bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Typographic influences on reading
Authors: Lewis Clive , Walker Peter
Published: April 2011

The research reported here comprises an empirical investigation of the phenomenon of typographic allusion. In a preliminary study, subjects rated the perceptual qualities possessed by different typefaces (e.g. heavy‐light, fast‐slow). The results indicated that subjects agreed as to typeface characteristics and that typefaces were distinguished by such qualities. In Expt 1, subjects undertook a speeded decision task in which they responded according to which one of four adjectives appeared tachistoscopically. Each word appeared in a typeface whose qualities were either consistent or inconsistent with its meaning. Reaction times for inconsistent stimuli were significantly slower than those for consistent trials. In preparation for Expt 2, the same rating procedure was used to elicit subjects’ judgements of the attributes of different animals. Subjects agreed as to animals’ qualities and such qualities reliably distinguished between the animals. The names of these animals were then used as targets in a binary decision task and each one appeared in a typeface possessing qualities which were either congruent or incongruent with those of the animal. Subjects responded according to whether they considered the animal presented on each trial to be heavy or light, or fast or slow moving. Responses on trials in which the animal and typeface possessed conflicting attributes were significantly slower than responses when animal and typeface qualities were congruent.

These results are discussed in relation to current views regarding the processing of written English. We argue that typographic features of words are able to access a semantic code and that this code can interact with the derivation of a linguistic code specifying a word's meaning and/or with post‐lexical access decision processes.
Immediate memory in the orally trained deaf: Effects of ‘lipreadability’ in the recall of written syllables
Authors: Campbell Ruth , Wright Helen
Published: April 2011

Immediate recall of written lists was compared in strictly orally trained born‐deaf teenagers and in hearing controls. The lists were of syllables of CV form (e.g. SHA NA ZA DA). The deaf subjects showed a significant effect of consonant ‘lipreadability’. Syllable lists containing consonants like D, SH and Z whose place of articulation is not visibly distinctive and which are therefore hard to lipread are less well recalled than (phonetically and orthographically matched) syllable lists containing consonants like F, TH and B which are produced with the tongue, teeth and lips in visible configuration. We conclude that for these deaf youngsters the phonological representation of written consonants is less secure for speech sounds that are hard, rather than easy, to lipread. The oral training of these youngsters has had an effect on their internal representation of written speech.

Hearing subjects showed no ‘lipreadability’ effect in their recall of these lists. Reading‐age matched controls (aged 8−10 years) showed significantly shorter span for both list types than the deaf group. Older hearing controls (14−16 years) matched the deaf group in span and tended to recall most accurately written syllables which are not easily lipread. We discuss these comparisons and conclude that while this group of deaf subjects is using a phonological code in the recall of written syllables, it is qualitatively different from that used by hearing subjects in this task. In particular, not only hard‐to‐lipread consonants but also vowels may be less strongly represented in these deaf readers’ ‘inner voice’.
Working memory, comprehension ability and the resolution of text anomaly
Authors: Yuill Nicola , Oakhill Jane , Parkin Alan
Published: April 2011

This article examines possible working memory deficits in 7–8‐year‐olds who are accurate readers but relatively poor comprehenders. In Expt 1, poor comprehenders scored below good comprehenders on a non‐linguistic test of working memory (reading series of digits and recalling the last digit in each series) on the more taxing items. Experiment 2 examined the relationship between working memory and text comprehension using an anomaly resolution task. Good and poor comprehenders heard stories describing an adult's anomalous emotional response to a child's action, some of which contained information to resolve the anomaly. The load on working memory imposed by the need to integrate the resolution with the anomaly was varied in two ways: the resolution was presented immediately next to, or two sentences distant from, the anomaly, and appeared either before or after the anomaly. Poor comprehenders were worse than good ones at anomaly resolution only when the anomalous and resolving information were separated. The results support the hypothesis that text processing is influenced by working memory demands and suggest that children's comprehension is related to the efficiency of a general non‐linguistic working memory system.
Word frequency, articulatory suppression and memory span
Authors: Gregg Vernon H. , Freedman Carmen M. , Smith Deana K.
Published: April 2011

Watkins (1977) found memory span was longer when first and second halves of lists contained high‐ and low‐frequency words, respectively, than when low‐frequency words preceded high. One of the four experiments reported here failed to replicate this finding and found that articulatory suppression had a greater detrimental effect on span for high‐ than for low‐frequency words. Another experiment showed that high‐frequency words similar to those used by Watkins were easier to articulate than low‐frequency words. In the third experiment articulatory suppression did not differentially affect delayed recall of high‐ and low‐frequency words. The fourth experiment showed span for high‐ and low‐frequency words was influenced in a similar way when encouraging subjects to maintain words from either early or late serial positions by articulatory rehearsal. It is concluded that differences in the strategies adopted to maintain words in the articulatory rehearsal loop can account for inconsistencies in the results obtained here and in previous experiments.
Gender and beliefs about memory
Authors: Crawford Mary , Herrmann Douglas J. , Holdsworth Michelle J. , Randall Emily P. , Robbins Diana
Published: April 2011

