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Four studies explored the communicative behaviors of people who outperform others in a relevant or irrelevant field and the impression formed of these outperformers by the outperformed people. In line with the premises of the self-evaluation maintenance model (A. Tesser, 1988) and the STTUC framework (J. J. Exline & M. Lobel, 1999), Studies 1 and 2 predicted and found that people tend to conceal their achievements in conversation with a person whom they have outperformed, especially when the field of performance is relevant to this individual and irrelevant to them. Studies 3 and 4 found that the perception of outperformers is dependent not only on their communicative behaviors following the success but also on the relevance of the field for them and for the perceivers.

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00107.x Byline: MICHAEL K. MOUNT (1), IN-SUE OH (1), MELANIE BURNS (1) Abstract: This study extends previous research by examining the incremental validity of a specific aptitude, perceptual speed and accuracy (PS), when it is operationalized as both the number correct (NC) and the number wrong (NW). We test the hypotheses that the NC on the PS test predicts the criterion of task performance and the NW predicts (negatively) rules compliance (RC). Based on the responses of 133 warehouse workers, hierarchical regression analyses supported both hypotheses. After controlling for respondents' demographic characteristics (race, gender, and age) and general mental ability (GMA), the NC on the PS test accounted for incremental validity in prediction of task performance ([DELTA]R= .06, 15% increase), and the NW on the PS test accounted for substantial incremental validity in prediction of (lack of) RC ([DELTA]R= .16, 73% increase). In addition, after controlling for demographic characteristics and both GMA and the specific ability, Conscientiousness accounted for unique validity in prediction of both task performance ([DELTA]R= .07, 15% increase) and RC ([DELTA]R= .06, 16% increase). Practical and theoretical implications for selection practices and models of job performance are discussed. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Management and Organizations Henry B. Tippie College of Business University of Iowa Article note: Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Michael K. Mount, Department of Management and Organizations, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Management and Organizations, S358 PBB, Iowa City, IA 52242-1000; michael-mount@uiowa.edu.

The third-person perception is the tendency for people to believe that others are more influenced by media content than themselves (W. P. Davison, 1983). The current study provides a critical test of self-enhancement, exposure, and self-categorization explanations for first- (i.e., self more influenced than others) and third-person perceptions. Male and female participants (N = 323) judged the extent to which pornography elicited 'aroused and excited' (i.e., male normative) versus 'repulsed and offended' (i.e., female normative) reactions in themselves relative to average men and women. Men perceived an average woman to be more repulsed and offended by pornography than themselves, and women perceived an average man to be more aroused and excited than themselves (i.e., large third-person perceptions). Further, men perceived themselves to be more aroused and excited by pornography than an average woman (independent of the degree to which pornography was judged as antisocial), and women perceived themselves to be more repulsed and offended than an average man (i.e., large first-person perceptions). There were relatively small effects for same sex comparisons independent of norm. The pattern and magnitude of first- and third-person perceptions are consistent with self-categorization theory, irreconcilable with the exposure hypothesis, and difficult to reconcile with the self-enhancement explanation. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00294.x

Computer-generated anthropomorphic characters are a growing type of communicator that is deployed in digital communication environments. An essential theoretical question is how people identify humanlike but clearly artificial, hence humanoid, entities in comparison to natural human ones. This identity categorization inquiry was approached under the framework of consistency and tested through examining inconsistency effects from mismatching categories. Study 1 (N = 80), incorporating a self-disclosure task, tested participants' responses to a talking-face agent, which varied in four combinations of human versus humanoid faces and voices. In line with the literature on inconsistency, the pairing of a human face with a humanoid voice or a humanoid face with a human voice led to longer processing rime in making judgment of the agent and less trust than the pairing of a face and a voice from either the human or the humanoid category. Female users particularly showed negative attitudes toward inconsistently paired talking faces. Study 2 (N = 80), using a task that stressed comprehension demand, replicated the inconsistency effects on judging rime and females' negative attitudes but not for comprehension-related outcomes. Voice clarity overshadowed the consistency concern for comprehension-related responses. The overall inconsistency effects suggest that people treat humanoid entities in a different category from natural human ones. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00295.x

