Induction with uncertain categories: When do people consider the category alternatives?

These three experiments examined how people make property inferences about exemplars whose category membership is uncertain. Participants were shown two categories and a novel exemplar with a feature that indicated that the exemplar was more likely to belong to one category (target) than to the other (nontarget). Participants then made categorization decisions and property inferences about the novel exemplar. In some conditions, property inferences could be made only by considering both target and nontarget categories. In other conditions, predictions could be based on both categories or on the target category alone. Consistent with previous studies (e.g., Murphy & Ross, 1994, 2005), we found that many people made predictions based only on consideration of the target category. However, the prevalence of such single-category reasoning was greatly reduced by highlighting the costs of neglecting nontarget alternatives and by asking for inferences before categorization decisions. The results suggest that previous work may have exaggerated the prevalence of single-category reasoning and that people may be more flexible in their use of multiple categories in property inference than has been previously recognized.     

Maternal Attributions Related to Compliance with Cystic Fibrosis Treatment

This study examined mothers' attributions related to their children's compliance with various components of medical treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF). Mothers of children with CF were queried regarding adherence rates and reasons for child compliance with chest physiotherapy, inhalation therapy, exercise, medication, and dietary treatments. Maternal attributions for compliance were assessed on the dimensions of parental locus, stability, and controllability. Mothers reported significantly less compliance with diet than with other CF treatments; they also perceived the reasons for compliance with diet and exercise as more external and less under their control. These findings are discussed in relation to parent–child interactions that may be critical to improving treatment adherence, particularly in the context of nutritional interventions.     

Outraged Consumers: Getting Even at the Expense of Getting a Good Deal

This article introduces the concept of desire for consumer vengeance. Desire for consumer vengeance (DCV) is conceptualized as the desire of a decision maker to “get even” with an entity, such as a firm, in response to a perceived wrongdoing. Drawing on research in psychology and organization behavior, a theoretical framework is proposed for understanding variables that influence the extent to which the DCV is felt and the conditions under which one acts on such feelings. The results of 2 experiments show that, given sufficient desire for vengeance, some consumers will choose a suboptimal decision outcome to get even with a firm. We also find that it is the interpersonal factors of the redress experience, rather than its tangible outcomes, that drive consumers to exact revenge on firms after a dissatisfying experience.     

The Impact of Gender and Setting on Perceptions of Others' Ethics

In this article we explore how differences in gender and setting affect individuals' perceptions of others' ethics. We examine 4 hypotheses: first, that men would be perceived as more utilitarian in their ethics and women would be perceived as more formalist; second, individuals would be perceived to be more utilitarian in work settings than in nonwork settings; third, women would be more accurate in their perceptions of others' ethics; fourth, both men and women would be more accurate in their perceptions of women's ethics. Results strongly support the first, refute the second, modestly support the third, and support the fourth. Overall, the data suggest that men and women share very similar perceptions of own-gender and other-gender ethics. However, these shared perceptions are often quite inaccurate.     

Clients Changing Counselors: An Inspirational Journey

Clients are a major source of influence and serve as primary teachers in the process of counselor development (T. M. Skovholt & M. H. Ronnestad, 1992). This article examines the dynamic of how counselors change as a result of their experiences with clients. Two case studies are presented as examples of counselor change.     

Automatic and intentional processes in children's recognition memory: the reversed misinformation effect

This study investigated the contribution of automatic and intentional memory processes to 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children's suggestible responses in a reversed misinformation paradigm. The temporal order of the conventional eyewitness paradigm was altered such that children were initially presented with a pre‐event narrative containing misinformation that was either read to them or was self‐generated in response to semantic and linguistic cues, and the following day were presented with a witnessed event in the form of a picture story. Children then completed a standard forced‐choice recognition memory test under two instruction conditions. In the inclusion condition children were reminded about the presentations of the pre‐event narrative and the original story and asked to chose the witnessed event item. In the exclusion condition children were instructed to exclude pre‐event suggestions. Suggestibility effects were found with the magnitude of such effects differentially affected by the encoding of misleading suggestions and test instructions. In the exclusion condition, children were more likely to correctly reject suggestions that were ‘self‐generated’. Both automaticity and intentional recollection contributed to children's suggestible responding. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Use of 3-dimensional body scans for body-image research

This preliminary study explored the use of highly realistic 3-dimensional body-scan images as a potential tool, taking advantage of a much more specific and expanded representation of the entire body. Traditionally, body-image research makes use of various contour drawing scales whose 2-dimensional figures increase proportionately and do not match the shape of many women. The study tested whether body-scanned images (N = 85) could be consistently "matched" to individual figures on a contour drawing scale. Internal consistency and interrater reliability were calculated and high coefficients were observed (alpha = .97, kappa = .80). The potential of utilizing 3-dimensional images either as more realistic somatotypes in contour-rating scales or as a measurement of body-image satisfaction using computer manipulation of a digital image is discussed.     

Three-month-olds' detection of alliteration in syllables

Using an auditory-preference procedure we found that 3-month-olds listened significantly longer to alliterative CVCs than to non-alliterative CVCs. This finding demonstrates that 3-month-olds are sensitive to syllable onsets and is discussed in relation to early speech perception and similar results found with 9-month-olds [Jusczyk, P. W., Goodman, M. B., & Baumann, A. (1999). Nine-month-olds' attention to sound similarities in syllables. Journal of Memory & Language, 40, 62-82].     

Effects of aging on the neural correlates of successful item and source memory encoding

To investigate the neural basis of age-related source memory (SM) deficits, young and older adults were scanned with fMRI while encoding faces, scenes, and face-scene pairs. Successful encoding activity was identified by comparing encoding activity for subsequently remembered versus forgotten items or pairs. Age deficits in successful encoding activity in hippocampal and prefrontal regions were more pronounced for SM (pairs) as compared with item memory (faces and scenes). Age-related reductions were also found in regions specialized in processing faces (fusiform face area) and scenes (parahippocampal place area), but these reductions were similar for item and SM. Functional connectivity between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain was also affected by aging; whereas connections with posterior cortices were weaker in older adults, connections with anterior cortices, including prefrontal regions, were stronger in older adults. Taken together, the results provide a link between SM deficits in older adults and reduced recruitment of hippocampal and prefrontal regions during encoding. The functional connectivity findings are consistent with a posterior-anterior shift with aging previously reported in several cognitive domains and linked to functional compensation.