A test of the proposition: We want to be esteemed most by those we esteem most highly.

To test the proposition, college Ss were first asked to list the names of 15 campus friends. Then S was requested to rank them, according to preference as a study partner ("scholastic esteem"), desire to have them join a club of S's ("social esteem"), and desire to give them esteemable social or scholastic information about self. The results indicated a significant correlation between social esteem and the desire for the esteemed to have esteemable social and scholastic information. The scholastically esteemed were more a target for scholastic than social data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding of visual attention by adult humans (Homo sapiens): A partial replication of Povinelli, Bierschwale, and ?ech (1999).

Povinelli, Bierschwale, and ?ech (1999) reported that when tested on a visual attention task, the behavior of juvenile chimpanzees did not support a high-level understanding of visual attention. This study replicates their research using adult humans and aims to investigate the validity of their experimental design. Participants were trained to respond to pointing cues given by an experimenter, and then tested on their ability to locate hidden objects from visual cues. Povinelli et al.'s assertion that the generalization of pointing to gaze is indicative of a high-level framework was not supported by our findings: Training improved performance only on initial probe trials when the experimenter's gaze was not directed at the baited cup. Furthermore, participants performed above chance on such trials, the same result exhibited by chimpanzees and used as evidence by Povinelli et al. to support a low-level framework. These findings, together with the high performance of participants in an incongruent condition, in which the experimenter pointed to or gazed at an unbaited container, challenge the validity of their experimental design. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social categorization and perceptual judgment of size: When perception is social.

Social knowledge may affect not only people's thoughts and judgments but also their actual perceptions of physical magnitude. The physical magnitude of a stimulus is perceived in a relative way, comparing the magnitude of the target surrounding context stimuli. Because similar objects invite comparison processes more easily than dissimilar objects ("similarity breeds comparability"), social knowledge can affect judgments of physical magnitude by determining what is perceived as (dis) similar. In Experiment 1, the authors show that social categorizations that are based on physical cues (e. g., gender) may affect the magnitude of perceptual contrast effects (the Ebbinghaus illusion). More important, in Experiment 2, the influence of social categorizations that have no physical bases is shown to affect the magnitude of perceptual contrast effects. Implications of these findings for theories of social knowledge effects are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theories of mind and self-recognition.

D. J. Povinelli (see record 1993-35769-001) would be best advised to look closely at discontinuity theories regarding apes and language as they pertain to his bold opinion of the unique stature of apes and their theories of mind. Until more sensitive tests and more clearly defined measures (i.e., non-mirror-dependent) are developed, progress in the field of comparative metacognition will be impeded. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology.

Presents the winners of the American Psychological Association's Early Career Awards for 1994. Recipients of this award may not have held a PhD for more than nine years. For purposes of this award, psychology has been divided into eight areas: cognition and human learning, psychopathology, health, developmental, applied research/psychometrics, social/personality, perception/motor performance, and biopsychology/animal learning and behavior. Four areas are considered each year, with areas rotated in two-year cycles. The winners are Patricia G. Devine (social/personality), Cheri Ostroff (applied research/psychometrics), Daniel J. Povinelli (biopsychology/animal behavior), and Steven Yantis (perception/motor performance). Their accomplishments are cited and biographies are provided. The winners since the establishment of the award are also listed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies in the self-regulation of behavior: Effects of contingent cognitive and affective events.

Performed 5 experiments with 232 4-yr-olds to test the hypothesis that the evaluations and affective responses which accompany ongoing behavior may operate as reinforcers and punishers, thus exercising control over the persistence of those behaviors. Results show that (a) children persisted longer when they labeled work at a motor task as fun rather than no fun, easy rather than difficult, or when they expressed pride in their ongoing work as opposed to being self-critical; (b) when children contingently reminded themselves of pleasant events unrelated to the task itself, they persisted longer than when they reminded themselves of unpleasant events; and (c) when children labeled a problem-solving task as easy, they persisted longer when they rendered this evaluation with neutral or negative affective intonation ("disparagement"), but under positive intonation ("enthusiasm"), children persisted longer when they contingently labeled the task as difficult. Results are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of self-evaluation and affective-responses for regulating ongoing behavior and the degree to which the contingency of such responses is truly necessary for their effectiveness. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making Sense of Memory.

The current work explores how people make recognition and belief judgments in the presence of obvious repetition primes. In two experiments, subjects received a 200-ms prime ("cheetah"), either before or after reading a trivia question ("What is the fastest animal?") but always before being presented with the target answer ("cheetah"). Results showed that repetition priming decreased "old" claims (Recognition - Experiment 1), while it increased truth claims (Belief - Experiment 2). Furthermore, repetition prime placement affected recognition but not belief. Combined, these results suggest that dissociations in memory performance are a natural outcome of task and processing demands and reflect the dynamic, flexible nature of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self as actor, active observer, and passive observer: Implications for causal attributions.

