bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lateralized processes in face recognition
Authors: Rhodes Gillian
Published: April 2011

In this paper a model is presented in which face recognition is analysed into several stages, each of which may be independently lateralized. Evidence is reviewed which suggests that lateralization is important at all stages of processing a face. Early visuospatial processing, and the creation and comparison of facial representations, appear to be carried out more efficiently by the right hemisphere. Comparisons based on discrete, namable features of faces may yield a left hemisphere advantage. It is also proposed that faces may activate semantic information, including names, more efficiently in the left hemisphere. The model is useful in resolving inconsistencies in the degree and direction of asymmetries found in face‐recognition tasks. Suggestions are also made for future research.
The influence of question order on eyewitness accuracy
Authors: Morris Valerie , Morris Peter E.
Published: April 2011

The influence of the order in which questions are asked of witnesses was tested with four question orders. When answering the same questions about a film, witnesses were more accurate if the question order followed the time sequence of the film or began with questions on the central characters than if questioning first concerned the main event, or was randomly ordered. It is argued that the question orders eliciting better recall match the organization of the information entered in memory. The correlations between a free account of the film and the accuracy and amount recalled with questions were less than 0·3, indicating that a good witness in one condition may not be so if tested in a different way.
Identity priming in the recognition of familiar faces
Authors: Bruce Vicki , Valentine Tim
Published: April 2011

Morton (1969) proposed that word recognition is mediated by logogens ‐ threshold devices whose thresholds would be lowered after ‘firing’ and only slowly return to near their original levels. Extension and revision of the original logogen model has occurred in response to results obtained in experiments which examine the effect of previous exposure to an item on later recognition thresholds. On the basis of results obtained in such identity priming studies, Warren & Morton (1982) argued that picture recognition might be mediated by pictogens ‐ threshold devices which respond when any picture of an object is seen. Warren & Morton found that recognition of a pictured object was facilitated by earlier exposure to the same or a different picture of the object, but was not facilitated by earlier exposure to the object's name.

Recently, several authors have suggested that face recognition might be mediated by units somewhat analogous to logogens or pictogens. In order to explore this analogy, Warren & Morton's procedure of identity priming in picture recognition was adopted to examine identity priming in the recognition of famous faces. When the recognition test involved naming a celebrity's face, identity priming was obtained from prior exposure to the celebrity's name, a different picture or the same picture as that used in the test. If the procedure was modified so that subsequent recognition did not require retrieval of the name, a pattern consistent with the word and picture recognition literature was found. Prior exposure to either a different or the same picture produced a priming effect but prior exposure to the celebrity's name did not. These results are generally consistent with the hypothesis of face recognition units. Differences between face recognition units and pictogens are also discussed.
Some conditions for the occurrence of the bizarreness effect in free recall
Authors: Baldi A. Pra , De Beni R. , Cornoldi C. , Cavedon A.
Published: April 2011

Existing literature on bizarreness effects in verbal learning mainly focuses on the common assumption that bizarre images are easier to recall than common ones. In so doing, however, researchers have obtained more negative than positive results. Further, among the few investigations that found this effect three used the same procedure and the same material in which a bizarre relationship between subject and object was achieved by substituting human beings for animals and vice versa. It was observed that a clear bizarreness effect may still be observed if inanimate sentences are constructed in accordance with the same principle of distorting typical relations (Expt 1). This effect remains, albeit in a milder form, when aspects of the original procedure are manipulated, such as eliminating complementary sentences (Expt 2) or abstract sentences (Expt 3) from the lists. This seems to demonstrate that the traditional opinion that bizarre images make the mnemonic task easier is, at least in part, true. Nevertheless, if one uses the procedure used by Merry & Graham (1978) and others with semantically unpredictable sentences, the bizarreness effect was attenuated and even normal sentences sometimes achieved higher scores (Expt 4). In general, these results reveal that bizarre sentences are more likely to result in better recall as regards number of nouns remembered, whereas the opposite is true as regards number of complete sentences remembered. This is consistent with the view that recall of normal sentences is facilitated by the unitization. These four experiments carried out with adult subjects demonstrate the generality of the bizarreness effect and some of the factors which contribute to it.
The effects of extraversion and arousal on intelligence test performance
Authors: Matthews Gerald
Published: April 2011