Beliefs about subjects’ own memory performances and about the memory performances of others were studied as a function of gender in two experiments. Both experiments used adaptations of the Inventory of Memory Experiences (IME) that employed somewhat different response scales. The first experiment used a small sample, heterogeneous with respect to age; the second used a large homogeneous sample of college students. In both experiments, gender was strongly related to beliefs about others’ memory performance and weakly related to beliefs about one's own performance. Female and male subjects agreed that men are better at some tasks (e.g. directions) and women are better at others (e.g. shopping lists), but showed no consistent tendency to view themselves in terms of the beliefs they held about others of their gender. These results imply that behaviours based on beliefs about the memory performance of women and men may be gender biased when directed towards others.
A theory of causal processing
Authors: White Peter A.
Published: April 2011

A theory of causal processing is proposed. The theory is based on the notion that people understand the causal connection as a generative relation representing the operation of a causal power of some thing under some appropriate releasing condition. Much causal processing is automatic and involves the perception of apparent generative relations with the aid of this basic concept and more particular beliefs about the causal powers of the things involved. Controlled causal processing occurs when automatic causal processing cannot and when its occurrence is in the interest of some practical concern. This also involves identifying some causal power or releasing condition that is already believed to be a possible cause of the effect in question. The origins and development of this way of understanding causation are briefly discussed. The preferred method of testing ideas about possible causes involves gathering more information about the occasion in question, not sampling other occasions, as in covariation‐based models. Evidence supporting this contention is reported. Application of this basic theory in particular domains of knowledge is briefly discussed.
‘Lost and Found’: Some logical and methodological limitations of self‐report uestionnaires as tools to study cognitive ageing
Authors: Rabbitt Patrick , Abson Vicki
Published: April 2011

Laboratory tests show a decline in memory efficiency with age, but may not reflect highly practised everyday memory skills. Self‐rating questionnaires probe memory efficiency in everyday life, but seven logical and methodological problems ambiguate interpretation of the data they yield. To explore these problems, 442 volunteers aged from 50 to 85 years were given the AH 4 IQ tests, Mill Hill Vocabulary Tests, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Broadbent Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), Sunderland & Harris Memory Failure Questionnaire (MFQ), the ‘Lost and Found’ Questionnaire (LF, a new domain‐specific probe of the variety, frequency and aetiologies of losses of possessions) and two laboratory memory tests. All self‐rating questionnaire scores correlated modestly with each other. Counter‐intuitively, individuals over 60 years old reported fewer lapses on the LF and on the CFQ. No SRQ scores correlated with performance on laboratory tasks. CFQ scores did not correlate with IQ test scores but high IQ test scorers reported greater recent decline in memory efficiency (MFQ) and greater current frequency of losses of objects (LF). CFQ and LF scores correlated positively with Beck Depression Inventory scores, suggesting some common loading for poor self‐regard. The results suggest that subjective self‐ratings cannot reflect absolute levels of everyday competence, but only the relative success of individuals' adaptations to idiosyncratic environments which, as they age, may change faster than their abilities. However, besides exposing the limitations of self‐report techniques, these analyses also suggest practical ways of adapting and using SRQs which may allow us to gain better insights into changes and individual differences in functional efficiency in everyday life.
Repetition priming from incomplete faces: Evidence for part to whole completion
Authors: Brunas Joana , Young Andrew W. , Ellis Andrew W.
Published: April 2011

Two experiments are reported in which subjects' reaction times to make familiarity decisions to the faces of famous people were compared for faces primed by previously seeing (1) the internal features of the same face, (2) the external features of the same face, or (3) a complete version of the same face. Reaction times to faces primed by the internal features, the external features or a complete face were significantly facilitated relative to an ‘unprimed’ comparison condition, and did not differ one from another. Viewing part of a familiar face on a previous occasion was therefore found to be as effective at priming recognition as seeing a whole face. This finding was demonstrated in Expt 1 for priming from the repetition of stimuli derived from an identical photograph of the same famous person, and in Expt 2 for priming from stimuli derived from a different photograph of the same familiar face. ‘Distributed processing’ accounts of repetition priming may be more useful than accounts based entirely on episodic records in explaining these results.
Social remembering: Quantitative aspects individual and collaborative remembering police officers and students
Authors: Clark N. K. , Stephenson G. M. , Kniveton B. H.
Published: April 2011

