Intentionalism and Change Blindness

According to reductive intentionalism, the phenomenal character of a conscious experience is constituted by the experience's intentional (or representational) content. In this article I attempt to show that a phenomenon in visual perception called change blindness poses a problem for this doctrine. Specifically, I argue that phenomenal character is not sensitive, as it should be if reductive intentionalism is correct, to fine-grained variations in content. The standard anti-intentionalist strategy is to adduce putative cases in which phenomenal character varies despite sameness of content. This paper explores an alternative antiintentionalist tack, arguing, by way of a specific example involving change blindness, that content can vary despite sameness of phenomenal character.

Training clinical psychologists for rural and northern practice: Transforming challenge into opportunity

Abstract: The Rural and Northern Program (R&NP) of the University of Manitoba's Department of Clinical Health Psychology (DCHP) is a unique training and service delivery platform that was developed in response to the scarcity of psychological services in rural and northern areas of the province of Manitoba, Canada. Since 1996 rural and northern‐based psychologists, in conjunction with the faculty based in Winnipeg (Manitoba's largest city) have offered training to two interns and one postdoctoral resident (resident) yearly. The current article discusses the nature of the program, the regions of Manitoba that the program services, and recruitment and retention data. The authors conclude by offering suggestions for creating sustainable rural/northern psychological practice.     

Exploring the handshake in employment interviews

The authors examined how an applicant's handshake influences hiring recommendations formed during the employment interview. A sample of 98 undergraduate students provided personality measures and participated in mock interviews during which the students received ratings of employment suitability. Five trained raters independently evaluated the quality of the handshake for each participant. Quality of handshake was related to interviewer hiring recommendations. Path analysis supported the handshake as mediating the effect of applicant extraversion on interviewer hiring recommendations, even after controlling for differences in candidate physical appearance and dress. Although women received lower ratings for the handshake, they did not on average receive lower assessments of employment suitability. Exploratory analysis suggested that the relationship between a firm handshake and interview ratings may be stronger for women than for men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Exaggeration in memory: Systematic distortion of self-evaluative information under reduced accessibility

The tendency to exaggerate specific information about oneself can stem from reconstructive memory processes that are distinct from motivated self-enhancement or self-presentation. While exaggerations sometimes reflect these motives, they also result from attempts to reconstruct one’s past. Three studies examined test scores as they became less accessible in memory. Study 1 provided a real-world illustration, demonstrating reduced accessibility and increased exaggeration of SAT scores over time. Two experiments utilized test scores randomly assigned in a controlled laboratory setting. Increased exaggeration was observed following distraction (Study 2), and after a one-week delay (Study 3). Distortions in scores reported were consistent with beliefs about the self, rather than uniformly self-serving. Under reduced accessibility, exaggeration was predicted by beliefs about achievement (Study 1) and subjective perceptions of test performance (Study 2). Study 3 manipulated perceived performance. Positive performance feedback caused greater exaggeration under reduced accessibility, whereas negative feedback reduced the tendency to exaggerate.     

Two routes for activation in the priming of categorical coordinates

The authors operationalized category priming as participants' recognition facilitation of nonstudied, low semantically similar exemplars by studied exemplars in a category. The existing literature either does not examine the effect of studied exemplars on nonstudied exemplars in a category or fails to show an appreciable amount of category priming. In 2 experiments, the authors demonstrated a unique process to account for the category priming effect and distinguish it from the semantic priming effect, facilitation of semantically similar exemplars, in the context of a category. In Experiment 1A, the authors used a multidimensional scaling technique to examine participants' internal structure of different categories. In Experiment 1B, the authors used a lexical decision task that used these internal structures to show that semantic encoding of category exemplars causes activation of existing category knowledge in memory. Consequently, participants easily recognized nonstudied, low semantically similar exemplars in a category. However, recognition facilitation between high semantically similar exemplars did not require category knowledge activation.     

