Criteria Based Content Analysis: The Less Scientific Road to Truth

Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA) is a forensic tool that aims atdistinguishing true from false statements made by crime victims. As such,CBCA and similar techniques are regularly employed by psychologicalexpert-witnesses in court. However, it could be argued that the diagnosticaccuracy of CBCA is moderate, and too low for application in the forensiccontext. The current article discusses problems that arise if conclusionsabout credibility of testimonies based on CBCA are presented in court. Afundamental, yet so far hardly addressed flaw is that CBCA suffers from aninherent truth bias. That is, the underlying notion that credibility isexamined by means of searching for signs supporting truthfulness isscientifically less valid than the approach in which credibility isestablished by focusing on alternative explanations and signs of deceit.     

The Prediction of Negative Events Associated with Anxiety and Dietary Restraint: A Test of the Content Specificity Hypothesis

The prediction of future negative events was studied in a sample of undergraduate students varying on measures of anxiety and dietary restraint. Cognitive theories of psychopathology hypothesize that the emotional concerns of an individual determine which types of information are most often cognitively processed with a biased interpretation. This prediction has generally been called the content specificity hypothesis. Based upon this aspect of cognitive theory, we hypothesized that a high level of trait anxiety would be associated with higher ratings of the probability of future physically threatening events. In addition, it was hypothesized that a high level of dietary restraint would be associated with lower ratings of the probability of future occurrences of overeating. The results of the study supported these hypotheses. These prediction biases were found to be more pronounced in women, as compared to men. The findings were interpreted as supportive of the content specificity hypothesis.     

Effects of relative reinforcer frequency on complex color detection

Pigeons were trained under a discrete-trials detection procedure in which one of a set of color stimuli was presented on the center key and a single response turned off the stimulus and illuminated two side keys. Single responses to one or the other side key produced occasional reinforcers depending on the value of the color stimulus. In Experiment 1, one color-stimulus set comprised 559, 564, 569, and 574 nm, and right-key pecks were occasionally reinforced following presentations of members of this set. The other stimulus set comprised 579, 584, 589, and 594 nm, and left-key pecks were occasionally reinforced following presentations of members of this set. Across seven experimental conditions, the left/(left + right) relative reinforcer frequency was varied from .1 to .9. In Experiment 2, one stimulus set contained only one member, 574 nm, and right-key responses were occasionally reinforced following its presentation. Over 12 experimental conditions, two manipulations were carried out. First, the number of stimuli comprising the other stimulus set was increased from one (579 nm) to two (579 and 584 nm) to three (579, 584, and 589 nm) and to four (579, 584, 589, and 594 nm), and left-key responses were reinforced occasionally following center-key presentations of members of this set. Second, for each stimulus combination, the left/(left + right) relative reinforcer frequency was varied from .1 to .5 to .9 across three experimental conditions. The principal finding of Experiments 1 and 2 was that reinforcers and stimuli interacted in their effects on behavior. In Experiment 3, pairs of adjacent stimuli (5 nm apart) in the range 559 to 594 nm were presented in each experimental condition, and the left/(left + right) relative reinforcer frequency was held constant at .5. The data from all three experiments were analyzed according to a detection model describing performance in multiple-stimulus two-response procedures. This model provided independent measures of stimulus discriminability, contingency discriminability, and bias. The analysis showed that (a) consistent with the color-naming function, pigeons were better able to discriminate between higher nanometer values than lower nanometer values; (b) their ability to discriminate between the stimuli was independent of the number of wavelengths comprising each stimulus set; (c) they allocated delivered reinforcers very accurately to the previously emitted response; and (d) no consistent biases emerged.     

Making faces: testing the relation between child behavior problems and mothers' interpretations of child emotion expressions

We examined the relations between preschool boys' behavior problems and mothers' interpretations of children's emotion expressions. A sample of 31 mothers of oppositional boys and 28 control mothers responded to standard stimuli depicting child emotional reactions to maternal control attempts; mothers were instructed to think of the stimuli as either (a) their own child or (b) an unfamiliar child. Mothers of oppositional boys were more likely to generate negative interpretations than were control mothers when thinking of their own children; however, this difference did not generalize to the explicitly unfamiliar child condition. Mothers of oppositional boys demonstrated negative and comparison mothers demonstrated positive interpretive tendencies toward their own children. Findings suggest that child emotion cues may trigger biased maternal cognitions even in the absence of child misbehavior.     

