Cerebral asymmetry in the perception of American sign language.

American Sign Language (ASL) offers a valuable opportunity for the study of cerebral asymmetries, since it incorporates both language structure and complex spatial relations: processing the former has generally been considered a left-hemisphere function, the latter, a right-hemisphere one. To study such asymmetries, congenitally deaf, native ASL users and normally-hearing English speakers unfamiliar with ASL were asked to identify four kinds of stimuli: signs from ASL, handshapes never used in ASL, Arabic digits, and random geometric forms. Stimuli were presented tachistoscopically to a visual hemifield and subjects manually responded as rapidly as possible to specified targets. Both deaf and hearing subjects showed left-visual-field (hence, presumably right-hemisphere) advantages to the signs and to the non-ASL hands. The hearing subjects, further, showed a left-hemisphere advantage to the Arabic numbers, while the deaf subjects showed no reliable visual-field differences to this material. We infer that the spatial processing required of the signs predominated over their language processing in determining the cerebral asymmetry of the deaf for these stimuli.     

Minimizing Bias and Maximizing the Potential Strengths of Autoethnography as a Narrative Research

Up to the current time, psychology has provided very limited space for qualitative research to contribute to the discipline, even though psychology has a lot to do with subjectivity and intersubjectivity in its work. This article discusses autoethnography, which by some qualitative researchers is still being debated. The author argues that autoethnography contains strong narrative components or analysis with potential contribution to provide new understanding and to build knowledge. The article discusses criticisms against autoethnography, followed by its distinctive characteristics, which at the same time bring significant potential power. Clear guidelines and steps are needed to minimize biases and to bring about the potential power of autoethnography, and this article aims to address the issues through discussions on intersubjectivity, reflexivity, and ethics. At the end, it might be concluded that autoethnography is a method to investigate not merely the researchers, but to reveal certain phenomena and issues. Autoethnography is one good alternative among other methods that can contribute to developing understanding and knowledge through the construction of substantive theories about a particular issue.     

Social cognitive theory and cancer patients' quality of life: a meta-analysis of psychosocial intervention components.

Social cognitive theory (SC) provides a theoretical framework to evaluate improved quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes through interventions with cancer patients To assess whether inclusion of SCT components predicted better outcomes, focused comparisons were used to integrate results from 38 randomized studies. Interventions with more SCT components had significantly larger effect sizes than studies with fewer or no SCT components for the overall analysis (Z = 3.72, p < .01). Subanalyses of affective, social, objective physical outcome, and specific QOL measures revealed that SCT-based interventions had significantly higher effect sizes; inclusion of SCT components resulted in significantly lower effect sizes on subjective physical and functional outcomes. Results suggest that using SCT-based interventions maximizes improvement in overall QOL outcomes for adult cancer patients.     

Smoking cessation: social comparison level predicts success for adult smokers.

The affiliation preferences of 151 adult heavy smokers who joined smoking cessation groups were assessed at the 1st group session and were then used to predict their smoking status 6 and 12 months later. Those who preferred to be in groups with other smokers who were having relatively little trouble quitting were more likely to be successful than were those who preferred others who were having more difficulty quitting. This prospective effect was mediated by psychological distancing from the image of the typical smoker: Preference for others who were doing well was associated with a decrease in perceived similarity to the typical smoker, which, in turn, was associated with successful cessation. Implications of these findings for cessation groups and social comparison theory are discussed.     

Using UV photography to reduce use of tanning booths: a test of cognitive mediation.

Two laboratory studies were conducted in which a new type of intervention was used to reduce ultraviolet radiation (UV) exposure from tanning booth use among college students (Time 1 Ns=70 and 134). The intervention uses UV photography to highlight the damage to facial skin caused by previous UV exposure. When the authors controlled for baseline measures of booth use, students in both studies who viewed their UV photographs reported less booth use at a follow-up session 3-4 weeks later than did students not shown a copy of their photograph. Also, in both studies, the decline in use was significantly mediated by a Tanning Cognition Index composed of variables suggested by the prototype-willingness (prototype) model of health risk: tanning attitudes, tanner prototypes, and willingness to engage in risky UV exposure.     

Emotional mood states and retrieval in episodic memory

The effect of an experimentally induced depressed mood state on recall of target words embedded in sentences was examined. The objective was to determine if the induction of a depressed mood can affect output or retrieval from episodic memory. The experimental sequence was as follows: All subjects studied a list of either elaborated or base sentences, rating them for complexity, in an incidental retention paradigm; this was followed by the induction of a depressed or neutral (control) mood, using a standard and a short form of the Velten mood induction procedure; finally, subjects were given an unanticipated cued recall test of the target adjectives. In all tests, subjects showed a reduction in recall owing to the depressed mood, which provided evidence for retrieval effects of the mood state. Elaboration led to superior recall of target items, and there was no effect of delayed recall. The results are briefly discussed within the framework of a resource allocation theory.     

Initial validation of the trust of automated systems test (TOAST)

ABSTRACT

Trust is a key determinant of whether people rely on automated systems in the military and the public. However, there is currently no standard for measuring trust in automated systems. In the present studies, we propose a scale to measure trust in automated systems that is grounded in current research and theory on trust formation, which we refer to as the Trust in Automated Systems Test (TOAST). We evaluated both the reliability of the scale structure and criterion validity using independent, military-affiliated and civilian samples. In both studies we found that the TOAST exhibited a two-factor structure, measuring system understanding and performance (respectively), and that factor scores significantly predicted scores on theoretically related constructs demonstrating clear criterion validity. We discuss the implications of our findings for advancing the empirical literature and in improving interface design.