At the boundaries of automaticity: negation as reflective operation

The present research investigated whether automatic social-cognitive skills are based on the same representations and processes as their controlled counterparts. Using the cognitive task of negating valence, the authors demonstrate that enhanced practice in negating the valence of a stimulus can lead to changes in the underlying associative representation. However, procedural, rule-based components of negations were generally unaffected by practice (Experiments 1-3). Moreover, negations of evaluative stimuli did not influence automatic evaluative responses to these stimuli, unless the negation was included in the associative representation of a stimulus (Experiments 4-6). These results suggest that some practice-related skill improvements are limited to conditions in which a general procedure can be substituted by the retrieval of results of previous applications from associative memory. Implications for research on automaticity and social cognition are discussed.     

Prepared to eat: how immediate affective and motivational responses to food cues are influenced by food deprivation

Three studies examined how food deprivation influences the immediate valence of food stimuli as well as spontaneous motivational tendencies toward them. We assumed that immediate reactions towards food stimuli should be tuned to the basic needs of the organism. In Study 1, the immediate valence of food names as a function of need state was assessed using an Implicit Association Test (IAT) in a quasi‐experimental design. Food deprivation led to a more positive immediate valence of food items. In Study 2, these results were replicated using the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task. In Study 3, immediate motivational reactions toward pictorial food stimuli were assessed. As hypothesized, approach reactions were facilitated for participants tested before as compared to after lunch, even in a sample with eating disorders. We thus conclude that the immediate valence of edible objects partially reflects regulation in the service of need fulfillment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Verbal ability modulates the associative neighbors effect

The number of associative neighbors (ANs) of a word has been found to modulate the associative priming effect (Cañas &; Bajo, 1994). Pilot studies have shown that this influence might be dependent on verbal ability. This possibility was examined by comparing the influence of a prime’s ANs on the priming effect in students with high and low verbal ability, using a lexical decision task. Participants with high verbal ability showed a priming effect regardless of ANs. In contrast, low-verbal-ability students showed a significant influence of ANs upon the priming effect, which was demonstrated in responding to related targets. In particular, the lexical decisions to targets that were preceded by primes with a large number of ANs were slower. The effects were not modulated by stimulus onset asynchrony. The results are discussed in relation to automatic and strategic mechanisms of word processing. These findings have important implications for studies in the field of word recognition.     

Multilevel factorial experiments for developing behavioral interventions: power, sample size, and resource considerations

Factorial experimental designs have many potential advantages for behavioral scientists. For example, such designs may be useful in building more potent interventions by helping investigators to screen several candidate intervention components simultaneously and to decide which are likely to offer greater benefit before evaluating the intervention as a whole. However, sample size and power considerations may challenge investigators attempting to apply such designs, especially when the population of interest is multilevel (e.g., when students are nested within schools, or when employees are nested within organizations). In this article, we examine the feasibility of factorial experimental designs with multiple factors in a multilevel, clustered setting (i.e., of multilevel, multifactor experiments). We conduct Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate how design elements-such as the number of clusters, the number of lower-level units, and the intraclass correlation-affect power. Our results suggest that multilevel, multifactor experiments are feasible for factor-screening purposes because of the economical properties of complete and fractional factorial experimental designs. We also discuss resources for sample size planning and power estimation for multilevel factorial experiments. These results are discussed from a resource management perspective, in which the goal is to choose a design that maximizes the scientific benefit using the resources available for an investigation.     

Phasic affective modulation of creativity

Thus far, it has been shown that positive compared to negative mood increases creativity, for instance, as measured by performance in the remote associate task, where participants are asked to find the common remote associate for three clue words (e.g., RABBIT CLOUD MILK solution word WHITE). The present experiments show that very brief variations in affect, lasting for only a few seconds and changing from trial to trial within participants, are sufficient to modulate creativity in that task, presumably by modulating the breadth of semantic spread. Using word valence of remote associates themselves (Experiment 1), and consonant and dissonant chords (Experiment 2) as affect inductions, it was observed that brief positive compared to negative affect increased creative performance. This evidence extends the affect-modulation hypothesis to a temporal micro-level.     

Further Insight and Additional Inference Methods for Polynomial Regression Applied to the Analysis of Congruence

In their seminal paper, Edwards and Parry (1993) presented the polynomial regression as a better alternative to applying difference score in the study of congruence. While this method is increasingly applied in congruence research, its complexity relative to other methods for assessing congruence (e.g., difference score methods) was one of the main claims against its use. The objective of this work is to gain additional insight into the use of polynomial regression in the area of social and behavioral sciences. First, we elaborate on the meaning and the inference based on the coefficients obtained by applying polynomial regression and explain the mathematical terms that are used to describe response surfaces. Then, we introduce additional inference methods and illustrate their application on a real life example from the area of supportive exchanges, using data collected by the Smithers Institute at Cornell University (supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). Our work is aimed to provide a guide to researchers who apply polynomial regression in order to assess the effect of congruence between two constructs and enable better understanding and interpretation of the results obtained.     

How Gender Counts When Couples Count Their Money

In this study we explored the ways in which men's and women's personal incomes are treated and experienced differently in the family. Two hundred and fourteen participants (102 men and 112 women) in dual-earner couples were recruited in a random sample telephone survey. Participants reported a double standard in which women receive more praise than men for their incomes. Men reported stronger negative and positive feelings about their incomes than women. Regardless of gender, the higher the participants' income category the more gratitude they received from spouses and the more appreciated they felt. Wives' absolute incomes elicited husbands' gratitude, whereas husbands' relative incomes influenced wives' gratitude. Women who outearned their husbands reported no negative consequences. Although money still carries gendered meaning, women's incomes may earn increasing clout in the family. The ways in which praise, criticism, and gratitude for earnings provide a window on how gender is done and undone in the family are discussed.     

When the method makes a difference: Antagonistic effects on “automatic evaluations” as a function of task characteristics of the measure

Researchers often employ implicit measures as dependent variables to investigate processes of attitude formation and change. In such studies, experimentally induced differences are typically interpreted as reflecting change in automatic evaluations. We argue that experimentally induced effects on implicit measures may not always reflect genuine changes in evaluative responses, but can be driven by the mechanisms underlying the measurement procedure. In line with this assumption, the present research shows that these mechanisms can produce opposite effects of the same experimental manipulation for otherwise equivalent implicit measures. These results indicate that merely observing experimental effects on implicit measures does not allow direct inferences regarding changes in automatic evaluations. Instead, psychological interpretations of such effects hinge upon the mechanics of how a given measurement procedure responds to variations in the context. Implications for research using implicit measures are discussed.