Objective Scoring of the TAT: Further Validation

Attention was called to a highly objective, reliable and parsimonious. method for scoring the TAT and further empirical evidence of its validity was presented. The scores obtained through this method were found to be significantly related to two other TAT scoring methods and to ratings by independent interviewers of the level of maturity of 64 male and 61 female young adults. The results were related to research bearing on the relation between projective material and overt behavior.     

A Conversation between Theory,Methods, and Data

The 10 year anniversary of the COGITO Study provides an opportunity to revisit the ideas behind the Cattell data box. Three dimensions of the persons × variables × time data box are discussed in the context of three categories of researchers each wanting to answer their own categorically different question. The example of the well-known speed-accuracy tradeoff is used to illustrate why these are three different categories of statistical question. The 200 persons by 100 variables by 100 occasions of measurement COGITO data cube presents a challenge to integrate theories and methods across the dimensions of the data box. A conceptual model is presented for the speed-accuracy tradeoff example that could account for cross-sectional between persons effects, short-term dynamics, and long-term learning effects. Thus, two fundamental differences between the time axis and the other two axes of the data box include ordering and time scaling. In addition, nonstationarity in human systems is a pervasive problem along the time dimension of the data box. To illustrate, the difference in nonstationarity between dancing and conversation is discussed in the context of the interaction between theory, methods, and data. An information theoretic argument is presented that the theory-methods-data interaction is better understood when viewed as a conversation than as a dance. Entropy changes in the development of a theory-methods-data conversation provide one metric for evaluating scientific progress.     

Understanding provoked overt recognition in prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosic patients are unable to recognize overtly the faces of familiar people. However, under specific experimental conditions, overt recognition of faces has been induced in some prosopagnosics. This phenomenon of provoked overt recognition has proved challenging for current theories of face recognition. We first describe clinical demonstrations of provoked overt recognition, before highlighting some critical features that any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon must accommodate. An account of provoked overt recognition is then put forward, couched within the framework of Burton, Bruce, and Johnston's (1990) IAC model of face recognition. This theory is tested by running computer simulations with the model. Finally, the present explanation of provoked overt recognition is scrutinized to discover whether it has implications for rehabilitation work with prosopagnosic patients.     

When sex isn't special: Priming onto a sex decision

Recognition of famous faces is speeded by prior exposure. This repetition priming has been shown for familiarity judgements (familiar/unfamiliar), semantic judgements (British/American), and naming. However, no benefit of priming has been found onto a sex judgement made to an image of a face. The absence of priming is normally explained by appealing to the fact that sex judgements can be made to a face without needing to access memory for that person, and that priming has its effects within the memory system. Here we ask subjects to make sex judgements to famous people's surnames (e.g., Tyson, Geldof), a task that requires them to access their memories for people. Under these conditions we observe the normal pattern of priming. We argue that structural, rather than episodic models of processing fit the data most naturally.     

Language processing,activation and reasoning: A reply to Espino,Santamaría,and García-Madruga (2000)

Espino, Santamaría, and García-Madruga (2000) report three results on the time taken to respond to a probe word occurring as end term in the premises of a syllogistic argument. They argue that these results can only be predicted by the theory of mental models. It is argued that two of these results, on differential reaction times to end-terms occurring in different premises and in different figures, are consistent with Chater and Oaksford's (1999) probability heuristics model (PHM). It is argued that the third finding, on different reaction times between figures, does not address the issue of processing difficulty where PHM predicts no differences between figures. It is concluded that Espino et al.'s results do not discriminate between theories of syllogistic reasoning as effectively as they propose.     

