Limits on perceptual abstraction in reading: Asymmetric transfer between surface forms differing in typicality.

Examined asymmetric transfer of repetition benefit between 2 easily readable surface forms in 2 experiments and a rating study. Typed 2nd occurrences showed benefit that was similar for words and pseudowords and did not depend on the surface form of the 1st occurrence. Handwritten 2nd occurrences showed benefit only for words, and benefit was larger when 1st occurrences were handwritten than when typed. This pattern, which was unrelated to explicit memory, characterized both naming and lexical decision, and benefit transferred between tasks. These results tax current episodic accounts of repetition benefit that are based on retrieving perceptual records or conceptual interpretations, and they tax strongly abstractionist accounts that are based on extremely general visual analysis. A weakly abstractionist account is described, which is based on ease of retrieving category prototypes by instances of varying typicality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new self-report scale of intrinsic versus extrinsic orientation in the classroom: Motivational and informational components.

Describes a learning orientation scale in which 5 dimensions are defined by an intrinsic and an extrinsic pole: preference for challenge vs preference for easy work, curiosity/interest vs teacher approval, independent mastery attempts vs dependence on the teacher, independent judgment vs reliance on the teacher's judgment, and internal vs external criteria for success/failure. The reliability and factorial validity of the scale have been adequately demonstrated. Additional validity studies with a total of 2,925 Ss in Grades 3–9 are reported. Higher-order factoring yielded 2 distinct clusters of subscales: The 1st 3 dimensions form 1 factor and are interpreted as more motivational in nature; the remaining 2 are viewed as more cognitive–informational in nature. Developmental data show that across Grades 3–9 there was a shift from intrinsic to extrinsic on the 1st motivational cluster. Conversely, there was a dramatic developmental shift from extrinsic to intrinsic on the cognitive–informational cluster. Interpretations for these developmental differences are advanced, and the educational implications are explored. The discussion focuses on the need to be precise in conceptualizing and operationalizing the term "intrinsic motivation." (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repetition blindness, forward and backward.

In these experiments, 2 letters were presented sequentially to the left and right of fixation, followed by pattern masks. Report was cued by spatial location (Experiments 1a, 1b, 2, 4, and 5) or temporal position (Experiments 3, 4, and 5). In all experiments, 2 identical letters on a trial resulted in reduced accuracy of report (repetition blindness; RB) for both the 1st and 2nd presented letters. This decrement was greater for the 2nd letter if subjects expected temporal cues, but tended to be greater for the Ist letter if they expected spatial cues. Analyses of errors and responses on catch trials indicated no bias against report of repetitions, and the repetition decrement did not interact with output order. The data are inconsistent with both type-refractoriness and memory-retrieval accounts of RB. A modified version of N. G. Kanwisher's (1987) token-individuation theory is proposed to account for the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sixteen- and 24-month-olds' use of mutual exclusivity as a default assumption in second-label learning.

The significance of the mutual exclusivity assumption for early word learning has been questioned on 2 accounts: (1) Children learn second labels for objects, which violates the assumption, and (2) evidence documenting use of mutual exclusivity comes mostly from older children. This article addresses both concerns. Use of mutual exclusivity predicts not that learning 2nd labels is impossible but that it is harder than learning 1st labels. To test this, very young children were taught novel labels for objects they either could or could not already name. In Study 1, contrary to predictions, 24-mo-olds learned 1st and 2nd labels equally well. But in Study 2, when children had an additional word to learn, they had trouble learning second (but not first) labels. Similarly, in Study 3, 16-mo-olds who were taught only one new word had trouble learning second labels. Thus, from 16 mo on, mutual exclusivity helps children interpret novel words. Yet, when their processing capacity is not overly taxed, 24-mo-olds can override this default assumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ability to distinguish between comprehension and memory: Failing to succeed.

