The effects of word frequency and similarity on recognition judgments: the role of recollection

K. J. Malmberg, J. Holden, and R. M. Shiffrin (2004) reported more false alarms for low- than high-frequency words when the foils were similar to the targets. According to the source of activation confusion (SAC) model of memory, that pattern is based on recollection of an underspecified episodic trace rather than the error-prone familiarity process. The authors tested the SAC account by varying whether participants were warned about the nature of similar foils and whether the recognition test required the discrimination. More false alarms for low-frequency similar items occurred only when participants were not warned at study about the subtle features to be discriminated later. The differential false-alarm rate by word frequency corresponded to the pattern of remember responses obtained when the test instructions did not ask for a subtle discrimination, supporting the SAC account that reversed false-alarm rates to similar foils are based on the recollection process.     

Role of appearance and nonverbal behaviors in the perception of sexual orientation among lesbians and gay men

According to the zero-acquaintance paradigm gay men and lesbians possess the ability to identify other homosexuals accurately after only very brief interpersonal contact. Given the vulnerability gay men and lesbians face in terms of antigay violence and prejudice, perceptual accuracy provides self-protection. In an exploratory study, 123 respondents were classified as low, moderate, and high perceivers on the basis of their responses to a recognition index designed by the authors. Next, respondents rated on a series of 5-point Likert scales the helpfulness of several characteristics for identifying gay men and lesbians. Analysis supported the importance of eye contact for lesbians and gay men in identifying one another. For both lesbian and gay male participants, several other variables emerged as significantly helpful in identifying gay men: clothing style and fit, jewelry, facial expressions, posture, body type, walk or gait, and both the types and frequencies of gestures.     

Awareness and working memory in strategy adaptivity

To further the understanding of the mechanisms of strategy choice, in three experiments, we investigate the role of explicit awareness and working memory in strategy adaptivity. Experiment 1 provided correlational evidence that individual differences in strategy adaptivity to changing base rates are related to individual differences in awareness of those changes but appear not to be related to individual differences in working memory capacity. Experiment 2 replicated the role of awareness, and the results suggest that awareness at the time of the base-rate change, rather than afterwards, is related to increased strategy adaptivity. Experiment 3 measured working memory capacity using a different procedure and manipulated working memory load with a dual-task procedure; again, no apparent role of working memory capacity in strategy adaptivity was found. This juxtaposition of findings presents a challenge for existing models of strategy choice.     

The Listening Partners Program: An Initiative Toward Feminist Community Psychology in Action

The Listening Partners intervention is described and analyzed as a synthesis of feminism and community psychology, within a developmental framework. Working from an empowerment perspective, this social action, peer group intervention supported a community of poor, rural, isolated, young, White mothers to gain a greater voice, claim the powers of their minds, and collaborate in developmental leadership—creating settings that promote their own development and that of their families, peers, and communities. High quality dialogue, individual and group narrative, and collaborative problem-solving were emphasized, in a feminist context affirming diversity, inclusiveness, strengths, social-contextual analyses, and social constructivist perspectives. The power of enacting a synergy of feminism and community psychology is highlighted.     

The Relationship Between Family Factors and Adolescent Substance Use in Rural, Suburban, and Urban Settings

We tested the relationships and predictive power of family factors on rural, suburban, and urban adolescent substance use. A representative statewide survey of 11th grade students for gender, place of residence, and ethnicity was conducted. No significant differences were found between rural, suburban, and urban adolescents for substance use. For family sanction variables across all locations, adolescent substance involvement was significantly lower the more they perceived their families would stop them or care if they got drunk, smoked cigarettes, or used marijuana. Rural and suburban youth who reported that their parents talked to them about the dangers of smoking and getting drunk were less involved in substance use. While controlling for location, gender, and ethnicity, regression analyses showed that family sanctions against smoking cigarettes and marijuana explained a modest proportion of the variance in substance use. Finally, family talking about the dangers of cigarettes, family involvement in schools and belief that their families cared about them predicted lower substance use regardless of location, although minimal variance was explained. The findings have implications for social service providers regarding location settings, prevention, education, and intervention programming.     

