The spontaneous use of a group typology as an organizing principle in memory.

Five studies investigated the spontaneous use of group typology in encoding information about various social groups. Participants saw faces or behaviors along with a label indicating the group membership of the face or the behavior. Labels corresponded to 2 groups each of 3 group types (i.e., 2 intimacy groups, 2 task-oriented groups, and 2 social categories). Recognition results showed more within-group-type errors than between-group-types errors. A free-recall task replicated these results, as the sequence of remembering items showed that memory organization reflected the group typology. A final study investigated the effects of group typology on the speed and accuracy of category membership verification. Results demonstrate the spontaneous use of an implicit group typology and its influence on the cognitive organization of information about groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Face-to-face verbal interaction in school-based consultation: A review of the literature.

Reviews the school-based consultation research pertaining to face-to-face verbal interactions between a consultant and a consultee. Drawing from the counseling and psychotherapy literature, 2 types of research methodologies for studying face-to-face interaction are presented. The 1st type, termed content coding, categorizes the content of both consultant and consultee verbalizations and allows for an examination of the relationship between categories of consultee verbalizations as a function of various categories of consultant verbalizations. The 2nd methodology, relational coding, is more reflective of the relationship between participants and categorizes verbalizations relative to the content and intent of the message of the previous speaker. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic and letter fluency in Spanish-English bilinguals.

Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals completed 12 semantic, 10 letter, and 2 proper name fluency categories. Bilinguals produced fewer exemplars than monolinguals on all category types, but the difference between groups was larger (and more consistent) on semantic categories. Bilinguals and monolinguals produced the same number of errors across all category types. The authors discuss 2 accounts of the similarities and differences between groups and the interaction with category type, including (a) cross-language interference and (b) relatively weak connections in the bilingual lexical system because of reduced use of words specific to each language. Surprisingly, bilinguals' fluency scores did not improve when they used words in both languages. This result suggests that voluntary language switching incurs a processing cost. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in the classification of carcinogenic chemicals in the work area. (Section III of the German List of MAK and BAT values)

Carcinogenic chemicals in the work area were previously classified into three categories in section III of the German List of MAK and BAT values (the list of values on maximum workplace concentrations and biological tolerance for occupational exposures). This classification was based on qualitative criteria and reflected essentially the weight of evidence available for judging the carcinogenic potential of the chemicals. In the new classification scheme the former sections IIIA1, IIIA2, and IIIB are retained as categories 1, 2, and 3, to correspond with European Union regulations. On the basis of our advancing knowledge of reaction mechanisms and the potency of carcinogens, these three categories are supplemented with two additional categories. The essential feature of substances classified in the new categories is that exposure to these chemicals does not contribute significantly to the risk of cancer to man, provided that an appropriate exposure limit (MAK value) is observed. Chemicals known to act typically by non-genotoxic mechanisms, and for which information is available that allows evaluation of the effects of low-dose exposures, are classified in category 4. Genotoxic chemicals for which low carcinogenic potency can be expected on the basis of dose/response relationships and toxicokinetics and for which risk at low doses can be assessed are classified in category 5. The basis for a better differentiation of carcinogens is discussed, the new categories are defined, and possible criteria for classification are described. Examples for category 4 (1,4-dioxane) and category 5 (styrene) are presented.     

Development of children's understanding of basic-subordinate inclusion relations.

Four studies focused on developmental differences in the representation of basic-subordinate inclusion relations. Tests of comprehension and production of category names, induction, and responses to direct questions pertaining to inclusion revealed a marked developmental gap between the production of subordinate category names and complete understanding of basic-subordinate inclusion relations. However, even 3-year-olds showed rudimentary knowledge of the asymmetry of inclusion. Discrepancies between children's performance on categorization tasks involving familiar and unfamiliar subordinate categories suggest that understanding of the logical nature of inclusion relations is constructed through the integration of categorical knowledge from familiar domains. Interactions among the knowledge base, pragmatic sensitivity, and information processing efficiency in the development of inclusion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Unavailability of Universal Glass Forming Ability Criterion

