bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rating the Chancellors and Their Budgets
Authors: Nadeau Richard , Niemi Richard G.
Published: March 2003

The annual budget presentation is one of the most important forms of public, partisan behaviour in a parliamentary democracy. As such, it should share many features with the addresses of US presidents, including their presumed efficacy. Yet public reactions to budget presentations have been studied only indirectly, and a link between these reactions and government standing has not been established. We use Gallup data over four decades to investigate how voters assess Chancellors of the Exchequer and their budgets. We find that voters' assessments are a product of the performance of the economy, the content of the budget, the media's reaction to the budget and political factors, and are not simply derivative of general feelings about the government in power or intended vote. While developed independently, evaluations of the Chancellor and the budget affect short-term voting intentions of the public. Thus, in unitary, parliamentary governments, as in federal and presidential systems, voters use more than one focal point (in a single party) to evaluate the government and its actions.
The British Election Study and Electoral Research
Authors: Scarbrough Elinor
Published: March 2003

The British Election Study is the major data resource for investigating electoral behaviour among the British electorate. It has seldom been subject to open critical review from within the political science community, yet, together with extensions such as the British Election Panel Study, it absorbs a considerable proportion of the resources available for British political research. This article sets out a critical appraisal of the study, examining its institutional organization, theoretical scope, and methodological conventions. The thrust of the critique is the need for serious rethinking about all three aspects. For the British Election Study to advance our understanding of electoral behaviour requires a more inclusive approach to its organization; moving beyond a preoccupation with sociological and socio-psychological models of electoral behaviour; and systematic attention to measurement issues.
Structuring Europe: Powersharing Institutions and British Preferences on European Integration
Authors: Aspinwall Mark
Published: March 2003

Scholars examining British-European relations typically ascribe UK governmental positions firstly to a combination of distinct and incompatible values, attitudes, and beliefs stemming from historical experience; secondly to a distinct and incompatible set of functional imperatives – namely less interaction with European partners than is the case for other EU member states; and third a distinct and incompatible set of domestic interests. This article challenges these views. It presents evidence to suggest that British governments have failed to assimilate social demands, and that the reason is an under-recognized and untheorized intervening variable – namely the structure of decisionmaking institutions in Parliament. It models the influence of this variable, and suggests that historical institutionalist theory captures key elements of the variable in a manner superior to extant approaches.
Isaiah Berlin's Contribution to Modern Political Theory
Authors: Kenny Michael
Published: March 2003

Three recent studies of Isaiah Berlin's moral and political thought stress the significance of value pluralism for his oeuvre. Whilst this emphasis enables us to dispense with some rather misleading characterizations of Berlin's liberalism, it is less apparent that his political thought can be successfully grounded within moral pluralism. Indeed his liberal beliefs sit rather more awkwardly within this ideological family than is usually assumed. Scholars seeking to revive Berlin's value pluralism in relation to contemporary challenges, such as multiculturalism, have not successfully demonstrated the utility of his thinking in relation to such problems, and have developed their arguments by downplaying the geo-political contexts which shaped his intellectual purposes. Yet his critics have neglected the fertility and range of his thought, aspects of which remain pertinent for those studying political thought in general and liberalism in particular.
The Evolution of the Centre-Right and the State of Scottish Conservatism
Authors: Dyer Michael
Published: March 2003

This article considers the decline of Scottish Conservatism, 1951–97. The statistical data indicate that 91 percent of the variance in Tory support is accounted for by an underlying negative trend against time, that similar patterns appear when the data is disaggregated by region, and that short-term fluctuations have been more in conformity with English results than is conventionally understood. The process of generational change is seen as a waning of the cultural conditions which produced the centre-right coalition that dominated Scottish politics, 1931–64, and its fragmentation into Conservatism, Liberalism, and Scottish Nationalism. The changed circumstances are not seen as peculiarly Scottish, but the consequences for Scottish Conservatism of an evolution affecting the centre-right across the United Kingdom.
Political Parties, Political Integrity and Public Policy: A ‘Transactions Costs' Approach
Authors: Jones Philip , Hudson John
Published: March 2003

Increasing concern about political ‘sleaze’ prompted the establishment, in 1995, of the Standing Committee of Standards in Public Life and the announcement, in 1999, of proposals to reform political party finance in the UK. A ‘public choice’ analysis predicts ‘opportunism’ by representatives at the expense of ‘rationally ignorant’ voters. It commends constitutional constraints to restrict the range of policy options open to representatives. By contrast, a ‘transactions costs' approach suggests that electoral competition can offer protection when voters rely on ‘party signal’ as a low cost information source. If voters reduce transactions costs by relying on party signal, politicians have an incentive to maintain party reputation. Representatives are more willing than might otherwise be anticipated to accept the need for regulation if this serves to protect reputation.
There Must Be End to Confusion: Policy Networks, Intellectual Fatigue, and the Need for Political Science Methods Courses in British Universities
Authors: Dowding Keith
Published: March 2003

