Inferring sexual interest from behavioral cues: Effects of gender and sexually relevant attitudes

Research has found that men impute more sexual meaning to others' behavior than do women. However, little research has examined the possibility that men and women share perceptions of the sexual connotativeness of certain behaviors but diverge in their perceptions of other behaviors. In Study 1, 162 male and 186 female undergraduates, predominantly Caucasian, rated the degree to which each of 27 behaviors of male and female targets connoted a desire for sexual intercourse. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that, whereas men perceived all but two of the female target behaviors more sexually than women, men and women differed in their perceptions of the sexual connotativeness of only about half of the male target behaviors. A factor analysis revealed three factors for both male and female target behaviors, reflecting mundane dating behaviors, romantic behaviors, and sexual behaviors. Relative to women, men perceived only the mundane dating behaviors more sexually, although regression analyses showed these effects to be moderated by subjects' attitudes toward women. Study 2 examined the extent to which sexually relevant attitudes (e.g., sex role stereotyping, adversarial sexual beliefs, and rape myth acceptance) moderate subjects' perceptions of the sexual connotativeness of the behaviors. Men, particularly those who endorsed traditional, sexually relevant attitudes, were more likely than women to impute sexual meaning to the behaviors. The implications of this for dating situations are discussed.The author wishes to thank Mark Leary and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article.     

IPI and MMPI predictions of counterproductive job behaviors by racial group

Correctional officers hired by a large urban agency between 1980 and 1985 were administered the Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) before being appointed to the job. The 3,349 white, 3,391 black, and 1,547 hispanic male officers were subsequently evaluated on their job status and histories of absence, lateness, and disciplinary interviews. Discriminant function analyses were applied to the IPI and MMPI, alone and together, to assess any race differences in their prediction accuracy for each counterproductive job behavior measure. No significant bias in prediction accuracy was detected, though hispanic males tended to have the highest number of correct predictions. The implementation of prediction equations for these tests would have reduced negative job behaviors by as much as 13%. Analyses of the relative percentages of good performers rated incorrectly were also included.     

Video training of imagery for mature adults

To examine the effectiveness of videotaped memory training, two groups of middle-aged and older adults were given imagery training that included videotaped presentation of interactive imagery for object location recall and linking items on a list, and the image-name match method for name recall. The training group performed significantly better than the waiting list on the initial post-test, and the two groups were comparable after both groups had received training. Evidence for both maintenance and generalization was found. Videotaped presentation of imagery training is effective for mature adults as a self-paced at-home intervention, and has cost-saving advantages over the predominant training methodology.     

A model-based standardization approach that separates true bias/DIF from group ability differences and detects test bias/DTF as well as item bias/DIF

A model-based modification (SIBTEST) of the standardization index based upon a multidimensional IRT bias modeling approach is presented that detects and estimates DIF or item bias simultaneously for several items. A distinction between DIF and bias is proposed. SIBTEST detects bias/DIF without the usual Type 1 error inflation due to group target ability differences. In simulations, SIBTEST performs comparably to Mantel-Haenszel for the one item case. SIBTEST investigates bias/DIF for several items at the test score level (multiple item DIF called differential test functioning: DTF), thereby allowing the study of test bias/DIF, in particular bias/DIF amplification or cancellation and the cognitive bases for bias/DIF.This research was partially supported by Office of Naval Research Cognitive and Neural Sciences Grant N0014-90-J-1940, 4421-548 and National Science Foundation Mathematics Grant NSF-DMS-91-01436. The research reported here is collaborative in every respect and the order of authorship is alphabetical. The assistance of Hsin-hung Li and Louis Roussos in conducting the simulation studies was of great help. Discussions with Terry Ackerman, Paul Holland, and Louis Roussos were very helpful.     

