When does feedback facilitate learning of words?

Some researchers have suggested that although feedback may enhance performance during associative learning, it does so at the expense of later retention. To examine this issue, subjects (N = 258) learned Luganda-English word pairs. After 2 initial exposures to the materials, subjects were tested on each item several times, with the presence and type of feedback varying between subjects. A final test followed after 1 week. Supplying the correct answer after an incorrect response not only improved performance during the initial learning session--it also increased final retention by 494%. On the other hand, feedback after correct responses made little difference either immediately or at a delay, regardless of whether the subject was confident in the response. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Self-concept and violent delinquency in urban African-American adolescent males

African-American adolescent males experience a disproportionate rate of victimization associated with and arrest for violent crime. This study examined the between self-concept and violent delinquency within a group of 155 urban African-American adolescent males. Walter Reckless's 1967 containment theory, which suggest that a positive self-concept will insulate a juvenile from delinquency and crime, served as the theoretical frame of reference. The participants included 155 African-American males aged 13 to 19 years who completed the Adolescent Life Survey, developed by the investigators, and the Tennessee Self-concept Scale. Quantitative measurments of self-concept and delinquency were obtained. In general, the findings did not support containment theory. However, the study does present new data regarding serious violent delinquency.     

Are cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia mediated by abnormalities in emotional arousal?

We tested 28 individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and 16 healthy individuals on a test of logical reasoning and "cognitive gating," defined as the ability to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information in confirming or disconfirming a given belief. The Logical Reasoning and Cognitive Gating Task tests both processes under neutral and affect-laden conditions. This is done by presenting formally identical constructs using benign and emotionally arousing language. When separated by symptom profiles, we found statistically significant differences for performance and arousal response between patients with delusions, patients with formal thought disorder, and patients with neither delusions nor formal thought disorder, as well as between patients and healthy controls. When analyzed by error type, we found that nearly all errors by delusional patients were caused by overly restrictive information choice, a pattern that may be related to a delusional patient's tendency to "jump to conclusions" on Bayesian probabilistic tasks. This is in contrast to patients with formal thought disorder, whose low performance resulted also from overly extensive information choice. The tendencies towards restriction were exacerbated by arousal, which is consistent with studies on cognition and arousal in healthy individuals. After briefly examining research on emotional arousal and SZ, and the interaction between emotional arousal and restriction of perceptual cues in healthy individuals, we conclude by suggesting a model which accounts for the distinctive cognitive characteristics of delusional patients by their possessing distinct vulnerabilities to emotional arousal. Specifically, these results suggest the possibility that delusional patients process information in a manner that is essentially intact. However, delusional patients may possess an acute vulnerability to emotional arousal that might cause delusional individuals to behave cognitively as if they were healthy individuals under significantly more severe forms of stress.     

Considerations in collecting Rorschach reference data

Recent Rorschach research with nonpatients has yielded reference data that differ in several respects from nonpatient normative data published for the Comprehensive System (Exner, 1995). Conclusions concerning the implications of these new findings are premature, however, pending careful consideration of appropriate guidelines for collecting Rorschach reference data. In proposing guidelines for future research of this kind, I note (a) that the relatively unstructured nature of Rorschach assessment may complicate obtaining useful data from nonpatient volunteers, (b) that normative studies should include various types of patient as well as nonpatient samples, and (c) that identification of psychological disturbance from Rorschach protocols may be guided more accurately by how closely a record resembles the records of patients with certain disturbances than by how much the record differs from the records of nonpatients.     

Gender and Deviance: A Comparison of College Students in Japan and the United States

Although evidence abounds in American criminology that young males are more prone to deviance than females, relatively little is known about the magnitude of the gender gap in deviance across cultures. Drawing on the literature concerning “risk taking” in power-control theory and on theory and research concerning cultural variability in “uncertainty avoidance,” we offer a rationale for predicting that the gender differences in levels of deviance are less among Japanese youth than Americans. Among Japanese, the level of male deviance should be closer to that of females because “uncertainty avoidance” is a strong component of Japanese culture that affects socialization of both males and females. Analysis of identical survey data from college students in Japan and the United States provides strong support for our argument.     

The Psychophysiology of Social Action: Facial Electromyographic Responses to Stigmatized Groups Predict Antidiscrimination Action

We introduced facial electromyography as a tool for predicting advantaged group members' engagement in antidiscrimination action on behalf of a disadvantaged outgroup. Heterosexual men's corrugator supercilii (brow “frowning” muscles) activity while viewing videos of male–male and male–female couples interacting was measured. Corrugator (negative affect) response to male–male versus male–female targets, but not self-reported attitudes toward gay men, predicted number of flyers calling for action to reduce antigay violence and discrimination that participants privately took to distribute. Our discreet behavioral measure mirrored real-life collective action possibilities such as voting against laws prohibiting same-sex marriage in the privacy of one's voting booth.     

The Gnostic Syndrome: Anorexia nervosa

‘The Gnostic Syndrome’ discusses anorexia nervosa in terms of its poetics and in the context of a developmental object-relations theory. One case is used to illustrate the problems of therapy and the antecedents of the anorexia in childhood and adolescence. The paper forms an investigation into pre-moral states and the interaction of anorexia with character structure.