Reactions to stigmatized others: Response amplification vs sympathy

Four experiments examined the conditions under which responses to handicapped persons are characterized by sympathy or response amplification. The first two experiments tested the hypothesis that contact with a handicapped person would lead to amplified positive and negative responses in comparison to contact with a nonhandicapped person. The results indicated that mere contact was not sufficient to elicit response amplification. Instead, contact led to more positive evaluations of the handicapped than of the nonhandicapped other, regardless of whether she behaved in a positive or negative manner—a “sympathy” effect. The third and fourth experiments indicated that amplified positive and negative responses to the handicapped will occur when the behavior of a handicapped person is highly relevant to the evaluator. A two-stage model of responses to stigmatized others is proposed to account for these results.     

When discounting fails: An unexpected finding

Two studies were designed to investigate the effects of prior information about plausible causes on subsequent attributions. In the Experiment 1, prior information was given about an internal and an external cause. It was predicted and found that the stronger an expectancy for a behavior, the more the behavior would be attributed to the cause that formed the basis of the expectancy. It was also predicted that (1) for facilitative causes, the stronger the expectancy based on a given cause, the less the behavior would be attributed to other causes (discounting), and (2)for inhibitory causes, the stronger the expectancy, the more the behavior would be attributed to other causes (augmenting). These predictions were not supported. It was suggested that discounting and augmenting did not occur because subjects had been given information about both causes which "locked in" their attributions to each cause. To test this explanation, a second study was undertaken in which observers were given information about only one cause. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that discounting and augmenting may only occur for attributions to causes about which no prior information is available.     

Redintegration and Response Suppression in Serial Recall: A Dynamic Network Model

This article presents a dynamic network model of redintegration and response suppression. Redintegration is the process that disambiguates partially retrieved memorial information into an overt response, and response suppression renders retrieved items temporarily unavailable for further report. Most models of serial recall assume the presence of both processes, but few explain how they are performed. Exploration of the network revealed that it can predict recency in serial recall of lists of varying lengths, the pattern of the associated transposition, omission, intrusion, and repetition errors, and the temporal dynamics of retrieval. The network thus augments any existing model of serial recall that assumes a distributed vector representation but does not specify the processes underlying redintegration and response suppression.     

Prejudice Toward Immigrants1

In the present study, 4 variables (realistic threats, symbolic threats, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes) were used to predict prejudice toward immigrants from Cuba, Mexico, and Asia in samples of students from states in the United States that are affected by immigration from these areas (Florida, New Mexico, and Hawaii, respectively). All 4 variables were significant (or marginally significant) predictors of attitudes toward these immigrant groups. Evidence is presented that the predictor variables are conceptually and empirically distinct. However, these variables do appear to be tied together by an underlying theme: They all concern threats to the in-group or its members. Some of the implications of the results for intergroup relations are discussed.     

A preliminary inquiry into the effect of potentially biasing information on judges and jurors in civil litigation

The American system of civil procedure presumes that judges and jurors will respond quite differently to potentially biasing material introduced into adjudicatory proceedings. Judges are assumed to possess a special capacity to control their subjective reactions to such material while jurors are perceived as incapable of such control. This article first reviews these presumptions and the differential treatment accorded judges and jurors by the system. An experiment in which judges and jurors were exposed to potentially biasing material in a civil trial is then described. The results suggest that judges and jurors may be similarly influenced by such exposure, regardless whether the biasing material is ruled admissible or inadmissible. The implications of these preliminary data—that judges may not possess the presumed special capacity to remain immune to bias—are briefly discussed.     

The Effects of Gender on Career Decision Problems in Young Adults

The authors investigated gender differences in psychological problems in the career decision making (CDM) process of young adults. Specifically, problems with decision anxiety, life-goal awareness, luck-fate orientation, authority orientation, and secondary gain motivation were investigated. Methodology involved administering the Career Decision Diagnostic Assessment (CDDA) instrument to 1,006 college students from four universities. Results indicated no gender differences in global levels of problems in CDM. Women reported more problems with life-goal awareness and authority orientation than did men. Men reported more problems with secondary gain motivations than did women. The results are discussed in terms of implications for gender-differentiated career counseling.     

Context effects in repetition priming are sense effects

This articlereports three experiments that investigate the role ofcontext in repetition priming using a lexical decision task. The experiments show that repetition priming is either eliminated or significantly reduced if a change in context also alters the perceived sense of a nonhomographic target word. If perceived sense is not altered, a change in context is inconsequential. This points to the important role played by perceived sense in repetition priming. An explanation within a sense-specific activation framework is proposed in preference to a modified processing view.     

Children's temperament in the US and China: similarities and differences

We report the results of research investigating temperamental characteristics of children in the People's Republic of China and the US using a parent-report instrument, the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ), defining temperament as individual differences in emotional, motoric, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation. Subjects were 624 6- to 7-year-old children, from Shanghai and the north-western region of the US. The 15 CBQ scales were factored for both samples, employing a principal axis factor analysis with an oblique rotation. Our findings indicated considerable similarity of factor structure in the two cultures, obtaining three factors labelled Surgency, Negative Affect, and Attentional Self-Regulation or Effortful Control. Differences across cultures were also found, with Surgency and Effortful Control scores being relatively higher than Negative Affect in the US sample and Negative Affect being relatively higher than Surgency and Effortful Control in the Chinese sample. Gender differences were also found to vary across cultures. Our findings are congruent with a view of underlying cultural similarities in temperamental variability across these cultures, influenced over time by the children's culturally varied experience.     

Perception of clusters in statistical maps

Two experiments observed performance on a cluster identification task across a variety of common statistical maps. Stimulus maps displayed mortality rates for several diseases and subjects had to identify regions of the map that were perceived to form a cluster of particularly high (or low) mortality. Subjects marked the perceived centroid of each cluster, and analyses focused on the dispersion of centroid location across subjects. Under these circumstances, monochrome classed choropleth maps were found to minimize dispersion, compared to a two opposing colours scheme, a dot density map, a pie map, and a categorical (hue-based) colour scheme. Maps using a familiar geographical unit (i. e. a U. S. state) supported better recall of the information than maps using less familiar and smaller geographical units. The results were found to be interpretable within current cognitive theory.