Effective elaboration and inferential reasoning

The present study investigated the effects of several variables on subjects’ abilities to draw inferences from two related premises. Contiguous presentation of the related sentences led to significantly higher inference scores than did noncontiguous presentation. The nature of the initial premise was also manipulated. For some subjects, the initial premise was relatively consistent with subjects’ semantic knowledge, whereas other subjects received initial premises that were somewhat arbitrary with respect to semantic knowledge. Inference scores were significantly higher for subjects who received the more consistent initial premises. This effect persists even when differential memory for the initial premises has been accounted for. The results suggest certain constraints on the nature of the knowledge one must possess in order to make appropriate inferences from material.     

Memory in educable mentally retarded adults: Deficit in subject or experimenter?

Educable mentally retarded (EMR) and nonretarded adults free recalled lists of (a) words, (b) minitasks performed by the subjects (SPTs), (c) minitasks performed by the experimenter (EPTs), or (d) task instructions. The EMR subjects were significantly inferior to the nonretarded subjects in the immediate recall of words, EPTs and instructions, but not in the immediate recall of SPTs. This proficiency of the EMR subjects in SPT recall was attributed to the nonstrategic nature of this test. The EMR subjects were, however, inferior to the nonretarded subjects in a final free recall (recall of all lists) of all four types of item.     

Perception of facial expressions

Three studies examined the nature of the contributions of each hemisphere to the processing of facial expressions and facial identity. A pair of faces, the members of which differed in either expression or identity, were presented to the right or left field. Subjects were required to compare the members of the pair to each other (experiments 1 and 2) or to a previously presented sample (experiment 3). The results revealed that both face and expression perception show an LVF superiority although the two tasks could be differentiated in terms of overall processing time and the interaction of laterality differences with sex. No clear-cut differences in laterality emerged for processing of positive and negative expressions.     

Short-term memory deficits in reading disabled children,in the absence of opportunity for rehearsal strategies

Two groups of reading-disabled (RD) children were compared with controls (age- and IQ-matched competent readers), on a serial running memory task. The unknown (to the subject) length of the serial lists coupled with high rates of presentation, made it impossible for the children to use systematic rehearsal strategies in this task. Both groups of RD children performed reliably worse than their controls. From the data, it is argued that the short-term memory deficits exhibited by the RD children should not be attributed to an inability to rehearse, nor to an inability to encode (recognize) items, but rather to an inability to encode serial items in the form of serial phonological patterns.     

Social networks and the elderly: Clinical techniques

The authors describe the application of social network analysis to an elderly population living in single occupancy hotel rooms in New York City. They report significant personal networks which may be mobilized to assist these elderly persons. However, a clinical experimental study of clinical social network intervention revealed substantial limitations.This research was supported in part by grants from the Ittleson, New York, and Van Ameringen Foundations and NIMH Center on Aging Grant, No. 1-R01-MH-31745. The authors thank Arlene Adler and Joan Mintz for their assistance.     

More on the relation between division and multiplication in simple arithmetic: Evidence for mediation of division solutions via multiplication

Adults (N = 32) solved simple multiplication (e.g., 8 x 7) and corresponding division problems (e.g., 56/8). Self-reports of solution processes were given by half of the participants. Latency patterns and error rates were closely related across operations and were similar in self-report and no-report conditions. Solution of division problems, however, facilitated solution of multiplication problems more than the reverse. On large division problems, participants reported that they "recast" problems as multiplication (e.g., 56/8 as 8 x = 56). These results support the hypothesis that multiplication and division are stored in separate mental representations but that solution of difficult division problems sometimes involves access to multiplication.     

Choosing remedies after accidents: Counterfactual thoughts and the focus on fixing “human error”

The present research is motivated by an interest in why organizational decision makers so often respond to accidents with remedy plans that focus narrowly on correcting human error rather than more environment-focused plans or more encompassing plans. We investigated the role of counterfactual thinking in the decision-making tendency toward human-focused plans. Our experiments indicated that even in a domain where human-focused remedies were not otherwise appealing, many participants decided on human-focused remedies after they had generated an “if only” conjecture about the accident. This reflects that human actions are often selected as the focus of “if only” conjectures and, importantly, that this focus “locks in” and carries through to subsequent remedy decisions. Our hypothesis that remedy plans are produced from “if only” thoughts was supported over several alternative interpretations. We discuss implications for research on the relation between counterfactual thinking and adaptive learning.     

Maternal sensitivity during infancy and subsequent life events relate to attachment representation at early adulthood.

A prospective longitudinal research study of 86 prematurely born children from birth to age 18 years provided empirical evidence for continuity from infancy experience to representations of attachment at age 18 years. Young adults whose representation of attachment was dismissing had been objectively observed during infancy, 16-17 years earlier, to receive less sensitive maternal care than those infants who were later judged at early adulthood to have secure or preoccupied representations. Infancy experience alone did not differentiate young adults with secure representations from those with preoccupied representations. Rather, adverse life events through age 12, particularly parental divorce, reduced the likelihood of secure representations and increased the likelihood of preoccupied representations. The absence of adverse life events did not increase the likelihood of security for those who had not experienced early sensitive caregiving.     

A longitudinal investigation of social causation and social selection processes involved in the association between socioeconomic status and psychiatric disorders.

Social causation theory and social selection theory have been put forth to explain the finding that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with risk for psychiatric disorders. The predictions of both theories were investigated using data from a community-based longitudinal study. Psychosocial interviews were administered to 736 families from 2 counties in New York State in 1975, 1983, 1985-1986, and 1991-1993. Results indicated that (a) low family SES was associated with risk for offspring anxiety, depressive, disruptive, and personality disorders after offspring IQ and parental psychopathology were controlled, and (b) offspring disruptive and substance use disorders were associated with risk for poor educational attainment after offspring IQ and parental psychopathology were controlled. These findings indicate that social causation and social selection processes vary in importance among different categories of psychiatric disorders.