Priming insight in groups: Facilitating and inhibiting solving an ambiguously worded insight problem

We extend research on the priming of insight by studying group problem solving. Groups of 2–4 participants tried to solve an ambiguously worded problem in the presence of a prime that reinforced the dominant but incorrect interpretation of the problem, a prime that reinforced the uncommon but correct interpretation, or no prime. The paradigm involved participants asking questions of the experimenter that could only be answered “yes” or “no.” In Experiment 1, the prime was present throughout the solving period; in Experiment 2, it was removed prior to the solving period. In both experiments, the primes had their predicted effects. Patterns in the time taken to solve the problem supported the idea that groups stuck at the impasse were more or less able to restructure the problem, depending on the environmental context. Data from the questions asked and questionnaires converged with time taken to solve the problem, consistent with the view that restructuring a problem is an automatic process that produces insight. A comparison of the group data in Experiment 1 with individually tested participants’ data revealed that the insight of the groups benefited from their being able to recognize lines of questions to follow, to listen to answers to questions asked, and to evaluate and reject errors or assumptions.     

Dilemmas of citizenship: young people's conceptions of un/employment rights and responsibilities

This paper draws on the concept of ideological dilemmas in order to explore how a sample of young people constructed potentially contrary themes of liberal citizenship in discussions of un/employment. The study took place in the context of recent policy developments in the UK which have sought to place a renewed emphasis upon notions of responsible citizenship in relation to both welfare and education policy. A total of 58 participants were interviewed in 24 semi-structured group interviews. In response to direct questions on un/employment, participants could resolve dilemmas concerning welfare rights and the responsibility to contribute to society by emphasizing a criterion of effortfulness, thereby adopting a primarily individualistic explanation of unemployment. In other contexts however, this could be replaced by an emphasis on social explanations of unemployment. In particular, participants could treat immigration as a cause of unemployment. These findings are interpreted in terms of people's capacity to construct rhetorical strategies based upon different ideological themes in particular contexts. They are discussed in relation to previous research on social policy discourse and recent debates regarding the appropriateness of seeking to identify ideological themes in discourse.     

Synesthesia and memory: color congruency, von Restorff, and false memory effects

In the current study, we explored the influence of synesthesia on memory for word lists. We tested 10 grapheme-color synesthetes who reported an experience of color when reading letters or words. We replicated a previous finding that memory is compromised when synesthetic color is incongruent with perceptual color. Beyond this, we found that, although their memory for word lists was superior overall, synesthetes did not exhibit typical color- or semantic-defined von Restorff isolation effects (von Restorff, 1933) compared with control participants. Moreover, our synesthetes exhibited a reduced Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory effect (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Taken as a whole, these findings are consistent with the idea that color-grapheme synesthesia can lead people to place a greater emphasis on item-specific processing and surface form characteristics of words in a list (e.g., the letters that make them up) relative to relational processing and more meaning-based processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).     

Influences of problem format and SES on preschoolers’ understanding of approximate addition

Recent studies suggest that 5-year-olds can add and compare large numerical quantities through approximate representations of number. However, the nature of this understanding and its susceptibility to environmental influences remain unclear. We examined whether children's early competence depends on the canonical problem format (i.e., arithmetic operations presented on the left side). Sixty children from middle-to-high-SES backgrounds (Experiment 1) and 47 children from low-SES backgrounds (Experiment 2) viewed events that required them to add and compare large numbers. Events were shown in a canonical or noncanonical format. Children from both SES backgrounds performed above chance on the approximate addition tasks, but children from middle-to-high-SES backgrounds performed significantly better. Moreover, children from middle-to-high SES backgrounds performed better when problems were presented in the canonical format, whereas children from low-SES backgrounds did not. These results suggest that children's understanding of approximate number is affected by some of the same environmental factors that affect performance on exact arithmetic tasks.     