Discussion Task Demands and Revising Probabilities in the Selection Task: A Comment on Green,Over, and Pyne

Green, Over, and Pyne's (1997) paper (hereafter referred to as “GOP”) seems to provide a novel approach to examining probabilistic effects in Wason's selection task. However, in this comment, it is argued that their chosen experimental paradigm confounds most of their results. The task demands of the externalisation procedure (Green, 1995) enforce a correlation between card selections and the probability of finding a counterexample, which was the main finding of GOP's experiments. Consequently GOP cannot argue that their data support Kirby's (1994) proposal that people's normal strategy in the selection task is to seek falsifying evidence. Despite this methodological problem, effects of the probability of the antecedent (p) of a conditional rule, if p then q, predicted by Kirby (1994) and by Oaksford and Chater (1994) were observed, although they were inconsistent between Experiments 1 and 2. Moreover, the probability estimates that GOP collected, which are not vulnerable to that methodological criticism, do support the idea that when P (p)> P (q), participants revise P (p) down as suggested by Oaksford and Chater (1994).     

Prolonged grief disorder symptoms in bereaved internally displaced Tiv persons in Nigeria: associations with rumination,rebirth concerns and gender

ABSTRACT

There is burgeoning research on prolonged grief disorder (PGD) among several vulnerable populations but PGD symptoms have been scarcely examined among bereaved internally displaced persons (IDPs). This study investigated the associations of rumination, rebirth concerns and gender with symptoms of PGD following conflict-related bereavement. Participants were 379 Nigerian IDPs who were of the Tiv ethnic group. They provided demographics and completed self-report measures grief and rumination, while concern about rebirth status of the deceased was assessed using a single item which requested participants to indicate whether they had any concerns about the re-incarnation of the deceased. Results showed that gender was not associated with PGD symptoms. High intrusive rumination and high deliberate rumination were associated with increased PGD symptoms in males and females. Rebirth concern was associated with high PGD symptoms in males but not in females. Findings highlight the need for socio-culturally-informed screening/intervention in the wake of conflict-related bereavement.     

Importance effects on performance in event‐based prospective memory tasks

In the present study we manipulated the importance of performing two event‐based prospective memory tasks. In Experiment 1, the event‐based task was assumed to rely on relatively automatic processes, whereas in Experiment 2 the event‐based task was assumed to rely on a more demanding monitoring process. In contrast to the first experiment, the second experiment showed that importance had a positive effect on prospective memory performance. In addition, the occurrence of an importance effect on prospective memory performance seemed to be mainly due to the features of the prospective memory task itself, and not to the characteristics of the ongoing tasks that only influenced the size of the importance effect. The results suggest that importance instructions may improve prospective memory if the prospective task requires the strategic allocation of attentional monitoring resources.     

Elevated self‐esteem 12 months following a 10‐day developmental voyage

The following article examined elevated self‐esteem as a function of a 10‐day developmental voyage. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 demonstrated that participants who completed the voyage experienced elevated self‐esteem. Study 2 replicated and extended these results insofar as it revealed that (a) elevated self‐esteem was maintained 12 months following the voyage; and (b) increasing levels of perceived self‐efficacy and belonging (as assessed on the last day of the voyage), but not social support, each made a unique contribution to these effects. Together, these findings provide converging evidence to suggest that a 10‐day developmental voyage upon the Spirit of New Zealand promotes elevated self‐esteem that is maintained over time, and that perceived self‐efficacy and belonging contribute to this outcome.     

Phenomenology of Bibliotherapy in Modifying Teacher Punitiveness

The authors examined the phenomenology of bibliotherapy and its effects in changing preservice teachers' punitive attitudes toward children. Participants (N = 29) were enrolled in a university course (Introduction to Emotional Disturbance). Five books by Torey Hayden, autobiographical accounts of teaching and building relationships with students with emotional and behavioral disorders, were read and discussed within the framework of group bibliotherapy. Participants completed a self-report rating form measuring their tendency toward punitiveness during the first and last weeks of the 15-week semester. Participants also completed a questionnaire measuring the bibliotherapeutic impact of reading Hayden's texts, and they kept journals about the experience of reading Hayden. Comparison of the group's pre- and post-measures on punitiveness showed a small, albeit significant decrease in punitiveness; decreased punitiveness was associated with the therapeutic impact of reading Hayden. Phenomenological analysis of the participants'journal entries revealed that the structure of the experience of reading Hayden was one of identification with the protagonist, leading to emotional and cognitive learning.