Crystal D. Oberle

The Galileo Bias: A Naive Conceptual Belief That Influences People's Perceptions and Performance in a Ball-Dropping Task.

This research introduces a new naive physics belief, the Galileo bias, whereby people ignore air resistance and falsely believe that all objects fall at the same rate. Survey results revealed that this bias is held by many and is surprisingly strongest for those with formal physics instruction. In 2 experiments, 98 participants dropped ball pairs varying in volume and/or mass from a height of 10 m, with the goal of both balls hitting the ground simultaneously. The majority of participants in both experiments adopted a single strategy consistent with the Galileo bias, showing no improvement across trials. Yet, for participants reporting intentions of dropping both balls at the same time, the differences between release points were significantly greater than 0 ms. These findings support separate but interacting cognition and perception-action systems.

Independence and separability of volume and mass in the size-weight illusion

Numerous size-weight illusion models were classified in the present article according to general recognition theory (Ashby & Townsend, 1986), wherein the illusion results from a lack of perceptual separability, perceptual independence, decisional separability, or a combination of the three. These options were tested in two experiments in which a feature-complete factorial design and multidimensional signal detection analysis were used (Kadlec & Townsend, 1992a, 1992b). With haptic touch alone, the illusion was associated with a lack of perceptual and decisional separability. When the participant viewed the stimulus in his or her hand, the illusion was associated only with a lack of decisional separability. Visual input appeared to improve the discrimination of mass, leaving only the response bias due to expectation.

Orthorexia nervosa: Assessment and correlates with gender, BMI, and personality

This study investigated whether orthorexia nervosa (ON; characterized by an obsessive fixation on eating healthy) may be predicted from the demographics variables of gender and BMI, and from the personality variables of self-esteem, narcissism, and perfectionism. Participants were 459 college students, who completed several online questionnaires that assessed these variables. A principal components analysis confirmed that the Eating Habits Questionnaire (Gleaves, Graham, & Ambwani, 2013) assesses three internally-consistent ON components: healthy eating behaviors, problems resulting from those behaviors, and positive feelings associated with those behaviors. A MANOVA and its tests of between subjects effects then revealed significant interactions between gender and BMI, such that for men but not women, a higher BMI was associated with greater symptomatology for all ON components. Partial correlation analyses, after controlling for gender and BMI, revealed that both narcissism and perfectionism were positively correlated with all aspects of ON symptomatology.

Orthorexic eating behaviors related to exercise addiction and internal motivations in a sample of university students

PurposeThis research explored the exercise tendencies and motivations of individuals varying in orthorexia symptomatology.MethodParticipants were 411 university students, who completed the Eating Habits Questionnaire alongside measures of exercise activity and addiction in Study 1 (a modified version of the Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire, the Exercise Addiction Inventory, and the Compulsive Exercise Test) and various exercise motivations in Study 2 (the Behavioural Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire and the Exercise Motivations Inventory-2).ResultsOrthorexia symptomatology was positively correlated with aerobic and strength-training exercise levels; all measures of exercise addiction; all measures of internal exercise motivation; and nearly all measures of exercise motivation for the purposes of psychological, social, health, and body improvement. Symptomatology was not significantly related to either measure that specifically assessed external motivation to exercise.ConclusionIndividuals high in orthorexia symptomatology are internally driven to exercise for the purposes of improving their physical and mental health, but these strong motivations also lead to exercise addiction characterized by a compulsive need to follow a rigid schedule of intensive exercise even in the face of injury, illness, or other problems.Level of evidenceLevel V, descriptive cross-sectional study.

Predicting Alcohol, Cigarette, and Marijuana Use From Preferential Music Consumption

This study investigated whether use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana may be predicted from preferential consumption of particular music genres. Undergraduates (257 women and 78 men) completed a questionnaire assessing these variables. Partial correlation analyses, controlling for sensation-seeking tendencies and behaviors, revealed that listening to conventional music (pop, country, and religious genres) was negatively correlated with cigarette smoking (p = .001) and marijuana use (p < .001). Additionally, listening to energetic music (rap or hip-hop and soul or funk genres) was positively correlated with marijuana use (p = .004). The only significant predictor of alcohol use was country music, with which it was positively correlated (p = .04). This research suggests an especially harmful influence of energetic music on marijuana use.

Predicting safe sex practices from gender-related interpersonal variables

ABSTRACT This study investigated whether safe sex practices, including condom use and partner communication, may be predicted from the interpersonal traits of agency, unmitigated agency, communion, and unmitigated communion. Participants were 375 college students (77% women, 23% men), who completed an online questionnaire assessing the variables of interest. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that high-agency individuals employed greater safe sex practices (p = .001) and had greater communication with their partners about safe sex (p < .001) than low-agency individuals, whereas high-unmitigated agency individuals employed fewer safe sex practices (p = .009) and used condoms less often (p = .017) than low-unmitigated agency individuals. Furthermore, high-communion individuals had better partner communication about safe sex (p = .013) than low-communion individuals. These findings are consistent with past research showing the positive impact of agency and communion, as well as negative impact of unmitigated agency, on risky health behaviors.

Effects of Cogmed working memory training on cognitive performance

Research on the cognitive benefits of working memory training programs has produced inconsistent results. Such research has frequently used laboratory-specific training tasks, or dual-task n-back training. The current study used the commercial Cogmed Working Memory (WM) Training program, involving several different training tasks involving visual and auditory input. Healthy college undergraduates were assigned to either the full Cogmed training program of 25, 40-min training sessions; an abbreviated Cogmed program of 25, 20-min training sessions; or a no-contact control group. Pretest and posttest measures included multiple measures of attention, working memory, fluid intelligence, and executive functions. Although improvement was observed for the full training group for a digit span task, no training-related improvement was observed for any of the other measures. Results of the study suggest that WM training does not improve performance on unrelated tasks or enhance other cognitive abilities.

Orthorexia symptoms correlate with perceived muscularity and body fat, not BMI

PurposeThis study explored how different body-type measures relate to orthorexia symptomatology.MethodParticipants were 465 undergraduates, who completed an online survey with self-reported height and weight items, a muscularity figure rating scale, a body fat figure rating scale, and the Eating Habits Questionnaire (EHQ; Gleaves, Graham, & Ambwani, 2013).ResultsBMI was not significantly related to any of the EHQ subscale scores. In contrast, muscularity rating was positively related to all EHQ subscale scores: Behaviors (p < .001), Problems (p = .014), and Feelings (p = .003). Additionally, body fat rating was negatively correlated with two EHQ subscale scores: Behaviors (p < .001) and Feelings (p = .008). None of these relationships varied as a function of gender.ConclusionThese findings suggest that orthorexia symptomatology, while unrelated to BMI, is greater for individuals who perceive themselves as having a relatively muscular, lean body type.Level of evidenceLevel V, descriptive cross-sectional study.

Predicting perceived infidelity from gender and interpersonal traits

Abstract This study investigated whether perceived infidelity may be predicted from gender, communion, fear of intimacy, and rejection sensitivity. Undergraduates (272 women, 82 men) completed a questionnaire assessing these variables. MANOVA and regression analyses revealed that women, high-communion individuals, and low fear-of-intimacy individuals were more likely to perceive sex-based acts (e.g. sexual intercourse) and emotion-based acts (e.g. falling in love without acting on the feelings) as constituting infidelity, compared to men, low-communion individuals, and high fear-of-intimacy individuals, respectively. Rejection sensitivity did not predict perceived infidelity. This research has implications for perceived threats being a function of ones level of commitment to their romantic relationship, and applications for partners in counseling to work on the relationship and understand one another better.