Highlighting the difference between approach and avoidance motivation enhances the predictive validity of performance-avoidance goal reports

Motivation and Emotion - This research investigated whether highlighting the difference between norm-based approach and avoidance motivation impacts performance goal reporting accuracy....     

Relational judgments with remembered stimuli

Two experiments investigating the effect of the direction of a relational judgment on the speed of the judgment are reported. In both experiments, college students required more time to select the smaller of a pair of large animals than to select the larger. Conversely, the smaller of a pair of small animals was selected more quickly than was the larger. The magnitude of this “cross-over effect” was fully graded, increasing regularly with extremity, but the variability of the response times in each direction was unrelated to extremity. Individual animals were classified as “small” or “large” with almost perfect consistency. This pattern of results is used to evaluate several models of relational judgment; of these, the congruency model is shown to be inconsistent with these data.

     

Psychobiology of altered states of consciousness

The article reviews the current knowledge regarding altered states of consciousness (ASC) (a) occurring spontaneously, (b) evoked by physical and physiological stimulation, (c) induced by psychological means, and (d) caused by diseases. The emphasis is laid on psychological and neurobiological approaches. The phenomenological analysis of the multiple ASC resulted in 4 dimensions by which they can be characterized: activation, awareness span, self-awareness, and sensory dynamics. The neurophysiological approach revealed that the different states of consciousness are mainly brought about by a compromised brain structure, transient changes in brain dynamics (disconnectivity), and neurochemical and metabolic processes. Besides these severe alterations, environmental stimuli, mental practices, and techniques of self-control can also temporarily alter brain functioning and conscious experience.     

Infantile handling and the facilitation of discrimination and reversal learning

One group of rats was removed from their home cage and received daily handling from Days 3-21, while the control group of litter mates remained in the cage and did not receive any treatment. On Day 22 all rats were weaned and they were housed in individual cages until they were 60 days old. After two pretraining days, subjects were given daily blocks of one free and three forced trials in the T-maze and were rewarded with food after making the correct response. Following 20 days of training and testing on black-white discrimination, subjects were given 10 days of reversal training with four daily trials. Results indicate that the handled animals showed faster running and a greater number of correct choices than the control rats during both the acquisition and reversal learning phases of the experiment.     

Prevalence of dual diagnosis in an institution for individuals who are developmentally handicapped

The prevalence of dual diagnosis (developmental handicap with accompanying mental illness) was examined in a population of 71 persons who are institutionalized and developmentally handicapped. The Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior (Reiss, 1988) revealed that 69% of the popula- tion had a dual diagnosis. The incidence of dual diagnosis was not related to level of functioning, although the type of psychopathology varied considerably across levels of functioning. In contrast to findings from the Reiss Screen, previous psychiatric diagnosis indicated a much lower rate of dual diagnosis (26.8%), as did current psychiatric assessment. There was little agreement between the two psychiatric assessments, or between the Reiss Screen and the psychiatric assessments. The Reiss Screen appears to provide information of more practical value for community placement decisions than is provided by the psychiatric assessments. Limitations to the concept of ?dual diagnosis’? for characterizing the mental health needs of persons with a developmental handicap are discussed.     

Protecting Against Misleading Post‐event Information with a Self‐Administered Interview

Two studies investigated whether an early recall opportunity, in the form of a self‐administered interview (SAI), reduced forgetting and protected against the negative consequences of post‐event misinformation. In both studies, participants viewed a simulated crime on DVD after which half immediately recorded their statement by using the SAI, whereas control participants did not have an immediate recall opportunity. Following a delay, participants were presented with misinformation encountered either in a misleading news report (Study 1) or in the form of misleading cued‐recall questions (Study 2). Results showed that participants who had completed a SAI after witnessing an event were significantly less prone to forgetting and significantly more resistant to the negative consequences of misinformation. The SAI was able to protect both the quantity and quality of information about a previously witnessed event. Applied implications are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recoding and representation in artificial grammar learning

We apply an exemplar model of memory to explain performance in the artificial grammar task. The model blends the convolution-based method for representation developed in Jones and Mewhort’s BEAGLE model of semantic memory (Psychological Review 114:1–37, 2007) with the storage and retrieval assumptions in Hintzman’s MINERVA 2 model of episodic memory (Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 16:96–101, 1984). The model captures differences in encoding to fit data from two experiments that document the influence of encoding on implicit learning. We provide code so that researchers can adapt the model and techniques to their own experiments.