The role of syllables in anagram solution: a Rasch analysis

Anagrams are frequently used by experimental psychologists interested in how the mental lexicon is organized. Until very recently, research has overlooked the importance of syllable structure in solving anagrams and assumed that solution difficulty was mainly due to frequency factors (e.g., bigram statistics). The present study uses Rasch analysis to demonstrate that the number of syllables is a very important factor influencing anagram solution difficulty for both good and poor problem solvers, with polysyllabic words being harder to solve. Furthermore, it suggests that syllable frequency may have an impact on solution times for polysyllabic words, with more frequent syllables being more difficult to solve. The study illustrates the advantages of Rasch analysis for reliable and unidimensional measurement of item difficulty.     

Compensatory cognition associated with egalitarian goals

Two experiments examine nonconscious processes that facilitate pursuing egalitarian goals. It was hypothesized that when working on a task not known to be relevant to egalitarian goals there is heightened ability to detect opportunities to goal pursuit (goal-relevant people) embedded in the task, even when they are best ignored for optimal performance. Further, this selective attention should cease when the goal is sated, despite increased semantic accessibility of these opportunities that results from satiation. Experiment one introduced egalitarian goals via writing an essay about failing to be egalitarian to Black men. Next, an ostensibly unrelated task presented Black and White men in an array of faces as distracters to a focal task. Task performance was disrupted only by arrays containing Black men, and only among participants primed with egalitarian goals. This was not due to increased semantic accessibility of the concept “Black men.” Experiment two had all participants write failure essays and then write second essays. Half wrote affirming essays about egalitarianism and Black men. Despite this increased semantic accessibility of the group “Black men,” distracted attention was not evidenced. Instead, the goal had been satisfied and goal pursuit shut down. In contrast, the remaining participants wrote affirming essays in an irrelevant domain. Despite the decreased semantic accessibility, goal accessibility remained and was evidenced by selective attention to Black men. These findings reveal Black men are associated not with stereotypes, but egalitarian goals. They also point to the role goal completion versus self affirmation play in goal pursuit.     

Thanks for asking: Self-affirming questions reduce backlash when stigmatized targets confront prejudice

Two experiments tested the prediction that stigmatized individuals can avoid backlash when they confront others about bias if they first ask questions designed to activate self-affirmation processes. Experiment 1 showed that compared to a no-strategy control condition, highly prejudiced perceivers tended to express less desire to meet an Arab-American when he asked them to take his perspective on prejudice, but they expressed more desire to meet him when he asked self-affirming questions prior to making the perspective-taking request. Experiment 2 replicated this effect with a different affirmation and revealed that asking self-affirming questions reduced perceptions that the target was being confrontational when asking others to take his perspective. Together, these studies show that stigmatized targets can effectively challenge prejudiced individuals to reduce their biases if they first use a subtle strategy that reduces defensiveness.     

Negatively biased emotion perception in depression as a contributing factor to psychological aggression perpetration: a preliminary study

Based on research linking depressive symptoms and intimate partner aggression perpetration with negatively biased perception of social stimuli, the present authors examined biased perception of emotional expressions as a mechanism in the frequently observed relationship between depression and psychological aggression perpetration. In all, 30 university students made valence ratings (negative to positive) of emotional facial expressions and completed measures of depressive symptoms and psychological aggression perpetration. As expected, depressive symptoms were positively associated with psychological aggression perpetration in an individual's current relationship, and this relationship was mediated by ratings of negative emotional expressions. These findings suggest that negatively biased perception of emotional expressions within the context of elevated depressive symptoms may represent an early stage of information processing that leads to aggressive relationship behaviors.     

I'm outgoing and she's reserved: the reciprocal dynamics of personality in close friendships in young adulthood

Close college-age friendships provide differential opportunities for reinforcing dispositional tendencies and fostering accommodation or change. This finding was obtained from a cross-sectional study of 66 pairs of same-sex college-age friends (58% female). Each pair of friends was extreme and either very similar or different with regard to extraversion-introversion. Interviews with each friend were analyzed for references to each other's role in various friendship domains, including the setting of the friendship and position with regard to chatting, disclosing, expressing opinions about peers, and energizing the friendship. Matched friends mutually reinforced each other's similar dispositional tendencies. Friends with contrasting personalities showed patterns of personality accommodation as well as complementary reinforcement. Implications are discussed for embedding reciprocal theories of personality development in close friendships.     

