Exploring the mental number line: evidence from a dual-task paradigm

In a parity-judgment task smaller numbers are responded to faster with the left-hand key and vice versa for larger numbers (SNARC effect; Dehaene et al., in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 371-396, 1993). We used the psychological refractory period paradigm involving a parity-judgment task and tone-discrimination task to address the question at which stage this effect arises. When the parity-judgment task is performed second, then we found equal SNARC effects for the short and the long SOA. According to the central bottleneck model, this indicates that the effect arises during the response-selection or execution stage. In Experiment 2 the parity-judgment task was performed first. The pattern of results indicates that the SNARC effect originates during the perceptual encoding or response-selection. Together, our results suggest that the SNARC effect originates while the response is selected.     

Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity: a repetitive voice can sound like a chorus

Despite the importance of doing so, people do not always correctly estimate the distribution of opinions within their group. One important mechanism underlying such misjudgments is people's tendency to infer that a familiar opinion is a prevalent one, even when its familiarity derives solely from the repeated expression of 1 group member. Six experiments demonstrate this effect and show that it holds even when perceivers are consciously aware that the opinions come from 1 speaker. The results also indicate that the effect is due to opinion accessibility rather than a conscious inference about the meaning of opinion repetition in a group. Implications for social consensus estimation and social influence are discussed.     

Excess use of general practitioners by obese adults: does health-related quality of life account for the association?

As general practitioners (GP) are seeing, and are likely to continue to see, increasing numbers of obese patients in their practices, it is relevant to know with which needs these patients enter general practice. The present study aims to determine whether besides physical comorbidities, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) accounts for associations of obesity with GP use. In a general population survey in Augsburg, Germany (KORA-Survey S4 1999/2001), anthropometric body mass (BMI in kg/(m(2))), physical comorbidities, HRQOL (the 12-item Short Form; SF-12), and visits to GP were assessed, and analyzed by logistic and zero-truncated negative binomial regressions (two-part model). Gender, age, socio-economic status, marital status, health insurance, and place of residence were adjusted for. The sample consisted of N = 942 residents aged 25 - 74, who had been randomly sampled from 17 cluster-sampled communities, and were either normal-weight, overweight, moderately obese, or severely obese. The moderately obese group had higher odds than the normal-weight to report any GP use; however, while being predictive, neither physical comorbidity nor HRQOL mediated this. In contrast, with regard to number of GP visits among users, the severely obese group (BMI >/= 35) reported significantly more visits than the normal-weight group, and both physical comorbidity and physical (but not mental) HRQOL accounted for this. In conclusion, physical comorbidity and HRQOL mediate excess use of GP by severely obese users in terms of number of visits. Thus, for this group, subjective physical health seems to be important besides physical comorbidities, suggesting for general practice to focus both on evaluated and perceived needs of these patients.     

Is Psychology Based on a Methodological Error?

It is believed a proven fact that variables in social and personality psychology match to normal distribution with its single peak. Multiple peaks are explained by independent variables. However, after a comprehensive data analysis of more than 8.000 patients and on the basis of a bio-psycho-social model with 27 scales, we arrived at the conclusion that normal distribution and the psychometric error theory cannot withstand critical analysis in large samples. Beyond the “truth” that is proved by distribution-dependent statistical inferences, there exists another “truth” that is denied by the empirical doctrine. This “truth” is influenced by compensatory belief systems and explains paradoxes in quality of life research. We hypothesize that items, referred to life risks are micro-stressors, triggering self-regulatory processes as a humanly inherent response, deeply anchored in human evolution. Especially when exposed to threatening experiences, self-focused attention generates amplified multimodal distributions and subverts the methodological premises by an ambivalence-bias between thrill and threat, hopes and fears, pleasure and pain, success and failure, etc. In this article we want to focus attention to the incommensurability between test theoretical axioms and the way people usually respond to self-focused items. We discuss basic distribution patterns and approach to an evolutionary theory of fluctuation of validity.

If It's Difficult to Pronounce, It Must Be Risky

ABSTRACT— Low processing fluency fosters the impression that a stimulus is unfamiliar, which in turn results in perceptions of higher risk, independent of whether the risk is desirable or undesirable. In Studies 1 and 2, ostensible food additives were rated as more harmful when their names were difficult to pronounce than when their names were easy to pronounce; mediation analyses indicated that this effect was mediated by the perceived novelty of the substance. In Study 3, amusement-park rides were rated as more likely to make one sick (an undesirable risk) and also as more exciting and adventurous (a desirable risk) when their names were difficult to pronounce than when their names were easy to pronounce.     

„Da wirst du ja auch bekloppt bei“

Given a growing demand of psychotherapeutic care the interest of students in a psychotherapeutic occupation is gaining relevance. At the same time psychoanalytic training institutions and societies have been confronted with a continuous decrease of candidates over the last decades. Psychology students, medical students and students of educational sciences (the latter only in the child and adolescent treatment sector) are admitted for a psychotherapeutic training approved by the health care insurances in Germany and have the possibility to choose between a behavioral or a psychodynamic oriented training. In the present multimethodological cross-sectional study those student groups (N?=?679) were questioned about their interest in a psychotherapeutic training in general and, if they proved to be interested, about their specific choice of training. Amongst psychology students the largest group of those interested in a psychotherapeutic training would opt for a behavioral education. Amongst medical students and students of pedagogy and social pedagogy a psychotherapeutic training is less frequently an option for their future career plans. Amongst the students of educational sciences, for those interested in training, psychodynamic methods are more often of interest. Possible reasons for the students' decisions in the context of the specific German legal situation are discussed.     

Metacognitive inferences in source memory judgements: the role of perceived differences in item recognition

This research investigated the hypothesis that metacognitive inferences in source memory judgements are based on the recognition or nonrecognition of an event together with perceived or expected differences in the recognizability of events from different sources. The hypothesis was tested with a multinomial source-monitoring model that allowed separation of source-guessing tendencies for recognized and unrecognized items. Experiments 1A and 1B manipulated the number of item presentations as relevant source information and revealed differential guessing tendencies for recognized and unrecognized items, with a bias to attribute unrecognized items to the source associated with poor item recognition. Experiments 2A and 2B replicated the findings with a manipulation of presentation time and extended the analysis to subjective differences in item recognition. Experiments 3A and 3B used more natural source information by varying type of acoustic signal and demonstrated that subjective theories about differences in item recognition are sufficient to elicit differential source-guessing biases for recognized and unrecognized items. Together the findings provide new insights into the cognitive processes underlying source memory decisions, which involve episodic memory and reconstructive tendencies based on metacognitive beliefs and general world knowledge.     

What do eye movements reveal about the role of memory in visual search?

Horowitz and Wolfe (1998, 2003) have challenged the view that serial visual search involves memory processes that keep track of already inspected locations. The present study used a search paradigm similar to Horowitz and Wolfe's (1998), comparing a standard static search condition with a dynamic condition in which display elements changed locations randomly every 111 ms. In addition to measuring search reaction times, observers' eye movements were recorded. For target-present trials, the search rates were near-identical in the two search conditions, replicating Horowitz and Wolfe's findings. However, the number of fixations and saccade amplitude were larger in the static than in the dynamic condition, whereas fixation duration and the latency of the first saccade were longer in the dynamic condition. These results indicate that an active, memory-guided search strategy was adopted in the static condition, and a passive “sit-and-wait” strategy in the dynamic condition.