise as a circumplex that can encompass all of the personality disorders but changes are needed to rectify discrepancies between the theory and empirical findings.     

Erroneous knowledge of results affects decision and memory processes on timing tasks

On mental timing tasks, erroneous knowledge of results (KR) leads to incorrect performance accompanied by the subjective judgment of accurate performance. Using the start-stop technique (an analogue of the peak interval procedure) with both reproduction and production timing tasks, the authors analyze what processes erroneous KR alters. KR provides guidance (performance error information) that lowers decision thresholds. Erroneous KR also provides targeting information that alters response durations proportionately to the magnitude of the feedback error. On the production task, this shift results from changes in the reference memory, whereas on the reproduction task this shift results from changes in the decision threshold for responding. The idea that erroneous KR can alter different cognitive processes on related tasks is supported by the authors' demonstration that the learned strategies can transfer from the reproduction task to the production task but not visa versa. Thus effects of KR are both task and context dependent.     

Expanding retrieval practice: an effective aid to preschool children's learning

The benefits of expanding retrieval practice for preschool children were explored in two experiments. In Experiment 1, three groups learned names for six plush toy pigs using expanding retrieval practice, a reward incentive, or a control condition. Reward did not significantly improve learning but retrieval practice doubled recall. In Experiment 2, three groups learned names to soft toys, comparing recall following massed elaborative study with either expanding retrieval practice or expanding re-presentation. Recall was tested after 1 minute, 1 day, and 2 days. A very large effect size (d = 1.9) indicated the very considerable benefit from expanding retrieval practice over the elaboration condition. Comparison with the re-presentation condition suggested that half of the benefit of expanding retrieval practice came from spaced scheduling and half from retrieval practice. Expanding retrieval practice provides an effective method to improve learning by young children.     

Relationship of Inglehart's and Schwartz's value dimensions revisited

This study examines the relationship between Inglehart's and Schwartz's value dimensions—both at the individual and the country levels. By rotating one set of items towards the other, we show that these value dimensions have more in common than previously reported. The ranking of countries (N = 47) based on Schwartz's Embeddedness—Autonomy and the Survival—Self‐Expression dimensions reached a maximum of similarity, r = .82, after rotating Inglehart's factor scores 27 degrees clockwise. The correlation between the other pair of dimensions (Schwartz's Hierarchy‐Mastery—Egalitarianism‐Harmony and Inglehart's Traditional—Secular‐Rational values) was near zero before and after rotation. At the individual level (N = 46,444), positive correlations were found for Schwartz's Conservation—Openness dimension with both of Inglehart's dimensions (Survival—Self‐Expression and Traditional—Secular‐Rational values). The highest correlation with this Schwartz dimension was obtained at the Secular‐Rational/Self‐Expression diagonal, r = .24, after rotating the factor scores 45 degrees clockwise. We conclude that Schwartz's and Inglehart's originally proposed two‐dimensional value structures share one dimension at the country level and some commonality at the individual level, whereas the respective other pair of dimensions seem to be more or less unrelated.     

Failure of further learning: Activities,structure, and meaning

Previous research has shown that little benefit is achieved through spaced study and recall of text passages after the first recall attempt, an effect that we term the failure‐of‐further‐learning. We hypothesized that the effect occurs because a situation model of the text's gist is formed when the text is first comprehended and is consolidated when recalled; it dominates later recall after verbatim memories of more recent study episodes have been lost. Experiments 1 and 2 attempted to circumvent the effect by varying the activities of participants and requiring interactive exploration. In both experiments, recall after four, weekly sessions showed little benefit beyond performance on the first recall. Experiment 3 interfered with the formation of an immediate situation model by introducing passages that were hard to comprehend without a title. Performance improved substantially across four sessions when titles were not supplied, but the standard effect was replicated when titles were given. Experiment 4 made verbatim memories available by incorporating all re‐presentations and tests into one session; as predicted, recall improved over successive tests.     

Higher-Order Contingentism,Part 1: Closure and Generation

This paper is a study of higher-order contingentism – the view, roughly, that it is contingent what properties and propositions there are. We explore the motivations for this view and various ways in which it might be developed, synthesizing and expanding on work by Kit Fine, Robert Stalnaker, and Timothy Williamson. Special attention is paid to the question of whether the view makes sense by its own lights, or whether articulating the view requires drawing distinctions among possibilities that, according to the view itself, do not exist to be drawn. The paper begins with a non-technical exposition of the main ideas and technical results, which can be read on its own. This exposition is followed by a formal investigation of higher-order contingentism, in which the tools of variable-domain intensional model theory are used to articulate various versions of the view, understood as theories formulated in a higher-order modal language. Our overall assessment is mixed: higher-order contingentism can be fleshed out into an elegant systematic theory, but perhaps only at the cost of abandoning some of its original motivations.