The corroboration time measure: An implicit confidence judgement

The corroboration time technique is introduced as a means of eliciting covert confidence judgements. A validation experiment is reported in which three measures based upon the corroboration time are compared with overt confidence judgements. It is concluded that the technique yields a valid, sensitive measure of confidence which is as sensitive as an overt confidence judgement to variations in the independent variable, and which is less intrusive in use. It may be used whenever there is a unique correct response which can given as feedback for corroboration.     

Memory for companions in preschool children

Memory of preschool children (4 years of age) for companions was investigated by comparing interview data using a picture sociometric technique with observational data on actual play companions. Accuracy decreased with successive nominations, and length of recall period. However children were able to name companions played with today, yesterday, last week and at the beginning of term, at well above chance levels. Accuracies improved during the term. The relevance of friendships and social experience for memory and cognitive processes in young children is discussed.     

The eyes have it: Young children's discrimination of age in masked and unmasked facial photographs

The ability of preschool children to discriminate age, and their use of information from different facial areas in this task, was investigated. Most 4-year-olds were able to rank sets of seven facial photographs into age order successfully. Subsequently, they were presented with facial stimuli in which different regions of the face were masked out. Masking of the eyes produced a marked performance decrement, and masking of the nose and cheeks a slight decrement, relative to masking of either the mouth and chin, or of the hair and neck. Possible explanations of the results are discussed, together with the verbal comments of the children on the cues they were aware of using.     

Effect of mutual acquaintance on the construction of conversation

In a previous investigation, we demonstrated the role of questions as an instructional resource in the social construction of conversation by depriving conversationalists of their use. The resulting conversational structure, measured in terms of the ability of third parties to reconstruct the dialogues after they had been randomized, was impaired. The importance of culturally shared knowledge for the reconstruction (and by implication the construction) task was apparent in the superiority of British over Canadian subjects in reconstructing unconstrained British dialogues. The present study was concerned with the effects of privately shared knowledge on the construction of conversation. Conversational structure and the frequency of questions were greater in strangers' than in mutual acquaintances' unconstrained dialogues. Strangers' dialogues, but not those of mutual acquaintances, were disrupted under a ban on questions. The results were taken to indicate that strangers need to provide one another with continual instruction in how to proceed, whereas mutual acquaintances, in virtue of their privately shared social knowledge, can construct orderly dialogue with less moment-to-moment guidance.     

Delta plots do not reveal response inhibition in lying

The role of response inhibition in lying is debated. By using the delta-plot method applied to the Sheffield Lie Test, Debey, Ridderinkhof, De Houwer, De Schryver, and Verschuere (2015) provided evidence supporting the role of inhibition in lying. In the study of Debey et al., inhibitory skill was measured in terms of the size of the lie effect. However, to provide convincing evidence that delta plots highlight the role of response inhibition in lying, inhibitory ability must be evaluated independently from the size of the lie effect. After replicating original findings, this article shows that a delta plot analysis does not differentiate individuals with different inhibitory abilities, when inhibitory skill is measured by means of the Stop Signal Task, instead of the size of the lie effect. This suggests that researchers should be cautious when making conclusions about cognitive mechanisms based on the sole analysis of delta plots.     

Differences or deficits? The significance of pretend and sociodramatic play

The developmental significance of pretend and sociodramatic play remains unresolved. Quite possibly, such play experiences facilitate a range of developmental competences which other experiences (including focused training) can facilitate equally effectively. If this were so, individual differences in such forms of play need not be a matter of direct concern in themselves. Such differences could be related to proximate variables which would be of greater scientific significance than broader or vaguer social class labels, although the political and economic realities of socioeconomic status should not be forgotten.