Diversity-Based Reasoning in Children

One of the hallmarks of inductive reasoning by adults is the diversity effect, namely that people draw stronger inferences from a diverse set of evidence than from a more homogenous set of evidence. However, past developmental work has not found consistent diversity effects with children age 9 and younger. We report robust sensitivity to diversity in children as young as 5, using everyday stimuli such as pictures of objects with people. Experiment 1 showed the basic diversity effect in 5- to 9-year-olds. Experiment 2 showed that, like adults, children restrict their use of diversity information when making inferences about remote categories. Experiment 3 used other stimulus sets to overcome an alternate explanation in terms of sample size rather than diversity effects. Finally, Experiment 4 showed that children more readily draw on diversity when reasoning about objects and their relations with people than when reasoning about objects' internal, hidden properties, thus partially explaining the negative findings of previous work. Relations to cross-cultural work and models of induction are discussed.     

A RAFT THAT FLOATS: EXPERIENCE,TRADITION, AND SCIENCES IN GUSTAFSON'S THEOCENTRIC ETHICS

Abstract. Although James Gustafson's use of the Christian Bible and tradition is not fully displayed in the essays published here, Bible and tradition are a crucial part of a composite rationale, which includes experience and the sciences, for his theocentric ethics. Gustafson's theocentric ethics employs the sciences to back, inform, and correct the Christian tradition and offers grounds for respecting the natural piety and morality of “nonreligious” persons while explaining and justifying why Christians draw on major themes and metaphors from their tradition that should penetrate their piety and morality. His proposal should reorient the thinking of theological ethics more than it has thus far.     

Destructive and reparative transference in multiple levels of group psychotherapy

Group members are challenged to form psychologically meaningful relationships with therapists, other members, and the group as a whole. The way in which individuals perceive this challenge is based on their past experiences. Early relationships establish a perceptual frame in which fears of being hurt and concern about hurting others coexist. Balance between these two ways of generating meaning enables individuals to form relatively healthy relationships. Imbalance in this perceptual frame results in distorted perceptions and maladaptive patterns emerging as transference manifestations. Working through involves repeatedly addressing distortions as members relate to therapists, others and the group as a whole.     

On the psychological reality of a natural rule of syllable structure

If natural rules in phonology, such as the rule which deletes a word final consonant before a consonant, are frequently found in unrelated languages, it must be because they tap universal features of production and/or perception. The present experiment employed a learning task to see whether naive subjects have a predisposition for the natural rule as opposed to its converse (consonant deletion before a vowel). The Ss first learned four novel words (nouns) - two beginning with a consonant, two with a vowel - as paired associates to English ‘translations’. Then three novel adjectives were combined with each of the four nouns, following the natural rule for one group of Ss, the unnatural rule for the other. The twelve phrases were cued by their English translations and the S had to respond to each with the phonologically correct sequence of adjective and noun; confirmation followed each response. The Ss learning the unnatural corpus had a strong tendency to give natural responses, whereas the converse was not true. Consequently they made many more errors en route to mastery than their natural counterparts, even when the operative rule was displayed on the first trial by presenting in turn each adjective with its four following nouns. It appears that our Ss had implicit knowledge of the natural rule, even though it does not operate to any significant extent in English.     

Contextualizing Gender and Acculturative Influences on Sexual Initiation of Asian Indian Emerging Adults

Although Asian Indians represent one the fastest growing demographics in the United States, no studies exist on the sexual behavior of Asian Indian youth or its association with acculturation. Previous research has demonstrated a link between earlier sexual initiation and subsequent sexual risk and the role of acculturation and sexual initiation in other Asian groups. The present exploratory study examined gender and acculturation with regard to sexual initiation in Asian Indians (n = 37). Results reveal no significant gender differences in sexual initiation and total acculturation scores. Gender differences did emerge for the association among sexual behaviors and the influence of specific areas of acculturation on sexual initiation. Findings suggest that gender and acculturation may be important variables in understanding sexual behavior but that current acculturation measures may be insufficient to adequately assess acculturation levels of Asian Indian youth. Future research should focus on Asian Indians as an understudied minority group.     

Is it Too Soon to Meet? Examining Differences in Geosocial Networking App Use and Sexual Risk Behavior of Emerging Adults

Location-based geosocial networking smartphone applications (GSN apps) have become a popular way to meet romantic and casual sex partners. Although first used primarily by men who have sex with men (MSM), GSN apps are now commonly used in the population at large, particularly among emerging adults. Although, these apps may potentially contribute to increases in STI/HIV incidence, previous research linking GSN app use to sexual risk behavior has been mixed, with some suggesting app users report greater sexual risk behavior and others suggesting less. The present paper details findings of two studies with independent samples of emerging adults. The first, a pilot study, examined GSN app use among young MSM (n = 64) to identify possible within-group factors relating dating app use to sexual risk behavior. Results indicated that the time app users spent talking to each other through the app before meeting in person (time before meeting) was related to engagement in sexual risk behavior. Those who talked less before meeting in person engaged in more sexual risk behaviors than those who spent more time talking before meeting in person. The second study sought to expand upon this finding in a more representative sample of GSN app users (n = 129) and compared sexual risk behavior and impulsivity to non-users (n = 88). There were no differences in sexual risk behavior between GSN app users and non-users. However, when examining app users by time before meeting, those with a shorter time before meeting were more impulsive and more likely to report sexual risk behavior. These findings highlight the importance of understanding GSN app use in the spread of STIs/HIV among emerging adults.     

Aging and guided visual search: the role of visual working memory

In the present study, we examined age-related differences in utilizing learned associations to guide visual search. Participants viewed an object cue that was associated with 1 or 2 target colors, followed by a search array. Older adults showed slower RTs, larger visual search slopes, and reduced cue–target association knowledge than did younger adults. We also found increased search RTs and higher error rates when the cue was associated with 2 colors instead of 1. However, visual search slopes did not vary with the number of associated colors. This indicates that participants could activate multiple templates simultaneously to guide the search or retrieve associative information directly from the long-term memory. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that VWMC can predict both visual search performances and cue–target association knowledge. More broadly, our results demonstrate that VWMC can modify the effects of age on cued visual search performance.     

The influence of action on visual search: behavioral response toward stimuli modifies the selection process

In five experiments, we investigated how simple actions (as assessed via a go/no-go task) influence visual search. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants responded (go) when a color name (cue) matched a colored shape (prime), and did not respond (no-go) when they mismatched. Participants then searched a visual array for a tilted line, either embedded within the prime (valid prime) or within a different shape of a different color (invalid prime). For go trials, but not for no-go trials, the validity of the prime influenced search behavior so that faster RTs were observed when the prime was valid as compared with when it was invalid. In Experiment 3, the go/no-go task was based on the shape of the prime. The color of the prime, but not the shape, was re-presented in the search array, and its validity produced a similar pattern as in Experiments 1-2. In Experiment 4, participants responded when the color name and prime mismatched. Reaction times indicated that attentional set had an influence on the validity differences in Experiments 1-3. In Experiment 5, the go/no-go task was based on whether a digit matched a digit appearing within the prime. Go trials produced similar validity effects as observed in Experiments 1-3.     

Similarity as transformation

We propose that similarity is determined by the transformation distance between representations: entities which are perceived to be similar have representations which are readily transformed into one another, whereas transforming between dissimilar entities requires many transformations. We present three experiments that indicate that similarity is strongly influenced by transformation distance. These data present a challenge for featural or spatial accounts of similarity. Finally, we introduce a family of transformation-based accounts of similarity, called 'Representational Distortion', as a specific example of a transformational approach to similarity.