Keith Dowding's critique of the network approach … might yet turn out to be a watershed finally marking the intellectual fatigue of policy community and network analysis in Britain.' (Richardson 1999, pp. 198–9) If only!
The National Press and Party Voting in the UK
Authors: Newton Kenneth , Brynin Malcolm
Published: March 2003

The difficulty with resolving the classic problem of whether newspapers influence voting patterns is self-selection: readers select a paper to fit their politics, and newspapers select particular types of readers. One way round this chicken-and-egg problem is to compare the voting behaviour of individuals whose politics are reinforced by their paper, with those who are cross-pressured by their paper, and to compare both with those who do not regularly read a paper. Using the British Household Panel study to analyse voting patterns in 1992 and 1997, this study suggest that newspapers have a statistically significant effect on voting, larger for Labour than Conservative sympathizers, and larger for the 1992 than the 1997 election. The broader implications of these findings for British politics and democracy are discussed.
Max Weber, Socialism, and the Space for Time
Authors: Parsons Stephen D.
Published: March 2003

In Economy and Society Weber provides a detailed criticism of socialism emphasizing the dynamic nature of the formal rationality of economic action, thus indicating the limits of bureaucratic rationality. Unfortunately, Weber's critique has received scant attention, commentators concentrating instead on remarks in his political essays. Weber's main argument against socialism is that it would lead to a decrease in formal rationality. Drawing upon Austrian political economy, Weber attempts to secure a ‘realm of freedom’ within anarchical capitalist production through emphasizing the dynamic nature of economic decision making which necessarily precludes the possibility of a rational socialist planned economy.
The Marriage of Politics and Marketing
Authors: Lees-Marshment Jennifer
Published: March 2003

Research into major party behaviour in Britain from a political marketing perspective finds that political marketing is broad in scope and offers fresh analytical tools to explain how political organizations behave. It is nevertheless a marriage between political science and marketing. It borrows the core marketing concepts of product, sales and market-orientation, and techniques such as market intelligence, and adapts them to suit traditional tenets of political science to produce an integrated theoretical framework. A party that takes a product-orientation argues for what it stands for and believes in. A Sales-Orientated party focuses on selling its argument and product to voters. A Market-Orientated party designs its behaviour to provide voter satisfaction. Exploring these three orientations demonstrates that political marketing can be applied to a wide range of behaviour and suggests its potential to be applied to several areas of political studies.
Sowing Dragon's Teeth: Public Support for Political Violence and Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland
Authors: Hayes Bernadette C. , McAllister Ian
Published: March 2003

While much attention has been devoted to political efforts to solve the Northern Ireland problem, less attention has been given to the role of political violence in sustaining the conflict. We argue that one of the reasons for the intractability of the conflict is widespread exposure to political violence among the civil population. By 1998, thirty years after the conflict started, one in seven of the population reported being a victim of violence; one in five had a family member killed or injured; and one in four had been caught up in an explosion. Such widespread exposure to violence exists alongside latent support for paramilitarism among a significant minority of both communities. Using 1998 survey data, we show that exposure to violence serves to enhance public support for paramilitary groups, as well as to reduce support for the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. Overall, the results suggest that only a lengthy period without political violence will undermine support for paramilitarism and result in the decommissioning of weapons.
International Distributive Justice
Authors: Caney Simon
Published: March 2003

The literature on global justice contains a number of distinct approaches. This article identifies and reviews recent work in four commonly found in the literature. First there is an examination of the cosmopolitan contention that distributive principles apply globally. This is followed by three responses to the cosmopolitanism, – the nationalist emphasis on special duties to co-nationals, the society of states claim that principles of global distributive justice violate the independence of states and the realist claim that global justice is utopian and that states should advance national interest.
Steering through Complexity: EU Environmental Regulation in the International Context
Authors: Kellow Aynsley , Zito Anthony R.
Published: March 2003

The nature of governance in the European Union (EU) and its member states is continuing to evolve as the EU develops. This paper focuses on the challenges to this governance process in the sector of environmental policy, and particularly the role of external organizations and states in providing alternate policy fora. The policy impact of these institutions and organizations leads to more actor participation in a way that EU players may not be able to anticipate or control since the EU is only one of several arenas involved. Both states and non-governmental actors actively seek to shift issues to arenas that provide them advantages. Consequently, developments in other arenas shape and are shaped by EU issues as actors pursue forum shopping. The paper presents two cases, the amendment of the Basel Convention to ban hazardous wastes export and the EU regulation of chemical risk, which demonstrate how external players can shape EU regulation.
Europe at the Millennium
Authors: Kaldor Mary
Published: March 2003

