Based on the assumption that binary classification tasks are often processed asymmetrically (figure-ground asymmetries), two experiments showed that association alone cannot account for effects observed in the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Experiment 1 (N = 16) replicated a standard version of the IAT effect using old vs. young names as target categories and good and bad words as attribute categories. However, reliable compatibility effects were also found for a modified version of the task in which neutral words vs. nonwords instead of good vs. bad words were used as attribute categories. In Experiment 2 (N = 8), a reversed IAT effect was observed after the figure-ground asymmetry in the target dimension had been inverted by a previous go/nogo detection task in which participants searched for exemplars of the category "young." The experiments support the hypothesis that figure-ground asymmetries produce compatibility effects in the IAT and suggest that IAT effects do not rely exclusively on evaluative associations between the target and attribute categories.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the response criterion, the current well-being, and the speed of cognitive processing on fusion and flicker frequency measured by method of limits, in 65 healthy subjects, aged between 20 and 30 years. The findings demonstrated that the fusion and flicker frequency could not be measured exactly. Evaluation of the reliability of the obtained results was not possible, mainly because the necessary basic psychological variables could not be recorded using the method.
This study examines whether setting priorities in personal life-investment is reflected in a heightened sensitivity towards thematically related stimuli. Two groups of adults (N = 47; M = 30 years; 53% female) were compared: (1) participants with a parallel goal structure (n = 12) who feel equally committed to the work and the family domain, both in the present and in the future, and (b) participants with a sequential goal structure (n = 24), who currently feel more involved in the work domain, but expect to be more engaged in the family domain in the future. Five tasks were used to assess preference, all of them simultaneously presenting work- and family-related stimuli. As hypothesized individuals with a sequential goal structure showed a stronger preference for work-related stimuli than individuals with a parallel structure. There were clear differences in word detection, in the elaboration of work-related statements, and in the choice between work-related and family-related reading material. Results are discussed primarily in reference to models of action-regulation. Key words: setting priorities, preference for related stimuli, personal goals, information processing.
Caffeine is suspected to initiate the abuse of caffeine-containing analgesics. To clarify this matter the study investigated the effects of aspirin alone and in combination with caffeine on mood and cardiovascular parameters before, during, and after pain induction through mechanical stimulation. 96 healthy middle-aged women - all habitual coffee drinkers - were randomly designed to receive 0 or 500 mg aspirin together with 0, 50, or 100 mg caffeine administered in a double-blind design. Aspirin did not change ratings of mood scales. Caffeine decreased scores on negative mood scales, especially on the anxiety/sadness scale. The combination of aspirin and caffeine failed to increase any score on scales measuring positive moods. Only a few interactions are noticed. The results do not support the suggestion that caffeine increases the potential for abuse of aspirin.
Numerous studies have been carried out to investigate the knowledge of route distance in environmental space. Evidence suggests that the knowledge of distance is influenced by the environmental features and structures of the route. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that affect this knowledge. In particular, the aim was to determine the role of the structure versus that of characteristic environmental features along the route. In two experiments, it was found that the knowledge of distance was not affected by the structure alone. Rather it was determined by the environmental features along the route. Participants seem to infer the environmental distance between two locations indirectly using successively perceived and stored retrievable features. It could be shown in a third experiment that in an intentional learning condition - in contrast to an incidental condition -, the number of environmental features does not seem to influence distance knowledge. In this condition, a direct retrieval of information appears to be possible. The experiments took place in a virtual environment.
We report on the theoretical development and empirical testing of a new spatial cognition task, during which participants complete a tour through a virtual tunnel. Upon arrival they are asked to specify a ,,homing" vector by pointing an arrow towards the starting point of their virtual journey. Systematic experimental variations include number, length and sharpness of turns. Solving the task requires the development of a spatial representation, as alternative strategic cues (e.g., visual landmarks) are not available. Performance measures discriminate between general training effects and specific task variables. As an example, "side errors" indicate a loss of orientation and "position hits,, reflect the accuracy of the spatial representation. Participants use either an egocentric or allocentric frame of reference. The task does not imply the use of egocentric vs. allocentric spatial co-ordinates, yet it allows for a reliable a-priori identification of individually preferred strategies. Our data indicate that the spatial representations formed by both groups are functionally equivalent. However, the groups differ with respect to specific patterns of orientation errors.
Two experiments investigated the multicomponent theory of emotion intensity proposed by Frijda, Ortony, Sonnemans, and Clore (1992) in the case of surprise and compared it with the more traditional "feeling element" approach to emotion intensity. In both experiments the participants performed a choice reaction time task for a certain number of trials. In the last trial they were surprised by an unexpected change of appearance of the stimuli. In Experiment 1 the change concerned either an action-relevant or an action-irrelevant, affectively neutral stimulus. In Experiment 2 the change concerned either an affectively positive or an affectively negative stimulus. Response delay in the surprise trial served as the index of the interruption of ongoing processes caused by surprise. Immediately after the surprise trial the participants completed a surprise intensity questionnaire that was an adaptation of the general emotion intensity questionnaire used by Sonnemans and Frijda (1994). In contrast to the findings of Sonnemans and Frijda (1994), the present findings were consistently better in line with the traditional feeling element approach to emotion intensity than with the multicomponent theory. Possible reasons for the failure to support the multicomponent theory of emotion intensify for the case of surprise are considered.