Theories of the extraversion personality trait predict interactive effects of extraversion and arousal on performance from the Yerkes‐Dodson law, though the relationship between extraversion and arousal has been variously described as linear and negative, or dependent upon the level of arousing influences (‘arousal potential’), or dependent upon time of day. The experiment reported here tested both the general utility of the arousal theory approach and specific theories of the extraversion‐arousal relationship by investigating effects of two different arousal manipulations (complex noise and time of day) on intelligence test performance. Arousal was also directly measured by questionnaire. Consistent with previous research on self‐report arousal, extraversion and questionnaire ‘activation’ appeared to be independent. However, a significant interactive effect on performance was found, such that extraverts tended to perform relatively better under high activation at midday than did introverts, but introverts performed relatively better under high activation in the evening. These data suggest that arousal theory does not explain adequately the observed interactive effect on complex cognitive task performance. Thus the Yerkes‐Dodson law is not of central importance for theories of the effects of extraversion on performance.
The faces that launched a thousand slips: Everyday difficulties and errors in recognizing people
Authors: Young Andrew W. , Hay Dennis C. , Ellis Andrew W.
Published: April 2011

Twenty‐two people kept records of difficulties and errors they experienced in recognizing people, producing a main set of 922 records of difficulties and errors collected over a seven‐week period, and a subsidiary set of 86 records of experiences in which an encountered person was noticed to resemble a known person in some way(s). These records are classified into different types, and used to develop a model of person recognition in which representational systems create structural descriptions of the encountered person that are submitted to checks for resemblances to known people (by recognition units); any such resemblances can then be used to access person identity information (held in person identity nodes), and then additional information (including the appropriate name) held in separate stores. Outputs from the recognition units and from the person identity nodes go to the rest of the cognitive system, which can be important in taking decisions as to the ‘real’ identity of an encountered person, and which also has at its disposal various ways of gaining further information that may assist such decisions.
An evaluation of the Defence Mechanism Test
Authors: Cooper C. , Kline P.
Published: April 2011

A number of applied studies have shown that Kragh's Defence Mechanism Test (DMT) is able to predict success in stressful occupations in accord with Freudian theory. This test has never been related to other common personality measures, and only one study has determined whether subliminal threat is a necessary condition for producing the perceptual distortions thought to correspond to defences. Two experiments are reported. One shows that subliminal threat is a necessary element of the DMT. The second shows that, although the correlations between the DMT scales and established personality variables are generally small, they are as hypothesized from Freudian theory. The lack of correspondence between the repression scale of the DMT and a measure of perceptual defence does however cast doubt on the validity of this scale of the test.
Plausibility and the comprehension of text
Authors: Black Alison , Freeman Paul , Johnson‐Laird P. N.
Published: April 2011

Implausible versions of stories were constructed by a panel of judges who filled in sentence frames from the originals from which all but the referring phrases had been deleted. In one condition each judge completed a sentence frame independently, resulting in a highly implausible story; in another condition each judge saw the two previous completed sentence frames before filling in a sentence frame, resulting in a mildly implausible story. Both versions had the same referential structure as the original. Two experiments showed that the more implausible a text, the harder it was to understand and remember. The results confirm the importance of plausibility in the construction of a mental model of a text.
Distributions of intelligence and educational level in fathers and sons
Authors: Vroon P. A. , de Leeuw J. , Meester A. C.
Published: April 2011

According to the purely hereditary position with respect to the origin of differences between individuals, the correlation between the intelligence levels of single parent and offspring should at least be 0–50 when perfectly reliable tests are used. This is supposed to hold when there is random mating. In the case of assortative mating the correlation rises theoretically to 0–71. From a psychometric and theoretical point of view, parent and child should be tested at the same age with the same test. Data of 2847 father‐son pairs meeting these requirements show that the correlation is 0–33. A further analysis of the data indicates that the distribution of the sons' intelligence and attainment is only weakly determined by hereditary and environmental variables. Path analyses show that almost all variance of the sons' intelligence test scores remains ‘unexplained’.
A comparison of English and Japanese taste languages: Taste descriptive methodology, codability and the umami taste
Authors: O'Mahony Michael , Ishii Rie
Published: April 2011

Everyday taste descriptions for a range of stimuli were obtained from selected groups of American and Japanese subjects, using a variety of stimuli, stimulus presentation procedures and response conditions. In English there was a tendency to use a quadrapartite classification system: ‘sweet’, ‘sour’, ‘salty’ and ‘bitter’. The Japanese had a different strategy, adding a fifth label: ‘Ajinomoto’, referring to the taste of monosodium glutamate. This label was generally replaced by umami—the scientific term—by Japanese who were workers or trained tasters involved with glutamate manufacture. Cultural differences in taste language have consequences for taste psychophysicists who impose a quadrapartite restriction on allowable taste descriptions. Stimulus presentation by filter‐paper or aqueous solution elicited the same response trends. Language codability was only an indicator of degree of taste mixedness/singularity if used statistically with samples of sufficient size; it had little value as an indicator for individual subjects.
Graphemic and semantic similarity effects in the picture—word interference task
Authors: Rayner Keith , Springer Carla J.
Published: April 2011

