Lineup composition, suspect position, and the sequential lineup advantage.

N. M. Steblay, J. Dysart, S. Fulero, and R. C. L. Lindsay (2001) argued that sequential lineups reduce the likelihood of mistaken eyewitness identification. Experiment 1 replicated the design of R. C. L. Lindsay and G. L. Wells (1985), the first study to show the sequential lineup advantage. However, the innocent suspect was chosen at a lower rate in the simultaneous lineup, and no sequential lineup advantage was found. This led the authors to hypothesize that protection from a sequential lineup might emerge only when an innocent suspect stands out from the other lineup members. In Experiment 2, participants viewed a simultaneous or sequential lineup with either the guilty suspect or 1 of 3 innocent suspects. Lineup fairness was varied to influence the degree to which a suspect stood out. A sequential lineup advantage was found only for the unfair lineups. Additional analyses of suspect position in the sequential lineups showed an increase in the diagnosticity of suspect identifications as the suspect was placed later in the sequential lineup. These results suggest that the sequential lineup advantage is dependent on lineup composition and suspect position. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stuttering as a function of the information value and sentence position of words.

24 stutterers read aloud a 95-word passage of banal prose, and the incidence of stuttering was determined for each word. The information value of each word was estimated by studying the extent to which each word could be predicted from knowledge of the preceeding words by 46 normal speakers. Results indicated that both position in the sentence and information value of words are significantly correlated with stuttering incidence. It is concluded that the positional phenomenon cannot be explained as a redundancy effect. Its nature is discussed briefly from the approach-avoidance conflict and operant viewpoints of stuttering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A policy evaluation of simultaneous and sequential lineups.

Many states and communities are rewriting their eyewitness identification policies. Some of these jurisdictions are excluding simultaneous lineups altogether, and others are allowing them if double-blind administration of sequential lineups is not possible. The Innocence Project advocates the latter and puts forward blind sequential-lineup administration as the best form of lineup identification. Although sequential lineups are claimed to be superior, no explicit policy analysis has been done. In the present study, the author uses a policy-analysis model based on decision theory to examine the utility of simultaneous and sequential lineups, as well as to examine a range of values placed on identification outcomes and their probabilities. Simultaneous lineups are shown to be superior to sequential lineups under most conditions examined in this analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioning of verbal behavior as a function of awareness, need for social approval, and motivation to receive reinforcement.

This investigation evaluated the effects of awareness, need for social approval, and motivation to receive reinforcement on verbal conditioning. 61 male college students were reinforced with "good" for constructing sentences beginning with "I" or "we." Awareness and reinforcement motivation were assessed by an intensive postconditioning interview; need for social approval was measured by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale. Ss aware of a correct response-reinforcement contingency gave more "I" and "we" sentences than Unaware Ss, who showed no evidence of learning. Aware Ss motivated to receive reinforcement gave more "I" and "we" sentences than unmotivated Aware Ss. Contrary to expectation, need for approval was not related to Ss' reinforcement motivation or performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group performance as function of task difficulty and the group's awareness of member satisfaction.

Investigated the hypothesis that group effectiveness increases with increased member awareness of group satisfaction, and that this effect is greater for difficult than for easy tasks. 5-person groups attempted 3 tasks differing in difficulty, under 3 conditions of satisfaction feedback: no feedback, overt feedback, and covert feedback. In the overt condition, Ss publicly indicated their satisfaction with the problem-solving process, whereas in the covert condition their satisfaction was indicated anonymously. The results supported the hypothesis. It was suggested that valid communication of satisfaction leads to more complete use of members' contributions, and hence improves performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in incidental memory as a function of meaningfulness and encoding condition.

Examined incidental memory for words in 30 2nd and 60 6th graders under acoustic- and semantic-processing conditions. When the same list of words (known from normative data to increase in meaningfulness with age) was presented to Ss of both grades, an age-related increase in recall was observed in the semantic but not in the acoustic condition. When meaningfulness of the lists was equivalent across grades, no developmental increase in recall was observed for either encoding condition. Findings were predicted by an associative-processing account of incidental memory previously advanced by the author (see record 1981-31937-001) and indicate that both knowledge base development and processing activity determine children's incidental memory for words. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical utility of the Category Test as a multidimensional instrument.