Recent social influence research utilizing psychological reactance theory (J. W. Brehm, 1966) has focused on how reactance motivates message rejection due to threats to perceived freedoms posed by controlling language. Although reactance has been shown to increase message rejection and source derogation, persuasive appeals employing alternative forms of restoration of freedom, as suggested by the theory, have received little if any empirical scrutiny. The present study manipulated the levels of controlling language and lexical concreteness within health messages targeting a young adult population. Results show a number of negative outcomes associated with the use of controlling language but suggest more positive outcomes associated with the use of restoration postscripts. Findings also indicate that relative to abstract language, messages using concrete language receive more attention, are viewed as more important, and generate more positive assessments of the source. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00297.x

Research has found that approximately half of women who report an experience that meets the legal definition of rape do not label it rape. It has been assumed that labeling the experience as rape is necessary and beneficial for recovery; however, conflicting findings have been reported. In the present study, a longitudinal design was utilized to examine the long-term consequences of being a rape victim and of labeling the experience as rape. Assessments were obtained at two time points approximately 10 months apart from females in their first year of college. Participants were classified as nonvictims, victims who labeled the experience as rape, or victims who did not label the experience as rape. Results showed that there were negative effects of being raped, such as more psychological distress and increased alcohol use; however, few differences were found at either assessment based on rape victims' labeling of the experience.

Too little theory and research has considered the effects of communicating statistics in various forms on comprehension, perceptions of evidence quality, or evaluations of message persuasiveness. In a considered extension of Subjective Message Construct Theory (Morley, 1987), we advance a rationale relating evidence form to the formation of impressions of evidence. We compare visual versus verbal representations of statistical evidence associated with multivariate relationships in a community-based) field experiment (N = 206). Verbal forms were found to be better comprehended than visual forms and contributed to enhanced understanding when compared to an attention control condition. Comprehension was found to mediate the effect of statistical evidence form on perceptions of evidence quality, while comprehension and perceptions of evidence quality moderated judgments of message persuasiveness. In addition to the effects of evidence form on subjective impressions of statistical evidence, we advance perceiver characteristics as another realm in which persuaders may identify persistent patterns associated with comprehension and judgments of statistical evidence. Numeracy skills, race, and gender emerge as characteristics with merit in this regard. Nonsignificant findings associated with perceiver characteristics were found. Finally, we consider the results for evidence form and perceiver characteristics on comprehension and judgments of statistical evidence for their theoretic and pragmatic importance.

Because of difficulties in objectively determining discrimination, attention has turned to individual differences of perception discrimination. This study aimed to build on such work by investigating the role of psychological variables in predicting perceived discrimination (PD) in a UK sample ethnic minority young people (n = 154). A series of multiple regression analyses yielded 3 pathways leading to PD. There was a direct effect of gender on PD. Depression and low self-esteem and need for approval predicted anxiety, which in turn was related to higher PD. Finally, private collective self-esteem correlated with public collective self-esteem, which in turn predicted lower PD. The results point to the importance of psychological variables, both personal and collective, in the perception of ethnic discrimination. Furthermore, the findings enhance our understanding of the complex associations between self-esteem, affect, and PD.

When a visual target object is surrounded by four dots that onset at the same time as the target but remain visible after the target terminates, the four dots dramatically impair target discrimination performance. This phenomenon is called object-substitution masking, reflecting the hypothesis that both the target and the four dots are identified, but the representation of the four dots replaces the representation of the target object before the target can be reported. The present study used the event-related potential technique to demonstrate that a target masked in this manner is identified by the visual system and triggers a shift of attention. However, by the time attention is shifted to the target, only the mask remains visible, leading to impaired behavioral detection performance. These findings support the object-substitution hypothesis and provide new evidence that perception, attention, and awareness can be dissociated.