Two experiments were performed using the picture‐word interference task in which a word is superimposed on a line drawing of a picture which subjects must name. Incongruent words result in interference in naming the picture and the present studies examined the effect of graphemic and semantic similarity between the printed word and the picture label on naming times. Consistent with prior research a category effect was obtained such that a printed word from the same category as the object resulted in more interference than did a printed word not from the category of the object. However, it was also found that graphemic similarity between the printed word and the picture label reduced the size of the category effect. The time course of these effects was examined by varying the stimulus onset asynchrony between the print and the picture. The results are discussed within the logogen and pictogen framework.
What does Eysenck's psychoticism scale really measure?
Authors: Howarth E.
Published: April 2011

The following sources of evidence are discussed in order to examine the component parts — in terms of primary traits — of Eysenck's psychoticism scale, which he refers to as a ‘superfactor’ but which is here viewed as a composite or complex of primary traits. Factor analytic studies by the author and by Barratt & Kline not only showed agreement as to factor composition but also each found a psychoticism factor and supply evidence as to the question posed. Additionally (a) a correlational study by the author and (b) a study by Eysenck supply evidence. Thus from factor analytic and correlational evidence a high P scorer possesses these traits: impulsiveness, lack of cooperation, oral pessimism, rigidity, low superego controls, low social sensitivity, low persistence, lack of anxiety and lack of feelings of inferiority. Of the three main ‘superfactors' advocated by Eysenck — neuroticism (N), extraversion (E) and psychoticism (P) — the evidence indicated that psychoticism was the least univocal.
Are stress responses influenced by cognitive appraisal? An experimental comparison of coping strategies
Authors: Steptoe Andrew , Vögele Claus
Published: April 2011

An investigation of the role of cognitive appraisal in emotional responses was carried out, in which psychological and physiological reactions to a distressing film were recorded in three groups of volunteers. Subjects in the intellectualization condition were given instructions to appraise the film in a detached, analytic fashion. The sensation‐focusing group were asked to focus on physical sensations and to experience them fully, and controls were given no specific instructions. Heart rate, skin conductance and respiration rate were monitored continuously, while ratings of psychological distress and physical sensations were collected periodically. No significant differences were found in the subjective or physiological reactions of the intellectualization and control groups, thus failing to replicate previous reports. Sensation focusing led to a diminution of cardiac and electrodermal reactions, but did not affect subjective experience. Limitations to the concept of cognitive appraisal are suggested, while explanations of the results are offered in terms of external vs. internal deployment of attention, and desynchrony of emotional responses.
The logic of consciousness*
Authors: Rychlak Joseph F.
Published: April 2011

Consciousness is analysed in terms of a teleological interpretation of brain functioning. Thanks to the fundamentally dialectical ‐ as well as demonstrative ‐ logic of reasoning in human mentation, it is possible to see how formal and final causation function in higher mental processes. Human behaviour must be understood as a premised activity in which the person qua logician ‘takes a position’ on life's experiences, and in so doing manifests what we have traditionally referred to as consciousness. The theoretical construct of telosponsivity is introduced to capture this logical process of framing experience and behaving for the sake of the meanings premised. Relevant empirical findings on the human brain, as well as on a range of behaviours spanning subhuman to human phenomena, are marshalled in support of the teleological view under espousal.
Psychological resources and cigarette smoking in adolescents
Authors: Penny Gillian N. , Robinson James O.
Published: April 2011

Despite society's increasing awareness of the adverse health consequences of cigarette use, adolescents continue to take up smoking. This study suggests that adolescents may smoke in order to alleviate the stress engendered by the adjustment demands of this period and that adolescents with fewer coping resources should be more likely to use cigarettes. An examination of the relationship between psychological resources and cigarette use indicated that adolescents who smoked had lower self‐esteem, a more external locus of control orientation and a higher level of trait anxiety compared with adolescents who did not smoke. The findings suggest that smoking performs a stress management function for those adolescents with a low sense of personal effectiveness.
The production of phonology and auditory priming
Authors: Gipson Peter
Published: April 2011

