Personality and lexical decision times for evaluative words

We studied personality influences on accessibility of pleasant and unpleasant stimuli in a sample of 129 students. Self‐reports and reports by knowledgeable informants on extraversion, neuroticism, approach temperament and avoidance temperament were combined with a go/no‐go lexical decision task that included pleasant, unpleasant and neutral words, and two response modes, manual and vocal. The data were analysed using multilevel modelling. Extraversion and approach temperament predicted faster identification of pleasant words than of neutral and of unpleasant words. Vocal responses took longer than manual responses, but mode of response did not interact with the valence of the words. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Molecular reduction: reality or fiction?

Neurophysiological research suggests our mental life is related to the cellular processes of particular nerves. In the spirit of Occam’s razor, some authors take these connections as reductions of psychological terms and kinds to molecular- biological mechanisms and patterns. Bickle’s ‘intervene cellularly/molecularly and track behaviourally’ reduction is one example of this. Here the mental is being reduced to the physical in two steps. The first is, through genetically altered mammals, to causally alter activity of particular nerve cells, i.e. neurons, at the molecular level and then, under controlled experimental conditions, to use generally-accepted rules of behaviour within psychology to monitor the results of these manipulations. In this article, we argue that Bickle’s case example for molecular reduction, i.e. the reduction of long-term memory to its cellular-molecular mechanisms, cannot support his claims, because it turns out that his chosen molecular pathway is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for the memory consolidation switch, and thus, instead of rejecting the multiple realization argument, Bickle’s argument actually speaks in favour of it. Therefore the idea of reductive connections between our mental life and the activity of particular nerves is, at present, still more fiction than reality.     

Factor Indeterminacy as Metrological Uncertainty: Implications for Advancing Psychological Measurement

Researchers have long been aware of the mathematics of factor indeterminacy. Yet, while occasionally discussed, the phenomenon is mostly ignored. In metrology, the measurement discipline of the physical sciences, uncertainty – distinct from both random error (but encompassing it) and systematic error – is a crucial characteristic of any measurement. This research argues that factor indeterminacy is uncertainty. Factor indeterminacy fundamentally threatens the validity of psychometric measurement, because it blurs the linkage between a common factor and the conceptual variable that the factor represents. Acknowledging and quantifying factor indeterminacy is important for progress in reducing this component of uncertainty in measurement, and thus improving psychological measurement over time. Based on our elaborations, we offer a range of recommendations toward achieving this goal.     

The memory‐impairing effects of simulated amnesia for a mock crime

The present study examined whether mock offenders, who were instructed to falsely deny crime details or to simulate amnesia, would consequently experience impaired memory. Ninety‐three university students were first asked to commit a mock crime and were then assigned to three different conditions (i.e., false denial, simulated amnesia, and truth telling) and then received the first memory test. The following day, participants completed a second memory test. Results showed that the memory impairment was not observed in participants in the false denial condition. However, in the simulated amnesia group, memory about being interviewed in the first session was impaired. The simulated amnesia group also had lower recollection and belief ratings in the occurrence of true details for the mock event. Findings suggest that after simulating amnesia, offenders can forget details related to the interview and exhibit diminished ratings for the recollection of and belief in their memory for experienced events.     

Developmental changes in colour constancy in a naturalistic object selection task

When the illumination falling on a surface change, so does the reflected light. Despite this, adult observers are good at perceiving surfaces as relatively unchanging—an ability termed colour constancy. Very few studies have investigated colour constancy in infants, and even fewer in children. Here we asked whether there is a difference in colour constancy between children and adults; what the developmental trajectory is between six and 11 years; and whether the pattern of constancy across illuminations and reflectances differs between adults and children. To this end, we developed a novel, child-friendly computer-based object selection task. In this, observers saw a dragon's favourite sweet under a neutral illumination and picked the matching sweet from an array of eight seen under a different illumination (blue, yellow, red, or green). This set contained a reflectance match (colour constant; perfect performance) and a tristimulus match (colour inconstant). We ran two experiments, with two-dimensional scenes in one and three-dimensional renderings in the other. Twenty-six adults and 33 children took part in the first experiment; 26 adults and 40 children took part in the second. Children performed better than adults on this task, and their performance decreased with age in both experiments. We found differences across illuminations and sweets, but a similar pattern across both age groups. This unexpected finding might reflect a real decrease in colour constancy from childhood to adulthood, explained by developmental changes in the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underpinning colour constancy, or differences in task strategies between children and adults.

Highlights

• Six- to 11-year-old children demonstrated better performance than adults on a colour constancy object selection task.
• Performance decreased with age over childhood.
• These findings may indicate development of cognitive strategies used to overcome automatic colour constancy mechanisms.

     

The Effects of Accumulated Underaccommodation on Perceptions of Underaccommodative Communication and Speakers

This study examined the effects of repeated instances of underaccommodation (i.e., insufficiently adjusted communication) on people's perceptions and evaluations of communication and speakers. Participants (N = 179) completed a series of three map‐based tasks that required them to follow directions that contained insufficient information. Consistent with hypotheses, as underaccommodation accumulated across tasks, participants inferred less positive motives for the speaker's communication, and inferences about motive for each task contributed directly and indirectly to overall evaluations of both the speaker and their communication. These results indicate that accumulated underaccommodation is consequential, and underscore the theoretical importance of motive attributions to predicting reactions to underaccommodation.     

Temperament in childhood predicts body mass in adulthood: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

This study examined associations of temperament at ages 6 to 12 with body-mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) at ages 24 to 30 years. The participants were 619 men and women derived from the population-based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Temperament was operationalized as (negative) emotionality, sociability, and activity. High emotionality predicted increased BMI, independently of WC, and independently of childhood and adulthood risk factors for adult obesity. None of the temperament dimensions had any associations with WC after controlling for BMI. The findings suggest that temperamental difficulty in childhood may be a useful risk indicator for general body mass in adulthood, and the mechanisms relating temperament with body mass should be further explored.