Scale properties of the Holtzman inkblots

Scaling techniques were presently applied to perceptions of inkblots, to empirically delineate the relationship between their stimulus properties and the nature of verbal associations elicited in projective testing. The Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) was administered in group form to a relatively diverse group of college students. Subjects also individually rated the similarity of pairs of the HIT inkblots. Similarity judgments were analyzed via a multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach which recovered dimensions of variations among blots. The MDS procedures also captured variation across subjects in their utilization of blot stimulus properties. MDS solutions generally reflected differences among the blots along dimensions of physical characteristics of the blots. Differences in responsiveness of subjects to these characteristics appeared to reliably reflect meaningful substantive distinctions among subjects, many of which were not captured by traditional HIT variables. Implications were discussed in terms of further MDS applications and possible re-evaluation of HIT variables or procedures.     

Negotiations,image of the other and the process of minority influence

The new theoretical presuppositions used by Moscovici to explain social influence phenomena led him to show that the consistency of behavior can account for the influence of a minority. Experimental data confirm this idea. However, some counter-examples, showing that consistency sometimes induces subjects to refuse compromises, are problematical. To clear up this apparent contradiction, a distinction is made between behavioral style (in the face of the majority norm) and the style of negotiation (in the face of the population the minority wants to influence). A first experiment, then, shows that when two minorities are seen as equally consistent, the minority with a flexible style of negotiation has more influence than the more rigid minority. A second experiment deals with Ss' perception of the source of influence and clarifies the effects of minority negotiations; the links between opinions, opinion change and perception of others are also clarified.     

Paradoxical effects of categorization in minority influence: When being an outgroup is an advantage

In a 2 × 2 factorial design, 165 high school girls gave their opinions about abortion (direct influence) and about contraception (indirect ifluence) after reading a message advocating abortion said to have been written by either an ingroup (same sex) or an outgroup (opposite sex) minority and explicitly opposed by the majority opinion of either the ingroup or the outgroup. Results show that there is less direct influence when the ingroup majority is opposed to the minority, and more direct influence when the process of identification is less involved. Indirect influence appears in an intergroup context where categorization of majority and minority into different groups is superimposed on their ideological dissent, which has the effect of allowing recognition of the minority's distinctiveness and validity over and above the discrimination that appears at the direct influence level. In discussing the results, a theoretical integration of social comparison and validation processes is proposed as a step towards explaining the diversity of minority influence phenomena.     

Task interference from prospective memories covaries with contextual associations of fulfilling them

One of the current issues in the field of prospective memory concerns whether having an intention produces a cost to other ongoing activities (called task interference). The evidence to date suggests that certain intentions held over the shorter term do interfere with other tasks. Because the cumulative effect of such costs would be prohibitively expensive in everyday life, the present study examined one means by which that interference may be reduced. Participants who formed a specific association to fulfilling an intention in a future context did not exhibit task interference over the intervening period until that context was encountered. This outcome was observed with both an event-based and a time-based prospective memory task. The results suggest that associating intention fulfillment with a specific context can eliminate task interference, and they emphasize the importance of studying intentions that are linked to future contexts versus those that are not.     

The effect of context variability on source memory

High-context-variability (HCV) items are experienced in many more preexperimental semantic contexts than are low-context-variability (LCV) items. LCV confers an advantage to recognition memory (Steyvers & Malmberg, 2003). In the present study, we tested whether or not that advantage could be causedby enhanced source memory. Both context variability and word frequency were manipulated, and both factors generally affected source monitoring. Accuracy was better for LCV items than for HCV items and better for low- than for high-word-frequency items. We also considered whether context variability exerts its influence at encoding or at retrieval. We concluded that better recognition memory for LCV items was due, in part, to better retrieval of contextual details that specify how an item was originally studied.     

No man is an island: the need to belong and dismissing avoidant attachment style

The need to belong theory proposes that all human beings need social connections. However, dismissive avoidant individuals claim to be comfortable without close relationships and appear to be indifferent to how other people think of them. The current studies examined the association between dismissing avoidant attachment and the desire to feel accepted by others. In Study 1, high-dismissive participants reported experiencing higher than average levels of positive affect and state self-esteem after learning that other participants accepted them. In Study 2, high-dismissive participants felt better about themselves and experienced higher levels of positive affect after learning that in the future they would be successful in interpersonal relative to independent domains or controls. The results of these studies suggest that dismissive avoidants do not represent a counterexample to the hypothesis that all human beings have a fundamental need and desire to belong.     

Capturing focused attention

When attention is diffuse, as in a visual search task, an abrupt onset almost invariably succeeds in capturing attention. But if attention had been cued in advance to a different location, the same onset may then fail to capture attention (Theeuwes, 1991; Yantis and Jonides, 1990). In previous demonstrations, the onset appeared frequently. This may have diminished the onset's novelty, which in turn could have affected its potency in capturing attention. The question we asked was whether preserving the onset's novelty could enhance its capacity in capturing attention, even when attention had been prioritized elsewhere. As in Theeuwes's (1991) study, observers were cued to the target location with a 100%-predictive central arrow cue. The frequency with which visual transients were introduced was varied across experiments. When the onset stimulus appeared frequently (Experiment 1), it indeed failed to capture attention. But when its appearance was relatively infrequent (Experiment 2), capture effects were clearly observed. In Experiment 3, the target appeared in one location throughout the experiment. This would have improved target localization, but an infrequently appearing onset stimulus still successfully captured attention.     

High risk drinking and college students' self-perceptions

The present study examined the relationship between high risk drinking and college students' self-perceptions. High risk drinking was defined as the consumption of four or more drinks in a row for women and five or more drinks in a row for men during a single sitting (within the last year). Historical trends regarding college-age drinking indicate that 44% of college students fit the criteria for high risk drinking at least once over the past year. A survey was administered to 210 college students (52 men and 158 women) between 18 and 22 years of age (M = 20.9, SD = 1.3) to assess their use of alcohol and their self-perceptions. Students' self-perceptions were measured with four subscales from the Neemann-Harter Self-perception Profile for College Students. Students either volunteered to participate in this study outside of class or were solicited during class. It was predicted that students' self-perceptions would differ significantly depending upon their alcohol consumption, i.e., 17.1% were Abstainers, 25.2% were Nonproblem Drinkers, and 57.6% were High Risk Drinkers. Analysis gave significant difference on Global Self-worth between students who abstained and those who were High Risk Drinkers. However, students' perceptions of Scholastic Competence, Intellectual Ability, and Social Acceptance did not differ significantly for the alcohol consumption groups. In addition to high risk drinking, a number of other variables were associated with self-perceptions, such as high school alcohol use, low high school GPA, and students' reported academic involvement. These relations are discussed.     

A novel study: investigating the structure of narrative and autobiographical memories

In two experiments we assessed the degree to which memory for events are similar or differ depending on whether they were narrative or autobiographical events. Consistent with previous research on autobiographical memory, memories for events captured the sequential order of events. However, in contrast to autobiographical memory research, ratings of importance did not appear to be related to retrieval speed. An analysis of causal connectivity of the recalled events was significantly related to retrieval speed. Issues of narrative comprehension and memory, autobiographical memory, and their overlap are discussed.