Variations in patterns of lateral asymmetry among dextrals

Evidence supporting individual variations in patterns of hemispheric involvement in the recognition of visuo-spatial and verbal stimuli among dextrals is reported. In Experiment 1, subjects' asymmetry scores on a task that was nonlateralized for the group as a whole were significantly correlated with their asymmetry scores on right-hemisphere-specialized tasks, including face recognition. In Experiment 2, subjects' asymmetry scores on a task that was nonlateralized for the group as a whole were significantly correlated with their asymmetry scores on a left-hemisphere-specialized word recognition task. These results suggest that individual dextrals' asymmetry scores on lateralized tasks are a joint function of a subject's underlying hemispheric specialization for that task and stable individual variations in asymmetric hemispheric reliance.     

Base Rates,Deception Detection,and Deception Theory: A Reply to Burgoon (2015)

This essay continues a debate about the relative scientific merits of the Park‐Levine Model (PLM) and Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) with regard to accuracy in deception detection. Key points of disagreement include (a) the degree to which message recipients are sensitive to sender veracity and (b) the extent to which interactivity moderates the veracity and base‐rate effects specified by PLM. According to PLM, people are truth‐biased, truth‐bias makes people insensitive to deception, and as a consequence, base rates affect accuracy regardless of interactivity. IDT, in direct contrast, holds that people are sensitive to the veracity of other's communication and that interactivity is a key moderator. Consistent with PLM, data repeatedly show that people are insensitive to other's veracity and that this insensitivity is general across media affordances including interactivity. This rejoinder uses Burgoon's (2015) own interactive data to demonstrate the empirical superiority of PLM over IDT.     

Attention training to reduce attention bias and social stressor reactivity: an attempt to replicate and extend previous findings

Cognitive theories suggest that social anxiety is maintained, in part, by an attentional bias toward threat. Recent research shows that a single-session of attention modification training (AMP) reduces attention bias and vulnerability to a social stressor (Amir, Weber, Beard, Bomyea, &; Taylor, 2008). In addition, exercise may augment the effects of attention training by its direct effects on attentional control and inhibition, thereby allowing participants receiving the AMP to more effectively disengage attention from the threatening cues and shift attention to the neutral cues. We attempted to replicate and extend previous findings by randomizing participants (N = 112) to a single-session of: a) Exercise + attention training (EX + AMP); b) Rest + attention training (REST + AMP); c) Exercise + attention control condition (EX + ACC); or d) Rest + attention control condition (REST + ACC) prior to completing a public speaking challenge. We used identical assessment and training procedures to those employed by Amir et al. (2008). Results showed there was no effect of attention training on attention bias or anxiety reactivity to the speech challenge and no interactive effects of attention training and exercise on attention bias or anxiety reactivity to the speech challenge. The failure to replicate previous findings is discussed.     

"The relation between spatial skill and early number knowledge: The role of the linear number line": Correction to Gunderson et al. (2012)

Reports an error in "The Relation Between Spatial Skill and Early Number Knowledge: The Role of the Linear Number Line" by Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Gerardo Ramirez, Sian L. Beilock and Susan C. Levine (Developmental Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Mar 5, 2012, np). The grey boxes around the faces in Figure 2 are missing. The correct version is presented in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2012-05400-001.) Spatial skill is highly related to success in math and science (e.g., Casey, Nuttall, Pezaris, & Benbow, 1995). However, little work has investigated the cognitive pathways by which the relation between spatial skill and math achievement emerges. We hypothesized that spatial skill plays a crucial role in the development of numerical reasoning by helping children to create a spatially meaningful, powerful numerical representation-the linear number line. In turn, a strong linear number representation improves other aspects of numerical knowledge such as arithmetic estimation. We tested this hypothesis using 2 longitudinal data sets. First, we found that children's spatial skill (i.e., mental transformation ability) at the beginning of 1st and 2nd grades predicted improvement in linear number line knowledge over the course of the school year. Second, we found that children's spatial skill at age 5 years predicted their performance on an approximate symbolic calculation task at age 8 and that this relation was mediated by children's linear number line knowledge at age 6. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that spatial skill can improve children's development of numerical knowledge by helping them to acquire a linear spatial representation of numbers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The relation between spatial skill and early number knowledge: The role of the linear number line

