Configurality in judgment: Is it a bias?

Past research has shown that the relationship between cue and judgment often depends on the level of other cues (configural relationship). It is not clear, however, if this relationship is environmentally appropriate. To examine this issue, I compare configural models of the judgment with configural models of the criterion associated with this judgment. Two databases are analyzed. In one, the cues are the parents’ educational level, the judgment is the educational expectations of the child, and the criterion is the actual educational achievement. In the other, the cues are the MMPI scores of psychiatric patients, the judgment is the clinical psychologists’ estimation of the degree of pathology, and the criterion is the actual pathology. The analysis of both databases revealed that configurality characterizes the judgment but not the criterion.     

The psychology of moderate prediction : II. Leniency and uncertainty

In this paper we demonstrate that intuitive numerical predictions can be somewhat regressive. This moderation of predictions is asymmetric: predictions are more regressive at low than at high values of the predictor. This pattern is analyzed in terms of the operation of multiple heuristics. The representativeness heuristic is responsible for predictions in which extremity of the predicted variable is matched to extremity of the predictor. Matching is modified by a variety of intuitions that promote moderation per se; we lump these together under the heading of weak regressiveness. Third is leniency, a heuristic suggesting that the higher the uncertainty, the more positive should be the predictions. The first experiment demonstrates leniency in isolation from the other heuristics: in multivariate prediction, inconsistent predictors yield more positive predictions. Experiment 2 demonstrates asymmetric regression in a situation where all three heuristics are assumed to have effects. The third experiment exhibits leniency in the context of explanation of regression phenomena (rather than in numerical prediction). The final experiment explores the relation between the three heuristics and experience with multiple determination (Ganzach & Krantz, in press). It demonstrates increased moderation of predictions when subjects are required to generate a predicted value of an intermediate variable, for example, when the prediction of GPA from Intelligence is made subsequent to a prediction of Motivation.     

The Natural Selection of Prediction Heuristics: Anchoring and Adjustment versus Representativeness

There are several heuristics which people use in making numerical predictions and these heuristics compete for the determination of prediction output. Some of them (e.g. representativeness) lead to excessively extreme predictions while others (e.g. anchoring and adjustment) lead to regressive (and even over-regressive) predictions. In this paper we study the competition between these two heuristics by varying the representation of predictor and outcome. The results indicate that factors which facilitate reliance on representativeness (e.g. compatibility between predictor and outcome) indeed lead to an increase in extremity, while factors that facilitate reliance on anchoring and adjustment (e.g. increased salience of a potential anchor) lead to a decrease in extremity.     

Context effects in visual length perception: role of ocular,retinal, and spatial location

In three experiments, we examined the transfer of orientation-contingent context effects between the eyes and across portions of the retina with or without variation in external spatial location. Previous research had shown that vertical lines are judged long, relative to horizontal lines, when the stimulus set comprises relatively long horizontals and short verticals (Contextual Condition B), as compared with the reverse when the stimulus set comprises relatively short horizontals and long verticals (Contextual Condition A). Consequently, the contextual set of stimuli influences the magnitude of the horizontal-vertical illusion (HVI), decreasing its size under Contextual Condition A and increasing its size under Contextual Condition B. Experiment 1 showed that exposing one eye to different stimulus contexts modulated the size of the HVI at the exposed eye but had little or no effect at the other eye. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the effect of the contextual sets generalized poorly across adjacent portions of the retina but transferred almost perfectly across different locations in external space when retinal location was constant. Thus, orientation-contingent context effects in visual length perception appear to be specific to the eye and to the region of the retina stimulated, suggesting that these effects reflect relatively early and local changes in sensitivity, rather than relatively late and general shifts in response criteria.     

