The formation of stereotypic beliefs: Further evidence for distinctiveness-based illusory correlations.

Investigated the processes underlying illusory correlations based on the co-occurrence of infrequent stimulus events in 2 experiments with 104 undergraduates. In Exp I, 4 groups of 20 Ss were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions. Group 1 read a series of stimulus sentences describing desirable and undesirable behaviors performed by members of Groups A and B. Group 2 read the same sentences but had a different order of presentation. Group 3 read the sentences and were shown a frequency table summarizing the information they had just read. Group 4 was given only the summary table showing the frequency distribution of desirable and undesirable behaviors for Groups A and B and asked to imagine that they had read sentences. Analysis of Ss' ratings showed that the bias producing the illusory correlation occurred during the encoding of serially presented stimulus items and was not due to biased integration of information at the time of judgment. In Exp II, 24 Ss were used to assess recall of stimulus information. Results show that Ss recalled a higher proportion of items representing the co-occurrence of distinctive stimuli than of the other categories of items. The central role of these items in establishing the illusory correlations was further substantiated by correlational evidence. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phobia-relevant illusory correlations: The role of phobic responsivity.

The authors investigated the role of phobic responsivity in the generation of phobia-relevant illusory correlations. As a means of disentangling the contributions of prior fear and elicited fear responses, half of a group of phobic women received 1 mg alprazolam (n?=?21), and half received a placebo (n?=?22). A group of nonfearful women (n?=?24) was included to control for prior fear per se. Participants were exposed to slides of spiders, weapons, and flowers that were randomly paired with a shock, a siren, or nothing. Postexperimental covariation estimates and on-line outcome expectancies were assessed. Irrespective of both prior and elicited fear, participants postexperimentally overassociated spiders and shock. Yet, only women with spider phobia displayed a persisting fear-confirming expectancy bias. This bias was similar for the placebo and alprazolam groups. Thus, the bias appeared to be due to preexisting phobogenic beliefs, whereas phobic responsivity played a negligible role. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of induced mood on diagnostic interviewing: Evidence for a mood and memory effect.

Examined the extent to which experimentally induced mood influenced the report of lifetime symptoms of major depression and dysthymia as assessed by a computerized version of the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule. 83 female undergraduates received a "happy" or "sad" mood induction. Ss in the sad condition reported significantly more lifetime symptoms of major depression and dysthymia than did Ss in the happy condition. Although more Ss in the sad condition received diagnoses of major depression, dysthymic disorder, or depression not otherwise specified than did Ss in the happy condition, this difference was not significant. In addition, no difference was found in the report of lifetime symptoms of a manic episode, providing evidence for the specificity of the mood induction. Implications of these results for structured diagnostic interviews and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Within-target illusory correlations and the formation of context-dependent attitudes.

Two experiments explored the formation of context-dependent attitudes about a single social target. One such mechanism for the development of differential attitudes toward a target in different contexts is illusory correlation formation. It was proposed that within-target illusory correlations (i.e., perceiving unwarranted associations between salient target behaviors and distinctive domains in which the target is observed) can result in biased evaluations of a social target in different domains (e.g., home vs. work). When memory-based (vs. on-line) judgments were induced, perceivers formed context-dependent attitudes for both group (Experiment I) and individual (Experiment 2) targets. These findings are consistent with theories regarding multiply categorizable attitude objects. Further, they suggest that some apparent discrepancies between attitudes and behavior may reflect holding multiple context-dependent attitudes about social targets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Misattribution errors in Alzheimer's disease: The illusory truth effect.

Patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and age-matched controls were compared on a series of tasks designed to measure errors of misattribution, the act of attributing a memory or idea to an incorrect source. Misattribution was indexed through the illusory truth effect, the tendency for participants to judge previously encountered information to be true. Cognitive theories have suggested that the illusory truth effect reflects the misattribution of experimentally produced familiarity (a nonspecific sense that an item has been previously encountered) to the veracity of previously encountered information. Consistent with earlier suggestions that AD impairs both familiarity and recollection (specific memory for contextual details of the study episode), AD patients demonstrated significantly fewer misattribution errors under conditions in which the illusory truth effect is thought to rely on relative familiarity (uncued condition), but more misattribution errors under conditions thought to rely on relative amounts of contextual recollection (cued condition). These results help further specify the precise nature of memory impairments in AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the persistence of illusory correlations associated with the Rorschach.

L. J. Chapman and J. P. Chapman (see record 1969-13004-001) found that illusory correlations associated with the Rorschach persist in the presence of valid symptom-sign relations. Data from 120 undergraduates who completed 4 forms of a word-association questionnaire are presented which demonstrate that control over various levels of associative connections within Chapman's experimental task materials may have been insufficient. Further research needs to control such methodological confounds to evaluate adequately the persistence of illusory correlations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalizing the illusory correlation effect.

