Do automatic mental associations detect a flashbulb memory?

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) are defined as detailed memories for the reception context in which people first heard of a public and emotionally relevant event. For many years researchers have been debating whether FBMs can be considered a special class of emotional memories, or whether they suffer the same fate as ordinary autobiographical formations. The debate on the real existence of this special class of memories reflects the difficulty of establishing their accuracy. Three indices have been defined as proxies for FBM accuracy: specificity of recalled details, individuals’ confidence in their memory, and memory consistency over time. However, all approaches to FBM assessment have been based on explicit self-report measures. In two studies we aimed to detect FBMs for two emotional public events, by simultaneously employing explicit traditional FBM measures and implicit measures based on the autobiographical Implicit Association Test (aIAT). Jointly considered, the results from the two studies showed that the implicit measures were able to discriminate a FBM, and appeared significantly associated with explicit traditional measures of FBM Specificity, Confidence, and Consistency. Both explicit and implicit assessments concurred to correctly estimate a FBM. Implications for the FBM debate are discussed.     

Flashbulb memories of the Pope's resignation: Explicit and implicit measures across differing religious groups

In the present paper, we aimed to provide evidence in support of the idea tested in a recent study by Lanciano and colleagues that flashbulb memories (FBMs) are a special class of autobiographical memories that can be assessed through the autobiographical implicit association test (aIAT). FBMs and event memories (EMs) for the news of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI were evaluated in three samples of churchgoer Catholic, non-churchgoer Catholic and Evangelical Italian participants through the traditional self-report measures (specificity/accuracy, confidence, consistency) and aIAT indices. Results confirmed the strength of the association between FBM and true information. The aIAT effect was stronger for FBMs than for EM details, and for Catholic respondents who were the group most concerned by the original event. Furthermore, the use of implicit measures for memory assessment concurs with the traditional self-report indices of FBMs. The present evidence supports the idea that FBMs are special autobiographical memories which remain detailed, certain and consistent over time.     

Violations of Fitts’ Law in a Ballistic Task

ABSTRACT

The authors explored changes in the postural preparation and movement times during jumps into targets of different sizes placed at different distances from the participant. Both movement and preparation times scaled with movement distance. Neither movement nor preparation time showed an effect of target size, although preparation time showed a tendency to increase for smaller targets. These observations show that the classical Fitts’ law can be violated in tasks that involve a ballistic component. The data corroborate a hypothesis that Fitts’ law originates at the level of movement planning.     

The Effects of Objectives and Constraints on Motor Control Strategy in Reciprocal Aiming Movements

The goal of this study was to examine how the kinematics of reciprocal aiming movements were affected by both the objective of the movement and the constraints operating on that movement. In Experiment 1, the objective of the movement was indirectly manipulated by capitalizing on the fact that subjects determine their own accuracy and speed limits, despite uniform task instructions to move as quickly and accurately as possible. A Fitts' type reciprocal aiming paradigm was employed, in which 69 subjects were asked to move a stylus repetitively between two spatially separated targets. Four target widths were orthogonally combined with four movement amplitudes, resulting in 16 conditions. Movements were made on an X-Y digitizing tablet. Based on the mean variable error produced on both targets, subjects were differentiated post hoc into three movement objective groups: speed, accuracy, and speed-plus-accuracy. Kinematic analyses revealed that the programming and execution of movements were systematically influenced by both the movement objective and the movement constraints. That is, movement time, peak velocity, dwell time, acceleration and deceleration time, normalized acceleration and normalized deceleration varied systematically as a function of both the speed-accuracy movement objective and the movement constraints of target size and movement distance. Moreover, the consequences of changing the constraints of the movement were affected by an interaction with the objective of the movement. In Experiment 2, the objective of the movement was directly manipulated by varying speed and/or accuracy instructions to subjects. The basic results of Experiment 1 were substantiated. Overall, the results were consistent with the view that motor control is dependent upon sensory consequences.     

