Directions In Psychological Science Research Articles

Span, CRUNCH, and beyond: working memory capacity and the aging brain.

Neuroimaging data emphasize that older adults often show greater extent of brain activation than younger adults for similar objective levels of difficulty. A possible interpretation of this finding is that older adults need to recruit neuronal resources at lower loads than younger adults, leaving no resources for higher loads, and thus leading to performance decrements [Compensation-Related Utilization of Neural Circuits Hypothesis; e.g., Reuter-Lorenz, P. A., & Cappell, K. A. Neurocognitive aging and the compensation hypothesis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 177-182, 2008]. The Compensation-Related Utilization of Neural Circuits Hypothesis leads to the prediction that activation differences between younger and older adults should disappear when task difficulty is made subjectively comparable. In a Sternberg memory search task, this can be achieved by assessing brain activity as a function of load relative to the individual's memory span, which declines with age. Specifically, we hypothesized a nonlinear relationship between load and both performance and brain activity and predicted that asymptotes in the brain activation function should correlate with performance asymptotes (corresponding to working memory span). The results suggest that age differences in brain activation can be largely attributed to individual variations in working memory span. Interestingly, the brain activation data show a sigmoid relationship with load. Results are discussed in terms of Cowan's [Cowan, N. The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87-114, 2001] model of working memory and theories of impaired inhibitory processes in aging.

Measurement of occupational humorous coping

AbstractThe aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a Questionnaire of Occupational Humorous Coping (QOHC), partly based on the model of emotion regulation by Gross (Current Directions in Psychological Science 10: 214–219, 2001). Items intended to measure antecedent-focused, response-focused, and affiliative and aggressive-manipulative humorous coping methods were generated. Preliminary studies led to improvements in the questionnaire and to the removal of items controlling for acquiescence bias. Principal axis factoring with oblique rotation on a large sample yielded four stable and reliable factors: an antecedent-focused, a response-focused, an aggressive-manipulative and an affiliative instrumental humorous coping factor. Convergent and discriminant validity with existing humorous coping and other sense of humor measures (the CHS, the MSHS and the HSQ) was satisfactory, but not always in the expected direction. Antecedent-focused and generic humorous coping (CHS) were weakly associated with job-related positive affect and well-being; for the self-enhancing humor style these associations were moderate. Aggressive-manipulative, response-focused and generic humorous coping (CHS) showed weak associations with negative job-related affect. The findings are explained in terms of assessment issues and possible moderating effects of humorous coping.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Nature of Contemporary Prejudice: Insights from Aversive Racism

Intergroup bias is one of the most actively researched topics in the field of social psychology. Hundreds of books and thousands of research articles have addressed this issue over more than half a century. Although the psychological roots of blatant prejudices are well documented, the development of more subtle and often unintentional forms in societies in which its expression is discouraged poses new and unique challenges to the pursuit of justice and equality in contemporary society. Our interests in the psychological underpinnings of prejudice as researchers and educators are both practical and conceptual. On the practical side, understanding the nature of contemporary forms of prejudice has clear implications for developing effective techniques for combating bias and discrimination. In 1967, nearly 3 years after the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, race riots in the United States prompted the Kerner Commission to investigate the sources of racial tension. Upon the conclusion of its investigation, the commission cited White America’s failure to assist Blacks in need, rather than actively trying to harm Blacks, as a primary cause of racial disparities and, ultimately, civil unrest (Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 1968). Indeed, it was research on the differential helping behavior of politically liberal Whites toward Black and White motorists who were stranded on a highway that represented the first empirical work on aversive racism (Gaertner, 1973). Considerable subsequent research on aversive racism has revealed that the consequences of subtle bias can be as severe and pernicious as those of blatant prejudice. Conceptually, the complexities of contemporary forms of prejudice and recent advances in techniques and tools for studying non-conscious biases make this research area an exciting and challenging one. We hope that this guide can help orient educators to the many excellent resources that exist and convey our enthusiasm for exploring what psychological methods and theories can contribute to understanding one of the most challenging social issues faced in contemporary society.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Group Norms and the Attitude–Behaviour Relationship

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Group Norms and the Attitude–Behaviour Relationship

Making sense of autism. T. Thompson. Brookes, Baltimore, London, 2007. pp. 280. Price: US$26.99; £21.95. ISBN 9781557669155.