Distraction,Control, and Dental Stress1

This study examined the efficacy of external distraction as a coping strategy. Thirty-eight dental patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: incidental music during the dental procedure, music coupled with suggestions that music would help reduce stress, or a no-treatment control group. Patients in both music groups reported experiencing less stress (i.e., less pain. less discomfort, more control) than patients in the no-treatment group. Patient ratings made by dentists, blind to condition, provided converging evidence for the therapeutic effect of distraction. Thus, distracting music was found to be effective in reducing stress and increasing perceptions of control. The relative ease and simplicity of implementing external distraction compared to manipulating actual control in a medical setting may make this manipulation attractive to professionals involved with individuals experiencing stress.     

Age differences in the recall of actions and cognitive activities: The effects of presentation rate and object cues

Summary In studies of activity memory, age differences have been found in the recall of cognitive activities (sustained mental activities that subjects solve during acquisition) but not in recall of Subject-Performed Tasks (one-step actions that subjects enact during acquisition). To understand the reasons for the discrepant findings, both types of item were included in a study examining the effects of object cues, rate of presentation, and aging. Variations in presentation rate or use of objects did not account for the different findings on the two item types. Even when presentation rate and object cues were matched, larger age differences were found for recall of cognitive activities than of SPTs. Age differences were also affected by the interaction of item type, presentation rate, and the presence of objects during encoding. To identify the variables controlling age differences, more analysis is needed of the features of activities to be remembered.     

NATURE, NURTURE, AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT FROM 1 TO 16 YEARS:

Abstract— Children increasingly resemble their parents in cognitive abilities from infancy through adolescence Results obtained from a 20-year longitudinal adoption study of 245 adopted children and their biological and adoptive parents, as well as 245 matched nonadoptive (control) parents and offspring, show that this increasing resemblance is due to genetic factors Adopted children resemble their adaptive parents slightly in early childhood but not at all in middle childhood or adolescence. In contrast, during childhood and adolescence, adopted children become more like their biological parents, and to the same degree as children and parents in control families Although these results were strongest for general cognitive ability and verbal ability similar results were found for other specific cognitive abilities—spatial ability, speed of processing, and recognition memory. These findings indicate that within this population, genes that stably adolescence and that environmental factors that contribute to cognitive development are not correlated with parents' cognitive ability.     

Offset transients modulate attentional capture by sudden onsets

Recent research with visual search tasks has suggested that stimuli which appear as sudden onsets (new objects) have attentional priority over stimuli that are created by removing segments of premasks (non-onset stimuli). Attentional capture by sudden onsets occurs despite the fact that the appearance of these new objects predicts neither the identity nor the location of the target in the visual search task. In three experiments, we examined the extent to which attentional capture by sudden onsets could be modulated by offset transients used to create non-onset objects. To that end, we systematically manipulated the ratio of non-onset to onset stimuli in the display (display ratio) as well as the ratio of offset to onset segments between the stimulus types (stimulus ratio). Increases in either the stimulus ratio or the display ratio resulted in increases in the visual search slopes for the onset targets. These results suggest that the ability of sudden onsets (new objects) to capture attention is influenced by stimulusdriven factors, such as environmental change. Interestingly, the results also indicated that goal-directed or purposeful search for sudden-onset (new-object) targets was relatively uninfluenced by the amount of change in the visual display. Therefore, it would appear that environmental change has differential effects on goal-directed and stimulus-driven search. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of attentional capture.     

Effects of Exposure to Cigarette Advertisements on Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Smoking1

One hundred seventy-eight adolescents viewed a magazine that either contained or did not contain 4 cigarette advertisements. Adolescents who have tried smoking reported more positive attitudes toward smoking. Of the adolescents who have tried smoking, those in the cigarette-advertisement-present condition expressed more positive attitudes toward smoking than did those in the cigarette-advertisement-absent condition. Consistent with the prediction that adolescents who have tried (vs. never tried) smoking would attend more to cigarette advertisements, adolescents in the cigarette-advertisement-present condition who have tried (vs. never tried) smoking correctly recognized more cigarette advertisements. Taken together, these results suggest that adolescents who have tried smoking are attending to cigarette advertisements and are impacted by cigarette advertisements; specifically, cigarette advertisements bolster these adolescents' attitudes toward smoking.