Note-taking, individual differences, and memory for lecture information.

Investigated the encoding function of note taking and processing differences between successful and less successful students in lecture situations in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 48 undergraduates either took notes or listened during a lecture. Different memory patterns were found for these 2 groups, with note-takers recalling many more high- than low-importance propositions and listeners recalling an equal number of high- and low-importance propositions. Results suggest that note taking enhanced organizational processing of lecture information. In Exp II, the notes and recall of 80 successful and less successful students were compared. Successful Ss recalled more of the most important propositions, but these 2 groups of Ss did not differ in their recall of less important propositions. For both groups of Ss, recall content was closely related to the content of the notes, with successful Ss recording more high-importance propositions in their notes. Also, successful and less successful Ss were similar in their note-taking styles and the degree to which they benefited from reviewing their notes. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsiveness to affective stimuli by obese and normal individuals.

Conducted 2 experiments to test the hypothesis that the obese are more responsive than normals to both positive and negative affective stimuli. In Exp I, obese and normal high school males (N = 46) gave ratings of positively and negatively arousing slides. In Exp II, the behavior of obese and normal children 1 mo-6 yrs old (N = 79) in a positively and a negatively arousing situation was observed. Obese Ss in both experiments responded more strongly than normals to the positive affective stimuli; obese Ss in Exp I responded more strongly than normals to the negative emotional stimulus. A possible reason for the failure of obese Ss in Exp II to respond more strongly than normals to the negative affective stimulus is discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of intrahippocampal administration of colchicine on incentive contrast and on radial maze performance.

Examined the behavior of rats given intradentate injections of colchicine (COL). In Exp 1, COL-treated, artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-treated, and untreated Ss did not differ in the intake of 32% and 4% sucrose solutions, nor did they differ in degree of successive negative contrast when the 32% solution was changed to 4% sucrose. In Exp 2, the COL-treated and CSF-treated Ss did not differ in degree of suppression in the intake of a 0.15% saccharin solution when it preceded 32% sucrose in once-daily pairings (anticipatory contrast), nor did they differ in reversal performance when saccharin–sucrose and saccharin–saccharin pairings were reversed. In Exp 3, the COL-treated Ss were substantially impaired in radial-arm maze performance compared with CSF-treated controls. Results suggest that a completely functioning hippocampus is not necessary for the memory of reward quality, the comparison of rewards, the suppression of behavior when reward is decreased, the formation of associations between 2 levels of reward, and the reversal of this association, as long as these processes are reflected in consummatory behavior. Data are interpreted in terms of differences between instrumental behavior and sensory memory and/or consummatory behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology and plea bargaining: Applications, methodology, and theory.

Conducted 2 experiments with male undergraduates to investigate the plea bargaining process. Exp I (143 Ss) used a role-playing procedure to identify variables that affect the acceptance of a plea bargain. 18% of the Ss playing the role of innocent defendants accepted the plea bargain, whereas 83% of the guilty defendants accepted. Two other main effects revealed that defendants were more likely to accept a plea bargain when relatively many charges had been filed against them and/or when the severity of punishment upon conviction was great, although internal analyses revealed that these effects were present in guilty defendants only. Exp II (18 Ss) was conducted using involved participants to provide validation for the major result of Exp I. Ss were made to be innocent or guilty of having prior information about an exam. All were accused of having used prior information and were given an opportuinity to plea bargain rather than face an ethics committee. In accord with Exp I, guilty Ss accepted the plea bargain significantly more often than innocent students. Results are discussed in terms of information differences between innocent and guilty defendants and the availability heuristic. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction of intergroup discrimination through individuation of the out-group.

Several studies have found that the mere categorization of persons into groups is sufficient to promote intergroup discrimination. Out-group members may be convenient targets of bias because they are more deindividuated than in-group members. If so, then intergroup discrimination may be lessened through individuation of the out-group. In the 1st experiment, 72 undergraduates were divided into groups and were informed that the out-group was either unanimous in its behavior or that one member dissented from the majority. Typical levels of intergroup bias were found in the unanimous condition, but Ss did not discriminate against the out-group when an out-group member dissented. These findings were corroborated and extended in 2 subsequent experiments with 225 Ss. Ss requested assistance from an out-group that had previously frustrated them. Assistance from the out-group was found to be more effective in reducing intergroup bias when the out-group responded as individuals than when it responded as a group. Overall, results indicate that intergroup bias is related to the manner in which persons cognitively structure the out-group. Ss discriminated when the out-group was perceived to be a single entity but behaved more fairly when the out-group was more individuated. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational biases in causal attributions of arousal.