Infant and Child DevelopmentVolume 18, Issue 4 p. 372-374 Book ReviewFree Access Making sense of autism. T. Thompson. Brookes, Baltimore, London, 2007. pp. 280. Price: US$26.99; £21.95. ISBN 9781557669155. Elizabeth Pellicano, Elizabeth Pellicano Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UKSearch for more papers by this author Elizabeth Pellicano, Elizabeth Pellicano Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UKSearch for more papers by this author First published: 22 July 2009 https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.606AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. References Charman, T., Taylor, E., Drew, A., Cockerill, H., Brown, J. A., & Baird, G. (2005). Outcome at 7 years of children diagnosed with autism at age 2: Predictive validity of assessments conducted at 2 and 3 years of age and pattern of symptom change over time. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 500– 513. Dawson, G., Webb, S. J., & McPartland, J. (2005). Understanding the nature of the face processing impairment in autism: Insights from behavioral and electrophysiological studies. Developmental Neuropsychology, 27, 403– 424. Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217– 250. Lord, C., Risi, S., DiLavore, P., Shulman, C., Thurm, A., & Pickles, A. (2006). Autism from two to nine. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63, 694– 701. Mottron, L., Dawson, M., Soulières, I., Hubert, B., & Burack, J. (2006). Enhanced perceptual functioning in autism: An update, and eight principles of autistic perception. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 27– 43. Pellicano, E., Maybery, M., Durkin, K., & Maley, A. (2006). Multiple cognitive capabilities/deficits in children with an autism spectrum disorder: ‘Weak’ central coherence and its relationship to theory of mind and executive control. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 77– 98. Tager-Flusberg, H. (2007). Evaluating the theory of mind hypothesis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 311– 315. Volume18, Issue4July/August 2009Pages 372-374 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Change in background context disrupts performance on visual paired comparison following hippocampal damage

The medial temporal lobe plays a critical role in recognition memory but, within the medial temporal lobe, the precise neural structures underlying recognition memory remain equivocal. In this study, visual paired comparison (VPC) was used to investigate recognition memory in a human patient (YR), who had a discrete lesion of the hippocampus, and a group of monkeys with neonatal hippocampal lesions, which included the dentate gyrus, and a portion of parahippocampal region. Participants were required to view a picture of an object on a coloured background. Immediately afterwards, this familiar object was shown again, this time paired with a novel object. All participants displayed a novelty preference, provided the background on which the objects were shown was the same as the one used during the learning phase. When the background of the familiar object was changed between initial familiarization and test, only the control subjects showed a novelty preference; the hippocampal-lesioned monkeys and patient YR showed null preference. The results are interpreted within Eichenbaum and Bunsey's [Eichenbaum, H., & Bunsey, M. (1995). On the binding of associations in memory: Clues from studies on the role of the hippocampal region in paired-associate learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4, 19–23] proposal that the hippocampus facilitates the formation of a flexible representation of the elements that make up a stimulus whereas the parahippocampal region is involved in the formation of a fused representation.

From the Editors Publishing Laboratory Research inAMJ: A Question of When, Not If

From the Editors Publishing Laboratory Research in<i>AMJ</i>: A Question of When, Not If

Are the unskilled really that unaware? An alternative explanation

In a series of articles and manuscripts (e.g., [Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1121–1134; Dunning, D., Johnson, K., Ehrlinger, J., & Kruger, J. (2003). Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 83–87; Ehrlinger, J., Johnson, K., Banner, M., Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (2008). Why the unskilled are unaware: Further exploration of (absent) self-insight among the incompetent. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 98–121.]), Dunning, Kruger and their collaborators argued that the unskilled lack the metacognitive ability to realize their incompetence. We propose that the alleged unskilled-and-unaware problem – rather than being one of biased judgements – is a signal extraction problem that differs for the skilled and the unskilled. Specifically, the unskilled face a tougher inference problem than the skilled.

