Why does selective attention to parts fail in face processing?

One hallmark of holistic face processing is an inability to selectively attend to 1 face part while ignoring information in another part. In 3 sequential matching experiments, the authors tested perceptual and decisional accounts of holistic processing by measuring congruency effects between cued and uncued composite face halves shown in spatially aligned or disjointed configurations. The authors found congruency effects when the top and bottom halves of the study face were spatially aligned, misaligned (Experiment 1), or adjacent to one another (Experiment 2). However, at test, congruency effects were reduced by misalignment and abolished for adjacent configurations. This suggests that manipulations at test are more influential than manipulations at study, consistent with a decisional account of holistic processing. When encoding demands for study and test faces were equated (Experiment 3), the authors observed effects of study configuration suggesting that, consistent with a perceptual explanation, encoding does influence the magnitude of holistic processing. Together, these results cannot be accounted for by current perceptual or decisional accounts of holistic processing and suggest the existence of an attention-dependent mechanism that can integrate spatially separated face parts.     

The attenuation effect in timing: counteracting dual-task interference with time-judgment skill training

A basic finding in the time-perception literature is an interference effect in dual-task conditions involving concurrent timing and distractor tasks. Dual-task conditions typically cause time judgments to become less accurate than single-task conditions in which subjects judge time alone. Previous research (Brown, 1998 Psychological Research 61 71-81; Brown and Bennett, 2002 Psychological Research 66 80-89) has shown that practice on the distractor task reduces interference, a phenomenon called the attenuation effect. The present research was designed to determine whether practice on the time-judgment task would produce a similar result. In experiment 1, subjects reproduced 6-14 s intervals in a series of practice trials. Some subjects received feedback regarding the accuracy of each response and others received no feedback. Subsequent testing under dual-task (timing + digit memory) conditions showed that feedback training reduced interference. In experiment 2, the practice trials included both single-task and dual-task conditions. Later tests showed that feedback training eliminated the interference effect. The results highlight the role of attentional resources, the transfer of skills, and compensatory decision processes in time-judgment skill training.     

Social Influences on Judgments of Rape Victims: The Role of the Negative and Positive Social Reactions of Others

An experimental study examined whether judgments about a rape victim can be influenced by the social reactions of others, and whether this effect would be moderated by the type of rape (stranger or date rape) or by the gender of the participants. One hundred and ten U.S. college students (90% white; 59% female) responded to rape vignettes in which the type of rape and the social reactions received by the victim (negative, positive, or neutral) were manipulated. People exposed to negative social reactions made less positive judgments. Men and people who read about a date rape also made less positive judgments, but neither variable interacted with type of reactions to impact judgments.     

Body Satisfaction in Gym-active Males: An Exploration of Sexuality, Gender, and Narcissism

This study compared 80 gay and straight Australian males on self report measures of body satisfaction, masculinity, femininity, narcissism, and reasons for exercising at gyms to explore factors related to excessive exercise. Gay males are less satisfied with their bodies compared to straight males. Improving appearance was more important for gay men, while fun was considered more important for straight men. Only sexual orientation and masculinity contributed independently to body satisfaction. Straight males who scored high on masculinity were most satisfied with their bodies, while gay males who scored low on masculinity were least satisfied with their bodies, irrespective of femininity and narcissism. Hours exercising per week and fun as a reason for exercising, significantly contributed to body satisfaction.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on Mental Health Self-Help

Since the 1950s, people with mental illness and their families have been organizing a wide range of self-directed, mutual support oriented initiatives, including self-help groups, nonprofit organizations, and businesses. These initiatives have become increasingly widespread over the years and today mental health self-help initiatives outnumber traditional mental health organizations in the United States (Goldstrom et al., Admin Policy Mental Health Mental Health Serv Res 33:92-103, 2006). Mental health self-help embodies much of what community psychologists promote, including the self-directed organization of people to create social change and facilitate personal transformation. This special issue provides new insight into several prominent areas of inquiry surrounding these low-cost interventions including: (1) their evidence base; (2) the processes by which people benefit; (3) how they interface with the mental health system; and (4) the value dilemmas they face.     