范畴三段论推理中信念偏差效应的实验研究

本研究利用三段论评价任务,分析了已有信念与三段论逻辑状态间的交互影响,探讨了三段论推理判断中信念偏差的存在与作用机制,同时从信念偏差角度对心理模型理论进行了初步验证。结果发现：1．范畴三段论推理的逻辑判断过程中存在信念偏差效应;2．信念偏差效应以逻辑状态与结论可信性交互作用的方式存在;3当逻辑结果与信念相一致时,信念会促进逻辑反应,反之则妨碍逻辑反应;4．信念偏差效应对逻辑有效、结论不可信的单模型三段论问题影响最大,而对逻辑有效、结论不可信的多模型三段论问题相对影响最小。     

DIRECT AND COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF RESTRAINTS AND RESTRAINT FADING

Mechanical restraints are commonly used to reduce the risks associated with severe self-injurious behavior (SIB), but may result in movement restriction and adverse side effects (e.g., bone demineralization). Restraint fading may provide a method for decreasing SIB while increasing movement and reducing these side effects. In the current investigation, rigid arm sleeves and restraint fading (gradually reducing the rigidity of the sleeves) were used with 3 clients who engaged in hand-to-head SIB. Restraints and fading reduced the hand-to-head SIB of all clients. However, for 1 client, the addition of a water mist procedure further reduced SIB to near-zero levels. For a 2nd client, another form of SIB developed that was not prevented by the rigid sleeves. For a 3rd client, a topography of SIB that was not physically prevented by the rigid sleeves was also reduced when restraints and fading were introduced.     

Effects of violent movies and trait hostility on hostile feelings and aggressive thoughts

The General Affective Aggression Model [Anderson CA, Deuser WE, DeNeve KM (1995): Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21:434–448; Anderson CA, Anderson KB, Deuser WE (1996): Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 22:366–376] suggests that violent movies may increase aggression by increasing hostile feelings and the accessibility of aggressive thoughts. It also suggests that trait hostility may similarly influence affect and cognition. Experiment 1 explored the effects of viewing violent movie clips on affect and cognition. Participants who viewed a violent movie clip later reported higher levels of state hostility than did those who viewed a nonviolent clip. Experiment 2 added trait hostility to the design as a potentially important individual difference variable. The state hostility results of Experiment 1 were replicated. In addition, the relative accessibility of aggressive thoughts was increased by the violent clip, but only for low irritable participants. Discussion focused on the relevance to aggressive behavior. Aggr. Behav. 23:161–178, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

In my mind, we all smile: A case of in-group favoritism

The goal of the present study was to examine whether a highly valued social behavior—the smile—is attributed more frequently to in-group than to out-group members. For this, participants were asked to read a vignette describing a protagonist in a non-emotional situation, and to choose a facial expression that would be appropriate to the context. For Study 1 the vignette depicted a potentially social context, whereas for Study 2, the context was strictly non-social. In both studies, participants of European descent attributed smiles more often to members of their in-group, whereas they attributed a larger number of neutral faces to out-group members. In a third study the same pattern of attributions was found for recent immigrants from French speaking African countries and from Asian countries. These results suggest the presence of an in-group bias in the attribution of smiles.     

The factor structure of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List-Revised (MAACL-R): Some statistical considerations

In response to Zuckerman's comments on my factor analyses of the MAACL-R, I focus on the statistical issues of the cutoff criterion for factor loadings and the evidence for the discriminant validity of the five-factor solution. Based upon the conclusions I draw in these two areas, I recommend that researchers either (a) use the two factor solution to the MAACL-R represented in the summary scores of Dysphoria and Positive Affect + Sensation Seeking or (b) include all MAACL-R scales in their studies and analyze their data to determine whether it is statistically appropriate to report results from a single scale (A, D, H, PA, or SS) rather than from the summary scores.