Analysis of the learned irrelevance effect in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning

In Experiments 1 and 2 rats received uncorrelated presentations of a light conditioned stimulus (CS) and a food unconditioned stimulus (US) on each day of a preexposure phase. Control subjects received the same number of USs during the first half of preexposure and the same number of CSs during the second. Uncorrelated preexposure retarded inhibitory conditioning. Experiment 3 showed, however, that the different patterns of US preexposure experienced by the two groups could in itself influence the course of subsequent inhibitory conditioning. When this factor was equated by restricting the uncorrelated treatment to the first half of the pre-exposure phase (Experiment 2) or by extending the control treatment throughout the phase (Experiment 4) it was found that uncorrelated preexposure retarded excitatory conditioning, but facilitated inhibitory conditioning. This outcome challenges an interpretation in terms of the concept of learned irrelevance, which predicts that uncorrelated preexposure should retard both forms of conditioning.     

Domain effects in lexical development: learning words for foods and toys

We investigated 3-year-olds’ and adults’ use of domain cues in learning words for solid and nonsolid material entities. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants heard a novel neutral noun (e.g., “my X”) for a standard solid or nonsolid entity described as either a toy or a food. They then were asked to extend the word to one of two other entities. Both options matched the standard in solidity; but one differed from it in an object-relevant property (shape) and the other in a substance-relevant property (color, texture, or smell). Both children and adults were more likely to select the same-shaped entity if the standard was (1) solid than if it was nonsolid, and (2) described as a toy than if it was described as a food. Their interpretations of novel words for material entities were thus affected not only by perceptual information (about solidity) but also by conceptual information (about domain). In Experiment 3, the novel noun was presented in a syntactic context that suggested the solid entity should be interpreted as an object (e.g., “an X”) and that the nonsolid entity should be interpreted as a substance (e.g., “some X”). For adults, these changes largely eliminated the effect of the entity’s domain (toy, food) on interpretation. We interpret these findings in terms of the proposal that domain cues, like solidity cues, furnish information about whether an entity’s structure should be thought of as arbitrary or nonarbitrary and, hence, about whether a word should be interpreted as naming an object or a substance construal.     

International Employment Discrimination and Implicit Social Cognition: New Directions for Theory and Research

This article contends that a complete understanding of employment discrimination should consider conscious and unconscious sources of bias. Research on implicit social cognition has described how prejudice and stereotypes operate at an unconscious level. These processes are believed to be fundamental properties of human cognition and universal across cultures; although specific targets of discrimination may vary by culture. Within an employment framework, implicit social cognitions can be measured to determine the extent to which unconscious prejudices influence organisational behavior. Human resource practices designed to minimise unfair employment discrimination may require interventions that operate at conscious and unconscious levels.
Cet article soutient que la compréhension complète de la discrimination à l'embauche devrait prendre en compte les sources conscientes et inconscientes de ce phénomène. La recherche sur la cognition sociale implicite a décrit comment les préjugés et les stéréotype opèrent à un niveau inconscient. Ces processus sont pensés comme étant des propriétés fondamentales de la cognition humaine et universels du point de vue des cultures; bien que les cibles spécifiques de la discrimination puissent varier selon ces dernières. Dans le cadre d'une embauche, les cognitions sociales implicites peuvent être mesurées pour déterminer l'importance avec laquelle les préjugés inconscients influencent le comportement organisationnel. En matière de ressources humaines, les pratiques prévues pour réduire au minimum l'injuste discrimination à l'embauche peuvent exiger des interventions agissant aux niveaux conscient et inconscient.     

Interviewing young children with props: prior experience matters

This study investigated the effects of prior experience with props used during an interview on young children's recall of an event. In a one-way design, we interviewed 4-year-old children 1 to 2 days after they participated in a staged event. One group of children played with toy replicas of items from the event prior to an interview with the toy props. Another group matched toy replicas to real items from the event prior to an interview with the toy props. A third group coloured before an interview with the toy props, and a fourth coloured before an interview with the real items. Finally, a fifth group coloured before an interview with no props, only verbal cues about the items that had been present. Results indicated that the condition in which children played with toy props prior to the interview had the lowest verbal accuracy during the interview. Children who saw toys for the first time during the interview behaviourally enacted the highest volume of correct information about the event. Implications for interviewing children are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.