Lori Van Wallendael

Tracing the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes: cognitive representations of hypothesis testing.

A well-documented phenomenon in opinion-revision literature is subjects’ failure to revise probability estimates for an exhaustive set of mutually exclusive hypotheses in a complementary manner. However, prior research has not addressed the question of whether such behavior simply represents a misunderstanding of mathematical rules, or whether it is a consequence of a cognitive representation of hypotheses that is at odds with the Bayesian notion of a set relationship. Two alternatives to the Bayesian representation, a belief system (Shafer, 1976) and a system of independent hypotheses, were proposed, and three experiments were conducted to examine cognitive representations of hypothesis sets in the testing of multiple competing hypotheses. Subjects were given brief murder mysteries to solve and allowed to request various types of information about the suspects; after having received each new piece of information, subjects rated each suspect’s probability of being the murderer. Presence and timing of suspect eliminations were varied in the first two experiments; the final experiment involved the varying of percent-ages of clues that referred to more than one suspect (for example, all of the female suspects). The noncomplementarity of opinion revisions remained a strong phenomenon in all conditions. Information-search data refuted the idea that subjects represented hypotheses as Bayesian set; further study of the independent hypotheses theory and Shaferian belief functions as descriptive models is encouraged.

Creating Blind Photoarrays Using Virtual Human Technology A Feasibility Test

This article examined the feasibility of a computer-based program that alleviates the human resource challenge associated with blind photoarrays (photoarrays in which the investigator is blind to the suspect’s identity). Students watched videotaped crimes and attempted to identify the perpetrators from photoarays conducted by a “virtual officer” who responds to simple voice commands or by research assistants playing the role of investigators. The student investigators and virtual officer produced comparable identification performance and student reactions to the photoarray procedures. Results of this evaluation study are encouraging, and the authors recommend further laboratory and field testing of the virtual officer technology for conducting blind lineups.

Evaluation of a Web Site in Cognitive Science

A public Web site (Goolkasian & Van Wallendael, 2001), established to provide educational materials in cognitive science, served as the primary text for an interdisciplinary course. We tracked student use of the Web site online and with self-report questionnaires. A majority (74%) of the students rated the Web site to be as useful or more useful than a traditional textbook. Although time spent online with the Web materials predicted scores for 2 of the 4 exams, class attendance was the strongest predictor of exam performance.

A Web site in cognitive science.

A Web site (http://web2-pc.uncc.edu/cogsci) has been established to support an interdisciplinary course in cognitive science. The modules include introductory reading material, interactive exercises/virtual laboratory, and pointers to existing material on the Web. Our approach to using the Web in support of instruction differs from distance learning initiatives because it is centered on an instructor and classroom experiences. The Web-based modules are used to supplement classroom lectures and provide an interdisciplinary perspective.

Limitations to Empirical Approaches to Jury Selection

ABSTRACT The superiority of social scientific approaches to voir dire is questioned on two grounds. First, the advantage of social scientific methods over normative approaches has not been established. Indeed, we have little empirical understanding of normative approaches to voir dire and therefore have little basis for comparison. Second, the variability in voir dire procedure from courtroom to courtroom and the lack of empirical knowledge on how this variability in practice affects traditional or social scientific approaches to voir dire makes generalizations premature.

Psychology of Women and the Potential for Influencing Students' Lives: An Interview with Margaret W. Matlin

Lori Van Wallendael is an associate professor of Psychology and coordinator of the Womens Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She teaches courses in psychology of women, general psychology, cognitive science, history and systems of psychology, research methods, and psychology and law, among others. Her research interests include human decision making, eyewitness and earwitness memory, and juror intuitions about memory issues.Margaret W. Matlin is a distinguished teaching professor at SUNY Geneseo. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Canadian Psychological Association. During her teaching career, she has been the recipient of the SUNY Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division 2) Award, and the American Psychological Foundations Distinguished Teaching in Psychology Award. She is the author of Cognition (5th ed., 2001), The Psychology of Women (4th ed., ...Lori Van Wallendael is an associate professor of Psychology and coordinator of the Womens Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She teaches courses in psychology of women, general psychology, cognitive science, history and systems of psychology, research methods, and psychology and law, among others. Her research interests include human decision making, eyewitness and earwitness memory, and juror intuitions about memory issues. Margaret W. Matlin is a distinguished teaching professor at SUNY Geneseo. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Canadian Psychological Association. During her teaching career, she has been the recipient of the SUNY Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division 2) Award, and the American Psychological Foundations Distinguished Teaching in Psychology Award. She is the author of Cognition (5th ed., 2001), The Psychology of Women (4th ed., 2000), Psychology (3rd ed., 1999), and the coauthor (with Hugh Foley) of Sensation and Perception (4th ed., 1997). She has also authored or coauthored 21 instructors manuals, student study guides, and test-item files as well as 8 chapters in books and 45 published articles.

Recognition Memory for Easy and Difficult Text

Abstract A recognition memory paradigm was used to study the effect of text difficulty on memory for practical stimuli. In the first two studies, passages drawn from driving regulations were compared with passages from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) materials; in the third study, material was selected from two psychology textbooks that were rated in different categories of difficulty. The authors expected that in each comparison the more difficult text would require more cognitive processing and, as a result, would be stored in a more elaborate way than would material from the easier text. After reading passages drawn from both levels of difficulty, the subjects were given a test that included items categorized as verbatim, paraphrases, and correct or incorrect inferences. The results of the three studies showed a difference in recognition of item types as a function of stimulus materials. Recognition rates for the easier passages provide more evidence of verbatim or surface memory than do the rates for t...