The effect of factivity on lexical retrieval and postlexical processes during eye fixations in reading

Subjects were required to read short passages of text while their eye movements were monitored. Each experimental passage contained a critical factive or nonfactive verb that was followed by a false complement. In half of the trials, subjects' reading was unimpaired; in the remainder of the trial, a central visual pattern mask, which moved in synchrony with the eyes, was applied. The results showed that (1) factive and nonfactive verbs did not receive different amounts of fixation time during the reading text. However, (2) false complements that followed nonfactive verbs. On the basis of this, it is concluded that individual word characteristics, such as factivity, are encoded automatically while sentence interpretation requires effort to be completed.     

On the psychology of the recognition heuristic: retrieval primacy as a key determinant of its use

The recognition heuristic is a prime example of a boundedly rational mind tool that rests on an evolved capacity, recognition, and exploits environmental structures. When originally proposed, it was conjectured that no other probabilistic cue reverses the recognition-based inference (D. G. Goldstein & G. Gigerenzer, 2002). More recent studies challenged this view and gave rise to the argument that recognition enters inferences just like any other probabilistic cue. By linking research on the heuristic with research on recognition memory, the authors argue that the retrieval of recognition information is not tantamount to the retrieval of other probabilistic cues. Specifically, the retrieval of subjective recognition precedes that of an objective probabilistic cue and occurs at little to no cognitive cost. This retrieval primacy gives rise to 2 predictions, both of which have been empirically supported: Inferences in line with the recognition heuristic (a) are made faster than inferences inconsistent with it and (b) are more prevalent under time pressure. Suspension of the heuristic, in contrast, requires additional time, and direct knowledge of the criterion variable, if available, can trigger such suspension.     

The role of attention for context-context binding of intrinsic and extrinsic features

There is converging evidence that the feeling of conscious recollection is usually accompanied by the bound retrieval of context features of the encoding episode (e.g., Meiser, Sattler, & Weiβer, 2008). Recently, however, important limiting conditions have been identified for the binding between context features in memory. For example, focusing on the semantics of the stimuli during encoding eliminates binding between perceptual context features (Meiser & Sattler, 2007). In the present research, we investigated the interplay of the focus of attention during encoding and stimulus characteristics in context-context binding. In particular, it has been suggested that context features differ in the degree to which they can be regarded as intrinsic or extrinsic to the items and that intrinsic features might be given more attentional processing during encoding than extrinsic features (e.g., Ecker, Zimmer, & Groh-Bordin, 2007a). In two experiments, we manipulated the "intrinsicality" of context features to investigate whether context-context binding might be limited to features that are in the focus of processing. Multinomial modeling analyses revealed that while context-context binding was eliminated for incidentally processed extrinsic context features (Experiment 1), it was preserved for intentionally processed extrinsic context features (Experiment 2).     

Psychoanalysis at the Millennium: A Personal Odyssey

A review of my development from psychology intern and research assistant to the psychoanalytic tester and theoretician David Rapaport at the Menninger Clinic in the 1940s, through my career psychological testing and my psychoanalytic training in the Western New England Institute and my working successively at the Austen Riggs Center, Yale Department of Psychiatry, Yale Student Mental Health Center, Cornell Department of Psychiatry, and eventually private practice in New York City. During this period, I rose to the academic rank of Professor and the analytic position of Training Analyst. I have written extensively: first on testing, then more or less in turn on psychoanalytic ego psychology, action language for psychoanalysis, feminist issues, narrative in psychoanalysis, and the contemporary Kleinians of London. This memoir traces the intellectual continuity that characterizes these writings and my continuing development as a psychoanalyst—my first ambition and great love.     

