Addressing two blind spots of commonly used experimental designs: The Highly‐Repeated Within‐Person approach

Two well documented but still neglected blind spots of often‐used study designs limit a researcher's ability to make inferences about psychological phenomenon. First, typical designs focus on effects of conditions at the group level and are not able to assess the extent to which effects characterize each participant in the study. This blind spot can lead to erroneous (or incomplete) conclusions about the effects of manipulations both for a given participant and at the group level. Second, commonly used research designs often use a limited sample of stimuli, constraining conclusions to the particular stimuli. This blind spot can lead to non‐replication when different stimuli are used. We propose that the Highly‐Repeated Within‐Person (HRWP) approach helps mitigate these limitations. Using a study on the effects of anti‐smoking messages, we illustrate how the HRWP approach helps alert researchers when the conclusions at the group level may not apply to all (or any) participant, quantifies the heterogeneity of effects of manipulations across people, and increases confidence regarding the generalizability of the effects. We discuss how the HRWP approach may help conceptualize issues of replicability in a new light.     

Implicit ambivalence of significant others: Significant others trigger positive and negative evaluations

Despite the rich literature on implicit partner evaluations, there has been scant attention to a defining feature of significant other mental representations—their affective complexity. Recent findings (Zayas & Shoda, 2015), however, provide an empirical demonstration that significant others automatically and simultaneously activate positive and negative evaluations—a phenomenon we refer to as implicit ambivalence. A primary aim of this paper is to extend extant theory by elaborating on the features of the dyadic context that may contribute to the formation of implicit ambivalence. Particularly, drawing from research from relationship science, social cognition, and social neuroscience, we focus on the ability of significant others to dynamically and simultaneously confer rewards and threats, the attunement of perceivers to potential social rewards and social threats, and aspects of sense‐making of another person's mind that may give rise to implicit ambivalence. From this new perspective, implicit ambivalence is not a pathological or rare state. Quite the opposite, implicit ambivalence may be a normative, typical process, that is triggered even by people who are highly positive in one's network. We identify future directions for social cognition and relationship science.     

Ladies in waiting: a group intervention for families coping with deployed soldiers

It is widely recognized that military service during wartime can take a toll on a soldier's psychological health. Recent work has revealed effects on the families left behind as well, as reflected, for example, in an increase in child abuse and neglect in these families. My interest in studying the transgenerational transmission of trauma led me to offer the National Guard a pro bono group therapy for women whose husbands had been deployed overseas. A slightly unorthodox approach paved the way not only to group treatment but, ultimately, individual treatment for these women and their children. My hope is that this work can serve as a model for other therapists who share my interest in treating the intergenerational transmission of trauma by implementing group and mother-child psychotherapy.     

Global interference and spatial uncertainty in the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART)

The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) is a Go–No-Go signal detection task developed to measure lapses of sustained conscious attention. In this study, we examined the impact global interference and spatial uncertainty has on SART performance. Ten participants performed either a SART (high-Go) or a traditionally formatted (low-Go) version of a global–local stimuli detection task with spatially certain and uncertain signals. Reaction time in the SART was insensitive to global interference and spatial uncertainty, whereas reaction time in the low-Go task was sensitive. Spatial uncertainty increased errors of omission in the SART, which was not expected if the SART measures mindlessness. There was a high correlation between participants’ errors of commission rate and their reaction time in the SART. The results, overall, support the view that the SART is a better measure of response strategy than lapses in sustained attention or mindlessness.     

The facilitation of important personal goals through exercise

In a sample of 1287 adolescents, it appeared that weekly exercise facilitates a variety of goals; particularly those related to being or remaining healthy, feeling relaxed, not being bored, feeling physically good, not being stressed, and attaining high achievements were endorsed. Sedentary and active adolescents reported a similar order of 10 specific goals with respect to the likelihood of being positively influenced by exercise. The frequency of reported facilitation for each of the goals, however, was higher among the active adolescernts. This suggests that the more exercise is incorporated in daily life, the more it can be regarded as an integral part of the personal goal structure.     

Implementing a long-term computerized remedial reading program with synthetic speech feedback: Hardware,software, and real-world issues

This paper discusses hardware choices, software developments, implementation issues, and preliminary results from an ongoing long-term remedial reading study. Reading-disabled children read books on microcomputers linked to speech synthesizers, obtaining speech feedback on difficult words at whole-word, syllable, or subsyllable levels of segmentation. Word-recognition ability and attitude about reading improved for children using the system. In addition, segmented feedback especially benefited phonological word-decoding skills for most of the children.     

The development of memory structure as reflected by semantic-priming effects

This study was designed to investigate the development of knowledge about categorical and associative relationships as reflected by the presence or absence of semantic priming effects. Kindergarteners and second-graders were shown pairs of pictures, one picture at a time, and asked to name each picture as rapidly and accurately as possible. Picture pairs were of four types which reflected the factorial combination of associative relatedness (high and low) with categorial relatedness (high and low). An analysis of naming times revealed a significant main effect of associative relatedness, i.e., second pictures or “target” pictures in high-associative pairs were named faster than those in low-associative pairs. This reduction in naming latency, or priming effect, was independent of developmental level. However, the effects of category relatedness varied with developmental level, i.e., target pictures in high-categorical pairs were named significantly faster than those in low pairs by second-graders, but not by kindergarteners. These findings are discussed in terms of previous estimates of children's semantic competence.     

Computerphobia

Five studies of over 450 university students presented a comprehensive picture of computer-phobia. Three research and clinically based self-report instruments were developed to measure three nearly independent dimensions of computerphobia-computer anxiety, computer attitudes, and computer cognitions and feelings. Results indicated that older students were more computer anxious, but did not have more negative attitudes, cognitions, or feelings, than did younger students. Women had more negative attitudes than did men. Feminine-identity students showed more anxiety and negative attitudes than did masculine-identity students, regardless of gender. White students had more anxiety and more positive attitudes than did nonwhite students. Computerphobia was related to other anxiety measures (mathematics, state, and trait), but was a separate construct. Experience with computer interaction did not reduce anxiety or improve attitudes. Finally, regardless of academic major, computer-anxious students showed less computer aptitude, literacy, and interest. Implications for treating computerphobia are discussed.