Are Arabic numerals processed as pictures in a Stroop interference task?

In a picture-word interference task, picture naming is interfered by an incongruent word, but word naming is hardly hindered by the presence of an incongruent picture. In this study, we investigated whether Arabic digits are processed more like pictures or like words. We report two experiments in which Arabic digits and verbal numerals were confronted in a Stroop task. Arabic digit naming is interfered by the presence of an incongruent verbal numeral, while naming the verbal numeral is not influenced by the presence of an incongruent Arabic digit. In a second experiment, we excluded the hypothesis that the results are due to ignoring the Arabic digits: interferences from an incongruent distracter were similar for both notations in a semantic classification task. It seems that an asemantic conversion for Arabic digits is too slow to influence naming times, and that Arabic digit naming, like picture naming, is semantically mediated.     

Multidimensional Adaptive Testing with Optimal Design Criteria for Item Selection

Several criteria from the optimal design literature are examined for use with item selection in multidimensional adaptive testing. In particular, it is examined what criteria are appropriate for adaptive testing in which all abilities are intentional, some should be considered as a nuisance, or the interest is in the testing of a composite of the abilities. Both the theoretical analyses and the studies of simulated data in this paper suggest that the criteria of A-optimality and D-optimality lead to the most accurate estimates when all abilities are intentional, with the former slightly outperforming the latter. The criterion of E-optimality showed occasional erratic behavior for this case of adaptive testing, and its use is not recommended. If some of the abilities are nuisances, application of the criterion of A _s -optimality (or D _s -optimality), which focuses on the subset of intentional abilities is recommended. For the measurement of a linear combination of abilities, the criterion of c-optimality yielded the best results. The preferences of each of these criteria for items with specific patterns of parameter values was also assessed. It was found that the criteria differed mainly in their preferences of items with different patterns of values for their discrimination parameters. The first author is now at the Department of Methodology and Statistics, Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3854 Utrecht, The Netherlands. The second author is now at Research Department, CTB/McGraw-Hill, Monterey, CA, USA.     

Does contingency awareness mediate the influence of emotional learning on the cueing of visual attention?

Previous research has indicated that conditioning depends on contingency awareness (CA). However, we argue that these studies have examined this issue under methodological conditions that might be insensitive to associative learning without CA. In the present study we examined the effect of an experimental manipulation of CA on attentive processing of classically conditioned stimuli, which is sensitive to associative learning with and without CA. We found that aversive conditioning with additional contingency instructions modulated visual attention, in the sense that the conditioned cues captured and held attention more strongly than the non-conditioned cues. Surprisingly, conditioning under conditions of restricted CA yielded a response pattern that was different from that under full CA. These findings suggest that conditioning with full and restricted CA can lead to qualitatively different effects on attention.     

Offline and online automatic number comparison

This paper focuses on automatic number processing as instantiated in the size congruity effect. It was recently argued that long-term "associations between individual digits and the attributes 'small' and 'large' create the size congruity effect" (Choplin and Logan 2003, abstract, p. 17). Moreover, these authors proposed the additional assumption that the relevant connections are acquired over a lifetime of experience with numbers. We show that at least one of these assumptions is not true: either the size congruity effect derives from an (online) comparison effect between two numbers at the time of stimulus presentation (violating the first assumption) or the relevant connections flexibly change (offline) between trials during the course of one experimental session (violating the second assumption).     

Understanding linear and exponential growth: Searching for the roots in 6- to 9-year-olds

Previous studies have suggested that children as young as 9 years old have developed an understanding of non-linear growth processes prior to formal education. The present experiment aimed at investigating this competency in even younger samples (i.e., in kindergartners, first, and third graders, ages 6, 7 and 9, respectively). Children (N = 90) solved non-verbal inductive reasoning tasks by forecasting linear and exponential growth. While children of all ages forecasted linear growth adequately, exponential growth was also estimated remarkably well. Surprisingly, kindergartners and third graders showed similar high achievement concerning the magnitude and curve shape of forecasts, whereas first graders performed significantly worse. We concluded that primary knowledge of both linearity and non-linearity exists even in kindergartners. However, children's understanding is quite fragile, as their performance was strongly affected by task sequence: Children underestimated exponential growth when the previous task required a forecast of linear growth, and overestimated linear growth when the previous task required forecasting of exponential growth.     

An integrative perspective on psychotherapeutic treatments for borderline personality disorder

Although there is an abundance of literature on the psychotherapeutic treatment of borderline pathology, little is known about differences and similarities between treatments of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Potential differences and similarities are especially important in the absence of evidence of the superiority of one treatment over the other (e.g., Livesley, 2004). This article offers an overview of the theory and practice of contemporary psychotherapeutic treatments of BPD, and delineates similarities and differences between the specific treatments. Results show that similarities concerning (1) the formal characteristics, and (2) the importance of therapeutic techniques in treatments for BPD, outnumber the differences. This article concludes by viewing the similarities and differences from an integrative perspective, and recommendations are given for future work in treating patients with and research on the effectiveness of treatments and treatment techniques for BPD.     

Developmental trends in everyday conditional reasoning: the retrieval and inhibition interplay

Two experiments examined developmental patterns in children’s conditional reasoning with everyday causal conditionals. In Experiment 1, a group of pre-, early, young, and late adolescents generated counterexamples for a set of conditionals to validate developmental claims about the counterexample retrieval capacity. In Experiment 2, participants in the same age range were presented with a conditional reasoning task with similar conditionals. Experiment 1 established that counterexample retrieval increased from preadolescence to late adolescence. Experiment 2 showed that acceptance rates of the invalid affirmation of the consequent inference gradually decreased in the same age range. Acceptance rates of the valid modus ponens inference showed a U-shaped pattern. After an initial drop from preadolescence to early adolescence, modus ponens acceptance ratings increased again after the onset of adolescence. Findings support the claim that the development of everyday conditional reasoning can be characterized as an interplay between the development of a counterexample retrieval and inhibition process.     

Communities of port Jews and their contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World

In the late 16th century, Jews and conversos created a trading network that tied together ports in Portugal, Brazil and the Netherlands. This network became the chief Dutch commercial circuit in the first quarter of the 17th century and offered benefits to Jews and conversos that were not solely economic ones. This circuit made it possible for Brazilian New Christians to return to Judaism in Amsterdam and Amsterdam Jews to establish a community in Brazil. In the process, the port Jews of Recife (Brazil) and Amsterdam became closely connected, especially after warfare closed off access to Portuguese ports in the network. Amsterdam Jews arrived in force in Recife during the 1630s, but traveled back to Amsterdam during the years 1645–54, since the Dutch colony in Brazil was shrinking and, eventually, was captured by Portuguese troops. Jews contributed commercially, financially, and militarily to this short-lived colony and were rewarded with privileges, which, for this time, were remarkable.