Customers' perceptions of salespersons' orientation and susceptibility to salespersons' influence

This study examined correlations of scores for salespersons' and customers' orientation, as indicated by a modified Salesperson Orientation-Customer Orientation scale, with self-reported consumers' susceptibility to salespersons' information, recommendations, and relational influence. Vehicle purchasers provided 508 useable survey responses. Correlations for customers' perceptions of both salespersons' orientation (-.39 and -.21) and customers' orientation (.39 and .24) were related to self-reports of susceptibility to salespersons' information and relational influence.     

Rapid motor adaptations to subliminal frequency shifts during syncopated rhythmic sensorimotor synchronization

The synchronization of rhythmic arm movements to a syncopated metronome cue was studied in a step-change design whereby small tempo shifts were inserted at fixed time points into the metronome frequency. The cueing sequence involved three stimulus types: (1) target contact in synchrony with the metronome beats, (2) syncopated target contact midway in time between audible beats, and (3) syncopated target contact following either a +2% or -2% change in stimulus frequency. Analysis of normalized and aggregated data revealed that (1) during the syncopation condition the response period showed a rapid adaptation to the frequency-incremented stimulus period, (2) response period was less variable during syncopated movement, (3) mean synchronization error and variability, calculated during syncopation relative to the mathematical midpoint of the stimulus cycle, were reduced during syncopated movements, and (4) synchronization error following the frequency increment showed trends to return linearly to pre-increment values which was fully achieved in the -2% change condition only. The results suggest that frequency entrainment to stimulus period was possible during syncopated movement with the response and stimulus onsets 180 degrees out of phase. Most remarkably, 70-80% of the adaptation of the response period to the new stimulus period was immediately attained during the second half cycle of the syncopated movement. Finally, a mathematical model, based on recursion, was introduced that accurately modeled actual data as a function of the previous stimulus and response intervals and a weighted response of period error and synchronization error, which showed dominance of frequency entrainment over phase entrainment during rhythmic synchronization.     

Protection of children's rights to self-determination in research

Federal guidelines require that informed consent be obtained from participants when they are enrolled in a research study. When conducting research with children, the guidelines utilize the term permission to describe parents' agreement to enroll their children in a study. The basic components of consent and permission are well described and identical, with the exception of the person for whom the decision to participate is being made (i.e., oneself as opposed to one's child). Beyond permission, when enrolling minor participants in research, affirmative agreement to participate in research or assent must be obtained from the child participants themselves. The concept of children's assent to research, however, is poorly defined, resulting in inconsistency in its pursuit and consequently, in its utility. The interface between cognitive development, emotional, and social development must be examined as its pertains to this special situation of decision making. For this process to meaningfully protect minors, the assent process must be clarified, decisions regarding parental veto power must be more convincingly justified, and researchers must be better educated and held accountable for the valid execution of this process. Strategies for implementing the assent process more effectively are presented.     

The Dissociative Factor in Symptom Reports of Rheumatic Patients with and Without Fibromyalgia

The main objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of dissociation and its relationships to symptom reporting in fibromyalgia (FM) and other rheumatic disorders (non-FM). The participants were 73 women with FM and 85 relatively matched women with other rheumatic disorders. The participants were administered the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), the Profile Of Mood States (POMS), and a 50-item medical checklist. The prevalence of dissociation (DES q 25) was significantly higher in FM patients(30.1%) compared to other rheumatic disorders (7.0%). Symptom reporting correlated with measures of dissociation in both patient groups (FM:R = 0.42, p < .001; non-FM:R = 0.44, p < .001), when controlled for age, depression, and anxiety. A regression analysis confirmed the strong linkage between somatic variation and dissociation. The results suggest that dissociation is a problem for a substantial segment of patients with fibromyalgia and that dissociation is related to certain physical symptoms of fibromyalgia. Dissociation offers a different perspective on medically unexplained symptoms and may need to be addressed in future research.     

Horseshoe pitchers’ hot hands

Gilovich, Vallone, and Tversky's (1985) analysis of basketball data indicates that a player's chances of making a shot are not affected by the results of earlier shots. However, their basketball data do not control for several confounding influences. An analysis of horseshoe pitching, which does not have these defects, indicates that players do have modest hot and cold spells.     

Distorted retrospective eyewitness reports as functions of feedback and delay

Participant-witnesses viewed a crime video and attempted to identify the culprit from a culprit-absent lineup. The 253 mistaken-identification eyewitnesses were randomly given confirming, disconfirming, or no feedback regarding their identifications. Feedback was immediate or delayed 48 hr, and measures were immediate or delayed 48 hr. Confirming, but not disconfirming, feedback led to distortions of eyewitnesses' recalled confidence, amount of attention paid during witnessing, goodness of view, ability to make out facial details, length of time to identification, and other measures related to the witnessing experience. Unexpectedly, neither delaying the measures nor delaying feedback for 48 hr moderated these effects. The results underscore the need for double-blind lineups and neutral assessments of eyewitnesses' certainty and other judgments prior to feedback.     

What the Liar Taught Achilles

Zeno's paradoxes of motion and the semantic paradoxes of the Liar have long been thought to have metaphorical affinities. There are, in fact, isomorphisms between variations of Zeno's paradoxes and variations of the Liar paradox in infinite-valued logic. Representing these paradoxes in dynamical systems theory reveals fractal images and provides other geometric ways of visualizing and conceptualizing the paradoxes.     

Toward a New Concept of Global Morality

The human community faces today the most serious challenges ever to have confronted the planet in the areas of health, environment, and security. Science and technology are essential for responding to these challenges. More is needed, however, because science is not equipped to deal adequately with the values dimensions and the political issues that accompany the challenges. For an adequate response, there must be cooperative effort by scientists and statespersons, informed for moral leadership by the religious wisdom that is available. The religious communities can provide this spiritual dimension, thereby fulfilling their traditional role, but it will require their coming to terms with the character of the scientific and technological base of contemporary culture. The paper lays the conceptual groundwork for understanding these issues.     

Pathways to Risk Among Inner-City African-American Adolescent Females: The Influence of Gang Membership

Differential rates of participation in three categories of risk behaviors (i.e., sexual activity, substance use, violence) were explored, comparing gang members to nonmembers, within a sample of 1,143 inner-city African American adolescent females. The relationship between gang membership and risk behavior also was examined, by exploring the association between a variety of microsystemic influences (e.g., gang, family, school) and participation in risk behaviors. MANOVA analyses indicated that gang members, relative to nonmembers, reported higher rates of participation in each of the three categories of risk behaviors. Stepwise linear regression analyses indicated that gang membership was the variable with the most consistent predictive ability, across all categories of risk, as it entered early in all equations and remained in all three final models after controlling for other statistically significant contextual variables. Findings suggest that intervention efforts aimed at reducing adolescent females' participation in sexual activity, substance use, and violence should consider the influence of gang membership on the participation in these behaviors.