Limitations to the spacing effect: demonstration of an inverted u-shaped relationship between interrepetition spacing and free recall

The spacing effect refers to the finding that memory for repeated items improves when the interrepetition interval increases. To explain the spacing effect in free-recall tasks, a two-factor model has been put forward that combines mechanisms of contextual variability and study-phase retrieval (e.g., Raaijmakers, 2003; Verkoeijen, Rikers, & Schmidt, 2004). An important, yet untested, implication of this model is that free recall of repetitions should follow an inverted u-shaped relationship with interrepetition spacing. To demonstrate the suggested relationship an experiment was conducted. Participants studied a word list, consisting of items repeated at different interrepetition intervals, either under incidental or under intentional learn instructions. Subsequently, participants received a free-recall test. The results revealed an inverted u-shaped relationship between free recall and interrepetition spacing in both the incidental-learning condition and the intentional-learning condition. Moreover, for intentionally learned repetitions, the maximum free-recall performance was located at a longer interrepetition interval than for incidentally learned repetitions. These findings are interpreted in terms of the two-factor model of spacing effects in free-recall tasks.     

Four simultaneous component models for the analysis of multivariate time series from more than one subject to model intraindividual and interindividual differences

A class of four simultaneous component models for the exploratory analysis of multivariate time series collected from more than one subject simultaneously is discussed. In each of the models, the multivariate time series of each subject is decomposed into a few series of component scores and a loading matrix. The component scores series reveal the latent data structure in the course of time. The interpretation of the components is based on the loading matrix. The simultaneous component models model not only intraindividual variability, but interindividual variability as well. The four models can be ordered hierarchically from weakly to severely constrained, thus allowing for big to small interindividual differences in the model. The use of the models is illustrated by an empirical example.This research has been made possible by funding from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO) to the first author. The authors are obliged to Tom A.B. Snijders, Jos M.F. ten Berge and three anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version of this paper, and to Kim Shifren for providing us with her data set, which was collected at Syracuse University.     

Effectiveness of the ‘Hold me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program in a Self‐referred and a Clinician‐referred Sample: An Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy‐Based Approach

While evidence‐based couple therapies are available, only a minority of troubled couples seek help and they often do this too late. To reach more couples earlier, the couple relationship education (CRE) group program “Hold me Tight” (HmT) based on Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) was developed. This study is the first to examine the effectiveness of HmT. Using a three‐wave (waiting period, treatment, and follow‐up) within‐subject design, HmT was delivered to 79 self‐referred couples and 50 clinician‐referred couples. We applied a comprehensive outcome measure battery. Our main findings were that (1) self‐referred couples significantly improved during HmT on all measures, that is relationship satisfaction, security of partner‐bond, forgiveness, daily coordination, maintenance behavior, and psychological complaints, with a moderate‐to‐large mean effect size (d = .63), which was maintained (d = .57) during the 3.5 month follow‐up; (2) in clinician‐referred couples, who were vulnerable in terms of insecure attachment status and psychopathology, the improvement during HmT was moderate (d = .42), but this was reduced during the 3.5‐month follow‐up to a small effect (d = .22); (3) emotional functioning (typical HmT target) as well as behavioral functioning (typical Behavioral Couples Therapy‐based CRE target) improved during HmT; and (4) individual psychological complaints, although not specifically targeted, were reduced during HmT. These findings suggest that HmT is a promising intervention for enhancement of relationship functioning. Clinical implications are discussed.     

The Impact of Home Ownership on Life Satisfaction in Urban China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

China has implemented a series of socioeconomic reforms since 1978. One of the reforms allows urban residents to purchase their own houses rather than renting houses from state institutions which has resulted in a rapid increase in home ownership. This paper estimates the impact of home ownership on life satisfaction in urban China on the basis of the 2010 wave of the China General Social Survey. Special attention is paid to the methodological problem of confoundedness between the determinants of home ownership and life satisfaction. Propensity score matching (PSM) is applied to control it. The results show that PSM reduces upward estimation bias caused by confoundedness and that it is more appropriate to control confoundedness than ordered probit regression. The estimates furthermore indicate that home ownership has a significant positive impact on life satisfaction of medium- and high income urban residents. For low income urban residents, the impact is also positive, though insignificant. The outcomes connect to the objectives of national development policy and thus have several important policy implications. First, the central and local governments, especially in provinces where it is still low, may want to continue stimulating home ownership as it enhances life satisfaction. Secondly, specific programs may be designed to make home ownership financially affordable for low income groups. Thirdly, local governments may want to initiate or intensify urban (renewal) programs to improve poor public facilities including public transportation, green space and sports accommodations in the immediate vicinity of depressing low income neighborhoods.     