Postscript: Evidence and counterevidence.

matic stress disorder. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 229–252. McNally, R. J., Perlman, C. A., Ristuccia, C. S., & Clancy, S. A. (2006). Clinical characteristics of adults reporting repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 237–242. Monroe, S. M., & Mineka, S. (2008). Placing the mnemonic model in context: Diagnostic, theoretical, and clinical considerations. Psychological Review, 115, 1084–1098. Mulligan, N. W. (1998). The role of attention during encoding in implicit and explicit memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24, 27–47. Murray, J., Ehlers, A., & Mayou, R. A. (2002). Dissociation and posttraumatic stress disorder: Two prospective studies of road traffic accident survivors. British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 363–368. Oyama, S. (2000). The ontogeny of information: Developmental systems and evolution (2nd ed.). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Pitman, R. K., & Delahanty, D. L. (2005). Conceptually driven pharmacologic approaches to acute trauma. CNS Spectrums: The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine, 10, 99–106. Porter, S., & Birt, A. R. (2001). Is traumatic memory special? A comparison of traumatic memory characteristics with memory for other emotional life experiences. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 15, 101–118. Rosen, G. M., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2008). Posttraumatic stress disorder: An empirical evaluation of core assumptions. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 837–868. Rosen, G. M., Spitzer, L. R., & McHugh, P. R. (2008). Problems with the post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis and its future in the DSM-V. British Journal of Psychiatry, 192, 3–4. Rubin, D. C. (2006). The basic systems model of episodic memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 277–311. Rubin, D. C., Boals, A., & Berntsen, D. (in press). Memory in posttraumatic stress disorder: Properties of voluntary and involuntary, traumatic and nontraumatic autobiographical memories in people with and without PTSD symptoms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Scott, W. J. (1990). PTSD in DSM-III: A case in the politics of diagnosis and disease. Social Problems, 37, 294–309. Shobe, K. K., & Kihlstrom, J. F. (1997). Is traumatic memory special? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 70–74. Spitzer, R. L., Rosen, G. M., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2008). Revisiting the Institute of Medicine report on the validity of posttraumatic stress disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 49, 319–320. Whetten, D. A. (1989). What constitutes a theoretical contribution? Academy of Management Review, 14, 490–495. Woodward, J. (2003). Making things happen: A theory of causal explanation. New York: Oxford University Press. Yehuda, R., & McFarlane, A. C. (1995). Conflict between current knowledge about posttraumatic stress disorder and its original conceptual basis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 1705–1713. Young, A. (1995). The harmony of illusions: Inventing post-traumatic stress disorder. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Associations Between Key Language-Related Measures in Typically Developing School-Age Children

Associations Between Key Language-Related Measures in Typically Developing School-Age Children

Openness to Experience and regulatory focus: Evidence of motivation from fit

Regulatory fit occurs when one’s strategies of goal pursuit sustain one’s interests in an activity, which can enhance motivation [e.g., Higgins, E. T. (2005). Value from regulatory fit. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 209–213]. Because the strategic inclinations of people high (low) in Openness are similar to those of people in a promotion (prevention) focus, regulatory fit should be possible. We found that people higher in Openness were more motivated to pursue promotion-related goals (hopes/aspirations in Study 1 and a gain-framed goal in Study 2) and less motivated to pursue prevention-related goals (duties/obligations in Study 1 and a loss-framed goal in Study 2). We discuss how other traits might relate to motivation to pursue promotion- and prevention-related goals as well as other future research directions for regulatory focus and Openness.

The Neurobiology of Reading and Dyslexia

The Neurobiology of Reading and Dyslexia

Report on the Advanced Research and Training Seminars (ARTS) 2006

The Advanced Research Training Seminars (ARTS) program, co-sponsored by the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), and the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) provides intensive training in research methodologies and new directions in psychological science to early career scholars from low income countries. ARTS seminars have been held biennially since 1992 in conjunction with and near the location of major international congresses of psychology (the InternationalCongress of Psychology, the InternationalCongress ofApplied Psychology, and the InternationalCongress ofCrosscultural Psychology).

