Two ways of learning associations

How people learn chunks or associations between adjacent items in sequences was modelled. Two previously successful models of how people learn artificial grammars were contrasted: the CCN, a network version of the competitive chunker of Servan‐Schreiber and Anderson [J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem. Cogn. 16 (1990) 592], which produces local and compositionally‐structured chunk representations acquired incrementally; and the simple recurrent network (SRN) of Elman [Cogn. Sci. 14 (1990) 179], which acquires distributed representations through error correction. The models' susceptibility to two types of interference was determined: prediction conflicts, in which a given letter can predict two other letters that appear next with an unequal frequency; and retroactive interference, in which the prediction made by a letter changes in the second half of training. The predictions of the models were determined by exploring parameter space and seeing howdensely different regions of the space of possible experimental outcomes were populated by model outcomes. For both types of interference, human data fell squarely in regions characteristic of CCN performance but not characteristic of SRN performance.     

Coping Strategies as Predictors of Distress in Survivors of Single and Multiple Sexual Victimization and Nonvictimized Controls

This study investigated the relationship between coping strategies and distress symptomatology in survivors of sexual revictimization. Coping strategies were assessed with the revised Ways of Coping Scale (Aldwin & Revenson, 1987). Distress symptoms included global distress, depression, anxiety, and somatization. Subjects were 44 survivors of sexual victimization in both childhood and adulthood; 54 survivors of a single incident of sexual victimization in childhood; and 256 nonvictimized individuals. All were drawn from a subject pool of female undergraduate students. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences between groups on reported symptomatology and coping strategies. Victimized groups reported more distress than did the nonvictimized group. The multiple victimization group indicated greater use of coping strategies than did the nonvictimized group, and both victimized groups reported greater use of the escapism strategy than did the nonvictimized group. Multiple backward regression analysis found that coping strategies were predictive of distress symptomatology in all three groups, with escapism as the most potent predictor of distress for each group. Coping strategies were the most powerful predictors of distress in the multiply victimized group. The results of this study provide strong support for the importance of addressing coping strategies in clinical intervention of distress, particularly with survivors of multiple sexual victimization.     

Spatial representation of a two-dimensional pattern

The purpose of this study was (a) to determine if vision and kinesthesis contribute differentially to the coding of a specific two-dimensional pattern and (b) to identify the effect of repetition on the spatial representation of this pattern. The reproductions of a specific pattern presented visually were compared with those of a pattern presented kinesthetically. The results showed that vision and kinesthesis had contributed equally to the coding of the directional components of the pattern. However, there was dominance of visual information over kinesthetic information when coding the distance between the intersecting points of the pattern, especially at the beginning of the process. Generally speaking, the visual or kinesthetic repetition, or both, have increased favourably the precision with which a specific pattern was reproduced in distance and direction.     

Sex differences and effects of aging on visuomotor coordination.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aging on men and women in processing information required to reproduce direction and distance on a visuomotor task. Subjects (45 men and 45 women) selected from three age groups (25-34 yr., 45-54 yr., 65-74 yr.) were required to estimate blindly the exact criterion location of a target-point they had identified under one of the following conditions: visual, kinesthetic, and visuokinesthetic. Errors in direction (degrees) and in distance (cm) were recorded. The analysis of the total variability in responding (E) indicated that the women of the 65- to 74-yr. age group were significantly less accurate in estimating distance than were the men of the two older age groups (45 to 54 yr., 65 to 74 yr.) and less accurate than were the women of the 25- to 34-yr. age group. No significant differences in estimating distance were found among the three age groups of men. No significant differences for direction were found between men and women.     

Methodological naturalism in the sciences

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - Creationists have long argued that evolutionary science is committed to a dogmatic metaphysics of naturalism and materialism, which is based on...     

Personality,interview faking,and the mediating role of attitudes,norms, and perceived behavioral control

This study investigated the psychological processes underlying interview faking, and that link personality to interview faking. In a sample of 198 recent interviewees, surveyed across three time points, we examined the mediating role of three constructs from the theory of planned behavior (TPB; i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) in explaining the relationship between the traits of Honesty–Humility and Conscientiousness and one form of interview faking (i.e., extensive image creation). Results indicated that all three TPB constructs correlated with interview faking, although only attitudes and subjective norms predicted faking incrementally. Attitudes and norms mediated the relationships between Honesty–Humility and Conscientiousness and interview faking. This study provides insight into interview faking, and the link between personality and interview faking.     

Learning to optimize speed, accuracy, and energy expenditure: a framework for understanding speed-accuracy relations in goal-directed aiming

Over the last century, investigators have developed a number of models to explain the relation between speed and accuracy in target-directed manual aiming. The models vary in the extent to which they stress the importance of feedforward processes and the online use of sensory information (see D. Elliott, W. F. Helsen, & R. Chua, 2001, for a recent review). A common feature of those models is that the role of practice in optimizing speed, accuracy, and energy expenditure in goal-directed aiming is either ignored or minimized. The authors present a theoretical framework for understanding speed-accuracy tradeoffs that takes into account the strategic, trial-to-trial behavior of the performer. The strategic behavior enables individuals to maximize movement speed while minimizing error and energy expenditure.     

Age of acquisition estimates for 3,000 disyllabic words

Age of acquisition (AoA) ratings based on a 1-7 scale for 3,000 disyllabic words were obtained from 32 participants. We demonstrate that these estimates are both reliable and valid. These estimates add to those collected on monosyllabic words and are of value to researchers interested in factors that contribute to word processing. They also can be used in regression analyses on measures obtained from large databases, and can be used in conjunction with imageability ratings for the same word corpus to differentiate AoA from imageability.