In a pre‐test phase of Expt 1, subjects produced the phonology of words in response to pictures and to written words; in addition, they heard words. These words were then presented in noise in an identification test, together with new words. Performance was facilitated for those words which had been heard, but was not facilitated for those words whose phonology had been produced. In Expt 2, subjects decided which one of pairs of written non‐words, such as kaid and leeph, sounded like a real word. This facilitated auditory identification of the corresponding words, but less so than hearing words did. In a second task, subjects articulated aloud a list of written words; this did not significantly facilitate auditory identification. These findings are discussed within the framework of Morton's (1979) revised logogen model. However, notwithstanding this model, it is suggested the results of Expt 1 are consistent with a single phonological structure that subserves both the recognition and the production of speech.
Change in adaptive behaviour of severely and profoundly mentally handicapped adults in different residential settings
Authors: Felce David , de Kock Ursula , Thomas Mair , Saxby Helen
Published: April 2011

A demographic sample of 28 severely and profoundly mentally handicapped adults with a mental age of four years and below were assessed on Part 1 of the Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS) at three points 18 months apart. The Griffiths Mental Development Scales and Reynell Developmental Language Scales were also conducted at the first and last assessment points. The subjects were resident in either a small community‐based home, the parental home or other residential institutions. The small‐home group showed the greatest adaptive behaviour change particularly in the areas of independent functioning, domestic skills and self‐direction and on the scale total. Although reservations are expressed on the accuracy of assessment, the ABS data and the comparative result received some validation from the mental age and language assessments. Gains were independent of subject characteristics. The study adds to the literature showing adaptive behaviour gains arising from transfer from institutional to more normal residential environments. However, in attributing the results found to the general characteristics of the residential settings, the explicit programming emphasis of the small‐home service should not be overlooked.
The unknown epistemology of E. C. Tolman
Authors: Amundson Ron
Published: April 2011

E. C. Tolman has been widely recognized for two distinct contributions to psychology. One was his methodological account of the ‘intervening variable’, understood as an operationally respectable method of introducing theoretical terms into behaviourist psychology. The second was his use of ‘purposive’ concepts in his substantive theorizing ‐ concepts such as the cognitive map. Two distinct and mutually antagonistic groups of critics have argued that Tolman's methodology was incompatible with his substantive theory. One of these groups included Tolman's contemporary behaviourist opponents. The second is found amongst modern philosophical anti‐behaviourists. The explanation of this irony is that neither his old opponents nor his new critics adequately understand Tolman's epistemology, which is realist, not operationalist. Adequately understood, Tolman's epistemology and substantive theory are not only consistent, but remarkably similar to modern cognitive psychology.
The development of reading: As you seek so shall you find
Authors: Ellis Nick , Large Barbara
Published: April 2011

In this paper we critically examine different methods of investigation of reading development and reading disability. We argue that there is need for longitudinal studies of reading where a differential design allows assessment of the relative degree of involvement of associated skills. We then describe one study of this type. The results chart the development of children who become skilled readers and of those with generalized or specific reading disability. They also demonstrate the crucial effects of decisions regarding subject matching, test design, and measurement of differential abilities on the outcomes of such investigations.

A cohort of 40 children was assessed for their abilities on 44 variables which involved reading, spelling, vocabulary, short‐term memory (STM), visual skills, auditory‐visual integration, language knowledge, rote knowledge and ordering ability as they developed from five to eight years old. Three groups were extracted at age eight on the basis of reading and IQ scores. Group A showed a relatively specific reading disability (high IQ, low reading), Group B were good readers of similarly high IQ, Group C showed a more generalized reading deficit whereby they were at the same level as Group A in reading but their IQ scores were low. The data were then searched retrospectively to describe the development of these patterns of ability from the very beginnings of reading acquisition.

The children with specific reading retardation differed from their better‐reading peers in terms of relatively few variables which concerned phonological segmentation, STM and naming. The children with generalized reading disability differed from their better‐reading peers in almost every respect, but the strong discriminators concerned phonological processing. The children with specific reading disability differed from those with generalized reading disability in terms of abilities which involve visual processing.

Thes patterns of ability were replicated at each age from five to seven years old.
A comparison of some retrograde and anterograde effects of electroconvulsive shock in patients with severe depression
Authors: Frith C. D. , Stevens M. , Johnstone E. C. , Deakin J. F. W. , Lawler P. , Crow T. J.
Published: April 2011

Seventy severely depressed patients were randomly assigned to receive either a standard course of bilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or a course of simulated ECT (muscle relaxant and anaesthesia) identical to the real course except that the shock was omitted. Anterograde amnesia due to the shock was demonstrated in recognition memory for word lists and in recall of labels for faces, but this was eliminated by priming. Retrograde amnesia was also present for labels for faces learned the day before a treatment, but this was not eliminated by priming. Recognition memory for material learned in the remote past was better in the patients who had received shock than in those who had received only anaesthetic.
Social class limitations on the efficacy of imagery mnemonic instructions
Authors: Richardson John T. E.
Published: April 2011