Two studies hypothesized that the desire to seek ambiguity as to the cause of a particular state of arousal will increase if either that arousal state or its source is potentially threatening to self-esteem. In Exp I, 22 high- and 21 low-sex-guilt male undergraduates (as determined by the Mosher Forced Choice Sex Guilt Inventory) were shown either an arousing erotic movie or a nonarousing movie; in Exp II, 28 high- and 28 low-guilt females were led to believe that they were very aroused by pictures of nude men. Ambiguity was introduced into both situations by means of a bogus, nonthreatening, alternative arousal source (a placebo). Results indicate that high-guilt Ss were actively involved in the process of determining which source was arousing them. More importantly, this involvement appeared to be motivated by ego-defensiveness. In both experiments, when high-guilt Ss were confronted by an erotic stimulus, they chose to attribute arousal to the bogus source—and thus create ambiguity as to the actual cause and nature of their arousal—more than did low-guilt Ss. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnosis, reporting bias, and suggested negative hallucinations.

Examined the role of reporting bias in hypnotic negative hallucinations by using a paradigm in which reporting bias was assessed independently of perceptual change. In Exp 1, highly hypnotizable Ss reported significant loudness reductions when tested for hypnotic deafness. Later, however, these Ss biased their reported loudness reductions in the absence of perceptual change, and their reporting bias scores were almost as large as their hypnotic deafness reports. Ss also biased their ratings of strategy use. In Exp 2, ratings of blindness given in response to a hypnotic negative visual hallucination suggestion were significantly correlated with reporting bias scores obtained in this paradigm. Although hypnotic blindness and hypnotic deafness correlated significantly, the partial correlation between these variables was nonsignificant when reporting bias scores were statistically controlled. Theoretical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Music discriminations by pigeons.

In Exp I, 2 White Carneaux pigeons responded at more than 80% correct in a single-operandum discrimination learning task when the S+ was a 1-min excerpt of Bach flute music and the S– was a 1-min excerpt of Hindemith viola music. In Exp II, 4 Ss responded at more than 70% correct when they were required to peck the left of 2 disks during presentations of any portion of a 20-min Bach organ piece and to peck the right disk during any portion of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for orchestra. These discriminations were learned slowly. However, the Ss generalized consistently and independently of the instruments involved when presented with novel musical excerpts in Exp III. They preferred the left "Bach disk" when novel excerpts from Buxtehude and Scarlatti were introduced and the right "Stravinsky disk" when novel excerpts from Eliot Carter, Walter Piston, and another Stravinsky work were introduced. Seven college students responded similarly. Therefore, the pigeon's response to complex auditory events may be more like the human's than is often assumed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective recall for personally relevant communications.

Used 2 experiments to test whether people display a recall bias for supportive over refutive information. While previous work has used broad social attitudes, the present research investigated recall for communications relevant to Ss' behavior. In Exp I, 15 smokers, 36 nonsmokers, and 24 ex-smokers read and recalled information related to smoking. In Exp II, 28 seatbelt wearers, 18 occasional wearers, and 15 nonwearers read and recalled pro-seatbelt material. As predicted, in both experiments Ss' behavior significantly affected their recall of information: Nonsmokers recalled more anti-smoking material than smokers, and seatbelt wearers recalled more pro-seatbelt information than nonwearers. There were no significant effects on any measures when Ss in Exp I were divided into seatbelt wearers and nonwearers and when Ss in Exp II were divided into smokers and nonsmokers. Thus, Ss were selective only on the communication relative to their own behavior. (French abstract) (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support as an individual difference variable: Its stability, origins, and relational aspects.

Investigated the stability of social support indices, the relation between these indices and measures of parental bonding, and the relation between the indices and ratings of social behavior. In Exp I, 76 undergraduates responded to a social support questionnaire (SSQ) several times at 5- and 36-mo follow-ups. Exp II partially replicated Exp I with 251 Ss, and it investigated the relation between the SSQ and a parental bonding instrument. In Exp III, 160 Ss rated videotapes of persons with different levels of social support and scored them with regard to indices of personal effectiveness. The studies demonstrate that social support levels are stable over periods up to 3 yrs. They also showed that Ss high in social support reported having received more parental care (affection, interest, empathy) than did those low in social support. High social support Ss were judged by observers to be more competent leaders and problem solvers than were low-support Ss. Female Ss were judged to be more considerate and friendly than male Ss. Results suggest the value of conceptualizing social support as an individual difference variable as well as an environmental provision. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual behavior in pigeons: Categories, subcategories, and pseudocategories.