Consideration of the course of everyday actions Juring which real objects are manipulated would suggest that the sequence of individual activities should be represented in the memory not as a chain but as a network with:specific characteristics. These characteristics would appear to indicate that activities which directly change parts of the environment are more memorable than shifts of attention during the performance of the action. The results of Experiment 1 support this view. Furthermore, it may be supposed that complex actions are not anticipated in their entirety before being performed, but only partially. Hypotheses concerning the temporal order of the parts of the anticipation process were tested in Experiment 2, the results supporting the hypotheses. Altogether, the results obtained confirm certain basic assumptions relating to the memory model Net of Recallable Action.
After having made a preliminary or final decision, people often prefer information that supports their chosen alternative to information that conflicts with their choice. Jonas, Schulz-Hardt, Frey, and Thelen tin press) found that sequential presentation of information leads to an wen stronger preference for supporting information than the traditional form of simultaneous presentation. Their proposed explanation for this effect was that sequential presentation induces a focus on the prior decision, thereby increasing commitment to this decision. The present experiment was designed to rule out an alternative explanation: Being repeatedly confronted with pieces of information to select from could induce the participants to search for more information than they consider to be necessary, and because less effort is required to process supporting information the additional information requests are predominantly for these supporting pieces of information. To test this alternative explanation, in the present experiment - as in the Jonas et al. (in press) experiments - simultaneous vs. sequential information presentation following a preliminary decision was manipulated. In contrast to the former experiments, this time the number of information requests was fixed: participants in both conditions had to choose 8 out of 16 pieces of information. The results show that once again a stronger preference for supporting information arises when the information is presented sequentially compared to simultaneously. The alternative explanation mentioned above could thus be ruled out.
Implicit memory measures tend to be less reliable than explicit memory measures. Consequently dissociations can arise as a consequence of differential reliabilities of the tasks. In the present study the effect of a manipulation of levels of processing in an implicit and an explicit memory task were investigated in a sample of 200 students after establishing comparable reliabilities of the memory tasks. A fragmented object-naming test was used as an indirect test and a recognition task was used as a direct lest. The reliabilities of these measures were comparable in all conditions. A main effect of levels of processing, but no interaction between type of test and levels of processing, was found. These findings reinforce the necessity of taking into account the reliability of memory measures for the interpretation of dissociations between explicit and implicit memory.
In an experiment the hypothesis was examined wether successful problem solving facilitates the acquisition of control knowledge in system control. Subjects had to control a complex dynamic system. Success in problem solving was manipulated by imparting structural knowledge. Structural knowledge was assessed by presenting a "pair-task" and by analysing transfer effects in system control. Control knowledge was diagnosed by a recognition task. Subjects taught in structural knowledge learned more about the system and performed better. Effects of instruction on control knowledge did not occur. The results suggest assuming a "look-up table" which stores successful problem solving episodes as well as unsuccessful situations.
Consideration of the course of everyday actions during which real objects are manipulated would suggest that the sequence of individual activities should be represented in the memory not as a chain but as a network with specific characteristics. These characteristics would appear to indicate that activities which directly change parts of the environment are more memorable than shifts of attention during the performance of the action. The results of Experiment 1 support this view. Furthermore, it may be supposed that complex actions are not anticipated in their entirety before being performed, but only partially. Hypotheses concerning the temporal order of the parts of the anticipation process were tested in Experiment 2, the results supporting the hypotheses. Altogether, the results obtained confirm certain basic assumptions relating to the memory model Net of Recallable Action.
Studies applying the minimal group paradigm to analyze social discrimination processes have been analyzing for the most part the behavior of individuals. The present experiment extends the minimal group paradigm to the group level. The aim of the present study was to compare the decisions made by real groups (N = 3 persons) with those made by single persons. The analysis of the total points given to the in- or the outgroup as well as the strategy MIP + MDI on F revealed that groups are significantly more biased towards the ingroup than individuals. On the other hand, individuals use the strategy F on MIP + MDI significantly more than groups and thus show a greater amount of fairness. These conclusions are qualified by a new method of identifying dominant strategies which shows that the dominant strategy used by individuals and groups is fairness. A theoretical explanation of the results is offered based on social identity theory, the groupthink model and self-awareness theory.