In the current study, we explored observers' use of two distinct analyses for determining their direction of motion, or heading: a scene-based analysis and a motion-based analysis. In two experiments, subjects viewed sequentially presented, paired digitized images of real-world scenes and judged the direction of heading; the pairs were presented with various interstimulus intervals (ISIs). In Experiment 1, subjects could determine heading when the two frames were separated with a 1,000-ms ISI, long enough to eliminate apparent motion. In Experiment 2, subjects performed two tasks, a path-of-motion task and a memory-load task, under three different ISIs, 50 ms, 500 ms, and 1,000 ms. Heading accuracy decreased with an increase in ISI. Increasing memory load influenced heading judgments only for the longer ISI when motion-based information was not available. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the scene-based analysis has a coarse spatial representation, is a sustained temporal process, and is capacity limited, whereas the motion-based analysis has a fine spatial resolution, is a transient temporal process, and is capacity unlimited.

Previous studies examining perceptions of violence within a public house context have shown that the presence of door control (bouncers), interior tidiness, and the actions of the victim play an important role in shaping judgments of the aggressor and the victim (Lawrence & Leather, 1999; Leather & Lawrence, 1995). However, the extent to which individuals belonging to the same group as the victim make similar patterns of judgments to those recruited from a different group has not been investigated. This paper reports the findings of a study in which the perceptions of 80 licensees (same group as victim) and 80 undergraduate students (different group from victim) are compared after exposure to an account of a violent incident. Also manipulated were environmental variables (presence of door control and interior tidiness) and the actions of the victim. Results support the JWH, whereby the victim is blamed more by those from the same group than by those from a different group. Results are discussed in light of defensive attributions and the JWH and highlight the importance of taking environmental information into account in studies of social cognition.

Each time the eyes are spatially reoriented via a saccadic eye movement, the image falling on the retina changes. How visually specific are the representations that are functional across saccades during active scene perception? This question was investigated with a saccade-contingent display-change paradigm in which pictures of complex real-world scenes were globally changed in real time during eye movements. The global changes were effected by presenting each scene as an alternating set of scene strips and occluding gray bars, and by reversing the strips and bars during specific saccades. The results from two experiments demonstrated a global transsaccadic change-blindness effect, suggesting that point-by-point visual representations are not functional across saccades during complex scene perception.

Everyone has seen a human face in a cloud, a pebble, or blots on a wall. Evidence of superstitious perceptions has been documented since classical antiquity, but has received little scientific attention. In the study reported here, we used superstitious perceptions in a new principled method to reveal the properties of unobservable object representations in memory. We stimulated the visual system with unstructured white noise. Observers firmly believed that they perceived the letter S in Experiment 1 and a smile on a face in Experiment 2. Using reverse correlation and computational analyses, we rendered the memory representations underlying these superstitious perceptions.

Although visual motion may seem salient, motion per se does not automatically attract attention. We show here, however, that the onset of motion does indeed attract attention. In three experiments, subjects identified target letters in displays that contained targets and distractors. There was no advantage for moving letters among static ones, but there was an advantage for objects that had recently started to move despite the fact that the motion was uninformative. If some additional time was allowed to elapse after motion onset, inhibition of return slowed responding to the item that had started to move--a further sign that the motion onset had captured attention. Finally, detection of target letters was found to be independent of the number of distractors in the display if the target had undergone motion onset, also indicative of attentional capture. We discuss the adaptive significance of sensitivity to onsets in the presence of a relative insensitivity to ongoing motion.

The author refers to the work of Mezias and Starbuck regarding managers' perceptions and says that their research is reminiscent of evidence on ordinary citizens and politicians that generally display a weak grip on basic facts. Four perspectives on managers are discussed, including managers as problem-solvers in novel situations.

The author refers to the work done by Mezias and Starbuck regarding managers' perceptions. He argues that the research should explore the functional and dysfunctional effects of managers' perceptions.

The author says that the research of Starbuck and Mezias is not managerially relevant because it does not look at the origin of perceptual inaccuracies among managers. It also needs to examine what the consequences of the inaccuracies are in practice.