The authors investigated 1st graders' ability to select the appropriate strategy for constructing a building from memory versus constructing a building while listening to instructions that included an unfamiliar word. In 2 experiments, children's strategy selections (a) preceded any construction attempts, (b) followed failed construction attempts, or (c) followed verbal feedback about construction failures. Long-term strategy maintenance also was assessed. First graders who selected strategies after concrete failure experiences were more likely to select appropriate strategies than children whose strategy selections preceded construction attempts. Failure experiences may help children recognize task goals, assess their inability to achieve these goals, and identify the source of this inability. However, concrete failure experiences did not result in long-term strategy maintenance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nature-nurture in the classroom: entrance age, school readiness, and learning in children

The impact of entrance age on reading and mathematics achievement in 1st grade was examined. Methodological problems with past research were identified, including small size of achievement differences, failure to take background variables into account, and confusion of achievement levels with degree of learning. Using a pre-post design, growth of reading and mathematics was examined in younger 1st graders, older 1st graders, and older kindergarteners. Comparisons of background information on these groups with children who were either held out prior to or retained an extra year in kindergarten, produced minimal background differences. Results revealed that younger 1st graders made as much progress over the school year as did older 1st graders and made far more progress than older kindergarteners. Overall, findings demonstrated that, in itself, entrance age was not a good predictor of learning or academic risk.     

Curiosity and stimulation seeking across the adult life span: Cross-sectional and 6- to 8-year longitudinal findings.

L. M. Giambra (1977–1978, 1979–1980) found that 2 scales of the Imaginal Processes Inventory measuring curiosity (i.e., information seeking) did not change across the adult life span, but 2 measuring stimulation seeking (i.e., boredom) for external stimulation need significantly decreased with age. In this study, these outcomes were replicated (1,356 men and 1,080 women [aged 17–92 yrs]). In addition, a 6- to 8-yr longitudinal repeat was obtained on 222 men and 124 women. Significant longitudinal declines were obtained for the stimulation-seeking measures. Furthermore, women showed an increase in impersonal–mechanical curiosity and a decline in interpersonal curiosity, though the amount of change was modest. Men were unchanged on both curiosity measures. Gender differences in longitudinal changes apparently reflected effects of socialization as well as tendencies toward displaying increased androgyny with advancing age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nature–nurture in the classroom: Entrance age, school readiness, and learning in children.

The impact of entrance age on reading and mathematics achievement in 1st grade was examined. Methodological problems with past research were identified, including small size of achievement differences, failure to take background variables into account, and confusion of achievement levels with degree of learning. Using a pre–post design, growth of reading and mathematics was examined in younger 1st graders, older 1st graders, and older kindergarteners. Comparisons of background information on these groups with children who were either held out prior to or retained an extra year in kindergarten, produced minimal background differences. Results revealed that younger 1st graders made as much progress over the school year as did older 1st graders and made far more progress than older kindergarteners. Overall, findings demonstrated that, in itself, entrance age was not a good predictor of learning or academic risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Heckel's Report.

Comments on "Curiosity in Young Psychologists" by R. V. Heckel (see record 1969-16748-001). This article made for very delightful and informative reading. However, some critical comments need to be made about the study: (1) All of the young psychologists' epistemic curiosity was not necessarily because of a common motive. (2) Contrary to Heckel's implication, the curiosity expressed by the psychologists' requests for reprints does not necessarily derive from the same source as their curiosity about the empty envelope or incomplete letter. (3) Whether curiosity is increased depends on whether or not the additional information is sufficient to resolve the initial epistemic conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Compensation for coarticulation: Disentangling auditory and gestural theories of perception of coarticulatory effects in speech.

According to one approach to speech perception, listeners perceive speech by applying general pattern matching mechanisms to the acoustic signal (e.g., Diehl, Lotto, & Holt, 2004). An alternative is that listeners perceive the phonetic gestures that structured the acoustic signal (e.g., Fowler, 1986). The two accounts have offered different explanations for the phenomenon of compensation for coarticulation (CfC). An example of CfC is that if a speaker produces a gesture with a front place of articulation, it may be pulled slightly backwards if it follows a back place of articulation, and listeners' category boundaries shift (compensate) accordingly. The gestural account appeals to direct attunement to coarticulation to explain CfC, whereas the auditory account explains it by spectral contrast. In previous studies, spectral contrast and gestural consequences of coarticulation have been correlated, such that both accounts made identical predictions. We identify a liquid context in Tamil that disentangles contrast and coarticulation, such that the two accounts make different predictions. In a standard CfC task in Experiment 1, gestural coarticulation rather than spectral contrast determined the direction of CfC. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 demonstrated that tone analogues of the speech precursors failed to produce the same effects observed in Experiment 1, suggesting that simple spectral contrast cannot account for the findings of Experiment 1. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When groups are more competitive than individuals: The domain of the discontinuity effect.

