Increased sensitivity to differentially diagnostic answers using familiar materials: Implications for confirmation bias

Researchers have recently pointed out that neither biased testing nor biased evaluation of hypotheses necessitates confirmation bias--defined here as systematic overconfidence in a focal hypothesis--but certain testing/evaluation combinations do. One such combination is (1) a tendency to ask about features that are either very likely or very unlikely under the focal hypothesis (extremity bias) and (2) a tendency to treat confirming and disconfirming answers as more similar in terms of their diagnosticity (or informativeness) than they really are. However, in previous research showing the second tendency, materials that are highly abstract and unfamiliar have been used. Two experiments demonstrated that using familiar materials led participants to distinguish much better between the differential diagnosticity of confirming and disconfirming answers. The conditions under which confirmation bias is a serious concern might be quite limited.     

Queering gender: anima/animus and the paradigm of emergence

An exploration into the world of the queer others of gender and sexuality moves us beyond the binary opposition of male/masculinity and female/femininity in our understanding of gender and expands the meaning of gender and sexuality for all humans. A revision of Jungian gender theory that embraces all genders and sexualities is needed not only to inform our clinical work but also to allow us to bring Jungian thought to contemporary gender theory and to cultural struggles such as gay marriage. The cognitive and developmental neurosciences are increasingly focused on the importance of body biology and embodied experience to the emergence of mind. In my exploration of gender I ask how gender comes to be experienced in a developing body and how those embodied gender feelings elaborate into a conscious category in the mind, a gender position. My understanding of emergent mind theory suggests that one's sense of gender, like other aspects of the mind, emerges very early in development from a self-organizing process involving an individual's particular body biology, the brain, and cultural environment. Gendered feeling, from this perspective, would be an emergent aspect of mind and not an archetypal inheritance, and the experiencing body would be key to gender emergence. A revised Jungian gender theory would transcend some of the limitations of Jung's anima/animus (A/A) gender thinking allowing us to contribute to contemporary gender theory in the spirit of another Jung; the Jung of the symbolic, the mythic, and the subtle body. This is the Jung who invites us to the medial place of the soul, bridging the realm of the physical body and the realm of the spirit.     

An analysis of the effectiveness of university counselling services

It is important to demonstrate replicable evidence of the effectiveness of counselling procedures. The study aimed to contribute to the currently limited evidence base examining the effectiveness of university student counselling in the UK. Information on therapeutic outcome [based on Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) scores] for 305 individuals attending a large UK university counselling service was analysed. Following counselling intervention: there was a statistically significant improvement in CORE-OM scores with 63% of individuals showing a reliable improvement and only 2% showing a reliable deterioration. Of those who began with a score in the clinical range, 49% showed a clinically significant change. These results provide additional evidence for the effectiveness of university counselling interventions. Future research should aim to build on this preliminary research using randomised controlled trial designs.     

The Contribution of Metacognitions and Attentional Control to Decisional Procrastination

Earlier research has implicated metacognitions and attentional control in procrastination and self-regulatory failure. This study tested several hypotheses: (1) that metacognitions would be positively correlated with decisional procrastination; (2) that attentional control would be negatively correlated with decisional procrastination; (3) that metacognitions would be negatively correlated with attentional control; and (4) that metacognitions and attentional control would predict decisional procrastination when controlling for negative affect. One hundred and twenty-nine participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21, the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire 30, the Attentional Control Scale, and the Decisional Procrastination Scale. Significant relationships were found between all three attentional control factors (focusing, shifting, and flexible control of thought) and two metacognitions factors (negative beliefs concerning thoughts about uncontrollability and danger, and cognitive confidence). Results also revealed that decisional procrastination was significantly associated with negative affect, all measured metacognitions factors, and all attentional control factors. In the final step of a hierarchical regression analysis only stress, cognitive confidence, and attention shifting were independent predictors of decisional procrastination. Overall these findings support the hypotheses and are consistent with the Self-Regulatory Executive Function model of psychological dysfunction. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effects of setting and number of observations on generalizability of parent-child interactions in childhood obesity treatment

The generalizability of behaviors across observational conditions is a critical issue in behavioral assessment. Generalizability theory was used to examine two aspects of audio recorded parent-child interactions recorded over 6 days of home measurement and 1 day of laboratory measurement in a behavioral treatment program for childhood obesity. Families audiotaped parent-child home meetings during which they reviewed self-monitored diet and exercise records that were coded for the following types of interactions: praise statements, negative statements, prompts for new behaviors, and statements promoting problem solving. A similar meeting was audiotaped in our laboratory. The first question explored was the number of measurements needed to generalize to the universe of the six home measures. Results showed an increase in generalizability over measurements for each behavioral category. Using generalizability coefficients of .60 or more, praise, negative comments and prompts, respectively, could be reliably observed based on 1, 4, or 4 days of measurement. Second, the effects of setting (laboratory versus home) were assessed for 1 day of measurement in each environment. Again using generalizability coefficients of .60, generalizability analysis showed that the lab setting could not be generalized to the home setting based on 1 day of measurement, with generalizability coefficients ranging from .27 for negative comments to .57 for praise. Results suggest that 4 days of behavioral assessment in the home can be used to establish generalizable data for all the dependent measures studied. However, generalizability coefficients suggested that 1 day of laboratory measurement was not adequate to generalize to typical home behavior.This research was supported in part by Grant NIH HD 23713 awarded to the third author.     

A new technique for testing the eliciting effects of fish color patterns

This new technique provides an alternative to the use of stimulus fish with paint applied to their body surfaces or fish dummies for testing the eliciting effects of different color patterns. The stimulus fish are fitted with thin plastic suits, with the pattern to be tested painted on each suit. Small numbers of stimulus fish are required. They adjust readily to the suit and rarely show agitated movements during testing. Suited-up stimulus fish may better simulate the appearance of free-living conspecifics than dummy fish that show no breathing activity or unassisted swimming movements. At the same time, suited-up fish provide some variation in stimulus characteristics particularly relative to swimming movement.     

Similar phenomena,different mechanisms: Semantic and phonological false memories are produced by independent mechanisms

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm can produce high levels of false remembering for lists of both semantic and phonological associates. The present study investigated whether similar mechanisms mediate false memories with these two types of lists. Experiment 1 measured the relationship between levels of false memory obtained with lists of semantic and phonological associates. The results indicated little correlation between false memories generated with the two types of associates. Experiment 2 used a between-subjects design to determine whether the absence of a significant correlation in Experiment 1 was a consequence of the relatively low levels of false memory observed in that experiment. The results indicated similar proportions of false memories in Experiments 1 and 2, suggesting that the within-subjects design in Experiment 1 did not reduce the overall levels of false recall or recognition. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the independence of the mechanisms mediating different types of false memories.