Do Strong Group Identities Fuel Intolerance? Evidence From the South African Case

One conventional explanation of intergroup conflict is Social Identity Theory. That theory asserts that strong ingroup sympathies can give rise to outgroup antipathies which in turn fuel intolerance and conflict. While embraced by both macro- and microlevel analysts, this theory actually has not been widely investigated outside a laboratory environment. In this article, I test hypotheses linking group identities with intolerance, based on a 2001 survey in South Africa, a country where group identities have long been politicized. My empirical findings indicate that group identities are not useful predictors of South African intolerance. Indeed, for neither the black majority nor the white minority do ingroup identities activate very much outgroup intolerance. Moreover, group identities are positively, not negatively, correlated with holding a South African national identity. These findings, based on unusually broad indicators of both identity and tolerance, suggest that the causes of group conflict lie elsewhere than in group attachments.     

Respect as Esteem: The Case of Counselling

To claim that respect is one of the cornerstones of professional ethics is uncontroversial. However, it has become commonplace in the philosophical literature to distinguish between different kinds of respect. This paper considers the distinction between ‘recognition respect,’ said to be owed to persons as such, and ‘appraisal respect,’ said to be owed to those persons whom merit it, in the context of the professional–client relationship. Using the practice of counselling as an example, it is argued that both kinds of respect have a place in the professional–client relationship, which is in turn articulated as a relationship between equally fallible moral agents.     

Institutional Values of Managed Mental Health Care: Efficiency or Oppression?

The authors suggest that many managed mental health care (MMHC) practices have oppressive effects on members of cultural and ethnic minority groups. They examine the dissonance between institutional practices and cultural traditions that reflect insensitivity and forced conformity, particularly regarding time, pace, and intervention uniformity as applied to clients and commonly required in the MMHC industry. Los autores sugieren que muchas prácticas del cuidado administrado de la salud mental (MMHC, por sus siglas en inglés) tienen efectos opresivos sobre los miembros de grupos de minorías étnicas y culturales. Examinan también la disonancia entre prácticas institucionales y tradiciones culturales que reflejan insensibilidad y una conformidad forzada, sobre todo en lo referente a tiempo, ritmo y uniformidad de intervención tal y como se aplica a clientes y normalmente requeridos por la industria de MMHC.     

Retrospective Analysis of Gender Differences in Reaction to Media Coverage of Crisis Events: New Insights on the Justice and Care Orientations

We surveyed 2,125 men and 3,735 women (N = 5,860) across the USA to test hypothesized relationships regarding women’s and men’s use of justice and care orientations when they confront crisis events with moral implications. Consistent with previous research, we found that women were more likely than men to adopt a care orientation. Contrary to expectations, however, women also adopted a justice response to a greater degree than did men. We found that, in response to a crisis, women, unlike men, were more likely to believe they would connect with others and take action. Implications for explaining inconsistencies in prior research findings on the justice and care orientations, and for conceptualizing these important constructs in a new way, are discussed.     

Psychometric evaluation of the Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue scale for use with pregnant and postpartum women

Although fatigue is a common experience for pregnant women and new mothers, few measures of fatigue have been validated for use with this population. To address this gap, the authors assessed psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAF) scale, which was used in 2 independent samples of pregnant women. Results indicated that the psychometric properties of the scale were very similar across samples and time points. The scale possesses a high level of internal consistency, has good convergent validity with measures of sleep quality and depression, and discriminates well from a measure of social support. Contrary to previous evaluations of the MAF, data strongly suggest that the scale represents a unidimensional construct best represented by a single factor. Results indicate that the MAF is a useful measure of fatigue among pregnant and postpartum women.     

Interaction between the development of postural control and the executive function of attention

The authors examined the interaction between the development of postural control and the development of the executive function of attention in 13 children and 6 adults in dual-task conditions. Participants performed an attentionally demanding cognitive task and a postural task simultaneously. The authors equalized the attentional load of the cognitive task across age groups. Comparative changes in the center of pressure in dual- and single-task conditions indicated that dual tasks interfered with postural performance in the wide stance (WS) and the modified Romberg stance (RS). Children at 4-6 years of age (but not children at ages 7-12 years of age or adults) experienced postural control interference in both stance positions, but interference was greater in the RS (p = .018). For all participants, cognitive task performance in RS was unchanged from that in WS. The knowledge gained from the results of this study will contribute to the design and implementation of academic and preacademic programming for young children. Their performance of an intentionally demanding cognitive task would be enhanced by the provision of appropriately sized desks and chairs or their use of an alternate, less demanding position.