Expectancy and pharmacological effects of alcohol on human cognitive and motor performance: The compensation for alcohol effect.

42 male undergraduate social drinkers were led to expect either alcohol or tonic. After actually consuming no alcohol, a low dosage, or a moderate dosage, they performed various cognitive and motor tasks. A questionnaire assessed Ss' responses to the expectancy manipulation and either preceded or followed task administration. A 2?×?3?×?2 MANOVA resulted in a significant Expectancy?×?Dosage interaction for cognitive tasks (letter cancellation, digit span, Raven Progressive Matrices). Ss apparently compensated for alcohol-induced deterioration on these tasks when they were aware they had consumed alcohol. No consistent effects were found for motor tasks (finger tapping, stylus monitoring, standing steadiness, and walking steadiness). (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of institutional room acoustics on speech discrimination of developmentally disabled residents and of staff.

High ambient noise levels and long reverberation times can degrade speech discrimination. An experiment examined the effects on speech discrimination of 2 acoustic factors: (a) noise level (high, 72 db; low, 65 db); and (b) reverberation times (long, 1.77 sec; short, .79 sec). Ss were 12 developmentally disabled state school residents and 12 normal staff members. Their speech discrimination abilities were tested under conditions simulating the institutional environment prior to renovations (high noise/long reverberation time) and following renovations (low noise/short reverberation time). A 3-way mixed ANOVA showed main effects of noise, reverberation time, and group. There was a Noise?×?Group interaction and a significant difference between simulated prerenovation and postrenovation conditions. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of missing application-blank information on personnel selection decisions: Do privacy protection strategies bias the outcome?

Using a 3?×?2?×?2 experimental design and data from 188 managers and professionals, this study examined the main and interactive effects of information management strategy (missing information vs. no reported conviction vs. reported conviction), race of the applicant (White vs. Black), and job type (cashier vs. road laborer) on ratings of an applicant's qualifications and likelihood of job success. For the qualification criterion, there were significant main effects for information management strategy and job type. In the case of the success criterion, there were significant main effects for information management strategy and job type and two significant two-way interactions. Constraints on the generalizability of the findings to personnel decision making in actual organizational contexts are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of contextual organization on prose retention.

The effects of 2 types of contextual organization on retention of vague prose materials were investigated employing a multivariate step-down procedure. 102 college students were given either no prepassage, a thematic prepassage, or a topic sentence prepassage followed by an ambiguous passage in either superordinate or coordinate context. The thematic prepassage facilitated performance on a rigorously scored free-recall measure and a multiple-choice measure. Superordinate contextual organization facilitated performance on 2 less rigorous dependent variables. Results are discussed in terms of the storage, retrieval, and sentence generation effects of each manipulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological androgyny and the Masculinity?×?Femininity interaction.

Clarifies 3 proposed models of psychological androgyny, since recent discussions have been flawed by misunderstandings of the nature of statistical interaction. The additive model predicts main effects of masculinity (M) and femininity (F). The balance model predicts only M?×?F interaction. The emergent properties model predicts by effects and M?×?F interaction. The interaction effect assessed in a 2?×?2 ANOVA by a multiplicative M?×?F term in regression is compared with the absolute value of the M?×?F difference in regression. It is concluded that ANOVA and multiplicative interaction terms are generally satisfactory operationalizations of balance (though each has strengths and weaknesses), whereas the absolute difference term yields unpredictable results and should be avoided in most situations. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On mental multiplication and age.

In 2 experiments, younger and older adults were presented with simple multiplication problems (e.g., 4?×?7?=?28 and 5?×?3?=?10) for their timed, true or false judgments. All of the effects typically obtained in basic research on mental arithmetic were obtained, that is, reaction time (RT) (1) increased with the size of the problem, (2) was slowed for answers deviating only a small amount from the correct value, and (3) was slowed when related (e.g., 7?×?4?=?21) vs unrelated (e.g., 7?×?4?=?18) answers were presented. Older adults were slower in their judgments. Most important, age did not interact significantly with problem size or split size. The authors suggest that elderly adults' central processes, such as memory retrieval and decision making, did not demonstrate the typical age deficit because of the skilled nature of these processes in simple arithmetic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Male and female counselor and client perceptions of four levels of counselor touch.

60 male and 60 female counselors (aged 20–63 yrs) and 60 male and 60 female clients (aged 19–65 yrs) from the outpatient mental health clinic of a military hospital each evaluated a videotaped vignette of a counselor–client interaction with 1 of 4 counselor touch conditions depicted: no touch, touch of client's hand, touch of client's shoulder, semi-embrace. Dependent measures were a counselor rating form and a personal attribute inventory. Three-way multivariate analyses of variance (treatment?×?S gender?×?S's client vs counselor status) yielded no significant interactions. However, significance was obtained for the main effects of treatment and S's client vs counselor status. Subsequent analyses revealed that the counselor in the semi-embrace condition was perceived as less trustworthy than those in any of the other conditions. Also, clients perceived the videotaped counselor as more expert, attractive, and trustworthy than did counselors. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measurements of the behavioral effects of albino mutation in mice (Mus musculus): Comparisons of coisogenic inbred and hybrid lines.

