Social Capital and Somali Families in Australia

This paper focuses on the hopes that Somalis who came to Melbourne as refugees have for their children’s education. It analyses their perceptions of the Somali and Australian education systems and the implications of these for their family’s ability to adapt and cope with Australian life. In doing so, it also shows how they use education to reconstruct their world as part of resettlement in Australia. This paper argues that specific programmes and activities that bring parents and teachers together around their child’s education can build bridging social capital, contributes to optimism about the future and sets the stage for positive agency at a time when Somali families are coping with trauma, loss and disconnection in an unfamiliar society.     

A laboratory analogue of mirrored-self misidentification delusion: The role of hypnosis,suggestion, and demand characteristics

Mirrored-self misidentification is the delusional belief that one’s own reflection in the mirror is a stranger. In two experiments, we tested the ability of hypnotic suggestion to model this condition. In Experiment 1, we compared two suggestions based on either the delusion’s surface features (seeing a stranger in the mirror) or underlying processes (impaired face processing). Fifty-two high hypnotisable participants received one of these suggestions either with hypnosis or without in a wake control. In Experiment 2, we examined the extent to which social cues and role-playing could account for participants’ behaviour by comparing the responses of 14 hypnotised participants to the suggestion for impaired face processing (reals) with those of 14 nonhypnotised participants instructed to fake their responses (simulators). Overall, results from both experiments confirm that we can use hypnotic suggestion to produce a compelling analogue of mirrored-self misidentification that cannot simply be attributed to social cues or role-playing.     

Deep thoughts and shallow frames: on the susceptibility to framing effects

This paper examines the occurrence of framing effects when more thought is given to problems. In Study 1, participants were presented with one of two frames of several decision problems. Participants' Need for Cognition (NC) scores were obtained, and half the participants were asked to justify their choices. Substantial framing effects were observed, but the amount of thought purportedly given to a problem, whether manipulated by justification elicitation or measured by NC scores, did not reduce the incidence of framing effects. In Study 2, participants responded to both frames of problems in a within‐subjects design. Again, NC scores were unrelated to responses on the first frame encountered. However, high‐NC, compared to low‐NC, participants were more consistent across frames of a problem. More thought, as indexed here, does not reduce the proclivity to be framed, but does promote adherence to normative principles when the applicability of those principles is detectable. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of a prior cognitive interview on children's acceptance of misinformation

This research examined whether a Cognitive interview facilitates correct recall in children aged 4 to 5 and 9 to 10 years, and whether a Cognitive interview given before post‐event misinformation reduces children's reporting of suggestions on subsequent memory tests. Children were presented with an event followed the next day by a Cognitive or a Memorandum interview. Children were then read a post‐event summary containing misleading suggestions. The next day all children were given both standard test and modified forced‐choice cued‐recall tests. The free recall phase of the Cognitive interview elicited the greatest number of correct details. Age differences were found such that 9‐ to 10‐year‐old children's reports were more accurate and more complete than those of the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. More correct person, action and object details were reported in a Cognitive interview. Misinformation effects were found in both age groups on the standard test whereas on the modified test such an effect was only found in the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. Children's reporting of suggestions was unaffected by prior interview. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The value of stress-management interventions in life-threatening medical conditions

Emotional stress has been associated with the development and progression of several chronic medical conditions. Recently, researchers have assessed the impact of stress-management interventions on patients' psychological functioning, quality of life, and various disease outcomes, including survival. This review summarizes the value of stress-management techniques in the treatment of two important, life-threatening conditions: coronary heart disease and cancer. Results from randomized clinical trials indicate that psychological interventions can improve patients' psychological functioning and quality of life. However, there is limited evidence to suggest that these interventions significantly reduce morbidity and mortality.     

After-effects of reinforcement magnitude: Dependence upon context

On a fixed-interval schedule with rat subjects the duration of the post-reinforcement pause was found to be an increasing function of the magnitude of the preceding reinforcer. This relationship was observed when two magnitudes were contrasted closely in time, but not when the subjects were trained on each magnitude until the establishment of stable responding. After the behaviour was stable, the effect of the magnitude of reinforcement re-emerged when 50% of the scheduled reinforcers were omitted. Thus, the positive relationship between the magnitude of reinforcement and the duration of the post-reinforcement pause depended on the context of presentation of a given magnitude.     

Temporal aspects of selective masking

In two experiments, rows of random letter sequences were presented for 100 ms and were patterned masked at varying delays after display offset. In Experiment I recall was probed by visual partial report cues, while auditory probes were employed in Experiment II. Compared to no-masking control conditions, the masking stimulus had a selective effect at the different positions of the rows. The masking stimulus produced the largest decrements in recall of letters from the centre positions of the displays but had a minimal effect on performance at either end of the rows. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that improvements in recall were limited to the centre positions of the rows at increased delays of mask. Subsidiary analyses revealed that processing of the end letters of the displays terminates shortly after display offset while processing of the centre letters continues for at least 500 ms. The results are consistent with the notion that processing of multi-letter arrays commences at the ends of the rows and that the selective masking effect reflects the order of processing of the contents of iconic memory. However, these results were evident only in Experiment II which employed auditory partial report cues. When the partial report cues were visual, there were no effects of masking and minimal increases in performance at increased delays of mask. The discrepant results of the two experiments are discussed in terms of process interruption caused by obligatory attention to the partial report cues.     

Effects of signal uncertainty on statistical decisions

The experimental task involved statistical judgements about parameters of a random sample of dots displayed sequentially from a ‘signal’ or ‘noise’ distribution. Signal uncertainty was introduced by presenting small signal subsets of dots within larger observation sequences. Observer detection performance was adversely affected by this kind of signal uncertainty, but in the same way and to similar extent as that expected on the basis of ‘ideal’ and ‘independent’ statistical decision strategies.