Configural Processing in Memory Retrieval: Multiple Cues and Ensemble Representations

When retrieving information from memory, a number of contextual cues may interact to determine which ideas will be easily accessible. Even the simplest case in which joint cue action obtains (two cues) is very revealing of the principles of memory access and representation of compounds. Mechanisms by which dual cues interact to constrain retrieval from episodic memory are considered. A holistic mechanism of cue integration is contrasted with two nonholistic mechanisms: a multiplicative or intersection mechanism and an independent-contributions mechanism. Holistic- and intersection-cuing mechanisms are consistent with different variants of compound cue models of priming. The independent cuing mechanism is consistent with spreading activation models of priming. Data from four experiments which examined dual-cued recognition of items from (newly learned) triples demonstrated strongly configural, holistic, action of dual cues. The two cues and test item must form an encoded compound to yield cuing advantages. Two independent cues to the test item are ineffective if the two cues and test were not learned together as a triple; one valid and one invalid cue are also ineffective. This is so despite the availability of pairwise information for each cue–test relation, and despite the fact that these cues are effective when operating alone. A compound cue model which predicts precisely this surprising pattern of priming is developed. The compound cue model also predicts previously obtained configural priming of associative judgments, as well as the bias priming generally observed in item recognition and similar paradigms.     

Stressor and Resilience Factors for Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals Confronting Antigay Politics

When lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people encounter antigay campaigns and elections, they face explicit and implicit homophobic attacks. In order to understand the points of stress and the bases for resilience in the face of these attacks, we developed a 130-item quantitative survey on the basis of results of an earlier qualitative study. Three hundred, sixteen Colorado LGB people endorsed items representing sources of stress and sources of resilience associated with the campaign for and passage of an antigay referendum. Factor analyses of the results suggested 5 sources of stressors and 5 sources of resilience for LGB persons and their communities.     

Young children's performance on the balance scale: the influence of relational complexity

Three experiments investigated the effect of complexity on children's understanding of a beam balance. In nonconflict problems, weights or distances varied, while the other was held constant. In conflict items, both weight and distance varied, and items were of three kinds: weight dominant, distance dominant, or balance (in which neither was dominant). In Experiment 1, 2-year-old children succeeded on nonconflict-weight and nonconflict-distance problems. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, but performance on conflict items did not exceed chance. In Experiment 3, 3- and 4-year-olds succeeded on all except conflict balance problems, while 5- and 6-year-olds succeeded on all problem types. The results were interpreted in terms of relational complexity theory. Children aged 2 to 4 years succeeded on problems that entailed binary relations, but 5- and 6-year-olds also succeeded on problems that entailed ternary relations. Ternary relations tasks from other domains--transitivity and class inclusion--accounted for 93% of the age-related variance in balance scale scores.     

Conditional discrimination in young children: the roles of associative and relational processing

Two experiments examined conditional discrimination in 4- to 6-year-olds. Children learned to choose one of two objects (e.g., circle) when the background was, say, red and to choose the other object (e.g., triangle) when the background was, say, blue. Awareness was assessed and interpreted as a marker of relational processing. In Experiment 1, most 4- and 5-year-olds did not reach the learning criterion. Children in Experiment 2 solved simpler reversal learning problems before the conditional discrimination problems. Most 4- to 6-year-olds reached criterion, but they did not necessarily demonstrate awareness, suggesting that reversal learning and conditional discrimination can be acquired through associative or relational processing. Relational processing increased with age and was used more on simpler problems. Fluid intelligence predicted Problem 2 performance in children who used relational (not associative) processing on Problem 1. Prior experience with simpler problems and awareness of relational structure are influential in children's conditional discrimination.     

Launching a new journal: Fifty years of the journal of applied social psychology

This paper describes the background and the process leading to the 1970–1971 launch of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. In the late 1960s, founding editor Dr. Siegfried Streufert had a deep belief in the need to create an outlet for excellent research addressing applications of social psychology to “real-world” problems. He looked forward to marking this milestone year of publication of JASP with this article. Sadly, Siegfried passed away in April 2019, 50 years after developing and implementing the concept for the journal. We present the history as he wrote it, with some editing, in his honor.     

Taking a Step Back,Moving Forward: Place and Space without Mental Representations

ABSTRACT

The publication of the revised edition of Place and Experience provides the occasion to discuss Malpas’ original account of place, and its role in a proper account of the central features of human minds. The first edition is a groundbreaking work on the embodiment and embeddedness of human minds, that prefigures more recent developments of a now established field of research on embodied minds: so-called E accounts. In this paper, I address three issues in Malpas’ book that I found problematic at times and unclear at others, and argue that E- accounts, or better, a particular rendering of them, can better dissolve. These interrelated issues are: 1. the use of the idea of mental representations to understand location and orientation; 2. the claim that non-human animals have ‘environments’ but lack ‘worlds’, 3. the use of two exclusive vocabularies, the physical and the mental, for describing cognition. I thus question such ideas, associated with traditional accounts of cognition, which not only are responsible for some of the gravest criticisms such accounts have received, but seem inadequate to Malpas’ characterization of minds as placed. My recommendation is to take a step back from the traditional framework, and allow ourselves to simply move forward.     

HEARING VOICES

This article focuses on the uses of research rather than on research methods per se. It highlights a particular feminist perspective: the importance of returning the results of research to the communities from which they derive. A theoretical rationale for psychological research on social issues argues that such work is inevitably value laden; bears implications for social change; and at its best amounts to a conversation among the researcher, the participants, and the community—one that ought to continue beyond the formal research project. This position is illustrated by two research projects and the means through which their findings were communicated back to lay communities. The unusual products of the research described here—an oratorio and a documentary video—and the process of their development are discussed.