Psychologists have generally investigated remembering as an intrapersonal phenomenon. However, everyday remembering often has a more social interpersonal flavour, particularly when two (or more) people jointly recall and discuss an event they have experienced or witnessed. This study examines quantitative differences between individual, dyadic and four‐person group free and cued recall of a purposive social interaction — a fictional police interrogation — and contrasts the findings from two subject samples, police officers and students. Overall, groups outperformed individuals in terms of accuracy, made fewer evaluative comments about the interaction, but were also more prone to a misplaced overconfidence in inaccurate recall than were individuals. Several interesting differences in accuracy and the incidence of different types of error were found between police and student subjects. These findings are discussed in terms of differences in familiarity with task requirements and the type of interaction recalled between subject samples, and the ecological validity of the findings for each subject sample.
Factors influencing word recognition in pre‐reading children
Authors: Stuart Morag
Published: April 2011

Current theories of reading development (e.g. Frith, 1985) propose an initial logographic phase in which printed word recognition is based on salient visual features of the print. An alternative proposition (Stuart & Coltheart, 1988) is that phonologically skilled beginning readers might be able to set up word recognition units from their phonological analyses of spoken words, and their knowledge of correspondences between sounds and letters. Neither view is supported by the present study. It is shown in a series of experiments that phonological knowledge is indeed helpful even to pre‐reading children asked to discriminate printed targets from distractors in an auditory‐visual matching task. However, this effect occurs for non‐words as well as words and pseudohomophones, suggesting the operation of a non‐lexical rule‐based system rather than the establishment of word recognition units.
Comparing the effects of alcohol and intelligence on text recall and recognition
Authors: Maylor E. A. , Rabbitt P. M. A. , James G. H. , Kerr S. A.
Published: April 2011

Forty male subjects were divided into two groups on the basis of their scores on a computerized intelligence test administered in a preliminary session. They then participated in a text recall and recognition experiment in which they received alcohol (1.0 ml/kg body weight) in one session and no alcohol in another session (the order being counterbalanced). Subjects were required to read a short passage, immediately recall as much of it as possible and then select from sets of four sentences the ones that appeared in the original passage (recognition). Although two different passages were used, and subjects knew about the memory tasks in advance, there was nevertheless a significant practice effect: subjects recalled 10.6 per cent more propositions on the second occasion than on the first, but this could be at least partly explained by the fact that they spent 10.0 per cent longer reading the second passage. There was also a significant 7.8 per cent slowing of reading time due to alcohol. Practice did not interact with either intelligence or alcohol on any measure of performance. Alcohol impaired the performance of high intelligence test scorers more than low scorers. The effects of intelligence and alcohol on free recall were quantitatively similar: high intelligence test scorers recalled 8.7 more propositions than low scorers; with alcohol, subjects recalled 8.3 fewer propositions than without alcohol. However, the effects were qualitatively different. The effect of intelligence was primarily on the recall of lower level propositions, whereas alcohol impaired the recall of both higher and lower level propositions. Furthermore, while there was no effect of intelligence on recognition, alcohol impaired performance such that more incorrect sentences were erroneously recognized, particularly those which altered the meaning of the original sentence, rather than merely its surface structure. In terms of Kintsch & van Dijk's (1978) model of text processing, the results are interpreted as suggesting that, while both intelligence and alcohol affect the capacity of the short‐term memory buffer, there is an additional impairment with alcohol in the ability to select between higher and lower level propositions prior to filling the buffer.
Social facilitation and driver behaviour
Authors: Baxter James S. , Manstead Antony S. R. , Stradling Stephen G. , Campbell Karen A. , Reason James T. , Parker Dianne
Published: April 2011

Audience effects on individual behaviour have often been interpreted in terms of increased arousal, which in turn enhances the emission of dominant responses. However, such drive‐based explanations do not readily fit all of the evidence on audience effects. The present study examined the influence on driver behaviour of the presence of a passenger. The main findings were that the incidence of both signalling and speeding appeared to be reduced by the presence of certain types of passenger. These results seem to support a control theory rather than a drive‐based account of social facilitation. In addition, the incidence of close following and speeding differed significantly across type of driver. Taken together, these results suggest ways for improving road safety propaganda based on the specific norms salient for specific categories of road user.
The effects of photic stimulation and private self‐consciousness on the complexity of visual imagination imagery
Authors: Richardson Alan , McAndrew Fiona
Published: April 2011

