Testing an extended theory of planned behavior to predict young people's intentions to join a bone marrow donor registry

An extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to understand the factors, particularly control perceptions and affective reactions, given conflicting findings in previous research, informing younger people's intentions to join a bone marrow registry. Participants (N = 174) completed attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), moral norm, anticipated regret, self‐identity, and intention items for registering. The extended TPB (except PBC) explained 67.2% of variance in intention. Further testing is needed as to the volitional nature of registering. Moral norm, anticipated regret, and self‐identity are likely intervention targets for increasing younger people's bone marrow registry participation.     

Evidence for an Error Detection Mechanism In Motor Skills

One of the fundamental predictions of the Adams (1971) closed-loop theory is that S should develop over practice a perceptual trace which forms the basis of an error detection mechanism. If knowledge of results (KR) is withdrawn, S can use the error detection mechanism to guide performance in its place. To test this notion, 10 Ss practiced 170 trials of a discrete ballistic response, attempting to produce a 9.5-in. manual slider movement in exactly 150 msec., with KR present except on Trials 11-20 and 141-170. There was an increasing correspondence between the actual errors and Ss’ estimation of them as practice continued, and ratings of confidence increased, both of which were indicative of a developing error detection mechanism. During KR withdrawal trials, Ss displayed no worsening of performance, and even continued to learn slightly, suggesting that the error detection mechanism acted as a substitute for KR. The results generally supported Adams’ theory.     

Interference in identifying attributes and attribute names

The interference of incongruous attribute names on attribute identification was studied with two different attributes, color and direction, and with two modes of identifying response, verbaland nonverbal. Nonverbal responses made for less interference under all conditions. Semantic proximity produced more interference with color than with direction. Interference in this sort of task may reflect characteristic ways in which incoming attribute information is processed.     

Hemispheric asymmetries in interpreting forms vs colors in ambiguous patterns

Prior to receiving briefly lateralized presentations of ambiguous visual patterns (Rorschach inkblots), 28 normal right-handed males heard two words, each describing a different interpretation of the pattern, e.g., one word might describe an interpretation based on attending to shapes or forms (form choices) and the other might describe an interpretation based on attending to chromatic color (e.g., color choices). Color choices were more frequent than form choices on left-hemisphere (LH) presentations of the patterns, and form choices were more frequent than color choices on right-hemisphere (RH) presentations. These results were interpreted as consistent with the theory that the LH's favored mental representation is semantic (i.e., frequent choices of concepts associated with names of colors in the patterns) and the RH's favored representation is imaginal (i.e., frequent choices of concepts associated with difficult-to-label forms in the patterns).