Applied Cognitive Psychology最新文献

Retrospective judgments of environmentally significant sequences are biased by recency: sequences ending with an environmentally friendly item are rated as more eco-friendly than otherwise identical sequences with the same item earlier in the list. A corresponding primacy effect is typically absent. This may have applied consequences for how consumers perceive the environmental friendliness of their purchase decisions, for example. The aim of the present investigation was to reach a better understanding of why the recency but not the primacy effect manifests in eco-judgments. We found that the recency effect is just as large when continual distraction takes place between item presentations as when it does not. Moreover, memory for recently presented items was better than that for older items, but a filled retention interval reduced the recency effect in both memory and retrospective judgments. These findings support a memory-based explanation of the recency effect in retrospective judgments and suggest that poor memory of items early in the sequence is the reason why the primacy effect in judgments does not manifest.

Sexually aggressive behavior, risky-sexual behavior, and heavy episodic drinking are interrelated behavioral-health problems among college men. College men reporting these problems, relative to peers, report lower use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS), which are cognitive-behavioral, harm-reduction strategies. College men exhibiting heavy drinking also underperceive peers' PBS usage within this domain, and these misperceptions are common prevention targets. The current work investigates whether college men underperceive their peers' PBS usage within all three domains and whether college men reporting problems show greater underperceptions. College men (n = 1121) completed PBS measures from “self” and “typical college male” perspectives, as well as problem measures in the three domains. College men substantially underperceived their peers' PBS engagement, and men reporting problems displayed somewhat greater domain-specific underperceptions, suggesting a possible cognitive mechanism influencing these problems. These findings support the investigation of simultaneous personalized normative feedback for PBS usage across the three domains.

If eyewitnesses' general beliefs about their memory predicted whether they detect the culprit in a lineup, it could be useful in legal investigations to systematically assess general metamemory beliefs. Using a process-oriented approach, we tested this hypothesis in two experiments. In Experiment 1, 1627 participants responded to either several metamemory-belief questionnaires or, in the control condition, to a personality questionnaire, then watched a video of a staged crime and finally were presented with four lineups. In Experiment 2, 1467 participants first watched the staged-crime video, then responded to the questionnaires and finally were presented with the lineups. Using hierarchical multinomial modeling, we tested whether general metamemory beliefs were associated with culprit-presence detection. The results of both experiments provide evidence against the hypothesis that general metamemory beliefs predict culprit-presence detection. Accordingly, we caution against using general metamemory beliefs as indicators of how well a culprit can be detected.

Face masks and coverings are often encountered by facial examiners (‘examiners’) in forensic case work. Examiners are skilled at unconcealed face identifications, but their accuracy for masked face identifications is unknown, yet can be used as evidence in court. Here we test performance of an international sample of 61 examiners, 39 professional teams, and 6 face identification algorithms for 20 image pairs. Pairs consisted of one unconcealed face image and one mask wearing face image. Examiners and professional teams outperformed controls, but professional teams made the least errors of all groups. The algorithms achieved high accuracy on the task. The findings back the notion that examiners use feature-based comparison strategies, and these are successful for matching images where one face wears a mask. Our results support the use of examiners for the identification of masked faces and suggest a role for teams and human-machine working in applied practice.

Traditional methods used for presenting to-be-remembered events in eyewitness memory research are often criticized for lacking scientific rigor. Videos lack ecological validity, and though staged live events are realistic, they lack experimental control. Virtual reality (VR) has been proposed as a promising alternative, offering immersive realism in a controlled environment. In this study, 141 participants viewed an event either live, on video, or in VR. Presence, emotional experience, heart rate, and recall were compared across groups, and it was seen that the VR experience was highly similar to the live-event group. The video group reported significantly lower presence, ecological validity, and heart rate changes compared to the VR group. These findings suggest that VR can offer a highly realistic witness experience while maintaining experimental control, making it a valuable tool for eyewitness memory research.

This study explored how alcohol intoxication and dialect influence mock jurors' perceptions of a sexual assault victim's credibility, blameworthiness, consent, verdicts and sentence length. A 2 × 2 between-subjects design involved 198 participants (recruited from the community and university campus) who read a fictional trial vignette, with the victim portrayed as either intoxicated or sober. Thereafter, they listened to an emergency call recorded by a bidialectal speaker, with the victim speaking either Scottish Standard English or the non-standard Dundonian dialect. Although victims speaking Dundonian were perceived as less credible, dialect did not influence verdicts or sentencing decisions. Contrary to previous research, the victim's intoxication status did not affect mock jurors' decision-making. These findings highlight the importance of addressing linguistic biases to ensure fair trial outcomes.