Image theory and career aspirations: Indirect and interactive effects of status-related variables

The present study applied Image Theory (Beach, 1990) to test how different components of a person's value image (i.e., perceived social status identity and conformity to masculine and feminine gender role norms) interact to influence trajectories toward high career aspirations (i.e., high value for status in one's work and aspirations for advancement and achievement in one's career). Results from 224 undergraduate students demonstrated that value for status in work mediated the relationship between perceived social status and career aspirations. Conformity to feminine, but not masculine, gender role norms moderated the relationship between perceived status and value for status in work. Conformity to feminine norms also moderated the indirect relationship between perceived status and aspirations via value for status in work, yielding a pattern of moderated mediation.     

Dialectical pluralism: A theoretical conceptualization of pluralism in psychology

A theoretical conceptualization of pluralism in psychology called dialectical pluralism is proposed in this paper. It is argued that this approach provides an effective and efficient basis for scientific progress in psychology. Three primary components of dialectical pluralism are developed. First, drawing on Royce's constructive dialectics, it is contended that tension between competing theories should be sustained in the hope of producing evaluative or integrative solutions. Second, the unity-disunity debate in psychology is reframed as a continuum and it is argued that oscillating periods of convergent and divergent pluralism would provide a productive model for scientific progress. Finally, intercontextualism is discussed as the underlying philosophical foundation for dialectical pluralism. This alternative to both mainstream psychology's positivist-empiricist foundations, as well as competing positions that may be more contextualist in orientation, is expounded as the justification for this new conceptualization. In particular, the limits of a methodological unity based on positivist-empiricist foundations, as well as of a pragmatic pluralism based on contextualist foundations, are both addressed by intercontextualism. As a result, dialectical pluralism may provide a middle ground between these two distinctive factions within psychology, while alleviating the fragmentation of the discipline.     

Looking sharp: Becoming a search template boosts precision and stability in visual working memory

Visual working memory (VWM) plays a central role in visual cognition, and current work suggests that there is a special state in VWM for items that are the goal of visual searches. However, whether the quality of memory for target templates differs from memory for other items in VWM is currently unknown. In this study, we measured the precision and stability of memory for search templates and accessory items to determine whether search templates receive representational priority in VWM. Memory for search templates exhibited increased precision and probability of recall, whereas accessory items were remembered less often. Additionally, while memory for Templates showed benefits when instances of the Template appeared in search, this benefit was not consistently observed for Accessory items when they appeared in search. Our results show that becoming a search template can substantially affect the quality of a representation in VWM.     

Strength cues and blocking at test promote reliable within-list criterion shifts in recognition memory

In seven experiments, we explored the potential for strength-based, within-list criterion shifts in recognition memory. People studied a mix of target words, some presented four times (strong) and others studied once (weak). In Experiments 1, 2, 4A, and 4B, the test was organized into alternating blocks of 10, 20, or 40 trials. Each block contained lures intermixed with strong targets only or weak targets only. In strength-cued conditions, test probes appeared in a unique font color for strong and weak blocks. In the uncued conditions of Experiments 1 and 2, similar strength blocks were tested, but strength was not cued with font color. False alarms to lures were lower in blocks containing strong target words, as compared with lures in blocks containing weak targets, but only when strength was cued with font color. Providing test feedback in Experiment 2 did not alter these results. In Experiments 3A–3C, test items were presented in a random order (i.e., not blocked by strength). Of these three experiments, only one demonstrated a significant shift even though strength cues were provided. Overall, the criterion shift was larger and more reliable as block size increased, and the shift occurred only when strength was cued with font color. These results clarify the factors that affect participants’ willingness to change their response criterion within a test list.     

The effect of context variability on source memory

High-context-variability (HCV) items are experienced in many more preexperimental semantic contexts than are low-context-variability (LCV) items. LCV confers an advantage to recognition memory (Steyvers & Malmberg, 2003). In the present study, we tested whether or not that advantage could be causedby enhanced source memory. Both context variability and word frequency were manipulated, and both factors generally affected source monitoring. Accuracy was better for LCV items than for HCV items and better for low- than for high-word-frequency items. We also considered whether context variability exerts its influence at encoding or at retrieval. We concluded that better recognition memory for LCV items was due, in part, to better retrieval of contextual details that specify how an item was originally studied.     

Object substitution masking interferes with semantic processing: evidence from event-related potentials

Object substitution masking (OSM) refers to impaired target identification caused by common onset, but delayed offset, of a surrounding dot mask. This effect has been hypothesized to reflect reentrant processes that result in the mask replacing the target representation. However, little is known about the depth of processing associated with masked targets in this paradigm. We investigated this issue by examining the effect of OSM on the N400 component of the event-related potential, which reflects the degree of semantic mismatch between a target and its context. Participants read a context word followed by a semantically related or unrelated target word surrounded by dots. As expected, delayed dot offset significantly reduced accuracy in identifying the target. The N400 amplitude was also diminished by OSM. These findings offer the first evidence that substitution interferes with target processing prior to semantic analysis, demonstrating an important difference between OSM and other visual phenomena, such as the attentional blink, in which semantic processing is independent of awareness.     

Inhibition of return: sensitivity and criterion as a function of response time

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a mechanism that results in a performance disadvantage typically observed when targets are presented at a location once occupied by a cue. Although the time course of the phenomenon--from the cue to the target--has been well studied, the time course of the effect--from target to response--is unknown. In 2 experiments, the effect of IOR upon sensitivity and response criterion under different levels of speed stress was examined. In go/no-go and choice reaction time tasks, IOR had at least 2 distinct effects on information processing. Early in target processing, before sufficient target information has accrued, there is a bias against responding to cued targets. Later, as target information is allowed to accrue, IOR reduces sensitivity to the target's nonspatial feature. Three accounts relating to the early bias effect of IOR and the late effect of IOR on sensitivity are offered.     

On misattributing good remembering to a happy past: An investigation into the cognitive roots of nostalgia

Reflections on the past are often accompanied by an experience of nostalgia, or positive sentiments about some prior stage of one's life. In the current study, we provide evidence suggesting that nostalgic experiences may occur because of positive feelings that accompany the act of successful recall, rather than reflecting the true nature of the past. In a series of experiments, we employed an encoding manipulation to cause some words to support more detailed recollections than others. In turn, we measured the effect of these manipulations on judgments of both pleasantness and the emotional valence of a prior stimulus encounter. We demonstrate that recollections rich in meaning are unique in biasing people to judge having previously seen a stimulus in an emotionally positive context. In contrast, pleasantness judgments appear to be guided primarily by perceptual fluency. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that the subjective experience of nostalgia represents a misattribution of successful remembering to a pleasant past.     

Influence of consonantal context on the reading of vowels: evidence from children

When college students pronounce nonwords, their vowel pronunciations may be affected not only by the consonant that follows the vowel, the coda, but also by the preceding consonant, the onset. We presented the nonwords used by Treiman and colleagues in their 2003 study to a total of 94 first graders, third graders, fifth graders, and high school students to determine when these context influences emerge. According to some theories of reading development, early decoding is characterized by context-free links from graphemes to phonemes. However, we found that even children reading at the first-grade level (6-year-olds) were influenced to some extent by a vowel's context. The effect of context on vowel pronunciation increased in strength up to around the fifth-grade reading level (8- and 9-year-olds), and sensitivity to coda-to-vowel associations emerged no earlier than did sensitivity to onset-to-vowel associations. A connectionist model of reading reproduced this general pattern of increasing context effects as a function of training.