Multiple states in visual working memory: Evidence from oculomotor capture by memory-matching distractors

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Visual working memory (VWM) representations interact with attentional guidance, but there is controversy over whether multiple VWM items simultaneously influence...     

A concussion by any other name: Differences in willingness to risk brain injury by label and level of participation in high‐school and college sports

One factor in reducing the likelihood of sports‐related brain injuries is the recognition of risks. However, using colloquial terms may deemphasize the severity of these risks. We hypothesized that using colloquial language to describe sports‐related brain injuries will lead to greater willingness to take on the risk. We conducted two experiments, varying the label describing an injury (getting your bell rung, concussion, or brain injury) and assessing willingness of current athletes, former athletes, and nonathletes to accept this risk as part of sports participation. High‐school and college athletes were willing to expose themselves to a high probability of risk, compared with nonathletes, when described colloquially. However, risk thresholds were low and indistinguishable across groups when using the term “brain injury.” Findings remained significant when controlling for knowledge, age, and sensation seeking. These differences indicate that the term “getting your bell rung” should not be used to describe a brain injury.     

Different developmental patterns of simple deductive and probabilistic inferential reasoning

In three studies, we examined simple counterexample-based and probabilistic reasoning in children 6, 7, and 9 years of age. In the first study, participants were asked to make conditional (if-then) inferences under both categorical (certain or uncertain) and probabilistic instructions. Results showed that 6-year-olds respond to both forms of inference in similar ways, but whereas probabilistic conditional inferences showed little development over this period, categorical inferences clearly improved between 6 and 7 years of age. An analysis of the children's justifications indicated that performance under categorical instructions was strongly related to counterexample generation at all ages, whereas this was true only for the younger children for inferences under probabilistic instructions. These findings were replicated in a second study, using problems that referred to concrete stimuli with varying probabilities of inference. A third study tested the hypothesis that children confused probability judgments with judgments of confidence and demonstrated a clear dissociation between these two constructs. Overall, these results show that children are capable of accurate conditional inferences under probabilistic instructions at a very early age and that the differentiation between categorical and probabilistic conditional reasoning is clear by at least 9 years ofage. These results are globally consistent with dual-process theories but suggest some difficulties for the way that the analytic-heuristic distinction underlying these theories has been conceptualized.     

Children's,adolescents', and adults' reference to goals to explain interpersonal actions

This study investigated children's, adolescents', and adults' references to an actor's goals when explaining interpersonal actions. Participants were presented with eight brief stories containing a variety of social events and were asked to explain why the actor in each story performed the central action. Children, adolescents, and adults mentioned goals for most of the stories. Adults and adolescents mentioned psychological goals much more often than did children. Older children, adolescents, and adults mentioned complex psychological goals more often than did younger children. Younger children often mentioned instrumental or social goals. When making goal attributions, children, adolescents, and adults considered both the nature of the action and the social context in which it occurred. Participants mentioned psychological goals more often when explaining an antisocial action and social goals when explaining a prosocial action. Participants were also more likely to mention psychological goals when interpersonal events immediately preceding the central action were described. Thus, goals were offered as explanations for interpersonal actions by all age groups, but the type of goals mentioned varied by the age of the participant, the social context, and the valence of the action. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perception and presupposition in real-time language comprehension: insights from anticipatory processing

Recent studies have shown that listeners use verbs and other predicate terms to anticipate reference to semantic entities during real-time language comprehension. This process involves evaluating the denoted action against relevant properties of potential referents. The current study explored whether action-relevant properties are readily available to comprehension systems as a result of the embodied nature of linguistic and conceptual representations. In three experiments, eye movements were monitored as listeners followed instructions to move depicted objects on a computer screen. Critical instructions contained the verb return (e.g., Now return the block to area 3), which presupposes the previous displacement of its complement object--a property that is not reflected in perceptible or stable characteristics of objects. Experiment 1 demonstrated that predictions for previously displaced objects are generated upon hearing return, ruling out the possibility that anticipatory effects draw directly on static affordances in perceptual symbols. Experiment 2 used a referential communication task to evaluate how communicative relevance constrains the use of perceptually derived information. Results showed that listeners anticipate previously displaced objects as candidates upon hearing return only when their displacement was known to the speaker. Experiment 3 showed that the outcome of the original act of displacement further modulates referential predictions. The results show that the use of perceptually grounded information in language interpretation is subject to communicative constraints, even when language denotes physical actions performed on concrete objects.     

The Roles of Risk Perception and Borderline and Antisocial Personality Characteristics in College Alcohol Use and Abuse1

This study examined the relationships among risk perceptions, alcohol use and abuse, and borderline and antisocial personality characteristics in college students. College students who perceived themselves less able to avoid negative consequences reported drinking more and having more substance abuse symptoms than those who perceived themselves as more able to avoid negative consequences. College students who scored higher on borderline or antisocial personality tended to rate personal avoidability of negative consequences lower than those who scored lower on these personality characteristics. A multiple regression model accounted for 50% of the variance in self‐reported substance abuse symptoms. Low perceived personal avoidability of negative drinking consequences and high borderline or antisocial personality characteristics are risk factors for substance abuse problems.     

