Luria's Motor Method and Word Association in the Study of Deception

The present study investigated the variables of method of stimulus presentation, type of focal instance, type of strategy, and sex, in a conjunctive concept attainment task. The results indicated that an all positive series of focal cards resulted in the most efficient performance. The all negative-specified group was significantly better than the all negative-unspecified group. There was no significant difference between a focus gambling strategy and a conservative focusing strategy. The simultaneous method of stimulus presentation was shown to be superior to a successive method of presentation. There was no finding of a sex difference in concept attaining ability for each experimental condition.     

Feedback in Response Recognition and Production

The role of feedback in the development of recognition memory was examined by testing pairs of subjects; one subject performed the movement while the other listened to the movement in an adjacent room. Both groups of subjects developed recognition memory during training with KR, and recognition performance was virtually identical for both groups. In addition, previous experience with the sensory consequences of the movement led to improved response production during initial trials. A possible mechanism to account for this finding is proposed. Appreciation is extended to Richard A. Schmidt and Anne Marie Bird for helpful comments in earlier drafts of this paper.     

A Quantitative Estimate of Schema Abnormality in Socially Anxious and Non‐Anxious Individuals

Although cognitive theories of anxiety suggest that anxious individuals are characterized by abnormal threat‐relevant schemas, few empirical studies have estimated the nature of these cognitive structures using quantitative methods that lend themselves to inferential statistical analysis. In the present study, socially anxious (n = 55) and non‐anxious (n = 62) participants completed 3 Q‐Sort tasks to assess their knowledge of events that commonly occur in social or evaluative scenarios. Participants either sorted events according to how commonly they personally believe the events occur (i.e. “self” condition), or to how commonly they estimate that most people believe they occur (i.e. “other” condition). Participants' individual Q‐Sorts were correlated with mean sorts obtained from a normative sample to obtain an estimate of schema abnormality, with lower correlations representing greater levels of abnormality. Relative to non‐anxious participants, socially anxious participants' sorts were less strongly associated with sorts of the normative sample, particularly in the “self” condition, although secondary analyses suggest that some significant results might be explained, in part, by depression and experience with the scenarios. These results provide empirical support for the theoretical notion that threat‐relevant self‐schemas of anxious individuals are characterized by some degree of abnormality.     

The Mediatory Role of Maladaptive Schema Modes Between Parental Care and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is being increasingly recognised as a behaviour of significant clinical importance. Yet, there remains uncertainty regarding the underlying mechanisms of NSSI. This study aimed to explore the relationship between maladaptive schema modes, parental bonding, and NSSI. Seventy psychiatric outpatients with a history of NSSI completed the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory, Schema Mode Inventory, and Parental Bonding Inventory. Results revealed that maladaptive schema modes were significantly associated with low parental care and with an earlier age of onset, longer duration, and higher number of methods of NSSI. Maladaptive schema modes also significantly mediated the relationship between parental care and age of onset of NSSI and between parental care and duration of NSSI. Two maladaptive schema modes (namely, Punitive Parent and Angry Child) were also found to be significant mediators in this relationship. The clinical implications of this research are discussed.     

Adult age differences in memory for schema-consistent and schema-inconsistent objects in a real-world setting

The present study examined age-related differences in the inconsistency effect, in which memory is enhanced for schema-inconsistent information compared to schema-consistent information. Young and older adults studied schema-consistent and schema-inconsistent objects in an academic office under either intentional or incidental encoding instructions, and were given two recognition tests either immediately or after 48 hr: A yes/no item recognition test that included modified remember/know judgments and a token recognition test that required determining whether an original object was replaced with a different object with the same name. Young and older adults showed equivalent inconsistency effects in both item and token recognition tests, although older adults reported phenomenologically less rich memories of schema-inconsistent objects relative to young adults. These findings run counter to previous reports suggesting that aging is associated with processing declines at encoding that impair memory for details of schema-inconsistent or distinctive events. The results are consistent with a retrieval-based account in which age-related difficulties in retrieving contextual details can be offset by environmental support.     

Segmenting the body into parts: Evidence from biases in tactile perception

How do we individuate body parts? Here, we investigated the effect of body segmentation between hand and arm in tactile and visual perception. In a first experiment, we showed that two tactile stimuli felt farther away when they were applied across the wrist than when they were applied within a single body part (palm or forearm), indicating a “category boundary effect”. In the following experiments, we excluded two hypotheses, which attributed tactile segmentation to other, nontactile factors. In Experiment 2, we showed that the boundary effect does not arise from motor cues. The effect was reduced during a motor task involving flexion and extension movements of the wrist joint. Action brings body parts together into functional units, instead of pulling them apart. In Experiments 3 and 4, we showed that the effect does not arise from perceptual cues of visual discontinuities. We did not find any segmentation effect for the visual percept of the body in Experiment 3, nor for a neutral shape in Experiment 4. We suggest that the mental representation of the body is structured in categorical body parts delineated by joints, and that this categorical representation modulates tactile spatial perception.     

Similarity is closeness: Metaphorical mapping in a conceptual task

The conceptual metaphor theory states that abstract concepts are represented by image schemas from concrete domains. In the present study we investigated the mapping for SIMILARITY IS CLOSENESS using tasks with nonlinguistic materials. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants decided whether two squares were similar or dissimilar in colour. The spatial distance between the squares was varied. Performance to similar colours was better at shorter distances, whereas performance to dissimilar colours was better at longer distances. In Experiments 3 and 4 participants made distance decisions to similar and dissimilar colours squares. Performance was not affected by similarity. These results show that metaphorical mappings can be found even beyond the context of linguistic metaphors and that the mapping between SIMILARITY and CLOSENESS is asymmetrical.     

Inducing Hypocrisy to Reduce Prejudicial Responses among Aversive Racists

Might a hypocrisy induction procedure reduce prejudicial behavior among aversive racists? We identified aversive racists as individuals low in explicit prejudice but high in implicit prejudice toward Asians. Results revealed that aversive racists, but not truly low prejudiced participants (i.e., those low in both explicit and implicit prejudice), responded to a hypocrisy induction procedure with increased feelings of guilt and discomfort, compared to those in a control condition. Furthermore, aversive racists, but not low prejudiced participants, responded to a hypocrisy induction procedure with a reduction in prejudicial behavior. These results suggest that consciousness raising might play an important role in motivating aversive racists to reduce their prejudicial behavior.     

现代认知心理学关于图式模型的研究

对现代认知心理学关于知识图式的研究作了系统的阐述,分析了产生式系统取向和联结主义取向的优缺点。指出：图式模型研究的整合观是近来及以后认知心理学研究的主要课题之一。     

Contextual and Cognitive Determinants of Procedural Justice Perceptions in Promotion Barriers for Women

The relationships between procedural justice in promotion decisions for women and contextual factors deemed as contributing to glass ceilings were examined. The contextual factors examined were a lack of female role models, limited networking opportunities for women, gender segregation, and formal career ladders. It was found that gender schema is a moderator between procedural justice and the perceived number of female role models and between procedural justice and the perception of formal career ladders. Although gender schema was not a moderator in the relationship between procedural justice and gender segregation, nor in the relationship between procedural justice and networking opportunities for women, a significant main effect was found. These results are consistent with the notion that organizational justice perceptions are products of individual cognitive processes, which develop in response to cultural expectations.