Propensities and counterfactuals: The loser that almost won.

Close counterfactuals are alternatives to reality that "almost happened." A psychological analysis of close counterfactuals offers insights into the underlying representation of causal episodes and the inherent uncertainty attributed to many causal systems. The perception and representation of causal episodes is organized around possible focal outcomes, evoking a schema of causal forces competing over time. A distinction between 2 kinds of assessments of outcome probability is introduced: dispositions, based on causal information available prior to the episode, and propensities, based on event cues obtained from the episode itself. The distinction is critical to the use of almost, which requires the attribution of a strong propensity to the counterfactual outcome. The final discussion focuses on characteristic differences between psychological and philosophical approaches to the analysis of counterfactuals, causation, and probability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encountering misspellings and spelling performance: Why wrong isn't right.

Experience with misspellings can be detrimental to subsequent spelling performance. Generating or being exposed to incorrect spellings between two successive spelling tests interfered with subsequent spelling accuracy of these same words in Experiments 1 and 2 (but not Experiment 3), as indicated by changes from correct to incorrect spellings (CI changes). Furthermore, significantly more CI changes occurred when a recognition test (with incorrect versions as distractors) followed a dictation test than when a second dictation test followed it. Repeatedly presented misspellings were rated as looking progressively more similar to the correct spelling across presentations (Experiment 3). These outcomes suggest that spelling tests that involve the discrimination of correct from incorrect versions may be ill advised. In addition, the instructional technique encouraging students to intentionally produce misspellings of words, for purposes of visual comparison, may be detrimental rather than helpful. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The right question, wrong answers.

Comments on L. R. O'Leary's (see record 1973-25947-001) article on predicting job success via testing. The problem with using biographical data (e.g., age, sex, race) as a legitimate basis for employment selection is not a question of psychometrics but of social values and public policy. While the use of job samples is more socially defensible, it can create a set of special problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treatment in corrections: Martinson was right.

Reviews the history of the treatment controversy within the correctional field. R. M. Martinson's (1974) conclusions are critically examined in light of more recent research evidence. It is suggested that although the differential treatment model has shown encouraging results, the small magnitude of the observed treatment effects cannot provide a potent basis for policy formation. Psychologists are encouraged to bring their expertise to bear on the development of more powerful crime-prevention strategies. (French abstract) (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral value transfer from regulatory fit: What feels right is right and what feels wrong is wrong.

People experience regulatory fit (E. T. Higgins, 2000) when the strategic manner of their goal pursuit suits their regulatory orientation, and this regulatory fit feels right. Fit violation feels wrong. Four studies tested the proposal that experiences of fit can transfer to moral evaluations. The authors examined transfer of feeling wrong from fit violation by having participants in a promotion or prevention focus recall transgressions of commission or omission (Studies 1 and 2). Both studies found that when the type of transgression was a fit violation, participants expressed more guilt. Studies 3 and 4 examined transfer of feeling right from regulatory fit. Participants evaluated conflict resolutions (Study 3) and public policies (Study 4) as more right when the means pursued had fit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The scientist-practitioner model: Gandhi was right again.

Examines the adoption of and the ideas behind the scientist-practitioner model from the Boulder Conference. The author discusses the implementation of scientist-practitioner training programs and graduate student reaction to it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home care. Doing right for the wrong reason

Abomasal fistulae resulting from right paramedian abomasopexy in eight adult dairy cattle were treated by primary closure of the abdominal wall after surgical resection of the fistulae. The median elapsed time from the abomasopexy to recognition of fistula formation was 16 days (range, 10 to 90 days). All cows had normal electrolyte values, and five cows had mildly increased base excess values (range = 4.0 to 7.8 mEq/L). Surgery was performed with the cows in dorsal recumbency using general anesthesia. The fistulated tissue was resected and the abomasum and body wall were closed primarily. One or two layers of appositional sutures using #2 or #3 polyglactin 910 were used to close the body wall. Mean surgical time was 2.2 hours (range, 1.8 to 2.9 hours). Two cows were lost to follow-up. Five of the remaining six cows returned to production (range, 5 to 30 months). Primary closure of the abdominal wall should be considered in the surgical repair of abomasal fistulae in cows that do not have diffuse peritonitis.     

The artful dodger: Answering the wrong question the right way.