Social anxiety and difficulty disengaging threat: evidence from eye-tracking

Theoretical models of social phobia propose that biased attention contributes to the maintenance of symptoms; however these theoretical models make opposing predictions. Specifically, whereas Rapee and Heimberg (1997) suggested the biases are characterised by hypervigilance to threat cues and difficulty disengaging attention from threat, Clark and Wells (1995) suggested that threat cues are largely avoided. Previous research has been limited by the almost exclusive reliance on behavioural response times to experimental tasks to provide an index of attentional biases. The current study evaluated the relationship between the time-course of attention and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Forty-two young adults completed a dot-probe task with emotional faces while eye-movement data were collected. The results revealed that increased social anxiety was associated with attention to emotional (rather than neutral) faces over time as well as difficulty disengaging attention from angry expressions; some evidence was found for a relationship between heightened depressive symptoms and increased attention to fear faces.     

Openness in Cross-Cultural Work Settings: A Multicountry Study of Expatriates

Openness plays an important role in determining what kind of experiences individuals seek out not only in their personal lives, but also in work environments. The objectives of this study were (a) to examine the influence of openness and its facets on the decision to work abroad and (b) to study whether employees’ openness relates to cross-cultural adjustment as well as job and life satisfaction. We investigated these questions among a sample of 2,096 expatriates. In addition to self-reports of openness and cross-cultural adjustment, ratings of subjects’ adjustment were also obtained from 928 knowledgeable others. The openness facets of actions, ideas, and values appear to be good predictors of acceptance of international assignments. In addition, global Openness and its facets Openness to actions and feelings relate to self- and other ratings of cross-cultural adjustment.     

Analysis of individual variations in the classical horizontal-vertical illusion

In the horizontal-vertical illusion (HVI), the length of the vertical line is overestimated, whereas in the bisection illusion (BI), the horizontal bisecting line is expected to be overestimated. Here, only half of our 22 observers showed the expected BI, whereas the other half underestimated the bisecting line. Observers also differed in their judgments of the strength of the HVI: The HVI was stronger for observers showing the classical bisection effect, and weaker or absent for those underestimating the bisecting line. To account for these results, we used a linear model to individually estimate the strength of two putative factors underlying both illusions. Whereas the strength of the HVI and BI were highly correlated, the estimated factors were uncorrelated. Therefore, in two control experiments, we then measured the pure horizontal-vertical (pHVI) and bisection (pBI) illusions. A significant correlation between the estimated factors and the measured illusion variants was found. Results were robust against variations of contrast, repetitive presentations, and choice of adjusted line. Thus, the classical HVI as an additive combination of two independent factors was confirmed, but we found considerable interindividual variations in the strength of the illusions. The results stress the importance of analyzing individual data rather than taking sample means for understanding these illusions.     

Expanding the link between core self-evaluations and affective job attitudes

The present study examined the differentiated relationship between core self-evaluations and affective job attitudes. In previous research, job characteristics were proposed to mediate this relationship. However, the facets of the job characteristics model have not yet been assessed separately. In the present study we tested which job characteristics (i.e., skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) mediate the relationship between core self-evaluations and job satisfaction as well as organizational commitment in a sample of 199 employees. Results revealed that core self-evaluations were related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Task significance was found to mediate these relationships. These findings are discussed with respect to the level on which people regulate their actions.     

Commission errors of active intentions: the roles of aging,cognitive load,and practice

Performing an intended action when it needs to be withheld, for example, when temporarily prescribed medication is incompatible with the other medication, is referred to as commission errors of prospective memory (PM). While recent research indicates that older adults are especially prone to commission errors for finished intentions, there is a lack of research on the effects of aging on commission errors for still active intentions. The present research investigates conditions which might contribute to older adults’ propensity to perform planned intentions under inappropriate conditions. Specifically, disproportionally higher rates of commission errors for still active intentions were observed in older than in younger adults with both salient (Experiment 1) and non-salient (Experiment 2) target cues. Practicing the PM task in Experiment 2, however, helped execution of the intended action in terms of higher PM performance at faster ongoing-task response times but did not increase the rate of commission errors. The results have important implications for the understanding of older adults’ PM commission errors and the processes involved in these errors.