SAT Performance: Understanding the Contributions of Cognitive/Learning and Social/Personality Factors

This study identifies a number of sources of individual differences in SAT performance by examining the simultaneous contributions of factors from two otherwise disparate research areas, namely cognition/learning and social/personality. Preliminary analysis revealed that just the cognitive/learning measures accounted for 37.8, 41.4 and 21.9% of the variance in SAT, V-SAT and Q-SAT performance, respectively while just the social/personality measures accounted for 21.4, 18.2 and 17.3% of the variance. When combined, cognitive/learning and social/personality factors accounted for even larger amounts of variance in performance; specifically 43.4, 44.6 and 28% for the SAT, V-SAT and Q-SAT, respectively. Finally, the results revealed that three measures consistently predicted performance on the SAT, V-SAT and Q-SAT; two measures were the learning/cognitive factors of working memory and integration of new text-based information with information from long-term memory and one measure was the social/personality factor, test anxiety.     

The role of melodic and temporal cues in perceiving musical meter

A number of different cues allow listeners to perceive musical meter. Three experiments examined effects of melodic and temporal accents on perceived meter in excerpts from folk songs scored in 6/8 or 3/4 meter. Participants matched excerpts with 1 of 2 metrical drum accompaniments. Melodic accents included contour change, melodic leaps, registral extreme, melodic repetition, and harmonic rhythm. Two experiments with isochronous melodies showed that contour change and melodic repetition predicted judgments. For longer melodies in the 2nd experiment, variables predicted judgments best at the beginning of excerpts. The final experiment, with rhythmically varied melodies, showed that temporal accents, tempo, and contour change were the strongest predictors of meter. The authors' findings suggest that listeners combine multiple melodic and temporal features to perceive musical meter.     

Metrical categories in infancy and adulthood

Intrinsic perceptual biases for simple duration ratios are thought to constrain the organization of rhythmic patterns in music. We tested that hypothesis by exposing listeners to folk melodies differing in metrical structure (simple or complex duration ratios), then testing them on alterations that preserved or violated the original metrical structure. Simple meters predominate in North American music, but complex meters are common in many other musical cultures. In Experiment 1, North American adults rated structure-violating alterations as less similar to the original version than structure-preserving alterations for simple-meter patterns but not for complex-meter patterns. In Experiment 2, adults of Bulgarian or Macedonian origin provided differential ratings to structure-violating and structure-preserving alterations in complex- as well as simple-meter contexts. In Experiment 3, 6-month-old infants responded differentially to structure-violating and structure-preserving alterations in both metrical contexts. These findings imply that the metrical biases of North American adults reflect enculturation processes rather than processing predispositions for simple meters.     

Does fear of coercion keep people away from mental health treatment? Evidence from a survey of persons with schizophrenia and mental health professionals

Mental health consumer advocates have long argued that involuntary treatment frightens persons with mental disorder and thus deters them from voluntarily seeking help. We surveyed 85 mental health professionals and 104 individuals with schizophrenia spectrum conditions to assess their experience with and perceptions of involuntary treatment and other treatment mandates. Of the clinicians, 78% reported that overall they thought legal pressures made their patients with schizophrenia more likely to stay in treatment. Regarding involuntary outpatient commitment, 81% of clinicians disagreed with the premise that mandated community treatment deters persons with schizophrenia from seeking voluntary treatment in the future. Of the consumer sample, 63% reported a lifetime history of involuntary hospitalization, while 36% reported fear of coerced treatment as a barrier to seeking help for a mental health problem-termed here "mandated treatment-related barriers to care." In bivariate analyses, reluctance to seek outpatient treatment associated with fear of coerced treatment (mandated treatment-related barriers to care) was significantly more likely in subjects with a lifetime history of involuntary hospitalization, criminal court mandates to seek treatment, and representative payeeship. However, experience with involuntary outpatient commitment was not associated with barriers to seeking treatment. Recent reminders or warnings about potential consequences of treatment nonadherence, recent hospitalization, and high levels of perceived coercion generally were also associated with mandated treatment-related barriers to care. In multivariable analyses, only involuntary hospitalization and recent warnings about treatment nonadherence were found to be significantly associated with these barriers. These results suggest that mandated treatment may serve as a barrier to treatment, but that ongoing informal pressures to adhere to treatment may also be important barriers to treatment.     