The article discusses the study of the perceptions of managers over two decades and two empirical studies. It corrective actions to errors that tend to be especially large. One of the corrective actions is to use education and training to inform managers about environmental and organizational properties.

The work of Starbuck and Mezias on managers' perceptions is appraised in the context of work from the behavioral decision-making field on heuristics and biases. The authors draw on research, theory and criticisms regarding of calibration of human judgement.

According to perceptual symbol systems, sensorimotor simulations underlie the representation of concepts. It follows that sensorimotor phenomena should arise in conceptual processing. Previous studies have shown that switching from one modality to another during perceptual processing incurs a processing cost. If perceptual simulation underlies conceptual processing, then verifying the properties of concepts should exhibit a switching cost as well. For example, verifying a property in the auditory modality (e.g., BLENDER-loud) should be slower after verifying a property in a different modality (e.g., CRANBERRIES-tart) than after verifying a property in the same modality (e.g., LEAVES-rustling). Only words were presented to subjects, and there were no instructions to use imagery. Nevertheless, switching modalities incurred a cost, analogous to the cost of switching modalities in perception. A second experiment showed that this effect was not due to associative priming between properties in the same modality. These results support the hypothesis that perceptual simulation underlies conceptual processing.

How do partners in satisfying close relationships perceive each other? Some argue that relationships benefit from each partner having an accurate view of the other, while others maintain that partners benefit when they perceive each other in the most positive light possible. The current paper proposes that each of these benefits operates at a separate level of abstraction. Specifically, we propose that satisfied partners tend to be accurate in their specific perceptions of each other, but enhancing in their global evaluations. To address hypotheses derived from this model, global and specific perceptions of self and partner were obtained from a sample of 82 newlywed couples. Results indicate that: 1) trait perceptions assessed by different commonly used measures differ significantly in their breadth; 2) broader or more global traits are rated as significantly more desirable and important; 3) spouses in satisfying marriages describe their partners' positive traits in more global terms and their negative traits in more specific terms; and 4) spouses perceive each other more accurately on specific traits than global traits.

When two visual targets, T1 and T2, are presented in rapid succession, detection or identification of T2 is almost universally degraded by the requirement to attend to T1 (the attentional blink, or AB). One interesting exception occurs when T1 is a brief gap in a continuous letter stream and the task is to discriminate its duration. One hypothesized explanation for this exception is that an AB is triggered only by attention to a patterned object. The results reported here eliminate this hypothesis. Duration judgments produced no AB whether the judged duration concerned a short gap in the letter stream (Experiment 1) or a letter presented for slightly longer than others (Experiment 2). When identification of an identical longer letter T1 was required (Experiment 3), rather than a duration judgment, the AB was reestablished. Direct perceptual judgments of letter streams with gaps embedded showed that whereas brief gaps result in the percept of a single, briefly hesitating stream, longer gaps result in the percept of two separate streams with a separating pause. Correspondingly, an AB was produced in Experiment 4, when participants were required to judge the duration of longer T1 gaps. We propose that, like spatially separated objects, temporal events are parsed into discrete, hierarchically organized events. An AB is triggered only when a new attended event is defined, either when a long pause creates a new perceived stream (Experiment 4) or when attention shifts from the stream to the letter level (Experiment 3).

This research examined interpretations of messages as a function of whether they are equivocal or unequivocal, whether they protect self-face or other-face, and whether the perceivers of the messages are directly involved in the conversation or overhear it. The role of self-monitoring and gender were also assessed. Results of Study 1 (N=463) revealed that equivocation is perceived as more polite but less honest and less competent than unequivocal criticism. Equivocation addressing other-face is the most polite, and criticism of the other is the least polite. Females perceive equivocation as more polite than do males. Ego-involvement influences perceptions independently and through its interaction with equivocation. No support was found for the role of self-monitoring or the notion that equivocation conveys a more positive meaning than unequivocal criticism. Study 2 (N = 496) replicated the findings concerning the politeness, honesty, self-other differences, gender differences, self-monitoring, and meaning associated with equivocation.