The effects of the albino gene on mouse behavior were examined, particularly its possible interactions with nonallelic genes (epistasis). More generally, the possible effects of genetic background (inbreeding depression or hybrid vigor) on the effects of the mutation were also considered. Tasks requiring either predominantly motor or predominantly cognitive capacity were studied for coisogenic albino and pigmented mice from either an inbred strain (C57BL/6 c/c vs C57BL/6 +/c) or an F? heterozygous generation (F? c/c vs F? +/c) from a BALB/c?×?C57BL/6 +/c cross. Results show a clear albino gene effect in the 2 lines and provide further evidence that the gene is the effective factor. There was no significant interaction between the mutation and the genotypic group (C57BL/6 or F?), which indicates that the effects of the mutation act approximately in an additive fashion between loci in these groups. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of uniform and religious status on interviewees.

Assessed the effects of uniform and religious status of interviewers on male and female Catholic and non-Catholic interviewees. 128 16–21 yr old Ss had interviews with a nun dressed either in lay clothing or a habit or with a non-nun dressed either in lay clothing or a habit. The design was a 4?×?2?×?2 factorial. The main effects were the 4 interviewer combinations (Religious Status?×?Dress), sex of interviewee, and religious preference of interviewee. The dependent variables were length of interview and scores on an attitude measure, an experience scale, and an interviewer rating scale. ANOVAs revealed significant main effect differences in (a) length of interview (interviewees spent more time speaking to nuns dressed in a habit) and (b) interviewee attitude (female interviewees responded more conservatively than males, Catholics responded more conservatively than non-Catholics, and all Ss responded more conservatively to nuns than non-nuns). (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Asian-American cultural identity and attitudes toward mental health services.

557 Asian-American students (263 Chinese Americans, 185 Japanese Americans, and 109 Korean Americans) completed a survey consisting of a demographic questionnaire, a modified version of the Suinn-Lew Asia Self-Identity Acculturation Scale, and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPHS). A 3?×?2?×?2 multivariate analysis with main effects of ethnicity, gender, and level of acculturation and the 4 subscales of the ATSPHS as the dependent variables resulted in a significant F value for acculturation effect and nonsignificant F values for all other main and interaction effects. Regardless of ethnicity and gender, the most acculturated students were: (a) most likely to recognize personal need for professional psychological help, (b) most tolerant of the stigma associated with psychological help, and (c) most open to discussing their problems with a psychologist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attribution of responsibility to the self and other in children and adults.

240 Ss from 5 age groups (6–7.5, 8–9.5, 10–11.5, 12–13.5 yrs and adult graduate and undergraduate students) were administered stories representing F. Heider"s (1958) criteria for responsibility attribution under 1 of 2 conditions—the actor was either a hypothetical other or the self. As predicted, an Age?×?Stimulus Level interaction was found, although its nature differed for attribution of blame and causality. In relation to the moral judgment measure, a further interaction of Story Character?×?Age was found, and response patterns formed a Guttman scalogram. However, scale types were not clearly age linked. Although these data confirm the utility of Heider"s responsibility-attribution criteria, no strong evidence was obtained to support a developmental interpretation of his theory. Results are also discussed in terms of Piagetian research and an extension of Heider"s schema. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disruptive effects of disconfirmed expectancies about crowding.

Utilized a 2 (high vs low room density)?×?2 (forewarning of a crowded room vs no forewarning)?×?2 (simple vs complex task) design to examine the effects of anticipation of crowding on task performance of 80 undergraduates. More tasks were attempted and efficiency was higher when expectancies about the crowd were confirmed. Ss not told to anticipate a crowd who actually worked under high density and Ss warned about a crowd that did not materialize performed most poorly. These differences were largest for the complex task. The results of A. Baum and C. I. Greenberg (see PA, Vol 56:2328) were replicated with the performance data. Perceptions of the experimental room also differed as a function of anticipation, but failure to obtain a Crowding?×?Anticipation interaction did not support their hypothesis that anticipating a crowd induces perceptions identical to those obtained under actual crowding. Results are discussed in terms of disconfirmed expectancies being disruptive of performance, particularly complex task performance. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Handwriting performance in younger and older adults: Age, familiarity, and practice effects.

The main goals of 2 experiments on the aging of handwriting skills were to investigate (1) age differences in speed of handwriting performance, (2) effects of task familiarity on age differences in performance, and (3) effects of practice on age differences in performance. Younger adults performed reliably faster than older adults on all tasks. An Age?×?Familiarity interaction in both experiments indicated that age differences were magnified for unfamiliar but attenuated for familiar tasks. In the 2nd experiment, an Age?×?Trial interaction revealed that older adults improved at a faster rate than younger adults. Regressions with initial trial data indicated that the older were slower than the younger adults by a factor of about 1.6. With practice, however, this slowing factor was only 1.02. Results suggest that familiarity and practice play a role in speed of handwriting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interaction model of anxiety: An empirical test in an examination situation.

