Research In Experimental Psychology Research Articles

Can mobile skin conductance assessments be helpful in signalling imminent inpatient aggression?.

Background: A well-known technique to assess (psychological) arousal is to measure the skin conductance level (SCL). Although widely used in experimental psychological research, this technique has not been used often in (locked) psychiatric admission settings on patients who are at a high risk of engaging in aggressive behaviour. One of the obvious reasons for this is that measuring skin conductance, until recently, required a substantial amount of equipment.Methods: As technology developed, it became possible to develop small wearable devices in the form of regular watches to measure the SCL as well as other psycho-physiological parameters. To illustrate the potential this may have for the prevention of aggressive behaviour, a case description is provided of a patient in crisis who became physically aggressive while wearing a skin conductance measurement device.Results: Interestingly, the SCL of the patient had been rising sharply before the first signs of aggressive behaviour were visible.Conclusion: Although it concerns an anecdotal case study, this finding suggests that measuring SCL on a continuous basis in patients who are at a high risk of becoming violent, without this procedure having to interfere with their daily life, may open new avenues for preventing aggression at an earlier stage. A large-scale empirical study in a substantial number of (potentially aggressive) patients is needed, however, to investigate the predictive validity of mobile skin conductance assessments on imminent inpatient aggression in a reliable way.

Improving the effectiveness of nutritional information policies: assessment of unconscious pleasure mechanisms involved in food-choice decisions

The rise in obesity in many countries has led to the emergence of nutritional information policies that aim to change people's diets. Changing an individual's diet is an ambitious goal, since numerous factors influence a person's food-choice decisions, many of which are made unconsciously. These frequently subconscious processes should not be underestimated in food-choice behavior, as they play a major role in food diet composition. In this review, research in cognitive experimental psychology and neuroscience provides the basis for a critical analysis of the role of pleasure in eating behaviors. An assessment of the main characteristics of nutritional policies is provided, followed by recent findings showing that food choices are guided primarily by automatic emotional processes. Neuroimaging and behavioral studies, which provide new insights into the relationships between emotions and food both in lean persons and in persons with eating disorders, are reported as well. Lastly, the argument is presented that future nutritional policies can be more effective if they associate healthy food with eating pleasure.

A systematic review of the psychological literature on interruption and its patient safety implications

To understand the complex effects of interruption in healthcare. As interruptions have been well studied in other domains, the authors undertook a systematic review of experimental studies in psychology and human-computer interaction to identify the task types and variables influencing interruption effects. 63 studies were identified from 812 articles retrieved by systematic searches. On the basis of interruption profiles for generic tasks, it was found that clinical tasks can be distinguished into three broad types: procedural, problem-solving, and decision-making. Twelve experimental variables that influence interruption effects were identified. Of these, six are the most important, based on the number of studies and because of their centrality to interruption effects, including working memory load, interruption position, similarity, modality, handling strategies, and practice effect. The variables are explained by three main theoretical frameworks: the activation-based goal memory model, prospective memory, and multiple resource theory. This review provides a useful starting point for a more comprehensive examination of interruptions potentially leading to an improved understanding about the impact of this phenomenon on patient safety and task efficiency. The authors provide some recommendations to counter interruption effects. The effects of interruption are the outcome of a complex set of variables and should not be considered as uniformly predictable or bad. The task types, variables, and theories should help us better to identify which clinical tasks and contexts are most susceptible and assist in the design of information systems and processes that are resilient to interruption.

Architecture’s Awaking from Correlationist Slumber: On Transdisciplinarity and Disciplinary Specificity

Perception cannot be considered independently of the environment since it is defined as an evolved adaptive and constructive relation between the life-form and its milieu. Unfortunately, experimental psychology research has relied overwhelmingly on object perception, rather than environment perception, with the findings of the former providing the basis for understanding the latter. Architectural research continues to suffer from this fallacy. Furthermore, to separate the ‘cultural’ from the ‘natural’ environment – as if there were a world of mental and a world of material products – is a fatal mistake. There is only one world. The paper explores J.J. Gibson’s unwitting affiliation with Deleuze. The most notable point of convergence between the two thinkers is their more or less overt theory of ‘passive synthesis’ of perception with which they vehemently oppose, or better yet complement, the active synthesis of representation.

