The McGurk effect in infants

In the McGurk effect, perceptual identification of auditory speech syllables is influenced by simultaneous presentation of discrepant visible speech syllables. This effect has been found in subjects of different ages and with various native language backgrounds. But no McGurk tests have been conducted with prelinguistic infants. In the present series of experiments, 5-month-old English-exposed infants were tested for the McGurk effect. Infants were first gaze-habituated to an audiovisual /va/. Two different dishabituation stimuli were then presented: audio /ba/-visual /va/ (perceived by adults as /va/), and audio /da/-visual /va/ (perceived by adults as /da/). The infants showed generalization from the audiovisual /va/ to the audio /ba/-visual /va/ stimulus but not to the audio /da/-visual /va/ stimulus. Follow-up experiments revealed that these generalization differences were not due to a general preference for the audio /da/-visual /va/ stimulus or to the auditory similarity of /ba/ to /va/ relative to /da/. These results suggest that the infants were visually influenced in the same way as Englishspeaking adults are visually influenced.     

Influences of Destructive Personality Information on Decision Making1

This study examined the effects of information about a landlord's personality on juror judgments for a landlord-tenant civil trial. The personality information manipulated was specifically relevant to destructive acts. Alternative versions of witness testimony were used to describe a landlord either high or low on need for power. treating people as objects, and negative life themes. This information strongly influenced aspects of the schema for this case constructed by the individual mock jurors. Destructive personality information caused dislike of the landlord and lowered the credibility of his story. If the landlord treated people as objects, the credibility of the tenant's story and positive evaluations of the tenant increased. Juror judgments about relative fault were strongly shifted by destructive personality information. An empirical model for juror decisions indicated a dynamic interplay of story components and fault judgments.     

Racial Attitudes and the Death Penalty1

This study investigated the relationship between overt and subtle forms of racism with Whites' recommendations for capital sentencing of Black and White offenders convicted of murder. White participants (n= 104) viewed 5 other “jurors” (all Whites or 4 Whites and 1 Black) on videotape individually presenting their decisions to vote for the death penalty in the case. It was hypothesized that the bias of high prejudice-scoring participants would be overt, but that the pattern for low prejudice-scoring participants would be more complex. As predicted, among high prejudice-scoring participants, Black defendants received stronger recommendations for the death penalty than did White defendants. Among low prejudice-scoring White participants, Black offenders received stronger recommendations for the death penalty only when a Black juror advocated the death penalty.     

Ethics, theism and metaphysics: An analysis of the theocentric ethics of James Gustafson

Modern ethics has been shaped by two dominant philosophical assumptions: (1) that there can be no theoretical knowledge of God, i.e., denial of metaphysics, and (2) that moral claims can be redeemed independently of theistic affirmations, i.e., morality does not require theism. These assumptions have influenced much of modern theological ethics. Yet, insofar as theological ethics accepts that morality does not require any explicit or implicit religious beliefs, it affirms that a secularistic morality is possible. But this affirmation is directly at odds with the essence of theism, namely, that God is the source and end of all things, including the moral life. By accepting the dominant consensus, therefore, theological ethics undermines its fundamental theistic claim. Focusing on James Gustafson's theocentric ethics, I seek to show the price that theological ethics pays for subscribing to the dominant consensus. I argue that: (1) Gustafson embraces an inconsistent self-understanding, which undermines his theocentric claim, (2) this is due to his dismissal of metaphysics, and (3) his theocentric ethic would be more compelling if formulated in terms of Whitehead's process metaphysics.     

The Unintended Negative Consequences of Sympathy for the Stigmatized1

Research on attitudes toward the stigmatized indicates that negative feelings and stereotypes toward the stigmatized are often mixed with positive feelings of sympathy and concern. Three studies investigate the hypothesis that positive outcomes for the stigmatized that are motivated by sympathy may have unintended negative consequences for self-esteem, affect, and motivation. Subjects were asked to imagine themselves in the position of a stigmatized person who received a job either because he or she was qualified, or out of sympathy for a stigmatizing condition. Results indicated that subjects reported lower state self-esteem, more negative affect, and lowered work motivation when the job was offered out of sympathy rather than on the basis of qualifications. Study 2 showed that the negative effects of sympathy occur whether the basis for the sympathy is prejudice and discrimination or mobility problems faced by the stigmatized individual. The third experiment showed that sympathy has negative effects when the sympathy is based either on individual or group-based problems imposed by the stigmatizing condition. The findings are discussed in terms of the attributional ambiguity surrounding positive outcomes faced by the stigmatized and applied to the effects of affirmative-action programs.     

The numbers game: Gender and attention to numerical information

Research suggests that males outperform females on standardized tests of math ability from early adolescence onward. Several explanations for this difference focus on the different experiences of females and males with numerical information. We reasoned that males have more experience with numerical information than females because typical male interests (e.g., sports) are more likely to involve numerical information than typical female interests (e.g., physical appearance). Thus, we predicted that males would attend more to numerical information than would females, at least when the information was presented in a male-related or gender-neutral context. Females were expected to attend more than males when the context was female-related. Results using White/Caucasian subjects provided some support for these predictions. Implications for future research on the relationship between the gender-linkage of math materials and gender differences in math performance are discussed.     

New parents at work: Jobs, families and the psychological contract

Interviews with seven women and six men who had recently returned to work after becoming first-time parents were carried out to examine experiences of the policies, practices and attitudes of their employers towards new parents, and to assess how far they felt able to discuss their circumstances and changed expectations with their managers. Findings pointed to considerable differences in the attitudes of employers to the men and women. Almost all the women had changed to part-time work, but arranging this had not been easy and some had found it difficult to come to terms with a difference in status. Many of the respondents had reservations about discussing their positions and altered expectations with their managers, and it seemed unlikely that mutually beneficial psychological contracts could be negotiated without changes in organisational cultures and policies. The findings have implications for our understanding of organisational careers and for career-planning interventions in organisations.     

GLOBAL PROCESSING-TIME COEFFICIENTS CHARACTERIZE INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP DIFFERENCES IN COGNITIVE SPEED

Abstract— Forty participants performed seven different information processing tasks (choice reaction time, letter classification, visual search, abstract matching, line-length discrimination, mental rotation, and mental paper-folding) Slow (top quartile) and fast (bottom quartile) processors were selected based on their mean z scores Response times (RTs) of the slow and fast groups in the 21 conditions of the seven tasks were linear functions of the mean RTs of the entire group (both r²s = 99) In addition, individuals' RTs were well described by linear functions (median r²= 93) When tasks were ranked in order of complexity, the odd-even reliability of the ratio of an individual's RT to the average RT was 80, indicating that such ratios remain relatively stable across tasks Taken together, these findings indicate that the performance of an individual on diverse tasks can be predicted on the basis of a single processing-time coefficient Such coefficients may provide useful indices of the efficiency with which different individuals process information     

CHOICE-MAKING TREATMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN'S SEVERE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

The choice-making behavior of 5 young children with developmental disabilities who engaged in aberrant behavior was studied within a concurrent operants framework. Experimental analyses were conducted to identify reinforcers that maintained aberrant behavior, and functional communication training packages were implemented to teach the participants to gain reinforcement using mands. Next, a choice-making analysis, in which the participants chose one of two responses (either a mand or an alternative neutral response) to obtain different durations and qualities of reinforcement, was conducted. Finally, treatment packages involving choice making via manding were implemented to decrease inappropriate behavior and to increase mands. The results extended previous applications of choice making to severe behavior disorders and across behaviors maintained by positive and negative reinforcement.