Aging and conditional probability judgments: a global matching approach

Age differences in bias in conditional probability judgments were investigated based on predictions derived from the Minerva-Decision Making model (M. R. P. Dougherty, C. F. Gettys, & E. E. Ogden, 1999), a global matching model of likelihood judgment. In this study, 248 younger and older adults completed frequency judgment and conditional probability judgment tasks. Age differences in the frequency judgment task are interpreted as an age-related deficit in memory encoding. Older adults' stronger biases in the probability judgment task point to age differences in criterion setting. Age-related biases were eliminated when age groups were equated on memory encoding by means of study time manipulation. The authors conclude that older adults' stronger judgment biases are a function of memory impairment.     

Do chickens (Gallus gallus f. domestica) decompose visual figures?

To investigate whether learning to discriminate between visual compound stimuli depends on decomposing them into constituting features, hens were first trained to discriminate four features (red, green, horizontal, vertical) from two dimensions (colour, line orientation). After acquisition, hens were trained with compound stimuli made up from these dimensions in two ways: a separable (line on a coloured background) stimulus and an integral one (coloured line). This compound training included a reversal of reinforcement of only one of the two dimensions (half-reversal). After having achieved the compound stimulus discrimination, a second dimensional training identical to the first was performed. Finally, in the second compound training the other dimension was reversed. Two major results were found: (1) an interaction between the dimension reversed and the type of compound stimulus: in compound training with colour reversal, separable compound stimuli were discriminated worse than integral compounds and vice versa in compound training with line orientation reversed. (2) Performance in the second compound training was worse than in the first one. The first result points to a similar mode of processing for separable and integral compounds, whereas the second result shows that the whole stimulus is psychologically superior to its constituting features. Experiment 2 repeated experiment 1 using line orientation stimuli of reversed line and background brightness. Nevertheless, the results were similar to experiment 1. Results are discussed in the framework of a configural exemplar theory of discrimination that assumes the representation of the whole stimulus situation combined with transfer based on a measure of overall similarity.     

Immediate spatial distortions of pointing movements induced by visual landmarks

We tested the influence of two horizontally aligned visual landmarks on pointing movements to memorized targets, to investigate whether the visuomotor system can make use of an egocentric representation unaffected by visual context. The endpoints of pointing movements were systematically distorted toward the nearest visual landmark, indicating that spatial representations included both target and nontarget information. These distortions were not due to the presence of the landmarks during the movement but, rather, to their presence in the encoding phase. Qualitatively similar distortions were present even with the shortest possible retention phase, when the target was extinguished at movement onset. Finally, we found the same pattern of distortion when participants were forced to remember the target within an allocentric frame of reference. We argue that even early memory representations for pointing movements are influenced by visual information in the surrounding visual field.     

Discrete emotions and persuasion: the role of emotion-induced expectancies

The authors argue that specific emotions can alter the persuasive impact of messages as a function of the emotional framing of persuasive appeals. Because specific emotions inflate expectancies for events possessing matching emotional overtones (D. DeSteno, R. E. Petty, D. T. Wegener, & D. D. Rucker, 2000), the authors predicted that attempts at persuasion would be more successful when messages were framed with emotional overtones matching the emotional state of the receiver and that these changes would be mediated by emotion-induced biases involving expectancies attached to arguments contained in the messages. Two studies manipulating discrete negative emotional states and message frames (i.e., sadness and anger) confirmed these predictions. The functioning of this emotion-matching bias in parallel with emotion-induced processing differences and the limitations of a valence-based approach to the study of attitude change are also considered.     

Functional analysis and treatment of self-injurious behavior in young children a summary of 30 cases

The assessment and treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB) has received much attention in the literature; however, few studies have focused on early intervention for this behavior. In the current study, functional analyses with developmentally appropriate modifications were conducted in an outpatient clinic with 30 children (aged 10 months to 4 years 11 months) to assess SIB and problem behavior in its early stages. The reported mean age of SIB onset was 17 months, and head banging was the most prevalent topography. Functional analyses identified sources of reinforcement for SIB in 62.1% of cases; with the inclusion of all forms of problem behavior, sources of reinforcement were identified for 87.5% of cases. Function-based treatments were developed for 24 cases, with functional communication training prescribed most often (70.8% of cases). Implications of these findings for the development of early intervention programs for SIB are discussed.     

Tightness shifts in the U.S. and China: Implications of tightening or loosening norms during the coronavirus pandemic

Emergent research identifies cultural tightness-looseness as an important factor for understanding cross-national outcome differences during the coronavirus pandemic. Because perceived tightness-looseness can be measured as an individual-level difference rather than a nation-level difference, and because tightness-looseness may shift during large-scale crises, we investigated whether such shifts occurred early in the coronavirus pandemic in both China (a relatively tight nation, n = 3642) and the U.S. (a relatively loose nation, n = 3583) across three cohorts. Tightness increased across cohorts in China and reduced across cohorts in the U.S. These changes transmitted corresponding indirect effects whereby compliance and institutional trust (scientific and government) about the pandemic were increased in China across cohorts, but decreased in the U.S. across cohorts. These patterns extend advice that national governments can increase compliance and trust via “tightening” by cautioning against norm-setters signaling the reverse (that norms about compliance are loose) given the outcomes observed in the U.S. samples.     

Models of Development: Understanding Risk in Adolescence

In this paper, we review developmental models for understanding adolescence as they might be applied to emerging sexuality and the challenges and risks that may be associated with different sexual orientations and identities. Models have been identified as: cumulative events or simultaneous change, accentuation, or trajectory models. Inclusion of risk and protective factors and considering the extent of balance between these elements of an adolescent's life is also discussed in terms of predicting mental health outcomes. These models have been particularly useful in the study of the development of psychopathology and clearly relate to the broader issue of understanding suicide risk during adolescence.     

Beyond perception: synaesthesia as a psycholinguistic phenomenon

Synaesthesia has been described as a perceptual phenomenon that creates a 'merging of senses'. Therefore, academic treatments have focused primarily on its sensory characteristics and similarities with veridical perception. This approach has dominated, despite parallel work that has suggested conceptual influences are involved, including data that show a large number of synaesthetic variants are triggered by linguistic symbols (e.g. words). These variants are the focus of a novel subfield that applies psycholinguistic methodology to the study of linguistic synaesthesias. This approach is redefining notions of synaesthesia and of the interplay between perceptual and non-perceptual systems, in addition to informing general theories of language. This review examines the emergent field of linguistic synaesthesia research and the broad range of linguistic mechanisms that are implicated.