The construct and criterion validities of the Category Test (CT) were evaluated in 162 participants who had sustained traumatic brain injury and had been screened carefully for confounding factors. Maximum likelihood factor analysis identified 2 latent constructs, consistent with previous research. However, only subtests associated with the Proportional Reasoning factor (Subtests V and VI) demonstrated consistent criterion validity in terms of sensitivity to injury severity. Performance of Subtest III, associated with the Spatial Positioning factor, was in the range of chance for more than a third of the sample, without any relationship to injury variables. It was concluded that the CT has construct validity as a multidimensional instrument but that only the Proportional Reasoning factor has criterion validity in the evaluation of sequelae of traumatic brain injury. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioning and generalization of GSR as a function of awareness.

"This study was essentially a replication of… (an) experiment on the unconscious conditioning of autonomic responses. When… (the previous) methods of data analysis were used, their results in general were confirmed." Limitations and critique of the previous methodology is offered, and its effect on the results obtained is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interactive effects of recruitment practices and product awareness on job seekers' employer knowledge and application behaviors.

In this article, the author draws on research from the literature on marketing and recruitment to identify how recruitment practices and company product awareness are related to job seekers' application behaviors through 3 aspects of job seekers' employer knowledge. Based on results from a within-subject design with data from 123 recruiting companies and 456 student job seekers, the author's findings suggest that the relationships between recruitment strategies and application intentions and decisions are moderated by product awareness. Specifically, low-information recruitment practices are significantly and positively related to application behaviors through employer familiarity and employer reputation when product awareness is low. In contrast, high-information recruitment practices are related to job seekers' application behaviors through employer reputation and job information when product awareness is high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alexithymia, memory of emotion, emotional awareness, and perfectionism.

The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; R. M. Bagby, J. D. A. Parker, & G. J. Taylor, 1994) is a self-assessment instrument designed to measure deficits in metaemotional functioning (e.g., difficulties in identifying and describing emotions). Four studies were carried out to examine the association between the TAS-20 and (a) performance measures of meta-emotional functioning (memory of emotion and emotional awareness; Studies 1-2) and (b) measures of perfectionistic standards that may possibly be involved in the self-assessment of abilities--difficulties (Studies 3-4). The TAS-20 failed to correlate in the predicted direction with the performance measures but showed sizable correlations with measures of perfectionism. Moreover, perfectionism was found to predict TAS-20 scores independent of depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints. The results are discussed in terms of the TAS-20 measuring primarily certain aspects of meta-emotional self-efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time, awareness, and order of presentation in opinion change.

Primacy-recency was investigated as a function of time interval interpolated between the presentation of the opposing arguments and of the level of awareness of the manipulatory intent of the experimenter. Utilizing the pretest—experimental treatment—posttest design, 210 Ss were made differentially aware of the manipulatory intent of the experimenter. Half of the Ss were read the opposing arguments in immediate succession while the other half had a 2-week time interval interpolated between the argument presentations. Results indicated that those Ss who were unaware of manipulatory intent yielded a significant recency effect. Recency was minimized with those Ss who were made differentially aware of manipulatory intent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concave utility, transaction costs, and risk in measuring discounting of delayed rewards.

Research has consistently found that the decline in the present values of delayed rewards as delay increases is better fit by hyperbolic than by exponential delay-discounting functions. However, concave utility, transaction costs, and risk each could produce hyperbolic-looking data, even when the underlying discounting function is exponential. In Experiments 1 (N=45) and 2 (N=103), participants placed bids indicating their present values of real future monetary rewards in computer-based 2nd-price auctions. Both experiments suggest that utility is not sufficiently concave to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions. Experiment 2 provided no evidence that the effects of transaction costs and risk are large enough to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naming speed and phonological awareness as predictors of reading development.

This article investigates how well kindergarten phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed (NS) account for reading development to Grade 5. The authors use regression analyses to predict reading development, with mental ability and prior achievement controlled, and follow the reading development of children having combinations of adequate or inadequate PA and NS. PA was most strongly related to reading in the first 2 years of school, and NS's initially weaker relationship increased with grade level. Children with weak PA and slow NS were most likely to develop reading difficulties by Grade 5, followed by children with slow NS alone. The authors discuss the roles of NS and PA in reading development and the need to clarify the constructs underlying NS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual identity, physical attractiveness and seating position as determinants of influence in discussion groups.