Many experimental studies have demonstrated that instructions to use mental imagery give rise to substantial improvements in memory performance. However, the subjects in most of these studies have been college students, and an experiment by Richardson & Barry (1985) which used subjects drawn from the general population failed to show such an improvement. Indeed, arguments may be educed to suggest that imagery mnemonic instructions should enhance performance only in the case of subjects who belong to the higher social classes. An extended analysis of the results obtained by Richardson & Barry classified their experimental subjects into social classes in terms of their current occupation and confirmed the predicted relationship between social class and the efficacy of imagery mnemonic instructions. Such results encourage a considerable degree of scepticism concerning the possibility of generalizing from samples of college students to the general population.
Seeing the impossible and building the likely
Authors: Derȩgowski J. B. , Bentley A. M.
Published: April 2011

Young & Derȩgowski (1981) state that the reason for some subjects' failure to perceive ‘impossible’ figures as confusing is probably that they do not integrate the stimuli, even though they see elements of the figures as depicting spatial arrangements. This suggests that such subjects should also tend to build distorted models of geometrical structures. This hypothesis was tested in the course of the present experiment. The results support the hypothesis.
Putting names to faces
Authors: McWeeny Kathryn H. , Young Andrew W. , Hay Dennis C. , Ellis Andrew W.
Published: April 2011

Subjects were asked to learn occupations and surnames belonging to 16 unfamiliar faces. The experiment was intended to remove potential factors that might underlie the easier recall of people's occupations found in everyday life. Thus, contextual cues were eliminated by presenting faces in isolation, cueing from the retrieval of related items of semantic information was eliminated, and the frequency of use of occupational and name information was equated. Results showed that names remained much harder to recall than occupations. This was true even for ambiguous labels that could be used as names or as occupations. It is much harder to recall that a person's surname is Baker than to recall that a person is a baker.
Stage fright in orchestral musicians: A study of cognitive and behavioural strategies in performance anxiety
Authors: Steptoe Andrew , Fidler Helen
Published: April 2011

A questionnaire study was carried out with three groups of musicians: experienced professional orchestral players (n = 65), music students (n = 41), and members of an amateur orchestra (n = 40). Musical performance anxiety was assessed together with neuroticism, everyday fears, self‐statements and behavioural coping strategies. Performance anxiety was lowest in the professional group and highest among students. In all three groups, performance anxiety was related to neuroticism and everyday fears, notably fear of crowds and social situations. A negative association between age, performing experience and stage fright was observed in professional musicians but not other groups. Six clusters of self‐statements were identified. Catastrophizing was positively linked with performance anxiety in all groups, while realistic appraisal of the performance situation was used most commonly by those with moderate levels of stage fright. Implications for the conceptualization and management of stage fright are discussed.
Environmental and dispositional influences on well‐being: Longitudinal follow‐up of an American national sample
Authors: Costa Paul T. , McCrae Robert R. , Zonderman Alan B.
Published: April 2011

Both laypersons and social scientists typically assume that psychological well‐being or happiness is a response to objective circumstances or events. The present study contributes to recent literature showing that stable individual differences are more useful than life circumstances in predicting well‐being. Responses to items from the General Well‐being Schedule were examined for 4942 men and women surveyed in a follow‐up of a national sample. Results showed substantial stability for well‐being scales for total group and demographically defined subgroups, and stability coefficients were as high for those who had experienced changes in marital or employment status or state of residence as for those who had not. These findings point out the need for caution in interpreting well‐being scores as indices of the quality of life, because well‐being is strongly influenced by enduring characteristics of the individual.
Learning disabilities and intelligence test results: A principal components analysis of the British Ability Scales
Authors: Elliott Colin D. , Tyler Stephen
Published: April 2011

Two samples of children with reading difficulties − 145 poor readers whose word reading was one standard deviation or more below the mean and 121 dyslexic children ‐ were tested on the British Ability Scales. The purpose of the investigation was to examine whether they would score relatively poorly on verbal tests and relatively well on non‐verbal tests along the lines suggested by Lawson & Inglis (1985). Also the question of sex differences was investigated. The BAS results tended to confirm the Lawson & Inglis finding that (1) children with learning disabilities in general have verbal deficits and show significantly higher performance on non‐verbal tasks, and that (2) this tendency is more pronounced in males than in females. The results, although statistically significant, are not totally consistent either within or between samples. The discussion considers possible explanations for the findings and the possibility that different subgroups of these samples might show differential effects.
Anxiety responses to subliminal experience of mild stress
Authors: Kemp‐Wheeler S. M. , Hill A. B.
Published: April 2011