The present work examines different glass forming ability criteria (GFA), which distribute into four major categories based on different theories for glassy alloys. Four major categories are based on (i) characteristics transformation temperatures, (ii) Miedema approach, (iii) internal atomic configuration, and (iv) kinetic constraints (viscosity, diffusivity, etc.). Twelve alloys of widely different origin and nature (with respect to number of constituent elements, base element, critical casting thickness, etc.) have been selected for studying the applicability of different GFA criteria of different categories. The experimentally determined critical casting thickness (Z_max) of each alloy has been taken to be the measure of GFA. The best criterion of each category has been identified. Finally, it has been observed that no single criterion of any category alone shows satisfactory correlation with Z_max. However, two criteria of two different categories do not simultaneously fail. It has been concluded that to determine GFA of any random glass forming material, two different criteria of two different categories should be checked. If both results do not indicate similarity in them, GFA must be checked with third criteria of third category.     

Casuistry and Social Category Bias.

This research explored cases where people are drawn to make judgments between individuals based on questionable criteria, in particular those individuals' social group memberships. We suggest that individuals engage in casuistry to mask biased decision making, by recruiting more acceptable criteria to justify such decisions. We present 6 studies that demonstrate how casuistry licenses people to judge on the basis of social category information but appear unbiased--to both others and themselves--while doing so. In 2 domains (employment and college admissions decisions), with 2 social categories (gender and race), and with 2 motivations (favoring an in-group or out-group), the present studies explored how participants justify decisions biased by social category information by arbitrarily inflating the relative value of their preferred candidates' qualifications over those of competitors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's use of sample size and diversity information within basic-level categories

Category-based induction involves making decisions about some member(s) of a category based on information concerning other category members. Recent studies indicate that although adults make use of information concerning sample size (larger samples are a stronger basis of inference than smaller samples) and sample diversity (more diverse samples are better than more homogeneous samples) when making category-based inductive judgments, children do not do so until age 8 or 9 and even then to only a limited degree. This research however, was conducted at the superordinate level of categorization, and it is unclear if general difficulty with this category level may have masked children's ability to use size and diversity, or if these results represent a more entrenched conceptual difficulty in using this information. We therefore conducted three studies that investigate both 8- and 9-year-olds' and adults' ability to use sample size and diversity within basic level categories. Our results indicate that children's difficulty with this information is independent of category level, and may be based on preferences for other strategies concerning category membership and perceptual similarity.     

Relational properties and memory-based category construction.

Although many experiments have investigated factors that constrain perceptual category construction, there have been no investigations of factors that constrain memory-based (MB) category construction. Six experiments examined the extent to which perceptual and MB sorting were influenced by correlated dimensions, family resemblance principles, and conceptual knowledge. Sensitivity to many types of relational information (e.g., correlated features, causal relations, interactive properties of objects, and family resemblance relations) was observed with perceptual sorting, but these properties were rarely used to organize information in MB sorting conditions. Instead, there was a clear preference to organize categories around single dimensions. Even when perfectly correlated features were causally related, Ss in memory conditions did not use correlations to construct categories. The strengths and limitations of MB analyses and categorizations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category Content and Structure in Schizophrenia: An Evaluation Using the Instantiation Principle.

In numerous studies, researchers have suggested anomalies in semantics in patients with schizophrenia. In this study, the authors addressed whether one such anomaly might reflect a difference in knowledge content or in the structure or organization of this information. Using a category member production task and a typicality rating task, the authors assessed knowledge content and found that patients' and control participants' knowledge about categories of foods and animals was very similar. In terms of structure, their findings from a mathematical model of category judgment (the instantiation model; E. Heit & L. W. Barsalou, 1996) revealed a similar category structure in patients and control participants. In conclusion, the authors suggest that the content and organization of categories in patients with schizophrenia is similar to that in healthy control participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of gender to power and involvement in supervision.

