REFLECTIONS ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION GOALS IN PSYCHOLOGY ADMISSIONS

Four goals of affirmative action in higher education are described as they relate to psychology admissions. Broadly conceived, these goals are compensating for past injustice, correcting present inequity, promoting intellectual diversity, and enhancing the presence of role models. It is argued that the four goats differ in their underlying assumptions about the purposes of affirmative action and that these differences can result in disparate admission decisions. Data from three experiments on decision making in graduate psychology admissions are presented to illustrate the analysis. In these studies, academic psychologists rated the admissibility of hypothetical graduate student applicants who varied on a number of characteristics (e g., ethnicity, social class, interest in minority research) pertinent to affirmative action. A consistent pattern of ethnic group differences in admissibility ratings was documented, illustrating that compensation for past injustice can be interpreted as a salient affirmative action goal in graduate admissions decisions. Implications of the analysis for clarifying admissions decisions guided by affirmative action goals are discussed.     

Judging others in the shadow of suspicion

Previous research has found that when perceivers have reason to be suspicious of the motives underlying an actor's behavior, they are likely to draw inferences about the actor's true disposition that reflect a relatively sophisticated style of attributional processing. The present research was designed to examine some of the negative consequences that suspicion can have on perceivers' judgments. In each of the three studies reported, some subjects were made suspicious about the motives of an actor on the basis of contextual information surrounding the actor's behavior, rather than the behavior itself. Results of these studies suggest that, particularly when perceivers believe that the actions or motives of the actor could affect them, suspicion may cause perceivers to see the actor in a more negative light, even if the perceivers are not convinced that the actor's behavior was indeed affected by ulterior motives.The authors thank Patrick Carver and Gilbert Fein for their assistance with the stimulus materials for Study 1, and Jessica Cross, Thomas Tomlinson, and Amy Elmore for their assistance with Studies 2 and 3.     

Propositional attitudes and formal ontology

This paper develops — within an axiomatic theory of properties, relations, and propositions which accords them well-defined existence and identity conditions — a sententialist-functionalist account of belief as a symbolically mediated relation to a special kind of propositional entity, theproxy-encoding abstract proposition. It is then shown how, in terms of this account, the truth conditions of English belief reports may be captured in a formally precise and empirically adequate way that accords genuinely semantic status to familiar opacity data.I am deeply indebted to Edward Zalta for many helpful comments and suggestions.     

Perfect MV-algebras are categorically equivalent to abelianl-groups

In this paper we prove that the category of abelianl-groups is equivalent to the category of perfect MV-algebras. Furthermore, we give a finite equational axiomatization of the variety generated by perfect MV-algebras.Presented byDaniele Mundici     

Factor analytic structure of theScale to Asses World View

This article reports on the factor structure of theScale to Assess World View ^(c) (SAWV). Alpha reliabilities for the factors are presented. Gender differences in world views are also explored to understand how men and women in this sample viewed the world. Recommendations for client assessment, therapy, education and training, and scale revision are discussed. The research reported here is based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 17, 1992.     

Modifications of the Poggendorff effect as a function of random dot textures between the verticals

In the present research, we investigated the modification of the strength of the Poggendortf illusion as a function of different densities ofrandom dot textures failing the space between the verticals. The results ofExperiment 1 show that the illusory effect is a nonlinear function ofthe texture parameterr, the ratio of black pixels to white and black pixels, with a minimum forr=0.5, approximately, and a maximum forr=0 andr=1. The results may be interpreted by an analytical model of perceptual space dynamics, in which the effect dependson the amount of interaction between points of different light intensity. A computer simulation performed by applying the analytical model to different values ofr shows a good agreement between the predictions and the experimental data. To test the hypothesis underlying the model, a second experiment was carried out to measure the magnitude of the expansion ofthe space between the verticals as a function of the parameterr. The results are consistent with the hypothesis of the model. The overall data are discussed in terms of their implications on various theories proposed for the Poggeadorff illusion.     

Attentional misguidance in visual search

Previous research has shown that a task-irrelevant sudden onset of an object will capture an observer’s visual attention or draw it to that object (e.g., Yantis & Jonides, 1984). However, further research has demonstrated the apparent inability of an object with a task-irrelevant but unique color or luminance to capture attention (Jonides & Yantis, 1988). In the experiments reported here, we reexplore the question of whether task-irrelevant properties other than sudden onset may capture attention. Our results suggest that uniquely colored or luminous objects, as well as salient though irrelevant boundaries, do not appear to capture attention. However, these irrelevant features do appear to serve as landmarks for a top-down search strategy which becomes increasingly likely with larger display set sizes. These findings are described in terms of stimulus-driven and goal-directed aspects of attentional control.