Correcting for measurement error in detecting unconscious cognition: Comment on Draine and Greenwald (1998).

A. G. Greenwald, M. R. Klinger, and E. S. Schuh (1995) have proposed a regression method for detecting unconscious cognition in experiments that obtain measures of indirect and direct effects of stimuli with suspected unconscious effects. Their indirect-on-direct-measure regression approach can produce misleading evidence for indirect effects in the absence of direct effects when the direct-effect measure has typical measurement error. This article describes an errors-in-variables variant of the regression method that corrects for error in the direct-effect measure. Applied to the uses of the regression method by S. C. Draine and A. G. Greenwald (see record 1999-10824-004), the errors-in-variables method affirms substantial evidence for indirect effects in the absence of direct effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The response-window regression method—Some problematic assumptions: Comment on Draine and Greenwald (1998).

A new response-window regression method for evaluating unconscious semantic priming (see record 1999-10824-004) is considered. Four assumptions of the method are discussed: (a) the assumption of standard (ordinary least squares) regression; (b) the assumption of comparable direct and indirect measures; (c) the assumption of linear relationship; and (d) the assumption of forced responding. Situations with strong relationships in the data between indirect- and direct-task measures, coupled with nonstandard regression techniques, provide the strongest evidence from this method. Situations in which the indirect and direct-task measures show essentially no relationship in the data demand closely reasoned arguments and careful statistical treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On reintegrating dissociated theories: Comment on Kirsch and Lynn (1998).

In response to I. Kirsch and S. J. Lynn's (1998) review of dissociation theories of hypnosis, the authors discuss the role of theory in current hypnosis research. In addition, they show how the 2 dissociation theories, as well as an alternative sociocognitive theory, can be integrated into a dual-system model of action (D. A. Norman & T. Shallice, 1986). Finally, they argue that the essence of dissociation theory does not necessarily rely on special mechanisms, such as the amnesic barrier and hidden observer, which Kirsch and Lynn critiqued. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expertise effects in memory recall: Comment on Vicente and Wang (1998).

K. J. Vicente and J. H. Wang proposed a "constraint attunement hypothesis" to explain the large effects of domain expertise on memory recall observed in a number of task domains. They claimed to have found serious defects in alternative explanations of these effects, which their theory overcomes. Reexamination of the evidence shows that their theory is not novel but has been anticipated by those they criticized and that other current published theories of the phenomena do not have the defects that Vicente and Wang attributed to them. Vicente and Wang's views reflect underlying differences about (a) emphasis on performance versus process in psychology and (b) how theories and empirical knowledge interact and progress with the development of a science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Words, deeds, and motivations: Comment on Maestripieri and Carroll (1998).

A considerable proportion of Old World monkey mothers living in social groups under seemingly benign conditions maltreat their young. This interesting finding is the basis for the suggestion by D. Maestripieri and K. A. Carroll (see record 1998-01884-001) that monkeys might provide an animal model for investigating child abuse and neglect in the human population. This suggestion tacitly assumes that the phenomena of abuse and neglect in monkeys and humans are based on similar processes. This possibility is more plausible for neglect than for abuse. Child abuse shows such great diversity of forms and causes in human societies that it is unlikely to have a natural counterpart among nonhuman primates. The suggestion that it does may inadvertently lend support to attitudes that are unduly restrictive or actively opposed to animal research in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociations and dissociation theory in hypnosis: Comment on Kirsch and Lynn (1998).

I. Kirsch and S. J. Lynn's (1998) critique of the neodissociation theory of divided consciousness fails to consider evidence of dissociations between explicit and implicit memory and perception in hypnosis. Contrary to their conclusions, evidence that the rate of hidden observer response (like other hypnotic responses) varies with the wording of instructions does not contradict neodissociation theory; rather, it underscores the fact that hypnosis entails social interaction as well as alterations in conscious awareness. Neodissociation and sociocognitive theories of hypnosis complement each other: Each draws attention to aspects of the experience of hypnosis that the other neglects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture, development, and theory of mind: Comment on Lillard (1998).

In response to A. Lillard's (see record 1997-42548-001) suggestion that research on theory of mind does not adequately examine the cultural context of this thinking, the author proposes an extension of this view that emphasizes the development of theory of mind in sociocultural context. Questions about the study of theory of mind both across and within cultural communities are also raised. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguishing unconscious from conscious cognition—Reasonable assumptions and replicable findings: Reply to Merikle and Reingold (1998) and Dosher (1998).