Audiotaped supervision sessions from 40 master's level counselor trainees and 40 field placement supervisors were used in a content analytic study of the relation of supervisor and trainee gender to supervisory discourse. The Penman Classification Scheme was used to rate the middle 15 min of supervision on power and involvement dimensions. Classification cells were aggregated to yield high-power, low-power, and high-involvement categories. Transformed proportional data and kappa scores from sequential analysis were used in 2 2?×?2 (Gender?×?Role) multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) to compare dyad types on speaker's use of message categories and patterns of discourse between speakers. Findings indicated that male and female supervisors reinforced female trainees' high-power messages with low-power, encouraging messages significantly less often than for male trainees. Female trainees responded to supervisor low-power, encouraging messages with high-power messages significantly less often than male trainees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Traits and social stereotypes: Levels of categorization in person perception.

A theoretical distinction is made between trait categorization in person perception and categorization by means of well-articulated, concrete social stereotypes. Three studies test the prediction that social stereotypes are both more associatively rich and more distinctive than are trait-defined categories. In Study 1, subjects sorted adjectives related to extraversion and introversion. A cluster analysis using similarity measures derived from the sorting indicated that distinct social stereotypes were associated with each trait. This supports and extends earlier findings (Cantor & Mischel, 1979). In Study 2, subjects generated attributes of the trait categories and stereotypes that emerged in Study 1. More nonredundant attributes, especially visible features, were listed for the stereotypes than for the trait categories. Study 3 elicited the explicit associative structure of traits and related stereotypes by having subjects rate the association between a series of attributes (derived from the responses in Study 2) and each category label. Results showed that social stereotypes have distinctive features that are not shared with the related trait category, whereas trait categories share virtually all of their features with related stereotypes. The implications of the trait/stereotype distinction for social information processing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meeting with clay: Individual narratives, self-reflection, and action.

The arts-based qualitative research presented in this article explores the interaction between nonartists and a specific art material, clay, and on reflection, the meaning that they make from this interaction. The aspect of meaning making focused on relates to a typology of thinking and doing strategies that emerged from the research. Thinking and doing are seen as 2 aspects of a creative process here with clay, which are interdependent. The thinking category encompasses 4 groups in which the participants employ different modes of thinking strategies. Different modes of thinking create a different kind of doing with the material. These "dialogues" between creator and material can be seen to exemplify individual ways of "making sense" in the interaction between sensing, feeling, thinking, and doing; and the material, in which structure, process, content, and meaning intertwine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 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)     

Supervised and unsupervised learning of multidimensional acoustic categories.

Learning to recognize the contrasts of a language-specific phonemic repertoire can be viewed as forming categories in a multidimensional psychophysical space. Research on the learning of distributionally defined visual categories has shown that categories defined over 1 dimension are easy to learn and that learning multidimensional categories is more difficult but tractable under specific task conditions. In 2 experiments, adult participants learned either a unidimensional or a multidimensional category distinction with or without supervision (feedback) during learning. The unidimensional distinctions were readily learned and supervision proved beneficial, especially in maintaining category learning beyond the learning phase. Learning the multidimensional category distinction proved to be much more difficult and supervision was not nearly as beneficial as with unidimensionally defined categories. Maintaining a learned multidimensional category distinction was only possible when the distributional information that identified the categories remained present throughout the testing phase. We conclude that listeners are sensitive to both trial-by-trial feedback and the distributional information in the stimuli. Even given limited exposure, listeners learned to use 2 relevant dimensions, albeit with considerable difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual and empirical analysis of the typological implications of patterns of socialization and femininity.

Argues that if a typological system is to be more than an efficient means of communication, if it is to have predictive and explanatory power superior to approaches that make no assumptions about categories, the existence of discontinuities in the relevant data must be established empirically. Two forms of discontinuity are discussed: (a) discontinuities in the univariate or joint distributions of the variables that define the types and (b) discontinuities (configurality) in relationships with variables external to the system. It has been suggested that the Socialization and Femininity scales of the California Psychological Inventory can be combined to yield distinct types of individuals, but analyses of 2 data sets failed to reveal either form of discontinuity. Rather, the data are best understood as reflecting a linear additive combination of 2 continuous dimensions. At present, there does not seem to be any typology in personality research that is demonstrably more than a simplifying way of talking about complex, continuous data. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)