Sequential difficulty effects during strategy execution

In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that strategy performance on a given trial is influenced by the difficulty of the strategy executed on the immediately preceding trial, an effect that we call strategy sequential difficulty effect. Participants' task was to provide approximate sums to two-digit addition problems by using cued rounding strategies. Results showed that performance was poorer after a difficult strategy than after an easy strategy. Our results have important theoretical and empirical implications for computational models of strategy choices and for furthering our understanding of strategic variations in arithmetic as well as in human cognition in general.     

Effective Psychotherapy With Low-income Clients: The Importance of Attending to Social Class

The purpose of this article is to explore some of the issues associated with conducting psychotherapy with low-income clients. Throughout the article, we draw from our specific clinical experiences working with low-income Latina mothers in a depression prevention program. The themes that we address regarding class and psychotherapy are in the areas of assessment of social class, integration of class issues into the therapy process, and managing differences in social class between therapists and clients. As we discuss these themes, we provide concrete recommendations in order to advance awareness and effectiveness in working with economically disadvantaged populations.     

Why does service with a smile make employees happy? A social interaction model

Drawing on the social interaction model, we examine the mediating role that the customer's display of positive emotions plays on the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the employee's positive mood. We also examine the moderating role that the customer's personality traits-agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability-play on the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the customer's display of positive emotions. The results show that the customer's display of positive emotions mediates the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the employee's positive mood. In addition, the customer's personality traits moderate the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the customer's display of positive emotions. The customer's display of positive emotions depends less on the employee's display of positive emotions when the customer has high levels of agreeableness and emotional stability than when the customer has low levels of agreeableness and emotional stability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Would male conspicuous consumption capture the female eye? Menstrual cycle effects on women's attention to status products

In line with evolutionary principles of reproduction and mate selection, the current research shows that women's attention to status cues fluctuates across their menstrual cycle. Specifically, we show that women pay more attention to status products in a visual display around ovulation than in other phases of their menstrual cycle. Pill use eliminates these cycle phase effects. The results are discussed in relation to research on female mating goals and conspicuous consumption.     

The relational versus collective “We” and intergroup allocation: The role of nested group categorization

Intergroup research has focused primarily, if not solely, on how an intergroup comparative context primes social categorization. The current research examines how individual differences, in terms of distinct forms of social self (the relational versus collective self), differentially drive social categorization and zero-sum resource allocation across groups nested within a superordinate group. Results show that the relational self exhibited more ingroup-biased allocations than the collective self; superordinate categorization mediated this relationship. Moreover, the relational self showed more ingroup-biased allocations under the condition of intergroup competition than cooperation; whereas the collective self showed equally unbiased allocations under the conditions of intergroup competition and cooperation. Our research suggests that competition worsens nested group relations for the relational self, but not for the collective self.     

Modeling geometric–optical illusions: A variational approach

Visual distortions of perceived lengths, angles, or forms, are generally known as “geometric–optical illusions” (goi). In the present paper we focus on a class of gois where the distortion of a straight line segment (the “target” stimulus) is induced by an array of non-intersecting curvilinear elements (“context” stimulus). Assuming local target–context interactions in a vector field representation of the context, we propose to model the perceptual distortion of the target as the solution to a minimization problem in the calculus of variations. We discuss properties of the solutions and reproduction of the respective form of the perceptual distortion for several types of contexts. Moreover, we draw a connection between the interactionist model of gois and Riemannian geometry: the context stimulus is understood as perturbing the geometry of the visual field from which the illusory distortion naturally arises. The approach is illustrated by data from a psychophysical experiment with nine subjects and six different contexts.     

Negative effects of item repetition on source memory

In the present study, we explored how item repetition affects source memory for new item-feature associations (picture-location or picture-color). We presented line drawings varying numbers of times in Phase 1. In Phase 2, each drawing was presented once with a critical new feature. In Phase 3, we tested memory for the new source feature of each item from Phase 2. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated and replicated the negative effects of item repetition on incidental source memory. Prior item repetition also had a negative effect on source memory when different source dimensions were used in Phases 1 and 2 (Experiment 3) and when participants were explicitly instructed to learn source information in Phase 2 (Experiments 4 and 5). Importantly, when the order between Phases 1 and 2 was reversed, such that item repetition occurred after the encoding of critical item-source combinations, item repetition no longer affected source memory (Experiment 6). Overall, our findings did not support predictions based on item predifferentiation, within-dimension source interference, or general interference from multiple traces of an item. Rather, the findings were consistent with the idea that prior item repetition reduces attention to subsequent presentations of the item, decreasing the likelihood that critical item-source associations will be encoded.     

Neural Correlates of Bridging Inferences and Coherence Processing

We explored the neural correlates of bridging inferences and coherence processing during story comprehension using Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Ten healthy right-handed volunteers were visually presented three types of stories (Strong Coherence, Weak Coherence, and Control) consisted of three sentences. The causal connectedness among sentences in the Strong Coherence story was strong that readers would not have to generate bridging inferences, whereas the causal antecedent of the last sentence in the Weak Coherence story was not explicitly stated so that readers should draw bridging inferences to fill the gap between sentences. It was found that the left middle temporal gyrus was activated while participants read the Weak Coherence stories. In contrast, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex were activated only in the Strong Coherence condition. This suggests that the dmPFC was involved in coherence processing whereas bridging inference was mediated by the left middle temporal gyrus. It was also found that anterior temporal pole and the temporo-parietal junction mediated general semantic processing.