Taking up offenses: secondhand forgiveness and group identification

When a person or group is mistreated, those not directly harmed by the transgression might still experience antipathy toward offenders, leading to secondhand forgiveness dynamics similar to those experienced by firsthand victims. Three studies examine the role of social identification in secondhand forgiveness. Study 1 shows that the effects of apologies on secondhand victims are moderated by level of identification with the wronged group. Study 2 shows that identification with the United States was associated with less forgiveness and greater blame and desire for retribution directed at the 9/11 terrorists, and these associations were primarily mediated by anger. Finally, Study 3 shows that participants whose assimilation needs were primed were less forgiving toward the perpetrators of an assault on ingroup members than participants whose differentiation needs were primed, an effect that was mediated by empathy for the victims.     

Assessing readiness for change in adolescents with eating disorders

The Readiness and Motivation Interview (RMI) is a semistructured interview measure of readiness and motivation to change that can be used for all eating disorder diagnoses. The RMI has demonstrated excellent psychometric properties and has both clinical and predictive utility in adult samples. This study examined the psychometric properties of the RMI in a younger population, namely, 12- to 18-year-old girls with eating disorders. Study participants (N = 65) completed the RMI and measures of convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity. Adolescents with eating disorders were able to conceptualize and articulate their readiness for change and to report the extent to which change efforts were for themselves versus for others. RMI readiness profiles across eating disorder symptom domains in adolescents were comparable to those in adults, with higher reported readiness to change binge eating than to change dietary restriction or compensatory strategies. Differences in internal consistency between adult and adolescent samples are discussed. Interviewing adolescents early in treatment about readiness may assist clinicians in forming an alliance with this difficult-to-engage population, while also providing valuable information for treatment planning.     

Arousal, working memory, and conscious awareness in contingency learning

There are wide individual differences in the ability to detect a stimulus contingency embedded in a complex paradigm. The present study used a cognitive masking paradigm to better understand individual differences related to contingency learning. Participants were assessed on measures of electrodermal arousal and on working memory capacity before engaging in the contingency learning task. Contingency awareness was assessed both by trial-by-trial verbal reports obtained during the task and by a short post-task recognition questionnaire. Participants who became aware had fewer non-specific skin conductance responses and tended to score higher on a digit span assessment. Skin conductance level was not significantly lower in the aware group than in the unaware group. These findings are consistent with studies showing that lower arousal and greater cognitive processing capacity facilitate conscious perception of a greater breadth of information within a scene or a task.     

Examination of racial differences on the MMPI-2 clinical and restructured clinical scales in an outpatient sample

The current study examined the possibility of differential predictive accuracy of selected Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Second Edition (MMPI-2) clinical and Restructured Clinical (RC) scales in a group of Black and White mental health center clients. Results indicate that Black clients scored higher than White clients on one non-K-corrected clinical scale and 4 RC scales. All these differences produced medium effect sizes and were clinically significant according to Greene's (1987) criterion. These differences, however, were not accompanied by differential predictive accuracy of the scales in Black versus White clients. Although additional research is needed, especially on the RC scales, this study indicates that the MMPI-2 is not a biased predictor of symptomatology for Black versus White test takers.     

Cluster randomized trials with treatment noncompliance

Cluster randomized trials (CRTs) have been widely used in field experiments treating a cluster of individuals as the unit of randomization. This study focused particularly on situations where CRTs are accompanied by a common complication, namely, treatment noncompliance or, more generally, intervention nonadherence. In CRTs, compliance may be related not only to individual characteristics but also to the environment of clusters individuals belong to. Therefore, analyses ignoring the connection between compliance and clustering may not provide valid results. Although randomized field experiments often suffer from both noncompliance and clustering of the data, these features have been studied as separate rather than concurrent problems. On the basis of Monte Carlo simulations, this study demonstrated how clustering and noncompliance may affect statistical inferences and how these two complications can be accounted for simultaneously. In particular, the effect of the intervention on individuals who not only were assigned to active intervention but also abided by this intervention assignment (complier average causal effect) was the focus. For estimation of intervention effects considering noncompliance and data clustering, an ML-EM estimation method was employed.