This article argues that the future of the European project depends on the capacity to maintain security. It traces the link between security and political institutions in the case of nation states and, subsequently, blocs. The security of nation states and blocs was defined in terms of the defence of borders against an external enemy and the preservation of law and order within borders. Today, the distinction between internal and external has broken down; ‘new wars’ are a mixture of war, organised crime and violations of human rights. Security can only be maintained through the extension of law and order beyond borders – through enlargement, migration and citizenship policies, and effective humanitarian intervention. Any other approach could lead to a reversal of the process of integration. This type of security policy is likely to be associated with a very different type of polity.
What is Politics? Robinson Crusoe, Deep Ecology and Immanuel Kant
Authors: Burns Tony
Published: March 2003

This article considers the nature of politics. Robinson Crusoe is used to show that even the broadest understanding of politics found in the literature is inadequate, for the situation of Crusoe on his island is a political situation even though he is completely alone. An analogy is drawn between the deep ecological understanding of politics and the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. For Kantian ethics, also, is built on the idea of a solitary individual who is at least existentially isolated. It is concluded that what makes any situation political is the fact that in it some policy is required.
Varieties of Binocular Interaction in Human Vision
Authors: Hughes H. C. , Townsend J. T.
Published: March 2003

Binocular processing was investigated using a quantitative, process-oriented metatheory of response times. The analyses are not confined to particular distributional assumptions or specific models. Upper and lower performance boundaries for probability summation in parallel processing are defined and compared with observed distributions of reaction times using a variety of dichoptic stimuli. Performance that exceeds the upper bound strongly suggests facilitatory convergence between the two eyes (binocular channel summation). Performance below the lower bound suggests that inputs to the two eyes are processed serially. The results indicate that binocular channel summation in subjects with normal stereo vision requires targets of the same luminance polarity (paired increments or decrements) in corresponding retinal locations. When corresponding retinal locations are stimulated with opposing luminance polarities (increment to one eye, decrement to the other), performance is consistent with probability summation, indicating that parallel ON and OFF pathways remain segregated at least to the level of binocular fusion. Further analyses of data from a stereo-blind observer suggest serial processing of binocular inputs.
Spatial Updating of Self-Position and Orientation During Real, Imagined, and Virtual Locomotion
Authors: Klatzky Roberta L. , Loomis Jack M. , Beall Andrew C. , Chance Sarah S. , Golledge Reginald G.
Published: March 2003

Two studies investigated updating of self-position and heading during real, imagined, and simulated locomotion. Subjects were exposed to a two-segment path with a turn between segments; they responded by turning to face the origin as they would if they had walked the path and were at the end of the second segment. The conditions of pathway exposure included physical walking, imagined walking from a verbal description, watching another person walk, and experiencing optic flow that simulated walking, with or without a physical turn between the path segments. If subjects failed to update an internal representation of heading, but did encode the pathway trajectory, they should have overturned by the magnitude of the turn between the path segments. Such systematic overturning was found in the description and watching conditions, but not with physical walking. Simulated optic flow was not by itself sufficient to induce spatial updating that supported correct turn responses.
Event Clusters: An Organization of Personal Events in Autobiographical Memory
Authors: Brown Norman R. , Schopflocher Donald
Published: March 2003

The present study employed a method called event cuing to investigate the organization of autobiographical memory. The unique feature of this method is the use of event descriptions as retrieval cues. Participants first recalled a set of personal events. Next, they responded to each of these cuing events by retrieving a second related personal event (the cued event). Subsequently, relations between cued and cuing events were coded by the participants, and all events were dated and rated for importance. Results indicate that memorable personal events, regardless of age or importance, are often embedded in event clusters; that events organized by these clusters, like episodes in a story, are often causally related, temporally proximate, and similar in content; and that narrative processes may not be necessary for the formation of event clusters, though subsequent narration may affect their contents and structure.
Classical Delay Eyeblink Conditioning in 4- and 5-Month-Old Human Infants
Authors: Ivkovich Dragana , Collins Kimberly L. , Eckerman Carol O. , Krasnegor Norman A. , Stanton Mark E.
Published: March 2003