Three levels of photic stimulation (6, 10, 18 Hz) were employed to induce visual imagination imagery in 40 female undergraduates, half of whom had been selected because they had an habitual interest in their own internal states and half because they had no such interest (high and low on a Private Self‐conscious (PSC) scale). It was predicted, and found, that more complex images would be reported (1) under the averaged 6 and 10 Hz condition than under the 18 Hz condition, (2) under the 6 than under the 10 Hz condition, and (3) under the high PSC than under the low PSC condition. An interaction effect was also obtained such that the complexity of visual imagination imagery was greatest for the high PSC group, compared with the low PSC group, under the 6 Hz condition and least under the 18 Hz condition. Additional analyses were undertaken on the types of colour, form and movement reported by the high and low PSC groups under combined conditions of photic stimulation. The results of the complexity scores were discussed in terms of West's (1962) ‘perceptual release’ theory and several suggestions were made for future research.
The abstraction of covariation in conceptual representation
Authors: Richardson K. , Carthy T.
Published: April 2011

Over the last few years considerable doubts have been cast on traditional models of conceptual representation, with more recent models stressing the flexible, rather than the static, structure of concepts, and the relations among feature variables rather than these being represented independently of each other. Largely for methodological reasons, however, the investigation of such relations has so far been confined to the special case of feature co‐occurrences, whereas, we argue, feature relations in the natural world are likely to be less invariant and less linear than this. The present paper considers ‘fuzzy’ covariations among feature variables as the source of property relations in concepts and describes the use of log‐linear models for examining them. It extends previous work (e.g. Richardson, 1987) by focusing on specific covariations (between pairs of variables), rather than looking only at ‘overall effects’ of covariation representation. In two experiments, subjects experienced ‘fuzzy’ covariations between pairs of variables in exemplars of an artificial category. Representation of this experience was assessed in delayed recognition tests. Representation in terms of ‘fuzzy’ covariation abstraction (as predicted by a suitable log‐linear model) was compared with representation expected by other models of conceptual representation. In both experiments, the results were consistent with abstraction of the ‘fuzzy’ covariations. In the general discussion section, some theoretical speculations are offered about the further roles of covariation abstraction in representation and reasoning.
Animal asymmetry and human heredity: Dextrality, tool use and language in evolution–10 years after Walker (1980)
Authors: Bradshaw John L.
Published: April 2011

At the time of the last major review on this subject in the British journal of Psychology (Walker, 1980) there was, with a few notable exceptions, little evidence of anatomical or behavioural asymmetries in non‐human species at all comparable to our own. In the past decade the picture has changed dramatically, and now includes invertebrates from the Cambrian formations of half a billion years ago, many species of birds, rats and mice, antelopes, cats, dogs, whales, and primates. Asymmetries may differ as a function of sex (including hormone status–females of many species including humans appearing more lateralized at a motor level), developmental status and environmental influences. Effects may be manifest anatomically (limb or brain dimensions), or at a sensory, cognitive or motor level (paw preference, turning biases). A recurring observation across species is that the right hemisphere seems to be weakly specialized for spatial and emotional roles, and the left for learning, discriminatory and communicatory functions. Three million years ago our hominid ancestors were more or less fully bipedal, developed the first stone tools and were dextral in manipulating them. However, tool use seems not to have driven the evolution of language, our other strongly lateralized capacity. Evolutionary scenarios for bipedalism, tool use and language are discussed, together with the question of whether human language is continuous, in an evolutionary sense, with earlier primate call systems.
Are lateral eye‐movements a valid index of functional hemispheric asymmetries?
Authors: Raine Adrian
Published: April 2011

Lateral eye‐movements (LEMs) to verbal and spatial questions are frequently used as an index of asymmetries in hemisphere activation and the concept of ‘hemisphericity’. There have, however, been few attempts to validate LEMs using independent cognitive measures of hemisphere function. This study relates laterality indices of LEMs recorded in the dark using infrared recording techniques, and elicited by verbal and spatial questions, to other measures of left and right hemisphere functioning (verbal and non‐verbal dichotic listening, block design, digit span) in 43 subjects. LEM laterality indices were unrelated to these validation measures. It is concluded that although appropriate question type–LEM relationships may reflect transient asymmetries in hemispheric activation, they are not a valid index of stable individual differences in hemisphere utilization.
Components of conscious awareness in a long‐term modality effect
Authors: Gregg Vernon H. , Gardiner John M.
Published: April 2011