Tested the interaction model of anxiety in an examination situation. 56 undergraduates completed the self-report Behavioral Reactions Questionnaire (BRQ), a measure of A-state, and measured their pulse rates prior to an important psychology exam. Under nonstressful conditions 2 wks later, Ss again completed the BRQ and measured their pulse rate. In addition they completed the S–R Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness (S–R GTA), a measure of A-trait. The differential hypothesis of the interaction model of anxiety predicted a significant interaction between interpersonal (ego-threatening) A-trait (high vs low) and the ego-threatening situation (exam), in affecting A-state arousal, but no significant interaction between the other facets of A-trait (physical danger, ambiguous, and innocuous) and the threatening exam situation. When pulse rate was used as the dependent variable, the congruent Interpersonal A-Trait?×?ego-stress exam situation interaction was significant. None of the remaining 6 noncongruent person-by-situation interactions was significant except for the Physical Danger A-Trait?×?Situation interaction for BRQ scores. The pulse rates results confirmed the differential predictions of the interaction model of anxiety. Ss responded differentially to the 4 situations of the GTA, and in general the results provide confirmation for the multidimensionality of A-trait. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of age, tenure, training, and job complexity on technical performance.

Effects on performance of age, tenure, training level, and job complexity were investigated in a cross-sectional study using a sample of 1,308 service engineers employed by a multinational office equipment company. Two measures of job performance were derived from production record data, one relating to the quality of servicing and the other to the speed with which services were completed. Scores for each performance measure were analyzed by analysis of variance. For the quality of servicing measure, a significant main effect of age and a significant Age?×?Training interaction were obtained, and the relation between age and job performance took the form of an inverted U. For the speed of servicing measure, the main effects of age, tenure, training level, and job complexity were significant and there were no significant interactions. However, for both performance measures, age accounted for only a very small proportion of the variance. We discuss these results with reference to the existing literature on age and technical job performance, and conclude that training, especially if it is recent, may moderate adverse effects of age on job performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of anonymity on student evaluations of faculty performance.

Studied the main and interactive effects of anonymity and professor on student ratings of faculty performance. Ratings of faculty performance were obtained from 244 undergraduates in 7 classes using a 20-item rating form with Positive Item Total (PIT) and Negative Item Total (NIT) subscales. Results show main effects for professor for both the scales. Hypothesized main effects for anonymity were insignificant for both the PIT and NIT scales. The Anonymity?×?Professor interaction was marginally significant for the PIT scale, but not for the NIT scale. Implications for practices associated with the collection of rating data from students are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Choice behavior in social dilemmas: Effects of social identity, group size, and decision framing.

Social dilemmas appear in 2 basic forms: the public goods (PG) problem, in which the individual must decide whether to contribute to a common resource, and the commons dilemma (CD), in which the individual must decide whether to take from a common resource. The 2 forms of choice dilemma are equivalent in terms of outcomes, but because they involve different decision frames, they are not psychologically equivalent. The present experiment, with 88 undergraduates, examined framing effects on decisions involving use of a common resource pool in a 2?×?2?×?2 (PG vs CD task structure?×?small vs large group size?×?individualistic vs collective social identity) factorial design. That the 2 versions of the decision task were not psychologically equivalent was evidenced both by a main effect of task structure and by interactions involving task structure, group size, and social identity. Overall, Ss kept more of the common resource for themselves under the PG version of the task than under the CD frame. Under the CD structure, group size had no effect on choice behavior, but in the PG version, Ss in large groups kept more than did individuals in small groups. As the resource pool was depleted, the social identity manipulation had opposite effects for large groups under CD and PG frames. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic and attentional priming in young and older adults: Reevaluation of the two-process model.

Three experiments addressed the distinction between automatic and attentional mechanisms underlying semantic priming effects by factorially crossing prime–target relatedness, expectancy, and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in a task (pronunciation) that minimized postlexical checking processes. Also, possible age-related (young vs older adults) differences in the automatic and attentional mechanisms were addressed. Across all experiments there was evidence of a Relatedness?×?Expectancy?×?SOA interaction, which is inconsistent with the notion of independent automatic and attentional mechanisms in semantic priming and the notion of a self-incapsulated modular lexicon. The results also indicated age-related differences in the build-up of the expectancy effect across SOAs when the prime was visually available for only 200 msec, independently of the prime–target SOA (Exp 1 and 3), but not when the prime was visually available throughout the SOA (Exp 2). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sociability: Traits, settings, and interactions.

Sociability, measured behaviorally as verbal participation in an unstructured conversation, was expected to be greater for Ss who were affiliative and exhibitionistic but not defensive (traits); for "sociopetal" seating arrangements and for greater environment-elicited pleasure, arousal, and dominance (settings); and for interactions among and between these trait and setting measures. In a study with 60 undergraduates, sociability did increase with the traits of affiliativeness and exhibitionism, the setting variables of pleasure and arousal, 1 Person?×?Person interaction, and 1 Setting?×?Setting interaction. However, seating arrangements and 12 Person?×?Setting interactions were unrelated to sociability; assertions that Person?×?Setting interactions account for large portions of variance in behavior are unsupported. Instead, results suggest that more attention should be paid to the predictive utility of interactions among person measures and among setting measures. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)