Assessing the distinguishability of models and the informativeness of data

A difficulty in the development and testing of psychological models is that they are typically evaluated solely on their ability to fit experimental data, with little consideration given to their ability to fit other possible data patterns. By examining how well model A fits data generated by model B, and vice versa (a technique that we call landscaping), much safer inferences can be made about the meaning of a model's fit to data. We demonstrate the landscaping technique using four models of retention and 77 historical data sets, and show how the method can be used to: (1) evaluate the distinguishability of models, (2) evaluate the informativeness of data in distinguishing between models, and (3) suggest new ways to distinguish between models. The generality of the method is demonstrated in two other research areas (information integration and categorization), and its relationship to the important notion of model complexity is discussed.     

The role of conceptual recoding in reducing children's retroactive interference

Reductions in children's retroactive interference were examined with conceptual recoding. Children learned two 10-item lists of toys; items on the 2nd list could also be classified as vehicles. Some children were not told about this 2nd category, whereas others were told either at the end of acquisition or just prior to the retention test 24 hr later. The results showed that (a) children benefited from the recoding instruction, (b) younger but not older children failed to benefit from the recoding manipulation when it occurred just prior to the retention test, and (c) recoding reduced retroactive interference primarily through affecting storage processes. These results provide new evidence concerning the importance of making information distinctive in storage in children's retention.     

Emotional-processing in posttraumatic stress disorder II: startle reflex modulation during picture processing

This study examined the impact of a trauma-related stressor on subsequent emotional behavior in veterans with (n = 35) and without (n = 24) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Self-report and physiological responses, including acoustic startle, were recorded during viewing of emotionally evocative photographs at baseline and following exposure to trauma-related and non-trauma-related stressors. The 2 groups exhibited equivalent patterns of emotional response across self-report and physiological measures at baseline. In contrast, following the trauma challenge, participants with PTSD showed a pattern of startle modulation suggestive of greater defensive reactivity and reduced visual perceptual engagement. These findings, along with augmented corrugator EMG reactivity during the same interval, suggest that trauma-related reexperiencing primes subsequent negative emotional responding in individuals with PTSD.     

Houses built on sand: effects of exemplar stability on susceptibility to attitude change

Attitude representation theory (C. G. Lord & M. R. Lepper, 1999) explains both attitude-behavior consistency and attitude change with the same principles. When individuals respond evaluatively to an attitude object, they activate and combine assumptions about the attitude object with perceptions of the immediate situation. The assumptions activated can vary across time, even without additional information. Previous research has shown that individuals activate exemplars when answering attitude questions, attitude reports vary with the valence of the assumptions activated, and activating differently liked exemplars reduces attitude-behavior consistency. The present research completed study of the theoretical implications of exemplar stability by showing that individuals with temporally unstable exemplars, whether spontaneous (Experiment 1) or manipulated (Experiments 2 and 3), are more susceptible to subsequent attitude change than are individuals with stable exemplars.     

Alexithymia and psychopathy: comparison and application of California Q-set Prototypes

Although alexithymia and psychopathy have long been linked, the relationship between the two constructs remains unclear. In this study, we used the California Q-set Alexithymia Prototype (CAQ-AP; Haviland & Reise, 1996) and Psychopathy Prototype (CAQ-PP; Reise & Oliver, 1994) to clarify the relationship between the two constructs and evaluate both in a sample of contemporary and historical political leaders (N = 42). Our data show that both individuals with prototypic alexithymia and psychopathy lack empathy and insight and are not introspective. The prototypic person with alexithymia, however, is anxious, overcontrolled, submissive, boring, ethically consistent, and socially conforming, whereas the prototypic individual with psychopathy is anxiety-free, undercontrolled, dominant, charming, deceitful, and nonconforming. Characteristics of both were relatively common among the 13 controversial and notorious leaders and relatively uncommon among the 29 generally respected leaders in the sample. The CAQ-AP and the CAQ-PP appear to be useful for evaluating alexithymic and psychopathic features in public figures.     