The advantage in long‐term recognition memory of words vocalized at study over those read silently was investigated by requiring subjects to indicate when recognizing a word whether or not they could consciously recollect its prior occurrence. The advantage for vocalization occurred only for words which subjects indicated were accompanied by recollective experience, and the results were not affected by whether subjects vocalized the test words or read them silently. It is concluded that this modality effect, and possibly other similar ones, originate in episodic memory and not in a procedural or ‘quasimemory’ system. Differences between the present results and those obtained elsewhere using intentional learning instructions are discussed.
A catastrophe model of anxiety and performance
Authors: Hardy Lew , Parfitt Gaynor
Published: April 2011

An experiment is reported which tests Fazey & Hardy's (1988) catastrophe model of anxiety and performance. Eight experienced basketball players were required to perform a set shooting task, under conditions of high and low cognitive anxiety. On each of these occasions, physiological arousal was manipulated by means of physical work in such a way that subjects were tested with physiological arousal increasing and decreasing. Curve‐fitting procedures followed by non‐parametric tests of significance confirmed (p < ·002) Fazey & Hardy's hysteresis hypothesis: namely, that the polynomial curves for the increasing vs. decreasing arousal conditions would be horizontally displaced relative to each other in the high cognitive anxiety condition, but superimposed on top of one another in the low cognitive anxiety condition. Other non‐parametric procedures showed that subjects' maximum performances were higher, their minimum performances lower, and their critical decrements in performance greater in the high cognitive anxiety condition than in the low cognitive anxiety condition. These results were taken as strong support for Fazey & Hardy's catastrophe model of anxiety and performance. The implications of the model for current theorizing on the anxiety‐performance relationship are also discussed.
Locus of control as moderator: An explanation for additive versus interactive findings in the demand—discretion model of work stress?
Authors: Parkes Katharine R.
Published: April 2011

Research based on Karasek's (1979) model of work stress has produced conflicting results; although some evidence of the demand × discretion interactions predicted by the model has been reported, most studies have failed to demonstrate interactive effects in relation to mental health outcomes. The present article investigates locus of control (LOC) as a potential moderator of demand/discretion effects. In a sample of civil servants (N = 590), regression analyses demonstrated a three‐way LOC × demand × discretion interaction (p < ·01) for affective distress, but not for absence frequency. In longitudinal data from student teachers (N = 147), a similar three‐way interaction was observed (p < ·05). In this case, the result applied specifically to anxiety as an outcome, and not to social dysfunction. In each study, the form of the three‐way interaction was such that demand and discretion combined interactively to predict outcome for externals (‐1SD LOC), in a manner consistent with Karasek's predictions, whereas for internals (+ 1SD LOC) additive findings were obtained. The implications of these results are discussed with reference to the demand‐discretion model, and to the issues of stressor‐outcome specificity raised by Broadbent (1985).
The effects of feature necessity and extrinsicity on gradedness of category membership and class inclusion relations*
Authors: Caplan Leslie J. , Barr Robin A.
Published: April 2011

Two theories of differences among natural language categories in graded membership and strength of class inclusion are contrasted. The two sets of hypotheses tested were: (1) that categories represented by features which many people believe to be necessary would have less graded memberships, and stronger class inclusion, than those represented by features which few people believe to be necessary, and (2) that categories which people believe are represented primarily by intrinsic features (i.e. features that are true of an entity in isolation; see Barr & Caplan, 1987) would have less graded structures, and stronger class inclusion, than those which people believe are represented primarily by extrinsic features (i.e. features representing relations between an entity and other entities). The findings suggest that feature necessity and feature extrinsicity have independent effects on gradedness of category membership and on class inclusion.
The effects of the codability and discriminability of the referents on the collaborative referring procedure
Authors: Hupet Michel , Seron Xavier , Chantraine Yves
Published: April 2011

Clark & Wilkes‐Gibbs (1986) proposed a model of verbal cooperation accounting for how the participants in a conversation coordinate in the making of references. The model is conceived in terms of how a process of mutual acceptance gets initiated, carried through, and completed in a task where people converse about arranging complex figures into one particular order. One aim of the present study was to test the replicability of Clark & Wilkes‐Gibbs' findings with French native speakers. It also aimed at specifying how the relative complexity of the referents as perceived by the interlocutors affects their referring procedure. Two aspects of this complexity were examined within a repeated referential task: the codability of the referents (assessed by the ease with which a figure can be interpreted and linguistically expressed) and their discriminability (assessed by the ease with which a figure can be differentiated from others). First, the present observations gained with French‐speaking interlocutors replicate Clark & Wilkes‐Gibbs' findings to a remarkable degree. Next they show that the more codable and discriminable the figures, the fewer words and turns the participants take in the task: more collaborative effort is required in referring to items that are harder to name and harder to tell apart. Finally they also show that the more codable and discriminable the figures, the more likely they are to be described with holistic than with segmental definite descriptions.
Inhibitory mechanisms of attention: Locus, stability, and relationship with distractor interference effects
Authors: Tipper Steven P. , Weaver Bruce , Kirkpatrick John , Lewis Stevan
Published: April 2011