Architecture’s Awaking from Correlationist Slumber: On Transdisciplinarity and Disciplinary Specificity

Perception cannot be considered independently of the environment since it is defined as an evolved adaptive and constructive relation between the life-form and its milieu. Unfortunately, experimental psychology research has relied overwhelmingly on object perception, rather than environment perception, with the findings of the former providing the basis for understanding the latter. Architectural research continues to suffer from this fallacy. Furthermore, to separate the ‘cultural’ from the ‘natural’ environment – as if there were a world of mental and a world of material products – is a fatal mistake. There is only one world. The paper explores J.J. Gibson’s unwitting affiliation with Deleuze. The most notable point of convergence between the two thinkers is their more or less overt theory of ‘passive synthesis’ of perception with which they vehemently oppose, or better yet complement, the active synthesis of representation.

A Practical Guide to Calculating Cohen’s f2, a Measure of Local Effect Size, from PROC MIXED

Reporting effect sizes in scientific articles is increasingly widespread and encouraged by journals; however, choosing an effect size for analyses such as mixed-effects regression modeling and hierarchical linear modeling can be difficult. One relatively uncommon, but very informative, standardized measure of effect size is Cohen’s f2, which allows an evaluation of local effect size, i.e., one variable’s effect size within the context of a multivariate regression model. Unfortunately, this measure is often not readily accessible from commonly used software for repeated-measures or hierarchical data analysis. In this guide, we illustrate how to extract Cohen’s f2 for two variables within a mixed-effects regression model using PROC MIXED in SAS® software. Two examples of calculating Cohen’s f2 for different research questions are shown, using data from a longitudinal cohort study of smoking development in adolescents. This tutorial is designed to facilitate the calculation and reporting of effect sizes for single variables within mixed-effects multiple regression models, and is relevant for analyses of repeated-measures or hierarchical/multilevel data that are common in experimental psychology, observational research, and clinical or intervention studies.

Using Terror Management Theory to understand the existential threat of dementia

This paper sets out an argument for understanding the subjective experience of people with dementia in terms of Terror Management Theory (TMT). This theory is a broad and detailed account derived from experimental psychological research of the way in which material that represents an existential threat to psychological equanimity triggers a range of social and personal defences. These responses are mediated by levels of self-esteem and include the process of mnemic neglect in which threatening material is processed less efficiently and recalled less thoroughly. Using TMT to understand the responses of people with dementia has a range of clinical implications.Judith:I just wonder where it’s all going to end, that’s my fear …Janet:Whenit’s going to end?Judith:Whereit’s going to end, where am I going to end up, just before the end, you know.Janet:Oh, I see you mean, I talk about death…Judith:YeahJanet: …to my family and I think the only thing that I’m frightened of is the unknown and that is death to me.Judith:and after that. Oh, no I’m worried about what comes just before [laughs] it could be years before, couldn’t it?Janet:It could be tomorrowRobert:Is it the dying that?Judith:I don’t feel that at all, no, because we all go through that, no I’m not frightened about that, no. It’s not really my religion to say it at all, but I don’t know if there’s anything else and I’m not going to worry about that right now, you know.Facilitator:So what is the frightening, when you say about the future?Judith:Being, being useless, you know.Janet:Yes.Judith:Not having all my faculties, I dread that, I dread that, its as if I’m going to come to it one morning, perhaps, you know and think ‘Oh my godfathers, what’s left?’, I really worry about that … so I’m quite happy in a situation unless I chose to sort of sit there and think. And it’s when I think about that, that the curtain comes down.From Cheston (2004).

Foreign investment and bribery: A firm-level analysis of corruption in Vietnam

Among the concerns faced by countries pondering the costs and benefits of greater economic openness to international capital flows is the worry that new and powerful external actors will exert a corrupting influence on the domestic economy. In this paper, we use a novel empirical strategy, drawn from research in experimental psychology, to test the linkage between foreign direct investment (FDI) and corruption. The prevailing literature has produced confused and contradictory results on this vital relationship due to errors in their measurement of corruption which are correlated with FDI inflows. When a less biased operationalization is employed, we find clear evidence of corruption during both registration and procurement procedures in Vietnam. The prevalence of corruption, however, is not associated with inflows of FDI. On the contrary, one measure of economic openness appears to be the most important driver of reductions in Vietnamese corruption: the wave of domestic legislation, which accompanied the country's bilateral trade liberalization agreement with the United States (US-BTA), significantly reduced bribery during business registration.

Wearable eye tracking for mental health monitoring

Pervasive healthcare is a promising field of research as small and unobtrusive on-body sensors become available. However, despite considerable advances in the field, current systems are limited in terms of the pathologies they can detect, particularly regarding mental disorders. In this work we propose wearable eye tracking as a new method for mental health monitoring. We provide two reviews: one of the state-of-the-art in wearable eye tracking equipment and a second one of the work in experimental psychology and clinical research on the link between eye movements and cognition. Both reviews show a significant potential of wearable eye tracking for mental health monitoring in daily life settings. This finding calls for further research on unobtrusive sensing equipment and novel algorithms for automated analysis of long-term eye movement data.

