Influence and inference: What the active perceiver overlooks.

We propose that perceivers who engage in social influence tasks (inducers) concentrate primarily on the relation between their influencing behaviors and the responsive behaviors of their target and ignore other important sources of information relevant to social inference (e.g., other concurrent sources of influence on the target person). As a result, inducers' inferences about the target person are biased by their own personal power. In Experiment 1, weak inducers drew more dispositional inferences about the targets of their influence attempts than did strong inducers when the magnitude of the inducers' power was revealed in the course of the social interaction, but not when inducers were informed about the magnitude of their power prior to the social interaction. These results suggest that inducers concentrated on information that they considered relevant to the assessment of their personal power and ignored information about concurrent sources of influence on the target person's behavior. In Experiment 2, inducers' judgments were unaffected by the presence or absence of information about concurrent sources of influence, whereas observers' judgments were significantly affected. The results of both experiments suggest that active perceivers, who are immersed in the social interactions they seek to interpret, differ from passive perceivers in a variety of theoretically predictable ways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Of thoughts unspoken: Social inference and the self-regulation of behavior.

Suggests that perceivers draw dispositional inferences about targets (characterization) and then adjust those inferences with information about the constraints on the targets' behaviors (correction). Because correction is more effortful than characterization, perceivers who devote cognitive resources to the regulation of their own behavior should be able to characterize targets but unable to correct those characterizations. In Exp 1, unregulated Ss incidentally ignored an irrelevant stimulus while they observed a target's behavior, whereas self-regulated Ss purposefully ignored the same irrelevant stimulus. In Exp 2, unregulated Ss expressed their sincere affection toward a target, whereas self-regulated Ss expressed false affection. In both experiments, self-regulated Ss were less likely than unregulated Ss to correct their characterizations of the target. The results suggest that social interaction (which generally requires the self-regulation of ongoing behavior) may profoundly affect the way in which active perceivers process information about others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suspicion of ulterior motivation and the correspondence bias.

Three studies examined the hypothesis that when perceivers learn of the existence of multiple, plausibly rival motives for an actor's behavior, they are less likely to fall prey to the correspondence bias than when they learn of the existence of situational factors that may have constrained the actor's behavior. In the 1st 2 studies, Ss who learned that an actor was instructed to behave as he did drew inferences that corresponded to his behavior. In contrast, Ss who were led to suspect that an actor's behavior may have been motivated by a desire to ingratiate (Study 1), or by a desire to avoid an unwanted job (Study 2), resisted the correspondence bias. The 3rd study demonstrated that these differences were not due to a general unwillingness on the part of suspicious perceivers to make dispositional inferences. The implications that these results have for understanding attribution theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cerebral laterality in deaf and hearing children.

Studied the development of lateralization of cerebral function in 20 hearing and 20 prelingually deaf children using the concurrent task paradigm. Ss were aged 5–6 and 11–12 yrs; all were right-handed. Concurrent processing of a nonverbal task did not cause a selective hand impairment monitored by a manual tapping task. However, deaf Ss were more impaired than hearing Ss in both age groups. Using a concurrent verbal task, both groups manifested a selective impairment of right-hand performance. The deaf also showed a greater left-hand decrement than did the hearing Ss. This result suggests that hemispheric specialization may be less apparent in the deaf than in hearing children. The factor of cognitive task difficulty is suggested as an explanation of these results. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence de l'induction des processus d'autorégulation sur le rendement à une tache cognitive.

Examined whether inducing self-regulatory processes through a concurrent verbal report technique could improve the performance of adult participants on a concept formation task. This technique consists of instructing Ss to state explicitly the reasons underlying each of the steps employed in the process of resolving a task. It is indicated that self-regulatory processes should be optimized when individuals have access to external feedback indicating success or failure of their cognitive enterprise. To examine and dissociate the respective effect of these 2 factors, 80 university students were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental conditions in a 2 (with or without concurrent report)?×?2 (with or without feedback) crossed design. Results indicate that Ss who made a concurrent report performed better than those who did not. The presence of feedback seemed to hinder performance. Results are discussed in relation to the recent model of metacognition proposed by M. Lefebvre-Pinard and the 2nd author (in press). (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual experience, unilateral cortical lesions, and lateralization of function in rats.