This paper examines three properties of attentional inhibition mechanisms. First, previous research has suggested that the inhibitory mechanism of selective attention has a central locus between perception and action. We attempt to confirm the locus of this inhibition. Second, the processing of an unattended stimulus has been observed via the effects of the stimulus on a concurrent target (interference), and on a subsequent target (negative priming). The former effect demonstrates that distractors interfere with the processing of the target, and the latter negative priming effect implies that distractors are inhibited during selection. We demonstrate that these two measures of unattended processing can be dissociated. Third, we reveal that inhibition appears to be a stable mechanism of selection, in that effects do not decline after a large number of experimental trials.
Lateralization of the ‘negative priming’ effect: Relationships with schizotypy and with gender
Authors: Claridge G. S. , Clark K. H. , Beech A. R.
Published: April 2011

An investigation is reported of a divided visual field version of a negative priming task of selective attention, performance on which has previously been shown to be related to schizotypal personality traits. In lateralized form the task produced a significant interaction between schizotypy and visual field, and an influence of gender. Among males high schizotypes showed an absence of negative priming after primes presented to the left visual field. However, right field primes produced slightly more negative priming than in low schizotypes, who showed strong negative priming effects under both conditions. Among females there was less negative priming overall, no difference between visual fields, and no association with schizotypy. The results are interpreted in the light of evidence from other hemisphere research about lateralization of language in schizotypy and schizophrenia.
Interestingness
Authors: Frick Robert W.
Published: April 2011

What makes a statement interesting? In Expts 1 and 2, merely increasing the amount of background knowledge on a topic did not always increase the interest for statements on that topic. However, background knowledge that combined with a statement to create an interesting implicit proposition did increase interest. In Expt 3, the likelihood of an event's occurrence was not a good predictor of its interestingness, whereas there was a good correspondence between interest and changes in the subjects' beliefs. These findings suggest that interest is not a simple function of either unexpectedness or amount of background knowledge. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that statements changing a person's beliefs or confidence in beliefs are interesting.
On the relation between meaning in life and psychological well‐being
Authors: Zika Sheryl , Chamberlain Kerry
Published: April 2011

Meaning in life is an important construct in psychology, but one which has been the focus of limited research. Most research has concentrated on the relation between meaning and psychopathology, and has been conducted with the Purpose in Life Test. This paper examines the relation between meaning in life and psychological well‐being using several meaning measures and both positive and negative well‐being dimensions. A strong association is found between meaning in life and well‐being, which is replicated in two different samples. Meaning in life is found to have a stronger association with positive than with negative well‐being dimensions, suggesting the value of taking a salutogenic approach to mental health research. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Influence of time of 24‐hour day on depth of processing in recall memory
Authors: Maury Pascale , Queinnec Yvon
Published: April 2011

In this paper we report hourly variations in recall of words in a short‐term memory task. Tests were carried out at 18.00, 22.00, 02.00 and 06.00 hours. The words to be memorized were preceded by a question designed to shape the type of encoding adopted by the subjects. The question concerned semantic, typographic or structural characteristics of the word. After presentation of all the words, the subjects were tested in free recall. Time of day had no effect on overall recall scores. Nevertheless, we observed a phase difference in the recall of items processed at superficial or deep levels. Items encoded by typographical attributes were more readily recalled at 02.00 than at 18.00, whereas semantically encoded words were less well recalled at night than during the day. There was also an interaction between the serial position of the items and time of day. At 22.00 and 02.00, subjects recalled words from the end of the list better. The results are discussed in terms of resource allocation models.
Dimensions of everyday memory in young adulthood
Authors: Pollina Leslee K. , Greene A. L. , Tunick Ruth H. , Puckett James M.
Published: April 2011

This paper reports the findings of two studies on everyday memory in young adulthood. In Study 1, 387 male and female college students (18–22 years old) completed the 25‐item Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ; Broadbent, Cooper, Fitzgerald & Parkes, 1982). Principal components analysis yielded five internally consistent factors: distractibility; misdirected actions; spatial/kinaesthetic memory; interpersonal intelligence; and memory for names. Further, each of these dimensions was interpretable within an information‐processing framework. Study 2 examined the relation of the five everyday memory dimensions obtained in Study 1 to measures of working memory and traditional intelligence in a separate sample of 32 college students. Findings obtained in Study 2 suggest that attentional processes may be important components of the everyday memory construct.
The effect of a five‐month delay on children's and adults' eyewitness memory
Authors: Flin Rhona , Boon Julian , Knox Anne , Bull Ray
Published: April 2011

