Dimensions of holistic thinking: Implications for nonsocial information processing across cultures

Representatives of Asian and Western countries often differ in terms of both their social orientation (e.g., collectivism vs. individualism) and their thinking style (holistic vs. analytic). The disposition to think of oneself in relation to others or to the collective to which one belongs appears similar to a more general holistic thinking style (the disposition to think of elements of a stimulus in relation to one another or their context), suggesting that they may have similar roots. Nevertheless, the low correlations among measures of these characteristics (e.g., Na et al., 2010) indicate that holistic thinking might be multidimensional. To obtain a clearer picture of this multidimensionality, we constructed a procedure that could be used both to assess and to induce three different styles of cognitive processing that reflect different aspects of holistic thinking: specifically, the tendencies (a) to respond to the configuration of a stimulus as a whole without regard to the elements that compose it, (b) to think about stimulus elements in relation to their context, and (c) to think about stimulus elements in relation to one another. Indian, Hong Kong Chinese, North American, and British participants differed in their tendency to use these types of thinking. Moreover, priming these different styles of holistic thinking experimentally affected the performance of only those cognitive tasks that required these thinking styles. Finally, although cultural groups differed spontaneously in their performance of tasks to which different types of holistic thinking were relevant, experimentally inducing these thinking styles eliminated these between-culture differences in performance. Such differences were generally unrelated to measures of social orientation typically used to distinguish representatives of Western and Asian countries

Bases of political judgments: the role of stereotypic and non-stereotypic information

Um den Gebrauch von Stereotypen bei Urteilen über politische Kandidaten zu prüfen, wurden drei Studien durchgeführt. Die erste Studie demonstriert den Effekt von physischer Attraktivität auf die Beurteilung eines Kandidaten, wenn keine anderen entscheidungsrelevanten Informationen verfügbar sind. Es zeigt sich, daß diese dann einen substantiellen Einfluß auf die Persönlichkeitseinschätzung hat. Daraus werden sowohl Schlußfolgerungen über persönliche Qualitäten und die politische Ideologie gezogen. Die weiteren Studien prüften den Zusammenhang von Attraktivität, Parteizugehörigkeit und persönlichen Standpunkten des Kandidaten. Hierbei übt die Attraktivität einen geringeren Einfluß aus. Sollten die Beteiligten nur einen Kandidaten einschätzen, verließen sie sich auf seine politische Vergangenheit und seinen Ruf. Bei der Entscheidung zwischen zwei Kandidaten ist dagegen die Parteizugehörigkeit entscheidender. (psz)'Three experiments investigated the role of stereotypic and nonstereotypic criteria in judgments of political candidates. The effects of physical attractiveness, political party and stands on specific issues on both absolute and comparative judgments of political candidats were examined to evaluate three hypotheses about stereotype and attribute use. In the absence of other information, candidates' physical attractiveness (conveyed through photographs) had a substantial influence on subjects' global evaluations of them and inferences of both their personal qualities and their political ideology. When other information about candidates' party membership and stands on specific issues were available, however, the candidate's attractiveness had no affect on the evaluations of them. When subjects were asked to make comparative judgements of two candidates, however, they based their judgments on each candidate's party membership and not their respective voting records. Implications of these results for the precesses that underlie political judgments and decisions are evaluated.' (authors' abstract

The Effects of Perspective on Prosocial Emotions and Intents

Conceptualizing perspectives into three types-victim, involved observer and disinterested observer, we investigate how perspective influences prosocial intents via its effects on prosocial emotions. We show that taking the perspective of victims or involved observers boosts empathic distress, but only the latter elicits high guilt and prosocial intent

Contextual Influences on Message Persuasion: The Effect of Empty Space

The empty space that surrounds a text message can affect the message’s persuasiveness. Seven studies provide converging evidence in both field and laboratory settings that people find a message less persuasive, and are less likely to act on its implications, when it is surrounded by empty space than when it is not. These effects are mediated by perceptions of message strength. That is, message recipients infer that a message conveys a less strong opinion when empty space surrounds it and are consequently less likely to accept its implications. This effect does not occur when the space surrounding the message is generated randomly by a computer or when the message is attributed to a low credibility source. When a message is counterattitudinal, surrounding it by empty space decreases the disposition to counterargue its implications andincreases acceptance of the position advocated. When recipients are under cognitive load, however, they use the space surrounding the message as a heuristic basis for judgment and are less persuaded when the message is surrounded by empty space. This research adds not only to persuasion literature and current advertising practices, but also to an understanding of different interpretations of empty space

