An unobtrusive measure of personality?

The use of unobtrusive measures has been advocated for some time by methodologists and research workers. (Webb et al., 1966). Recently Wing and Baddeley (1978) used simple measures of handwriting as indices of stress. They found that the height of the letter and the length of ticks (check marks), indicating answers to questions, increased significantly after alcohol intake.It has been shown in the past that measures based on the dimensions of letters or digits provide a sensitive index of stress (Baddeley et al., 1969; Legge et al., 1964). However, it has not yet been shown whether there is any relationship between the size of circles around ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to a personality questionnaire, and the scale scores it is measuring.This paper reports an investigation whose aim it was to relate circle size to the scale scores of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Psychoticism, and the Lie-scale of the EPQ (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1978).     

Analysis of variances and covariances is misleading as a guide to a common factor model

The “factor” analyses published by Schultz, Kaye, and Hoyer (1980) confused component and factor analysis and led in this case as in many others to unwarranted conclusions. They used component analysis to develop factor models that were subjected to restricted (confirmatory) maximum likelihood analysis, but the final models for which good fits with the observed correlations were obtained were not common factor models. They were, however, discussed as such and conclusions drawn accordingly. When their correlation matrices are analyzed by the principal factors method, two factors are sufficient to account for the intercorrelations. These two factors generally support the a priori expectation of a difference between intelligence tasks and spontaneous flexibility tasks. They are also quite similar in younger and older subjects, when similarity is judged in terms of factor pattern. Factor loadings for the younger subjects, however, are much smaller than expectations based on the respective ranges of talent in the two groups of subjects or on past experience with similar tests in undergraduate student populations.     

The lateral coding of rotations: a study of the simon effect with wheel-rotation responses

A number of experimental studies have consistently shown the locus of spatial S-R compatibility effects to be the selection of the response within an abstract memory code. The purpose of the present study was to test, in the particular case of wheel rotations, the general proposition that any response that a subject internally codes in terms of left and right may be interfered with by the lateral location of the stimuli in a Simon paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that the auditory Simon effect occurred in a task where the subjects had to rotate a steering wheel bimanually either clockwise or counterclockwise according to sound pitch, despite the fact that responses of this kind are undefined with respect to laterality. Experiment 2 confirmed this result in a unimanual rotation condition and suggested that the ear-rotation compatibility effect may be added to the effect of a biomechanical factor, pronation versus supination, supporting the idea of an abstraction motor code. In Experiment 3, subjects rotated the steering wheel with their hands on the lowest part of the wheel. When the response movement made the spot of a C.R.T. move laterally in accordance with the performed rotation, the subjects coded their response directly in terms of its effect on the visual display. For subjects not receiving visual feedback, no compatibility effect occurred. however, the individual data were compatible with the notion that some subjects in this group coded their responses in terms of wheel rotations, and others in terms of hand movements.     

The dimensionality of attributions of causality and responsibility for an accident

Effects of the dimensionality of responsibility and causality attributions were investigated. An accident was described. Subjects cued to respond with causality attributions increased their attributions with event severity. Subjects cued to respond with moral responsibility attributions decreased attributional levels with increasing severity. Assignments of guilt varied specifically with the cued attributional concept.     

Mouse killing in rats induced by lesions of the medial hypothalamus or medial accumbens: short-term preoperative exposure to a mouse does not suppress the killing

Rats were either exposed or not exposed to a mouse in their living cage for a 48-hr period. At the end of this time a bilateral lesion was made in the medial accumbens region or in the medial hypothalamus. When tested 2 days postoperatively, the killing frequency among rats that had been exposed to mice preoperatively was not significantly lower than that of rats that were not preoperatively exposed. The ineffectiveness of preoperative experience in suppressing the mouse killing induced by medial accumbens and medial hypothalamic lesions is similar to that found previously with dorsal-median raphe lesions and olfactory bulb lesions and is in contrast to the ease with which preoperative experience prevents mouse killing induced by septal lesions and serotonergic lesions induced by 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine.     

Accuracy in the judgment of in-group and out-group variability

The accuracy of in-group and out-group variability judgments was examined by comparing those judgments with the variability of self-ratings provided by random samples of group members. Following Park and Judd (1990), perceptions of both group dispersion and group stereotypicality were examined. Accuracy was examined both by within-subject sensitivity correlations and by simple discrepancies between perceived and actual variability estimates. In-group-out-group differences in sensitivity were shown, particularly for judgments of stereotypicality. These differences were related to differences in the degree to which out-group variability is underestimated relative to in-group variability (i.e., the out-group homogeneity effect). Out-group stereotypicality judgments were overestimated, supporting the view that out-group stereotypes are overgeneralizations. Whether dispersion judgments were over- or underestimated depended on their measurement.     

The Stroop congruency effect is more observable under a speed strategy than an accuracy strategy

Naming the ink color of an incongruent color word (e.g., RED printed in green) usually takes longer than naming the ink color of a color bar. However, when the ink matches the word (e.g., RED printed in red), naming tends to be faster. These phenomena are known as the STroop interference effect and the Stroop congruency effect, respectively. Although the interference effect has been robust and reliable across studies, the congruency effect tends to be elusive. It was hypothesized that this variation in outcomes might be related to subjects' response strategy. The experiment conducted to test this hypothesis induced either a speed or an accuracy strategy in two separate groups of subjects. Significant interference effects were found for both groups and the magnitudes did not differ. At the same time, the congruency effect was observed in the speed group but not in the accuracy group. These results suggest that researchers who wish to observe and study the Stroop congruency and interference effects should place special emphasis on speed. Implications of the study for a model of the Stroop effect are also discussed.