Child witnesses must endure a delay of around six months between observing or being the victim of an alleged offence and being required to give evidence in a criminal court. While the legal profession seem to believe that young children's memories are particularly sensitive to the passage of time, developmental psychology can offer little relevant data to support or refute this presumption. In the present study, children aged six and nine years and adults witnessed a staged event and were subsequently interviewed in the days following the event and/or five months later. Results indicate that while all witnesses forgot information over this period, the younger children (six years) recalled slightly less information than the older children and the adults. The total amount of incorrect information recalled did not increase over the same period. Two different interviewing techniques were used — cued recall vs. ‘enhanced’ recall — the latter incorporating some aspects of the cognitive interview procedure. No differences were found relating to the interview techniques employed. The results underline the importance of recording initial interviews with child witnesses wherever possible.
New light on novice—expert differences in physics problem solving
Authors: Priest A. G. , Lindsay R. O.
Published: April 2011

It is now widely accepted that intelligent problem solving requires access to a source of domain‐specific knowledge, and the existence of a control system to constrain the manner in which domain knowledge is searched. An example of a domain which has been intensively investigated is problem solving in physics. A number of researchers have proposed mutually incompatible theories to explain the search control strategies used in this area. This paper looks at backward inference, schema‐guided forward inference, and planstacking (a form of meta‐level backward inference followed by forward inference at the object level). It also considers a proposal to introduce neural network modelling into the short‐term memory component of a production rule‐based problem solver.

One widely reported finding (Larkin, McDermott, Simon & Simon, 1980), is that novice problem solvers in the domain of physics use backward inference as a search control technique, while experts use forward inference. The backward‐to‐forward inference shift has indeed become so entrenched that attention has already shifted from whether to how it occurs. In spite of its widespread acceptance, the empirical basis for this claim is somewhat fragile, and a major aim of the present study was to re‐examine it using much larger samples of experts and novices than have been employed in the past, and a methodology which does not depend upon protocol analysis.

Our data show that both experts and novices exhibit a forward inference rather than a backward inference order of equation generation. Experts were more likely to be able to plan their solutions at a descriptive meta‐level than novices. While existing theories are able to account for some of these findings, none of them is completely satisfactory in explaining the full range of data.
What might have been: Counterfactual thought concerning personal decisions
Authors: Landman Janet , Manis Jean D.
Published: April 2011

Counterfactual thinking entails the process of imagining alternatives to reality —what might have been. The present study explores the incidence and content of counterfactual thinking about personal decisions in three samples of adults. The results indicate, first, that counterfactual thought occurs frequently among normal adults, with approximately half of each sample reporting that they would do something differently if they had their lives to live over. Secondly, there appear to be common themes to the counterfactuals reported in various real‐life domains. For example, it is common to imagine states counter to the realities of having married early, having curtailed one's education, and having experienced unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships. In general, it appears that decisions and events that were unusual, that have proved less than ideal, or that have prematurely closed off important life options most often generate counterfactual thinking.
Spatial ability in subgroups of left‐and right‐handers
Authors: Annett Marian
Published: April 2011

Two tests of spatial ability, mental paper folding given to 459 14–15‐year‐olds representative of the secondary school population, and recall of the Rey figure given to 428 undergraduates, found significant relationships between ability and hand preference when preferences were classified in subgroups of left‐ and right‐handers (Annett, 1970a). In 14–15‐year‐olds and in female undergraduates there was a W‐shaped relation between hand preference and spatial ability. The highest scores were in the centre for right‐handers with strong sinistral tendencies. Male undergraduates showed a linear trend, with spatial ability highest in strong left‐handers and declining from left to right across levels of hand preference. When spatial test scores were considered in relation to differences between the hands in skill a decline of ability with increasing dextrality was found in right‐handers and in left‐handers. In terms of the right shift theory (Annett, 1972, 1985), the evidence suggests that there are costs for spatial ability associated with the presence of the rs+ gene, even in single dose (rs + ‐ genotypes), and that those who lack the gene (rs − − genotypes) have advantages for spatial ability (Annett, 1991c).
The organization of the lexicon in Japanese: Single and compound kanji
Authors: Morton John , Sasanuma Sumiko , Patterson Karalyn , Sakuma Naoko
Published: April 2011

A word written in Japanese kanji can be single (one kanji character) or compound (more than one character). We investigated the mental representation of single‐kanji and two‐kanji compound words by means of a long‐term facilitation paradigm. Over two experiments, the pattern of results indicated that identification of a target word was facilitated only by prior exposure to that identical word and not by a different word (single or compound) sharing a character with the target word.
Differences in vividness ratings of perceived and imagined patterns
Authors: Giusberti Fiorella , Cornoldi Cesare , De Beni Rossana , Massironi Manfredo
Published: April 2011