Two groups of undergraduates (n = 14 in each) matched for level of trait anxiety participated in the experiment. One group (E) was presented with 20 ‘emotional’ words 10 per cent below detection threshold while the other group (N) was presented with 20 emotionally neutral words under the same conditions. Ratings of seven psychological variables were taken before and after stimulation and two psychophysiological measures, heart and respiration rate, were also taken. MANOVA and subsequent ANOVA analyses showed ratings of sweating and anxiety increased in the E group and decreased in the N group following stimulation. Ratings of shaking and muscular tension increased significantly in both groups but the increase was significantly greater in the E group. Ratings of palpitations and difficulty in breathing increased significantly in both groups as did measures of actual heart and respiration rate, but these increases appeared to be an artifact of task demands. It is concluded that manifest anxiety and some features of anxiety having somatic referents can be induced by subliminal experience of mild stress.
Memory for topographic contour maps
Authors: Kinnear Paul R. , Wood Michael
Published: April 2011

Map reading is becoming recognized as an information processing task. This research compared the memory for topographic contour maps in experimental samples who had answered questions about contours during a 20‐minute inspection phase, and in control samples who had answered questions about distances on the map and determined several six‐figure map references during a similar inspection period. The samples were selected from 13–15‐year‐old pupils and university students. Sixty‐three per cent of the subjects in the experimental samples correctly recognized the original map from a collection of five similar maps after a 20‐minute time interval whereas only 11 per cent of those in the control samples could do so. Geography experience was not a factor in this result. The principal unit or chunk for encoding seemed to be valleys rather than hill tops. It was concluded that map reading can legitimately be treated as an information processing activity and that memory processes relating to contour maps have similar characteristics to those demonstrated in other more traditional information processing tasks in psychology.
Maximum salience vs. golden section proportions in judgemental asymmetry
Authors: Tuohy A. P. , Stradling S. G.
Published: April 2011

Three separate sections of a questionnaire administered to 232 university students were found to exhibit a marked asymmetry. Two of the sections were judgemental dichotomies; the third was a five‐point scale of agreement/disagreement. The asymmetries on the two dichotomous measures were consistent both with the ‘golden section’ proportion and with a bias towards a probability of 1/e (the proportion at which salience is maximized) for negative ratings. When the continuous scale measure was dichotomized across the given mid‐point, the resulting asymmetry was significantly different from both of these proportions. However, when the measure was dichotomized across each subject's individual mean (i.e. ipsatized), the resulting asymmetry was found to support the 1/e hypothesis while differing significantly from the golden section. Repeated measures analysis of this tendency to organize negative judgements towards maximum salience failed to substantiate the ‘judgemental style’ hypothesis (that it may provide a reliable measure of individual difference).
Remembering intention as a distinct form of memory
Authors: Kvavilashvili Lia
Published: April 2011

This paper deals with a little explored phenomenon – remembering and forgetting intentions. Unlike the usual forms of memory, such as remembering and recalling particular contents and images acquired in the past, it refers to the timely execution of a formerly intended action. In order to test whether these two forms of memory depend on each other or not, an experimental method has been elaborated which makes it possible to avoid the artificiality of experimental instruction and to register simultaneously both remembering intention and remembering a particular content connected with this intention. The lack of correlation between these two variables in Expt 1 indicates that they may be presumably considered as two separate forms of memory. In Expt 2, the role of such factors affecting remembering intention as the importance of intention and the character of the intervening period has been established. The application of multidimensional information analysis showed that there ought to be a certain interaction between these factors. The role of perseveration (i.e. involuntary rehearsal of intention in mind) has also been ascertained. In relation to this, it was found that the importance of intention directly affects remembering intention while the character of the intervening period affects it only indirectly via perseveration.
Contextualism and its implications for psychological inquiry
Authors: Jaeger Marianne E. , Rosnow Ralph L.
Published: April 2011

A variety of alternative orientations to psychological inquiry have arisen in response to attacks on mechanistic and reductionistic assumptions about human activity. Despite their differences, these alternative viewpoints seem to be converging on a set of common themes that can be subsumed within a world view known as contextualism. This paper examines the basic assumptions and principles of a contextualist perspective, highlighting its emphasis on the unity, plurality, spontaneity and ecological dependency of human activity. We advance an essentially pluralistic and relativistic thesis in exploring the theoretical and methodological implications of a contextualist socio‐psychological science.
Prose reading by touch: The role of stimulus quality, orthography and context
Authors: Millar Susanna
Published: April 2011

