Selective attention versus selection for action: negative priming is not the result of distractors being unattended

Using a novel referent size-selection task, MacDonald, Joordens, and Seergobin (1999; MacDonald & Joordens, 2000) found that negative priming persisted even when participants were encouraged to attend to distractors before selectively responding to targets. This finding suggested that negative priming is not caused by processes that operate on stimuli that are to be ignored in the traditional selective attention sense. Mackintosh, Mathews, and Holden's (2002) attempt to replicate the MacDonald et al. study resulted in the discovery of possible artifacts in the referent size-selection task, thereby making the implications with respect to the role of attention less clear. In the present study, we describe a different method for directing attention to distractors in a negative priming context, one that does not suffer from the same potential artifacts as the referent size-selection task. Our results are consistent with those found by MacDonald et al., in that negative priming persisted even when participants were explicitly encouraged to attend to distractors. Implications are discussed in the context of the related concepts of selective attention (e.g., Broadbent, 1965) versus selection for action (e.g., Allport, 1987).     

Differentiation of self and psychosocial development

This study investigated the relationship between Bowens (1978) concept of differentiation of self and Eriksons (1950/1963) psychosocial stages of development. Three hundred and fourteen university undergraduates completed the Measure of Psychosocial Development (MPD; Hawley, 1988) and the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI; Skowron & Friedlander, 1998). Multiple regression analyses indicated that differentiation level is significantly predictive of psychosocial development. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Training raters to assess adult ADHD: reliability of ratings

The standardization of ADHD ratings in adults is important given their differing symptom presentation. The authors investigated the agreement and reliability of rater standardization in a large-scale trial of atomoxetine in adults with ADHD. Training of 91 raters for the investigator-administered ADHD Rating Scale (ADHDRS-IV-Inv) occurred prior to initiation of a large, 31-site atomoxetine trial. Agreement between raters on total scores was established in two ways: (a) by Kappa coefficient (rater agreement for each item with the percentage of raters that had identical item-by-item scores) and (b) intraclass correlation coefficients (reliability). For the ADHDRS-IV-Inv, rater agreement was moderate, and reliability, as measured by Cronbach's alpha, was substantial. The data indicate that clinicians can be trained to reliably evaluate ADHD in adults using the ADHDRS-IV-Inv.     

Building face composites can harm lineup identification performance

Face composite programs permit eyewitnesses to build likenesses of target faces by selecting facial features and combining them into an intact face. Research has shown that these composites are generally poor likenesses of the target face. Two experiments tested the proposition that this composite-building process could harm the builder's memory for the face. In Experiment 1 (n = 150), the authors used 50 different faces and found that the building of a composite reduced the chances that the person could later identify the original face from a lineup when compared with no composite control conditions or with yoked composite-exposure control conditions. In Experiment 2 (n = 200), the authors found that this effect generalized to a simulated-crime video, but mistaken identifications from target-absent lineups were not inflated by composite building.     

Source monitoring in eyewitness memory: Implicit associations,suggestions, and episodic traces

Both the distinctiveness heuristic and discrepancy detection hypotheses were investigated by independently manipulating both schema consistency and incidental suggestion in an eyewitness memory paradigm. A sequence of slides was shown, followed by a postevent questionnaire that contained both schema-typical and schema-atypical information. Fifteen minutes later, a source-monitoring task was administered. In Experiment 1, the proportion of source misattribution errors was greater for schema-typical items than for schema-atypical items, and the proportion of errors on suggested items was greater than that on control items. Suggestion affected schema-typical and schema-atypical items equally, providing no support for the predictions of either hypothesis. In Experiment 2, the interval between the questionnaire and the source test was manipulated. The results of Experiment 1 were replicated under the short delay, whereas the proportion of errors increased under the long delay. An associative network model involving two types of episodic traces was used to account for the results.     

Negate priming and multiple repetition: a reply to Grison and Strayer (2001)

Strayer and colleagues (Grison & Strayer, 2001; Malley & Strayer 1995; Strayer & Grison, 1999) have reported experiments in which negative priming by ignored stimuli occurred onlyfor stimuli that were repeatedly sampledfrom small sets. These results were argued to be inconsistent with episodic/mismatch accounts of negative priming. We show here that a dependence of negative priming on multiple repetition is wholly consistent with such theories. Furthermore, we argue that the inhibitory theory proposed by Strayer and colleagues cannot account for major findings regarding negative priming and that anomalies in the data reported by Grison and Strayer are more parsimoniously explained by episodic/mismatch accounts.     

Sex differences in functional brain activation during a lexical visual field task

Functional MRI was used to investigate sex differences in brain activation during a paradigm similar to a lexical-decision task. Six males and 6 females performed two runs of the lexical visual field task (i.e., deciding which visual field a word compared with a pseudoword was presented to). A sex difference was noted behaviorally: The reaction time data showed males had a marginal right visual field advantage and women a left visual field advantage. Imaging results showed that men had a strongly left-lateralized pattern of activation, e.g., inferior frontal and fusiform gyrus, while women showed a more symmetrical pattern in language related areas with greater right-frontal and right-middle-temporal activation. The data show evidence of task-specific sex differences in the cerebral organization of language processing.     

Worship with a twist

The core values of hospitality, respect, and innovation help to guide and initiate changes in the worship services of a rehabilitation hospital. The Antiphon of the day, special hymnals containing residents choices, and inclusion in the prayers of the day helped achieve these goals. Residents are constantly given choices with the Chaplain ready to keep the service moving smoothly. In these ways the core values are included in all services. Specific resources are listed, and the article is followed by a response from another chaplain with a somewhat different approach.     

The Night the Raving Died: The Social Construction of a Local Drug Panic

Scholars have recently reformulated the moral panic framework (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 1994 Goode , Erich and Nachman Ben-Yehuda . 1994 . Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance . Oxford : Blackwell Publishing Ltd . [Google Scholar], 2009 ——— . 2009 . Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance , 2nd ed . Oxford : Blackwell Publishing Ltd . [Google Scholar]). We employ this new framework in an evaluation of Gainesville, Florida's adoption of the anti-rave law. Our findings suggest that both individuals and groups were vital in the construction of an interest group model moral panic that led to the adoption of this law. Although researchers have utilized the moral panic framework in analyzing many social and legal changes over the past 40 years, it has also garnered much criticism. In an effort to further advance the framework, we provide several modifications to Goode and Ben-Yehuda's (2009 ——— . 2009 . Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance , 2nd ed . Oxford : Blackwell Publishing Ltd . [Google Scholar]) most recent reconceptualization and recommendations for future moral panic research.