The anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic: why the adjustments are insufficient

One way to make judgments under uncertainty is to anchor on information that comes to mind and adjust until a plausible estimate is reached. This anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic is assumed to underlie many intuitive judgments, and insufficient adjustment is commonly invoked to explain judgmental biases. However, despite extensive research on anchoring effects, evidence for adjustment-based anchoring biases has only recently been provided, and the causes of insufficient adjustment remain unclear. This research was designed to identify the origins of insufficient adjustment. The results of two sets of experiments indicate that adjustments from self-generated anchor values tend to be insufficient because they terminate once a plausible value is reached (Studies 1a and 1b) unless one is able and willing to search for a more accurate estimate (Studies 2a-2c).     

Multiple-family group treatment of outpatients with schizophrenia: impact on service utilization

The impact of multiple-family group treatment (MFGT) on outpatient and inpatient mental health service utilization of 97 persons with schizophrenia was investigated. Participants were randomly assigned to standard care (n = 44) or standard care plus MFGT (n = 53). Service use for a year prior to randomization, the 2-year study period, and a 1-year follow-up were examined. Relative to standard care participants, the MFGT group had reduced community hospitalization during year 1 of the intervention and reduced state hospitalization at follow-up. During the intervention period, MFGT participants demonstrated a significant increase in outpatient utilization as a direct consequence of the intervention. However, when service use was summed across 3 years post-randomization, no group differences were observed. Results suggest that implementation of MFGT in a community mental health setting reduces inpatient service at specific time periods, without significantly increasing outpatient service utilization. These findings add to other outcomes from this study that demonstrate decreased psychiatric symptoms and caregiver distress.     

Reaching with alien limbs: visual exposure to prosthetic hands in a mirror biases proprioception without accompanying illusions of ownership

In five experiments, we investigated the effects of visual exposure to a real hand, arubber hand, or a wooden block on reaching movements made with the unseen left hand behind a parasagittal mirror. Participants reached from one of four starting positions, corresponding to four levels of conflict between the proprioceptively and visually specified positions of the reaching hand. Reaching movements were affected most by exposure to the real hand, intermediately by the rubber hand, and least of all by the wooden block When the posture and/or movement of the visible hand was incompatible with that of the reaching hand, the effect on reaching was reduced. A "rubber hand illusion" questionnaire revealed that illusions of ownership of the rubber hand were not strongly correlated with reaching performance. This research suggests that proprioception is recalibrated following visual exposure to prosthetic hands and that this recalibration is independent of the rubber hand illusion.     

Bolstering implementation plans for the long haul: the benefits of simultaneously boosting self-concordance or self-efficacy

Recent studies suggest that implementation planning exercises may not be as helpful for long-term, self-initiated goals as for short-term, assigned goals. Two studies used the personal goal paradigm to explore the impact of implementation plans on goal progress over time. Study 1 examined whether administering implementation plans in an autonomy supportive manner would facilitate goal progress relative to a neutral, control condition and a condition in which implementation plans were administered in a controlling manner. Study 2 examined whether combining implementation plans with a self-efficacy boosting exercise would facilitate goal progress relative to a neutral, control condition and a typical implementation condition. The results showed that implementation plans alone did not result in greater goal progress than a neutral condition but that the combination of implementation plans with either autonomy support or self-efficacy boosting resulted in significantly greater goal progress.     

The mixed blessings of self-knowledge in behavioral prediction: enhanced discrimination but exacerbated bias

Four experiments demonstrate that self-knowledge provides a mixed blessing in behavioral prediction, depending on how accuracy is measured. Compared with predictions of others, self-knowledge tends to decrease overall accuracy by increasing bias (the mean difference between predicted behavior and reality) but tends to increase overall accuracy by also enhancing discrimination (the correlation between predicted behavior and reality). Overall, participants' self-predictions overestimated the likelihood that they would engage in desirable behaviors (bias), whereas peer predictions were relatively unbiased. However, self-predictions also were more strongly correlated with individual differences in actual behavior (discrimination) than were peer predictions. Discussion addresses the costs and benefits of self-knowledge in behavioral prediction and the broader implications of measuring judgmental accuracy of judgment in terms of bias versus discrimination.     