Anxiety and selective attention in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Recently, there has been increasing evidence for information-processing deficits in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While impairments in selective attention have been identified to be central to the symptomatology of OCD, the role that situational anxiety plays in attentional processes has not been fully explored. Previous research findings were limited to tasks containing anxiety-relevant materials, only permitting for the evaluation of the impact of anxiety on simultaneous cognitive processing. Furthermore, it has not yet been determined whether the impact of anxiety is limited to selective attention or is indicative of a more general cognitive impairment. This study was designed to examine the role that situational anxiety plays in selective attention impairments. OCD participants and controls were presented with an anxiety producing statement and a neutral statement, followed by the Stroop Task. Results indicated that situational anxiety plays a significant role in the performance of tasks that require selective attention in OCD. A significant deterioration was detected in performance on selective attention tasks for the OCD participants after confronting anxiety-provoking scenarios, as compared to neutral scenarios. Anxiety did not impair performance on simple reading tasks. Possible explanations are discussed.     

A comparative investigation of seven indirect attitude measures

We compared the psychometric qualities of seven indirect attitude measures across three attitude domains (race, politics, and self-esteem) with a large sample (N?=?23,413). We compared the measures on internal consistency, sensitivity to known effects, relationships with indirect and direct measures of the same topic, the reliability and validity of single-category attitude measurement, their ability to detect meaningful variance among people with nonextreme attitudes, and their robustness to the exclusion of misbehaving or well-behaving participants. All seven indirect measures correlated with each other and with direct measures of the same topic. These relations were always weak for self-esteem, moderate for race, and strong for politics. This pattern suggests that some of the sources of variation in the reliability and predictive validity of the indirect measures is a function of the concepts rather than the methods. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) and Brief IAT (BIAT) showed the best overall psychometric quality, followed by the Go–No-Go association task, Single-Target IAT (ST-IAT), Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP), Sorting Paired Features task, and Evaluative Priming. The AMP showed a steep decline in its psychometric qualities when people with extreme attitude scores were removed. Single-category attitude scores computed for the IAT and BIAT showed good relationships with other attitude measures but no evidence of discriminant validity between paired categories. The other measures, especially the AMP and ST-IAT, showed better evidence for discriminant validity. These results inform us on the validity of the measures as attitude assessments, but do not speak to the implicitness of the measured constructs.     

Psychometric Models of Small Group Collaborations

The social combination theory of group problem solving is used to extend existing psychometric models to collaborative settings. A model for pairwise group work is proposed, the implications of the model for assessment design are considered, and its estimation is addressed. The results are illustrated with an empirical example in which dyads work together on a twelfth-grade level mathematics assessment. In conclusion, attention is given to avenues of research that seem most fruitful for advancing current initiatives concerning the assessment of collaboration, teamwork, and related constructs.     

Inaccurate self-knowledge formation as a result of automatic behavior

Four studies tested a post-priming misattribution process whereby a primed goal automatically influences people's behavior, but because people are unaware of that influence, they misattribute their behavior to some other internal state. People who were primed with a goal were more likely to choose an activity that was relevant to that goal, but did not recognize that the prime had influenced their choices. Instead, people used more accessible and plausible reasons to explain their behavior. The goals were seeking romantic interaction (Studies 1 and 2), helping (Study 3) and earning money (Study 4). People made choices related to these goals but misattributed the choices to temporary preferences (Studies 1 and 3) and more permanent dispositions (Studies 2 and 4). The misattribution had downstream effects, leading to choice behavior consistent with the erroneous self-knowledge. We suggest that automatic behavior can lead to a confabulated self-knowledge with behavioral consequences.     

The effect of object–valence relations on automatic evaluation

Two experiments tested the effect of co-occurrence of a target object with affective stimuli on automatic evaluation of the target when the relation between the target and the affective stimuli suggests that they have opposite valence. Participants learned about targets that ended an unpleasant noise or a pleasant music. The valence of such targets is opposite to the valence of the affective stimuli that co-occur with them. Participants reported preference for targets that ended noise over targets that ended music, but automatic evaluation measures revealed the opposite preference. This suggests that automatic evaluation is sensitive to co-occurrence between stimuli more than to the relation between the stimuli, and that relational information has a stronger influence on deliberate evaluation than on automatic evaluation. These conclusions support the associative-propositional evaluation model (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006), and add evidence regarding the sensitivity of the evaluative-conditioning effect to relational information.