We Value What Values Us: The Appeal of Identity-Affirming Science

Members of the public (Study 1; n =  184) and university students (Study 2; n =  101) evaluated a piece of research and indicated their support for its continuation. The research findings were held constant, but the methods that revealed those findings were attributed to either neuroscience or social science, and the conclusions based on those findings were biased either in favor of men or in favor of women. Study 1 revealed that participants were more positive about research that affirmed their gender identity and that was based on neuroscience rather than social science. Study 2 found this pattern to be apparent in more specialist samples. Indeed, participants with some scientific training were more influenced by research that affirmed the reader's gender identity. Participants with less scientific training, in comparison, were more influenced by the type of science described when making judgments about the value of the research. Contrary to popular claims, this suggests that scientific knowledge alone is no protection against the effects of bias on research evaluation. Implications for the practice and popularization of science are discussed.     

Are members of low status groups perceived as bad, or badly off? Egalitarian negative associations and automatic prejudice

Three studies explored the hypothesis that implicit measures of prejudice can tap negative, yet egalitarian associations. In Study 1, automatically associating African Americans with oppression predicted greater automatic prejudice. In Studies 2 and 3, classically conditioning associations between the novel group Noffians and words like oppressed, maltreated, and victimized led to greater automatic prejudice against Noffians. Results suggest that White Americans’ negative automatic associations with African Americans may partly result from associating members of low status groups with unfair circumstances. Because automatic associations predict prejudiced behaviors, the burden of proof is on those wishing to argue that egalitarian negative associations complicate the assessment of automatic attitudes rather than contribute to prejudiced responses. Discussion focuses on the implications of egalitarian negative associations for the theory and measurement of automatic prejudice.     

Automatic quantity processing in 5-year olds and adults

In this study adults performed numerical and physical size judgments on a symbolic (Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (groups of dots) size congruity task. The outcomes would reveal whether a size congruity effect (SCE) can be obtained irrespective of notation. Subsequently, 5-year-old children performed a physical size judgment on both tasks. The outcomes will give a better insight in the ability of 5-year-olds to automatically process symbolic and non-symbolic numerosities. Adult performance on the symbolic and non-symbolic size congruity tasks revealed a SCE for numerical and physical size judgments, indicating that the non-symbolic size congruity task is a valid indicator for automatic processing of non-symbolic numerosities. Physical size judgments on both tasks by children revealed a SCE only for non-symbolic notation, indicating that the lack of a symbolic SCE is not related to the mathematical or cognitive abilities required for the task but instead to an immature association between the number symbol and its meaning.     

An empirical investigation of the specificity and sensitivity of the automatic thoughts questionnaire and dysfunctional attitudes scale

Cognitive assessment of depression is not well advanced and the evidence for the validity and reliability of measures is incomplete. This study examined two cognitive assessments of depression-the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) and the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS). There were two major objectives of this study. The first objective was to examine the ability of these two measures of cognitions to discriminate depressive symptomatology within a variety of sample populations-university undergraduate students, medical and psychiatric outpatients, and acute psychiatric inpatients. The second objective was to examine the ability of the ATQ and DAS succesfully to classify depressed and nondepressed patients. The results of this study suggest that the ATQ is a sensitive and specific measure of depression. Nonspecificity to the ATQ, however, was demonstrated in the substance abuse disorder group and the personality disorder group. In contrast, the DAS, although correlated with depressive symptomatology, was not found to be specific to depression.Part of this project is supported by a Special Project Grant from the University of Queensland to Dr. Oei.     

Perceptual strength is different from sensorimotor strength: Evidence from the centre–periphery asymmetry in masked priming

Near-threshold prime stimuli can facilitate or hinder responses to target stimuli, creating either a positive compatibility effect (PCE) or a negative compatibility effect (NCE). An asymmetry has been reported between primes presented in near periphery, which produced a PCE, and foveal primes, which produced an NCE under comparable conditions. This asymmetry has been attributed to the difference in retinal sensitivity, but it remains unclear whether this means that equating discrimination performance for primes in fovea and periphery, in order to account for differences in perceptual sensitivity, would make the priming effects the same. Wider work indicates that perceptual ability can dissociate from visuomotor effects, predicting that equating perceptual ability for fovea and periphery would not equate priming. We tested these opposite possibilities by matching discrimination performance for masked Gabor patches in fovea and near periphery (6°) and using these as primes in a masked priming paradigm expected to elicit NCEs. We found the asymmetry remained: NCE for fovea and PCE for periphery. We replicated this with both blocked and randomized procedures to check for attentional effects. We conclude that equating perceptual strength (discriminability) of stimuli does not equate their sensorimotor impact due to differences in the relative importance of different visual pathways and differing temporal dynamics in perceptual and sensorimotor processes.     