What happens when speakers try to “dodge” a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar—but objectively incorrect—questions (the “artful dodge”), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more negatively. We propose that dodges go undetected because listeners' attention is not usually directed toward a goal of dodge detection (i.e., Is this person answering the question?) but rather toward a goal of social evaluation (i.e., Do I like this person?). Listeners were not blind to all dodge attempts, however. Dodge detection increased when listeners' attention was diverted from social goals toward determining the relevance of the speaker's answers (Study 1), when speakers answered a question egregiously dissimilar to the one asked (Study 2), and when listeners' attention was directed to the question asked by keeping it visible during speakers' answers (Study 4). We also examined the interpersonal consequences of dodge attempts: When listeners were guided to detect dodges, they rated speakers more negatively (Study 2), and listeners rated speakers who answered a similar question in a fluent manner more positively than speakers who answered the actual question but disfluently (Study 3). These results add to the literatures on both Gricean conversational norms and goal-directed attention. We discuss the practical implications of our findings in the contexts of interpersonal communication and public debates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Highly confident but wrong: Gender differences and similarities in confidence judgments.

Although gender differences are fairly consistent when people report their general confidence, much less is known about such differences when individuals assess the degree of confidence they have in their ability to answer any particular test question. The objective of this research was to investigate gender differences in item-specific confidence judgments. Data were collected from 3 psychology courses containing 70 men and 181 women. After answering each item on course exams, students indicated their confidence that their answer to that item was correct. Results showed that gender differences in confidence are dependent on the context (whether items were correct or wrong) and on the domain being tested. Moreover, although both men and women were overconfident, undergraduate men were especially overconfident when incorrect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The genetic hypothesis": It was not tested but it could have been.

Comments on the "genetic hypothesis" issue in the U. Neisser et al (see record 83-26553) article, with particular reference to 2 cited studies (J. C. Loehlin et al, see record 51-04436; S. Scarr et al, 1977) which used blood groups to estimate the degree of African ancestry in American Blacks in relation to IQ scores. The methodologies of these studies share the misconception that all blood groups are useful in estimating the proportion of White ancestry in American Blacks. The author argues that this error nullifies the negative finding of the studies, and leaves open the question of whether definitive tests of the genetic hypothesis are possible. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interhemispheric cooperation: Left is left and right is right, but sometimes the twain shall meet.

Interhemispheric cooperation in the processing of nonsense syllables projected simultaneously to both hemispheres was investigated in 2 experiments. Stimuli were projected unilaterally in the left and right visual fields (LVF, RVF) and bilaterally (the same syllable in both fields, BVF; Exp 1, 64 right-handed Ss) or centrally (CVF; Exp 2, 32 right-handed Ss). Accuracy and error patterns differed for the LVF and RVF. Error patterns were intermediate for the BVF–CVF and were partly shifted toward the RVF for Ss with large RVF advantages and toward the LVF for those with small asymmetries. Regression analyses showed that variance in BVF–CVF error patterns was jointly predicted by LVF and RVF variances. Both hemispheres, as demonstrated by means and regression analyses, contribute to the processing of bihemispherically presented syllables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coronary thrombosis during acute myocardial infarction: Roberts was right!

Pathologic studies have varied with clinical belief regarding the role of acute thrombotic occlusion as the inciting event during myocardial infarction. Aspiration thrombectomy, by employing a new catheter, has been performed during myocardial infarction and confirms the pathologic findings that intracoronary thrombus is absent in a substantial number of patients with acute myocardial infarction.     

In the right direction but slightly off course.

Comments on the article by R. E. Redding (see record 2001-00465-001) which discusses pluralism and sociopolitical diversity in psychology. The current author compliments Redding for calling attention to the incongruity between the narrowness of psychology's liberal sociopolitical mentality and its simultaneous reverence for cultural diversity. However, it is stated that Redding's justified criticism fails to come to grips with the moral and methodological issues underlying his complaint. In this comment, the author addresses these issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thirty wrongs do not make a right: Reply to Guilford.

Considers that J. P. Guilford's (see PA, Vol 53:Issue 1) reply to the authors' criticisms of his factor analysis of his structure-of-intellect model has failed to come to grips with evidence indicating that if the number of targeted variables for each factor is 3 or fewer, Procrustes factoring provides no better evidence for structure-of-intellect theory than for any of an infinity of other arbitrarily determined theories. Under these conditions factors can be rotated in such a way as to suggest support for almost any desired solution, and one such solution can be that labeled a replication. Hence the factorial invariance claimed under such conditions can indicate only consistency in the researcher and his methods, not in the phenomena studied. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)