The phonological similarity effect in serial recognition

An experiment is reported examining the effect of consistent phonemic similarity among list items on memory retention in a task that is independent of overt speech production, the serial recognition task. Lists of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and nonwords were constructed such that although phoneme overlap was manipulated (i.e., shared vowel and final consonant [_VC], initial consonant and vowel [CV_], or the two consonants [C_C]), similarity remained constant. The results show that the influence of sub-syllabic mechanisms on STM performance is independent of speech production processes, and similarity in the pattern of results suggests that the same mechanisms subserve the recall of words and nonwords in STM. It is argued that the results are more consistent with psycholinguistic models than nonlinguistic models of STM, and implications for current STM models are discussed.     

Establishing a causal chain: why experiments are often more effective than mediational analyses in examining psychological processes

The authors propose that experiments that utilize mediational analyses as suggested by R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) are overused and sometimes improperly held up as necessary for a good social psychological paper. The authors argue that when it is easy to manipulate and measure a proposed psychological process that a series of experiments that demonstrates the proposed causal chain is superior. They further argue that when it is easy to manipulate a proposed psychological process but difficult to measure it that designs that examine underlying process by utilizing moderation can be effective. It is only when measurement of a proposed psychological process is easy and manipulation of it is difficult that designs that rely on mediational analyses should be preferred, and even in these situations careful consideration should be given to the limiting factors of such designs.     

The use of ethnic minority populations in published psychological research, 1990-1999

For this study, the authors analyzed the contents of 16 psychology journals for the presence of empirical articles on African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans during the period ranging from 1990 to 1999. In 6 APA journals, there was a low percentage (4.7%) of such articles. African Americans were the most studied ethnic group. Data collected for this study also indicated that minority research has been increasing more in non-APA journals than in APA journals. In both APA and non-APA journals, counseling-oriented journals had higher percentages of minority articles than did journals of other subdisciplines. Possible explanations, consequences, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Effects of contextual predictability and transitional probability on eye movements during reading

In 2 eye-movement experiments, the authors tested whether transitional probability (the statistical likelihood that a word precedes or follows another word) affects reading times and whether this occurs independently from contextual predictability effects. Experiment 1 showed early effects of predictability, replicating S. A. McDonald and R. C. Shillcock's (2003a) finding that words with a high transitional probability (defeat following accept) are read faster than words with a low transitional probability (losses following accept). However, further analyses suggested that the transitional probability effect was likely due to differences in predictability rather than transitional probability. Experiment 2, using a better controlled set of items, again showed an effect of predictability, but no effect of transitional probability. The authors conclude that effects of transitional probability are part of regular predictability effects. Their data also show that predictability effects are detectable very early in the eye-movement record and between contexts that are weakly constraining.     

On the use of beta coefficients in meta-analysis

This research reports an investigation of the use of standardized regression (beta) coefficients in meta-analyses that use correlation coefficients as the effect-size metric. The investigation consisted of analyzing more than 1,700 corresponding beta coefficients and correlation coefficients harvested from published studies. Results indicate that, under certain conditions, using knowledge of corresponding beta coefficients to input missing correlations (effect sizes) generally produces relatively accurate and precise population effect-size estimates. Potential benefits from applying this knowledge include smaller sampling errors because of increased numbers of effect sizes and smaller non-sampling errors because of the inclusion of a broader array of research designs.     

The attenuating effect of role overload on relationships linking self-efficacy and goal level to work performance

The reported research examines the moderating effects of role overload on the antecedents and consequences of self-efficacy and personal goal level in a longitudinal study conducted in an industrial selling context. The results indicate that role overload moderates the antecedent effect of perceived organizational resources on self-efficacy beliefs. They also show that role overload moderates the direct effects of both self-efficacy and goal level on performance, such that these relationships are positive when role overload is low but not significant when role overload is high. Further, the results reveal a pattern of moderated mediation, in which goal level mediates the indirect effect of self-efficacy on performance when role overload is low but not when it is high. Implications for theory and managerial practice are discussed.     

Empirically supported psychotherapies: comment on Westen, Novotny, and Thompson-Brenner (2004)

D. Westen, C. M. Novotny, and H. Thompson-Brenner (2004; see record 2004-15935-005) suggested that efforts to identify empirically supported treatments are misguided because they are based on assumptions that are not appropriate for some types of treatment and patients. The authors of this comment argue that Westen and colleagues are simply incorrect when they assert that empirically supported treatments require that psychopathology must be highly malleable, that treatments must be brief, or that the samples studied are unrepresentative of the kinds of patients typically encountered in clinical practice--comorbidity is common in many clinical trials. Randomized controlled trials remain the most powerful way to test notions of causal agency.     

Perceptual organization in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: empirical research and theoretical implications

The research into perceptual organization in schizophrenia spectrum disorders has found evidence for and against a perceptual organization deficit and has interpreted the data from within several different theoretical frameworks. A synthesis of this evidence, however, reveals that this body of work has produced reliable evidence for deficits in schizophrenia, as well as for the clinical, stimulus, and task parameters associated with normal and abnormal performance. Recent models of cognition have also advanced understanding of the underlying pathophysiological processes of perceptual organization dysfunction in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. These suggest that deficits in perceptual organization may be one manifestation of a wider disturbance in the integration of contextually related information across space and time.