Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Papers 255–261 Saturday Afternoon
Sykes and Matza’s (1957) framework of neutralization techniques—
that is, arguments for the temporary removal of norms or for qualification
of their application.
3:50–4:05 (255)
Can Expert Decision Making Be Improved? Four Successes and
One Failure. JAMES SHANTEAU, Kansas State University, BRIAN
FRIEL, Delaware State University, RICK THOMAS, Carnegie Mellon
University, & JOHN RAACKE, Briar Cliff University—Despite
the obvious need to improve expert decision making, most previous
approaches (e.g., debiasing or giving outcome feedback) have been
unsuccessful. The present paper summarizes results from five studies
using a different strategy: Experts used a hands-on approach of selfdiscovery
to learn how to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information
in ambiguous situations. Four of these studies succeeded, one failed.
In each of the four successes (soil judging, nursing diagnosis, small
business innovation, and air traffic control), focusing attention on reducing
the impact of irrelevant information led to improved decision
quality. However, the approach was unsuccessful when applied to accountants
making decisions involving sunk costs. Thus when experts can
distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, their decisions can be
improved by ignoring irrelevance. But, when experts cannot make this
distinction (e.g., for sunk costs), their decisions remain unimproved.
4:10–4:25 (256)
Directionality of Reasoning by Lay People When Solving Health
Problems. VIMLA L. PATEL & DAVID R. KAUFMAN, Columbia
University—The ability to draw appropriate inferences under conditions
of uncertainty is one of the distinguishing characteristics of expert
performance. We have conducted numerous studies that have
characterized differences in reasoning strategies across levels of expertise.
In most domains, experts tend to use a forward-directed reasoning
strategy in which evidence leads sequentially to a solution, whereas
less-expert subjects are more likely to employ backward or hypothesisdriven
strategies. In our present study, we investigated sexual decisionmaking
in young adults, who are at high risk of HIV infection. Directionality
of reasoning was analyzed in the explanations provided
for condom use decisions by subjects who were either consistent or
inconsistent in their use. The results show the shifts in directionality of
reasoning in lay people to be consistent with degree of uncertainty in
dealing with problems, similar to findings for professionals’ reasoning.
4:30–4:45 (257)
Dual Processes in Estimating Risks: A Fuzzy-Trace Theory Approach.
VALERIE F. REYNA, Cornell University—Prior work on
fuzzy-trace theory has provided a theoretical analysis of decision framing
effects that stresses dual intuitive and analytical processes. Research
will be reported on an ironic effect in health decision making
that emerges from this analysis. The predicted finding is that, counterintuitively,
people will seek screening tests when they are already
sick and will avoid the same tests when healthy. Similarly, people estimate
the probability of having a cancer gene given that they develop
cancer as higher than the probability that they will develop cancer
given that they have the gene, reversing the objective probabilities.
These findings were investigated by asking subjects to estimate risks
of breast cancer and genetic mutations that cause breast cancer, as well
as to report their behaviors and intentions regarding cancer screening and
genetic testing. Variations in quantitative processing—numeracy—
and experimental manipulations of denominator neglect modulated
the effects.
4:50–5:05 (258)
Toward a Valid Risk Taking Scale: Evolutionary Domains and Personal
Life History. X. T. WANG, University of South Dakota, DANIEL
KRUGER, University of Michigan, & ANDREAS WILKE, Max
Planck Institute for Human Development—In response to recent calls
for domain-specific measures of risk taking, this study emphasized
the need of evolutionarily valid domains. A total of 693 participants
40
responded online to a set of questionnaire items and rated them in
terms of perceived riskiness, attractiveness, and the likelihood of engaging
in a risk behavior. An exploratory factor analysis identified
five domains of risk taking (i.e., within-group competition, betweengroups
competition, survival and physical risks, mating and mate attraction,
and reproductive risks). Most monetary items did not have
high factor loadings. We further hypothesized that reduction in the
values of life history references would make personal goals more eminent
and risks worth taking. We found that the attractiveness and likelihood
measures were negatively related to subjective life expectancy,
age, and reproductive goals (the maximum desired number of offspring)
in specific risk domains. Men were more risk taking than women in
all five domains.
5:10–5:25 (259)
Effects of Knowledge and Display Design on Eye Fixations While Interpreting
Weather Maps. MATT CANHAM & MARY HEGARTY,
University of California, Santa Barbara (read by Mary Hegarty)—It
has been proposed that experts focus on the most relevant information
in a visual display, whereas novices are drawn to the most salient
information. It is not well understood how these differences develop
or how much knowledge and experience are required for processing
differences to appear. Three experiments examined how eye fixations
on a weather map and performance in a simple weather forecasting
task changed with brief instruction on meteorological principles.
After instruction, novices spent more time fixating on task-relevant
aspects of a weather map and less time fixating on irrelevant aspects.
Their performance on the weather forecasting task also improved, and
improvement was greater when they viewed weather maps that made
the most relevant information salient. However, objective measures of
saliency were poor predictors of novices’ eye fixations. The results are
interpreted in terms of the relative importance of top-down and
bottom-up processes in graphics comprehension.
Disordered Memory
Conference Rooms B&C, Saturday Afternoon, 3:50–5:30
Chaired by Gabriel A. Radvansky, University of Notre Dame
3:50–4:05 (260)
Synesthesia, Memory, and Comprehension. GABRIEL A. RAD-
VANSKY & BRADLEY S. GIBSON, University of Notre Dame—
Synesthesia is a condition in which qualia of one sensory modality
bleed over into another (e.g., sound produces the sensation of color).
Most work on synesthesia has addressed issues of the mechanisms
that give rise to this condition, as well as the perceptual and attentional
consequences. In this study, we take a different tack by investigating
how synesthesia affects higher level processes such as memory and
comprehension. Synesthetes and normals were given a series of simple
and complex working memory span tests, von Restorff and other
color-based memory tests, and sentence memory and story reading
tasks. Our findings show that there is some memory benefit for synesthetes
for information such as letters and words. However, at the situation
model level, there appears to be a processing cost. Thus, the
altered perceptual experience associated with synesthesia may result
in different emphases for memory and comprehension.
4:10–4:25 (261)
Multinomial Modeling of Source Monitoring Biases in Schizophrenia.
TODD S. WOODWARD & JENNIFER C. WHITMAN, Simon
Fraser University, MAHESH MENON, Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health, & XIANGEN HU, University of Memphis—Hallucinations
and delusions in schizophrenia partially reflect inner/outer confusions
in cognition. Thus, source monitoring has proven an important paradigm
for investigating the cognitive mechanisms underlying psychotic
symptoms. In the present study, participants were required to recall
the source of items originating from external (computer and experimenter)
or internal (the subject) sources. Multinomial modeling was