Prose reading by fluent braillists was videotaped from below transparent reading surfaces to analyse effects of stimulus degradation, inappropriate spelling and context change. All text manipulations slowed overall reading speed significantly. Stimulus quality and context also affected word speed significantly. The conjunction of stimulus degradation and context change slowed the critical words more than stimulus degradation alone. A surprising finding was that although mis‐spelling lengthened overall reading speed, it did not slow the speed of the mis‐spelt words. The results were consistent with current models of visual reading, but also raise further questions about the role of intact spelling respectively in word recognition and prose reading.
Do comparisons of a food characteristic with ideal necessarily involve learning?
Authors: Conner M. T. , Booth D. A. , Clifton V. J. , Griffiths R. P.
Published: April 2011

Untrained assessors graphically rated the saltiness of plain slices of white bread relative to a personally ideal level of saltiness, with each test session designed to minimize known contextual effects on ratings. Judgements were highly reliable from the first session. However, the mean of the residual variances of individuals' psychophysical functions was approximately halved by the fifth session. To test whether this was an accommodation to the method or to the product, assessors rated the same product by a different procedure in one further session and a different food by the same procedure in a final session. The mean residuals lay in the direction of an accommodation to the method, but this difference proved not to be significant. The initial fall in residuals might indicate some learning about the product which was not adequately tested in the experimental manipulation. Nevertheless, it is clear that the method can be immediately used with high precision by unpractised volunteers.
Measurement scales and statistics: What can significance tests tell us about the world?
Authors: MacRae A. W.
Published: April 2011

A debate has continued for more than forty years about the kinds of significance test that can legitimately be performed. One tradition declares that when the data are measured on an ordinal scale, parametric statistics should not be used. The other maintains that only mathematical characteristics of the numbers have to be satisfied in order to justify parametric methods. Two errors in particular have made consensus difficult to reach.

Firstly, some writers fail to distinguish between statistical treatment of the data, considered merely as numbers, and the use of numerical results to justify statements about the world. Secondly, statistical significance is sometimes treated as a property of the world or of the data whereas in fact it is a numerical answer to one question out of many alternative questions that might be asked about the data. Each such question has a different, correct answer. These errors often lead to misinterpretation of what classical significance tests actually tell us about the world.

If each null hypothesis is framed so as to include any necessary presuppositions of the statistical technique used, the inferences that follow from its rejection, or from a failure to reject it, become much clearer. Doing so also clarifies the interpretation to be made when different tests yield different results.
Reading to do: Creating contingent action plans
Authors: Wright P. , Hull A. J.
Published: April 2011

Three experiments are reported which examine the action plans readers create for written instructions containing conditionals (if, if not, unless). Experiment 1 shows, from the pattern of errors and latencies with True/False items, that if not is represented as a positive action and negative condition, whereas unless is represented as a negative action and positive condition (‘Do not if…’), even when the materials permit other recoding options. Experiment 2 focuses on unless and suggests that errors arise mainly from recoding operations, whereas speed of response is determined by the clause order used for the instruction. Experiment 3 introduces prohibitions (‘Do not do X’). These impair performance with if and if not but facilitate performance with unless. This is consistent with readers representing unless in action plans as ‘Do not if, the reader‐generated representation of the negative action being cancelled by the explicit prohibition in the instruction. The practical implications of these findings are pointed out.
Issues of representation and limited capacity in the auditory short‐term store
Authors: Frick Robert W.
Published: April 2011

This article makes several related claims about the auditory short‐term store (ASTS) tested by immediate ordered recall. The first claim is that the representation in ASTS is uncategorical and unparsed. The second claim is that there is a stage of recovery just prior to recall, in which the information in ASTS is parsed and categorized. Finally, it is proposed that the amount of representational medium in ASTS is fixed and allocated proportionally to each item in the presentation. When too many items are presented, the items are not represented with sufficient fidelity to be recovered, leading to the phenomenon of limited capacity. These claims are contrasted to the predictions of a slot model, in which ASTS is hypothesized to store a fixed number of categorical and parsed items. Novel explanations are given for several phenomena in immediate ordered recall, including the Hebb effect, the correlation between perceptibility and capacity, and serial position curves.
Vulnerability factors in the transition to university: Self‐reported mobility history and sex differences as factors in psychological disturbance
Authors: Fisher Shirley , Hood Bruce
Published: April 2011