In 3 experiments with a total of 16 Ss, we explored how pigeons learn to classify diverse pictures of cats, flowers, cars, and chairs and later how they accurately categorize brand-new pictures from these classes. Using a 4-key forced-choice procedure, Ss in Exp 1 discriminated individual examples within each of the categories from one another (subcategory training); nevertheless, errors were disproportionately conceptual in nature, with Ss more likely to confuse examples within a given category than between different categories. Ss in Exp 2 trained to classify pictures into human language categories (category training) learned far faster and more completely than Ss trained to sort the same pictures into totally arbitrary groupings (pseudocategory training). Finally, in Exp 3, category-trained and subcategory-trained Ss were tested on normally oriented pictures, on left–right reversals, and on top–bottom reversals. Subcategory-trained Ss responded less accurately on both kinds of reversed pictures and less accurately on top–bottom than on left–right reversals; category-trained Ss were less affected by both types of picture reversals, only top–bottom reversals decrementing their performance. Results suggest that many words in our language denote clusters of related visual stimuli, which pigeons also see as highly similar. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions of responsibility for group tasks: The egocentric bias and the actor–observer difference.

In each of 3 experiments it was demonstrated that under certain conditions individuals who work on a task in a dyad will tend to attribute greater responsibility for a positive outcome to their partners than to themselves. In Exp I 56 college students, who had qualifying scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, working in dyads on a crossword puzzle attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves for an outcome they were led to believe was quite good, thus contradicting the expected "egocentric bias" effect. This was true across depression categories. In Exp II, 100 college students working in dyads on the puzzle attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves for a positive outcome when asked immediately after the task to make the attribution. However, Ss attributed greater responsibility to themselves than to their partners when asked to make the attribution 3 days later, thus replicating the egocentric bias effect. Half of the 30 dyads in Exp III believed they were being videotaped while working on the puzzle, whereas the other half did not. "Videotaped" Ss attributed more responsibility for the positive outcome to themselves than to their partners, whereas the nonvideotaped Ss attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves when both groups were asked to give their attributions immediately after the task. The relationship between the egocentric bias effect and the actor–observer difference phenomenon is discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions.

Three experiments show that information consistent with a preferred conclusion is examined less critically than information inconsistent with a preferred conclusion, and consequently, less information is required to reach the former than the latter. In Study 1, Ss judged which of 2 students was most intelligent, believing they would work closely with the one they chose. Ss required less information to decide that a dislikable student was less intelligent than that he was more intelligent. In Studies 2 and 3, Ss given an unfavorable medical test result took longer to decide their test result was complete, were more likely to retest the validity of their result, cited more life irregularities that might have affected test accuracy, and rated test accuracy as lower than did Ss receiving more favorable diagnoses. Results suggest that a core component of self-serving bias is the differential quantity of cognitive processing given to preference-consistent and preference-inconsistent information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suggestions for altered auditory sensitivity, the negative subject effect and hypnotic susceptibility: A signal detection analysis.

In Experiment I, using 96 undergraduates, low susceptibles (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A) showed higher sensitivity than high susceptibles, and hypnotic induction failed to affect the sensitivity of either highs or lows. Among the high susceptibles, suggestion to either increase or decrease acuity produced increments in sensitivity and reduced individual differences. Suggestions (regardless of the direction of change suggested) probably motivated high susceptibles, who would have otherwise performed inefficiently, to perform as efficiently as low susceptibles. With respect to response bias, high-susceptible Ss given a suggestion for increased acuity behaved in terms of suggested demands; they showed an increased tendency to respond "signal." Low-susceptible Ss given the same suggestion responded in a counterdemand or "negative subject" fashion; they developed a bias to say "noise." Exp II used a more difficult discrimination task with 80 Ss to replicate and extend this counterdemand effect in low susceptibles. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal and nonverbal cues in the perception of lying.

