White matter hyperintensities and working memory: an explorative study

White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are commonly observed in elderly people and may have the most profound effect on executive functions, including working memory. Surprisingly, the Digit Span backward, a frequently employed working memory task, reveals no association with WMH. In the present study, it was investigated whether more detailed analyses of WMH variables and study sample selection are important when establishing a possible relationship between the Digit Span backward and WMH. To accomplish this, the Digit Span backward and additional working memory tests, WMH subscores, and cardiovascular risk factors were examined. The results revealed that performance on the Digit Span backward test is unrelated to WMH, whereas a relationship between other working memory tests and WMH was confirmed. Furthermore, a division between several white matter regions seems important; hyperintensities in the frontal deep white matter regions were the strongest predictor of working memory performance.     

Appraisal-emotion relationships in daily life

Using a daily process design, the present study examined relationships between momentary appraisals and emotional experience based on Smith and Lazarus' (1993) theory of emotions (1993). Nine times a day for 2 weeks, participants (N = 33, 23 women) recorded their momentary experience of 2 positive emotions (joy, love) and 4 negative emotions (anger, guilt, fear, sadness) and the core relational theme appraisal contents Smith and Lazarus hypothesized as corresponding to these emotions. A series of multilevel modeling analyses found that the hypothesized relationships between appraisal contents and these emotions were stronger than relationships between contents and other emotions, although appraisals were related to other emotions in many cases. Moreover, there were some individual differences in the strength of these relationships. These results suggest that there are no one-to-one relationships between appraisal contents and specific emotional experiences, and that specific emotions are associated with different appraisal contents, and that specific appraisals are associated with different emotions.     

Cooperating If One's Goals Are Collective‐Based: Social Identification Effects in Social Dilemmas as a Function of Goal Transformation1

Prior studies of the effect of group identification on cooperation in social dilemmas have advanced 2 competing accounts: the goal‐transformation hypothesis, which holds that identification makes personal and collective goals interchangeable; and the goal‐amplification hypothesis, which states that identification induces positive expectations about others’ cooperative behavior. However, prior studies have neglected to assess the process measures necessary to pit the one account against the other. The present study showed that the effect of identification was moderated by participants’ social value orientation. Identification influenced proselfs’ cooperation more than prosocials’ cooperation. Mediational analyses further showed that the effect of our identification manipulation was mediated by participants’ sense of collective self, and not by their expectations.     

Attributions of Responsibility for Rape: Differences Across Familiarity of Situation,Gender, and Acceptance of Rape Myths1

In 2004 in Australia, controversy over the alleged involvement of elite footballers in incidents of sexual assault highlighted a tendency to denigrate the victims and excuse the perpetrators. To investigate whether rape myths were prevalent enough to explain this public response, 102 university students were surveyed for their beliefs and determinations of blame in rape situations. Although there was a gender difference in the rates of rape myth acceptance, with males more likely to accept these beliefs, these were not evident in decisions about victim blame or perpetrator blame. However, males and high rape myth acceptors were significantly more likely to minimize the seriousness of the rape situation. These effects increased with familiarity depicted in the situation.     

Attentional SNARC: there's something special about numbers (let us count the ways)

We report a study that examines whether the presentation of irrelevant, ordinal information at central fixation interacts with the allocation of attention beyond fixation. Previous research has demonstrated that number perception influences the allocation of spatial attention, such that the presentation of a spatially nonpredictive number at fixation results in attention being allocated to the left when the central number is low (e.g., 1), and attention being allocated to the right when the central number is high (e.g., 9). Here, we examine whether this attentional SNARC effect (spatial numerical association of response codes) generalizes to other ordinal sequences: letters, days, and months. Though we replicate the attentional SNARC we find that this effect is number-specific, unless participants are required to process the cue in an order-relevant fashion. This discovery of number-specificity has important implications both for the functional separation between SNARC and attention-SNARC effects, as well as lending support to recent theories regarding the specificity of a shared neural architecture between numbers and visuospatial attention.     

Less power or powerless? Egocentric empathy gaps and the irony of having little versus no power in social decision making

The authors investigate the effect of power differences and associated expectations in social decision making. Using a modified ultimatum game, the authors show that allocators lower their offers to recipients when the power difference shifts in favor of the allocator. Remarkably, however, when recipients are completely powerless, offers increase. This effect is mediated by a change in framing of the situation: When the opponent is without power, feelings of social responsibility are evoked. On the recipient side, the authors show that recipients do not anticipate these higher outcomes resulting from powerlessness. They prefer more power over less, expecting higher outcomes when they are more powerful, especially when less power entails powerlessness. Results are discussed in relation to empathy gaps and social responsibility.     

Criterion‐Related Validity of Dutch Police‐Selection Measures and Differences Between Ethnic Groups

This study investigated the criterion‐related validity of cognitive ability as well as non‐cognitive ability measures and differences between ethnic majority (N=2365) and minority applicants (N=682) in Dutch police officer selection. Findings confirmed the relatively low predictive validity of cognitive ability generally found for police jobs. Previous research reported no differential prediction. The present study, however, found small but systematic evidence for differences in validity for the ethnic majority and minority group of both cognitive and non‐cognitive measures. For the minority group, training performance appeared to be mainly predicted by the cognitive ability test. For the majority group, cognitive ability showed very little predictive power. Non‐cognitive ability variables appeared to be somewhat more predictive in this group.     

Acquisition of dispositional attributions: effects of sample size and covariation

Two experiments examined whether dispositional attributions are sensitive to the sample size of the evidence indicating a given level of covariation between person and behavior. Participants were given high or low levels of covariation (i.e. consensus and distinctiveness), and the acquisition of dispositional attributions was monitored by requesting dispositional trait ratings at fixed intervals. The results showed that dispositional attributions were sensitive to sample size, and increased given more evidence on high person‐behavior covariation while they decreased given more evidence on low person‐behavior covariation. Additional analyses suggested that in making dispositional inferences (e.g. about the actor), there was a slight preference for agreement information (e.g. low distinctiveness) over difference information (e.g. low consensus). The effects of sample size are inconsistent with current statistical or probabilistic models of covariation, but are in line with connectionist networks using an error‐correcting learning algorithm. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.