Individual strategy preferences and decisional fit

The present research introduces the concept of decisional fit. A decision maker experiences decisional fit when the individually preferred decision strategy fits the actually applied strategy. In accordance to other fit‐concepts in psychology (e.g., person–environment fit), we expected positive effects of decisional fit. Five studies examine the effects of a fit between the individual preference for intuition and deliberation (PID) and the actually used decision strategy (intuition or deliberation). A comparison of extreme types (according to participants' values on the PID scale) revealed that decisional fit enhances the perceived value of the chosen or evaluated object (Studies 1–3). In Studies 4 and 5, participants experienced less regret after decisional fit. The findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences when comparing intuitive and deliberate decision making, because strategy preferences interact with applied strategies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Naturalization and employment integration of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands

This article deals with immigrants’ naturalization decisions and their effects on socioeconomic integration. The research questions are the following: Is cultural integration of immigrants positively related to naturalization? Does naturalization exert a positive influence on the employment integration of immigrants in the Netherlands? Using data from the ‘Social position and Use of Public Facilities by Migrants’ (SPVA) survey for the year 2002, we concentrate our analysis on Turks and Moroccans. The results of multivariate analyses indicate that naturalization of Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands is not positively related to cultural integration nor to employment integration. These unexpected findings can be explained by the Dutch rules on naturalization.     

γ-Hydroxybuttersäure (GHB) als K.O.-Mittel und sexuelle Delinquenz

Especially γ- Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB, ?Liquid Ecstasy“) and its precursors γ-Butyrolakton (GBL) and 1,4-Butandiol (BDO) which are transformed to GHB in humans, have been observed as knock-out substances with sexual offences. A low single dose GHB (adults about 1–2 g per os) to a person that is not used to take GHB can have a mild exhilarating, euphoric, anxiolytic, and relaxing effect. With increasing dosage (from 2,5 g) drowsiness, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, disorientation, agitation, myoclonia, and bradycardia will arouse. A dosage of 3–4 g per os (adults) results in consciousness and respiratory depression within minutes. A dosage of 4–5 g can cause a comatous state. In 2008 22 sexual offence cases with hints for the use of narcotics were examined in our toxicological laboratory: blood and urine samples in 11 cases, blood only in 7 cases, urine samples only in 4 cases. The average time interval between the offence and blood taking was 6.2 hrs, and between offence and giving an urine sample 14.6 hrs. A GHB concentration higher than the physiological level could not be detected in any of the cases. In 12 cases cannabinoides (n?=?7), amphetamine (n?=?2), cocaine (n?=?1), diazepam (n?=?3) as well as fluoxetin, citalopram, and dihydrocodein (n?=?1 each) could be detected. With a very short half life of GHB and its precursors a fast collecting of blood and urine is essential, when it is believed that GHB had been used. In these cases also a good and proper interview of the victim is of significant importance, especially concerning the phase of the intoxication as well as the recovery phase.     

Constraint, Alcoholism, and Electrodermal Response in Aversive Classical Conditioning and Mismatch Novelty Paradigms

This study investigated whether low levels of the personality trait of constraint and early-onset alcoholism would be associated with deficits in aversive conditioning and smaller responses to novelty in a stimulus mismatch protocol. Personality traits (constraint and socialization) and skin conductance responses (SCRs) during conditioning and novelty paradigms were assessed in alcoholics (n=41) and non-alcoholics (n = 32). The conditioning protocol involved measuring SCRs after conditioned stimuli (CS+: tones) paired with shock, CS- tones unpaired with shock, and CS+ probes unpaired with shock. The mismatch protocol involved measuring SCRs to auditory stimuli consisting of a series of 5 pure tones of the same pitch followed a shorter white noise stimulus (the novel stimulus). Contrary to the hypothesis, alcoholics did not differ from non-alcoholics in SCRs to CS+ probes or on the mismatch measure (SCR novel tone-SCR to 5th tone). Higher levels of constraint and self-reports of fear during conditioning were associated with smaller responses to both the CS+ probes and the CS- tones as well as the mismatch measure within non-alcoholics, but not within alcoholics. In alcoholics, low constraint was associated with greater habituation to CS+ probes, and poor differential conditioning on measures of change across trials in SCR to CS+ probes and CS- stimuli. The results suggest that different processes influence levels of constraint in non-alcoholics and alcoholics. The data indicate that low constraint in non-alcoholics is associated with allocating fewer processing resources to potentially significant stimuli, rather than being associated with a specific deficit in aversive conditioning per se.     

Reduced phonological similarity effects in patients with damage to the cerebellum

Ten cerebellar patients were compared to 10 control subjects on a verbal working memory task in which the phonological similarity of the words to be remembered and their modality of presentation were manipulated. Cerebellar patients demonstrated a reduction of the phonological similarity effect relative to controls. Further, this reduction did not depend systematically upon the presentation modality. These results first document that qualitative differences in verbal working memory may be observed following cerebellar damage, indicating altered cognitive processing, even though behavioral output as measured by the digit span may be within normal limits. However, the results also present problems for the hypothesis that the cerebellar role is specifically associated with articulatory rehearsal as conceptualized in the Baddeley-Hitch model of working memory.     

Modularity in musical processing: the automaticity of harmonic priming

Three experiments investigated the modularity of harmonic expectations that are based on cultural schemata despite the availability of more predictive veridical information. Participants were presented with prime-target chord pairs and made an intonation judgment about each target. Schematic expectation was manipulated by the combination of prime and target, with some transitions being schematically more probable than others. Veridical information in the form of prime-target previews, local transition probabilities, or valid versus invalid previews was also provided. Processing was facilitated when a schematically probable target chord followed the prime. Furthermore, this effect was independent of all manipulations of veridical expectation. A solution to L. B. Meyer's (1967b) query "On Rehearing Music" is suggested, in which schematic knowledge contributes to harmonic expectation in a modular manner regardless of whether any veridical knowledge exists.