Competing theories of arousal versus salience and object enhancement vs. reduced perceptual processing as explanations for the weapon focus effect in eyewitness identification were examined. Male and female students (N = 200) viewed a videotape of a male or female intruder rudely barging into a classroom while carrying a book, a gun, or an unusual object and demanding to know the whereabouts of another student. Feature accuracy recall of both the intruder and the object were assessed on a postexperimental questionnaire. Results supported the salience and reduced-perceptual-processing hypotheses, suggesting that weapon focus may be a special instance of a more general salient object effect. An own-gender bias in eyewitness identification was replicated when no weapon or unusual objects distracted eyewitnesses, but was reversed when a weapon or an unusual object was present.

A study was conducted to show that robust priming can be determined by motion implied by context and by motion that occurs outside of visual awareness. Results indicated that context can influence motion perception when a moving object is visible throughout the duration of an event. Findings also showed evidence for robust priming by hidden motion implied by the overall context of the event.

Two experiments were conducted using electrophysiological recordings in an attempt to explain the reason for the response time delay in the specific index of perception and categorization, also known as the P3 wave. It was believed that the locus of interference occurred when a person attempted to achieve two tasks at the same time. Results revealed the occurrence of the dual-task interference in the psychological refractory period paradigm after the early sensory stage and prior to the motor execution stage. Also, interference occurred at the stage of processing.

This study developed and tested a model of survivors' fairness perceptions. Data on leader-member relations and affective commitment was collected from 217 R&D professionals approximately 15 months prior to a major layoff. A second wave of data assessed source of layoff announcement, legitimacy of the organizational account, and procedural and distributive fairness 1 month after the layoff occurred. Results of path analysis confirmed hypothesized relationships, and the variance accounted for in distributive and procedural fairness was 24% and 48%, respectively. Procedural fairness was higher for survivors who were informed of impending layoffs by their managers. However, this effect was stronger for high than low leader-member exchange (LMX) employees. Legitimacy of the account was positively related to procedural fairness. Distributive fairness was indirectly related to the independent variables through procedural fairness. Affective commitment of 78 of the original respondents was assessed approximately 24 months after the layoff. Post-layoff affective commitment was significantly related to procedural but not to distributive fairness perceptions. The findings underscore the critical role of direct supervisors in layoff announcements as well as providing evidence of the long-term effects of procedural fairness on survivor commitment. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The two-step attributional theory of mere exposure holds that repeated presentation of a stimulus X enhances subjective feeling of process fluency leading to preference for stimulus X when it is encountered again. Since perceptual influence under this theory influences liking, the subject will prefer the old stimulus (X) over new stimuli. Three experiments with three different manipulations were conducted to test the link between perceptual fluency and preference. Results are discussed.

The ability to ignore irrelevant peripheral distractors was assessed as a function of the efficiency in visual search for a target at the center of a display. Efficient target search, among dissimilar nontargets, led to greater distraction than inefficient search, among similar nontargets. This seemingly paradoxical result is predicted by the recent proposal (Lavie, 1995a) that irrelevant processing can be prevented only by increasing the load for relevant processing. Varying the set size of similar items in the central search task demonstrated that interference from irrelevant distractors was eliminated only with more than four relevant items. These results demonstrate how capacity limits determine the efficiency of selective attention, and raise questions about some standard assumptions of most visual search models., The effectiveness of target selection has been widely studied in the visual search task, but the question, what determines the effectiveness of rejection for irrelevant distractors placed outside the current search area, remains. A proposal sees the efficiency of rejection for irrelevant distractors as dependent on the perceptual load involved in relevant processing. Various visual search tasks were devised to test the influence of search efficiency on the success of distractor rejection, and efficient search tasks were found to lead to inefficient rejection of distractors.