Reflections of the Aging Caesar: Drama as Cultural Perspective

This article affirms the view that literature transmits multiple reflections on human life that shape social mores. Examining stereotypes of age in literature as socially constructed artifacts reveals the prevailing attitudes toward aging during that time. This study focuses on the aging Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Writing 300 years apart, these two great playwrights inscribe both positive and negative models of aging, reflecting views in their eras that persist today. This article identifies these models, then explores them from a Lacanian standpoint, showing that each dramatist focuses on Caesar's ego development through the opinions of other characters. Offering a primarily negative view of aging, Shakespeare emphasizes the fragmented mirror images that other characters hold up to Caesar. Shaw self-consciously counters Shakespeare by foregrounding Caesar as subject, who beholds his aging self in the mirror of others' opinions while enacting a positive model of aging. Tracing this long tradition of aging stereotypes found in the two plays can be useful as scholars continue to reconstruct society's attitudes toward aging.     

Are Immigrants Socially Isolated? An Assessment of Neighbors and Neighboring in Canadian Cities

Recently, the media have expressed concern about the apparent concentration and social isolation of immigrants in central and inner suburban neighborhoods in large Canadian cities. This paper compares and contrasts the frequency and nature of neighborhood-based social contacts among three cohorts of immigrants distinguished by their period of arrival in Canada and Canadian-born individuals. We begin by outlining the family, friend, and acquaintance relationships that immigrants build and argue that their networks are culturally diverse and dominated by acquaintances. In this context, intense friendships rarely develop between neighbors, even for recent newcomers. Rather, neighboring consists mainly of casual interactions between individuals that often involve the provision of mundane forms of assistance. Despite their fleeting and routine qualities, social relations with neighbors lead the vast majority of people to express strong levels of belonging to their neighborhoods. As a consequence, we argue that the neighborhood is an underestimated locale for understanding social inclusion.     

Chronic threat and contingent belonging: protective benefits of values affirmation on identity development

Two longitudinal field experiments in a middle school examined how a brief "values affirmation" affects students' psychological experience and the relationship between psychological experience and environmental threat over 2 years. Together these studies suggest that values affirmations insulate individuals' sense of belonging from environmental threat during a key developmental transition. Study 1 provided an analysis of new data from a previously reported study. African American students in the control condition felt a decreasing sense of belonging during middle school, with low-performing students dropping more in 7th grade and high-performing students dropping more in 8th grade. The affirmation reduced this decline for both groups. Consistent with the notion that affirmation insulates belonging from environmental threat, affirmed African American students' sense of belonging in Study 1 fluctuated less over 2 years and became less contingent on academic performance. Based on the idea that developmentally sensitive interventions can have long-lasting benefits, Study 2 showed that the affirmation intervention was more effective if delivered before any drop in performance and subsequent psychological toll could unfold. The role of identity threat and affirmation in affecting the encoding of social experience, and the corresponding importance of timing treatments to developmentally sensitive periods, are explored.     

Peer Influence and Nonsuicidal Self Injury: Longitudinal Results in Community and Clinically-Referred Adolescent Samples

Research suggests that adolescents’ engagement in nonsuicidal self-injurious (NSSI) behaviors may be increasing over time, yet little is known regarding distal longitudinal factors that may promote engagement in these behaviors. Data from two longitudinal studies are presented to examine whether NSSI may be associated with peer influence processes. Study 1 included 377 adolescents from a community-based sample; Study 2 included 140 clinically-referred adolescents recruited from a psychiatric inpatient facility. In Study 1, adolescents’ NSSI was examined at baseline and one year later. Adolescents’ nominated best friend reported their own levels of NSSI. In Study 2, adolescents’ NSSI was examined at baseline as well as 9 and 18-months post-baseline. Adolescents’ perceptions of their friends’ engagement in self-injurious behavior (including suicidality) and depressed mood also were examined at all three time points. Baseline depressive symptoms were measured in both studies; gender and age were examined as moderators of peer influence effects. Results from both studies supported longitudinal peer socialization effects of friends’ self-injurious behavior on adolescents’ own NSSI for girls, but not for boys, even after controlling for depressive symptoms as a predictor. Study 1 suggested socialization effects mostly for younger youth. Results from Study 2 also suggested longitudinal socialization effects, as well as peer selection effects; adolescents’ NSSI was associated with increasing perceptions of their friends’ engagement in depressive/self-injurious thoughts and behavior. Findings contribute to the nascent literature on longitudinal predictors of NSSI and to work on peer influence.