From the interpersonal to the international: understanding commitment to the "war on terror"

Applying constructs from the investment model used traditionally to understand interpersonal commitment, the present investigation seeks to elucidate social cognitive antecedents of commitment to the war on terror waged by the United States. In Study 1, satisfaction with, investments in, and alternatives to the war on terror predict levels of commitment to the war beyond several important control variables. In Study 2, levels of satisfaction with, investments in, and alternatives to the war are experimentally manipulated. The highest levels of commitment to the war are observed among participants exposed to a high satisfaction, high investment, and low alternatives scenario, and the lowest levels are among those exposed to a low satisfaction, low investment, and high alternatives scenario. These results support broadening the targets of commitment normally considered within the context of the investment model and suggest applying relational models to understanding broader societal concerns.     

Colour, world and archimedean metaphysics: stroud and the quest for reality

This paper proposes a fundamentally opposite conception of the possibility of metaphysics to that of Barry Stroud in The Quest for Reality and other writings. I discuss Stroud’s views on everyday ‚truth’ and metaphysics (Section 1), on interpretation (Section 2 – replying with a theory of ‚quasi-understanding’), and his ‚no threat’ claim (Section 3). But the main argument (Section 4) is a response to Stroud’s claim that we have no right either to affirm or to deny the metaphysical reality of colours. Stroud’s view resembles Carnap’s (1950, Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4, 20–40), that experience can in some sense never settle the metaphysical issue between e.g. materialism, idealism and phenomenalism; though we can allow everyday ‚knowledge’ e.g. that there is a fallen tree in the garden outside, as something available on all three views. (Carnap takes the undecidability as a sign that the metaphysical issue is a pseudo-question; Stroud insists it is factual, but places it beyond our ken, ‚external’.) I argue, instead, that metaphysical argument is possible from within our conceptual scheme and epistemic situation (as in Gareth Evans’s arguments for realism over phenomenalism); that ‚external’ and ‚internal’ questions cannot be separated as Stroud wishes; and that if we really were denied knowledge on ‚metaphysical’ matters, that would infect our right to claim knowledge of ‚observational’ matters too. And I sketch a theory of colour that would allow us to conclude (at once ‚metaphysically’ and ‚internally’) that things are indeed ‚really’ coloured. For all his expressions of sympathy for Wittgenstein, Stroud’s metaphysics is remarkably Cartesian.     

How is spatial context learning integrated over signal versus noise? A primacy effect in contextual cueing

Over repeated exposure to particular visual search displays, subjects are able to implicitly extract regularities that then make search more efficient-a phenomenon known as contextual cueing. Here we explore how the learning involved in contextual cueing is formed, maintained, and updated over experience. During an initial training phase, a group of signal first subjects searched through a series of predictive displays (where distractor locations were perfectly correlated with the target location), followed with no overt break by a series of unpredictive displays (where repeated contexts were uncorrelated with target locations). A second noise first group of subjects encountered the unpredictive displays followed by the predictive displays. Despite the fact that both groups had the same overall exposure to signal and noise, only the signal first group demonstrated subsequent contextual cueing. This primacy effect indicates that initial experience can result in hypotheses about regularities in displays-or the lack thereof-which then become resistant to updating. The absence of regularities in early stages of training even blocked observers from learning predictive regularities later on.     

On the relation between the acquisition of singular-plural morpho-syntax and the conceptual distinction between one and more than one

We investigated the relationship between the acquisition of singular-plural morpho-syntax and children's representation of the distinction between singular and plural sets. Experiment 1 tested 18-month-olds using the manual-search paradigm and found that, like 14-month-olds (Feigenson & Carey, 2005), they distinguished three objects from one but not four objects from one. Thus, they failed to represent four objects as 'plural' or 'more than one'. Experiment 2 found that children continued to fail at the 1 vs. 4 manual-search task at 20 months of age, even when told, via explicit morpho-syntactic singular-plural cues, that one or many balls are being hidden. However, 22- and 24-month-olds succeeded both with and without verbal cues. Parental report data indicated that most 22- and 24-month-olds, but few 20-month-olds, had begun producing plural nouns in their speech. Also, the success among the older children was due to those children who had reportedly begun producing plural nouns. We discuss a possible role for language acquisition in children's deployment of set-based quantification and the distinction between singular and plural sets.     