Force Measurements of TCR/pMHC Recognition at T Cell Surface

The rupture forces and adhesion frequencies of single recognition complexes between an affinity selected peptide/MHC complex and a TCR at a murine hybridoma surface were measured using Atomic Force Microscopy. When the CD8 coreceptor is absent, the adhesion frequency depends on the nature of the peptide but the rupture force does not. When CD8 is present, no effect of the nature of the peptide is observed. CD8 is proposed to act as a time and distance lock, enabling the shorter TCR molecule to bridge the pMHC and have time to finely read the peptide. Ultimately, such experiments could help the dissection of the sequential steps by which the TCR reads the peptide/MHC complex in order to control T cell activation

Self-acceptance, discrepancy between parents' perceptions of their children, and goal-seeking effectiveness

Delineates the interrelationship of self-acceptance, differences between parents' perceptions of their children, and goal-seeking effectiveness within an academic setting. Measures were obtained on about 350 male and 400 female college students of their self-perceptions and self-acceptance, their parents' perceptions and acceptance of them, and parental attitudes toward academic pursuits. Self-acceptance and parental acceptance related to academic effectiveness in males but not in females. The discrepancy between parents' perceptions of their children related negatively to self-acceptance in females and in general to academic effectiveness in both males and females. Males whose parent either agreed that a college education was primarily for intellectual broadening or agreed that it was primarily for social broadening were more effective than those whose parents disagreed on this matter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1965 American Psychological Association

Behavioral correlates of academic achievement: Conformity under achievement-and affiliation-incentive conditions

61 FRESHMAN MALES AND 64 FRESHMAN FEMALES, REPRESENTING 4 COMBINATIONS OF ACADEMIC APTITUDE (COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATION SCORE) AND PERFORMANCE (1ST-TERM GRADE-POINT AVERAGE), WERE ASKED TO ESTIMATE THE NUMBER OF DOTS ON SLIDES BEFORE AND AFTER EXPOSURE TO FICTITIOUS GROUP JUDGMENTS. CONFORMITY WAS MEASURED UNDER ACHIEVEMENT-INCENTIVE CONDITIONS, IN WHICH SS WERE TOLD THAT THEIR PERFORMANCE ON THE TASK WOULD REFLECT THEIR ACHIEVEMENT POTENTIAL, AND AFFILIATION-INCENTIVE CONDITIONS, IN WHICH THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TASK WAS DEEMPHASIZED AND GROUP ATTRACTIVENESS WAS INCREASED. RESULTS PROVIDED INSIGHT INTO THE MOTIVATIONAL CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND APTITUDE AMONG MALE AND FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS, AND INTO THE BEHAVIOR TYPICAL OF THESE STUDENTS IN ACHIEVEMENT AND SOCIAL SITUATIONS. (18 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1967 American Psychological Association

Functional measurement methodology applied to a subjective probability model of cognitive functioning

Used functional measurement procedures to test R. S. Wyer and L. Goldberg's subjective probability model of cognitive organization. 54 undergraduates estimated the likelihood that a hypothetical person had an attribute (PB) on the basis of information that directly affected their beliefs that persons in general have a particular gene (Pa) and that persons who do not have this gene possess the attribute (Pb/a and Pb/a'). Pa interacted significantly with both Pb/a and Pb/a'; each of these interactions was concentrated in the bilinear component, supporting the assumption that each pair of beliefs has multiplicative effects upon Pb. A small but significant interaction of Pb/a and Pb/a' was also detected, contrary to implications of the model. Although the model provided a good quantitative description of the relations among the beliefs involved without the necessity of introducing ad hoc curve-fitting parameters, small but significant discrepancies from prediction were detected. These discrepancies suggested that Pa and Pb/a were weighted appropriately, but that Pb/a' should receive a weight inversely proportional to its magnitude. In sum, results support the general formulation proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1975 American Psychological Association