Simple delay classical eyeblink conditioning, using a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and airpuff unconditioned stimulus (US), was studied in cross-sectional samples of 4- and 5-month-old healthy, full-term infants. Infants received two identical training sessions, 1 week apart. At both ages, infants experiencing paired tones and airpuffs demonstrated successful conditioning over two sessions, relative to control subjects who had unpaired training. Conditioning was not evident, however, during the first session. Two additional groups of 5-month-olds received varied experiences during Session 1, either unpaired presentations of the CS and US or no stimulus exposure, followed by paired conditioning during Session 2. Results from these groups suggest that the higher level of conditioning observed following two sessions of paired conditioning was not the result of familiarity with the testing environment or the stimuli involved but, rather, the result of retention of associative learning not expressed during the first conditioning session.
Where we Go With a Little Good Information
Authors: Wang Ranxiao Frances , Cutting James E.
Published: March 2003

When observers move through an environment, they are immersed in a sea of motions that guide their further movements. The horizontal relative motions of all possible pairs of stationary objects fall into three classes: They converge, diverge and slow down, or diverge with increasing velocity. Conjoined with ordinal depth information, the first two motions reveal nominal invariants, constraining heading to one side of the visual field. When two object pairs yield invariants on opposing sides of the heading, they can constrain judgments to a narrow region. Distributional analyses of responses in an experiment involving simulated observer movement suggest that observers follow these constraints.
Why Causation Need not Follow From Statistical Association: Boundary Conditions for the Evaluation of Generative and Preventive Causal Powers
Authors: Wu Melissa , Cheng Patricia W.
Published: March 2003

In experimental design, a tacit principle is that to test whether a candidate cause c (i.e., a manipulation) prevents an effect e, e must occur at least some of the time without the introduction of c. This principle is the preventive analogue of the explicit principle of avoiding a ceiling effect in tests of whether c produces e. Psychological models of causal inference that adopt either the covariation approach or the power approach, among their other problems, fail to explain these principles. The present article reports an experiment that demonstrates the operation of these principles in untutored reasoning. The results support an explanation of these principles according to the power PC theory, a theory that integrates the previous approaches to overcome the problems that cripple each.
Risk for Substance Abuse: Memory as a Common Etiological Pathway
Authors: Goldman Mark S.
Published: March 2003

Memory processes may be part of the causal chain by which known antecedents of alcohol and drug abuse influence drinking. Recent findings on alcohol expectancies are consistent with a memory model and help articulate how consumption may be influenced by memory representations of biological and environmental characteristics. This line of research suggests novel prevention and intervention strategies.
N400 Effects Reflect Activation Spread During Retrieval of Arithmetic Facts
Authors: Niedeggen Michael , Rösler Frank
Published: March 2003

Arithmetic facts are stored in densely interconnected memory networks, and retrieval errors may occur because activation spreads to associated results. We studied the extension of activation spread by means of the so-called N400 effect of the event-related brain potential (ERP). With semantic stimuli, N400 amplitude has proved to be inversely proportional to the amount of activation that originates from a priming context. ERPs were recorded from 61 scalp positions while 16 subjects verified 600 multiplication problems ( a × b = c). The solution to each problem could be correct or incorrect. Incorrect solutions were either table related to one of the operands (e.g., 5 × 8 = 32, 24, or 16) or unrelated (e.g., 5 × 8 = 34, 26, or 18), and were either a small, medium, or large numerical distance from the correct product. Our findings suggest that activation spread in an arithmetic memory network is restricted to numbers that are table related to one of the operands and that are numerically plausible.
In What Sense are Positive and Negative Affect Independent? A Reply to Tellegen, Watson, and Clark
Authors: Green Donald P. , Salovey Peter
Published: March 2003

We agree with most of the claims made by Tellegen, Watson, and Clark: Pleasant and unpleasant affect (i.e., happiness and unhappiness) are strongly negatively correlated; random and nonrandom error need to be taken into account before interpreting correlations among affect scales; scales of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) embedded within the affective circumplex are orthogonal in theory, as are pleasure and arousal; and two-dimensional views of the affective space are more valid and useful than one- or three-dimensional models. Finally, and most important, we agree that PA and NA, as typically operationalized, are not independent, despite what may be the case theoretically. In this brief rejoinder, we offer some reasons why measurement problems likely prevent PA and NA from being measured orthogonally, why the factor analytic work reported in the target article is unlikely to shed new light on the perplexing problem of how best to characterize and measure affect, and why Pleasantness and Arousal tend to be operationally superior to their PA and NA counterparts.
The Mystery of the Mozart Effect: Failure to Replicate
Authors: Steele Kenneth M. , Bass Karen E. , Crook Melissa D.
Published: March 2003