Measured the effects of early visual experience and later unilateral neocortical lesions on the behavior of 30 male hooded Long-Evans rats in an open-field, 17-arm spatial maze and on a visual field or perimetry test. 30 Ss were formed into 6 groups—3 light-reared (LR) and 3 dark-reared (DR)—of 5 Ss each in order to receive right-, left-hemisphere, or sham neocortical lesions. The comparison of behavior observed in the open field revealed that LR Ss with right-hemispheric lesions were more active and reared more than any of the other Ss. On the radial-maze task, in which 8 of 17 arms were baited, all Ss with lesions performed less effectively than did sham-operated Ss. The effect of the lesions was significantly greater for LR than for DR Ss. Perimetry testing revealed that, although the lesioned Ss did react to stimuli throughout their visual field, some contralateral neglect was evident in both LR and DR Ss; the lesions had a greater impact on orientation behavior of LR Ss, however. No evidence emerged of any functional asymmetry following the unilateral cortical lesions. Findings are discussed in terms of V. H. Denenberg's (1981) hypothesis about cerebral and functional asymmetry in the rat. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal consequences of person perception processes in two social contexts.

Examined whether perceiver-based perceptual processes affect social behavior. Approximately 1,100 undergraduates were exposed to a videotape that portrayed a male or female child interacting with an adult in a playroom. In Study 1, Ss who "saw" the child emit (a) primarily positive behaviors (i.e., Ss who were positively biased), (b) about equal numbers of positive and negative behaviors (i.e., Ss who were accurate), or (c) primarily negative behaviors (i.e., Ss who were negatively biased) then engaged in cooperative task activities with a 7-yr-old child. In Study 2, a subset of these Ss engaged in a discussion with another undergraduate about 3 issues on which they apparently disagreed. Systematic analyses of these interactions suggested that perceptual processes affected social behavior—negatively biased Ss tended to act in a more authoritarian manner in their encounters with the child, whereas positively biased Ss were the least effective in the discussion task. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer interaction in young deaf children: The effect of partner hearing status and familiarity.

14 deaf 54–83 mo olds were videotaped playing once with each of 4 partners: a familiar deaf playmate, a familiar hearing playmate, an unfamiliar hearing child who was a playmate of another deaf child, and an unfamiliar hearing child who had little experience playing with deaf children. 21 hearing and 7 deaf playmates participated. Deaf Ss rarely used language, and formal language use was not related to measures of interaction or play even when playing with another deaf child. Instead, interaction and pretense seemed to be related to the deaf Ss' nonlinguistic communication abilities. Partner hearing status primarily affected communication, with communication between deaf playmates being more visual (both linguistic and nonlinguistic) and less object-based than communication between deaf and hearing playmates. Familiarity played a larger role than experience in improving interaction between deaf and hearing children. The hearing children were more responsive to and used more visual communication devices with their deaf playmate than an unfamiliar deaf child. But the hearing playmates were no better at playing with an unfamiliar deaf child than were hearing children who had little experience playing with deaf children. Implications for the understanding of young children's communication abilities and for deaf educational programs are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive skill-training enhancement of hypnotizability: Generalization effects and trance logic responding.

Compared low-hypnotizable Ss who simulated hypnosis, underwent cognitive skill training, or served as no-treatment controls to Ss who scored as high hypnotizables without training (natural highs) on response to analgesia, age-regression, visual hallucination, selective amnesia, and posthypnotic suggestions. Ss who attained high hypnotizability following skill training (created highs) did not differ from natural highs on any response index. Natural and created highs scored lower than simulators but higher than controls on the behavioral and subjective aspects of test suggestions. Simulators, however, were significantly less likely than natural highs or skill-trained Ss to exhibit duality responding or incongruous writing during age regression or transparent hallucinating. Results suggest that the hypnotic responses of natural and created highs are mediated by the same cognitive variables and that enhancements in hypnotizability produced by skill training cannot be adequately explained in terms of compliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive sets, attribution, and social interaction.

