Collectivistic Self‐Construal and Forgiveness

This study tested a theoretical model of the relationship between collectivism and forgiveness. Participants (N= 298) completed measures of collectivistic self‐construal, forgiveness, and forgiveness‐related constructs. A collectivistic self‐construal was related to understanding forgiveness as an interpersonal process that involved reconciliation. Individuals with more collectivistic views reported higher trait forgivingness, which predicted the tendency to respond to specific offenses with decisional rather than emotional forgiveness. Individuals with a more collectivistic self‐construal may place more value on interpersonal harmony, reconciliation, and decisions to forgive rather than emotional peace. Implications suggest that counselors understand issues of conflict, hurts, and forgiveness within an assessment of clients’ self‐construal.     

A Normative and Comparative Study of the Hand Test with Normal and Delinquent Children

Normative data obtained on the Hand Test from 114 secondary school boys, 52 institutionalized male delinquents, and 26 institutionalized female delinquents, were compared. Significant differences were in the expected direction for certain scores. Comparison with the “equivalent” American samples given by Wagner shows marked differences. Looseness of definition of certain scoring categories affected interscorer reliability.     

The relationship between DRM and misinformation false memories

This research investigated the relationship between false memories induced by two different paradigms (misinformation and Deese–Roediger–McDermott [DRM]). The misinformation effect refers to the phenomenon that a person’s recollection of a witnessed event can be altered after exposure to misleading information about the event. DRM false memory represents the intrusion of words that are semantically related but not actually presented in the study session. Subjects (N = 432) completed both misinformation and DRM false memory tests. Results showed a small but significant correlation (r = .12, p = .02) between the misinformation and DRM false memories. Furthermore, using signal detection theory, we found that the discrimination ability index (d′) was related to both the misinformation and DRM false memories (r = ?.12 and ?.13, p = .01), while the response bias was related only to DRM false memory (r = ?.46, p < .001). These results suggest that misinformation and DRM false memories generally involve different mechanisms and that their shared mechanism may involve the global discrimination ability.     

Look,no hands: A perceptual task shows that number magnitude induces shifts of attention

The mental representation of numbers along a line oriented left to right affects spatial cognition, facilitating responses in the ipsilateral hemispace (the spatial-numerical association of response codes [SNARC] effect). We investigated whether the number/space association is the result of an attentional shift or response selection. Previous research has often introduced covert left/right response cues by presenting targets to the left or the right. The present study avoided left/right cues by requiring forced choice upper/lower luminance discriminations to two mirror-reversed luminance gradients (the grayscale task). The grayscale stimuli were overlaid with strings of (1) low numbers, (2) high numbers, and (3) nonnumerical characters. In Experiment 1, 20 dextrals judged the number’s magnitude and then indicated whether the upper/lower grayscale was darker. Results showed leftward and rightward attentional biases for low and high numbers, respectively. Demands to process numbers along a left/right line were made less explicit in Experiment 2 (N=8 dextrals), using (1) a parity judgment and (2) arbitrary linguistic labels for top/bottom. Once again, a spatial congruency effect was observed. Because the response (up/down) was orthogonal to the dimension of interest (left/right), the effect of number cannot be attributed to late-stage response congruencies. This study required unspeeded responses to stimuli presented in free vision, whereas other experiments have used speeded responses. Understanding the time course of number-space effects may, therefore, be important to the debate associated with response selection.     

A meta-analysis of intergroup forgiveness

In the past decade, interest has flourished in the empirical study of forgiveness in the wake of intergroup conflicts. In the current paper, we sought to empirically integrate the diverse predictors of intergroup forgiveness building on a tripartite model that incorporates affective, cognitive, and constraining features. Using a random effects approach, we meta-analyzed (N = 13,371; k = 43) correlates of intergroup forgiveness across diverse conflicts (e.g. 65% intrastate, 35% interstate) and populations (20 different nationalities; 60% female). We tested the effect of nine distinct predictors and investigated study characteristics as moderators of these effects (i.e. sex of victim and conflict type). Collective guilt [r = 0.49] and trust [r = 0.42] emerged as the strongest facilitators, whereas negative emotions [r = ?0.33] and in-group identity [r = ?0.32] emerged as the strongest barriers to intergroup forgiveness. We discuss practical applications of these findings.     

