The Selective Laziness of Reasoning

Reasoning research suggests that people use more stringent criteria when they evaluate others' arguments than when they produce arguments themselves. To demonstrate this “selective laziness,” we used a choice blindness manipulation. In two experiments, participants had to produce a series of arguments in response to reasoning problems, and they were then asked to evaluate other people's arguments about the same problems. Unknown to the participants, in one of the trials, they were presented with their own argument as if it was someone else's. Among those participants who accepted the manipulation and thus thought they were evaluating someone else's argument, more than half (56% and 58%) rejected the arguments that were in fact their own. Moreover, participants were more likely to reject their own arguments for invalid than for valid answers. This demonstrates that people are more critical of other people's arguments than of their own, without being overly critical: They are better able to tell valid from invalid arguments when the arguments are someone else's rather than their own.     

Stress modulates the use of spatial versus stimulus-response learning strategies in humans

Animal studies provided evidence that stress modulates multiple memory systems, favoring caudate nucleus-based "habit" memory over hippocampus-based "cognitive" memory. However, effects of stress on learning strategy and memory consolidation were not differentiated. We specifically address the effects of psychosocial stress on the applied learning strategy in humans. We designed a spatial learning task that allowed differentiating spatial from stimulus-response learning strategies during acquisition. In 13 subsequent trials, participants (88 male and female students) had to locate a "win" card out of four placed at a fixed location in a 3D model of a room. Relocating one cue in the last trial allowed inferring the applied learning strategy. Half of them participated first in the "Trier Social Stress Test." Salivary cortisol and heart rate measurements were taken. Stressed participants used a stimulus-response strategy significantly more often than controls. Subsequent verbal report revealed that spatial learners had a more complete awareness of response options than stimulus-response learners. Importantly, learning performance was not affected by stress. Taken together, stress prior to learning facilitated simple stimulus-response learning strategies in humans-at the expense of a more cognitive learning strategy. Depending on the context, we consider this as an adaptive response.     

Infant recall memory and communication predicts later cognitive development

This longitudinal study investigates the relation between recall memory and communication in infancy and later cognitive development. Twenty-six typically developing Swedish children were tested during infancy for deferred imitation (memory), joint attention (JA), and requesting (nonverbal communication); they also were tested during childhood for language and cognitive competence. Results showed that infants with low performance on both deferred imitation at 9 months and joint attention at 14 months obtained a significantly lower score on a test of cognitive abilities at 4 years of age. This long-term prediction from preverbal infancy to childhood cognition is of interest both to developmental theory and to practice.     

Older adolescents' positive attitudes toward younger adolescents as sexual partners

The prevalence of older adolescents' positive attitudes toward younger sexual partners was investigated through three measures of self-reported hypothetical likelihood of having sex with preadolescents and younger adolescents (LSA), using a school-based cluster sample of 710 Norwegian 18- to 19-year-olds attending nonvocational high schools in Oslo. Some likelihood of having sex with a preadolescent (less than 12 years of age) was reported by 5.9% of the males. The 19.1% of the males who indicated some likelihood of having sex with a 13- to 14-year old, compared to those who did not, reported more high-frequency drinking, more alcohol-related problems, earlier sexual initiation, more conduct problems, and poorer psychosocial adjustment. This subgroup also reported more high-frequency use of pornography, having more friends with an interest in child pornography and violent pornography, and greater use of coercion to obtain sexual favors.     

Clinical significance methods: a comparison of statistical techniques

Clinically significant change refers to meaningful change in individual patient functioning during psychotherapy. Following the operational definition of clinically significant change offered by Jacobson, Follette, and Revenstorf (1984), several alternatives have been proposed because they were thought to be either more accurate or more sensitive to detecting meaningful change. In this study, we compared five methods using a sample of 386 outpatients who underwent treatment in routine clinical practice. Differences were found between methods, suggesting that the statistical method used to calculate clinical significance has an effect on estimates of meaningful change. The Jacobson method (Jacobson & Truax, 1991) provided a moderate estimate of treatment effects and was recommended for use in outcome studies and research on clinically significant change, but future research is needed to validate this statistical method.     

Psychosocial Factors Associated with Quality of Life Among Individuals Attending Genetic Counseling for Hereditary Cancer

The aim of this multicenter study was to explore associations between psychosocial factors (general self-efficacy, perceived availability of social support, cancer-related distress) and health-related quality of life, among individuals at risk for hereditary cancer. One-hundred and twenty one participants with a family history of breast-cancer or colorectal cancer answered a questionnaire 2-4 weeks prior to genetic counseling. The two dimensions of the health-related quality of life measure, mental and physical health were both used as outcome variables. Multiple regression (linear) analyses revealed that increasing degrees of cancer-related distress was related to decreasing degrees of mental health whereas increasing degrees of self-efficacy and social support were related to increasing degrees of this outcome variable. Self-efficacy, self-esteem support and tangible aid seemed to moderate the relationship between cancer-related distress and mental health. These results suggest that self-efficacy and certain resources of social support buffer the negative association between cancer-related distress and mental health, and might be suitable for interventional efforts. Implications for genetic counseling practice are discussed.