Examined relationships among cognitive set variables, attribution, and behavior using 135 female undergraduates. Ss were given either positive-, negative-, or no-set information about the emotional health of a stimulus person prior to observing a videotaped social encounter. After viewing the tape, Ss were administered a free-response attribution measure or a distraction task. All Ss then engaged in actual social interaction with the stimulus person. Results indicate that (a) Ss receiving positive-set information wrote more positively valenced attributions and displayed more positive behavioral responses than did Ss receiving negative- and no-set information. (b) Ss who made attributions exhibited more pronounced behavioral responses as a function of the set manipulation than did those who did not make attributions. It is argued that the latter data reveal the important role of attribution in mediating the effects of set on behavior. Overall data are discussed as reflecting a control motivation in the production of attribution and behavior. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Egocentrism, empathy, and altruistic behavior in young children.

In a study with 41 children aged 3 yrs 6 mo to 8 yrs 11 mo, Ss who exhibited altruistic behavior in an experimental situation with a peer had significantly higher scores on measures of perspective taking and empathy than did Ss who did not display altruistic behavior. Results suggest that there is a significant cognitive component of altruistic behavior, specifically the ability to understand another's perspective. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processing and expectancy behavior in hypnosis

Two independent studies, each with 60 undergraduates, were conducted to examine the expectancy behavior of unselected hypnotic, task-motivated, and control-imagination Ss on a slide task requiring response to ambiguous visual information. Study 1 tested Ss within 2 positively motivating contexts, which differed in the ease with which they confirmed the hypnotist's expectancy. Study 2 required Ss to shift from reporting one response to reporting an altogether different one when the same stimulus information was presented on successive testing occasions. Results from the program of work show that hypnotic Ss consistently demonstrated expectancy behavior, whereas nonhypnotic Ss did not. Analysis of stimulus matching data and time taken for response further indicated that substantially different cognitive routes were taken by hypnotic Ss in their acquiescence to the hypnotist's demands. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Referencing and bias in social interaction.

Examined the consequences of schematic referencing for social behavior. In Exp I, 23 female and 21 male undergraduates worked in pairs on a word association task. In the self-referencing condition, Ss were told that their partner would judge their personality; in the other-referencing condition, Ss were asked to judge their partner's personality. Results show biased recall of Ss' own behavior over another person's behavior in a dyadic interaction. Exp II employed an alternative, more realistic manipulation of self-referencing using situational cues. 16 pairs of undergraduate Ss performed the same word association task either in front of judges or by themselves. The biased recall effect was replicated. Moreover, corresponding biases in Ss' attributions about the quality of their performance were found. Results confirm that self-referencing cues can cause the sort of egocentric reactions that have been observed in previous studies in which members of an interaction remember more of their own contributions and attribute more responsibility for joint tasks to themselves. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication between deaf children and their hearing mothers: the role of language, gesture, and vocalizations

In the present longitudinal study, 20 deaf and 20 hearing children were observed during free play with their hearing mothers when the children were 22 months and 3 years of age. Compared to hearing children, deaf children were severely language delayed, with deaf 3-year-olds using less language (speech or sign) than hearing 22-month-olds. Deaf children communicated primarily through nonlinguistic vocalizations, with increasing use of gesture from 22 months to 3 years of age. Although mothers of deaf children used more visual communication than mothers of hearing children, they still primarily communicated through speech. In addition, deaf children did not visually attend to much of their mothers' communication. Therefore, deaf children received much less communication than hearing children. These results suggest that intervention efforts should be focused on increasing the quantity of perceived linguistic input by the child.     

Learning disabled and normal college students' performance on reaction time and speeded classification tasks.

Examined the efficiency with which 24 learning-disabled (LD [mean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised Full-Scale IQ 105.04]) and 24 non-learning-disabled (NLD) college students performed basic cognitive-processing tasks. A simple visual reaction time (RT) and 3 speeded classification tasks were used. Results indicate that the LD Ss were slower and more variable on the speeded classification tasks than were the NLD Ss; however, the 2 groups did not differ on the simple visual RT task. Findings suggest that the deficits in higher cognitive processing found in younger LD children persist into early adulthood. It is argued that this failure to automatize very basic subskills may relate to central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction among the LD. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal betrayal and cooperation: Effects on self-evaluation in depression.

