Thai Norms for Name,Image, and Category Agreement,Object Familiarity,Visual Complexity,Manipulability, and Age of Acquisition for 480 Color Photographic Objects

Normative databases containing psycholinguistic variables are commonly used to aid stimulus selection for investigations into language and other cognitive processes. Norms exist for many languages, but not for Thai. The aim of the present research, therefore, was to obtain Thai normative data for the BOSS, a set of 480 high resolution color photographic images of real objects (Brodeur et al. in PLoS ONE 5(5), 2010.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010773). Norms were provided by 584 Thai university students on eight dimensions: name agreement, object familiarity, visual complexity, category agreement, image agreement, two types of manipulability (graspability and mimeability), and age of acquisition. The results revealed comparatively similar levels of name agreement to Brodeur et al. especially when unfamiliar items were factored out. The pattern of intercorrelations among the Thai psycholinguistic norms was comparable to previous studies and our cross-linguistic correlations were robust for the same set of pictures in English and French. Conjointly, the findings extend the relevancy of the BOSS to Thailand, supporting this photographic resource for investigations of language and other cognitive processes in monolingual, multilingual, and brain-impaired populations.     

Would disfluency by any other name still be disfluent? Examining the disfluency effect with cursive handwriting

When exposed to words presented under perceptually disfluent conditions (e.g., words written in Haettenschweiler font), participants have difficulty initially recognizing the words. Those same words, though, may be better remembered later than words presented in standard type font. This counterintuitive finding is referred to as the disfluency effect. Evidence for this disfluency effect, however, has been mixed, suggesting possible moderating factors. Using a recognition memory task, level of disfluency was examined as a moderating factor across three experiments using a novel cursive manipulation that varied on degree of legibility (easy-to-read cursive vs. hard-to-read cursive). In addition, list type and retention interval between study and test were manipulated. Across all three experiments, cursive words engendered better memory than type-print words. This memory effect persisted across varied list designs (blocked vs. mixed) and a longer (24-hour) retention interval. A small-scale meta-analysis across the three experiments suggested that the cursive disfluency effect is moderated by level of disfluency: easy-to-read cursive words tended to be better remembered than hard-to-read cursive words. Taken together, these results challenge extant accounts of the disfluency effect. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Efficacy of Guided iCBT for Depression and Mediation of Change by Cognitive Skill Acquisition

Guided internet CBT (iCBT) is a promising treatment for depression; however, it is less well known through what mechanisms iCBT works. Two possible mediators of change are the acquisition of cognitive skills and increases in behavioral activation. We report results of an 8-week waitlist controlled trial of guided iCBT, and test whether early change in cognitive skills or behavioral activation mediated subsequent change in depression. The sample was 89 individuals randomized to guided iCBT (n = 59) or waitlist (n = 30). Participants were 75% female, 72% Caucasian, and 33 years old on average. The PHQ9 was the primary outcome measure. Mediators were the Competencies of Cognitive Therapy Scale–Self Report and the Behavioral Activation Scale for Depression–Short Form. Treatment was Beating the Blues plus manualized coaching. Outcomes were analyzed using linear mixed models, and mediation with a bootstrap resampling approach. The iCBT group was superior to waitlist, with large effect sizes at posttreatment (Hedges’ g = 1.45). Dropout of iCBT was 29% versus 10% for waitlist. In the mediation analyses, the acquisition of cognitive skills mediated subsequent depression change (indirect effect = -.61, 95% bootstrapped biased corrected CI: -1.47, -0.09), but increases in behavioral activation did not. iCBT is an effective treatment for depression, but dropout rates remain high. Change in iCBT appears to be mediated by improvements in the use of cognitive skills, such as critically evaluating and restructuring negative thoughts.     

Trust within Limits

Abstract

There have two recent challenges to the orthodoxy that ‘X trusts Y to ø’ is the fundamental notion of trust. Domenicucci and Holton maintain that trust, like love and friendship, is fundamentally two-place. Paul Faulkner argues to the more radical conclusion that the one-place ‘X is trusting’ is explanatorily basic. I argue that ‘X trusts Y in domain D’ is the explanatorily basic notion. I make the case that only by thinking of trust as domain-specific can we make sense of the relationships between trust and belief in goodwill, trust and distrust, and trust and trustworthiness. In addition, by modeling trust as essentially domain-specific we can account for the way in which wise trust in others is finely discriminating.     

An Examination of the Effects of Feedback Accuracy on Academic Task Acquisition in Analogue Settings

The Psychological Record - Performance feedback is a common procedure used in a variety of settings to change behavior. Although reviews of the literature have identified a number of...     

Rationalization,Evidence, and Pretense

In this paper I distinguish the category of “rationalization” from various forms of epistemic irrationality. I maintain that only if we model rationalizers as pretenders can we make sense of the rationalizer's distinctive relationship to the evidence in her possession. I contrast the cognitive attitude of the rationalizer with that of believers whose relationship to the evidence I describe as “waffling” or “intransigent”. In the final section of the paper, I compare the rationalizer to the Frankfurtian bullshitter.     

Nature Gives Us Strength: Exposure to Nature Counteracts Ego-Depletion

Previous research rarely investigated the role of physical environment in counteracting ego-depletion. In the present research, we hypothesized that exposure to natural environment counteracts ego-depletion. Three experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, initially depleted participants who viewed pictures of nature scenes showed greater persistence on a subsequent anagram task than those who were given a rest period. Experiment 2 expanded upon this finding by showing that natural environment enhanced logical reasoning performance after ego-depleting task. Experiment 3 adopted a two- (depletion vs. no-depletion) -by-two (nature exposure vs. urban exposure) factorial design. We found that nature exposure moderated the effect of depletion on anagram task performance. Taken together, the present studies offer a viable and novel strategy to mitigate the negative impacts of ego-depletion.     

Property and prejudice: How racial attitudes and social‐evaluative concerns shape property appraisals

Property evaluations rarely occur in the absence of social context. However, no research has investigated how intergroup processes related to prejudice extend to concepts of property. In the present research, we propose that factors such as group status, prejudice and pressure to mask prejudiced attitudes affect how people value the property of racial ingroup and outgroup members. In Study 1, White American and Asian American participants were asked to appraise a hand‐painted mug that was ostensibly created by either a White or an Asian person. Asian participants demonstrated an ingroup bias. White participants showed an outgroup bias, but this effect was qualified. Specifically, among White participants, higher racism towards Asian Americans predicted higher valuations of mugs created by Asian people. Study 2 revealed that White Americans' prejudice towards Asian Americans predicted higher valuations of the mug created by an Asian person only when participants were highly concerned about conveying a non‐prejudiced personal image. Our results suggest that, ironically, prejudiced majority group members evaluate the property of minority group members whom they dislike more favourably. The current findings provide a foundation for melding intergroup relations research with research on property and ownership.