Effects of white noise and irrelevant information on speeded classification: A developmental study

The study examined how well subjects were able to ignore the presence of irrelevant stimulus information in noise and in silence, as a function of age. Children aged six and nine, and adults, performed speeded card-sorting tasks with one binary dimension relevant and zero or two dimensions irrelevant. The presence of irrelevant information interfered with performance, the magnitude of interference declining with age. The interfering effects of irrelevant information were greater when it was (relatively) more salient than when it was less salient, but there was no interaction between relative salience and the effects of noise. Noise (95 dB(A)) slowed down sorting performance of adult subjects in all conditions, it slightly improved the performance of nine-year-old children, and it improved the performance of six-year-old children significantly when irrelevant information was present. The effects of noise on attentional control are discussed, mainly with reference to inhibitory effects of noise on subvocal activity.     

A note on the development of recall of spatial location

Recall of spatial location was studied with 5, 8, 12--13, and 17--18 year old subjects. Pictures of objects were shown one at a time in one of the four quadrants of a projection screen which was either blank (NF) or divided by a cross into four quadrants (F). The presence of the frame (F) did not affect item recall, but facilitated location recall more, the younger the subjects. Intentional learning of location was superior to incidental learning in the youngest but not in older children. The results are in agreement with Bryant's (1974) analysis of perceptual development which emphasizes the use of external spatial frames of reference in the encoding of attributes of visual objects in young children.     

Scaling of involvement in personal and global future events

Abstract.— Magnitude estimates of intensity of emotional involvement in 12 potential future events, assumed to occur at 5 alternative points of time within the next 46 years, were obtained from 75 subjects (mean age 19.1 yrs). Two types of relation between involvement and time were found, the dominant one being an exponential decrease of involvement with increasing temporal distance. The response patterns became less differentiated with increasing temporal distance. Differences in the response patterns between men and women, and between subjects differing in respect to satisfaction, activity, and optimism, are discussed.     

Components of IQ Scores Across Levels of Measured Ability

Forty-three (43) students from the Talent Identification Program's Summer Residential Program living in North Carolina took the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised (WISC-R; Wechsler, 1974) during the program. The test was also administered to 50 other North Carolina Students who qualified for the SRP but did not attend, as well as 34 students who had not been identified as gifted. The scores were evaluated for normative and idiographic strengths and weaknesses on the 12 subtests of the WISC-R. The idiographic differences were calculated by comparison against the average score of only the 6 subtests in the same subscale of the test (Verbal or Performance) as well as against all 12 subtests on the test. It was found by means of the former comparisons that the gifted students showed significantly more idiographic strengths on the Verbal scales and weaknesses on the Performance scales than the academically competent sample.     

Reducing Political Dehumanization by Pairing Facts With Personal Experiences

The media is increasingly blamed for inflaming political animosity, but it may also bridge partisan divides—with the right strategies. Past research highlights the outgroup-experience effect: Sharing personal experiences (and not facts) helps to reduce partisan animosity. However, sharing facts is a pillar of good journalism and is essential for mediated political communication. Across four studies in two countries, we show that journalists, and citizens on social media sites, can share facts about contentious political issues (gun and climate policy), while simultaneously increasing tolerance and reducing dehumanization of political opponents. We extend the outgroup-experience effect by introducing factual content alongside personal experiences of political adversaries (i.e., a combination approach). These effects are replicated in both the United States and Germany although in Germany the personal experience intervention is only beneficial for people with more extreme attitudes.     