The related goals of the research were to delineate the domain of discontinuity, 1st by demonstrating its occurrence in a nonmatrix situation and, 2nd, by establishing the antecedent outcome conditions necessary for producing a discontinuity effect. The 1st goal was met by designing a mixed motive situation involving the production of origami products. Under these conditions, the magnitude of the discontinuity effect did not significantly differ from that in a matrix-only condition. The 2nd goal was met by a separate experiment that used H. H. Kelley and J. W. Thibaut's (1978) analysis of degree of noncorrespondence of outcomes. This experiment demonstrated that as noncorrespondence increased, so did the rate of competitive responding by groups but not by individuals. This pattern was qualified by an interaction with gender such that competitiveness was more markedly affected by noncorrespondence for groups of women than for groups of men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The embodiment of reconciliation: Order and change in the work of Frederic Bartlett.

Frederic Bartlett (1886-1969) was one of the most prominent figures in British academic psychology during the 20th century. His psychological work has had a mixed reception, but there is no doubt that it continues to be much cited. Bartlett and his work have also attracted considerable historical attention both within history of ideas accounts and in attempts to understand the establishment of British academic psychology. The present article argues that new light can be shed on Bartlett's writings by seeing them as repeatedly grappling with 2 interrelated themes: the preservation of order and the adjustment to changing conditions. The article illustrates the ways in which these themes ran through his major works and informed some of his key theoretical concepts before going on to examine some of the potential sources for these themes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Would reading an account of an event refresh your memory?

Witnesses to an event who have prepared an account of it may be given an opportunity to review this account or to read another account before testifying. The authors investigated the effects of this procedure by using participant accounts and both accurate and misleading experimenter-prepared accounts. Another experimental group did not review any account. Participants given no opportunity to refresh memory were less accurate in free recall than participants who refreshed memory, but they were equally accurate in answering direct questions. Measures of consistency between performance on testing sessions showed that the opportunity to review a self-produced account resulted in more consistent performance than nonreview. Results of this study have important implications in pretrial witness preparation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cardiovascular responses of embarrassment and effects of emotional suppression in a social setting.

The cardiovascular effects of embarrassment and of attempts to suppress embarrassment were examined. In 2 studies, embarrassment was associated with substantial increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure which monotonically increased over a 2-minute embarrassment period. In contrast, heart rate (HR) rose significantly during the 1st minute of embarrassment but returned to baseline levels during the 2nd minute. This pattern of reactivity may be distinctive. The effects of trying to suppress emotion in an interpersonal situation were also tested. Relative to the no-suppression group, suppression participants showed greater blood pressure during embarrassment and during posttask recovery. Suppression did not significantly affect HR. Possible mechanisms for these results, including passive coping, are discussed. Nonverbal behavior was also examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are body dissatisfaction, eating disturbance, and body mass index predictors of suicidal behavior in adolescents? A longitudinal study.

Disordered eating, body dissatisfaction, and obesity have been associated cross sectionally with suicidal behavior in adolescents. To determine the extent to which these variables predicted suicidal ideation and attempts, the authors examined these relationships in a longitudinal design. The study population included 2,516 older adolescents and young adults who completed surveys for Project EAT-II (Time 2), a 5-year follow-up study of adolescents who had taken part in Project EAT (Time 1). Odds ratios for suicidal behaviors at Time 2 were estimated with multiple logistic regression. Predictor variables included Time 1 extreme and unhealthy weight control behaviors (EWCB and UWCB), body dissatisfaction, and body mass index percentile. Suicidal ideation was reported by 15.2% of young men and 21.6% of young women, and suicide attempts were reported by 3.5% of young men and 8.7% of young women. For young women, suicidal ideation at Time 2 was predicted by Time 1 EWCB. The odds ratio for suicide attempts was similarly elevated in young women who had reported EWCB at Time 1. These odds ratios for both suicidal ideation and suicide attempts remained elevated even after controlling for Time 2 depressive symptoms. In young men, EWCB was not associated with suicidal ideation or suicide attempts 5 years later. Body mass index and body dissatisfaction did not predict suicidal ideation or suicide attempts in young men or young women. These results emphasize the importance of EWCB. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The (un)reasonableness of reporting: Antecedents and consequences of reporting sexual harassment.

