Functional Anatomy of the Null Hypothesis and of Tests of It

The author compared simulations of the “true” null hypothesis (z) test, in which ò was known and fixed, with the t test, in which s, an estimate of ò, was calculated from the sample because the t test was used to emulate the “true” test. The true null hypothesis test bears exclusively on calculating the probability that a sample distance (mean) is larger than a specified value. The results showed that the value of t was sensitive to sampling fluctuations in both distance and standard error. Large values of t reflect small standard errors when n is small. The value of t achieves sensitivity primarily to distance only when the sample sizes are large. One cannot make a definitive statement about the probability or “significance” of a distance solely on the basis of the value of t.     

Intergroup contact in Romania: When minority size is positively related to intergroup conflict

Contexts in which minority size is positively related to intergroup conflict are challenging for the contact hypothesis. In such situations, if opportunities for contact increase prejudice, the contact hypothesis may seem less credible, but if they reduce prejudice, the contact hypothesis may seem less useful for improving intergroup relations. Based on path analyses run on a Romanian national probability sample (N = 733), the current research shows that the contact hypothesis can nevertheless be relevant. Because the Hungarian minority is concentrated in Transylvania, a region with a long history of conflict between Romanians and Hungarians, Transylvanians have more opportunities for out‐group contact than other Romanians. However, the analyses also detected significant differences within Transylvania: Urban Transylvanians have more opportunities for contact with Hungarians than rural Transylvanians and, consequently, are less negative towards them. The results, which closely match recent historical events, suggest that a proper application of the contact hypothesis at a societal level has to take into account that minority size is not necessarily equivalent to opportunities for contact and that inter‐regional comparisons in opportunities for contact can hide significant intra‐regional differences. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do we map remembrances to the left/back and expectations to the right/front of a mental timeline? Space–time congruency effects with retrospective and prospective verbs

Recent experimental studies have shown that people code time in terms of a mental timeline which typically runs from left to right or from back to front. Determining the cognitive function of this mental timeline for language processing, however, is still an unsettled issue. Whereas the studies of Ulrich and Maienborn (2010) and Ulrich et al. (2012) argue against an automatic activation of the mental timeline for the interpretation of tense and temporal adverbials at sentence level, Sell and Kaschak (2011) observe an automatic activation for the processing of past- and future-related sentences in small stories. The present paper reports the results of three experiments which examine the processing of sentences with retrospective and prospective verbs (e.g., to remember, to regret vs. to expect, to announce) in present tense, which locate a second, embedded event in the past or the future. When temporal information was task-relevant, a space–time congruency effect emerged (Experiment 1). This suggests that the mental timeline is not only linked to overtly deictic linguistic material but may also be construed in a more intricate way through the compositional construction of sentence meaning. The congruency effect disappeared, however, when temporal information was task-irrelevant (Experiments 2 and 3), suggesting that the mental timeline is not functionally involved in the cognitive processing of these especially demanding two-event sentences. The results of the present study support the conclusion that the relevant factor driving an automatic activation of the mental timeline is not the number of linguistically expressed events, but might rather be the number of sentential units.     

Family Environment as a Moderator of the Association between Conduct Disorder and Suicidality

This study examined whether perceived family support and conflict moderate the relationship between conduct disorder (CD) and suicide attempts (SAs) in a sample of 185 psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents, ages 13 to 18, and their parents. Data were collected using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children (K–SADS–PL), the Survey of Children’s Social Support Scale–Short Version, and the Conflict Behavior Questionnaire. Binary logistic regression and simple slope analyses were conducted to test study hypotheses. Results suggest that perceptions of family support, but not conflict, moderate the association between CD and SAs. Specifically, adolescents diagnosed with CD were found to be at heightened risk for an SA if they reported lower family support. These results suggest that clinicians who treat adolescents with CD should assess for perceptions of family support. Incorporating family work into treatment could help to prevent SAs.     

Typical Dreams: Stability and Gender Differences

Although the variability of dream content is large, typical dream themes that occur quite often and are reported by many people can be identified (e.g., being chased, falling, flying, failing an examination, being unable to find a toilet or restroom). The present study is an investigation of the stability of the rank order of the dream themes and of gender differences in the content of dreams. The authors administered A. L. Zadra and T. A. Nielsen's (1997) Typical Dream Questionnaire to 444 participants. The findings indicated that most of the 55 dream themes occurred at least once in most of the participants' lifetimes. In addition, the correlation coefficients for the rank order of the themes were very high; that is, the relative frequencies were stable. The gender differences in the present study were in line with content analytic findings; for example, men reported dreams about physical aggression more often than did women. Overall, previous research and the present data indicate that available research results of the measurement of typical dream themes are reliable and valid. The question of the meaning of these themes or the relationship between typical dream contents and waking life experiences, however, has not yet been answered and is open to future research.     