Comment: What constitutes evidence in science education research?

Comment: What constitutes evidence in science education research?

When Causality Does Not Imply Correlation: More Spadework at the Foundations of Scientific Psychology

Experimental research in psychology is based on an open-loop causal model which assumes that sensory input causes behavioral output. This model was tested in a tracking experiment where participants were asked to control a cursor, keeping it aligned with a target by moving a mouse to compensate for disturbances of differing difficulty. Since cursor movements (inputs) are the only observable cause of mouse movements (outputs), the open-loop model predicts that there will be a correlation between input and output that increases as tracking performance improves. In fact, the correlation between sensory input and motor output is very low regardless of the quality of tracking performance; causality, in terms of the effect of input on output, does not seem to imply correlation in this situation. This surprising result can be explained by a closed-loop model which assumes that input is causing output while output is causing input.

Is Zero Return a Natural Benchmark for Investors? An Investigation with Individual Trading Records

Using a unique and large dataset of trading records, we find that individual investors view zero returns as a natural benchmark for their trading performance. They increase both buy and sell trading volume if their past investment outcomes are positive, and decrease them if the outcomes are negative, but appear to care much less for the size of the same outcomes (gains as well as losses). We also find that this trading behavior is non-rational; it results in economically significant declines in profits from current trades even without taking into account transactions costs. While our findings support the age-old knowledge that human thought processes are heavily influenced by the distinction between positive and negative numbers, our research strategy is motivated by recent research in experimental psychology that documents that individual subjects are more sensitive to the presence or absence of a stimulus than to its magnitude. Our findings provide new and empirically testable explanations for a number of extensively documented phenomena in finance and accounting, including excessive trading by overconfident investors.

George Katona: A founding father of old behavioral economics

Assuming the division of behavioral economics into old and new, the paper begins to argue that old behavioral economics began with the works of two giants – George Katuna and Herbert Simon during the 1950s and early 1960s. The contributors of Herbert Simon are well established, thanks to the popularity of bounded rationality and satisficing, and his being award Noble Prize in economics. However, economists are much less familiar with the contributions of George Katona that can be viewed as the father of behavioral economics. Furthermore, the author argues that Katona was also misunderstood by various economists when he was attempting to create a psychologically based economics that rejected the mechanistic psychology of neoclassical economics and introducing the survey method to economic research that he had been using in his experimental psychology research previously. He also had influenced various economists during their debates in the 1950s without given the credit for. Many historians of behavioral economics limit Katona's contributions to the start of behavioral economics only to his contributions to macroeconomics. However, the paper demonstrates that Katona's behavioral economics included his contributions to macroeconomics (bringing realism to Keynesian consumption function and consumption behavior), micro-economics (business behavior, the rationality assumption, etc.), public finance and economic policy, and his introduction of the survey method. To demonstrate these contributions, the author argues that Katona attempted to bring realism to economic analysis – through psychological concepts – beginning with his early days of research in Germany which coincided with German hyper inflation- and continued whether working at New school for Social Research, Chicago University's Cowles Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center. The author also argues that Katona's contributions went through stages, depending upon what economic problem persisted at the time, what advertises he was facing, and what institution/organization he was associated with.

Anchoring Bias in TARP Warrant Negotiations

This paper finds that banks that offered lower opening bids were rewarded with significantly lower warrant repurchase prices in transactions that raised $2.856 billion in 2009. These results were scaled by third-party consultants’ and the Congressional Oversight Panel’s estimates of the warrants’ value. In contrast to the experimental psychology studies on anchoring bias in negotiations, these are real transactions involving large sums of money. This paper finds that larger banks paid significantly higher prices after controlling for other factors, and the U.S. Treasury obtained better prices over time. The results on anchoring bias are strong even after controlling for bank managers’ potential informational advantages over U.S. Treasury negotiators.

Anchoring bias in the TARP warrant negotiations

This paper finds that banks that offered lower opening bids were rewarded with significantly lower warrant repurchase prices in transactions that raised $2.856 billion in 2009. These results were scaled by third-party consultants’ and the Congressional Oversight Panel's estimates of the warrants’ value. In contrast to the experimental psychology studies on anchoring bias in negotiations, these are real transactions involving large sums of money. This paper finds that larger banks paid significantly higher prices after controlling for other factors, and the U.S. Treasury obtained better prices over time. The results on anchoring bias are strong even after controlling for bank managers’ potential informational advantages over U.S. Treasury negotiators.