S. C. Draine and A. G. Greenwald (see record 1999-10824-004) demonstrated replicable unconscious semantic priming by combining a response window procedure, which increases priming effects by requiring rapid responding, and a regression analysis in which the regression intercept is a marker for unconscious cognition. The commentaries by B. A. Dosher (see record 1999-10824-006) and by P. M. Merikle and E. A. Reingold (see record 1999-10824-005) raise two questions about conclusions based on these methods: (a) Did Draine and Greenwald (1998) demonstrate an indirect effect (subliminal priming) in the absence of a direct effect (i.e., visibility of the subliminal priming words)? and (b) Did Draine and Greenwald (1998) demonstrate dissociation of conscious from unconscious cognition? The first question has reassuring responses that are reviewed here. The second question is answered by pointing out that although Draine and Greenwald (1998) did not claim to have established such dissociation, they provided data that advance the plausibility of that conclusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What's in a stage name? Comment on Vecera and O'Reilly (1998).

M. A. Peterson and colleagues proposed that early object recognition processes proceed in parallel with processes assessing "low-level" configural cues and that the outputs of all these processes combine to determine figure–ground segregation. S. P. Vecera and R. C. O'Reilly (1998) presented an interactive model designed to account for Peterson and colleagues' results while retaining the traditional assumption that figure–ground segregation precedes access to object memories. This commentary explicates the figure–ground-first assumption, reviews the evidence for the parallel proposal, and critiques the Vecera and O'Reilly model. It is shown that, because the Vecera and O'Reilly model relies on an assumption that object recognition affects figure–ground only when low-level cues are ambiguous, it retains the figure–ground-first assumption in name only. Further, it is shown that the model cannot account for all the evidence. Implications of possible amendments to the model are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Baseline conditions in structural induction: Comment on Pitt, Smith, and Klein (1998).

M. A. Pitt, K. L. Smith, and J. M. Klein (see record 1998-11401-003) claimed that a baseline condition is necessary in experiments using the structural induction paradigm (S. A. Finney, A. Protopapas, & P. D. Eimas, [see record 1996-07006-008]; C. Pallier, N. Sebastián-Gallés, T. Felguera, A. Christophe, & J. Mehler, [see record 1993-40045-001]) to correctly interpret interaction effects. In this article it is shown that this constitutes a misunderstanding of the interpretation of statistical interaction and that a baseline condition offers little unless comparisons between cells of different target types within induction conditions are necessary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex with children is abuse: Comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998).

Comments on the article by B. Rind, P. Tromovitch and R. Bauserman (see record 1998-04232-002) which reported a meta-analysis of the relation between sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence and psychological functioning among college students. Sever aspects of their work have proven highly controversial, including their assertion that the relation between child sexual abuse and adjustment is quite small and their questioning of whether child sexual abuse should be labeled abuse in scientific inquiry. In this commentary, the authors summarize the controversy that has ensued, place it in a historical context, discuss the limitations of B. Rind et al.'s findings, and critique the manner in which those findings are presented. The authors also argue for the appropriateness of the term abuse and for scientific terminology that reflects rather than contradicts consensual public morality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of child sexual abuse: Comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998).

Comments on the article by B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (see record 1998-04232-002) which examined the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) by meta-analyzing studies of college students. The authors reported that effects "were neither pervasive nor typically intense" and that "men reacted much less negatively than women" (p. 22) and recommended value-neutral reconceptualization of the CSA construct. The current analysis revealed numerous problems in that study that minimized CSA-adjustment relations, included use of a healthy sample, an inclusive definition of CSA, failure to correct for statistical attenuation, and misreporting of original data. Rind et al.'s study's main conclusions were not supported by the original data. As such, attempts to use their study to argue that an individual has not been harmed by sexual abuse constitute a serious misapplication of its findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

It's long-term stressors that take a toll: Comment on Cohen et al. (1998).