Failing and feeling bad: how we think about experiencing negative emotions during setbacks

Motivation and Emotion - The current research explored appraisals of the negative emotions that arise in the context of setbacks. We proposed that experiencing negative emotions could be appraised...     

Self-Efficacy in the Face of Threats to Entrepreneurial Success: Mind-Sets Matter

Results from two studies, extending implicit theories to entrepreneurship, demonstrated that incremental theorists (entrepreneurial ability is malleable), compared to entity theorists (entrepreneurial ability is fixed), reported more self-efficacy after threats to personal ability and business success. In Study 1, women induced to hold an incremental theory reported more self-efficacy regarding future entrepreneurial endeavors, compared to women induced to hold an entity theory, after being told entrepreneurial ability is primarily driven by masculine traits (threat condition). Results from Study 2, a sample of business owners, replicated this incremental buffering effect after threats to both men and women's entrepreneurial success (i.e., poor business performance). We discuss results in terms of how mind-sets matter for entrepreneurial endeavors, especially in the face of challenges.     

Intelligence gathering post-9/11

The gathering of information for intelligence purposes often comes from interviewing a variety of individuals. Some, like suspects and captured prisoners, are individuals for whom the stakes are especially high and who might not be particularly cooperative. But information is also gathered from myriad individuals who have relevant facts to provide, and occasionally the smallest details can be important. In gathering this information from both groups of informants, investigators need to worry about memory distortion, especially the extent to which memories can be contaminated by poor questioning or other sources of postevent information. Moreover, they need to worry about the potential for poor methods and other forms of influence to create false confessions, thereby leading investigators astray. A third area in which psychological science can contribute is in the detection of deception. Recent science in these domains can improve the quality of information that investigators gather and the inferences that they draw.     

What can a perception-memory expert tell a jury?

Witnesses to crimes and other forensically relevant events sometimes describe memories in which they express confidence that, on the basis of research in perception and memory, may be inappropriately high, given the circumstances of the case. The most effective way of conveying this observation and the reasons for it to a jury is via an expert in perception and memory. In any given case, a mosaic of factors having to do with perception and memory are relevant. I briefly sketch the most common of these factors and categorize them as to the degree to which they may be unambiguously and/or quantitatively applied to a specific case. I discuss one such factor, witness-object distance, in some detail, showing how an expert might describe distance effects on perception and providing examples from actual cases.     

A hit-and-miss investigation of asymmetries in wheelchair navigation

In contrast to the leftward inattention caused by right parietal damage, normal brain function shows a subtle neglect of the right and left sides in peripersonal and extrapersonal space, respectively. This study explored how these attentional biases cause healthy individuals to collide with objects on the right. In Experiment 1, participants navigated manual and electric wheelchairs through a narrow doorway. More rightward collisions were observed for the electric, but not the manual, wheelchair. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the rightward deviation for electric wheelchairs increased for wider doorways. Experiment 3 established that the rightward deviation is not the result of task-related vestibular input, using a remote control device to operate the wheelchair. The rightward deviation persisted in Experiment 4 when the doorway was removed, suggesting that the bias is the result of a mis-bisection of space. In Experiment 5, the rightward bias was replicated using an electric scooter, which is steered using handlebars. Finally, Experiment 6 required participants to point to the middle of the doorway, using a laser, before moving the scooter. Rightward mis-bisection was observed in both conditions. Rightward mis-bisection of lines in extrapersonal space provides the most parsimonious explanation of the rightward collisions and deviations.