The Mozart effect is the purported increase in spatial-reasoning performance immediately after exposure to a Mozart piano sonata. Several laboratories have been unable to confirm the existence of the effect despite two positive reports from the original laboratory. The authors of the original studies have provided a list of key procedural components to produce the effect. This experiment attempted to produce a Mozart effect by following those procedural instructions and replicating the procedure of one of the original positive reports. The experiment failed to produce either a statistically significant Mozart effect or an effect size suggesting practical significance. This general lack of effect is consistent with previous work by other investigators. We conclude that there is little evidence to support basing intellectual intervention programs on the existence of the Mozart effect.
Dissociative Tendencies, Attention, and Memory
Authors: DePrince Anne P. , Freyd Jennifer J.
Published: March 2003

Two groups of college students were selected on the basis of their scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). The high-DES group (score > 20, M = 29.6; n = 54) and low-DES group (score < 10, M = 5.1; n = 54) both completed the standard and a new dualtask version of the Stroop ink-naming task with xs (baseline condition) and color, neutral, and emotionally charged words. Free recall results indicated that high-DES participants remembered fewer emotionally charged words than low-DES participants. We found a crossover interaction for Stroop interference: High-DES participants showed more interference (conflicting color – baseline latency for ink naming) in a selective-attention Stroop task and less interference in the dualtask Stroop task. The interaction between attentional context and dissociation for Stroop interference and the free recall results are consistent with a cognitive-environments view of dissociative tendencies. In this view, dissociative tendencies, which have been otherwise speculated to be largely deleterious, can be advantageous in certain contexts.
Learning About Categories in the Absence of Training: Profound Amnesia and the Relationship Between Perceptual Categorization and Recognition Memory
Authors: Palmeri Thomas J. , Flanery Marci A.
Published: March 2003

Previous evidence suggests that amnesics can categorize stimuli as well as normal individuals but are significantly worse at recognizing those stimuli. In an extreme case, a profoundly amnesic individual, E.P., was found to have near-normal categorization, yet, unlike most amnesics, was unable to recognize better than chance. This evidence has been used to argue against the possibility that a common memory system underlies these cognitive processes. However, we provide evidence that the experimental procedures typically used to test amnesic individuals may be flawed in that initial exposure to category members may be unnecessary to observe accurate categorization of test stimuli. We experimentally “induced” profound amnesia in normal individuals by telling them they had viewed subliminally presented stimuli, which were never actually presented. Using the same experimental paradigm used to test amnesics, we observed that participants' recognition performance was completely at chance, as should be expected, yet categorization performance was quite good.
Psychological Science in the Public Interest: The Case for Juried Analyses
Authors: Ceci Stephen J. , Bjork Robert A.
Published: March 2003

The inaugural issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest (PSPI), a new publishing initiative by the American Psychological Society, accompanies this issue of Psychological Science. The report it contains, “Psychological Science Can Improve Diagnostic Decisions,” by John Swets, Robyn Dawes, and John Monahan, represents a careful effort by those authors to summarize the potential of modern psychological science to enhance real-world diagnostic decisions. Such decisions (Is a cancer present? Will this individual commit violence? Will an impending storm strike? Will this applicant succeed?) are prevalent and crucial to the lives of individuals and to the well-being of our society. Subsequent issues of PSPI will address other important topics of public interest in areas where psychological science may have the potential to inform and improve public policy. Each of those reports will also represent the efforts of a distinguished team of scientists to report the available evidence, and the implications of that evidence, fairly and comprehensively. In this article, we describe the goals, procedures, and potential of PSPI.
Multiplicative Effects of Intention on the Perception of Bistable Apparent Motion
Authors: Suzuki Satoru , Peterson Mary A.
Published: March 2003

When viewing ambiguous displays, observers can, via intentional efforts, affect which perceptual interpretation they perceive. Specifically, observers can increase the probability of seeing the desired percept. Little is known, however, about how intentional efforts interact with sensory inputs in exerting their effects on perception. In two experiments, the current study explored the possibility that intentional efforts might operate by multiplicatively enhancing the stimulus-based activation of the desired perceptual representation. Such a possibility is suggested by recent neurophysiological research on attention. In support of this idea, when we presented bistable apparent motion displays under stimulus conditions differentially favoring one motion percept over the other, observers' intentional efforts to see a particular motion were generally more effective under conditions in which stimulus factors favored the intended motion percept.
Pigeons Flexibly Time or Count on Cue
Authors: Roberts William A. , Coughlin Ryan , Roberts Shelley
Published: March 2003

In Experiment 1, pigeons were presented with a sequence of light flashes and cued to peck a key for reward either after a fixed time or after a fixed number of flashes. Curves that showed the rate of key pecking over time within trials indicated that peak rates of response were reached near the fixed time on timing-cued trials and near the fixed number of flashes on counting-cued trials. In Experiment 2, the key cue was shifted from timing to counting or from counting to timing midway through a trial. The peak times reached after the cue change indicated that pigeons kept track of time while cued to count but did not count while cued to time. These findings suggest a basic asymmetry in the dual-mode model of timing and counting.
Phonology Matters: The Phonological Frequency Effect in Written Chinese
Authors: Ziegler Johannes C. , Tan Li Hai , Perry Conrad , Montant Marie
Published: March 2003

