Perspective taking and self-awareness: Drawing an E on your forehead.

Self-awareness theory assumes that individuals direct their attention outward or back on themselves as a function of characteristics of the situation. Taking this theory literally, it was hypothesized that Ss taking a self-focused perspective would draw a capital letter E on their forehead such that the E would be oriented for the external perspective of an observer. Ss' whose attention was directed outward would draw an E that would appear backward to another person. As hypothesized, in 3 experiments with 175 female undergraduates, Ss in high self-focus conditions significantly more often than low self-focus Ss drew an E on their forehead oriented toward the perspective of an outside observer, even though they believed they could not be observed by anyone else. Self-focus was induced using a video camera placed either to the side of the S (Exp I) or behind the S (Exp II), where it could not record how the E was drawn. In Exp III, an audiotape recorder was used to induce self-focused attention. The results demonstrate that an external, reflexive visual perspective could be induced by an auditory self-focusing manipulation. Furthermore, in Exp III, when situationally induced self-focus was low, Ss who were high in public self-consciousness (as measured by the Self-Consciousness Scale) were more likely to draw the E from an external perspective than were Ss low in public self-consciousness. Degree of private self-consciousness was unrelated to perspective taking. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual automaticity in recognition memory: Levels-of-processing effects on familiarity.

Examined the effect of level of processing (LP) on recognition memory using 2 response-signal delays (RSD; 500 and 1500 msec). In Exp 1, LP (semantic or nonsemantic) and RSD were manipulated between 24 college students. In Exp 2, orienting task (pleasantness rating or letter judgment) and RSD were manipulated among 32 Ss. In Exp 3, study orientation and test instructions (inclusion or exclusion) were within-S factors, and RSD was a between-S factor. 32 Ss were included in Exp 3. In Exp 1, a modality effect was found for fast responses. The LP was reliable at both points in time. In Exp 2, fast responses were associated with significantly more "false-alarms" to words encoded semantically than those encoded nonsemantically. In Exp 3, both recollection and familiarity estimates were elevated by prior conceptual processing. Estimates of recollection were affected by RSD. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical access during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word-initial letter sequence.

Tested the constraint hypothesis, which states that lexical access in reading is initiated on the basis of word-initial letter information obtainable in the parafoveal region, in 2 experiments. Ss were 36 college students with normal vision. Eye movements were monitored while Ss read sentences containing target words whose initial trigram (Exp I) or bigram (Exp II) imposed either a high or a low degree of constraint in the lexicon. In contradiction to the hypothesis, high-constraint words (e.g., dwarf) received longer fixations than did low-constraint words (e.g., clown), despite the fact that high-constraint words have an initial letter sequence shared by few other words in the lexicon. A comparison of fixation times in viewing conditions with and without parafoveal letter information showed that the amount of decrease in target fixation time due to prior parafoveal availability was the same for high- and low-constraint targets. It is concluded that increased familiarity of word-initial letter sequence is beneficial to lexical access and that familiarity affects the efficiency of foveal but not parafoveal processing. A list of the sentences used in the 2 experiments is appended. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic processes in reading: Two phonological codes.

In Exp I, 16 undergraduates viewed letter strings that varied in phonological similarity and lexical status. Under a no-interference condition, phonologically distinct lists were better recalled than phonologically confusable ones, and lists with entries in a phonological lexicon (e.g., BRANE) were better recalled than lists without lexical status (e.g., SLINT). When Ss were required to articulate irrelevant sounds, the phonological similarity effect was completely eliminated, but a lexicality effect persisted. In Exp II, another 16 Ss viewed letter strings that varied in syllabic length and lexical status. Pseudohomophones were better recalled than control nonwords under both quiet and articulation conditions, but a syllabic length effect was obtained only in the no-articulation condition. Results show that at least 2 phonological codes underlie performance in a memory-span task. The 1st code permits lexical access from print; suppression does not prevent this code from accessing lexical memory. The 2nd underlies both word length and phonological similarity effects in span; suppression prevents the formation or utilization of this code. Implications for understanding normal reading and developmental reading problems are noted. (French abstract) (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speeded tests of implicit knowledge.