The optimization model, which is a subtheory within the fuzzy-trace theory, claims that verbal items are retrieved from long-term memory in a weak-->strong-->weak order. This cognitive triage pattern of recall has been attributed to the dynamic interaction of memory strength, episodic activation, and output interference. According to a basic assumption of the optimization model, inter-item strength differences are invariant in free-recall experiments. Additionally it is assumed that an accumulation of output interference is responsible for the rotation from weak into strong words. This assumption implies that the cognitive triage pattern should be less pronounced and the recall performance should be poorer when the level of output interference is high at the beginning of recall. Due to age differences in the sensitivity to the effects of output interference the cognitive triage pattern and the recall performance should be more adversely affected in younger children when the level of output interference is high during the recall phase. In order to examine the two assumptions of the optimization model, second and fourth graders learned two lists of semantically unrelated words which were presented once, twice, or four times within the lists. The level of output interference was artificially increased by finger tapping throughout recall production. The empirical findings did not confirm the assumptions of the optimization model. Memory strength of the items did change as a result of the experimental manipulation. Additionally, recall performance was not poorer in the finger-tapping condition though the cognitive triage pattern was somewhat less pronounced in this condition. Age-related effects of output interference on the cognitive triage pattern and the level of recall could not be shown.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the response criterion, the current well-being, and the speed of cognitive processing on fusion and flicker frequency measured by method of limits, in 65 healthy subjects, aged between 20 and 30 years. The findings demonstrated that the fusion and flicker frequency could not be measured exactly. Evaluation of the reliability of the obtained results was not possible, mainly because the necessary basic psychological variables could not be recorded using the method.
Numerous studies have been carried out to investigate the knowledge of route distance in environmental space. Evidence suggests that the knowledge of distance is influenced by the environmental features and structures of the route. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that affect this knowledge. In particular, the aim was to determine the role of the structure versus that of characteristic environmental features along the route. In two experiments, it was found that the knowledge of distance was not affected by the structure alone. Rather it was determined by the environmental features along the route. Participants seem to infer the environmental distance between two locations indirectly using successively perceived and stored retrievable features. It could be shown in a third experiment that in an intentional learning condition--in contrast to an incidental condition--, the number of environmental features does not seem to influence distance knowledge. In this condition, a direct retrieval of information appears to be possible. The experiments took place in a virtual environment.
We report on the theoretical development and empirical testing of a new spatial cognition task, during which participants complete a tour through a virtual tunnel. Upon arrival they are asked to specify a "homing" vector by pointing an arrow towards the starting point of their virtual journey. Systematic experimental variations include number, length and sharpness of turns. Solving the task requires the development of a spatial representation, as alternative strategic cues (e.g., visual landmarks) are not available. Performance measures discriminate between general training effects and specific task variables. As an example, "side errors" indicate a loss of orientation and "position hits" reflect the accuracy of the spatial representation. Participants use either an egocentric or allocentric frame of reference. The task does not imply the use of egocentric vs. allocentric spatial co-ordinates, yet it allows for a reliable a-priori identification of individually preferred strategies. Our data indicate that the spatial representations formed by both groups are functionally equivalent. However, the groups differ with respect to specific patterns of orientation errors.
Experimental data on the perception of achromatic colors nearly exclusively rely on ordinal information from color matching. As already as in 1872, however, J. Plateau introduced the method of bisection for investigating the psychophysical invariances under illumination changes. Moreover, J.-C. Falmagne provided a formal characterization of the findings of this classical experiment that leads to a restriction of the possible form of the respective psychophysical function. This approach, however, has to be generalized in order to develop a theoretical description of the perception of achromatic colors under illumination changes. The illumination invariance of the bisection operation observed by Plateau, and the bisymmetry condition that characterizes its consistency, were investigated in two experiments using decremental center-surround configurations of achromatic colors. Both conditions constitute key assumptions of the suggested formal framework. Instead of directly producing the perceived midgreys, they were determined indirectly by applying the method of constant stimuli. As a result of statistically testing individual data, the illumination invariance turned out to hold for five out of twelve subjects, while the data of nine out of twelve subjects satisfied bisymmetry. Possible explanations of these findings and their impact on the formulation of a psychophysical theory of the perception of achromatic colors are discussed.
In 3 experiments, we examined the effect of cover stories of mathematical word problems on analogical transfer and its interaction with the problem solvers' mathematical performance. In a first step, the principles for solving mathematical source problems were illustrated with cover stories that were either appropriate or inappropriate for the respective problem's deep structure. Subsequently, participants' performance on a target problem was measured. Results of study 1 showed that analogical transfer was influenced by the source problem's cover story. In the second experiment, this effect was more pronounced for participants with high (versus low) mathematical performance. Using some critical sentences, study 3 provided evidence that the cover stories already influenced the encoding of the target problem. The results are discussed within the framework of content-based accounts of analogical transfer emphasizing the importance of cover stories for understanding the problems' deep structure.