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 48(5) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2012-11771-001). The grey boxes around the faces in Figure 2 are missing. The correct version is presented in the erratum.] Spatial skill is highly related to success in math and science (e.g., Casey, Nuttall, Pezaris, & Benbow, 1995). However, little work has investigated the cognitive pathways by which the relation between spatial skill and math achievement emerges. We hypothesized that spatial skill plays a crucial role in the development of numerical reasoning by helping children to create a spatially meaningful, powerful numerical representation-the linear number line. In turn, a strong linear number representation improves other aspects of numerical knowledge such as arithmetic estimation. We tested this hypothesis using 2 longitudinal data sets. First, we found that children's spatial skill (i.e., mental transformation ability) at the beginning of 1st and 2nd grades predicted improvement in linear number line knowledge over the course of the school year. Second, we found that children's spatial skill at age 5 years predicted their performance on an approximate symbolic calculation task at age 8 and that this relation was mediated by children's linear number line knowledge at age 6. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that spatial skill can improve children's development of numerical knowledge by helping them to acquire a linear spatial representation of numbers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The colourless canvas: representation, therapeutic action and the creation of mind

Freud's initial formulations viewed psychoanalysis as working towards the rediscovery of psychic elements - thoughts, feelings, memories, wishes, etc. - that were once known - represented in the mind, articulatable, thinkable - but then disguised and/or barred from consciousness. His subsequent revisions implicated a second, more extensive category of inchoate forces that either lost or never attained psychic representation and, although motivationally active, were not fixed in meaning, symbolically embodied, attached to associational chains, etc. Following Freud's theory of representation, the author conceptualizes these latter forces as "unrepresented" or "weakly represented" mental states that make a demand upon the mind for work and require transformation into something that is represented in the psyche, if they are to be thought about or used to think with. This paper describes, discusses and presents illustrations of this transformational process (figurability),that moves intersubjectively from unrepresented or weakly represented mental states to represented mental states, from force to meaning, from the inchoate to mental order.     

Gender-Based Navigation Stereotype Improves Men’s Search for a Hidden Goal

While a general stereotype exists that men are better at navigating than women, experimental evidence indicates that men and women differ in their use of spatial strategies, and this preference determines gender-differences. When both environmental geometry and landmark cues are available, men appear to learn to navigate using both types of cues, while women show a preference for using landmarks. Using a computer-generated task, 80 undergraduate students from North-East England learned to navigate to a hidden goal. Activating the general navigation stereotype improved the performance of men, compared to the control condition, both when only geometric cues and only landmark cues were present (stereotype lift), suggesting that activating a general stereotype can affect tasks both with (geometry) and without (landmark) established gender-differences in preference. In addition, in the test trial (hidden goal removed) women who learned to navigate using only landmarks spent longer in the correct location of the hidden goal than those who learned to navigate using only geometry. In contrast, the opposite result was found for men, suggesting that when only one cue-type is available, gender-differences still occur, with women better able to navigate using landmarks than geometry, while men seemed to learn more about the location of the goal with reference to geometric than landmark cues.     

On the prevalence of directly retrieved autobiographical memories

In this study, we used process measures to understand how people recall autobiographical memories in response to different word cues. In Experiment 1, participants provided verbal protocols when cued by object and emotion words. Participants also reported whether memories had come directly to mind. The self-reports and independent ratings of the verbal protocols indicated that directly recalled memories are much faster and more frequent than generated memories and are more prevalent when cued by objects than emotions. Experiment 2 replicated these results without protocols to eliminate any demand characteristics or output interference associated with the protocol method. In Experiment 3, we obtained converging results using a different method for assessing retrieval strategies by asking participants to assess the amount of information required to retrieve memories. The greater proportion of fast direct retrievals when memories are cued by objects accounts for reaction time differences between object and emotion cues, and not the commonly accepted explanation based on ease of retrieval. We argue for a dual-strategies approach that disputes generation as the canonical form of autobiographical memory retrieval and discuss the implication of these findings for the representation of personal events in autobiographical memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Do the psychopathic personality traits of fearless dominance and self-centered impulsivity predict attitudes about and influences on research participation?

Little is known about potential participants' views about research, their willingness to participate in research, and the extent to which they might be susceptible to coercive attempts to compel their participation, particularly among populations at risk for exploitation (e.g., offenders). The extent to which individual differences variables, such as personality constructs (e.g., psychopathic traits), might affect participants' attitudes toward research is also essentially unknown. The present study sought to examine the psychopathy constructs of Fearless Dominance (FD) and Self-Centered Impulsivity (SCI) via the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire-Brief Form (MPQ-BF) to assess the extent to which these traits predict attitudes towards research and susceptibility to coercion within a diverse criminal justice sample (N?=?631). SCI was modestly associated with perceptions that illicit pressures regarding research participation were likely to occur, and participants high in these traits appeared somewhat vulnerable to succumbing to coercive influences. In contrast, FD failed to predict the likelihood that illicit pressures regarding research participation would occur as well as the potential that these pressures would have to impact participants' voluntariness and likelihood of participating. Implications for recruiting potential participants for research in correctional settings are discussed.