Two experiments are reported which show the importance of sexual identity as a determinant of influence in heterosexual discussion groups. In one study a male confederate was more likely than a female to get an elegant solution to a problem accepted. In general, male subjects were more active and exerted more influence in the group than did females. In the second study the social context of the problems was changed to make them less male-oriented, but a female confederate was still largely unable to get the elegant solution accepted. The physical attractiveness of the confederate had no influence on her effectiveness. Male domination of the discussions continued as before. Finally, there was some indication that sitting at the head of a table in a discussion group makes a person a little more influential in the group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's phonological awareness and nonword repetition as a function of vocabulary development.

The role of vocabulary growth in the development of two reading-related phonological processes was examined. In Experiments 1 and 2, 4- and 5-year-olds and a sample of first graders performed better on phonological awareness tasks for word versus pseudoword stimuli, and for highly familiar versus less familiar words. Three- and 4-year-olds in Experiment 3 performed better for words with many versus few similarly sounding items in a listener's lexicon. Vocabulary was strongly associated with nonword repetition scores for 3- to 5-year olds. The shared variance of this association was accounted for by phonological awareness measures and did not appear to be due to phonological short-term memory, as previously argued. The author proposes that vocabulary growth, defined in terms of absolute size, word familiarity, and phonological similarity relations between word items, helps to explain individual differences in emerging phonological awareness and nonword repetition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contingency, imitation, and affect sharing: Foundations of infants' social awareness.

Predictions about the role of contingency, imitation, and affect sharing in the development of social awareness were tested in infants during natural, imitative, and yoked conditions with their mothers at 5 and 13 weeks of age. Results showed that at both ages, infants of highly attuned mothers gazed, smiled, and vocalized positively more during the natural than during the imitative and yoked conditions, whereas they increased negative vocalizations during the yoked conditions. In contrast, infants of less attuned mothers did not differentiate between the conditions, except at 13 weeks when these infants increased their gazes during the imitative condition. Whereas contingency and imitation draw infant attention to conspecifics, affective communication appears to lay the foundation for infants' social awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Olympic medals as fruits of comparison? Assimilation and contrast in sequential performance judgments.

The authors investigated the evaluative consequences of sequential performance judgments. Recent social comparison research has suggested that performance judgments may be influenced by judgments about a preceding performance. Specifically, performance judgments may be assimilated to judgments of the preceding performance if judges focus on similarities between the two. If judges focus on differences, however, contrast may ensue. The authors examined sequential performance judgments, using data gathered from the 2004 Olympic Games as well as data gathered in the laboratory with students or experienced gymnastics judges as participants. Sequential performance judgments were influenced by previously judged performances, and the direction of this influence depended on the degree of perceived similarity between the successive performances. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Radar target detection as a function of search area and viewing distance.

The detection task employed a 9?-in. plan position indicator (PPI) and simulated targets. 30 Army trainees served as Ss. Each S performed the 9 combinations of viewing distance, (a) 6 ins., (b) 12 ins., (c) 18 ins., and, search area, (a) whole scope, (b) ? scope, and (c) –1–1??-diameter circle within the whole scope. A Treatments X Treatments X Subjects analysis of variance indicated significant main and interaction effects: as viewing distance increases, detection performance is degraded; as search area increases, detection performance is degraded; optimum viewing distance when searching the whole scope is approximately 12 ins., while optimum viewing distance for a small area (–1–1??-in. diameter) within a larger area is 6 ins. or less. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unintended influences of perception and memory: Attention, awareness, and control.

There has been a great deal of recent interest in the finding of dissociations between performance on implicit or indirect and explicit or direct tests of memory. Implicit tests are said to primarily reflect automatic or unconscious uses of memory, whereas explicit tests primarily reflect strategic or consciously-controlled uses of memory. Rather than identify different processes with different tasks, as is done by use of the implicit/explicit distinction, we have developed a method for separating the within-task contributions of unconscious and consciously-controlled influences. Our general approach starts with the assumption that unconscious or automatic influences and consciously-controlled influences make independent contributions to performance. Several experiments were reported to show the utility of the process-dissociation procedures. Among the findings of those experiments is that conditions traditionally associated with automaticity do have differential effects on consciously-controlled and unconscious (automatic) influences, as measured by the process-dissociation procedure. Other experiments were used to illustrate potential advantages of the process-dissociation procedure over reliance on implicit tests as a means of investigating unconscious influences. Still other experiments were briefly described to show that the process-dissociation procedure can be extended to separate the contributions of consciously-controlled and unconscious influences in a wide variety of domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)