D. T. Miller et al (see record 1975-21040-001) distinguished between active observers (those on the receiving end of an actor's behavior) and passive observers (onlookers of an event involving an actor and an active observer). Following the concept of hedonic relevance, it was hypothesized that active observers would attribute the actor's behavior to personal dispositions of the actor more strongly than passive observers. In a series of hypothetical emotional events, 24 male undergraduates were depicted either as actors ("You like Ted"), active observers ("Ted likes you"), or passive observers ("Ted likes Paul"). They then rated the degree to which the actor, active observer, or some "other reason" had caused the given event. Although the actor–observer effect was obtained overall, an interaction between S role and positivity of verb indicated that it occurred much more strongly in negative-verb than positive-verb events. That is, Ss, either as actors or active observers, tended to deny their responsibility for negative events but did not claim praise for positive events. Implications for the effects of egotism on attribution are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rorschach revisited: A new look at an old test.

Two control samples (21 and 27 college students) and a sample of 21 short-term psychiatric patients (aged 21-26 yrs) scaled all pairs of Rorschach inkblots for perceived similarity. Data were analyzed using J. D. Carroll and C. C. Chang's individual scaling (INDSCAL) model, which resulted in a good fit in 2 dimensions. These 2 dimensions were interpreted as a dimension of color and 1 of form ("twoness"), and empirically validated in a 2nd study, using 2 groups of controls (20 and 33 college students) and 6 short-term schizophrenic patients. It was also found that the saliences estimated by INDSCAL for each S formed 3 virtually nonoverlapping distributions. This implies a possible use of the method within a diagnostic context. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal conditioning: Transfer of training in a therapy-like situation.

In an attempt to demonstrate transfer of conditioned verbal responses, college females were interviewed concerning childhood experiences and were given social approval either following content responses ("parent words"), affect responses ("emotional words"), or at a constant interval. A 2nd E in another room then administered a 100-item sentence-completion task which evoked similar responses. For content responses, contingent approval increased production during the interview but not on the transfer task. For affect responses, contingent approval had no significant effect, although mere participation in the interview increased production on the sentence-completion task. Results thus failed to support the utility of the verbal conditioning technique in producing lasting behavior change. It was suggested that future work should adhere more closely to the methodology of operant research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paradoxical giving up and the reduction of sleep performance anxiety in chronic insomniacs.

Paradoxical intention has been shown to improve sleep performance in chronic insomniacs, presumably by interrupting their overly anxious sleep efforts. It was hypothesized that instructions to simply give up such sleep intentions—without trying to stay awake—could have a similar effect. Giving-up instructions framed as a paradoxical sleep-improvement method ("try giving up") were compared with giving up presented as a way to improve nighttime comfort and morning restedness without any sleep improvement ("give up trying"), along with a placebo-attention (self-monitoring) treatment. The 3 treatments were embodied in a printed booklet delivered by mail and evenly distributed among 33 20–56 yr old chronic insomniacs recruited from the general community. All 3 treatment groups improved in daily sleep estimates ("sleep efficiency") after treatment, but only the giving-up groups improved on a self-report measure of sleep performance anxiety. It is suggested that such a reduction in performance anxiety may be an important therapeutic outcome, with or without sleep improvement. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Povinelli's "Reconstructing the evolution of mind."

Although D. J. Povinelli (see record 1993-35769-001) provides some provocative suggestions about theoretical approaches to mirror self-recognition, his article suffers from an incomplete consideration of existing data, particularly with respect to chimpanzees. Several studies with findings that counter Povinelli's propositions are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental issues in the evolution of the mind.

D. J. Povinelli (see record 1993-35769-001) did not integrate theory-of-mind (TOM) literature with that in other cognitive domains, and did not reference other investigators' research on TOM in great apes. Povinelli's claim that most chimpanzees do not display evidence of self-recognition until age 6–8 yrs is refuted with reference to this research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Participant modeling with or without cognitive treatment for phobias.