The present research focuses on the different subjective experiences evoked by perceived and imagined matrices of letters of the alphabet. In three experiments adult subjects were asked to rate the vividness of a letter included in a matrix of letters which varied due to manipulations in colour, rotation and movement. Subjects were asked to observe (perceptual modality), draw and observe (drawing modality), retrieve (memory modality) or imagine (imagery modality) the matrices. For some manipulations of the critical letter (in particular, 45 degrees inclination and high contrast colour), the perceptual modality produced comparatively higher vividness ratings than the other two modalities. The perceptual effect of inclination was also duplicated with the memory modality group.

It is argued that different visual processes, either immediate and pre‐attentive, or sequential and attentive, may be operating under voluntary control. Although visual imagery varies in some ways from immediate visual perception, the similarities found, between the drawing and imagery modalities, on the one hand, and the perceptual and memory modalities, on the other hand, suggest that they share some common underlying processes.
Extraversion and the McCollough Effect
Authors: Logue Nicola A. , Byth William
Published: April 2011

Two experiments are reported which show that extraverts experience significantly stronger McCollough Effects than introverts. In both experiments the strength of the McCollough Effect (ME) was measured by the match‐interference method devised by Shute (1979). The technique was found to be predictably sensitive to the eye tested and to exposure of the non‐adapted eye. In the first experiment monocular ME strength was measured at 12‐min intervals over two hours in four conditions and found to conform to a power function. Sixteen extraverts showed significantly (p < .00005) stronger initial ME strength than 21 introverts and in both groups the effect ceased to be apparent within about two hours. Log‐log plots of decrement from initial strength indicated no significant extraversion differences in decay rates, with a function gradient of about 1/2. In a second experiment six extraverts and nine introverts from the original group were retested with binocular presentation with a similar outcome. These findings support Shute's hypothesis that introverts would show weaker MEs than introverts but do not support his hypothesis that introverts' MEs would decay more quickly. They offer some indirect support for Shute's proposal that the ME may be an indicator of central cholinergic activity in man.
Recognition and recall of visual area
Authors: Kemp Simon , Lange Clare
Published: April 2011

When visual areas are recalled the ratio of two areas is compressed relative to both the actual and perceived values (e.g. Kemp, 1988). Experiment 1 replicated this effect with a simple two‐region figure, and Expt 2 showed a significant increase in area compression to occur between 2 min and 1 week when subjects were asked to recognize the two‐region figure from a set of nine figures with different area ratios. Area compression was also found in Expt 3 where a different figure was used. Experiment 4 found that varying the texture of the smaller region of a two‐region figure had no significant effect on area compression, and in Expt 5 subjects choose a figure in which the area was expanded but the texture was unchanged over one in which the texture was expanded with the area. Experiment 6 showed that compression of remembered areas seen in a photograph did not depend on recalled distance. In conclusion, area compression appears to arise from a gradual transformation of remembered area that does not resemble a zooming process.
Influence of working memory on adult age differences in matrix reasoning
Authors: Salthouse Timothy A.
Published: April 2011

The four studies reported in this article, involving a total of 401 adults ranging between 18 and 80 years of age, were designed to investigate how working memory might mediate adult age differences in matrix reasoning tasks such as the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test. Evidence of this mediation is available in the finding that statistical control of an index of working memory reduces the age‐related variance in matrix reasoning performance by approximately 70 per cent. Because the age differences were nearly constant across items of varying difficulty, it was concluded that the factors responsible for variation in item difficulty were distinct from those responsible for the age differences. However, young adults were found to be more accurate than older adults at recognizing information presented earlier in the matrix reasoning trial, thereby supporting the interpretation that working memory exerts its influence by contributing to the preservation of information during subsequent processing.
Upper limb injuries and handedness plasticity
Authors: Dellatolas Georges , Moreau Thierry , Jallon Pierre , Lellouch Joseph
Published: April 2011

In a questionnaire survey of 9591 men between 17 and 27 years of age, there was an association between present handedness score and report of an earlier injury causing a temporary shift of hand use. The proportion of weak right‐handers was higher among those who reported injuries. Overall, there was no association between left‐handedness and injuries. Nevertheless, injuries occurring before the school attendance age, which concerned only a very small fraction of the respondents, were associated with an increased frequency of left‐handedness. The data emphasize the plasticity of human handedness, and do not suggest that innate left‐ or non‐right‐handedness is a risk factor for accident occurrence.