Learning How to Believe: Epistemic Development in Cultural Context

Learning How to Believe: Epistemic Development in Cultural Context

Hemispheric differences in strong versus weak semantic priming: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Goals Research with lateralized word presentation has suggested that strong (“close”) and weak (“remote”) semantic associates are processed differently in the left and right cerebral hemispheres [e.g., Beeman, M. j., & Chiarello, C. (1998). Complementary right- and left-hemisphere language comprehension. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 7(1), 2–8]. Recently, this hypothesis has been challenged [Coney, J. (2002). The effect of associative strength on priming in the cerebral hemispheres. Brain and Cognition, 50(2), 234–241]. We predicted that foveal presentation of strong and weak associates would elicit different patterns of hemispheric activity, as indexed by high-density event-related brain potentials (ERPs), and that source localization of the scalp potentials would help clarify the nature of hemispheric contributions to semantic organization. Methods 128-channel ERPs were recorded in two experiments as subjects performed a lexical decision task. Word trials were equally divided into strongly related, weakly related, and unrelated word pairs. All words were foveally presented. SOA was 800ms in Experiment 1, and 200ms in Experiment 2. Results Topographic analyses revealed medial frontal (MFN) and parietal (N400/LPC) effects for both strong and weak associates. Between ∼450 and 550 ms, the magnitude of the N400/LPC effect indicated priming for both strong and weak associates over left parietal sites, while priming over right parietal sites was restricted to strongly related word pairs. During this interval, spatiotemporal source modeling showed that these scalp effects were best accounted for by ipsilateral sources in the medial temporal lobe. The observed pattern of asymmetries for strong versus weak associates is not consistent with certain proposals regarding the complementarity of right- and left-hemisphere contributions to semantics. It is, however, consistent with findings from visual half-field studies (Hasbrooke and Chiarello, 1998). We discuss the relevance of these results for theories of hemispheric asymmetry and meta-control in lexical semantic access.

Understanding and Facilitating the Youth Mentoring Movement

Understanding and Facilitating the Youth Mentoring Movement

When Familiar Social Partners are Selected in Open-Ended Situations: Further Tests of the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

ABSTRACT Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen, 1995, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4, 151–156) predicts that novel social partners are preferred in open-ended situations, whereas familiar social partners are preferred in future-limited situations. The authors attempted to generalize past research to new familiar and novel partner options. Studies 1 (N = 144; undergraduates, community-dwelling adults ages 65 to 95) and 2 (N = 336 community-dwelling participants ages 11 to 89) indicated that young and older participants in a future-limited situation preferred familiar partners. However, with different social partner options than have been used in previous research, young participants in an open-ended situation also preferred a familiar partner, contrary to the predictions of SST.

Acts of perceptual inquiry: problems for any stimulus-based simplicity theory

Stimulus-specified simplicity is simply insufficient to predict the appearance of objects’ 3D forms and figural shapes, etc., as originally intended. Which information a viewer chooses to attend can determine both what 3D structure is perceived and its attendant perceptual consequences; moreover, a shape’s meaningfulness or denotivity [M.A. Peterson, Current Directions in Psychological Science 3 (1994) 105] can overcome simplicity-based figure–ground segregation. In both cases, perceptual consequences, such as subsequent perceived movements, are constrained or primed in ways that can help us corroborate and define what the viewer has perceived; that may help us in studying the underlying events in brain processing; and that should help in designing such perceptual applications as still and animated displays. Demonstrations, theoretical framework, and potential research tools are offered.

Do You Believe In Magic?: What We Can Expect From Early Childhood Intervention Programs

Do You Believe In Magic?: What We Can Expect From Early Childhood Intervention Programs

Planning and Self-Efficacy in the Adoption and Maintenance of Breast Self-Examination: A Longitudinal Study on Self-Regulatory Cognitions

Many women may be reluctant to perform breast self-examination (B.S.E.) regularly due to motivational or self-regulatory deficits. The Health Action Process Approach (Schwarzer, R. (1992). Self-efficacy in the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors: theoretical approaches and a new model. In: Schwarzer, R. (Ed.), Self-efficacy: Thought Control of Action , pp. 217-243. Hemisphere, Washington DC; Schwarzer, R. (2001). Social-cognitive factors in changing health-related behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 10 , 47-51.), a health behavior change model that advocates the separation of motivation and action phases, such as goal setting and goal pursuit, was applied to data from 418 young women whose risk perceptions, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy, intention to perform B.S.E., planning, and reported examination behaviors were examined at two points in time. Risk perception was found to have a negligible influence in a path analysis, whereas self-efficacy emerged as the best predictor of intention and planning. Planning, in turn, appeared to be the best predictor of B.S.E. behaviors, followed by self-efficacy. The results point to the influential role that self-regulatory strategies (such as planning) play in translating goals into action. The study contributes to the current debate on stage theories of health behavior change and the orchestration of self-beliefs and strategies in the context of goal-directed behaviors.