Integrating immigrant minorities: Developing a scale to measure majority members’ attitudes toward their own proactive efforts

The present study is based on the premise that the integration of ethnic minorities may involve more than the majority's expression of tolerance. In order to promote inclusion, the majority may have to play a more active role in the integration process. We describe the development and validation of a new psychometric scale which assesses majority members' attitudes toward their own proactive contribution to the integration of immigrants within three domains: cultural and structural efforts, and openness to diversity. The scale is investigated by analyses of internal structure and exploration of construct validity in relation to relevant social psychological and personality constructs in a sample of 486 Norwegian university students (28% male, mean age = 26.5, SD = 6.08). Factor analyses supported a unidimensional structure and the estimated reliability of an additive scale was satisfactory (Cronbach's α = 0.91). The scale correlated negatively with measures of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, and positively with global identity. It was weakly related to the personality traits agreeableness, intellect, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The potential utility of the scale in both applied and experimental social psychological studies are discussed.

Mate-Preference Talk in Speed-Dating Conversations

In contrast to experimental psychological speed-dating research in which mate preferences are typically measured as survey responses triggered by a live interactional manipulation, the current study uses a discursive psychological perspective to examine actual mate-preference talk by potential romantic partners in live conversational contexts. Drawing on a corpus of 36 speed-dating interactions, this study examines how mate preferences were elicited, initially formulated, and how responses to mate-preference disclosures were organized across their environment of expansion. Three broad trends emerged. First, the vast majority of mate-preference disclosures were not only prompted, but were prompted in ways that occasioned delayed responses. Second, the majority of initial mate-preference formulations were delayed or mitigated, revealing that requests for and disclosures of mate preferences were delicate social actions. And finally, delayed responses often occasioned protracted expansion sequences which, at minimum, promoted cooperative topic expansion and, in some cases where the probes were inferentially elaborative (and thus more risky), topic expansion as well as affective participant stance alignment. This study reveals that stance affiliation may reflect the extent to which participants are able to incrementally coordinate inferential conjectures, a finding that suggests that social scientists interested in the genesis of close relationships would benefit enormously from an up-close analysis of the actual relational contexts in which relationships emerge.

Barry J. Everitt: Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions.

Presents Barry J. Everitt, 2011 winner of the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. "For distinguished theoretical and empirical contributions to basic research in experimental psychology and neuroscience. Barry J. Everitt's original and elegant research has greatly added to the understanding of monoaminergic and glutamatergic regulation of cortico-striatal-limbic function and its involvement in psychological processes and pathological states, notably addiction. His stellar contributions have included the development of animal models of addiction and groundbreaking studies on learning and memory processes. He has combined sophisticated behavioral approaches with molecular, cellular, anatomical, and psychopharmacological approaches in rodents. His energy and enthusiasm for research, creativity, and outstanding productivity have advanced our knowledge of brain function and inspired several generations of behavioral neuroscientists." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

Trevor W. Robbins: Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions.

Presents Trevor W. Robbins, the 2011 winner of the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions."For distinguished theoretical and empirical contributions to basic research in experimental psychology and neuroscience. Trevor W. Robbins has made innovative and landmark contributions to understanding monoaminergic and glutamatergic regulation of cortico-striatal-limbic function and its involvement in psychological processes and pathological states such as addiction, depression, schizophrenia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. His pioneering accomplishments have included the development of methodologies for parallel sophisticated behavioral assessments in humans, rodents, and monkeys combined with psychopharmacological and imaging studies across species. His vigor and dedication to research, exemplary leadership, scholarship, and stellar productivity have advanced our knowledge of brain function and inspired several generations of cognitive neuroscientists." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

A History of Dogs as Subjects in North American Experimental Psychological Research

The modern resurgence in psychological experiments involving dogs follows a long and rich tradition of using dogs as experimental subjects in psychology. Except for a few exceptions (e.g., Pavlov, and Scott and Fuller), much of this research is often overlooked. We trace the history of dogs as experimental psychological subjects: The work of Darwin and Pavlov sets the stage for our focus on research emanating from North American laboratories. We end our review with the advent of the modern renaissance of dog research. This account tracks the history of psychology as a science, providing insight into psychological processes and theoretical corollaries of these processes generally, and shedding light on the behavior of dogs specifically. A rediscovery of this literature can only aid research being conducted today, including rejuvenating old ques tions, suggesting new ones, and highlighting useful methods for current issues. We hope through this endeavor that those working with dogs will see themselves as part of this rich tradition and that a historical perspective will help integrate dog research into a field greater than the sum of its parts.