We used two experiments to examine the influence of one's own attitude on the perception of group attitudes. In the first experiment, subjects viewed opinion statements, supposedly made by residents of two towns, on the issue of building a local nuclear power station. One town was large and had frequently occurring statements and the other was small with infrequently occurring statements; there was an equal proportion of pro and anti statements in both towns. The prediction that subjects would perceive an illusory correlation between attitude positions similar to their own (self-relevance) and the infrequently cited (distinctive) town was supported for anti subjects only. Subsequent investigation indicated that this was due to the confounding effect of a prior expectation associating small towns with more antinuclear attitudes. Experiment 2 eliminated the variable of town size by informing subjects that towns of equal size had been more heavily or lightly sampled. Consistent with the hypotheses, both pro and anti subjects perceived an illusory correlation between their own attitude and the town providing the smaller sample, this effect increasing with attitude extremity. The consequences of these findings for the generalizability of illusory correlation explanations of stereotyping are discussed. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive bias in procedural justice: Formation and implications of illusory correlations in perceived intergroup fairness.

Illusory correlations in procedural justice were investigated in 2 experiments. After receiving information describing the fair and unfair treatment of 2 groups' members by police, participants judged the fairness of each group's treatment. Illusory correlations formed in both experiments, resulting in erroneous associations between the smaller group and the infrequent type of treatment. In Experiment 2, participants made harsher guilt judgments of members of the group perceived as receiving relatively favorable treatment. Mediational evidence suggests that differences in guilt judgments reflected attempts to compensate for perceived injustice, creating real differences in group treatment. The benefit of incorporating cognitive biases in models of procedural justice is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On mood and peculiar people: Affect and person typicality in impression formation.

Are memories and impressions about unusual, atypical people more likely to be influenced by mood? Atypical targets were expected to elicit more extensive processing, and mood-primed associations were expected to play a greater role in such judgments. In Exp 1 (N?=?72), mood effects were stronger on judgments of atypical than of prototypical persons. In Exp 2 (N?=?42), mood effects on memory were greater for atypical targets, and recall was also better for typical people in positive mood and for atypical targets in negative mood. Exp 3 (N?=?60) replicated these findings and also found greater mood effects on processing and judgmental latencies for atypical than for typical targets. The results suggest that mood effects depend on the kind of processing strategies triggered by prototypical and atypical targets, consistent with recent multiprocess theories of affect and cognition (J. P. Forgas, 1992). The implications of the results for current affect-cognition models, as well as everyday instances of affective biases in social judgments and stereotyping, are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear-relevant illusory correlations: What types of associations promote judgmental bias?

A. J. Tomarken, S. Mineka, and M. Cook (see record 1990-11527-001) found that high-fear individuals markedly overestimated the covariation between fear-relevant stimuli and aversive outcomes. The authors assessed what features of stimulus–outcome associations promote illusory correlations. In Experiment 1, participants with high snake fear exhibited significant covariation bias for slides of snakes and shocks, but not for slides of damaged electric outlets (DEOs) and shocks. In Experiment 2, individuals with high and low snake fear rated DEOs and shocks as belonging together better than snakes and shocks. However, the shapes of high-fear individuals' affective response profiles to snakes and shocks were more similar than their profile shapes involving other pairings. In addition, their affective responses to snakes and snake–shock profile similarity predicted snake–shock belongingness ratings. These results suggest the importance of emotional responses and emotional profile similarity in mediating illusory correlations involving fear-relevant stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping.

Presents a theory of the mutually reinforcing interaction between power and stereotyping, mediated by attention. The powerless attend to the powerful who control their outcomes, in an effort to enhance prediction and control, so forming complex, potentially nonstereotypic impressions. The powerful pay less attention, and are more vulnerable to stereotyping. The powerful (1) need not attend to the other to control their own outcomes, (2) cannot attend because they tend to be attentionally overloaded, and (3) if they have high need for dominance, may not want to attend. Stereotyping and power are mutually reinforcing because stereotyping itself exerts control, maintaining and justifying the status quo. Two legal cases and a body of research illustrate the theory and suggest organizational change strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of sad mood on memory in older adults: A test of the mood congruence effect.

Mood congruence effects have long been studied in younger adults. but not in older adults. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) suggests that mood congruence could operate differently in older adults. One hundred and nineteen younger and 78 older adults were randomly assigned to sad or neutral mood inductions, using combined Velten and music induction procedures. Results indicated that during sad mood induction both older and younger adults showed enhanced recall of sad words on delayed word list recall task and in autobiographical memory. However, only older adults displayed mood congruence effects on lexical ambiguity and lower recall of positive words in the word list task. Results provided partial support for developmental effects on mood congruence derived from SST. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of adult aging and induced positive and negative mood on planning.

Changes in executive functions have been found in older adults and also in young adults experiencing positive or negative mood states. The current study investigated the hypothesis that older adults would show greater executive function impairment following mood induction than young adults. Ninety-six participants (half aged 19-37, half aged 53-80) completed a neutral, positive, or negative mood induction procedure, followed by the Tower of London planning task. Significant interactions were found between age and mood such that older adults showed greater planning impairment than young adults in both the positive and negative mood conditions. Emotionally salient events occurring before testing may interfere with executive function in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The basis of illusory correlation.