Observers responded to full-color images of scenes by indicating which of two critical objects was closer in the pictorial space. These target images were preceded by prime images of the same scene sans critical objects, or by control primes or different-scene primes. Reaction times were faster following same-scene primes than following the various control and different-scene primes. Same-scene facilitation was obtained with color primes, line-drawing primes, and primes with shifted views. The effect occurred with natural scenes having gist and simple artificial scenes having little or no gist. The results indicate that prime-induced representations influence the perception of spatial layout in pictures., Theories of perception and cognition aim to explain how observers perceive objects and surfaces, and their spatial relations within the natural environment. Object identification is thought to be mediated partly be mental representations of shape. In experiments observers responded to full-color images by indicating which of the objects was closer. Same-scene primes produced faster reaction times. The results show that prime-induced representations have an effect on the perception of spatial layout in scenes.

Subjects read a passage which described an interaction between a man and a woman at an office party. The woman was either sober or intoxicated, and eventually the man engaged in 1 of 3 behaviors which involved varying degrees of sexual innuendo and/or aggression: (a) verbal comment, (b) verbal request, and (c) nonverbal physical display. The results indicated that perceptions did not vary as a function of target person's intoxication in the nonverbal-display condition. On the other hand, in the verbal comment and verbal-request conditions, subjects in the intoxicated-target-person condition perceived the initiator more favorably than subjects in the sober-target-person condition. In addition, they indicated that perceptions did not vary as a function of target-person intoxication level in the nonverbal-display condition. On the other hand, in the verbal-comment and verbal-request conditions, male subjects were more favorable toward the initiator than toward female subjects.

This longitudinal field study was designed to examine the relationships between job information sources, self-esteem, and perceptions of person-job (P-J) and person-organization (P-O) fit, as well as the relationships between perceptions of fit and work outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational identification, intentions to quit, stress symptoms, and turnover). The results indicate that the number of formal job information sources and self-esteem were positively related to perceptions of P-J fit, and formal job information sources were positively related to perceptions of P-O fit. Perceptions of P-J fit were positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational identification, and negatively related to stress symptoms and intentions to quit. Perception of P-O fit were negatively related to intentions to quit and turnover. In addition, perceptions of fit mediated the relationships between job information sources and self-esteem with job satisfaction, intentions to quit, and turnover. These results highlight the job applicant's perspective of fit, and demonstrate the importance of both P-J and P-O fit perceptions. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Color-word similarity influences the Stroop interference. Stroop interference refers to the fact that naming the color of an incongruent color word takes more time than the color of a neutral word. Stroop interference decreases with a decrease in associative strength between words and colors. Color naming and word-reading process interact at conceptual levels before response emission. Stroop error rates and interference in the color naming problem of Stroop task are associated with distance in color space.

Female and male subjects read one of three scenarios depicting a social-sexual interaction between a man and a woman. The scenarios varied in severity of the stimulus male's behavior according to whether sexual harassment had occurred. Subjects then rated the offensiveness of his behavior and whether it constituted sexual harassment. Subjects also rated the stimulus male's behavior on Weiner's (1986) three basic dimensions of causality: locus of causality, or the perceived cause of the behavior as internal or external; stability, or the likelihood of its recurrence; and controllability, or the amount of volitional influence he exercised during the interaction. Additionally, subjects reported their anger at the target male and sympathy for the target female. Findings generally indicated that for both women and men, as the scenarios increased in severity, these ratings were elevated. Gender comparisons also showed elevations in these ratings for female but not for male subjects, and only in the scenarios of lesser severity. Regression analyses revealed attribution variables - control, stability, and anger - as reliable predictors of perceived offensiveness and harassment in the most severe scenario, whereas affects were the most reliable predictors in scenarios of lesser severity. The implications of these findings for perception of sexual harassment are discussed.

The water-level task concerns peoples' knowledge that water-level should remain horizontal to the ground, even when a flask is tilted. Subjects, even waitresses, had a relative perspective in which how the liquid's surface was oriented was compared to the container rather than the surrounding environment. The result with waitresses was a rare case of performance declining with experience. The container-relative perspective led to perceptual bias which resulted in the mistakes seen in this task.