Psychologists' perspectives on the diagnostic classification of mental disorders: Results from the WHO‐IUPsyS Global Survey

This study examined psychologists' views and practices regarding diagnostic classification systems for mental and behavioral disorders so as to inform the development of the ICD‐11 by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO and the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) conducted a multilingual survey of 2155 psychologists from 23 countries, recruited through their national psychological associations. Sixty percent of global psychologists routinely used a formal classification system, with ICD‐10 used most frequently by 51% and DSM‐IV by 44%. Psychologists viewed informing treatment decisions and facilitating communication as the most important purposes of classification, and preferred flexible diagnostic guidelines to strict criteria. Clinicians favorably evaluated most diagnostic categories, but identified a number of problematic diagnoses. Substantial percentages reported problems with crosscultural applicability and cultural bias, especially among psychologists outside the USA and Europe. Findings underscore the priority of clinical utility and professional and cultural differences in international psychology. Implications for ICD‐11 development and dissemination are discussed.     

The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire Revisited: Dimensions and Correlates

The authors reexamined the factor structure of the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (D. E. Broadbent, P. F. Cooper, P. Fitzgerald, & K. R. Parkes, 1982) and its correlates. The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire was designed to assess a person's likelihood of committing an error in the completion of an everyday task. A principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation yielded 4 internally consistent, interpretable factors. These factors were labeled Memory, Distractibility, Blunders, and (memory for) Names. This study lends partial support for the factor analytic solution proposed by L. K. Pollina, A. L. Greene, R. H. Tunick, and J. M. Puckett (1992). In addition, it extends previous findings by providing initial evidence for the construct validity of the factors established by correlating factor scores with measures of other related constructs (i.e., boredom proneness, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Type A behavior pattern).     

Topic-relevant cognition and empathic accuracy in laboratory discussions of safer sex

Abstract

The present study sought to identify some of the mechanisms that make safer sex such a difficult topic to talk about. Fifty six dating couples participated in a laboratory study in which the opposite-sex members of two pairs of couples engaged in two discussions of safer sex (or a control topic), each time with a different opposite-sex partner (their own dating partner or an opposite-sex stranger). The results indicated that discussions of safer sex evoke in dating partners a high level of perceived goal-incompatibility, difficulty maintaining one's focus on the topic, and difficulty in reading the other partner's thoughts and feelings. These reactions did not occur in response to the control topic. This initial demonstration study is important with respect to the processes it implicates, but further clarification is needed regarding the specific real-life conditions in which these processes do, and do not, occur.     

How accurate are women's estimates of date of onset of next menses?

Abstract

Because of individual differences in Occurrence of ovulation and patterns of hormonal secretions, one would usually prefer to measure locus in the menstrual cycle using physiological assessment procedures. But such methods are time consuming and costly. When exploring a new domain for possible relations to the menstrual cycle, it would be cost effective to use the simpler procedure of having each women verbally estimate date of onset of next menses. The accuracy of such estimates was studied in two college age samples. Estimated number of days until next onset correlated highly with actual number of days, as verified by follow-up (r = 0.90). As a group, women neither under- nor overestimated number of days. The precision with which these judgments were made was reasonably high. In sum, when a group of women are followed for one cycle, the average accuracy is very high, certainly high enough to support use of such verbal reports for certain scientific purposes.     

Response Timing Accuracy as a Function of Movement Velocity and Distance

In two experiments, patterns of response error during a timing accuracy task were investigated. In Experiment 1. these patterns were examined across a full range of movement velocities, which provided a test of the hypothesis that as movement velocity increases, constant error (CE) shifts from a negative to a positive response bias, with the zero CE point occurring at approximately 50% of maximum movement velocity (Hancock & Newell, 1985). Additionally, by examining variable error (VE), timing error variability patterns over a full range of movement velocities were established. Subjects (N = 6) performed a series of forearm flexion movements requiring 19 different movement velocities. Results corroborated previous observations that variability of timing error primarily decreased as movement velocity increased from 6 to 42% of maximum velocity. Additionally, CE data across the velocity spectrum did not support the proposed timing error function. In Experiment 2, the effect(s) of responding at 3 movement distances with 6 movement velocities on response timing error were investigated. VE was significantly lower for the 3 high-velocity movements than for the 3 low-velocity movements. Additionally, when MT was mathematically factored out. VE was less at the long movement distance than at the short distance. As in Experiment 1, CE was unaffected by distance or velocity effects and the predicted CE timing error function was not evident.