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that implicit and explicit tasks involve distinct modes of processing. Ss observed rule-ordered letter strings and were asked either to memorize the strings or to try to discover the underlying rules. In Exp 1, they then made well-formedness judgments of novel strings under long-deadline and short-deadline conditions. Rule-discovery Ss, but not memory Ss, were impaired by the short deadline. In Exp 2, all Ss made "similarity" judgments of the novel strings instead of the traditional "rule-based" judgments; there were now no differences between the rule-discovery and memory groups. In Exp 3, Ss explicitly instructed in the rules were significantly more impaired under short deadlines than were memory Ss. An analysis of decision times to individual strings for the rule-trained vs memory groups also showed qualitative differences consistent with the implicit–explicit distinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A structure-mapping model for word problems.

Tested predictions of a structure-mapping model for word problems in 4 experiments involving 132 undergraduates. In Exps I and II, Ss rated the potential usefulness of solutions for pairs of problems—mixture problems in Exp I and work problems in Exp II. The problems were either equivalent (same story, same procedure), similar (same story, different procedure), isomorphic (different story, same procedure), or unrelated (different story, different procedure). Ss in Exp III used an example solution for a work problem and a mixture problem to generate equations to related test problems that differed in their mappings from the example. In Exp IV, Ss matched concepts in the test problems to corresponding concepts in the examples to provide a direct measure of their ability to construct mappings across different problems. In Exps III and IV, Ss performed significantly better on isomorphic problems than on similar problems, and significantly better on work isomorphs than on mixture isomorphs. Results suggest that a structure-mapping model that emphasizes the transparency and structure of the mapping can be used to predict the usefulness of a solution. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of out-group cues in determining social identity.

Examined the role of out-group cues in determining social identity and guiding behavior in 2 experiments with 131 undergraduates. In Exp I, Ss were exposed to a cue either of an in-group (Ss' college), a relevant out-group (a rival college), or an irrelevant out-group (a baseball team). Ss examined a list of words and were later asked to recognize those they had seen from a larger list in which words related to the 3 groups were embedded. Results indicate that Ss made more false recognitions of in-group related words when a relevant out-group was salient than when an irrelevant out-group was salient. Exp II tested a behavioral implication of Exp I: Out-group salience increases adherence to an in-group norm. In the 1st phase of Exp II, Ss were divided into 2 groups and deliberated 2 civil suits. Ss' in-group favored the plaintiffs for both cases. Ss were divided into new groups for the 2nd phase, and the same procedure was followed. This time, however, the in-group favored the defendants. In the 3rd phase, Ss were exposed to a cue either of the out-group in Phase 1 or Phase 2. Ss' judgments for 2 new cases were biased in the direction of the norm of the in-group that was associated with the salient out-group. Ss favored the plaintiff (or defendant) when the 1st (or 2nd) out-group was salient. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thoughts beyond words: When language overshadows insight.

Four experiments examined whether verbalization can interfere with insight problem solving. In Exp 1, Ss were interrupted during problem solving and asked either to verbalize their strategies (retrospective verbalization) or engage in an unrelated activity (control). Ss in the retrospective verbalization condition were significantly less successful than control Ss at solving the problems. Exp 2 replicated the finding of Exp 1 and demonstrated that the control Ss' advantage was not due to any beneficial effect of the interruption. In Exp 3, concurrent, nondirective verbalization impaired the solving of insight problems but had no effect on noninsight problems. In Exp 4, the effect of concurrent verbalization on insight was maintained even when Ss were encouraged to consider alternative approaches. Together, these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that verbalization can result in the disruption of nonreportable processes that are critical to achieving insight solutions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of control in mediating perceptions of density.