Object representation and predictive action in infancy

Previous research has shown that 6‐month‐old infants extrapolate object motion on linear paths when they act predictively on fully visible moving objects but not when they observe partly occluded moving objects. The present research probed whether differences in the tasks presented to infants or in the visibility of the objects account for these findings, by investigating infants’ predictive head tracking of a visible object that moves behind a small occluder. Six‐month‐old infants were presented with an object that moved repeatedly on linear or nonlinear paths, with an occluder covering the place where all the paths intersected. The first time infants viewed an object’s motion, their head movements did not anticipate either linear or nonlinear motion, but they quickly learned to anticipate linear motion on successive trials. Infants also learned to anticipate nonlinear motion, but this learning was slower and less consistent. Learning in all cases concerned the trajectory of the object, not the specific locations at which the object appeared. These findings suggest that infants form object representations that are weakly biased toward inertial motion and that are influenced by learning. The findings accord with the thesis that a single system of representation underlies both predictive action and perception of object motion, and that occlusion reduces the precision of object representations.     

Bringing Back the Person into Behavioural Personality Science Using Big Data

Behaviour and the individual person are important but widely neglected topics of personality psychology. We argue that new technologies to collect and new methods to analyse Big (Behavioural) Data have the potential to bring back both more behaviour and the individual person into personality science. The call for studying the individual person in the history of personality science, the related idiographic/nomothetic divide, as well as attempts to reconcile these two approaches are briefly reviewed. Furthermore, different meanings of the term idiographic and some unique selling points that emphasize the importance of idiographic research are highlighted. A nonexhaustive literature review shows that a wealth of behaviours are considered in extant personality studies using such Big Data but only in a nomothetic way. Against this background, we demonstrate the potential of Big Data collection and analysis with regard to four idiographic research topics: (i) unique manifestations of common traits and the resurgence of personal dispositions, (ii) idiographic prediction, (iii) intraindividual consistency versus variability of behaviour and (iv) intraindividual personality trait change through intervention. Methodological, ethical and legal pitfalls of doing Big Data research with individual persons as well as potential countermeasures are considered.     

A hierarchical latent response model for inferences about examinee engagement in terms of guessing and item-level non-response

In low-stakes assessments, test performance has few or no consequences for examinees themselves, so that examinees may not be fully engaged when answering the items. Instead of engaging in solution behaviour, disengaged examinees might randomly guess or generate no response at all. When ignored, examinee disengagement poses a severe threat to the validity of results obtained from low-stakes assessments. Statistical modelling approaches in educational measurement have been proposed that account for non-response or for guessing, but do not consider both types of disengaged behaviour simultaneously. We bring together research on modelling examinee engagement and research on missing values and present a hierarchical latent response model for identifying and modelling the processes associated with examinee disengagement jointly with the processes associated with engaged responses. To that end, we employ a mixture model that identifies disengagement at the item-by-examinee level by assuming different data-generating processes underlying item responses and omissions, respectively, as well as response times associated with engaged and disengaged behaviour. By modelling examinee engagement with a latent response framework, the model allows assessing how examinee engagement relates to ability and speed as well as to identify items that are likely to evoke disengaged test-taking behaviour. An illustration of the model by means of an application to real data is presented.     

A double neon colour illusion

A new visual illusion is presented. When two neon-coloured illusory bands overlap each other, the filling-in at the region of overlap is perceived as different from those of the overlapping bands, resulting in an additional illusory shape at the region of overlap. An experiment with ten na?ve participants was performed to measure the illusory percept. The results show that illusory surfaces may interact with each other, and, to a certain extent, create new illusory percepts.     

Parental Alcoholism and Co-Occurring Antisocial Behavior: Prospective Relationships to Externalizing Behavior Problems in their Young Sons

The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems through child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family conflict, and parent–child conflict was tested using manifest variable regression analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an alcoholic father and 83 ecologically matched but nonsubstance abusing families involved in the first 2 waves of an ongoing longitudinal study (with 3 years between each wave). All families had a biological son who was 3–5 years old at study onset. Results revealed that child lack of control mediated the relation between paternal alcoholism and the son's subsequent externalizing behavior problems. Family conflict was a significant mediator of maternal and paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects and father–son conflict mediated paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects. Study implications are discussed within the context of parental socialization of antisocial behavior.