Comprehension of new instructions for car drivers in merging areas

This article describes some key results of a study with the aim of measuring the time and accuracy of comprehension of the new instructions ‘keep lane’ and ‘merge alternately’. These instructions shall allow for a more efficient merging behaviour when approaching a working zone with a lane closure on a motorway, and thus increase the capacity of such bottlenecks. One hundred and ninety seven randomly selected car drivers were surveyed by means of face-to-face interviews. A computer-aided survey design ensured a precise measurement of the comprehension time and the testing of animated signs. The instruction ‘merge alternately’ performed well in every respect, though the tested signs were new to drivers. The instruction ‘keep lane’ refers to a completely new meaning. It lags behind both in time and accuracy of comprehension. In this case, the results suggest using a variable message sign (VMS) with a simple text rather than a picture. Moreover, a considerable learning effect was identified. Comprehension improved significantly with the third repetition of the instruction.     

On the Ease of (Dis)believing: The Role of Accessibility Experiences in Credibility Judgments

Credibility judgments are common and consequential in many applied settings. Although much research has addressed human observers' ability to discriminate true and deceptive statements, less is known about the psychological processes involved in such judgments. Here, it is proposed that the process of mustering evidence for or against credibility is reflected in a feeling‐based form (ease‐of‐retrieval) and that such feelings can be used as a basis for credibility judgments. The results of an experiment show, as predicted, that the perceived ease with which participants could identify clues strongly influenced credibility judgments. Ironically, mustering more clues in support of a truthful account lowered credibility judgments; in contrast, mustering more clues in support of a deceptive account increased credibility judgments. Mediation analyses suggest that this is because participants relied on a feeling‐based as opposed to content‐based judgment strategy. Practical implications are discussed, and theoretical issues regarding the process of credibility judgment are raised. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disjunction Between Probability and Verdict in Juror Decision Making

Although the law assumes a close relation between the probability that a defendant committed the act in question and the ensuing verdict of the jurors, prior research has shown this assumption to be often violated. We present five experiments designed to show that factors that influence probability also influence verdict, but other factors are capable of directly producing changes in verdict without affecting probability. In Experiment 1, we replicated the Wells Effect; scenarios generating the same probability that the Blue Bus Company was to blame for the same accident, nevertheless, generated significantly different likelihoods of finding the defendant liable. In Experiment 2, we showed that equally diagnostic affirmative and negative evidence had differential effects on mock jurors' probability estimates and verdicts. In Experiment 3, we showed that a completely nondiagnostic witness, who either implicates the same bus company or a different bus company as did a diagnostic witness, significantly influenced mock jurors' verdicts. However, the nondiagnostic witness did not change the probability that the Blue Bus Company was responsible for the accident. In Experiment 4, we demonstrated that base rate and witness reliability information resulted in very similar probability estimates but radically different verdicts. In Experiment 5, we showed that a change in the diagnosticity of the evidence influenced both probability and verdict with the former mediating differences in the later. Because probability is only one of the several determinants of the verdict, the two dependent variables are not as closely related as the law presumes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Not all contrast effects are created equal: extent of processing affects contrast strength

Prevailing theories of judgmental contrasts propose mechanisms ranging from relatively low versus high degrees of thought. The present research tests the hypothesis that the degree of thought involved in producing judgmental contrast has important implications. In three experiments, participants' ability or motivation to engage in effortful thinking was manipulated. In Experiment 1, varying personal relevance produced equivalent contrast effects, but these judgments differed in certainty. In two additional studies, despite equivalent amounts of contrast, a manipulation of the order of the standards and target of comparison led to differences in certainty (Experiment 2) and attitude–behavioral intention correspondence (Experiment 3). This is the first research to show that amount of thinking has implications for the strength and consequences of the judgment.     

Memory suppression can help people “unlearn” behavioral responses—but only for nonemotional memories

When encountering reminders of memories that we prefer not to think about, we often try to exclude those memories from awareness. Past studies have revealed that such suppression attempts can reduce the subsequent recollection of unwanted memories. In the present study, we examined whether the inhibitory effects extend even to associated behavioral responses. Participants learned cue–target pairs for emotional and nonemotional targets and were additionally trained in behavioral responses for each cue. Afterward, they were shown the cues and instructed either to think or to avoid thinking about the targets without performing any behaviors. In a final test phase, behavioral performance was tested for all of the cues. When the targets were neutral, participants’ attempts to avoid retrieval reduced accuracy and increased reaction times in generating behavioral responses associated with cues. By contrast, behavioral performance was not affected by suppression attempts when the targets were emotional. These results indicate that controlling unwanted recollection is powerful enough to inhibit associated behavioral responses—but only for nonemotional memories.     