时间顺序信息加工的实验研究

该研究运用Ｇｌｕｃｋｓｂｅｒｇ和ＭｃＣｌｏｓｋｅｙ（１９８１）的问答模型,通过两个实验检查了项目的时序信息是通过项目学习时的时序编码获得的,还是在项目提取时建构的;时序加工是自动的,还是控制的两个问题。结果表明：项目的时序信息是通过项目学习时的时序编码获得的,而不是在项目提取时建构的;时序信息的编码是控制的。     

The effects of rational emotive behavior therapy and motivational interviewing on emotions,automatic thoughts,and perceived performance of elite female volleyball players

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to examine the effect of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy intervention alone (REBT-A) or with motivational interviewing (REBT + MI) on the emotions, automatic thoughts, and perceived performance of elite female volleyball players.Designand method: Single-case, staggered multiple-baseline AB and ABC designs were adapted in the study. Five female volleyball players participated in the study, of which three players participated in the REBT-A and two players participated in the REBT + MI. The athletes were competing in the national volleyball league (M_age = 28, SD = 5.52). All participants were elite athletes with at least ten years of sports experience. Three scores (T1, T2, T3) were calculated for the athletes' perceived performance, emotion, and automatic thoughts. T1 was the baseline score calculated before the sessions. T2 was calculated after the first two sessions (the first three sessions for REBT + MI) and T3 was calculated after the last three sessions. In the data analysis, percentage changes, effect size, and visual analyzes were used in the T1, T2, and T3 scores.ResultsREBT-A and REBT + MI interventions increased perceived performance, positive emotions, and positive automatic thoughts, and decreased negative emotions and negative automatic thoughts. REBT + MI was more advantageous than REBT-A in increasing positive emotion, positive automatic thought, and perceived performance.ConclusionsAs a result, REBT alone or with motivational interviewing has a positive effect on perceived performance, emotions, and automatic thoughts, but REBT + MI has greater potential to increase positive constructs.     

Automatic grading and hinting in open-ended text questions

Open-ended text questions provide better assessment of learner’s knowledge, but analysing answers for this kind of questions, checking their correctness, and generating of detailed formative feedback about errors for the learner are more difficult and complex tasks than for closed-ended questions like multiple-choice.The analysis of answers for open-ended questions can be performed on different levels. Analysis on character level allows to find errors in characters’ placement inside a word or a token; it is typically used to detect and correct typos, allowing to differ typos from actual errors in the learner’s answer. The word-level or token-level analysis allows finding misplaced, extraneous, or missing words in the sentence. The semantic-level analysis is used to capture formally the meaning of the learner’s answer and compare it with the meaning of the correct answer that can be provided in a natural or formal language. Some systems and approaches use analysis on several levels.The variability of the answers for open-ended questions significantly increases the complexity of the error search and formative feedback generation tasks. Different types of patterns including regular expressions and their use in questions with patterned answers are discussed. The types of formative feedback and modern approaches and their capabilities to generate feedback on different levels are discussed too.Statistical approaches or loosely defined template rules are inclined to false-positive grading. They are generally lowering the workload of creating questions, but provide low feedback. Approaches based on strictly-defined sets of correct answers perform better in providing hinting and answer-until-correct feedback. They are characterised by a higher workload of creating questions because of the need to account for every possible correct answer by the teacher and fewer types of detected errors.The optimal choice for creating automatised e-learning courses are template-based open-ended question systems like OntoPeFeGe, Preg, METEOR, and CorrectWriting which allows answer-until-correct feedback and are able to find and report various types of errors. This approach requires more time to create questions, but less time to manage the learning process in the courses once they are run.     

Student Attitudes Regarding Gender Bias in Performance Evaluations of Salespeople

This study examined how students believe salesperson gender impacts evaluations of salesperson performance. Students reviewed job performance information about either male or female salespeople. The information had purportedly been prepared by the salesperson's supervisor and indicated the level of performance as high or low. Students were asked how they thought the salesperson's supervisor might respond to the performance in terms of rewards (promotion, pay increases) for high performers and corrective measures (termination, counseling) for low performers. The results indicated that students believe that supervisors would more readily reward high performing males than females with identical performances. In contrast, students believed that supervisors would react more punitively toward low performing males than females with identical performances.     

Victim’s innocence, social categorization, and the threat to the belief in a just world

This research studies people’s reactions to the suffering of victims, examining the hypothesis of the belief in a just world (BJW) (Lerner, 1980) according to which the awareness of innocent victims threatens people’s BJW, and extending the scope of BJW theory to intergroup contexts. An implicit measure of the threat to the BJW (Hafer, 2000a) is used in this research. After participants viewed a videotaped film containing the victimization story they performed an emotional modified Stroop task. Study 1 examined the threat to the BJW as function of the innocence of the victim at an interpersonal level of analysis. Results show that only the innocent victim threatens the observer’s BJW. Study 2 examined the threat to the BJW as function of the victim’s group and of the victim’s innocence. Results show that an ingroup victim threatens the participant’s BJW more than a victim belonging to an outgroup.