Psychology's bias: A response to Albee.

Criticizes G. W. Albee's (see record 1983-13109-001) identification of Calvinism as a major ideological impediment to primary efforts involving social change. It is suggested that the most critical flaw in Albee's argument is his generalization from the Calvinistic belief that individuals and society are flawed and not perfectible to the suggestion that Calvinists also believe that people cannot improve. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of response bias on recall performance, with some observations on processing bias.

We explored H. L. Roediger and D. G. Payne's (see record 1986-13690-001) proposal that response bias does not affect recall performance and that it is therefore not necessary to control for response productivity in recall studies. Two initial experiments, contrary to expectation, corroborated Roediger and Payne's findings: Forced recall did not produce more correct recalls than free recall, even though forced recall produced substantially more false alarms than did free recall. However, in succeeding experiments involving pictorial and verbal stimuli, reliable response-bias effects on recall were demonstrated. The stimuli yielding response-bias effects were those associated with higher probabilities of being guessed by chance. In addition, some of the data suggest that processing-bias effects (differential retrieval effort) may be unintentionally induced by instructions and may significantly affect recall memory. Consequently, it is necessary to assess or to control response-bias effects, and, possibly, processing-bias effects in recall experiments in which level of recall is of interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Avoiding the approach trap: A response bias theory of the emotional Stroop effect.

In the laboratory, people classify the color of emotion-laden words slower than they do that of neutral words, the emotional Stroop effect. Outside the laboratory, people react to features of emotion-laden stimuli or threatening stimuli faster than they do to those of neutral stimuli. A possible resolution to the conundrum implicates the counternatural response demands imposed in the laboratory that do not, as a rule, provide for avoidance in the face of threat. In 2 experiments we show that when such an option is provided in the laboratory, the response latencies follow those observed in real life. These results challenge the dominant attention theory offered for the emotional Stroop effect because this theory is indifferent to the vital approach–avoidance distinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative response bias and the MMPI Overcontrolled-Hostility scale: A response to Deiker.

Tested the hypothesis of T. E. Deiker (see record 1974-27935-001) that "naysaying" accounts for the MMPI Overcontrolled-Hostility (O-H) scale's ability to discriminate among criminal groups differing in their propensity for violence. 4 balanced O-H scales were constructed by adding "true" or deleting "false" keyed items according to different selection strategies. The 2 extended scales discriminated cross-validation groups as well or better than the regular imbalanced O-H scale, and the shortened scales were significant or approached significance in 3 of 4 comparisons. It is concluded that the validity of the O-H scale is not dependent on naysaying. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spoonish spanerisms: A lexical bias effect in spanish.

Lexical bias is the tendency for phonological errors to form existing words at a rate above chance. This effect has been observed in experiments and corpus analyses in Germanic languages, but S. del Viso, J. M. Igoa, and J. E. García-Albea (1991) found no effect in a Spanish corpus study. Because lexical bias plays an important role in the debate on interactivity in language production, the authors reconsidered its absence in Spanish. A corpus analysis, which considered relatively many errors and which used a method of estimating chance rate that is relatively independent of total error number, and a speech-error elicitation experiment provided converging evidence for lexical bias in Spanish. The authors conclude that the processing mechanisms underlying this effect hold cross-linguistically. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A stability bias in human memory: Overestimating remembering and underestimating learning.

The dynamics of human memory are complex and often unintuitive, but certain features—such as the fact that studying results in learning—seem like common knowledge. In 12 experiments, however, participants who were told they would be allowed to study a list of word pairs between 1 and 4 times and then take a cued-recall test predicted little or no learning across trials, notwithstanding their large increases in actual learning. When queried directly, the participants espoused the belief that studying results in learning, but they showed little evidence of that belief in the actual task. These findings, when combined with A. Koriat, R. A. Bjork, L. Sheffer, and S. K. Bar’s (2004) research on judgments of forgetting, suggest a stability bias in human memory—that is, a tendency to assume that the accessibility of one’s memories will remain relatively stable over time rather than benefiting from future learning or suffering from future forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positional response bias in multiple-choice tests of learning: Its relation to testwiseness and guessing strategy.