Does phonology play a role in silent reading? This issue was addressed in Chinese. Phonology effects are less expected in Chinese than in alphabetical languages like English because the basic units of written Chinese (the characters) map directly into units of meaning (morphemes). This linguistic property gave rise to the view that phonology could be bypassed altogether in Chinese. The present study, however, shows that this is not the case. We report two experiments that demonstrate pure phonological frequency effects in processing written Chinese. Characters with a high phonological frequency were processed faster than characters with a low phonological frequency, despite the fact that the characters were matched on orthographic (printed) frequency. The present research points to a universal phonological principle according to which phonological information is routinely activated as a part of word identification. The research further suggests that part of the classic word-frequency effect may be phonological.
Development of a Single-Code/Default Coding Strategy in Pigeons
Authors: Clement Tricia S. , Zentall Thomas R.
Published: March 2003

We tested the hypothesis that pigeons could use a cognitively efficient coding strategy by training them on a conditional discrimination (delayed symbolic matching) in which one alternative was correct following the presentation of one sample (one-to-one), whereas the other alternative was correct following the presentation of any one of four other samples (many-to-one). When retention intervals of different durations were inserted between the offset of the sample and the onset of the choice stimuli, divergent retention functions were found. With increasing retention interval, matching accuracy on trials involving any of the many-to-one samples was increasingly better than matching accuracy on trials involving the one-to-one sample. Furthermore, following this test, pigeons treated a novel sample as if it had been one of the many-to-one samples. The data suggest that rather than learning each of the five sample-comparison associations independently, the pigeons developed a cognitively efficient single-code/default coding strategy.
Group Discussion as Interactive Dialogue or as Serial Monologue: The Influence of Group Size
Authors: Fay Nicolas , Garrod Simon , Carletta Jean
Published: March 2003

Current models draw a broad distinction between communication as dialogue and communication as monologue. The two kinds of models have different implications for who influences whom in a group discussion. If the discussion is like interactive dialogue, group members should be influenced most by those with whom they interact in the discussion; if it is like serial monologue, they should be influenced most by the dominant speaker. The experiments reported here show that in small, 5-person groups, the communication is like dialogue and members are influenced most by those with whom they interact in the discussion. However, in large, 10-person groups, the communication is like monologue and members are influenced most by the dominant speaker. The difference in mode of communication is explained in terms of how speakers in the two sizes of groups design their utterances for different audiences.
The Integrity of Web-Delivered Experiments: Can You Trust the Data?
Authors: McGraw Kenneth O. , Tew Mark D. , Williams John E.
Published: March 2003

Data from Web-delivered experiments conducted in browsers by remote users of PsychExperiments, a public on-line psychology laboratory, reveal experiment effects that mirror lab-based findings, even for experiments that require nearly millisecond accuracy of displays and responses. Textbook results are obtained not just for within-subjects effects, but for between-subjects effects as well. These results suggest that existing technology is adequate to permit Web delivery of many cognitive and social psychological experiments and that the added noise created by having participants in different settings using different computers is easily compensated for by the sample sizes achievable with Web delivery.
Social Dominance Orientation and Group Context in Implicit Group Prejudice
Authors: Pratto Felicia , Shih Margaret
Published: March 2003

We tested the joint influence of individual difference and situational factors on implicit group prejudice. Participants in Experiments 1 and 2 were briefly shown in-group or out-group pronouns prior to evaluating good or bad trait adjectives. Under standard conditions (Experiment 1), there was no difference between participants with high and low social dominance orientation (SDO), but when the intergroup context was made more salient (Experiment 2), high-SDO participants alone showed implicit group prejudice. Implications for the malleability and consensuality of implicit prejudice are discussed.
The Effect of Implied Orientation Derived from Verbal Context on Picture Recognition
Authors: Stanfield Robert A. , Zwaan Rolf A.
Published: March 2003

Perceptual symbol systems assume an analogue relationship between a symbol and its referent, whereas amodal symbol systems assume an arbitrary relationship between a symbol and its referent. According to perceptual symbol theories, the complete representation of an object, called a simulation, should reflect physical characteristics of the object. Amodal theories, in contrast, do not make this prediction. We tested the hypothesis, derived from perceptual symbol theories, that people mentally represent the orientation of an object implied by a verbal description. Orientation (vertical-horizontal) was manipulated by having participants read a sentence that implicitly suggested a particular orientation for an object. Then recognition latencies to pictures of the object in each of the two orientations were measured. Pictures matching the orientation of the object implied by the sentence were responded to faster than pictures that did not match the orientation. This finding is interpreted as offering support for theories positing perceptual symbol systems.
On the Affine Structure of Perceptual Space
Authors: Todd James T. , Oomes Augustinus H.J. , Koenderink Jan J. , Kappers Astrid M.L.
Published: March 2003

