Exploring issues of personality measurement and structure through the development of a short form of the Eysenck Personality Profiler

In this article, we develop a revised short form of the original Eysenck Personality Profiler (EPP; H. J. Eysenck & Wilson, 1991). In addition, we address topics of broad theoretical importance such as the recurrent empirical finding of correlations between conceptually orthogonal personality dimensions and the possibility that gender differences in these dimensions are partly spurious. In Study 1 (N = 227), we demonstrate that the existing short form of the EPP (EPP-SF; H. J. Eysenck, Wilson, & Jackson, 1996) provides a poor fit to the data and we develop a revised well-fitting version. In Study 2, we retest this version on an independent new sample (N = 3,374) where it is again found to fit the data well. We show that most of the structural and measurement parameters of the revised EPP-SF are invariant across genders. Structured means analysis indicated a significant gender difference in Psychoticism, with men scoring higher than women, but no differences in Extraversion or Neuroticism. Our discussion focuses on issues concerning personality measurement and structure, including an examination of the role of confirmatory factor analysis in personality research.     

Author Index Volume 14

Authors Index

Author Index Volume 14     

On the difficulty of noticing obvious features in patient appearance

Medical students and experts were given head-and-shoulder photographs of patients, each showing a key feature of the patient's problem. Three quarters of these pictures were taken from textbooks. Noticing these supposedly obvious features was difficult and strongly influenced by contextual factors. Both experts and students gained about 20% in diagnostic accuracy by having the key features verbally described for them, although these were clearly visible on the photographs. Conversely, both experts and students reported seeing more of these features when the correct diagnosis was suggested to them. This facilitation resulted from an increase in sensitivity to depicted features, rather than a response bias. The properties of these features that allow such failures of noticing are discussed.     

Estimating the frequency of nonevents: The role of recollection failure in false recognition

Participants studied lists of multiply presented converging associates (e.g.,bed, dream, pillow, etc.) and were timed as they estimated how often they saw list items, related foils (e.g.,blanket), and non-presented critical items (SLEEP). Average number of repetitions (few [3] vs. many [6]) and repetition variability (fixed vs. variable) were manipulated between subjects. Participants responded more slowly to critical items (3.18 sec) than to list items (2.45 sec) or foils (2.22 sec). In addition, critical-item judgments of frequency (JOFs) were about as large as list-item JOFs, and false recognition (i.e., nonzero JOFs) of critical items was most likely in the few-fixed condition (96%) and least likely in the many-fixed condition (74%). These findings suggest that people can userecollection failure—the absence of an anticipated recollective experience, coupled with strong familiarity—to distinguish critical items from list items and that recollection failure is weighted most heavily when people expect familiar probes to access episodic information.     

Why is word recognition impaired by disorientation while the identification of single letters is not?

Past research has shown that speed of identifying single letters or digits is largely indifferent to orientation, whereas the recognition of single words or connected text is markedly disrupted by disorientation. In a series of four experiments, we attempted to reconcile these findings. The results suggest that disorientation does not impair the identification of the characters but disrupts the perception of their spatial arrangement. When spatial order information is critical for distinguishing between different stimuli, disorientation is disruptive because some rectification process is required to restore order information. Utilizing the similarity between the letter B and the number 13, we found strong effects of orientation when a stimulus was interpreted as the two-digit number 13 but not when interpreted as the single letter B. This, however, occurred only when the set of numbers to be classified included permutations of the same digits (Experiments 1 and 2). Odd-even decisions on single-digit and two-digit numbers (Experiment 3) yielded strong effects of stimulus orientation for order-dependent numbers (e.g., 32), weaker effects for order-independent numbers (e.g., 24), and none for repeated-digit (e.g., 22) or single-digit numbers. Classification time for two-letter Hebrew words evidenced strong effects of orientation for words that differed only in letter order but much weaker effects for words that had no letters in common, even when these were embedded within some words that did (Experiment 4).     

The Language of Thought and The Embodied Nature of Language Use

Philosophical Studies -     

Cognitive Enhancement: An Everyday Event?

The hypothesis presented here has three parts. First, cognitive enhancement is not only possible, but is an everyday reality. Several common substances, including caffeine and sugar, improve the retention of new memories, a form of cognitive enhancement. Second, data from experiments on memory enhancement, taken together with estimates of the information-processing capacity of the human brain, suggest that many individuals may already be functioning cognitively at or very close to the maximum level possible. If this is true then only relatively small enhancing effects would be expected. Third, the existing relatively modest instances of cognitive enhancement may represent what can be expected from this phenomenon.     

Anxiety and Depression: Evidence for the Differentiation of Commonly Cooccurring Constructs

Anxiety and depression frequently cooccur diagnostically. This observation has led researchers to investigate whether anxiety and depression can be meaningfully distinguished as unique theoretical constructs or whether they are better conceptualized as features of a general psychological distress. In the present study, we attempted to differentiate self-reported state and trait anxiety from depression in a university sample (N = 593) using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS). In addition, we examined the relationship among self-reported anxiety, depression, and neuroticism to determine the extent to which the Anxiety and Depression facet scales of the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised represent distinct and mutually exclusive measures of anxiety and depression. Principal-components analyses and a series of multiple regression models were used to conduct this investigation. Results indicate that both state and trait anxiety and depression can be reliably differentiated with the BDI and the EMAS. Results also suggest that invoking a single general distress factor to explain the strong interrelationships between anxiety and depression in nonclinical samples is premature.