This study examined the effects of three variables on perceptions of symptoms associated with chronic low back pain: (a) the presence or absence of supporting medical evidence, (b) the valence (positive/negative) of the relationship of an observer to the person in pain, (c) the degree of control (present/absent) of the person in pain over the circumstances of pain onset. The independent variables were manipulated in a (2 X 2 X 2) within-subjects design. Forty-eight undergraduate subjects were asked to estimate levels of pain intensity, emotional distress, and disability for the person in pain described in each of eight vignettes. Significant main effects, a two-way interaction, and a three-way interaction emerged, indicating that these contextual variables exerted substantial and complex effects on observer perceptions. The implications of these findings are discussed for matters such as pain assessment and disability determination.

An experiment to assess whether perceptual decisions made by humans use discrete processing as opposed to continuous accumulation, found responses began following between four and seven stages of discrete processing. Reaction time distributions involved a periodic structure which could be described as fine grained, while oscillation periods tended to be linked to how difficult tasks were. The common assumption is that processing involves an important stochastic element, varying continuously. The research involved the study of 1,600 response times in four different tasks.

Metacontrast masking and apparent motion are associated with visual stimuli seen in rapid succession and this research indicates that strict temporal succession is not essential for these perceptual phenomena to occur. Both phenomena were observed with two sequential frames occurring at the same time, so long as the second frame lasted longer than the first. These findings can be understood though using motion sensor computational models, but the findings do not back attempts to explain metacontrast masking through inhibitory theories.

This is a critical analysis of how cultivation has been conceptualized in theory and research. Cultivation indicators are examined for their meaning in texts, the meaning received by viewers, and the distinction between estimations and beliefs. The construct of television exposure is analyzed in terms of the assumptions of uniform messages and nonselective viewing, as well as the conception of time and dominance. The nature of relationship is illuminated through the assumptions of linearity, asymmetry, control variables, causation, level of generality, mainstreaming, and resonance. Recommendations are provided to suggest revisions for conceptualizing the existing theory and extending it. Suggestions for extension include reconceptualizing the effect and the relationship, developing a typology of effects, considering the context of other simultaneous influences, providing analysis over time, and examining the process of influence on individuals and on the messages.

The relationship among information attributes, psychological symptoms, and perceived control was examined among residents in the vicinity of Three Mile island who attended the Three Mile Island Health and Environmental Information Series on cancer, radiation, and epidemiology of cancer 6 years after the nuclear accident that had occurred and shortly before restart of the plant. Among course participants, greater understanding of information was associated with slightly fewer psychological symptoms. Higher rated reliability of information was associated with less perceived control. Findings are discussed with reference to information delivery under conditions of uncertainty.

Using an independent samples factorial design, this study examined the roles of accent (standard vs. nonstandard), speech rate (fast vs. medium vs. slow), and age of voice (younger vs. older sounding) on British listeners' social evaluations of audiotaped voices using the matched-guise technique. In addition, listener judges' level and nature of cognitive responding, their interpretations of the targets' utterances and the (medium-term) recognition value of messages were uniquely explored as a function of these three independent variables. In general, standard speakers were upgraded on competence-related traits but downgraded on solidarity traits irrespective of age, with older speakers being perceived as less hesitant but more benevolent than their younger counterparts. An Age x Accent interaction effect showed that older-sounding standard speakers were judged he most competent and older-sounding nonstandard speakers the least competent. Favorable ratings were afforded speakers with medium rates, and slow-talking, younger-sounding speakers were particularly downgraded. All three independent variables affected ratings of listeners' interpretations of the (same) text, while speaker age was the only effect on the recognition of message material 2 days later. The cognitive responding data showed that listener judges were most positive about the source when the target was fast talking and older sounding and were most negative to the fast-talking, younger-sounding, and standard-accented speaker. The diverse pattern of findings emerging at different levels of analysis underscores the important roles of cognitive mediation in language attitude studies in ways not explored sufficiently previously.

