Digitally manipulating memory: Effects of doctored videos and imagination in distorting beliefs and memories

In prior research on false autobiographical beliefs and memories, subjects have been asked to imagine fictional events and have been exposed to false evidence that indicates that the fictional events occurred. But what are the relative contributions of imagination and false evidence toward false belief and memory construction? In the present study, subjects observed and copied various simple actions; then they viewed doctored videos that suggested that they had performed extra actions and they imagined performing some of those and some other actions. Subjects returned 2 weeks later for a memory test. False evidence or imagination alone was often sufficient to cause belief and memory distortions; in combination, they appeared to have additive or even superadditive effects. The results bear on the mechanisms underlying false beliefs and memories, and we propose legal and clinical applications of these findings.     

Goal agreement and relationship quality among college students and their parents

Two hundred eight parent–college student dyads (total N = 416) participated in the current study, which examined the link between goal agreement and perceived conflict within their relationships. Undergraduate participants (91 male, 117 female) completed a demographic form, a 65 items goal measure, and a measure of parental conflict. Parents (98 fathers, 110 mothers) were asked to rate the importance of the same 65 goals for their emerging adult children. College students tended to place more importance on independence, affect control, health, social relationships, and financial concern goals than their parents did, whereas parents placed more importance on moral and religious goals than their emerging adult children did. However, relative goal agreement between parents and college students was found to be moderately high. Those parent–college student dyads who experienced less conflict tended to have higher goal agreement, whereas those dyads with a higher level of conflict had lower goal agreement. These findings provide further evidence for the link between interpersonal relationships and the personality construct of goals.     

How Do I Know if I Need a Hearing Aid? Further Support for the Self‐Categorisation Approach to Symptom Perception

This paper extends the self-categorisation model of symptom perception to predict that people aged 50 years and over will report higher levels of hearing handicap when they categorise themselves as members of a group of older people. This prediction is supported with an opportunity sample ( N  = 50; mean age = 63 years) who completed a questionnaire designed to screen for hearing handicap in "the elderly" ( sic ). Participants also underwent pure-tone audiometry, which confirmed that the observed difference in hearing handicap was not attributable to any difference in hearing threshold level. Hence these findings offer further support for the self-categorisation model of symptom perception. Their theoretical, clinical, and methodological implications together with possible therapeutic applications of self-categorisation theory to auditory rehabilitation of older people are discussed.     

Comparing Japanese International College Students' and U.S. College Students' Mental‐Health‐Related Stigmatizing Attitudes

This study examined differences between Japanese international college students and U.S. college students on stigma toward people with psychological disorders, stigma tolerance in help seeking, and self‐concealment. Japanese international students had greater stigma toward individuals with psychological disorders than did their U.S. counterparts. No interrelationships between these variables, however, were found in the Japanese international student group. Este estudio examinó las diferencias entre estudiantes universitarios internacionales japoneses y estudiantes universitarios estadounidenses en lo concerniente al estigma hacia las personas con trastornos psicológicos, la tolerancia del estigma al buscar ayuda y la auto‐ocultación. Los estudiantes internacionales japoneses mostraron un mayor estigma hacia los individuos con trastornos psicológicos que sus homólogos estadounidenses. Sin embargo, no se encontró ninguna interrelación entre estas variables en el grupo de estudiantes internacionales japoneses.     

Characterizing visual behaviour in a lineup task

Eye tracking was used to monitor participants' visual behaviour while viewing lineups in order to determine whether gaze behaviour predicted decision accuracy. Participants viewed taped crimes followed by simultaneous lineups. Participants (N = 34) viewed 4 target‐present and 4 target‐absent lineups. Decision time, number of fixations and duration of fixations differed for selections vs. non‐selections. Correct and incorrect selections differed only in terms of comparison‐type behaviour involving the selected face. Correct and incorrect non‐selections could be distinguished by decision time, number of fixations and duration of fixations on the target or most‐attended face and comparisons. Implications of visual behaviour for judgment strategy (relative vs. absolute) are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contextualizing and Clarifying Criticisms of Memory Work in Psychotherapy

This article aims to reduce the polarization that has characterized discussion of memory work in psychotherapy. First, the article attempts to help critics of memory work understand the cultural and historical context in which their arguments have been received by practitioners and victim advocates: There are good reasons why attacks on memory work have been viewed with suspicion. Second, the article tries to convince practitioners and victim advocates that there nonetheless are legitimate grounds for concern about some forms of memory work. The goal here is to persuade practitioners whose work includes a focus on childhood trauma to be cautious in their use of memory recovery techniques, without undermining support for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.     

Increasing correct identifications by children

Four new lineup procedures were examined with the goal of increasingchildren's identification accuracy. Participants (329 children aged 10 and11 years, 426 children aged 12 to 14 years, and 265 adults) were presentedwith either a target-present or target-absent lineup. Proceduralmodifications included providing a salient "I don't know" response option,extending standard instructions, and modeling correct responses eitherusing an identification demonstration video or a handout. These conditionswere compared to a standard (control) lineup procedure. Extendingstandard instructions increased correct identifications by the youngerchildren. Presenting a salient "I don't know" response increased overallchoosing for both target-present and target-absent lineups. Experimentalprocedures did not influence correct rejection rates. These data demonstratea variety of techniques that may be useful for improving the identificationaccuracy of child witnesses. Future directions are discussed.     

Automatic phonological priming in visual word recognition

Theories of visual word recognition have proposed that a word’s phonological properties can be involved in reading visually presented words. Further, it is commonly supposed that this phonological information can be arrived at in at least two ways: (1) by looking it up after identifying the word visually (a lexical route) or (2) by rule-governed translating of the word’s orthographic code (a nonlexical route), Four experiments were conducted to examine whether phonological information is automatically accessed in visual word recognition, and, if so, how this occurs. A priming technique was used with a display sequence of mask, prime, target, mask. Subjects were asked to make written responses to any words that they thought were present, and prime identification was minimal. A facilitatory effect of phonological priming on target identification occurred when primes were homophones of targets. However, no similar facilitation occurred when the prime was a nonword homophone of the target. Further, the homophone priming effect was found irrespective of whether targets followed the spelling-to-sound rules of English. The results suggest that automatic access to phonology can occur in visual word recognition and that it operates by means of a lexical route.     

Social competence and conduct problems in young children: issues in assessment

Examined the differences in various facets of social competence in 2 groups of young children (ages 4-7 years)--a clinic-referred group of aggressive children (N = 60) diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder or conduct problems and a matched comparison group of typically developing children (N = 60). Four aspects of social competence were assessed: social information processing, actual observations of conflict management skills and social play interactions during peer interactions, positive social interactions with mothers and fathers at home, and teacher reports of social competence. The social information processing assessed included problem-solving skills (hypothetical skills as demonstrated on a social problem-solving test), self-perceptions (child's awareness of his or her own social self and feelings of loneliness), perceptions of others (attributions), and perceptions of others' attitudes toward oneself. To determine the construct validity of various means of assessing child social competence, we correlated children's social information processing measures with parent and teacher reports of social adjustment and with actual observations of interactions during peer play and at home with parents. Results comparing the 2 groups suggest that young children with conduct problems have deficits in their social information processing awareness or interpretation of social cues--they overestimate their own social competence and misattribute hostile intent to others. Tests of cognitive problem solving and observations of peer play interactions indicated that the children with conduct problems had significantly fewer positive problem-solving strategies and positive social skills, more negative conflict management strategies, and delayed play skills with peers than the comparison children. Correlation analyses indicated significant correlations between children's negative attributions and the ratio of positive to negative problem-solving strategies with observations of peer play interactions.