The Effect of Different Types of Leading Questions on Adult Eyewitnesses with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

Adults with an intellectual disability (ID) are often considered poor witnesses; however, this may depend on the type of questions asked during investigative interviews. We examined the impact of four different types of misleading questions commonly used in interviews. These questions varied in their specificity, presumptive knowledge and structure (open or closed). Forty‐one adults with a mild ID watched a short film; they were then interviewed about what had happened. Half of the questions contained misleading information. In a later recognition test, participants showed a misinformation effect: they correctly recognised more items about which they had received control information than the items about which they had received misleading information. Closer inspection of the data revealed that both closed and open presumptive questions generated the largest misinformation effects. These findings highlight the vulnerability of adults with an ID to misleading questions, specifically those that presume certain information to be true. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dogs’ use of the solidity principle: revisited

A wealth of comparative data has been accumulated over the past decades on how animals acquire and use information about the physical world. Domestic dogs have typically performed comparably poorly in physical cognition tasks, though in a recent study Kundey et al. (Anim Cogn 13:497–505, 2010) challenged this view and concluded that dogs understand that objects cannot pass through solid barriers. However, the eight subjects in the study of Kundey et al. may have solved the task with the help of perceptual cues, which had not been controlled for. Here, we tested dogs with a similar task that excluded these cues. In addition, unlike the set-up of Kundey et al., our set-up allowed the subjects to observe the effect of the solid barrier. Nevertheless, all 28 subjects failed to solve this task spontaneously and showed no evidence of learning across 50 trials. Our results therefore call into question the earlier suggestion that dogs have, or can acquire, an understanding of the solidity principle.     

Entrepreneurial orientation: A psychological model of success among southern African small business owners

This study examines the relationship of the psychological construct Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) with business success in a sample of N?=?248 southern African business owners. We reintroduce the individual in EO research and show the importance of the person of the entrepreneur for business performance: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant relationships between EO components (personal initiative, achievement-, and risk-taking orientation) as well as overall EO and business performance. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis supported a single factor construct of EO that consists of learning, achievement, and autonomy orientation, competitive aggressiveness, innovative and risk-taking orientation, and of personal initiative.

In this study, we develop an individual-based psychological concept of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and investigate the relationship between business owners' EO and business performance in southern Africa. EO has primarily been discussed from a firm-level perspective (e.g., ; ). It characterized businesses in their early years and was found to be important for firm success. In contrast, we apply a psychological approach with EO as an interindividual difference variable. Thus, our focus is the business owner and the general relationship between individual EO and performance of southern African small business owners.     

Simply shapely: Relative, not absolute shapes are primed in pop-out search

Visual search is typically faster when the target from the previous trial is repeated than when it changes. This priming effect is commonly attributed to a selection bias for the target feature value or against the nontarget feature value that carries over to the next trial. By contrast, according to a relational account, what is primed in visual search is the target–nontarget relationship—namely, the feature that the target has in relation to the features in the nontarget context (e.g., larger, darker, redder)—and switch costs occur only when the target–nontarget relations reverse across trials. Here, the relational account was tested against current feature-based views in three eye movement experiments that used different shape search tasks (e.g., geometrical figures varying in the number of corners). For all tested shapes, reversing the target–nontarget relationships produced switch costs of the same magnitude as directly switching the target and nontarget features across trials (“full-switch”). In particular, changing only the nontargets produced large switch costs, even when the target feature was always repeated across trials. By contrast, no switch costs were observed when both the target and nontarget features changed, such that the coarse target–nontarget relations remained constant across trials. These results support the relational account over feature-based accounts of priming and indicate that a target’s shape can be encoded relative to the shapes in the nontarget context.     

Regina Jonas: forgetting and remembering the first female rabbi

Regina Jonas (1902–44), who was ordained in Germany in 1935, is now widely recognised as the world's first female rabbi. However, for almost 50 years after her death at Auschwitz in 1944, she was given very little, if any, public recognition. Based on archival research, interviews and critical engagement with secondary literature, this paper investigates a range of explanations why Jonas was nearly lost to historiography. It also considers the circumstances of the rediscovery of this controversial figure in the early 1990s and explores how she is remembered today. This paper raises important issues in relation to historiography and the connection between processes of remembering, forgetting and identity formation, particularly in relation to the history of the ordination of female rabbis and the history of Jewish communities in Germany.     

