Strategy transitions during cognitive skill learning in younger and older adults: Effects of interitem confusability

Groups of young and old adults were trained for four sessions on a set of 24 alphabet-arithmetic problems. Problem sets were either highly confusable or highly distinct. Power-function and mixture-model fits to the means and standard deviations of the acquisition data, resolved at the participant problem level, were compared. "Shallow" power functions signaled that a problem was computed throughout training; "humped" mixture functions signaled a shift from slow computed solutions to fast retrieved solutions. Not surprisingly, shifts to retrieval occurred later for confusable problems, but there were also fewer shifts in that condition. Failures to shift, even after extended practice, suggest that retrieving problem solutions is an elective strategy, and not an automatic concomitant of skill training. Participants can be viewed as choosing between strategies that trade off benefits in speed against costs in accuracy. Older adults showed few retrieval solutions in either condition, perhaps because of their emphasis on accuracy.     

Social incentives for gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations: Sometimes it does hurt to ask

Four experiments show that gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations may be explained by differential treatment of men and women when they attempt to negotiate. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants evaluated written accounts of candidates who did or did not initiate negotiations for higher compensation. Evaluators penalized female candidates more than male candidates for initiating negotiations. In Experiment 3, participants evaluated videotapes of candidates who accepted compensation offers or initiated negotiations. Male evaluators penalized female candidates more than male candidates for initiating negotiations; female evaluators penalized all candidates for initiating negotiations. Perceptions of niceness and demandingness explained resistance to female negotiators. In Experiment 4, participants adopted the candidate’s perspective and assessed whether to initiate negotiations in same scenario used in Experiment 3. With male evaluators, women were less inclined than men to negotiate, and nervousness explained this effect. There was no gender difference when evaluator was female.     

Testing conclusions from functional imaging of working memory with data from acute stroke

Functional imaging studies indicate that the left hemisphere mediates verbal working memory, while the right hemisphere mediates both verbal and spatial working memory. We evaluated acute stroke patients with working memory tests and imaging to identify whether unilateral dysfunction causes deficits in spatial and/or verbal working memory deficits. While left cortical stroke patients had verbal working memory impairments (p<0.003), right cortical stroke patients had both verbal p<0.007) and spatial working memory (p<0.03) impairments, confirming functional imaging results. Patients with transient ischemic stroke and patients with non-cortical stroke did not have significant deficits in working memory in either modality.     

Inattention as a key predictor of tobacco use in adolescence

The authors examined the prediction from inattention to tobacco use among 2 cohorts (ages 7 and 13) of a community sample followed to young adulthood. Changes in self-reported tobacco use were tested with marginal transitional regression models, using parent and teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and other psychopathology, along with other factors, as predictors. Inattention, but not hyperactivity-impulsivity, significantly predicted adolescent tobacco use and young adult daily tobacco use. Peer substance use, parental substance use, and conduct disorder also predicted increases in tobacco use. African American ethnicity was strongly protective against later tobacco use.     

Me, My Mobile, and I: The Role of Self- and Prototypical Identity Influences in the Prediction of Mobile Phone Behavior

This study examined the effect of and relationship between self- and prototypical identity influences on high-level mobile phone use from a theory of planned behavior (TPB) perspective. Participants were 252 university students who completed 2 questionnaires, 1 week apart. The first questionnaire assessed the standard TPB constructs (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control), as well as self- and prototypical identity influences. The second questionnaire assessed level of mobile phone use in the previous week. Support was found for the TPB in predicting high-level mobile use intentions and behavior. Self-identity and prototype similarity, but not prototype favorability, also significantly predicted intentions. The effects of prototype similarity on intentions were mediated via self-identity processes.     

Timing, remembering, and discrimination

Four pigeons were first trained in a timing procedure. In one condition, each trial began with the presentation of an X on the center key, followed by a delay (short or long), after which two side keys were lit. If the delay was short, pecks to the red side key were reinforced. If the delay was long, pecks to the green side key were reinforced. In a second condition, the opposite contingencies applied following presentation of a square on the center key. Choice responses were then tested at 10 time intervals ranging from short to long (1 to 4 s and 4 to 7 s in different conditions). The two timing conditions were combined to create a remembering condition in which correct responding depended upon discrimination of both the sample stimulus (X or square) and the delay interval (short or long). Choices varied systematically across delay in timing conditions, but in remembering conditions, accurate choice at the training delays did not initially generalize to intermediate delays. However, with prolonged training in the remembering task, the response pattern began to resemble that of the timing conditions. Generalization gradients were asymmetrical, in accordance with Weber's Law, in that greater generalization occurred with longer delays than with shorter delays.     

Adult attachment and declining birthrates

Attachment scores for 658 young adults living in the U.S.A. were obtained using the Experiences in Close Relationships scale. The participants came from a subsample of the RELATE data set, who had also filled out the adult attachment measure. Those young adults living in Utah County, Utah, an area of the country with a higher than normal birthrate (88% members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), also had higher than average adult attachment scores. While the methodology was not sufficient to assess causal direction nor eliminate the possibility of unidentified influences, an undiscussed psychological factor, adult attachment, may play a role in the numerical declines observed among nonimmigrant communities in the USA and Europe.     

Too Few Tensions, But Not Enough Utopia? Comments on Equality: From Theory to Action

This welcomes Equality: From Theory to Action as an important contribution both to linking egalitarian political philosophy to public policy and as a book which helps communicate a wealth of philosophical ideas in an accessible way to a wide public. On the critical side, it argues that the authors understate some tensions between egalitarianism and pluralism, and that the book’s discussion of egalitarian economic institutions is quite narrow in scope. As a complement and development of this latter discussion, the paper discusses some policy proposals to address inequality of wealth.     

Age differences in the distractor-ratio effect as a function of contrast level

Latencies (RT) and eye movement measures were used to examine the effects of age and contrast on the distractor-ratio effect (DRE) in visual search. Younger and older adults performed a contrast x orientation conjunction search task where the ratios of white to black distractors and luminance contrast levels were varied. The distractor-ratio manipulation had similar effects for older and younger adults on both RT and the number of fixations required to find the target. Both measures were largely independent of distractor ratio on target-present trials, while both RTs and the fixation number increased with the number of items sharing the target's contrast polarity on target-absent trials. A more detailed analysis of eye movements suggested that younger adults were a bit more adept at attending to the smaller set of distractors, which presumably facilitated both overt and covert search. Generalized slowing can account for the age differences in RT, but the fixation number data speak to another mechanism, perhaps increased cautiousness on the part of the elderly when signal strength is low.