Predicting Children's Recall of a Dental Procedure: Contributions of Stress,Preparation, and Dental History

We examined the extent to which three predictors of children's recall, selected on the basis of their theoretical significance, contributed to the prediction of children's recall for the details of dental operative procedures in a diverse sample of 28 children (54–140 months of age). Parents provided information regarding their children's dental histories and preparation for the dental visit. We obtained behavioral indices of stress from video recordings of the procedures and interviewed the children shortly after treatment to assess their memory. In a significant model predicting open‐ended recall, measures of prior dental experience and parent discussion emerged as unique predictors, although stress did not add to the prediction. The results attest to the importance of incorporating measures of individual differences in investigations of children's reports of their personal experiences. We discuss the importance of children's interpretations in understanding memory for stressful events.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making sense of ourselves: self-narratives and personal identity

Some philosophers take personal identity to be a matter of self-narrative. I argue, to the contrary, that self-narrative views cannot stand alone as views of personal (or numerical) identity. First, I consider Dennett’s self-narrative view, according to which selves are fictional characters—abstractions, like centers of gravity—generated by brains. Neural activity is to be interpreted from the intentional stance as producing a story. I argue that this is implausible. The inadequacy is masked by Dennett’s ambiguous use of ‘us’: sometimes ‘us’ refers to real human beings, and sometimes ‘us’ refers to selves or fictional characters. Second, I consider Schechtmann’s view that self-narratives create persons (in the sense that she calls ‘characterization’ or personality. I argue that the sense in which a self-narrative creates a person cannot stand on its own: a person must already exist (in the sense of numerical identity) in order for there to be a self-narrative. Finally, I offer my own account of persons.     

Detecting Duplication in Students’ Research Data: A Method and Illustration

Research integrity is core to the mission of higher education. In undergraduate student samples, self-reported rates of data fabrication have been troublingly high. Despite this, no research has investigated undergraduate data fabrication in a more systematic manner. We applied duplication screening techniques to 18 data sets submitted by psychology honors students for assessment. Although we did not identify any completely duplicated cases, there were numerous partial duplicates. Rather than indicating fabrication, however, these partial duplicates are likely a consequence of poor measure selection, insufficient data screening, and/or participant characteristics. Implications for the teaching and supervision of honors students are discussed.     

On the Disambiguation of Meaning and the Effect of Cognitive Load

Most research supports a non-selective (or exhaustive) account of activation whereby multiple meanings of a word are initially activated (Degani and Tokowicz Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 1266-1303, 2010). But what happens to the non-selected meaning of an ambiguous word (e.g., bark) and how is the decision made to select one meaning over the other? A great deal of research by Gernsbacher and colleagues (e.g., Gernsbacher and Faust 1991a) suggests that the non-selected meaning is “discarded” via active suppression. The present paper examines meaning-selection in ambiguous words using a word to elicit meaning context (rather than a sentence). Additionally, a manipulation of cognitive load (Experiment 2) was employed to examine these processes. Results support a suppression account of meaning selection. An updated conceptualization of ambiguity resolution is proposed.     

Parents’ Verbal Communication and Childhood Anxiety: A Systematic Review

Parents’ verbal communication to their child, particularly the expression of fear-relevant information (e.g., attributions of threat to the environment), is considered to play a key role in children’s fears and anxiety. This review considers the extent to which parental verbal communication is associated with child anxiety by examining research that has employed objective observational methods. Using a systematic search strategy, we identified 15 studies that addressed this question. These studies provided some evidence that particular fear-relevant features of parental verbal communication are associated with child anxiety under certain conditions. However, the scope for drawing reliable, general conclusions was limited by extensive methodological variation between studies, particularly in terms of the features of parental verbal communication examined and the context in which communication took place, how child anxiety was measured, and inconsistent consideration of factors that may moderate the verbal communication–child anxiety relationship. We discuss ways in which future research can contribute to this developing evidence base and reduce further methodological inconsistency so as to inform interventions for children with anxiety problems.