This study places the reporting of sexual harassment within an integrated model of the sexual harassment process. Two structural models were developed and tested in a sample (N=6,417) of male and female military personnel. The 1st model identifies determinants and effects of reporting; reporting did not improve--and at times worsened--job, psychological, and health outcomes. The authors argue that organizational responses to reports (i.e., organizational remedies, organizational minimization, and retaliation) as well as procedural satisfaction can account for these negative effects. The 2nd model examines these mediating mechanisms; results suggest that these mediators, and not reporting itself, are the source of the negative effects of reporting. Organizational and legal implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Domains of recollection.

Uses data from the literature to explore 4 applied problem areas in long-term memory utilizing the concepts of encoding specificity and levels of processing. The areas are context-dependent memory in deep-sea divers, the problem of enhancing the ability to recognize faces, the attempt to understand amnesia, and the study of word-finding in aphasics. All 4 areas produced some data that fitted neatly into existing concepts, but they also produced results that did not appear readily explicable. To account for these discrepant results, 3 new concepts are introduced. First, the concept of levels is replaced by a more general concept of domains of processing. Second, 2 types of contextual effect are distinguished: interactive context, which influences the memory trace directly by affecting the way in which the stimulus is encoded, and independent context, in which stimulus and context are both processed but do not interact. The 1st type of context is assumed to affect both recall and recognition, whereas the 2nd is readily detected only in recall. Third, a concept of recollection is proposed; this supplements the concept of an automatically cued process of retrieval by assuming active processes of search and evaluation. It is suggested that the study of applied memory problems offers a valuable supplement to more traditional laboratory-bound approaches to cognitive psychology. (2? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suicidal thoughts of women with HIV infection: Effect of stressors and moderating effects of family cohesion.

Associations of suicidality with sociodemographic characteristics, number of HIV-related symptoms, perceived stigma, depressive mood, emotional distress, and family cohesion were investigated in a sample of women with HIV infection. Of 214 women, 56% reported neither suicidal thoughts nor attempts since learning they were HIV infected, 31% reported thoughts but no attempts, and 14% reported both thoughts and attempts. Women who reported suicidal thoughts reported more HIV-related symptoms, more perceived stigma, greater depressive mood, more emotional distress, and less family cohesion than did women who reported no suicidal thoughts; women who reported both thoughts and attempts did not differ from women who reported only thoughts on these variables. Family cohesion moderated the effect of symptoms on thoughts. Those who reported suicidal thoughts reported more HIV-related symptoms only when family cohesion was relatively low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

企业应收账款管理问题的再探讨

应收账款是商业信用的产物,是企业拥有的经过一定期间才能兑现的债权,企业的风险很多是因为销货后客户不能及时收回货款而造成的,因此,应收帐款管理一直是企业正常生产经营的“老大难”问题。将试图从新的视角对应收账款管理的症结进行原因分析,提出加强应收账款管理的对策及措施。     

Logic, beliefs, and instruction: A test of the default interventionist account of belief bias.

According to dual-process accounts of thinking, belief-based responses on reasoning tasks are generated as default but can be intervened upon in favor of logical responding, given sufficient time, effort, or cognitive resource. In this article, we present the results of 5 experiments in which participants were instructed to evaluate the conclusions of logical arguments on the basis of either their logical validity or their believability. Contrary to the predictions arising from these accounts, the logical status of the presented conclusion had a greater impact on judgments concerning its believability than did the believability of the conclusion on judgments about whether it followed logically. This finding was observed when instructional set was presented as a between-participants factor (Experiment 1), when instruction was indicated prior to problem presentation by a cue (Experiment 2), and when the cue appeared simultaneously with conclusion presentation (Experiments 3 and 4). The finding also extended to a range of simple and more complex argument forms (Experiment 5). In these latter experiments, belief-based judgments took significantly longer than those made under logical instructions. We discuss the implications of these findings for default interventionist accounts of belief bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)