All in the mind's eye? Anger rumination and reappraisal

Research on rumination has demonstrated that compared with distraction, rumination intensifies and prolongs negative emotion. However, rumination and distraction differ both in what one thinks about and how one thinks about it. Do the negative outcomes of rumination result from how people think about negative events or simply that they think about them at all? To address this question, participants in 2 studies recalled a recent anger-provoking event and then thought about it in 1 of 2 ways: by ruminating or by reappraising. The authors examined the impact of these strategies on subsequent ratings of anger experience (Study 1) as well as on perseverative thinking and physiological responding over time (Study 2). Relative to reappraisal, rumination led to greater anger experience, more cognitive perseveration, and greater sympathetic nervous system activation. These findings provide compelling new evidence that how one thinks about an emotional event can shape the emotional response one has.     

A two-dimensional model that employs explicit and implicit attitudes to characterize prejudice

In the authors' 2-dimensional model of prejudice, explicit and implicit attitudes are used to create 4 profiles: truly low prejudiced (TLP: double lows), aversive racists (AR: low explicit modern racism/high implicit prejudice), principled conservatives (PC: high explicit modern racism/low implicit prejudice), and modern racists (MR: double highs). Students completed an Asian Modern Racism Scale and an Asian/White Implicit Association Test. The authors compared the 4 groups' prejudice-related ideologies (i.e., egalitarianism/humanism and social conservatism) and economic/political conservatism (Study 1, N=132). The authors also tested whether MR but not PC (Study 2, N=65) and AR but not TLP (Study 3, N=143) are more likely to negatively evaluate an Asian target when attributional ambiguity is high (vs. low). In support of the model, TLP did not hold prejudice-related ideologies and did not discriminate; AR were low in conservatism and demonstrated the attributional-ambiguity effect; PC did not strongly endorse prejudice-related ideologies and did not discriminate; MR strongly endorsed prejudice-related ideologies, were conservative, and demonstrated the attributional-ambiguity effect. The authors discuss implications for operationalizing and understanding the nature of prejudice.     

Ceftriaxone rescues hippocampal neurons from excitotoxicity and enhances memory retrieval in chronic hypobaric hypoxia

Exposure to high altitude is known to cause impairment in cognitive functions in sojourners. The molecular events leading to this behavioral manifestation, however, still remain an enigma. The present study aims at exploring the nature of memory impairment occurring on chronic exposure to hypobaric hypoxia and the possible role of glutamate in mediating it. Increased ionotropic receptor stimulation by glutamate under hypobaric hypoxic conditions could lead to calcium mediated excitotoxic cell death resulting in impaired cognitive functions. Since glutamate is cleared from the synapse by the Glial Glutamate Transporter, upregulation of the transporter can be a good strategy in preventing excitotoxic cell death. Considering previous reports on upregulation of the expression of Glial Glutamate Transporter on ceftriaxone administration, the therapeutic potential of ceftriaxone in ameliorating hypobaric hypoxia induced memory impairment was investigated in male Sprague Dawley rats. Exposure to hypobaric hypoxia equivalent to an altitude of 7600 m for 14 days lead to oxidative stress, chromatin condensation and neuronal degeneration in the hippocampus. This was accompanied by delayed memory retrieval as evident from increased latency and pathlength in Morris Water Maze. Administration of ceftriaxone at a dose of 200 mg/kg for 7 days and 14 days during the exposure on the other hand improved the performance of rats in the water maze along with decreased oxidative stress and enhanced neuronal survival when compared to hypoxic group without drug administration. An increased expression of Glial Glutamate Transporter was also observed following drug administration indicating faster clearance of glutamate from the synapse. The present study not only brings to light the effect of longer duration of exposure to hypobaric hypoxia on the memory functions, but also indicates the pivotal role played by glutamate in mediating excitotoxic neuronal degeneration at high altitude. The therapeutic potential of ceftriaxone in providing neuroprotection in excitotoxic conditions by increasing Glial Glutamate Transporter expression and thereby enhancing glutamate uptake from the synapse has also been explored.