Discrepancy detection in the retrieval-enhanced suggestibility paradigm

Retrieval-enhanced suggestibility (RES) refers to the finding that immediately recalling the details of a witnessed event can increase susceptibility to later misinformation. In three experiments, we sought to gain a deeper understanding of the role that retrieval plays in the RES paradigm. Consistent with past research, initial testing did increase susceptibility to misinformation – but only for those who failed to detect discrepancies between the original event and the post-event misinformation. In all three experiments, subjects who retrospectively detected discrepancies in the post-event narratives were more resistant to misinformation than those who did not. In Experiments 2 and 3, having subjects concurrently assess the consistency of the misinformation narratives negated the RES effect. Interestingly, in Experiments 2 and 3, subjects who had retrieval practice and detected discrepancies were more likely to endorse misinformation than control subjects who detected discrepancies. These results call attention to limiting conditions of the RES effect and highlight the complex relationship between retrieval practice, discrepancy detection, and misinformation endorsement.     

Looking for laws in all the wrong spaces: Kant on laws,the understanding,and space

Prolegomena §38 is intended to elucidate the claim that the understanding legislates a priori laws to nature (the ‘Legislation Thesis’). Kant cites various laws of geometry as examples and discusses a derivation of the inverse‐square law from such laws. I address 4 key interpretive questions about this cryptic text that have not yet received satisfying answers: (a) How exactly are Kant's examples of laws supposed to elucidate the Legislation Thesis? (b) What is Kant's view of the epistemic status of the inverse‐square law and, relatedly, of the legitimacy of the geometric derivation of that law? (c) Whose account of laws, the understanding, and space is Kant critiquing in the passage? (d) What positive account of the relationship between laws, the understanding, and space is Kant offering in the passage? My answer to (d) depends crucially on my answers to (a)–(c). As I interpret Kant, he holds that a wide range of a priori laws—including geometric laws, the inverse‐square law, and the universal laws discussed in the Analytic of Principles—are ‘grounded’ (a technical term defined in the paper) in categorial syntheses rather than the intrinsic nature of the space given to us in pure intuition.     

The beneficial effect of contextual emotion on memory: the role of integration

This study investigates the effects of emotion on the integration mechanism which binds together the components of an event and the relations between these components and encodes them within a memory trace [Versace, R., Vallet, G. T., Riou, B., Lesourd, M., Labeye, É, & Brunel, L. (2014). Act-In: An integrated view of memory mechanisms. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(3), 280–306. doi:10.1080/20445911.2014.892113]. Based on the literature, the authors argue that, in a memory task, contextual emotion could strengthen the integration mechanism and, more specifically, the relations between a target item and its contextual features. To test this hypothesis, the authors used two odorants (neutral and negative) to compare the effects of a negative context with those of a neutral one on three different types of recall: item recall (memory for pictures objects), source recall (spatial position of the pictures in a matrix) and recall of the association between an item and its location. The results showed that, in the negative odour context, association recall and source recall – but not item recall – were better than in the neutral odour context thus confirming the effect of emotion on integration. The results lead to the hypothesis that the effects of emotion on memory are linked to the way emotion is introduced into the experimental settings: via the items to be memorised or via the context.     

Do men find "bony" women attractive?: Consequences of misperceiving opposite sex perceptions of attractive body image

Due to its role in the development and maintenance of eating disorders, body image perceptions and dissatisfaction continue to be an important area of study. Perceptions of attractive body images held by members of the opposite sex are an important determinant of body image satisfaction among both men and women. This research shows that men are accurate in their perceptions of what women find attractive among men, but women believe men want women to be thinner than men actually report. Furthermore, this inaccurate perception is associated with eating disorder symptomatology. The role of contingent self-worth was also assessed. Results indicate that individuals whose self-worth is more contingent on appearance-related standards experience more negative consequences than those who misperceive what the opposite sex finds attractive, but whose self-worth is less contingent on appearance. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Changing plans: Dynamic inconsistency and the effect of experience on the reference point

This article presents a new test of a principle of decision making calleddynamic consistency. This principle was tested in an experiment in which participants were asked to make decisions about a second gamble within a sequence of two gambles. Participants were first asked to make a planned choice about the second gamble. The planned choice was madebefore the first gamble was played and was conditioned on the anticipated outcomes of the first gamble.After the first gamble was played, the same participants were asked to make a final choice about the second gamble, conditioned on the experienced outcome of the first gamble. The results showed that participants’ final choices were frequently inconsistent with their plans, even when the anticipated and experienced outcomes were identical. These inconsistencies occurred in a systematic direction. Experiencing an anticipated gain resulted with a change toward risk aversion, and experiencing an anticipated loss resulted in a change toward risk seeking. These results are explained in terms of the effect of actual experience on the reference point used for the evaluation of the decision problem.     

Father and Son: Freud Revisits his Oedipus Complex in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Moses and Monotheism</Emphasis>

In this paper, I propose to understand Freud on his own terms and within his social, intellectual and psychological context. It is my hope that such an understanding will contribute in turn to our understanding of some of the sources of the creative process. Were it not for his fame, Freud's views on religion, history and art, would at best be but a footnote to these subjects. My contention is that Freud's writings on these subjects can contribute more to our understanding of Freud, the person, than they do to some of the subjects he is writing about. Toward this end I will focus on two of Freud's works, written more than 30 years apart, his early Moses of Michelangelo and his late-life work Moses and Monotheism, which reflect the considerable changes in Freud's thinking.     

A preliminary exploration of predictors of outcome and cognitive mechanisms of change in cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis in people not taking antipsychotic medication

BackgroundCognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective in an open trial for people with psychotic disorders who have not been taking antipsychotic medication. There is little known about predictors of outcome in CBT for psychosis and even less about hypothesised mechanisms of change.Method20 participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders received CBT in an exploratory trial. Our primary outcome was psychiatric symptoms measured using the PANSS. Secondary outcomes were dimensions of hallucinations and delusions, self-rated recovery and social functioning, and hypothesised mechanisms of change included appraisals of psychotic experiences, dysfunctional attitudes and cognitive insight. We also measured patient characteristics that may be associated with outcome.ResultsT-tests revealed that several of the hypothesised mechanisms did significantly change over the treatment and follow-up periods. Correlational analyses showed that reductions in negative appraisals of psychotic experiences were related to improvements on outcome measures and that shorter duration of psychosis and younger age were associated with greater changes in symptoms.ConclusionsCBT based on a specific cognitive model appears to change the hypothesised cognitive mechanisms, and these changes are associated with good outcomes. CBT may be more effective for those who are younger with shorter histories of psychosis.     

Scaffolding a community of competent practitioners: positioning and agency in a training program for narrative counseling

This article explores the scaffolding of learning experiences in a postgraduate program in New Zealand that offers training in narrative counseling. The authors draw on positioning theory to identify student shifts in learning, and in agency, that help build an increasingly skilled and peer-generated context for learning. We describe a selection of exercises and one key assignment, introduced in the course in a particular order, that we believe enable students to step into positions of agency which ultimately allow a competent community of learner-practitioners to emerge. We also describe a dance of positioning for ourselves as teachers in this program. We suggest that, at any given time, our own positioning is tied up with possibilities for student positioning. Acknowledging relationships of power in classrooms, we explore ways to align poststructuralist counseling practices and the teaching of these practices.