Response-repetition effects in task switching with and without response execution

Previous research into the mechanisms of task switching has shown that repeating the same response in a different task context is associated with costs. To investigate whether such response-repetition costs occur even when the first of the two responses is not overtly executed, we used a variant of the change-signal paradigm. Subjects responded to a first stimulus by pressing a left or right response key. In half of the trials, a second stimulus occurred after a variable, adaptively adjusted delay, indicating to abandon the first response, and only respond to the second stimulus using another set of left and right response keys. In Experiment 1, different tasks had to be performed with the first and second stimulus (task-switch condition); in Experiment 2, the same task had to be performed with both stimuli (task-repetition condition). Response-repetition costs were obtained in Experiment 1, and response-repetition benefits in Experiment 2. Importantly, these costs and benefits were obtained even when the first of the two responses had not been overtly executed. The data support the idea that interference of task-specific response codes occurs at the level of abstract response codes. Interference of such response codes occurs even when the responses are not overtly executed.     

The Interpersonal Adaptiveness of Dispositional Guilt and Shame: A Meta‐Analytic Investigation

Despite decades of empirical research, conclusions regarding the adaptiveness of dispositional guilt and shame are mixed. We use meta‐analysis to summarize the empirical literature and clarify these ambiguities. Specifically, we evaluate how guilt and shame are uniquely related to pro‐social orientation and, in doing so, highlight the substantial yet under‐acknowledged impact of researchers’ methodological choices. A series of meta‐analyses was conducted investigating the relationship between dispositional guilt (or shame) and pro‐social orientation. Two main methodological moderators of interest were tested: test format (scenario vs. checklist) and statistical analysis (semi‐partial vs. zero‐order correlations). Among studies employing zero‐order correlations, dispositional guilt was positively correlated with pro‐social orientation (k = 63, Mr = .13, p < .001), whereas dispositional shame was negatively correlated, (k = 47, Mr = –.05, p = .07). Test format was a significant moderator for guilt studies only, with scenario measures producing significantly stronger effects. Semi‐partial correlations resulted in significantly stronger effects among guilt and shame studies. Although dispositional guilt and shame are differentially related to pro‐social orientation, such relationships depend largely on the methodological choices of the researcher, particularly in the case of guilt. Implications for the study of these traits are discussed.     

Can we predict mathematical learning disabilities from symbolic and non‐symbolic comparison tasks in kindergarten? Findings from a longitudinal study

Background. The ability to compare numbers, as the most basic form of number sense, has been related to arithmetical achievement. Aims. The current study addressed the predictive value of non‐symbolic and symbolic (number word (NW) and Arabic number (AN)) comparison for arithmetics by means of a longitudinal design. Sample. Sixteen children with mathematical disabilities (MD), 64 low achievers (LA), and 315 typical achieving (TA) children were followed from kindergarten till grade 2. Method. The association of comparison skills with arithmetical skills in grades l and 2 was studied. The performances of MD, LA and TA children were compared. Results. Regression analyses showed that non‐symbolic skills in kindergarten were predictively related to arithmetical achievement 1 year later and fact retrieval 2 years later. AN comparison was predictively related to procedural calculation 2 years later. In grade 2, there was an association between both symbolic tasks and arithmetical achievement. Children with MD already had deficits in non‐symbolic and symbolic AN comparison in kindergarten, whereas in grade 2 the deficits in processing symbolic information remained. Conclusions. The combination of non‐symbolic and symbolic deficits represents a risk of developing MD.     

Attentional capture by motion onsets is spatially imprecise

Using straight translatory motion of a visual peripheral cue in the frontoparallel plane, and probing target discrimination at different positions along the cue's motion trajectory, we found that target orientation discrimination was slower for targets presented at or near the position of motion onset (4.2° off centre), relative to the onset of a static cue (Experiment 1), and relative to targets presented further along the motion trajectory (Experiments 1 and 2). Target discrimination was equally fast and accurate in the moving cue conditions relative to static cue conditions at positions further along the cue's motion trajectory (Experiment 1). Moreover, target orientation discrimination was not slowed at the same position, once this position was no longer the motion onset position (Experiment 3), and performance in a target colour-discrimination task was not slowed even at motion onset (Experiment 4). Finally, we found that the onset location of the motion cue was perceived as being shifted in the direction of the cue's motion (Experiment 5). These results indicate that attention cannot be as quickly or precisely shifted to the onset of a motion stimulus as to other positions on a stimulus’ motion trajectory.