Conducted 2 experiments to determine whether manipulation of personal control influences the experience of crowding. In Exp I (72 Ss), the positioning of 4 confederates in an elevator maneuvered a naive S to a place in front of or on the opposite front side to the panel of floor selection buttons. Ss standing in front of the "control" panel felt significantly less crowded and saw the elevator as significantly larger than Ss in the opposite position. In Exp II (71 male undergraduates), participants in a series of group process tasks were initially assigned at random to a role that gave them no control over the group's activities, control over the onset and administration of the activities, or control over their termination. All groups were composed of 6 male students who met in either small (high density) or large (low density) rooms. Ss with control felt significantly less crowded than Ss without control, and the type of delegated control interacted with density in influencing evaluations of room ambience and personal comfort. High-density rooms were judged to be less pleasant and more crowded than low-density rooms. Results suggest that control mediates responses to density and is directly related to the experience of crowding. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing nominal information during visual search.

Conducted 3 experiments to examine the processing of nominal information during a visual search. In Exp I, 6 experienced and 2 naive Ss searched for a single pre-specified target letter, and the stimulus exposure-time needed to yield a 50% (corrected for chance) level of accuracy was estimated using the parameter estimation by sequential testing procedure. Results show that the exposure-time was not influenced by the presence (in the irrelevant items) of the target's other case; this suggested that there was no obligatory accessing of nominal information during preattentive processing. In Exp II, 6 experienced Ss searched in Condition 1 for a single target which was specified as being one of a same-name pair of letters, and in Condition 2 for a target specified as one of a same-shape pair of letters. The exposure-time required for the same-name search was greater than that required for the same-shape search. In Exp III, accuracy of search was compared in the same-shape and same-name conditions with a control condition. The target in this control condition was specified as one of a pair of letters not sharing a name or any special shape. 12 Ss searched 6-item displays and 12 Ss searched 12-item displays for a pre-specified target letter. Results confirm the difference detected in Exp II, but they do not show any difference between performance in the same-name condition and in the control condition. It is suggested that some focal processing is required for the development of a sufficiently detailed level of visual representation to allow for naming. (French summary) (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational philosophy, policies, and objectives related to unethical decision behavior: A laboratory experiment.

Evaluated unethical decision behavior under different policy and environmental conditions. A laboratory methodology used a simulated marketing decision task that was expanded to include an ethical decision. Ss were 165 graduate business students who made a series of decisions on whether to pay a kickback or not. In Exp I, when Ss were given a letter from the corporate president supporting ethical behavior, their ethical behavior was higher than for Ss who received a letter that did not support ethical behavior. The size of the kickback resulted in a directional effect, but the effect was not statistically significant. In Exp II, profit goals did not significantly influence ethical behavior, but an organizational ethics policy was found to significantly reduce unethical decision behavior. In both studies, foreign nationality, Machiavellianism (Mach V Scale), and economic value orientation (Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values) were positively related to unethical decision behavior. In addition, a post hoc analysis showed than an ethical predisposition measure was strongly related to ethical decision behavior. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pictorial mnemonics for phonics.

Evaluated whether picture mnemonics help prereaders learn letter–sound associations in 2 experiments with 20 1st graders (Exp I), 30 preschoolers, and kindergartners (Exp II). Pictures integrating the associations were compared with disassociated pictures and with a no-picture control condition. Ss in the integrated-picture group learned 5 letter-sound associations (e.g., f, /f/), each represented by a picture whose shape included the letter (e.g., letter f drawn as the stem of a flower) and whose name (flower) began with the letter's sound. Ss in the disassociated-picture group learned letter–sound associations with pictures having the same names as the integrated pictures, but drawn differently—without letter shapes. Ss in the control group learned associations with picture names but no pictures. Prior to letter–sound training, all groups were taught how to segment the initial sounds of the picture names. Results reveal that Ss taught with integrated mnemonics learned more letter–sound associations and also more letter–picture associations than did the other 2 groups, which did not differ. Integrated pictures were effective because they linked 2 otherwise unconnected items in memory. It is concluded that the shape of letters included in pictures reminded learners of previously seen pictures with those shapes whose names began with the relevant letter sounds. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Central and peripheral routes to persuasion: An individual difference perspective.