Examined the strategies that observers use to see through self-presentations. In Exp I, 5 male actor Ss (undergraduates) lied or told the truth in simulated job interviews. 41 observers were moderately accurate in judging the actors' truthfulness. Actors were consistently good or poor liars, but judges were not consistently good or poor. When actors lied, they gave less plausible, shorter answers with longer latencies. Observers seemed to use the plausibility and latency, as well as an answer's vagueness and consistency and an actor's smiling, postural shifting, and grooming, to determine whether he was lying. Exp II experimentally manipulated the content of an answer and a nonverbal cue. 74 undergraduate observers were more likely to judge a female job applicant as lying when her answers were self-serving. A long hesitation before an answer made observers more suspicious of an already self-serving answer and more certain of the truth of an already forthright one. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Havana daydreaming: A study of self-consciousness and the negative reference group among Cuban Americans.

Reasoned that the Castro government in Cuba represents an important negative reference group for Cuban Americans in the US. Exp I asked 43 Cuban-American undergraduates to give their opinions on issues surrounding the liberalization of relations between Cuba and the US. As expected, opinions were more opposed to such liberalization when an ostensible representative of the Castro government was quoted as favoring it than when no mention was made of the Castro government. Exps II and III (137 Ss) tested the prediction that utilization of negative reference groups would be mediated by dispositional self-consciousness. In Exp II, Ss gave their opinions after favorable opinions had been attributed to officials of the Castro government. Opposition among these Ss was positively correlated with their public self-consciousness but was unrelated to private self-consciousness. Exp III replicated the effect of public self-consciousness when the reference group was salient but yielded an ambiguous effect for an experimental manipulation of self-focus. Findings appear to confirm the role of dispositional self-consciousness in reference-group behavior. Moreover, they appear to suggest that Ss used their opposition to the negative reference group for self-presentational purposes rather than for self-definitional purposes. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance implications of corrective testing.

Compared testing with immediate feedback and partial credit to a traditional multiple-choice exam format in 2 experiments. In Exp I, Ss were 286 students in 3 large introductory courses. Feedback to Ss about their performance dramatically increased the impact of doing well or doing poorly on the test: Among Ss doing well, those who were aware of that fact performed far better overall than counterparts who were unaware of their performance. Among Ss doing poorly, those who were aware of their poor performance did much less well than Ss who were unaware of it. Interestingly, this polarizing effect was particularly dramatic among low-test-anxious Ss. Subjective reactions of 35 high- and 34 low-test-anxiety Ss to immediate feedback and partial credit were assessed in Exp II. Immediate feedback and partial-credit testing was rated as indicating more about one's ability and effort than traditional testing, a finding that fits well with the performance effects uncovered in Exp I. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Actor–observer differences in information inference and causal attribution.

Conducted 2 experiments with 144 undergraduates to assess (a) differences in the information available to persons trying to understand the causes of their own behavior (actors) vs those trying to understand the causes of another's behavior (observers) and (b) the effects of information differences on causal explanations. In Exp I, actors reported positive behaviors to be less distinctive and more consistent with past behavior than did observers, whereas the reverse was true for negative behaviors. Consistent with this difference, actors attributed desirable behaviors more to their own internal dispositions than did observers, whereas the opposite occurred for undesirable behaviors. In Exp II, when all Ss were given the consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information generated by actors in Exp I, both actors and observers attributed positive acts more to internal factors than negative acts. When given the information generated by the observers, neither actors nor observers exhibited this bias. Thus, when given the same information, actors and observers no longer showed differences in causal explanations. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of strategic self-presentation on subsequent self-esteem.

Three experiments (88 male and 36 female undergraduates) explored the effects of self-enhancement or self-deprecation on the actor's self-esteem as measured in a separate context. In Exp I, Ss were influenced, by observing others in a screening interview, to emulate their self-enhancing or self-deprecating behavior when they themselves were interviewed. This carried over and was reflected in their subsequent self-esteem. In Exp II, this carry-over effect was replicated in a setting in which S was interviewed while playing the role of a job candidate. In Exp III, Ss instructed to be self-enhancing in an interview subsequently showed elevated self esteem (unless their interview behavior was prescribed by the experimenter and thus not self-referring). Ss instructed to be self-deprecating subsequently showed lowered self-esteem if they had been given a clear choice as to whether to engage in the interview. It is concluded that self-perception theory can account for self-enhancing carry-over, whereas dissonance theory offers a more appropriate explanation for the carry-over or internalization of self-deprecating actions. (12 ref) (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)