Reducing intergroup conflict through the consideration of future consequences

Basic social psychological research has suggested several interventions to reduce intergroup conflict. Most of these interventions, however, have been indirect and impractical to implement outside laboratory settings. Although past research has demonstrated that indirect manipulations of the consideration of future consequences reduce intergroup competition, no study of interindividual–intergroup discontinuity has tested this assumption with a direct manipulation. The present study found that when participants (individuals and members of groups) interacting in an iterated prisoner's dilemma game (PDG) were asked to predict how their opponent's choice on a second trial would be affected by their own choice on an initial trial, intergroup competition was reduced while interindividual competition remained low regardless of the manipulation. On a practical level, implications of this study provide a simple and easily implemented solution to reducing intergroup conflict in non‐laboratory situations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mnemic neglect is not an artifact of expectancy: The moderating role of defensive pessimism

Research supporting the mnemic neglect model finds that people more easily recall positive than negative personality feedback, even when only asked to imagine that the feedback is real. The same bias is not found when people are asked to recall information about other people. Despite evidence that these findings reflect self‐enhancement motives, more research is needed to rule out the possibility that they instead simply reflect expectancies. Results supported the mnemic neglect model, and revealed that expectancies predicted recall only for a subgroup of participants who did not demonstrate the self–other recall bias characteristic of mnemic neglect: defensive pessimists, who are more likely than other people to process social information by comparing it to their expectancies. These findings suggest that mnemic neglect is not an artifact of expectancies, and is not driven by other self‐evaluation motives (such as self‐verification or self‐assessment). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the optimality of serial and parallel processing in the psychological refractory period paradigm: Effects of the distribution of stimulus onset asynchronies

Within the context of the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm, we developed a general theoretical framework for deciding when it is more efficient to process two tasks in serial and when it is more efficient to process them in parallel. This analysis suggests that a serial mode is more efficient than a parallel mode under a wide variety of conditions and thereby suggests that ubiquitous evidence of serial processing in PRP tasks could result from performance optimization rather than from a structural bottleneck. The analysis further suggests that the experimenter-selected distribution of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) influences the relative efficiency of the serial and parallel modes, with a preponderance of short SOAs favoring a parallel mode. Experiments varying the distribution of SOAs were conducted, and the results suggest that there is a shift from a more serial mode to a more parallel mode as the likelihood of short SOAs increases.     

INFLUENCING PRESCHOOLERS' FREE‐PLAY ACTIVITY PREFERENCES: AN EVALUATION OF SATIATION AND EMBEDDED REINFORCEMENT

The present study evaluated the effects of classwide satiation and embedded reinforcement procedures on preschoolers' activity preferences during scheduled free‐play periods. The goal of the study was to increase time allocation to originally nonpreferred, but important, activities (instructional zone, library, and science) while continuing to provide access to all free‐play activities. The satiation intervention applied to preferred activities resulted in increased time allocation to the instructional and science activities, the customized embedded reinforcement interventions resulted in increased time allocation to all three target activities, and high levels of attendance to the instructional and library activities were maintained during follow‐up observations. Implications for the design of preschool free‐play periods are discussed.     

The implicit cognition of relationship maintenance: Inattention to attractive alternatives

The temptation of alternative mating partners can threaten satisfaction with and commitment to an existing romantic relationship. Consequently, people exhibit cognitive processes that help protect their relationship when faced with desirable relationship alternatives. Previous studies have focused primarily on processes that involve explicit, higher-order cognitive mechanisms such as overt judgments and choices (e.g., judging the alternative as less attractive). The current studies, in contrast, examined automatic, early-stage attentional processes that may help protect against threats posed by exposure to alternative mating partners. Whereas single participants responded to implicit mating primes by increasing early-stage attention to physically attractive opposite sex targets, participants in a committed romantic relationship were inattentive to those attractive alternatives. This research provides a novel approach for studying implicit cognitive mechanisms involved in maintaining close relationships.     