Assessed the effect of interpersonal betrayal and cooperative social interaction on self-evaluation processes among 54 female undergraduates scored as depressed or nondepressed on the Self-Rating Depression Scale. Depressed Ss who experienced interpersonal betrayal in a prisoner's dilemma game were more critical of their performance on a subsequent task than were nondepressed Ss or depressed Ss who had experienced a cooperative interaction. Depressed Ss in the betrayal condition also behaved more aggressively toward their betraying partner than did nondepressed betrayed Ss. Depressed Ss were more critical of their own personality characteristics than were nondepressed Ss, regardless of condition. Results suggest that some negative cognitive schema among depressed persons may be altered by interpersonal factors, although it is not clear whether such effects are secondary to increases in self-criticism after conflict or to decreases in self-critical tendencies after positive interaction. Researchers are urged to use multiple, diverse measures of self-evaluation in future efforts to study variability in self-appraisal. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differentiation of the concepts of luck and skill.

20 Ss from each grade level (kindergarten, Grades 2, 4, 6, and 8) were presented a luck (figures to be matched with a standard were not visible but were on the underside of cards) and a skill (figures were visible) version of a task using items from the Matching Familiar Figures Test. Questioning Ss about the performance of hypothetical others on these tasks revealed 4 levels of differentiation of luck and skill. The least mature Ss focused on the visual complexity of tasks rather than on the fact that the luck task permitted only guessing. On this basis, they expected luck outcomes to reflect effort and considered the luck task to require less effort than the skill task. Only the most mature Ss clearly understood that effort could not affect outcomes on the luck task and selectively attributed skill outcomes to effort and luck outcomes to luck. The most mature Ss also spent less time than did less mature Ss in the face of failure on luck tasks, but spent more time on skill tasks. Findings of age-related differences in the differentiation of skill (effort and ability) and luck and of associated differences in behavior make the analysis of the development of achievement-related cognition and behavior more complete. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of classroom noise on performance and activity of second-grade hyperactive and control children.

Two experiments assessed the effects of task-overlapping linguistic noise (ambient noise including conversations) on activity and performance of 24 hyperactive and 24 control children. High and low levels of linguistic classroom noise were each presented while Ss were performing tasks requiring auditory processing of information in a repeated-measures crossover design. Hyperactive Ss were most active and performed math and alphabet tasks worse in high than in low linguistic noise. Control Ss showed the opposite performance and activity pattern. The differential effects of linguistic noise were less pronounced in Exp II when the task was new and more challenging for the control Ss, suggesting that task difficulty may play a role in the effects of overlapping stimulation on both groups. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laterality in visual speech perception.

The lateralization of visual speech perception was examined in 3 experiments. Participants were presented with a realistic computer-animated face articulating 1 of 4 consonant-vowel syllables without sound. The face appeared at 1 of 5 locations in the visual field. The participants' task was to identify each test syllable. To prevent eye movement during the presentation of the face, participants had to carry out a fixation task simultaneously with the speechreading task. In one study, an eccentricity effect was found along with a small but significant difference in favor of the right visual field (left hemisphere). The same results were found with the face articulating nonlinguistic mouth movements (e.g., kiss). These results suggest that the left-hemisphere advantage is based on the processing of dynamic visual information rather than on the extraction of linguistic significance from facial movements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Demand characteristics or conformity?: Suspiciousness of deception and experimenter bias in conformity research.

Administered to 87 undergraduates (a) the Psychology Research Survey (PRS), a measure of attitudes toward psychology experiments; and (b) a battery of attitude scales on current issues. 6 advanced undergraduate Es, led to believe that Ss had high- or low-conformity scores on the battery, presented R. Wyer's dot-estimation conformity task to Ss. Results of a postexperimental questionnaire indicate Ss' suspiciousness of deception was quite common (43.7%) and suspicious Ss conformed less. The prediction that suspicious Ss would be more positive in their attitudes on the PRS than nonsuspicious Ss was not supported. However, Ss who were aware that they were being deceived and nevertheless conformed had significantly more positive attitudes on the PRS than aware Ss who conformed less. In addition, Es who tested Ss of the opposite sex biased their results according to their expectations, while for Ss of the same sex the bias was reversed. It is apparent that conformity studies are quite susceptible to the effects of demand characteristics and that only with controlled E-S interaction and more attention to deception procedures can results be generalized. (French summary) (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)