The paper is a discussion of the interpretation of game theory. Game theory is viewed as an abstract inquiry into the concepts used in social reasoning when dealing with situations of conflict and not as an attempt to predict behavior. The first half of the paper deals with the notion of 'strategy.' Its principal claim is that the conventional interpretation of a 'strategy' is not consistent with the manner in which it is applied, and that this inconsistency frequently results in confusion and misunderstaning. In order to prove this point, the term 'strategy' is discussed in three contexts: extencive games in which players have to act more than once in some prespecified order, games normally analyzed using mixed strategies, and games with limited memory. The paper endorses the view that equilibrium strategy describes a player's plan of action, as well as those considerations which support the optimality of his plan rather than being merely a description of a 'plan of action.' Deviation from the perception of a strategy as a mere 'plan of action' fits in well with the interpretation of the notion 'game' which is discussed in the second half of this paper. It is argued that a good model in game theory has to be realistic in the sense that it provides a model for the perception of real life social phenomena. It should incorporate a description of the relevant factors involved, as perceived by the decision makers. These need not necessarily represent the physical rules of the world. It is not meant to be isomorphic with respect to 'reality' but rather with respect to our perception of regular phenomena in reality. Keywords: GAme theory, interpretation, strategy, game form, perception, relevance.

The authors discuss the controversy their work on the accuracy of managers' perceptions has caused. They cite other researchers' work on the topic.

How is information about people conveyed through their preferences for certain kinds of music? Here we show that individuals use their music preferences to communicate information about their personalities to observers, and that observers can use such information to form impressions of others. Study 1 revealed that music was the most common topic in conversations among strangers given the task of getting acquainted. Why was talk about music so prevalent? Study 2 showed that (a) observers were able to form consensual and accurate impressions on the basis of targets' music preferences, (b) music preferences were related to targets' personalities, (c) the specific cues that observers used tended to be the ones that were valid, and (d) music preferences reveal information that is different from that obtained in other zero-acquaintance contexts. Discussion focuses on the mechanisms that may underlie the links between personality and music preferences.

In Stroop matching tasks, participants indicate whether the color of an object matches the meaning of a color word printed in color. Previously in this journal, Luo (1999) concluded that interference between two incongruent representations of the same attribute (ink color) occurs prior to the response stage. However, this conclusion was based on questionable data analysis. We suggest analyzing the data by separating 'same' and 'different' responses and then analyzing three congruency conditions within the 'different' responses: (a) congruence between word color and word meaning, (b) congruence between word color and object color, and (c) incongruence between word color, word meaning, and object color. In an experiment similar to Luo's, such an analysis revealed that responding was slowest in the first condition. This pattern of results does not fit with previous conclusions regarding this task, but rather indicates that task conflict and response competition contribute to interference. This analysis has implications for matching tasks other than the Stroop matching task.

People hold beliefs that vary not only in their perceived truth, but also in their value to the believerutheir meaning, relevance, and importance. We argue that a belief's value is determined, at least in part, by its explanatory power. Highly valuable beliefs are those that can uniquely explain and organize a diverse set of observations. Less valuable beliefs, in contrast, are those that can be explained by other observations, or that explain and organize few observations. The results of three experiments are consistent with these hypotheses. These experiments demonstrate that applying either scientific or religious beliefs to explain other observations increases the perceived value of those beliefs, whereas generating explanations for the existence of beliefs decreases their perceived value. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for people's resistance to explaining their own beliefs, for the perceived value of science and religion, and for culture wars between people holding opposing beliefs.

Faced with the surprising failure to notice large changes to visual scenes (change blindness), many researchers have sought evidence for alternative, nonattentional routes to change detection. A recent article in Psychological Science (Rensink, 2004) proposed a new, nonsensory 'mindsight' mechanism to explain the finding that some subjects on some trials reported sensing the presence of a recurring change before they could explicitly identify it and without having a localizable visual experience of change. This mechanism would constitute a previously unknown mode of seeing that, as Rensink suggested, might be akin to a sixth sense. Its existence would have radical implications for the mechanisms underlying conscious visual experience. Provocative claims merit rigorous scrutiny. We rebut the existence of a mindsight mechanism by supporting a more mundane explanation: Some subjects take time to verify their initial conscious detection of changes.