Why purists should be infallibilists

Philosophical Studies - Two of the most orthodox ideas in epistemology are fallibilism and purism. According to the fallibilist, one can know that a particular claim is true even though one’s...     

Effects of context on auditory stream segregation

The authors examined the effect of preceding context on auditory stream segregation. Low tones (A), high tones (B), and silences (-) were presented in an ABA- pattern. Participants indicated whether they perceived 1 or 2 streams of tones. The A tone frequency was fixed, and the B tone was the same as the A tone or had 1 of 3 higher frequencies. Perception of 2 streams in the current trial increased with greater frequency separation between the A and B tones (Delta f). Larger Delta f in previous trials modified this pattern, causing less streaming in the current trial. This occurred even when listeners were asked to bias their perception toward hearing 1 stream or 2 streams. The effect of previous Delta f was not due to response bias because simply perceiving 2 streams in the previous trial did not cause less streaming in the current trial. Finally, the effect of previous ?f was diminished, though still present, when the silent duration between trials was increased to 5.76 s. The time course of this context effect on streaming implicates the involvement of auditory sensory memory or neural adaptation.     

Predicting and manipulating the incidence of inattentional blindness

Inattentional blindness (IB) occurs when an observer, who is engaged in a resource-consuming task, fails to notice an unexpected although salient stimulus appearing in their visual field. The incidence of IB is affected by changes in stimulus-driven properties, but little research has examined individual differences in IB propensity. We examine working memory capacity (WMC), processing styles (flicker task), inhibition (Stroop task), and training in predicting IB. WMC is associated with IB (Experiments 1 and 2) but neither processing style (Experiment 1) nor inhibition (Experiment 2) was associated. In Experiment 2, prior training on a task reduced the incidence of IB compared to no prior training, and this effect was significantly larger when trained on the same tracking task as that used in the IB task rather than a different task. We conclude that IB is related to WMC and that training can influence the incidence of IB.     

College students' judgments regarding sexual aggression during a date

Effects of level of resistance and type of sexual behavior on judgments regarding sexual aggression on a date were studied. Participants were 138 female and 57 male college students who read one of six vignettes (three levels of resistance × two types of sexual behavior) describing a date in which unwanted sexual behavior occurred. Gender-neutral names (Chris and Pat) were used in the vignettes, and sex of aggressor and victim was not specified. Participants completed identical scales describing degree of disapproval of the aggressor's behavior from three different perspectives: their own viewpoint (Participant Rating), the victim's viewpoint (Victim Rating), and the aggressor's viewpoint (Aggressor Rating). Both Participant and Victim Ratings showed significant differences between levels of resistance, and significant but smaller differences due to participant gender. Participant ratings showed a significant but small difference between types of sexual behavior. The aggressor's overall behavior was labeled as date/acquaintance rape by 52.9% of participants for the vignette involving physical resistance and intercourse.     

Skepticism: Impractical,therefore implausible

The truth of skepticism would be depressing and impractical. Our beliefs would be groundless, we would know nothing (or almost nothing) about the world around us, and epistemic success would likely be impossible. But do these negative consequences have any bearing on the truth of skepticism? According to many scholars, they do not. The impractical consequences of skepticism are typically regarded as orthogonal to its truth. For this reason, pragmatic resolutions to skepticism are regularly dismissed. I will argue, however, that skepticism is implausible because it is impractical. In particular, skepticism is implausible because it goes against the point of epistemic evaluation.