Examined individual differences in intrinsic motivation to engage in effortful cognitive endeavors in 2 experiments involving 293 undergraduates. Results of Exp I indicate that Ss high in need for cognition were more likely to think about and elaborate cognitively on issue-relevant information when forming attitudes than were Ss low in need for cognition. Analyses further indicated that Ss low in need for cognition acted as cognitive misers rather than as verbal dolts. In Exp II, individual differences in need for cognition were used to test the prediction from the elaboration likelihood model that Ss who tend to engage in extensive issue-relevant thinking when formulating their position on an issue tend to exhibit stronger attitude–behavior correspondence. Results confirm this hypothesis: The attitudes of Ss high in need for cognition, which were obtained in a survey completed approximately 8 wks before the 1984 presidential election, were more predictive of behavioral intentions and reported voting behavior than were the attitudes of Ss low in need for cognition. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awareness of prior success or failure: A critical factor in task performance.

Exp I, with 36 undergraduates, determined the effects of 2 levels of history of success (high or low) and the presence or absence of an audience on task performance. Results show that after prior failure, alone Ss performed significantly better than audience Ss, although after prior success, the performance of alone and audience Ss did not differ. These results counter K. J. Good's (1973) results, since his experiment produced a social facilitation effect after prior success, not after prior failure. Performance differences were probably due to differences in audience awareness. In the present experiment, the audience was presumably unaware; whereas in Good's experiment, the audience was presumably aware of S's prior performance level. Exp II (60 Ss) tested the merits of this explanation. Ss with a history of success or failure performed either alone or in 1 of 2 audience manipulations. Ss were told that the audience was either aware or unaware of their prior performance level. Results support the hypothesis. It is argued than an audience can affect the type of standard that an S uses to evaluate performance and that the quality of an S's performance is a function not only of the criterion but also of S's expectation of meeting the criterion (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies of concept formation by stumptailed monkeys: Concepts humans, monkeys, and letter A..

Natural concepts were studied in 3 of 4 experiments with 4 stumptailed monkeys, using a series of photographic slides. The concept of humans was studied in Exp I, using scenes with or without one or more humans present, and the concept of monkeys was studied in Exp II, using scenes with one or more monkeys and scenes with other types of animals. In both experiments, Ss were trained on 1 set of slides using a conditional spatial discrimination task and tested for transfer to a new set. All Ss tested showed positive transfer, performing at a higher level with new slides initially than they had during original learning, though well below the level reached by the end of original learning. The initial transfer could not be explained by learning of individual slides, though such learning was clearly a strong factor in the overall performance. Performance was better when humans were a prominent part of the scene. In Exp III, the discrimination task was changed to go/no-go. There was some improvement in discrimination but not in transfer. In Exp IV, Ss were trained to discriminate the letter A from the numeral 2 in a variety of typefaces, and they transferred the discrimination at a high level to a set of these stimuli in new typefaces. Results are consistent with a concept interpretation. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal adjustment and the free recall of materials with affectively positive or negative meaningfulness.

Conducted 2 experiments on the role of affective assessment in human verbal learning. In Exp I, 40 high school students grouped according to Tennessee Self-Concept Scale scores were given consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams as learnable items. Ss with high self-concepts learned the trigrams they liked more rapidly than disliked trigrams. Ss with low self-concepts reversed this customary pattern and learned disliked trigrams more rapidly than liked trigrams. In Exp II, 64 undergraduates who had completed the Barron Ego-Strength scale were given real words as learnable materials. Results showed that it was possible for the same S to learn certain words along a negative and other words along a positive reinforcement-value sequence. This depended upon whether the word meanings involved reflected a problem area or an area of competence for the Ss being studied. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensory preconditioning in rats following early visual deprivation.