Replies to G. M. Rosen's (see PA, Vol 54:Issue 6) speculation that associative homogeneity of categories of Rorschach percepts produced illusory correlation in the authors' 1969 study. If this were correct, the illusory correlation would still have been demonstrated. Moreover, his speculation could not be correct. Associative homogeneity of a category of percepts could not cause it to be erroneously perceived as correlated with one symptom rather than with another. Associative homogeneity might, or might not, accentuate an otherwise formed illusory correlation. If it did, equating of categories of percepts on associative homogeneity would still have been inappropriate because these percepts were chosen as real-life clinical examples of Rorschach practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of multiple social categories on stereotyping.

Examined the cognitive processes underlying stereotyping, and the effects of multiple social categories in impression formation. 60 Canadian students (aged 17–29 yrs) assessed the stereotypes of men, women, 20 or 70 yr olds, and French or English Canadians. Ss were then introduced to 8 target individuals representing combinations of gender, age and ethnicity, followed by a memory test. Stereotype judgments were relatively more automatic than nonstereotype judgments. Individuals tended to be perceived in terms of their gender and age; this effect was more pronounced on stereotype traits than on the nonstereotype ones. Memory was found to be better for age and gender than for ethnicity, and the speed for making such judgments followed the same pattern. Results support the view that individuals are perceived in terms of stereotypes and suggest that certain salient characteristics will be more influential in a particular context. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resolving the apparent discrepancy between the incongruency effect and the expectancy-based illusory correlation effect: The TRAP model.

The incongruency effect and the expectancy-based illusory correlation effect seem contradictory because they describe apparently contrasting consequences of previously held expectancies: better recall of incongruent than congruent items but overestimation of congruent items. This article resolves this dilemma by presenting a model that is able to simultaneously predict both of these effects. The Twofold Retrieval by Associative Pathways (TRAP) model adopts the encoding assumptions of person memory models but distinguishes between two different retrieval processes, exhaustive and heuristic, hypothesized to underlie recall and frequency estimation, respectively. Experiment 1 showed that expectancy-based illusory correlation effects and incongruency effects are compatible in that they were produced simultaneously. Experiments 2 and 3 tested and rejected alternative explanations for the obtained pattern of results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of inducer polarity and contrast on the perception of illusory figures

A study designed to determine how inducer-surround contrast and inducer polarity affect the contour clarity and the lightness of illusory figures is reported. Using magnitude estimation procedures, ten naive subjects rated both the contour clarity and the lightness of Kanizsa squares. The magnitude of the inducer-surround contrast and the inducer polarity (all-black, all-white, or black-and-white) were varied randomly on each trial. The data indicate that contour clarity increases with contrast at the same rate across polarity conditions but that contour clarity at any given contrast level depends significantly on polarity. Contour clarity judgments were significantly lower when the inducers were all-white than when the inducers were all-black or black-and-white, and significantly greater in the 'mixed' polarity case (black-and-white inducers) than in the 'same' polarity case (the average of the all-black and all-white inducer conditions). Inducer contrast and polarity significantly affected the lightness of the illusory figure in a manner consistent with simultaneous spatial contrast. Also, for a given increment in contrast, contour clarity altered significantly more than surface lightness, regardless of inducer polarity. The findings suggest that the mechanism which mediates boundary formation is sensitive to the direction of contrast, and that the boundary formation mechanism is more sensitive than the surface lightness mechanism to changes in contrast magnitude. The results are considered within the context of neural network models of form perception.     

Affect and the overjustification effect.

Studied the role of affect as a mediator of the overjustification effect and proposed that negative affect has a critical detrimental influence on intrinsic motivation, either as a reaction derived from self-perception and evaluation processes or as a factor that acts independently of these cognitive activities. Two studies, with 180 undergraduates, used the typical overjustification paradigm to test these hypotheses. In Exp I, the overjustification effect was successfully replicated for both behavioral and self-report measures of intrinsic motivation. It is important that the negative affect paralleled these results and was greatest in those conditions in which intrinsic motivation was predicted and found to be low (e.g., expected reward). In Exp II, affect was directly manipulated, independently of the cognitive manipulations. Results show that the induced positive affect erased the decrease in intrinsic motivation that was observed in Exp I. It is suggested that what determines the decrease in intrinsic interest in any activity is, in part, the amount of negative affect that becomes associated with the activity. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of induced mood states on activity and self-reported affect.

Studied the influence of positive and negative affect induced by cognitive mediation on behaviors thought to reflect depression. Data from 88 undergraduates who completed the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist and who were subsequently assigned to 3 mood-induction conditions (elation, depression, and neutral) support a cognitive mediation theory of depression and suggest that affect can be manipulated in the laboratory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)