Sandra L. Schneider

Gender and Attractiveness Biases in Hiring Decisions: Are More Experienced Managers Less Biased?

The relationship of managerial experience to gender and attractiveness biases was examined in decisions involving suitability for hire and probable organizational progression within a typical financial institution. Each of 112 managers evaluated 4 equivalent resume-data sheets, to which different candidate photographs were attached. The photographs were varied using a 2 X 2 (Gender X Attractiveness) design wherein each photograph depicted a woman or a man who was either highly attractive or slightly below average in attractiveness. For both ratings and rankings of candidates, clear evidence of attractiveness and gender biases were present. The extent of the bias was generally smaller for the most experienced managers, although less attractive female applicants were routinely at a disadvantage regardless of managerial experience.

Framing and Conflict: Aspiration Level Contingency, the Status Quo, and Current Theories of Risky Choice

The effect of positive versus negative frames on risky choice was examined for a variety of scenarios and risks. Preferences in the positive domain were strong and mainly risk averse, with notable exceptions. Preferences in the negative domain, however, were marked by their inconsistency, shown both by an overwhelming lack of significant majority preferences and a surprisingly strong tendency of individual subjects to vacillate in their negatively framed choices across presentations. This finding is accounted for by a proposed aspiration level contingency in which aspiration levels are systematically set to be more difficult to achieve in the face of a perceived loss than a gain. The implications of the results, and the aspiration level contingency, are explored with respect to current theories of risky choice, including Kahneman and Tverskys (1979) prospect theory and Lopess (1987, 1990) security-potential/aspiration theory.

Understanding denial in sexual offenders: a review of cognitive and motivational processes to avoid responsibility.

Treatment of sexual offenders is routinely complicated by the presence of denial. This article examines how denial is related to the willingness to take responsibility for offense-related thoughts and actions and how conceptualizations of denial have developed and changed over time. Multiple facets of denial are described in detail, along with an assessment of how different forms of denial undermine acceptance of responsibility throughout treatment. Evidence is presented to show that resistance and denial often hinge on cognitive and motivational processes that are commonly accepted as fundamental treatment targets rather than treatment obstacles. The authors propose that denial may be best understood as the acceptance of explanations that reduce accountability and are reinforced by distorted beliefs and self-deceptive thinking processes. The article concludes with a discussion of the rich clinical information embedded in different expressions of denial and the benefits of treatment strategies designed to assess and work through them.

Do we know what we've learned from listening to the news?

This study investigates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and an awareness of that knowledge within the context of listening to the news, Subjects listened to a recording of a radio news program consisting of regular news items as well as editorials, manipulated to be of high or low personal relevance. They then completed a surprise memory test and rated their confidence in their answers. In contrast to many studies, the results indicated a strong positive confidence-accuracy relationship. Confidence ratings were generally a better predictor of an individuals performance than were predictions based on item difficulty. Whereas subjects reported strong and accurate feelings of knowing, they apparently lacked complementary feelings ofnot knowing. The implications of these findings and others are discussed.

Is there anything out there? A study of distal attribution in response to vibrotactile stimulation.

Patterns of vibrotactile stimulation were delivered to the index fingertips of naive blindfolded subjects. The attributions made by these subjects when they were allowed to experience transformations of vibrotactile stimulation correlated with self-movement were assessed. Although the subjects became aware of the relationship between self-movement and stimulation transformation, they never developed the hypothesis of distal attribution, ie the hypothesis that the ultimate cause of their vibrotactile experience was an encounter with an object in the environment. It is proposed that further investigations of the course of acquisition of distal attribution in the situation described may be instructive in the study of externalization in other modalities.

Perceptual Learning of Spatiotemporal Events: Evidence from an Unfamiliar Modality

Perceptual learning was examined in two experiments in which subjects, originally unfamiliar with vibrotactile stimulation, were required to identify dynamic vibrotactile patterns with static visual patterns of the same two-dimensional shapes. In Experiment 1 we examined changes in performance with practice under a variety of vibrotactile spatial and temporal conditions. In Experiment 2 we investigated transfer of learning from one set of vibrotactile patterns to another different set. In neither experiment were subjects supplied with knowledge of results. Substantial perceptual learning (improvement in identification with practice) was observed in Experiment 1, although a minority of subjects did not exhibit improvement. Experiment 2 confirmed the general findings of Experiment 1 and also provided evidence of substantial positive transfer. In both experiments, multidimensional scaling of pattern confusion data revealed that practice (and improvement in identification) did not qualitatively change the relative confusability of patterns, suggesting that the (informative) structure of the patterns, irrespective of familiarity with a specific set of patterns, determined confusability. The findings are interpreted in terms of learning constructs offered by E. J. and J. J. Gibson. We conclude by considering the prospects that a connectionist mechanism can account for the observed perceptual learning.

The Detection of Length and Orientation Changes in Dynamic Vibrotactile Patterns

Vibrotactile thresholds for the detection of length and orientation changes were determined for dynamic line patterns presented on the Optacon in a forced-choice procedure. Even the smallest changes in both length (1.2 mm) and orientation (7°) could be detected in the absence of any other changes in the vibrotactile pattern. The introduction of translations increased the length-change threshold to approximately 4.0 mm, and the introduction of length changes increased the orientation-change threshold to approximately 25°. The effects of several additional variables were assessed; these included the use of filled and unfilled lines, the timing of presentation, and the position of stimuli on the array. The implications for the perception of depth in dynamic vibrotactile patterns are discussed.

An asymmetry in transmodal perceptual learning.

Transmodal perceptual learning was examined in a canonicalsame/different paradigm. Subjects native to vibrotactile stimulation and unfamiliar with the task were asked to discriminate sequentially presented shapes moving laterally across an aperture. On all trials, the shapes were presented either visually and then vibrotactually or in the opposite modality order, and on all trials the shapes moved in opposite directions. Analyses of the data revealed that although perceptual learning was evident in both groups, the rate of the learning was more rapid in the visual-vibrotactile group. This interaction of modality order and practice was significant and was considered in terms of E. J. Gibson’s theory of perceptual learning and in terms of the constructs, suggested by J. J. Gibson, of available and accessible information-in-stimulation and the education of attention.

An elitist naturalistic fallacy and the automatic-controlled continuum

Although a focus on individual differences can help resolve issues concerning performance errors and computational complexity, the understanding/acceptance axiom is inadequate for establishing which decision norms are most appropriate. The contribution of experience to automatic and controlled processes suggests difficulties in attributing interactional intelligence to goals of evolutionary rationality and analytic intelligence to goals of instrumental rationality.

Experimental Design in the Behavioral and Social Sciences

v. 1. The experimental approach to behavioral and social sciences research -- v. 2. Hypothesis testing and inference in the behavioral and social sciences -- v. 3. Controls and confounds in behavioral and social sciences experiments -- v. 4. Design choices and future directions in the behavioral and social sciences.