On the causal mechanisms of stereotype threat: can skills that don't rely heavily on working memory still be threatened?

Recent work suggests that stereotype threat (ST) harms performance by reducing available working memory capacity. Is this the only mechanism by which ST can occur? Three experiments examined ST's impact on expert golf putting, which is not harmed when working memory is reduced but is hurt when attention is allocated to proceduralized processes that normally run outside working memory. Experiment 1 showed that well learned golf putting is susceptible to ST. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that giving expert golfers a secondary task eliminates ST-induced impairment. Distracting attention away from the stereotype-related behavior eliminates the harmful impact of negative stereotype activation. These results are consistent with explicit monitoring theories of choking under pressure, which suggest that performance degradation can occur when too much attention is allocated to processes that usually run more automatically. Thus, ST alters information processing in multiple ways, inducing performance decrements for different reasons in different tasks.     

Phonetic-semantic mediated false recognition: does activation fail to spread?

Spoken word recognition involves brief activation of candidate words. Six experiments examined whether words semantically related to phonologically activated words would be falsely recognized. Experiments 1 and 2 involved homophones as test words; Experiment 3 used strong associates for the semantic mediation link. Experiment 4 approximated lists of "strong" converging associates. Experiment 5 expanded the real time needed for word identification by using a gating procedure during study. In Experiment 6, the goal was to create a more sensitive test by requiring participants to indicate which of two lures (mediated or control) was "most likely" to be new. Recognition errors were sensitive to separate phonetic and semantic stages in the mediated chain; however, there was little evidence of mediated false recognition, despite expectations derived from common models of spreading activation.     

Disgust vulnerability and symptoms of contamination-based OCD: descriptive tests of incremental specificity

The present investigation examines the incremental association between disgust propensity and sensitivity and contamination-based obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Structural equation modeling in Study 1 indicated that general disgust was related to contamination fear even when controlling for negative affect in a nonclinical sample. Evidence was also found for a model in which the effect of negative affect on contamination fear is mediated by general disgust. Study 1 also showed that both disgust sensitivity and disgust propensity uniquely predicted contamination fear when controlling for negative affect. Growth curve analyses in Study 2 indicated that higher baseline contamination fear is associated with less reduction in contamination fear over a 6-week period as disgust sensitivity increases even when controlling for negative affect. Lastly, disgust propensity was associated with concurrent levels of excessive washing symptoms among patients with OCD in Study 3 when controlling for depression. Implications of these findings from nonclinical, analogue, and clinical samples for future research on the specificity of disgust-related vulnerabilities in the etiology of contamination concerns in OCD are discussed.     

Social group norms,school norms,and children's aggressive intentions

This study examined whether the effect of social group norms on 7‐ and 10‐year‐old children's aggression can be moderated or extinguished by contrary school norms. Children (n=384) participated in a simulation in which they were assigned membership in a social group for a drawing competition against an outgroup. Participants learnt that their group had a norm of inclusion, exclusion, or exclusion‐plus‐relational aggression, toward non‐group members, and that the school either had a norm of inclusion, or no such norm. Findings indicated that group norms influenced the participants' direct and indirect aggressive intentions, but that the school norm moderated the group norm effect, with the school's norm effect tending to be greater for indirect vs. direct aggression, males vs. females, and younger vs. older participants. Discussion focused on how school norms can be developed, endorsed, and presented so that they have their most lasting effect on children. Aggr. Behav. 36:195–204, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Complexity factors in visuo‐spatial working memory

Three experiments are presented that use a technique of selective interference—irrelevant pictures—to develop our understanding of visuo‐spatial working memory. Visual noise fields are used as the irrelevant pictures. Using two related measures of simple visual complexity, the experiments demonstrate that the greater the complexity the greater the degree of interference, even within a paradigm where subjects are instructed to look at but otherwise ignore the irrelevant pictures. Both the number of dots and the density of the dots comprising the visual noise fields affect the degree of interference in a concurrent memory task. In addition, increasing the size of the field increases the amount of interference. It is argued that the results give insight into the properties of visual working memory and contribute to its theoretical development. For example, it is argued that the store is directly accessible by externally presented interference and that particular aspects of the noise displays cause interference with visual memory.     

Stained Hands: Commentary on Paper by Gillian Straker

I attempt, in this discussion, to deconstruct the jouissance present in the witnessing of a deliberate annihilation of a human being. I propose that the crisis in the analyst's subjectivity is linked to an unconscious identification with that which is most abhorrent and unacceptable. The unknowability of trauma ensures that its presence will be enacted in a complex system of mutual influence between analyst and patient in which the roles of victim, perpetrator and bystander oscillate between and within the participants. Taking the discussion to the broader sociopolitical level, I make an analogy between the destructiveness of the South African regime under apartheid and the current destructiveness of the U.S. engaging in a pre-emptive war. In a similar way to how Straker may feel contaminated by her patient's complicity in annihilation, so too are we contaminated by the atrocities perpetuated in the name of our country, even if they are policies we condemn.     

The Relationship Between Parent and Child Religiosity: Moderation by Perceived Parental Antisocial Problems

ABSTRACT

Parents influence their children’s religiosity through many factors including parenting practices, parental religiosity, and parental psychopathology. Little research, however, has been conducted on how different parental psychopathologies, such as antisocial problems, affect the relationship between parent and child religiosity. The current study used the Stearns-McKinney Assessment of Religious Traits to measure personal religiosity in emerging adults and asked them to report on the religiosity of their mothers and fathers. Participants reported the antisocial problems of their parents via the Adult Behavior Checklist. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to measure whether perceived parental antisocial problems, parent gender, and participant gender would moderate the relationship between perceived parental and emerging adult religiosity. Results indicated that maternal but not paternal interactions were significant, and gender analyses revealed that the interaction was significant only for females. Specifically, parental antisocial problems were associated with a weaker relationship between parent and child religiosity in the mother–daughter dyad only. Implications are discussed.     

Mind,Soul and Spirit: Conceptions of Immaterial Identity in Different Cultures

The cognitive science of religion has recently focused attention on whether concepts of mind, soul, and spirit derive from the same or different intuitive foundations of immaterial identity. The present research is the first to look at intuitions about these three concepts simultaneously in different cultures. Methodologically, hypothetical transplants or transfers of minds or brains have been commonly used to examine the development of inferences about the continuity of mental identity despite bodily displacement. The present research extends the transfer paradigm to compare inferences about transfers of “soul” and “spirit” as well as the “mind.” American, Brazilian, and Indonesian undergraduate participants were presented with a series of scenarios in which a character's soul, mind, or spirit is transferred to another character's body. Participants made judgments about the consequences of such transfers on behaviors selected to potentially differentiate underlying intuitive categories. Results indicate that intuitions of soul, spirit, and mind do appear to draw from different but overlapping intuitions, which are recruited in different ways depending on religion and country. For American and Indonesian participants, the mind transfer was judged more often to result in a displacement of cognitive attributes compared to bodily, social, and moral attributes. Across the three countries, the transfer of spirit led more frequently to judgments about displacement of passion than of ability; religiosity was associated with giving more weight to the transfer of the soul, thus resulting in a greater displacement of all types of attributes. The results emphasize the importance of considering how different intuitive foundations, such as essentialism, intuitive psychology, and vitalism, might be recruited by culture to highlight different aspects of immaterial identity.