A function of form: terror management and structuring the social world

Drawing on lay epistemology theory, the authors assessed a terror management analysis of the psychological function of structuring social information. Seven studies tested variations of the hypothesis that simple, benign interpretations of social information function, in part, to manage death-related anxiety. In Studies 1-4, mortality salience (MS) exaggerated primacy effects and reliance on representative information, decreased preference for a behaviorally inconsistent target among those high in personal need for structure (PNS), and increased high-PNS participants' preference for interpersonal balance. In Studies 5-7, MS increased high-PNS participants' preference for interpretations that suggest a just world and a benevolent causal order of events in the social world.     

Myers-Briggs personality types of art collectors

27 art collectors (13 men, 14 women) completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Their age range was 37 to 86 years and the mean 59.5 yr. Seventy percent were classified as Intuition types instead of Sensation types (versus its 25% incidence in the general population). This corresponds to personality profiles of artists and the disproportionately high incidence of high scores on the related Openness to Experience factor in studies of creative personalities, thereby supporting the contention that persons creating art and appreciating art have personality traits in common.     

Social anxiety in stuttering: measuring negative social expectancies

Much research has suggested that those who stutter are likely to be anxious. However, to date, little research on this topic has addressed the role of expectancies of harm in anxiety, which is a central construct of anxiety in modern clinical psychology. There are good reasons to believe that the anxiety of those who stutter is related to expectancies of social harm. Therefore, in the present study, 34 stuttering and 34 control participants completed the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) Scale and the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales-Trait (EMAS-T). The FNE data showed a significant difference between the stuttering and control participants, with a large effect size. Results suggested that, as a group, a clinical population of people who stutter has anxiety that is restricted to the social domain. For the EMAS-T, significant differences between groups were obtained for the two subtests that refer specifically to people and social interactions in which social evaluation might occur (Social Evaluation and New/Strange Situations) but not for the subtests that contained no specific reference to people and social interactions (Physical Danger and Daily Routines). These results were taken to suggest that those who stutter differ from control subjects in their expectation of negative social evaluation, and that the effect sizes are clinically significant. The findings also suggest that the FNE and the EMAS-T are appropriate psychological tests of anxiety to use with stuttering clients in clinical settings. The clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed, in terms of whether social anxiety mediates stuttering or is a simple by-product of stuttering. Possible laboratory explorations of this issue are suggested, and potential Cognitive Behavior Therapy packages for stuttering clients who might need them are discussed. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (1) explain why expectancy of social threat or harm may be associated with stuttering; (2) name and describe two psychological tests that are suitable for assessment of the social threat or harm that may be associated with stuttering; and (3) explain how findings for the EMAS-T test in the present results suggest that expectancy of social threat or harm, but not other kinds of negative expectancy, are associated with stuttering.     

Absence of an interaction between navigational strategies based on local and distal landmarks

In 3 experiments, rats were required to escape from a Morris pool by swimming to a submerged platform that was located at the apex of a notional, equilateral triangle with 2 different landmarks occupying the corners at the base. Training for 1 group was always conducted in view of the landmarks surrounding the pool and with the triangular array in a fixed orientation. Subjects could therefore identify the direction of the platform from a single landmark within the pool by reference to cues outside the pool or to the other landmark within the pool. Both strategies were used, and the results from additional groups revealed that the first of these strategies did not affect the acquisition of the second one.     

Transfer of spatial behavior between different environments: implications for theories of spatial learning and for the role of the hippocampus in spatial learning

In 3 experiments, rats were required to find a submerged platform located in 1 corner of an arena that had 2 long and 2 short sides; they were then trained to find the platform in a new arena that also had 2 long and 2 short sides but a different overall shape. The platform in the new arena was easier to find if it was in a corner that was geometrically equivalent, rather than the mirror image, of the corner where it had previously been located. The final experiment revealed that hippocampal lesions impaired rats' ability to find the platform in these arenas. The results suggest that rats did not use the overall shape of the arena to locate the platform but relied on more local cues and that the hippocampus plays a role in navigation based on these cues.