Warm and Competent Hassan = Cold and Incompetent Eric: A Harsh Equation of Real-Life Hiring Discrimination

In a field experiment, we sent out 5,636 job applications varying how Swedish (in-group) and Arab (out-group) applicants presented themselves in terms of two fundamental dimensions of social judgment: warmth and competence. Results indicate substantial discrimination where Arab applicants receive fewer invitations to job interviews. Conveying a warmer or more competent personality increases invitations. However, appearing both warm and competent seems to be especially important for Arab applicants. Arab applicants need to appear warmer and more competent than Swedish applicants to be invited equally often. The practical importance of signaling warmth and competence in labor market contexts is discussed.     

Talking Circles: A Native American Approach to Experiential Learning

Talking circles, as a unique instructional approach, can be used to stimulate multicultural awareness while fostering respect for individual differences and facilitating group cohesion. A brief history of the talking circle is followed by detailed instructions, talking circle process questions, ideas for classroom discussion after the activity, and teaching strategies. Círculos de conversación, como un método singular de pedagogía, se puede utilizar para estimular consciencia multicultural, mientras a la vez promueve el respeto para las diferencias individuales, y facilita cohesión grupal. Le sigue a una breve historia del círculo de conversación unas instrucciones detalladas, preguntas para procesar el círculo, ideas para discusión en clase despues de la actividad, y estrategias pedagógicas.     

Getting along or ahead: Effects of gender identity threat on communal and agentic self‐presentations

When faced with a threat to gender identity, people may try to restore their gender status by acting in a more gender‐typical manner. The present research investigated effects of gender identity threat on self‐presentations of agentic and communal traits in a Swedish and an Argentine sample (N = 242). Under threat (vs. affirmation), Swedish women deemphasized agentic traits (d [95% CI] = ?0.41 [?0.93, 0.11]), Argentine women increased their emphasis on communal traits (d = 0.44 [?0.08, 0.97]), and Argentine men increased their emphasis on agentic traits (d = 0.49 [?0.03, 1.01]). However, Swedish men did not appear to be affected by the threat regarding agentic (d = 0.04 [?0.47, 0.55]) or communal traits (d = 0.23 [?0.29, 0.74]). The findings are to be considered tentative. Implications for identity threat research are discussed.     

EFFECT OF REINFORCER MAGNITUDE ON PERFORMANCE MAINTAINED BY PROGRESSIVE‐RATIO SCHEDULES

This experiment examined the relationship between reinforcer magnitude and quantitative measures of performance on progressive‐ratio schedules. Fifteen rats were trained under a progressive‐ratio schedule in seven phases of the experiment in which the volume of a 0.6‐M sucrose solution reinforcer was varied within the range 6–300 μl. Overall response rates in successive ratios conformed to a bitonic equation derived from Killeen's (1994) Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement. The “specific activation” parameter, a, which is presumed to reflect the incentive value of the reinforcer, was a monotonically increasing function of reinforcer volume; the “response time” parameter, δ, which defines the minimum response time, increased as a function of reinforcer volume; the “currency” parameter, b, which is presumed to reflect the coupling of responses to the reinforcer, declined as a function of volume. Running response rate (response rate calculated after exclusion of the postreinforcement pause) decayed monotonically as a function of ratio size; the index of curvature of this function increased as a function of reinforcer volume. Postreinforcement pause increased as a function of ratio size. Estimates of a derived from overall response rates and postreinforcement pauses showed a modest positive correlation across conditions and between animals. Implications of the results for the quantification of reinforcer value and for the use of progressive‐ratio schedules in behavioral neuroscience are discussed.     

Understanding mass allegations of satanist child abuse in early modern Sweden: demographic data relevant to the Rättvik outbreak of 1670-1671

Demographic characteristics of 79 women who were accused of satanist child abductions in the parish of R?ttvik, Sweden, in 1670-1671; 53 adults who promoted such accusations by bringing children to interrogations; and samples from the general population of R?ttvik were compared. Results indicate that men were more likely to promote allegations of satanism than women and that these men were more likely to be married than the average R?ttvik male. Promoters of allegations were older than average parishioners, and land-owning people who were involved in the panic owned more land than landowners who were not involved. People who were involved in the panic knew less about Luther's catechism than members of the general population. It is suggested that most of these findings may reflect a tendency of people who lived in the proximity of children to become involved in the panic.     

A Definition Framework for the Terms <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nanomaterial</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nanoparticle</Emphasis>

Scientific writings and policy documents define the terms nanomaterial and nanoparticle in various ways. This variation is considered problematic because the absence of a shared definition is understood as potentially hindering nanomaterial knowledge production and regulation. Another view is that the existence of a shared definition may itself cause problems, as rigid definitions arguably exclude important aspects of the studied phenomena. The aim of this paper is to inform this state of disagreement by providing analytical concepts for a systematic understanding of how, and even whether, nanomaterial and nanoparticle could and should be defined. To do this, we review definitions of nanomaterial and nanoparticle presented in research articles and policy documents. Definitions were identified by first conducting a Scopus search and then tracing cited definitions back to their sources. In total, 36 definitions were identified. Theories of definition from philosophy and linguistics provide analytical guidance for structuring and categorizing the identified definitions, and the main analytical dimensions of the definitions are then identified and discussed. Finally, we propose a framework for understanding the process of defining nanomaterial and nanoparticle. This framework considers both the generality needed for a shared understanding (by suggesting proto-definitions of nanomaterial and nanoparticle) and the level of precision required for different purposes (by allowing for various explications of the proto-definitions).     

A test of two methods of arithmetic fluency training and implications for educational practice

Children are exposed to multiple training tasks that are intended to support acquisition of basic arithmetic skills. Surprisingly, there is a scarcity of experimental research that directly compares the efficacy of those tasks, raising the possibility that children may be spending critical instructional time on tasks that are not effective. We conducted an experiment with 1st through 6th grade children comparing two arithmetic training tasks that are widely used: answer production training and fact triangle training. Results show that answer production training produces substantial fluency gains, whereas fact triangle training does not. Further, we show that, despite theoretical considerations that suggest otherwise, fact triangle training does not produce more flexibly applicable learning. Implications for memory representation, arithmetic fluency training, and broader educational strategy are discussed.     

The Malay Lexicon Project: A database of lexical statistics for 9,592 words

Malay, a language spoken by 250 million people, has a shallow alphabetic orthography, simple syllable structures, and transparent affixation—characteristics that contrast sharply with those of English. In the present article, we first compare the letter—phoneme and letter—syllable ratios for a sample of alphabetic orthographies to highlight the importance of separating language-specific from language-universal reading processes. Then, in order to develop a better understanding of word recognition in orthographies with more consistent mappings to phonology than English, we compiled a database of lexical variables (letter length, syllable length, phoneme length, morpheme length, word frequency, orthographic and phonological neighborhood sizes, and orthographic and phonological Levenshtein distances) for 9,592 Malay words. Separate hierarchical regression analyses for Malay and English revealed how the consistency of orthography—phonology mappings selectively modulates the effects of different lexical variables on lexical decision and speeded pronunciation performance. The database of lexical and behavioral measures for Malay is available at http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/ supplemental.