To determine whether cognitive treatment would enhance the effectiveness of participant modeling (PM) treatment for phobias, 36 subjects phobic to dogs and cats were given either PM alone, PM with self-instructional training, PM with self-verbalizations ("thinking aloud"), or placebo treatment. The three PM treatments produced substantial and equivalent improvement in behavior at posttest, in contrast to the placebo group, which did not change. At follow-up, the combined PM/self instructional training group showed more phobic behavior and lower self-efficacy than the other PM groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality-structure in different kinds of bronchial asthma (author's transl)

The "Giessen-Test" is a psychological test in form of a questionnaire, basing on self-assessment. It was applied in 63 patients with bronchial asthma in order to get their "self-images" and their "ideal-self-images". Except of higher values for depression the "self-images" of the asthmatics resembled very closely those of normals. The ideals ("ideal-self-image") of the patients were uncharacteristic and reflected general trends. In contrast to these findings eleven physicians had a negative conception of asthmatic patients ("foreign image"). Physicians assessed the asthmatics to be disliked ("negative social resonant"), obstinate ("dominant") and depressive. Patients with exogen-allergic asthma, intrinsic asthma and asthma of unknown origin differ from each other only within a few marks. These differences, however, are not sufficient, to allow to coordinate a specific personality-structure with one of the different kinds of asthma.     

Does empathy trigger only altruistic motivation? How about selflessness or justice?

A key question in research on empathy is what interpersonal motivations might be activated by empathy. Does empathy promote only a concern with other's outcomes ("altruism"), as well as decreased concern with one's own outcomes ("selflessness"), or an increased concern with equality in outcomes ("egalitarianism")? These interpersonal motivations were assessed with a series of experimental games, and our manipulations of empathy paralleled earlier research on the empathy-altruism model. Participants received a (fictitious) note from another person outlining that he or she is coping with the anticipated loss of his or her father in conditions that emphasized taking the other's perspective or an objective perspective (high and low empathy), whereas another group of participants received no note (no empathy). Consistent with our hypotheses, results revealed that a concern with another's well-being (altruism) was greater in the two empathy conditions than in the no-empathy condition. Further, the authors observed no effect of empathy on selfishness or egalitarianism, two motivations that were substantially present independent of empathy. Thus, the findings suggest that empathy adds altruistic motivation to already existing selfish and egalitarian motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Susceptibility to hypnosis and susceptibility to social influence.

Measures of susceptibility to social influence were obtained from 80 male Ss through a persuasibility test (Janis), an influencibility test (Schachter), and an autokinetic test (Sherif). A test of hypnotic susceptibility followed; scores from personality inventories were also available. Factor analysis shows the hypnotic subscales to represent one factor ("primary suggestibility"), orthogonal to a bipolar factor represented largely by scores on the self-report inventories. Among the tests of social influence only the influencibility test showed a slight positive relationship to hypnosis. Birth-order relationships failed to confirm predictions based on Schachter's findings. (29 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's reasons for nominating their peers as withdrawn: Passive withdrawal versus active isolation.

Examined children's reasons for choosing peers for the withdrawal items on the Revised Class Play (RCP). 88 elementary-school children nominated peers they felt were best described by each RCP item. Reasons for their nominations were classified into 2 categories: passive withdrawal from and active isolation by the peer group. For 3 of the items ("Someone who would rather play alone than with others," "Someone who is very shy," and "Someone whose feelings get hurt easily"), the children's reasons were predominantly based on passive withdrawal, whereas for 3 other items ("Someone who is often left out," "Someone who has trouble making friends," and "A person who can't get others to listen"), they were predominantly based on active isolation. Reasons for the remaining item ("Someone who is usually sad") were split equally between both alternatives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a theory of "hypnotic" behavior: Experimental analyses of suggested amnesia.

Suggestions of amnesia were given to 144 Ss in a 2 X 2 X 4 factorial experiment. The independent variables were: (1) spoken vs. recorded presentation of suggestions, (2) presence vs. absence of hypnotic induction, and (3) 3 types of suggestions for amnesia—authoritative ("You will not rememberp"), permissive ("Try to forget"), suggestions to simulate, and no suggestions. Variable 1 did not produce important differences in amnesic performance. Variable 2 significantly affected 1 of the 5 tests for amnesia, with the presence of hypnotic induction resulting in less amnesia. Variable 3 exerted the most powerful effect. Irrespective of the presence or absence of hypnotic induction, Ss differed on the tests for amnesia depending on which suggestion they were given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeing and knowing: Knowledge attribution versus stimulus control in adult humans (Homo sapiens).

Interest in cognition in nonhuman animals has inspired new approaches to discovering animals' ability to attribute knowledge to others (e.g., D. J. Povinelli, K. E. Nelson, & S. T. Boysen; see record 1991-00392-001). The assumptions of such experiments were tested in this study by training a group of humans (Homo sapiens) to use accurate information provided by a confederate who was watching as 1 container among 4 was baited; a 2nd group was similarly trained to use accurate information provided by a confederate whose back was turned during baiting. On a single reversal trial, the roles of the 2 confederates were switched. Subjects were able to learn their respective tasks but attended to different aspects of the confederates, as revealed by the reversal trial. Although attributional interpretations can be applied to such data, many of the choices in this experiment can be explained more readily with the basic principles of contingency-based learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)