Although response sets have been extensively investigated as determiners of individual responses to personality tests, their impact on educational tests has not been well studied. In this study, I investigated positional response bias, testwiseness, and guessing strategy as components of variance in test responses on multiple-choice tests of learning. University students (N?=?62) enrolled in a learning skills course responded to two content exams, a testwiseness measure, and a guessing strategy measure. Of the students, 6 showed a statistically significant tendency to mark early options. The proportion of variance in test scores accounted for by positional response bias, testwiseness, and guessing strategy was .18 (R?=?.43, p?     

The psyche in psychophysics: A sensory-decision theory analysis of the effect of instructions on flicker sensitivity and response bias.

Instruction-induced changes in flicker thresholds, measured by traditional psychophysical procedures, may reflect changes in sensory sensitivity or in response bias. In 16 psychiatric patients, a facilitating set, in contrast to an inhibiting set, increased the proportion of flicker responses to both a physically intermittent light ("hits," p     

Constraints on learning new mappings between perceptual dimensions.

The constraints on learning new mappings between visual and proprioceptive spatial dimensions were assessed. Incomplete information was provided about a mapping by specifying only a few isolated visual–proprioceptive pairs of locations. The nature of the generalization occurring to untrained locations was then inspected to reveal the internal constraints. A new technique was developed to allow individual visual–proprioceptive pairs to be manipulated separately. In Experiment 1, training with only a single pair produced a rigid shift of one entire dimension with respect to the other. Training with two pairs caused linear interpolation to all untrained positions between the trained positions (Experiments 2 and 3). Finally, training with three new pairs also produced a linear change in behavior (Experiment 4), even though more adaptive solutions existed. The implications of these results for the learning process involved in acquiring new mappings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probability judgment in three-category classification learning.

People give subadditive probability judgments—in violation of probability theory—when asked to assess each in a set of 3 or more mutually exclusive hypotheses, as indicated by their sum exceeding 1. Three potential evidential influences on subadditivity—cue conflict, cue frequency, and cue redundancy—are distinguished and tested in 5 experiments using a classification-learning task. Results indicate that (1) judgments of probability and of frequency are systematically subadditive even when the judgments are based on cues learned within the experimental context, (2) cue conflict has a reliable influence on the degree of subadditivity, and (3) judgments in this context are well described by a linear-discounting model within the framework of support theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The real test bias: Influences of testing on teaching and learning.

Notes that there is evidence that tests influence teacher and student performance and that multiple-choice tests tend not to measure the more complex cognitive abilities. The more economical multiple-choice tests have nearly driven out other testing procedures that might be used in school evaluation. It is suggested that the greater cost of tests in other formats might be justified by their value for instruction (i.e., to encourage the teaching of higher level cognitive skills and to provide practice with feedback). (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarianism scales and response bias.

Scales of authoritarianism differ from other self-report measures like the MMPI in ways that make them particularly susceptible to agreement response bias: (1) depending particularly on item content in relation to a theoretical syndrome; (2) using ambiguous items; (3) scoring all items in 1 direction. Fittingly, evidence now indicates that response bias is a major factor on authoritarian scales and not on the MMPI. This evidence can be maintained against the counterproposals of Rokeach and Samelson. Support is reiterated for interpreting (1) response bias not mechanically but as a response tendency when the S is uncertain; (2) high authoritarianism scale scores as representing simple-mindedness more than authoritarian ideologies. The latter interpretation is supported not only for college students but even more from survey data for the general population. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probability effects on stimulus evaluation and response processes.

Investigated the effects of probability information on response preparation and stimulus evaluation. Eight Ss responded with 1 hand to the target letter H and with the other to the target letter S. The target letter was surrounded by noise letters that were either the same as or different from the target letter. In 2 conditions, the targets were preceded by a warning stimulus unrelated to the target letter. In 2 other conditions, a warning letter predicted that the same letter or the opposite letter would appear as the imperative stimulus with .80 probability. Correct reactions times (RTs) were faster and error rates were lower when imperative stimuli confirmed the predictions of the warning stimulus. Probability information affected (1) the preparation of motor responses during the foreperiod, (2) the development of expectancies for a particular target letter, and (3) a process sensitive to the identities of letter stimuli but not to their locations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Composition during serial learning: A serial position effect.