Visual attention as a predictor of on-road driving performance of older drivers

With increasing numbers of older drivers on Australian roads, it is important to determine the functional abilities most closely related to driving ability among older adults. To this end, 90 drivers aged from 60 to 91 completed a battery of psychological, visual, physical and cognitive tests, and a standardised on-road driving test. A computerised test of visual attention, devised specifically for the study, was the best predictor of on-road driving performance. Other abilities that made independent contributions to the prediction of driving performance were contrast sensitivity and visuospatial memory. These functional abilities provided a better prediction of driving performance than chronological age, reinforcing the argument that drivers should only have their driving tested when their functional abilities decline, rather than when they reach a particular age.     

The acute effects of nicotine on positive and negative affect in adolescent smokers

Although adolescent cigarette smoking remains a critical public health concern, little is known about the reinforcing mechanisms governing smoking in this vulnerable population. To assess predictions derived from both positive and negative reinforcement models of drug use, the authors measured the acute effects of nicotine, as administered via tobacco cigarettes, on both positive and negative affect in a group of 15- to 18-year-old smokers. A matched group of nonsmokers served as a comparison group. Findings revealed that whereas adolescents who smoked a cigarette experienced reductions in both positive and negative affect, the observed reductions in negative affect were moderated by nicotine content of the cigarette (high yield vs. denicotinized), level of nicotine dependence, level of baseline craving, and smoking expectancies pertinent to negative affect regulation. Nonsmokers experienced no change in affect over the 10-min assessment period, and no interaction effects were observed for positive affect. Overall, the findings conform to a negative reinforcement model of nicotine effects and strongly suggest that, even among young light smokers, nicotine dependence and resultant withdrawal symptomatology may serve as motivating factors governing smoking behavior.     

Effects of anger suppression on pain severity and pain behaviors among chronic pain patients: evaluation of an ironic process model

OBJECTIVE: Evidence for links between anger inhibition or suppression and chronic pain severity is based mostly on studies with correlation designs. Following from ironic process theory, we proposed that attempts to suppress angry thoughts during provocation would increase subsequent pain intensity among chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients, and do so through paradoxically enhanced accessibility of anger. DESIGN: CLBP patients (N = 58) were assigned to suppression and nonsuppression conditions while performing a computer maze task with a harassing confederate. A structured pain behavior task (SPBT) followed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported anger, anxiety, and sadness following maze task. Self-reported pain severity and number of observed pain behaviors during SPBT. RESULTS: Patients told to suppress during provocation: (a) reported greater anger following the maze task, reported greater pain intensity during the SPBT, and exhibited more pain behaviors than patients not suppressing; (b) postmaze anger levels significantly mediated group differences on pain behaviors. CONCLUSION: Attempts by CLBP patients to suppress anger may aggravate pain related to their clinical condition through ironically increased feelings of anger.     

Coparenting Experiences in African American Families: An Examination of Single Mothers and their Nonmarital Coparents

African American youth from single‐mother homes continue to be overrepresented in statistics on risk behavior and delinquency, a trend that many be attributed to father‐absence, socioeconomic disadvantage, and compromises in parenting more typical of single than two‐parent families. Yet, this risk‐focused perspective ignores a long‐standing strength of the African American community, the involvement and potential protective impact of extended family members in childrearing. This study describes the experiences of 95 African American single mothers and their nonmarital coparents who participated in a study of African American single‐mother families with an 11–16‐year‐old child. Specifically, the study examines: (a) the extent to which nonmarital coparents are involved in childrearing; (b) the relative levels of risk (i.e., depression, mother–coparent conflict) and protective (i.e., parenting) associated with maternal and coparent involvement; and (c) how similarly and/or differently coparent and mother variables operate with regard to youth externalizing problems. Findings reveal that a range of family members and other adults actively participate in childrearing in African American single‐mother families, coparents do not differ from mothers on certain study variables (i.e., depression and mother–coparent conflict) but do for others (parenting), and coparent involvement is associated with youth adjustment in ways that are similar to our more established understanding of maternal involvement. The potential clinical implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions are highlighted.