Does a fitness factor contribute to the association between intelligence and health outcomes? Evidence from medical abnormality counts among 3654 US Veterans

We suggest that an over-arching ‘fitness factor’ (an index of general genetic quality that predicts survival and reproductive success) partially explains the observed associations between health outcomes and intelligence. As a proof of concept, we tested this idea in a sample of 3654 US Vietnam veterans aged 31–49 who completed five cognitive tests (from which we extracted a g factor), a detailed medical examination, and self-reports concerning lifestyle health risks (such as smoking and drinking). As indices of physical health, we aggregated ‘abnormality counts’ of physician-assessed neurological, morphological, and physiological abnormalities in eight categories: cranial nerves, motor nerves, peripheral sensory nerves, reflexes, head, body, skin condition, and urine tests. Since each abnormality was rare, the abnormality counts showed highly skewed, Poisson-like distributions. The correlation matrix amongst these eight abnormality counts formed only a weak positive manifold and thus yielded only a weak common factor. However, Poisson regressions showed that intelligence was a significant positive predictor of six of the eight abnormality counts, even controlling for diverse lifestyle covariates (age, obesity, combat and toxin exposure owing to service in Vietnam, and use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs). These results give preliminary support for the notion of a superordinate fitness factor above intelligence and physical health, which could be further investigated with direct genetic assessments of mutation load across individuals.     

The effects of switching between targets on the performance of a simple motor skill

Little direct evidence has emerged regarding the influence of switching between tasks on the performance of skills studied in the motor domain. The present study reported the results of two experiments that examined the effects of task switching on a simple object projection task, which presumably emphasized processes related to response planning and execution. The experimental task required participants to gently tap a knob to make it travel along two parallel rods until it reached a specified target distance. In both experiments, participants in the repeated conditions performed a single target distance while participants in the switched conditions alternated between two target distances. Results indicated that switching between targets degraded accuracy for the two short targets (30cm, Exp. 1; 20cm, Exp. 2). Results were consistent with the preservation of parameter values [Rosenbaum, D. A., Weber, R. J., Hazelett, W. M., & Hindorff, V. (1986). The parameter remapping effect in human performance. Evidence form tongue twisters and finger fumblers. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 710-725; Sherwood, D. E. (2007). Separate movement planning and spatial assimilation effects in sequential bimanual aiming movements. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 105, 501-513] and suggested an additional role for persisting activation in accounting for spatial assimilation and magnitude effects.     

Executive functions after age 5: Changes and correlates

Research and theorizing on executive function (EF) in childhood has been disproportionately focused on preschool age children. This review paper outlines the importance of examining EF throughout childhood, and even across the lifespan. First, examining EF in older children can address the question of whether EF is a unitary construct. The relations among the EF components, particularly as they are recruited for complex tasks, appear to change over the course of development. Second, much of the development of EF, especially working memory, shifting, and planning, occurs after age 5. Third, important applications of EF research concern the role of school-age children’s EF in various aspects of school performance, as well as social functioning and emotional control. Future research needs to examine a more complete developmental span, from early childhood through late adulthood, in order to address developmental issues adequately.     

What is the probability of replicating a statistically significant effect?

If an initial experiment produces a statistically significant effect, what is the probability that this effect will be replicated in a follow-up experiment? I argue that this seemingly fundamental question can be interpreted in two very different ways and that its answer is, in practice, virtually unknowable under either interpretation. Although the data from an initial experiment can be used to estimate one type of replication probability, this estimate will rarely be precise enough to be of any use. The other type of replication probability is also unknowable, because it depends on unknown aspects of the research context. Thus, although it would be nice to know the probability of replicating a significant effect, researchers must accept the fact that they generally cannot determine this information, whichever type of replication probability they seek.     

Aging and recognition memory for emotional words: A bias account

The present study investigated age-related differences in the locus of the emotional enhancement effect in recognition memory. Younger and older adults studied an emotion-heterogeneous list followed by a forced choice recognition memory test. Luce’s (1963) similarity choice model was used to assess whether emotional valence impacts memory sensitivity or response bias. Results revealed that the emotional enhancement effect in both age groups was due to a more liberal response bias for emotional words. However, the pattern of bias differed, with younger adults more willing to classify negative words as old and older adults more willing to classify positive words as old. The results challenge the conclusion that emotional words are more memorable than neutral words.