A role of goals for social inhibition of return?

The social inhibition of return (sIOR) effect refers to the finding that response initiation times are longer if a movement is executed to a location where another person has responded to just before. Previous studies have examined the influence of the goal of the action on sIOR. In these studies, however, the movement endpoint and to-be-attained goal (e.g., touching/pressing a response key) were at the same spatial location. In the present two experiments, we disentangled movement endpoint and goal's identity and locations by means of introducing action effects that followed directly from a movement. Similar methods were previously shown powerful enough to clearly show the importance of action goals for other phenomena—a finding consistent with effect-based theories of action control, such as the ideomotor theory. The results of the present study revealed that sIOR was shaped by the movement endpoint location, not the goal's identity or location. That is, in both experiments, an sIOR effect was observed, but the magnitude of the sIOR effect was not modulated by repetitions/switches of goals or their locations. Thus, results indicate that goals play a negligible role in the emergence of the sIOR and, consequently, highlight the importance of action observation for the emergence of the sIOR effect.     

Developing a cognitive behavioral therapy manual for delayed sleep–wake phase disorder

This article reports the development of a treatment protocol, based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles, for delayed sleep–wake phase disorder (DSWPD). The protocol consists of psycho-education, presenting a CBT model for DSWPD, case formulation, motivational interviewing, registering sleep in a diary, strategies to improve the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness, relaxation training, cognitive restructuring, strategies to cope with daytime symptoms, constructing an individualized CBT program, and learning how to deal with relapses. Qualitative data, focusing on how the patients perceived the protocol, were collected within the realm of a trial exploring the efficacy of the protocol. These findings highlighted several advantages but also disadvantages of the therapy. It is our hope that this paper might act as a platform for further clinical work and future research efforts in patients with DSWPD.     

Identification accuracy for single‐ and double‐perpetrator crimes: Does accomplice gender matter?

There is an important mismatch between empirical research on the accuracy of eyewitness identification and the real world of criminal investigation. Most research models single‐perpetrator crimes, but in the real world, most crimes involve multiple perpetrators. This study examined how the number of perpetrators affects eyewitness identification by manipulating the gender of accomplices. Observers viewed a video of a staged crime. The crime was committed by a male or female perpetrator, who was presented alone or with an accomplice of the same or the opposite gender. The observers were then asked to identify the perpetrators from target‐present or target‐absent line‐ups. The results revealed a double‐perpetrator disadvantage, which was manifested in reduced identification accuracy on target‐present line‐ups. Importantly, however, the gender of the perpetrator or the accomplice had no effect on this disadvantage. This double‐perpetrator disadvantage is attributed to the need to divide attention between two concurrent people, compared to single‐culprit crimes, rather than an impairment of visual encoding processes. The implications of these findings are discussed.