Distraction and attitude change: A resolution

Previous studies have shown that distraction may either increase or decrease attitude change. The present experiment, designed to reconcile earlier findings, was based on the hypothesis that distraction should interfere with message reception but also increase yielding to the message. Distraction should thus increase attitude change to a simple message (one which is easily understood but not very convincing), but decrease attitude change to a complex message (one which is difficult to understand but convicing if understood). Subjects beard messages on two topics, sometimes while distracted by a tape recording of music and sometimes not. Message complexity was successfully manipulated for one of the topics. The results support a model of attitude change which considers the effects of independent variables on both reception and yielding.     

On the form of psychometric functions for taste

Psychometric functions were determined for the discrimination of weak solutions of quinine hydrochloride or of hydrochloric acid from distilled water. The slopes of these functions were compared with those of some functions previously determined for sodium chloride and for sucrose. In general, the functions for QHCl were the least steep and those for NaCl were the most steep, but the differences were not great. Thus, it appears that the psychometric functions for these different taste qualities have substantially the same form, even though absolute sensitivity varies over several orders of magnitude.     

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Implementation Intentions Increase Exercise Enjoyment and Long-Term Exercise Behavior Among Low-Active Women

The current study evaluated the long-term effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for promoting exercise behavior in comparison with planning in the form of implementation intentions (forming situational cues and action plans as to when, where, and how to incorporate exercise). We expected both interventions to increase exercise behavior (assessed using the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire; Godin and Shephard 1985) from baseline to 6-months post-intervention, but expected only ACT to also increase exercise enjoyment (assessed using the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale; Kendzierski and DeCarlo 1991). A total of 32 women, randomized to receive a single session of either ACT training or instructions to form implementation intentions for exercise activities, took part in this study. The participants were contacted by email 6-months following the intervention to determine the amount of self-reported exercise. As expected, exercise amount increased in both groups. Contrary to our expectations, both groups also increased in exercise enjoyment. This study provides initial evidence that exercising can be increased through an ACT intervention. ACT and implementation intentions may both be effective and brief interventions for promoting exercise behavior and exercise-related enjoyment in low-active women. Future research needs to establish the psychosocial and personality factors that lead to the effectiveness of ACT and implementation intentions.     

The Heterogeneity of Truancy among Urban Middle School Students: A Latent Class Growth Analysis

This longitudinal study explores heterogeneity of middle school students by identifying subgroups of youth characterized by distinct truancy trajectories and by determining disability profiles that distinguish these subgroups. Participants comprised an entire 7th through 9th grade student population, with approximately 58,000 students, in a large urban school district. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify subgroups of truant youth. This analysis yielded five distinct truant subgroups: Very-Low (37 %), Low (43.4 %), Declining (3.3 %), Rising (12.8 %), and Chronic (3.6 %). Further, differential disability profiles were found in each subgroup with the control of demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, free/reduced lunch, Limited English Proficiency, grade, and prior school absences), students with serious emotional disturbance and learning disabilities demonstrated amplified risks of being classified in the Chronic or Rising subgroups, which show chronic or incremental upward truant trajectories over time. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future research.     

Aging,source memory,and the experience of “remembering”

In a previous study, we found source memory for perceptual features to differentiate between younger but not older adults’ reports of recollective (“remember”; R) and “know” (K) experiences. In two experiments with younger (17–30 years) and older (64–81 years) participants, we examined whether memory for meaningful speaker sources would accompany older adults’ recollective experience. Indeed, memory for male and female speakers (but not partial memory for gender; Experiment 1) as well as bound memory for speakers and their facial expressions (Experiment 2) distinguished between both younger and older adults’ RK reports. Thus, memory for some sources forms a common basis for younger and older adults’ retrieval experience. Nonetheless, older adults still showed lower objective source memory and lower subjective source-attribution confidence than younger adults when reporting recollective experiences, suggesting that source memory is less relevant to their retrieval experience than for younger adults.     

Sex,Education, Age,and Cautiousness: Implications for Counselors

A cross‐sectional study of educated men and women showed that cautiousness, as measured by perceived problem‐solving ability, does not increase with age. Sex differences were nonsignificant. The results are discussed in terms of R. Schultz and J. Heckhausen's (1996) Life Span Model of Successful Aging.     

McDowell on Kant: Redrawing the Bounds of Sense

John McDowell's Mind and World is a notable attempt to redirect the interest of analytic philosophers toward certain themes in Kantian and more recent continental thought. Only thus, he believes, can we move beyond the various failed attempts – by Quine, Davidson, Rorty, and others – to achieve a naturalised epistemology that casts off the various residual "dogmas" of old-style logical empiricism. In particular, McDowell suggests that we return to Kant's ideas of "spontaneity" and "receptivity" as the two jointly operative powers of mind which enable thought to transcend the otherwise unbridgeable gulf between sensuous intuitions and concepts of understanding. However, this project miscarries for several reasons. Chief among them is the highly problematical nature of Kant's claims, taken over by McDowell without reference to their later treatment at the hands of subjective and objective idealists. Hence he tends to fall back into different versions of the same mind/world dualism. I then question McDowell's idea that Kant can be "naturalised" by reinterpreting those claims from a more hermeneutic or communitarian standpoint with its sources in Hegel, Wittgenstein, and Gadamer. For the result is to deprive Kant's philosophy of its distinctively critical dimension not only with regard to epistemological issues but also in relation to matters of ethical and sociopolitical judgement.     

Chills and thrills: Does radio harm our children? The controversy over program violence during the age of radio

A review of the popular and scientific periodical for the 1930s and 1940s revealed that the controversy surrounding the radio “thriller” and its possible harmful effects on young listeners was one of radio's most highly publicized issues during its golden years of broadcasting. Many of the questions raised concerning this issue were similar to those asked later during the age of television. Relying heavily upon the psychoanalytic emphasis on emotion, catharsis, and intrapsychic dynamics, expert opinion voiced in various popular periodicals and newspapers of the day suggested that the violence and excitement portrayed in many of the crime and adventure programs was harmless, and perhaps beneficial, for most listeners. However, research in support of this conclusion was sparse, and psychologists evidenced little interest in the issue. Not until the advent of television, and the emergence of social learning theory in the early 1960s, did psychologists direct significant research effort towards evaluating the effects of media violence. © 1998 John Wiley &Sons, Inc.