In an extremely well-controlled study, Cohen et al. (1998) add to prior knowledge of stress-illness relationships by showing that self-reports of stress occurrence and duration of one month or more, rather than estimates of stressor severity, predict susceptibility to experimentally induced colds (i.e., viral replication and cold symptoms). Although ruling out obvious behavioral and personality factors as causes of the association of stressors to colds, they were unable to identify mediational immune factors, a deficit attributable to the difficulty of assessing the multi-layered, dynamic physiological processes within the bidirectional connections of the nervous (stress) and immune systems. The findings provide an interesting complement to data, showing that people use stressor duration in evaluating the illness implications of somatic symptoms (L. C. Cameron et al, see record 1995-30591-001), and suggest caution with regard to overestimating the prevalence of stress-induced colds in natural settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child abuse and neglect—usefulness of the animal data: Comment on Maestripieri and Carroll (1998).

Issues related to definition, epidemiology, and etiology in the human literature are examined to explore possible contributions that D. Maestripieri and K. A. Carroll's (see record 1998-01884-001) discussion of nonhuman primate research can make to an understanding of child maltreatment. Similarities and differences between maltreatment in nonhuman primates and humans are discussed, and recommendations are proffered that could be useful in advancing research on child abuse and neglect in both monkeys and humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Occlusion, symmetry, and object-based attention: Comment on Behrmann, Zemel, and Mozer (1998).

The validity of M. Behrmann, R. Zemel, and A Mozer's (see record 1998-04674-001) finding that object-based attention can be directed toward occluded objects is examined in 3 experiments. In A Behrmann et al.'s original study, participants made speeded judgments of whether the numbers of bumps attached to 2 arms of an X shape were the same or different. The 2 sets of bumps belonged either to a single object, 2 different objects, or 2 separated parts of an occluded object. Unfortunately, this objecthood manipulation was confounded by the symmetry of the stimuli. Experiment 1 replicated M. Behrmann et al.'s main results using identical stimuli. Experiments 2a and 2b dissociated objecthood from symmetry. The results suggest that the effects of object-based attention found by A Behrmann et al. are largely due to symmetry. The stimuli used in M. Behrmann et al. are not appropriate for examining the relation between object-based attention and occlusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Necessary (but not sufficient) innovation: Comment on Fox and Jones (1998), Koehly and Shivy (1998), and Russell, Kahn, Spoth, and Altmaier (1998).

In the Special Section on Innovative Quantitative Research Methods, C. M. Fox and J. A. Jones (1998), L. M. Koehly and V. A. Shivy (1998), and D. W. Russell, J. H. Kahn, R. Spoth, and E. M. Altmaier (1998) have presented statistical methods related to Rasch modeling, social network analysis, and latent variable structural equation modeling for experimental designs, respectively. These methods address 3 critically important issues in counseling psychology research: (a) measuring constructs, (b) modeling processes of change, and (c) operationalizing social relations. It is argued that innovation in methods is necessary to study complex phenomena, but sophisticated methods should not be used to disguise insufficient conceptualizations of the research problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Greenwald (1996): The assessment of fidelity to the EMDR treatment protocol.

Comments on R. Greenwald's (see record 83-27577) article in which he argues that fidelity to the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) protocol is the critical factor that determines whether a treatment outcome study will show that EMDR is effective. M. Van Ommeren recommends the formation of a panel that can make assessments as to whether or not the treatments used in EMDR outcome studies have fidelity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnopsychologies: Reply to Wellman (1998) and Gauvain (1998).

Four main issues are considered in response to H. M. Wellman (see record 1997-42548-002) and M. Gauvain (see record 1997-42548-003): the relevance of adult data, the source of evidence for theories of mind, explaining development, and the proper focus of theory of mind research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is a repressive-defensive coping style really so bad? Comment on DeNeve and Cooper (1998).

This comment refers to the meta-analysis of K. M. DeNeve and H. Cooper (see record 1998-10661-003) showing that repressive defensiveness compared with 136 other personality traits was most strongly, but negatively, related to subjective well-being. It is shown that for theoretical and empirical reasons the relationship cannot be negative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Natterson (2003).

The author views J. M. Natterson's (2003) article as a return to Freud's emphasis on the centrality of love in psychoanalysis freshly conceptualized within a contemporary intersubjective perspective. Natterson's definition of love is viewed by the author as consisting of 3 independent components (attachment, recognition, and mutuality) that may harmonize or conflict. The author notes the rarity of Natterson's intimate disclosure of the specifics of his own subjectivity to the reader, and their value in advancing the understanding of psychoanalytic process and theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)