Homesickness in social context: An ecological momentary assessment study among 1st-year university students

Homesickness is common among university students and associated with mental health problems. Most previous studies assessed homesickness as a summary of the past weeks. However, there may be significant fluctuations across situations. At the current residence, homesickness may especially be triggered during (phone) interactions with attachment figures. Dutch and international 1st-year students (n = 92) completed the Utrecht Homesickness Scale and subsequently used a smartphone application to record social interactions for 14 days (ecological momentary assessment [EMA]). For each interaction they reported the social context (e.g. location, contact type) and their affective state, including homesickness. Homesickness in the past weeks and momentary homesickness were both higher in international students than in Dutch students. Feeling homesick was highest at participants' current residency, when interacting with parents, or when using video-chat. When participants felt more homesick, they reported less pleasant and more unpleasant affect. In conclusion, EMA provided insight in cross-situational variations in homesickness.     

Being flexible or rigid in goal-directed behavior: When positive affect implicitly motivates the pursuit of goals or means

Building on previous research on the role of positive affect as implicit motivator we investigated both flexibility and rigidity in goal-directed behavior. Given that goal-directed behavior can be represented in terms of goals or means, we suggest that goal-directed behavior is more flexible in switching means when positive affect implicitly motivates a person to reach the goal, but is more rigid in switching means when positive affect implicitly motivates a person to perform a specific means. Three experiments corroborated this idea: the speed of switching from a learned goal-directed means to a new means was facilitated when positive affect was attached to the representation of the goal, whereas this switching was slowed down when positive affect was attached to the representation of the learned means. Together, these findings provide new insights into the occurrence of flexibility and rigidity in implicitly motivated goal-directed behavior.     

Testosterone affects gaze aversion from angry faces outside of conscious awareness

Throughout vertebrate phylogeny, testosterone has motivated animals to obtain and maintain social dominance-a fact suggesting that unconscious primordial brain mechanisms are involved in social dominance. In humans, however, the prevailing view is that the neocortex is in control of primordial drives, and testosterone is thought to promote social dominance via conscious feelings of superiority, indefatigability, strength, and anger. Here we show that testosterone administration in humans prolongs dominant staring into the eyes of threatening faces that are viewed outside of awareness, without affecting consciously experienced feelings. These findings reveal that testosterone motivates social dominance in humans in much the same ways that it does in other vertebrates: involuntarily, automatically, and unconsciously.     

Memory and attention for social threat: anxious hypercoding-avoidance and submissive gaze aversion

Rivalry for dominance is a recurrent challenge in human social interaction. During these social dominance interactions, some people rapidly break eye contact, whereas others merely try to avoid such eye-to-eye confrontations. The first is an example of submissive gaze aversion, whereas the second reflects anxious gaze avoidance. We tested these distinct forms of gaze behavior within a social-memory setting and show that anxious individuals vigilantly attend to, superiorly remember, and subsequently avoid social threats (i.e., angry faces). Furthermore, submissive individuals, as indexed by high trait anxiety and low trait anger, exhibit rapid gaze aversion from facial anger. Mechanisms of hypervigilance-avoidance thus seem to underlie natural gaze behavior and enhanced memory for threat in anxiety. Accordingly, we propose the term hypercoding-avoidance, which describes how anxious individuals habitually scan their immediate social environment for threat, remember its location, and subsequently avoid it. Moreover, this is the first experimental evidence showing that submissive gaze aversion is distinct from anxious gaze avoidance.     

Affective regulation of cognitive-control adjustments in remitted depressive patients after acute tryptophan depletion

Negative affect in healthy populations regulates the appraisal of demanding situations, which tunes subsequent effort mobilization and adjustments in cognitive control. In the present study, we hypothesized that dysphoria in depressed individuals similarly modulates this adaptation, possibly through a neural mechanism involving serotonergic regulation. We tested the effect of dysphoria induced by acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) in remitted depressed patients on conflict adaptation in a Simon task. ATD temporarily lowers the availability of the serotonin precursor L-Tryptophan and is known to increase depressive symptoms in approximately half of remitted depressed participants. We found that depressive symptoms induced by ATD were associated with increased conflict adaptation. Our finding extends recent observations implying an important role of affect in regulating conflict-driven cognitive control.     

Implicit Trait Policies in Multimedia Situational Judgment Tests for Leadership Skills: Can They Predict Leadership Behavior?

To explain why situational judgment tests are often correlated with personality measures, Motowidlo, Hooper, and Jackson (2006a Motowidlo, S. J., Hooper, A. C. and Jackson, H. L. 2006a. Implicit policies about relations between personality traits and behavioral effectiveness in situational judgment items. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91: 749–761. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2006b Motowidlo, S. J., Hooper, A. C. and Jackson, H. L. 2006b. “A theoretical basis for situational judgment tests”. In Situational judgment tests: Theory, measurement, and application, Edited by: Weekley, J. A. and Ployhart, R. E. 57–81. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.  [Google Scholar]) developed the implicit trait policy theory. Implicit trait policies are beliefs about causal relationships between personality traits and behavioral effectiveness. Among 180 employees, this field study examined whether a multimedia situational judgment test that was intended to assess leadership skills can capture individual differences in such policies. Furthermore, it was examined whether these implicit trait policies were able to predict leadership behavior. Results confirmed that the situational judgment test was able to capture individual differences in implicit trait policies for Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Furthermore, results showed that implicit trait policies for Extraversion can predict leadership behavior over and above leadership experience and the associated personality trait.