Conscious knowledge influences decision‐making differently in substance abusers with and without co‐morbid antisocial personality disorder

Decision‐making impairment, as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), is a consistent finding among individuals with substance use disorder (SUD). We studied how this impairment is influenced by co‐morbid antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and conscious knowledge of the task. Three groups were investigated: SUD individuals without co‐morbid ASPD (n = 30), SUD individuals with co‐morbid ASPD (n = 16), and healthy controls (n = 17). Both SUD and SUD+ASPD participants had poor overall IGT performance. A block‐by‐block analysis revealed that SUD participants exhibited slow but steady improvement across the IGT, whereas SUD+ASPD participants exhibited initial normal improvement, but dropped off during the last 40 trials. Conscious knowledge of the task was significantly correlated to performance for controls and SUD participants, but not for SUD+ASPD participants. Our findings suggest that decision‐making proceeds differently in SUD and SUD+ASPD individuals due to differences in acquisition and application of conscious knowledge.     

Modeling memory and perception

I present a framework for modeling memory, retrieval, perception, and their interactions. Recent versions of the models were inspired by Bayesian induction: We chose models that make optimal decisions conditioned on a memory/perceptual system with inherently noisy storage and retrieval. The resultant models are, fortunately, largely consistent with my models dating back to the 1960s, and are therefore natural successors. My recent articles have presented simplified models in order to focus on particular applications. This article takes a larger perspective and places the individual models in a more global framework. I will discuss (1) the storage of episodic traces, the accumulation of these into knowledge (e.g., lexical/semantic traces in the case of words), and the changes in knowledge caused by learning; (2) the retrieval of information from episodic memory and from general knowledge; (3) decisions concerning storage, retrieval, and responding. Examples of applications include episodic recognition and cued and free recall, perceptual identification (naming, yes–no and forced‐choice), lexical decision, and long‐term and short‐term priming.     

Choosing an Endorser for a Women’s Sporting Event: The Interaction of Attractiveness and Expertise

An experimental study was conducted to determine the impact of expertise and attractiveness on perceived appropriateness of the endorser with a women’s tennis event and, subsequently, attitudes towards the event and intentions to purchase tickets. The sample was comprised of 184 undergraduate students at three U.S. universities. Hypotheses were tested through observed path analysis and results indicated both attractiveness and expertise were significantly related to the endorser’s appropriateness and explained 24% of the variance. However, there was a significant interaction; in the lower expertise condition, the more attractive athlete was rated as a more appropriate endorser. Further, endorser appropriateness led to more positive attitudes and intentions to purchase tickets, and the model explained 13 and 48% of the variance in these variables respectively.     

Faith schooling: implications for teacher educators. A perspective from Northern Ireland

The separate and parallel systems of schooling in Northern Ireland that largely reflect Protestant/Catholic divisions have been much criticised on the grounds that they have failed to promote social cohesion. These divisions are also evident in teacher education provision and attempts to offset the negative effects of this separation have made only a limited impact. By means of a brief survey of the relationship between two de facto religiously separated teacher education institutions, from the early twentieth century to the present day, this article considers the issues for teacher educators and argues that separateness at this level has been disadvantageous in relation to the challenges of preparing student teachers to work in a diverse, plural society.     

记忆提取促进学习:实验证据与机制解释

人类学习的主流观点认为学习主要发生在编码阶段,记忆提取本身并不产生和促进学习。但最近多项研究对此提出了质疑,他们发现,在学习过程中,记忆提取更能促进学习内容的长时保持。本文首先对记忆提取促进学习的实验证据做简要梳理;之后重点介绍关于记忆提取促进学习的多种解释机制,主要包括:侧重于从理论机制层面解释的记忆失用新理论,强调内在精细机制的精细提取假设,以及解释保持间隔(长、短)与学习方式(重复学习、学习-测试)交互作用的基于分布的二分模型;文章最后分析了当前研究记忆提取作用实验存在的一些问题,提出了今后的研究方向,强调应从多角度揭示记忆提取练习促进学习的机制。