Target adjustment and self-other agreement: utilizing trait observability to disentangle judgeability and self-knowledge

Are well-adjusted individuals good targets or accurate self-judges? Across two round-robin studies, the current research first demonstrates that well-adjusted individuals' personalities are viewed with greater distinctive self-other agreement by new acquaintances. Is this enhanced self-other agreement a function of greater judgeability, improving others' ability to form an accurate impression? Or is it a function of greater self-knowledge, having a more accurate impression about oneself? By examining the relationship between psychological adjustment and self-other agreement as a function of trait observability, it becomes clear that psychological adjustment fosters self-other agreement through judgeability more so than through self-knowledge. Specifically, well-adjusted individuals provide new acquaintances with greater information regarding their less observable traits, enhancing others' knowledge and thus distinctive self-other agreement. This effect was replicated with close informant-other agreement, indicating that the well-adjusted individual's tendency to make his or her less visible traits more accessible to others allows those who just met the target to agree better with people who know the target well. In sum, although well-adjusted individuals are in part good self-judges, it is their greater judgeability that seems most critical in enhancing self-other agreement in first impressions.     

Behavioral Inhibition and Anxiety: The Moderating Roles of Inhibitory Control and Attention Shifting

Behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament identified in early childhood, is associated with social reticence in childhood and an increased risk for anxiety problems in adolescence and adulthood. However, not all behaviorally inhibited children remain reticent or develop an anxiety disorder. One possible mechanism accounting for the variability in the developmental trajectories of BI is a child’s ability to successfully recruit cognitive processes involved in the regulation of negative reactivity. However, separate cognitive processes may differentially moderate the association between BI and later anxiety problems. The goal of the current study was to examine how two cognitive processes—attention shifting and inhibitory control—laboratory assessed at 48 months of age moderated the association between 24-month BI and anxiety symptoms in the preschool years. Results revealed that high levels of attention shifting decreased the risk for anxiety problems in children with high levels of BI, whereas high levels of inhibitory control increased this risk for anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that different cognitive processes may influence relative levels of risk or adaptation depending upon a child’s temperamental reactivity.     

Test-induced priming impairs source monitoring accuracy in the DRM procedure

Three experiments investigated the effects of test-induced priming (TIP) on false recognition in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott procedure (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). In Experiment 1, TIP significantly increased false recognition for participants who made old/new decisions at test but not for participants who made remember/know judgments or were given diagnostic information to help them avoid false recognition. In Experiment 2, a TIP effect was observed with old/new recognition but not when participants were required to remember whether study items were spoken by a male or a female speaker. In Experiment 3, false recognition increased when critical lures were preceded by 10 studied items but not when preceded by 5 studied and 5 unstudied items from the same list. These findings suggest that TIP increases false recognition by disrupting source monitoring processes.     

Ageism,Sensation-Seeking,and Risk-Taking Behavior in Young Adults

The research investigated the relationships among ageism, sensation-seeking, and risk-taking in young adults. Recent research has shown that young adults reporting higher levels of ageist attitudes and ageist behaviors also report higher levels of risk-taking in daily life than those with less ageist attitudes and behaviors (Popham et al. in press). The results are consistent with terror management theory; young adults may attempt to buffer their death anxiety by seeking out experiences that make them feel strong and invulnerable (i.e., taking risks). In contrast, prior research has shown that there is a link between risk-taking and sensation-seeking and that individuals may be biologically predisposed to be high sensation-seekers (Zuckerman Behavioural and Brain Sciences 7:413–471, 1984; Neuropsychobiology 13:121–128, 1985). In a study with 475 undergraduates, we investigated the relationships among ageism, sensation-seeing, and risk-taking behavior. The results showed that ageist behavior and two dimensions of sensation-seeking (i.e., Disinhibition and Experience Seeking) were significant predictors of risk-taking. Implications for practical approaches to reduce risk-taking in young adults are discussed.     

Is the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program Acceptable to Parents from Culturally Diverse Backgrounds?

Behavioural parenting programs are an effective intervention for behavioural and emotional problems in children, however these programs have low utilisation rates by culturally diverse parents. We examined the cultural acceptability of program materials, preferences for delivery methods, and barriers to use of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program. One hundred and thirty seven parents watched a video outlining the 17 strategies in Triple P and read through a tip sheet before completing a series of questionnaires. Results revealed that parents found the strategies highly acceptable, highly useful, were very likely to use the strategies and reported currently using the strategies often. They also rated the program materials as very culturally appropriate and identified group, seminar, television, and individual as the most preferred delivery methods. Parents identified location and timing of services, financial cost, and competing work commitments as the most frequently cited barriers to accessing a parenting intervention. The findings of this study suggest that elements of parenting programs may not be contributing to the low rates of access among culturally diverse parents. These findings highlight the need for more research addressing variables that may contribute to increasing culturally diverse parents’ access of behavioural parenting programs.