Affine geometry is a generalization of Euclidean geometry in which distance can be scaled along parallel directions, though relative distances in different directions may be incommensurable. This article presents a new procedure for testing the intrinsic affine structure of a psychological space by having subjects perform bisection judgments over multiple directions. If those judgments are internally consistent with one another, they must satisfy a theorem first proved by Pierre Varignon around 300 years ago. In the experiment reported here, this procedure was employed to measure the perceived structure of a visual ground surface. The results revealed that observers' judgments were systematically distorted relative to the physical environment, but that the judged bisections in different directions had an internally consistent affine structure. Implications of these findings for other possible response tasks are considered.
African Americans and High Blood Pressure: The Role of Stereotype Threat
Authors: Blascovich Jim , Spencer Steven J. , Quinn Diane , Steele Claude
Published: March 2003

We examined the effect of stereotype threat on blood pressure reactivity. Compared with European Americans, and African Americans under little or no stereotype threat, African Americans under stereotype threat exhibited larger increases in mean arterial blood pressure during an academic test, and performed more poorly on difficult test items. We discuss the significance of these findings for understanding the incidence of hypertension among African Americans.
Linguistically Mediated Visual Search
Authors: Spivey Michael J. , Tyler Melinda J. , Eberhard Kathleen M. , Tanenhaus Michael K.
Published: March 2003

During an individual's normal interaction with the environment and other humans, visual and linguistic signals often coincide and can be integrated very quickly. This has been clearly demonstrated in recent eyetracking studies showing that visual perception constrains on-line comprehension of spoken language. In a modified visual search task, we found the inverse, that real-time language comprehension can also constrain visual perception. In standard visual search tasks, the number of distractors in the display strongly affects search time for a target defined by a conjunction of features, but not for a target defined by a single feature. However, we found that when a conjunction target was identified by a spoken instruction presented concurrently with the visual display, the incremental processing of spoken language allowed the search process to proceed in a manner considerably less affected by the number of distractors. These results suggest that perceptual systems specialized for language and for vision interact more fluidly than previously thought.
Visual Search has Memory
Authors: Peterson Matthew S. , Kramer Arthur F. , Wang Ranxiao Frances , Irwin David E. , McCarley Jason S.
Published: March 2003

By monitoring subjects' eye movements during a visual search task, we examined the possibility that the mechanism responsible for guiding attention during visual search has no memory for which locations have already been examined. Subjects did reexamine some items during their search, but the pattern of revisitations did not fit the predictions of the memoryless search model. In addition, a large proportion of the refixations were directed at the target, suggesting that the revisitations were due to subjects' remembering which items had not been adequately identified. We also examined the patterns of fixations and compared them with the predictions of a memoryless search model. Subjects' fixation patterns showed an increasing hazard function, whereas the memoryless model predicts a flat function. Lastly, we found no evidence suggesting that fixations were guided by amnesic covert scans that scouted the environment for new items during fixations. Results do not support the claims of the memoryless search model, and instead suggest that visual search does have memory.
Culture, Change, and Prediction
Authors: Ji Li-Jun , Nisbett Richard E. , Su Yanjie
Published: March 2003

Five studies showed that Chinese and Americans perceive change differently. Chinese anticipated more changes from an initial state than Americans did. When events were changing in a particular direction, Chinese were more likely than Americans to predict change in the direction of change. Moreover, for patterns with changing slopes, Chinese predicted greater change in the way slopes changed, in comparison to Americans. In addition, people who predicted change were perceived as wise by Chinese more than by Americans. Implications for social attribution, tolerance for contradiction, persistence on tasks, and the illusion of control are discussed.
Truth and Character: Sources That Older Adults Can Remember
Authors: Rahhal Tamara A. , May Cynthia P. , Hasher Lynn
Published: March 2003

Are age differences in source memory inevitable? The two experiments reported here examined the hypothesis that the type of source information being tested mediates the magnitude of age differences in source memory. In these studies, participants listened to statements made by two different speakers. We compared younger and older adults' source memory in a traditional perceptual source task (memory for voice) and in two affective, conceptually based source tasks (truth of the statements, character of a person in a photo). In both studies, the perceptual and conceptual source information were conveyed in the same manner, as one speaker was associated with one type of information (e.g., female voice speaks truth). Age differences were robust for decisions regarding who said each statement but were negligible for truth or character decisions. These findings are provocative because they suggest that the type of information can influence age-related patterns of performance for source-conveyed information.
Overhearing a Language During Childhood
Authors: Au Terry Kit-fong , Knightly Leah M. , Jun Sun-Ah , Oh Janet S.
Published: March 2003