Two qubits for C.G. Jung’s theory of personality

We propose a formalization of C.G. Jung’s theory of personality using a four-dimensional Hilbert-space for the representation of two qubits. The first qubit relates to Jung’s four psychological functions: Thinking, Feeling, Sensing and iNtuition, which are represented by two groups of projection operators, {T, F} and {S, N}. The operators in each group are commuting but operators of different groups are not. The second qubit represents Jung’s two perspectives of extraversion and introversion. It is shown that this system gives a natural explanation of the 16 psychological types that are defined in the Jungian tradition. Further, the system accounts for the restriction posed by Jung concerning the possible combination of psychological functions and perspectives. The empirical consequences of the present theory are discussed, and the results of a pilot study are reported with the aim to check some basic predictions of the theory. In addition, it is shown why the present praxis of personality diagnostics based on classical statistics is insufficient.     

SUICIDALITY IN MEN IN PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

Based on the evidence of empirical gender differences in attempted suicide and suicide, this paper develops psychodynamic hypotheses on gender‐specific biographic, intra‐psychic and treatment aspects of suicidality among men. ‘Forming Types by Understanding’ is a qualitative method, based on a systematic analysis of similarity and differential reference points to develop ideal types of suicidal men. A random sample of 20 suicidal men who were receiving out‐patient psychodynamic psychotherapy was studied.

Four ideal types of suicidal men were identified: (1) ideal type ‘disconnected’: a predominance of disconnected feelings that is associated with rejection experiences; (2) ideal type ‘hurt’: aggressive conflicts and the realization of disillusioned life reality combined with experiences of real loss and real trauma; (3) ideal type ‘stormy’: an attached‐symbiotic transference offer mobilizes unrealistic wishes to help against a background of unresolved dependency conflicts; and (4) ideal type ‘object dependent’: concrete facts are important in relationships; in case of separation, real repossession of the woman must occur, a lack of emotional experience is compensated. The danger of suicidality, especially in the early stage of psychotherapy, is particularly acute for patients who cannot reach their therapists emotionally and vice versa. Disturbance of the early experience of inseparability from the mother, gender‐specific conflicts in the development of separation and individuation, and failed triangulation are of central psychodynamic importance.     

Priming the trait category “hostility”: The moderating role of trait anxiety

Recent studies on affective priming with the naming task have revealed an influence of trait anxiety on the direction of affective priming effects (e.g., Berner & Maier, 2004 Berner, M. P. and Maier, M. A. 2004. The direction of affective priming as a function of trait anxiety when naming target words with regular and irregular pronunciation. Experimental Psychology, 51: 180–190. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This moderating role of trait anxiety was further investigated in a study employing a conceptual priming task. After masked presentation of either hostile or neutral primes, participants performed a person judgment task. As expected, the direction of the hostility rating difference score, defined as the difference between hostility ratings of a target person in the hostility priming condition and in the neutral priming condition, changed from positive to negative with increasing levels of self-reported trait anxiety. The findings are interpreted in terms of salience-dependent overcorrection processes (Glaser & Banaji, 1999 Glaser, J. and Banaji, M. R. 1999. When fair is foul and foul is fair: Reverse priming in automatic evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77: 669–687. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Implications for our understanding of the cognitive functioning in high trait anxiety are discussed.     

Flexible cortical gamma-band correlations suggest neural principles of visual processing

We summarize recent studies of our group from the primary visual cortex V1 of behaving monkeys referring to the hypothesis of spatial feature binding by γ-synchronization (30-90 Hz). In agreement with this hypothesis the data demonstrates decoupling of γ-activities among neural groups representing figure and ground. As γ-synchronization in V1 is restricted to cortical ranges of few millimeters, feature binding may equivalently be restricted in visual space. Closer inspection shows that the restriction in synchrony is due to far-reaching travelling γ-waves with changing phase coupling. Based on this observation we extend the initial binding-by-synchronization hypothesis and suggest object continuity to be coded by phase continuity. It is further argued that the spatial phase changes of the V1 γ-waves in general will also limit lateral phase coupling to higher levels of processing. Instead of phase-locked γ-coupling, corticocortical cooperation among γ-processes may be mediated by mutual amplitude modulations that are more reliable than phase synchrony over larger distances. The relevance of this concept of corticocortical binding is demonstrated with subdural recordings from human subjects performing cognitive tasks. The experimental results are discussed on the basis of network models with spiking neurons.