The moral judgment test: comments on Villegas de Posada's critique

The Moral Judgment Test is an operationalization of Kohlberg's notion of moral judgment competence and Piaget's two-aspect model of behavior and thus differs from tests of preferred moral orientations and Kohlberg's own Stage measurement. As this best presents counter-arguments to be rated in regard to their moral quality, it is a difficult task for many, and the C score reflects the respondents' competence to cope with the task. Validation studies of 27 language versions and thirty years of use in research and evaluation studies have indicated the Moral Judgment Test is valid and useful for assessing affective and cognitive aspects of moral behavior for research and evaluation.     

On the relationship between the redundant signals effect and temporal order judgments: parametric data and a new model

Paradigms used to study the time course of the redundant signals effect (RSE; J. O. Miller, 1986) and temporal order judgments (TOJs) share many important similarities and address related questions concerning the time course of sensory processing. The author of this article proposes and tests a new aggregate diffusion-based model to quantitatively explain both the RSE and TOJs and the relationship between them. Parametric data (13 stimulus onset asynchronies) from an experiment with pairs of visual stimuli (626-nm LEDs) confirm that, relative to central signals (3 degrees), peripheral signals (35 degrees) yield slower reaction times, more strongly modulated RSE time-course functions, and flatter TOJ psychometric functions. All of these qualitative features are well captured, even in quantitative detail, by the aggregate diffusion model.     

Accessibility experiences and the hindsight bias: I knew it all along versus it could never have happened

In two experiments, we tested accessibility experiences versus accessible content in influencing the hindsight bias when participants generated either thoughts about alternative outcomes or thoughts about known outcomes. Participants who had listed many thoughts (Experiment 1) and those who had contracted their brow muscles (Experiment 2) when considering alternate outcomes rated the known outcome as more likely than did than those who had listed two thoughts or who had not contracted their brows--a "backfire" effect. In contrast, but no less ironically, participants who had listed many thoughts and those who contracted their brows when considering known outcomes rated those outcomes as less likely--an "it could never have happened" effect. Both effects are due to subjective accessibility experiences, and their role in influencing and debiasing the hindsight bias is discussed.     

How pleasant was your childhood? Beliefs about memory shape inferences from experienced difficulty of recall

People's beliefs about how memory works can affect their inferences from experienced difficulty of recall. Participants were asked to recall either 4 childhood events (experienced as an easy task) or 12 childhood events (experienced as a difficult task). Subsequently, they were led to believe that either pleasant or unpleasant periods of one's life fade from memory. When the recall task was difficult (12 events), participants who believed that memories from unpleasant periods fade away rated their childhood as less happy than participants who believed that memories from pleasant periods fade away. The opposite pattern was observed when the recall task was easy (4 events). This interplay of recall experiences and memory beliefs suggests that the judgmental impact of subjective experiences is shaped by beliefs about their meaning. It also suggests that the recall difficulty in clinical memory work may lead a person to make negative inferences about his or her childhood, provided the person shares the popular belief that memory represses negative information.     

“How Many Partners Is Too Many?” Shaping Perceptions of Personal Vulnerability1

The effectiveness of interventions that directly inform people of the risks posed by their own behavior is frequently undermined by people's ability to defend themselves against unwanted information. In response to this difficulty, an alternative approach to shaping people's perceptions of personal vulnerability in which people remained unaware of the intervention was tested. As part of a survey on sexual issues, college undergraduates reported the total number of sexual partners they had had on a response scale that systematically framed their sexual behavior as being either above average or below average. Participants in the 2 conditions reported the same absolute number of sexual partners. However, those who received a response scale that implied they had had more partners than the average student reported greater concern about their sexual behavior than did those who received a scale that implied they had had fewer partners than average. The implications of this approach for influencing perceptions of personal risk are discussed.     

Is there an internal association of numbers to hands? The task set influences the nature of the SNARC effect

The SNARC effect refers to the association of smaller numbers with the left and of larger numbers with the right side of extracorporal space (Dehaene, Bossini, & Giraux, 1993). We tested the assumption that, in addition to these associations, numbers are also related to participants' hands. We report two experiments with vertically arranged buttons in which the nature of the SNARC effect depended on whether the task set was button or hand related: In the first case, a vertical location-related SNARC effect occurred, whereas in the second a hand-related SNARC effect was found. Our third experiment confirmed that space-related number representations dominate the SNARC effect when the buttons are arranged horizontally. We concluded that both effector- and space-related number representations can influence and modify the SNARC effect.     

Virtual reality for the psychophysiological assessment of phobic fear: responses during virtual tunnel driving

An overall assessment of phobic fear requires not only a verbal self-report of fear but also an assessment of behavioral and physiological responses. Virtual reality can be used to simulate realistic (phobic) situations and therefore should be useful for inducing emotions in a controlled, standardized way. Verbal and physiological fear reactions were examined in 15 highly tunnel-fearful and 15 matched control participants in 3 virtual driving scenarios: an open environment, a partially open tunnel (gallery), and a closed tunnel. Highly tunnel-fearful participants were characterized by elevated fear responses specifically during tunnel drives as reflected in verbal fear ratings, heart rate reactions, and startle responses. Heart rate and fear ratings differentiated highly tunnel-fearful from control participants with an accuracy of 88% and 93%, respectively. Results indicate that virtual environments are valuable tools for the assessment of fear reactions and should be used in future experimental research.     

Neurocognitive Effects of Methamphetamine: A Critical Review and Meta-analysis

This review provides a critical analysis of the central nervous system effects of acute and chronic methamphetamine (MA) use, which is linked to numerous adverse psychosocial, neuropsychiatric, and medical problems. A meta-analysis of the neuropsychological effects of MA abuse/dependence revealed broadly medium effect sizes, showing deficits in episodic memory, executive functions, information processing speed, motor skills, language, and visuoconstructional abilities. The neuropsychological deficits associated with MA abuse/dependence are interpreted with regard to their possible neural mechanisms, most notably MA-associated frontostriatal neurotoxicity. In addition, potential explanatory factors are considered, including demographics (e.g., gender), MA use characteristics (e.g., duration of abstinence), and the influence of common psychiatric (e.g., other substance-related disorders) and neuromedical (e.g., HIV infection) comorbidities. Finally, these findings are discussed with respect to their potential contribution to the clinical management of persons with MA abuse/dependence.