Despite its significance for understanding of language acquisition, the role of childhood language experience has been examined only in linguistic deprivation studies focusing on what cannot be learned readily beyond childhood. This study focused instead on long-term effects of what can be learned best during childhood. Our findings revealed that adults learning a language speak with a more nativelike accent if they overheard the language regularly during childhood than if they did not. These findings have important implications for understanding of language-learning mechanisms and heritage-language acquisition.
Femininity and Fertility in Sisters with Twin Brothers: Prenatal Androgenization? Cross-Sex Socialization?
Authors: Rose Richard J. , Kaprio Jaakko , Winter Torsten , Dick Danielle M. , Viken Richard J. , Pulkkinen Lea , Koskenvuo Markku
Published: March 2003

Are sisters of twin brothers behaviorally or physiologically masculinized? Prenatal exposure to their brothers' androgens and postnatal socialization experiences unique to girls growing up with twin brothers might influence their attitudes, pubertal development, and reproductive histories. To investigate, we studied age- and cohort-matched samples of Finnish sisters from same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs. Using data from two ongoing longitudinal studies of consecutive birth cohorts of Finnish twins, we assessed pubertal development at ages 11 and 14 and endorsement of attitudes associated with femininity at age 16. We also studied fertility in Finnish women from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs born from 1958 through 1971, obtaining information on their child-bearing histories when they were ages 15 to 28. Results of each comparison were unambiguously negative: There was no evidence of differences between sisters from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs, and thus, no evidence of either androgenization or cross-sex socialization.
Source Monitoring Reduces the Suggestibility of Preschool Children
Authors: Giles Jessica W. , Gopnik Alison , Heyman Gail D.
Published: March 2003

The relation between source monitoring and suggestibility was examined among preschool children. Thirty-two 3- to 5-year-olds were simultaneously presented with a brief story in two different modalities, as a silent video vignette and a spoken narrative. Each modality presented unique information about the story, but the information in the two versions was mutually compatible. The children were then asked a series of questions, including questions about the source (modality) of story details, and leading questions about story details (to assess suggestibility). Performance on the source-monitoring questions was highly correlated with the ability to resist suggestion. In addition, children who were asked source-monitoring questions prior to leading questioning were less susceptible to suggestion than were those who were asked the leading questions first. This study provides evidence that source monitoring can play a causal role in reducing the suggestibility of preschool children.
Effects of Financial Incentives on the Breakdown of Mutual Trust
Authors: Parco James E. , Rapoport Amnon , Stein William E.
Published: March 2003

Disagreements between psychologists and economists about the need for and size of financial incentives continue to be hotly discussed. We examine the effects of financial incentives in a class of interactive decision-making situations, called centipede games, in which mutual trust is essential for cooperation. Invoking backward induction, the Nash equilibrium solution for these games is counterintuitive. Our previous research showed that when the number of players in the centipede game is increased from two to three, the game is iterated in time, the players are rematched, and the stakes are unusually high, behavior approaches equilibrium play. Results from the present study show that reducing the size of the stakes elicits dramatically different patterns of behavior. We argue that when mutual trust is involved, the magnitude of financial incentives can induce a considerable difference.
The Nativist-Empiricist Controversy in the Context of Recent Research on Spatial and Quantitative Development
Authors: Newcombe Nora S.
Published: March 2003

Demonstrations of cognitive competence in preschool children and infants played an important role in the waning influence of Piagetian theory and the rise of nativism. Arguments and data favoring modularity have further buttressed the case for nativism. This article reviews evidence concerning early competence and modularity in the spatial and quantitative domains, as well as the role of experience in development. This evidence provides little reason to support nativist claims in either domain.
Critical Evidence
Authors: Hakuta Kenji , Bialystok Ellen , Wiley Edward
Published: March 2003

The critical-period hypothesis for second-language acquisition was tested on data from the 1990 U.S. Census using responses from 2.3 million immigrants with Spanish or Chinese language backgrounds. The analyses tested a key prediction of the hypothesis, namely, that the line regressing second-language attainment on age of immigration would be markedly different on either side of the critical-age point. Predictions tested were that there would be a difference in slope, a difference in the mean while controlling for slope, or both. The results showed large linear effects for level of education and for age of immigration, but a negligible amount of additional variance was accounted for when the parameters for difference in slope and difference in means were estimated. Thus, the patterh of decline in second-language acquisition failed to produce the discontinuity that is an essential hallmark of a critical period.