Composition is a computational learning mechanism that merges serially performed elementary processes into hierarchically organized knowledge structures. The main goals of this research were to explore (1) the role of serial position in composition and (2) the relation between degree of composition and explicit serial recall in serial learning. In 3 experiments, Ss performed a rule-based serial reaction time (RT) task in which they had to categorize a sequence of 12 stimuli shown simultaneously on a video monitor. A procedure based on the comparison of RTs to random sequences and a repeating sequence identified a serial position effect of composition that was, however, moderated by Ss' explicit, postexperimental recall of the repeating sequence. A production-system-based computational model of composition is described that qualitatively reproduces the empirical findings. Implications for the mechanisms governing serial learning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A testing effect with multimedia learning.

A testing effect occurs when a learner performs better on a retention test after studying the material and taking a practice-retention test than after studying the material twice. In the present study, 282 participants watched a narrated animation about lightning formation and then watched the presentation again (restudy), took a practice-retention test (practice-retention), or took a practice-transfer test (practice-transfer). First, the testing effect was replicated with multimedia material, such that the practice-retention group outperformed the restudy group on a delayed retention test. Second, a testing effect was found for taking a practice-transfer test, such that the practice-transfer group outperformed the restudy group on a delayed transfer test. Third, the results supported a transfer-appropriate processing explanation of the testing effect, in which the practice-retention group outperformed the practice-transfer group on delayed retention but the opposite pattern was obtained on delayed transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal response modes and dimensions of interpersonal roles: A method of discourse analysis.

Describes a general analytic taxonomy of verbal response modes. Utterances in dyadic communication can be described as concerning the speaker's or the other's experience, using the speaker's or the other's frame of reference, and being focused on the speaker or the other (where "focus" means presuming or not presuming knowledge of the other). The intersection of these 3 dichotomous principles of classification defines 8 familiar verbal response modes: disclosure, question, edification, acknowledgment, advisement, interpretation, confirmation, and reflection. Each mode has a distinctive grammatical form as well as a distinctive interpersonal intent, so the form and the intent of an utterance can be coded separately. The modes can be used to define 3 conceptually orthogonal dimensions of interpersonal roles, tentatively labeled attentiveness, acquiescence, and presumptuousness. The system of verbal response modes and role dimensions is similar in purpose to R. F. Bales's (1950) interaction process analysis but has certain methodological and conceptual advantages. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on replications and the experimenter bias effect.

The value of replications in psychology, the need to distinguish between the probability of data and of hypotheses, and the implications of alternative conceptualizations of the experimenter bias effect (EBE), are discussed in the light of the failure reported by T. X. Barber, et al. (see 43:6) to replicate earlier findings by R. Rosenthal and K. Fode (see 38:3). The position was taken that the value of further research on the EBE will depend upon the prior development of a situational taxonomy and a theoretical formulation in which the effect may be conceptualized in terms of a broader class of phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validation of diagnostic measures based on latent class analysis: A step forward in response bias research.

The use of criterion group validation is hindered by the difficulty of classifying individuals on latent constructs. Latent class analysis (LCA) is a method that can be used for determining the validity of scales meant to assess latent constructs without such a priori classifications. The authors used this method to examine the ability of the L scale of the MMPI-2 (J. N. Butcher et al., 2001), the Impression Management scale of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (D. L. Paulhus, 1991), and the Endorsement of Excessive Virtue scale of the Psychological Screening Inventory (R. I. Lanyon, 1970) to identify favorable response bias (misrepresentation) in a situation where no criterion for individual classifications existed. Results suggest that LCA can be used as a method for assessing the validity of scales that measure unobservable conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contribution of response bias to recognition thresholds.

The influence of differential usage preference on verbal identification measures was investigated using a technique which closely mimics the typical recognition threshold investigation. Ss were unrestricted by E in their choice of responses and were presented with stimulus materials at varying duration levels. The stimuli, however, were presented in such a manner that Ss' partial perception could to some degree be controlled. These partial perceptions made 2 response alternatives equally appropriate, one a familiar word and the other a less familiar one. In 2 experiments varying in procedure, the frequency with which familiar responses occurred as guesses was significantly (p