Conducted 3 experiments in which a total of 131 light- and dark-reared (LR and DR) male hooded rats were given sensory preconditioning (SPC). In each experiment, Ss were presented with 2 stimuli either paired or unpaired, followed by conditioning to 1 and extinction on the other. 2 auditory stimuli were used in Exp. I. SPC was found for both LR and DR Ss, with no significant difference due to rearing condition either in acquisition or in the SPC test. In Exp. II, light and tone were employed; SPC was demonstrated and was more effective for LR than DR Ss. In Exp. III, rectangle stimuli were employed. The effect of SPC was evidenced in LR Ss; however, performance of DR Ss was not significantly different from that of controls. Results are discussed in terms of the effect of early visual deprivation on information-processing mechanisms. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generality of the interaction model of anxiety with respect to two social evaluation field studies.

Hypothesized that Ss high in social evaluation trait anxiety (TA) would experience significantly greater changes (i.e., between stress and nonstress conditions) in TA than Ss low in social evaluation TA. It was further predicted that for the noncongruent interpersonal, physical danger, ambiguous, and innocuous TA dimensions, TA changes experienced by Ss high and low in TA would not differ significantly. 26 high school students (Exp I) and 28 24–60 yr old middle management corporate executives (Exp II) were administered the S-R Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness, the Present Affect Reactions Questionnaire, and the Perception of Situations Rating form under stressful (examination situation [Exp I] and on-the-job situation oriented toward achievement and performance [Exp II]) and nonstressful conditions. While the predicted relationships between TA, state anxiety (SA), and situation stress were confirmed, results provide only moderate support for the interaction model of anxiety because Ss did not strongly endorse the initial assumption that the stressful situations would be perceived as primarily socially evaluative. The apparent discrepancy between situation perception and SA levels of Ss high and low in social evaluation TA is discussed in terms of differential responsiveness to trait-congruent situational elements within various TA groups. (French abstract) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impulsivity and perception: Individual differences in the processing of the local and global dimensions of stimuli.

In Exp I, 48 undergraduates differing in impulsivity (as measured by a self-report inventory) performed 2 versions of filtering, interference, and invariant control tasks. In one version, Ss sorted according to the value of the local dimension; in the other, the global dimension was the relevant one. In addition, Ss performed a task in which the 2 dimensions were perfectly correlated. Results show that Ss sorted more quickly when the global dimension was relevant than when the local dimension was relevant. In Exp II, 43 of the Ss from Exp I were used to determine whether failure to find a relationship between impulsivity and filtering performance was due to correlations of local and global dimensions; results were negative. In Exp III, the same 43 Ss used in Exp II were used to test the information-integration hypothesis. Results support the hypothesis—high impulsives were more impaired than other Ss when the task required that they integrate information from the global dimension with information from the local dimension. Findings can be explained in terms of individual differences in the value placed on speed, relative to accuracy, in information processing. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Required high effort increases subsequent persistence and reduces cheating.

Two experiments examined the effect of the degree of effort required in preliminary tasks on the persistence and cheating in subsequent tasks. Undergraduates (N?=?276) were administered mathematics problems and perceptual identifications requiring high effort for one group and low effort for another group. A control group received neither of these tasks. All Ss then received an anagram task in which success depended on persistence with no opportunity to cheat (Exp I) or success was improbable and depended on cheating (Exp II). In Exp I, increasing the degree of effort required in the preliminary tasks increased the number of anagrams subsequently solved and increased the duration spent on unsolved anagrams. In Exp II, requiring high effort in the preliminary tasks decreased how often Ss falsified their performances. Results suggest that honesty may be increased by generalized effects of rewarded high efforts. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)