‘The Queen Mother and I’: assimilation,contrast, and attitudes toward social groups

We examined whether social group attitudes are subject to context effects. It was hypothesised that manipulating the context in which a group exemplar was rendered accessible would produce different effects when subjects were subsequently asked to evaluate the exemplar's group. In our study, all subjects first expressed their opinion about the (popular) Queen Mother before indicating their attitude toward the British Royal Family. In the ‘non‐redundant’ condition, the two questions were structured such that the Queen Mother was expected to be included in individuals' representation of the Royal Family, leading to a high correlation between the two judgements and a favourable evaluation of the group. Conversely, in the ‘redundant’ condition, the questions were structured such that the Queen Mother was expected to be excluded from individuals' representation of the Royal Family, leading to a lower correlation between the judgements and a less favourable evaluation of the group. The results supported the hypothesis, and are consistent with the Schwarz and Bless (1992a,b) inclusion/exclusion model of assimilation and contrast. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In support of selective rehearsal: Double-item presentation in item-method directed forgetting

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Despite the substantial evidence highlighting the role of selective rehearsal in item-method directed forgetting, recent work has suggested that forgetting may...     

Correction to: Sensation weighting in duration discrimination: A univariate,multivariate, and varied-design study of presentation-order effects

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Due to a printing error, the factor “2” was missing in the last line of Equation 9. It has now been reinstated. The original article has...     

Diaries of significant events: socio-linguistic correlates of therapeutic outcomes in patients with addiction problems

The principles of narrative therapy imply that autobiographical diaries written by patients in treatment will not only facilitate but also elucidate progress. The relationship between the linguistic content of diaries and progress in treatment was examined in this study. Complete sets of daily diaries of ‘significant events’ written by 16 patients receiving treatment for drug, alcohol and food addictions at a residential centre, using the 12-step approach of the Anonymous fellowships, were typed up for analysis. Three forms of socio-linguistic enquiry were employed: narrative characterization; evaluative statement coding and computer analysis of word strategies. Results indicated that success in treatment as rated by counselling and psychiatric staff was associated with the following characteristics of diary narratives. They are (a) focused on individual progress, whether adopting a ‘positive interpretative’ or ‘negative reactive’ style; (b) less critical of self over time and more positive about others external to the treatment centre; (c) both positive about the treatment programme and critical of self; (d) using words indicative of ‘insight’ and ‘negativity’ as assessed by Pennebaker's LIWC programme. It is concluded that autobiographical material can usefully be employed to assess progress in treatment, and that its intrinsic value in effecting change should be further explored. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Visual Signal Detection Measured by Event-Related Potentials

Signal Detection tasks typically involve within-subject signal changes. Such a procedure does not lend itself to event-related potential (ERP) experiments where the need for averaging necessitates the maintenance of consistent stimulus parameters. In the present ERP study we adopt a novel approach to thresholding that allows within-subject signal manipulation. The Signal Detection task required the identification of letter targets, formed from dots, in a random dot field. ERP waveforms were segmented into three windows corresponding to N1, N2, and P300 components. Analysis shows that ERP variations are dependent on both task demands and response characteristics for N1, N2, and P300 components.     

Comparison of male and female junior athletes' self-perceptions and body image.

Few studies have examined sex differences in body perceptions in sports where the pressure to display a certain physique is reduced. The aim of the present study was to investigate sex differences in physical self-perceptions and body image in junior athletes who are involved in sprint kayaking, a sport where a low body weight is relatively unimportant. 12 male and 13 female members (aged 13-17 yr.) of the British Canoe Union Junior Development Squad for sprint-kayak racing completed the Physical Self-perception Profile for Children and the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that girls reported significandy higher Sports Competence and lower Appearance Orientation scores than boys. This study has raised a number of issues surrounding the physical self-perceptions and body image of junior athletes involved in a power- and strength-based sport. It seems that male athletes may also experience pressures to conform to a male version of a 'beautiful body'.     

Memory Development in Children: Implications for Children as Witnesses in Situations of Possible Abuse

This article reviews the physiological constructs of memory development as they relate to a child's ability to recall accurately detailed accounts of sexual abuse. Counselors are provided with practical suggestions for increasing the reliability of child witnesses.     

Usefulness of emotive imagery in the treatment of childhood phobias: Clinical guidelines,case examples and issues

Emotive imagery is a variant of systematic desensitization that has been developed for use in the treatment of children's excessive fears. We outline clinical guidelines for the use of emotive imagery and present several case examples. Although emotive imagery appears to be useful and cost efficient, controlled studies are needed to establish the efficacy of emotive imagery and explore the active treatment ingredients or mechanism.     

Confronting the Holocaust in Religious Education

Studies of Holocaust education in secondary schools have tended to focus on how the subject is taught as part of the history curriculum. Comparatively little work of either a theoretical or an empirical nature has looked at how the subject is handled in other curricular areas. Religious education is a case in point, for the field is marked both by a dearth of literature on appropriate content and by a virtual absence of research on teachers' practices. The need to address these lacunae provides the rationale for the article. In relation to content, two concerns dominate the discussion. The first is that the Holocaust may be portrayed as an act of religious intolerance; the second is that students may be offered a diluted or distorted account of the part played by Christianity. The empirical core of the article surveys the practices of 28 teachers of religious education in connection with both concerns. It also contains a content analysis of how textbooks used by the teachers treat the attempted annihilation of European Jewry. The article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings.     

Commentary on Jacobs and Michaels (2001): Calibration and perceptual learning in event perception

Jacobs and Michaels (2001) have argued that increased precision in judgments of the viewing distance to a perceived event should be attributed in part to perceptual learning. They found that observers used feedback to attune to the appropriate information variables gradually. McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998) had found that observers used feedback to calibrate event-specific scaling coefficients, that the calibration of one type of event generalized to other types, and that calibration occurred suddenly. We argue that Jacobs and Michaels must be partially correct and that, in our experiments, both calibration and perceptual attunement were required for accurate and precise judgments.