A study was conducted on the psychological reaction to the transition to university in 198 first year residential students. Female subjects had higher levels of psychological disturbance and cognitive failure. Thirty‐one per cent of the subjects reported experiencing homesickness. These subjects had higher levels of psychological disturbance and cognitive failure than non‐homesick subjects. There were no sex differences in homesickness reporting. The non‐homesick group were found to be more likely to have been away from home before either to attend boarding school or to take holidays. This suggests either that selective aspects of previous mobility experience are beneficial or that self‐selection factors operate in that those who do not feel distress at leaving home are more likely to acquire mobility experience.
Failed and outdated social science theorizing? A commentary on IQ distributions in fathers and sons
Authors: Rowe David C. , Hay David A.
Published: April 2011

Vroon, de Leeuw & Meester (1986) interpreted a father‐son IQ correlation of +0.34 as discrediting family background as the origin of a significant part of total IQ variation. This commentary argues that Vroon et al. have misunderstood the concept of variance partitioning as it is used in behavioural genetics. Based on their data, some 34 per cent (under a model of purely shared environmental influences) to 68 per cent or more (under a model of purely genetic influences) of IQ variation may be attributed to family background factors, reinforcing the conclusion that familial influences are extremely important for understanding individual differences in IQ. Their approach, inferring the extent of familial variation from just the father‐son relationship, is criticized as being outdated, compared with current methodology in behavioural genetics. Three aspects of contemporary behaviour genetics are examined in relation to their results: (1) the fitting of models to large data sets derived from many familial relationships; (2) a multivariate approach dissecting the genetic and environmental contributions to the phenotypic relationship among ability and achievement measures; and (3) the growing emphasis on within‐family differences, both genetic and environmental. Behavioural genetic models can take into account possible biases such as the generation age difference which Vroon et al. emphasize as a problem for family studies.
The ‘reverse‐generation’ effect: A comparison of memory performance between blind and sighted children
Authors: Pring L.
Published: April 2011

Three studies are reported which investigate word priming and memory in congenitally blind and sighted children. Two conditions were of particular interest, a neutral condition, where children read aloud or repeated a word, and a generate condition, where children supplied a target word to a close semantic associate given as a cue. Later, memory for those items was tested and although the two groups did not differ in overall performance a marked interaction across group and condition was noted. The sighted children showed a significant ‘generation’ effect (Slamecka & Graf, 1978), where active involvement in a word task led to increased memory. In contrast, the congenitally blind remembered relatively less material when active participation was required, showing a ‘reverse‐generation’ effect.

The results are discussed with reference to the effect on memory of data and conceptually driven processing in the study phase. It is tentatively suggested that the congenitally blind may show different learning strategies from the sighted as a result of allocating more attention to sensory information processing.
Upside‐down faces: A review of the effect of inversion upon face recognition
Authors: Valentine Tim
Published: April 2011

Several studies have found that face recognition is disproportionately impaired by stimulus inversion when compated to recognition of other classes of visual stimuli. This effect has been interpreted as evidence that face recognition benefits from a ‘special’ process which is not engaged by an inverted face. This paper reviews studies of the effect of inversion on face recognition in recognition memory tasks, matching tasks and upon cerebral hemisphere asymmetries. Evidence is drawn from developmental studies and from studies of brain‐injured and normal adult subjects. It is concluded that the evidence that inverted faces are processed differently from upright faces is far from compelling, and therefore the effect of inversion provides little or no evidence of a unique process in face recognition. The inversion effect is interpreted in terms of expertise in face processing and the highly homogeneous nature of faces as a stimulus class.
Explaining away intelligence: A reply to Howe
Authors: Sternberg Robert J.
Published: April 2011

Howe (1988) proposes that intelligence fails as an explanatory construct because, he claims, it does not meet any of 10 criteria he believes are necessary conditions for a construct to have explanatory value. To the contrary, the construct as it is used today does meet Howe's criteria, and therefore Howe's dismissal of intelligence as an explanatory construct is incorrect by Howe's own standards of evaluation.
The hazards of using correlational evidence as a means of identifying the causes of individual ability differences: A rejoinder to Sternberg and a reply to Miles
Authors: Howe Michael J. A.
Published: April 2011

It is argued that the evidence cited by R. J. Sternberg fails to substantiate his view that the existence of correlations between intelligence test scores and performance at tasks which depend on various intellectual abilities indicates that a measure of someone's intelligence identifies the reasons that cause a person's score to reach a certain level. Therefore, measures of intelligence serve only a descriptive function: they cannot be said to explain, or identify the causes of, individual differences in ability. As T. R. Miles points out, there are a number of ways in which the status of the concept of intelligence restricts its role in scientific research.