Personality and the genetic risk for alcohol dependence

The extent to which the genetic risk for alcohol dependence (AD) and conduct disorder (CD) and their common genetic risk overlap with genetic factors contributing to variation in dimensions of personality was examined in a study of 6,453 individuals from 3,383 adult male and female same-sex and unlike-sex twin pairs from the Australian Twin Registry. The associations between the personality dimensions of positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and AD and CD risk were modest, whereas the associations between behavioral undercontrol and AD and CD risk were substantially higher. Genetic influences contributing to variation in behavioral undercontrol accounted for about 40% of the genetic variation in AD and CD risk and about 90% of the common genetic risk for AD and CD. These results suggest that genetic factors contributing to variation in dimensions of personality, particularly behavioral undercontrol, account for a substantial proportion of the genetic diathesis for AD and most of the common genetic diathesis for AD and CD among both men and women.     

Empathy neglect: reconciling the spotlight effect and the correspondence bias

When people commit an embarrassing blunder, they typically overestimate how harshly they will be judged by others. This tendency can seem to fly in the face of research on the correspondence bias, which has established that observers are, in fact, quite likely to draw harsh dispositional inferences about others. These seemingly inconsistent literatures are reconciled by showing that actors typically neglect to consider the extent to which observers will moderate their correspondent inferences when they can easily adopt an actor's perspective or imagine being in his or her shoes. These results help to explain why actors can overestimate the strength of observers' dispositional inferences even when, as the literature on the correspondence bias attests, observers are notoriously prone to drawing those very inferences.     

Are false memories more difficult to forget than accurate memories? The effect of retention interval on recall and recognition

What is the effect of retention interval on accurate and false recollection in the Deese, Roediger, and McDermott (DRM) procedure? Previous research has suggested that false recall is more persistent than accurate recall, but the recognition results have been inconsistent. In two parametric studies, we tested recall and recognition for the same DRM lists, over retention intervals that ranged from no delay to a 2-month delay. We found that accurate and false memory were diminished by increases in retention interval, false memory persistence was present for recall and recognition, greater persistence for false memory than for accurate memory was more readily observed for recall than recognition, and the highthreshold (Pr), signal detection (d’), and nonparametric (A’) recognition measures differed in their sensitivity for detecting change. The effect of retention interval on accurate and false memory is consistent with expectations from fuzzy trace theory. In the DRM procedure, truth is not more memorable than fiction.     

Timing and force control in boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: subtype differences and the effect of comorbid developmental coordination disorder

This study examined the motor and performance outcomes of boys with subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (DSM-IV, [American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th ed., Washington, DC, 1994]). It also examined the differences between boys with a single diagnosis of ADHD versus those who have the dual categorisation of ADHD and developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The participants were 157 boys, aged 7.70-12.98 years recruited from a community sample. Parent report was used to classify 143 boys into either a comparison group or one of the three DSM-IV ADHD subtypes. Participants were given a battery of tests that included the Movement Assessment Battery for Children [Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Psychological Corporation/Harcourt Brace-Jovanovich, New York, 1992], the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children--Third Edition [Manual for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Psychological Corporation, New York, 1992] and a finger tapping task targeting motor processing, preparation, and execution. Boys with subtypes that included inattentive symptomatology had significant difficulties with timing, force output and showed greater variability in motor outcomes. Boys with the comorbid condition (i.e., ADHD and DCD) had particular difficulty with force control. These outcomes identify a need for increased recognition of the clinical and research implications of the relationship between ADHD and motor dysfunction. This potentially impacts on assessment, intervention, theoretical modelling and the general interpretation of cognitive abilities research with children with ADHD.