Psychology

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The Department of Psychology will provide a collaborative environment for innovation and scientific discovery in psychological science and for attainment of psychological literacy.

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Prospective and retrospective duration judgments: An executive-control process
(Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology and Polish Neuroscience Society, 2004) Block, Richard A.; Zakay, Dan
Most theorists propose that when a person is aware that a duration judgment must be made (prospective paradigm), experienced duration depends on attention to temporal information, which competes with attention to nontemporal information. When a person is not aware that a duration judgment must be made until later (retrospective paradigm), remembered duration depends on incidental memory for temporal information. In the present article we describe two experiments in which durations involved with high-level, executive-control functions were judged either prospectively or retrospectively. In one experiment, the executive function involved resolving syntactic ambiguity in reading. In another experiment, it involved controlling the switching between tasks. In both experiments, there was a unique cost to the operation of control high-level, executive functions which was manifested by prospective reproductions shortening a finding that supports an attentional model of prospective timing. In addition, activation of executive functions produced contextual changes that were encoded in memory and resulted in longer retrospective reproductions, a finding that supports a contextual-change model of retrospective timing. Thus, different cognitive processes underlie prospective and retrospective timing. Recent findings obtained by some brain researchers also support these conclusions.
Error-monitoring brain activity is associated with affective behaviors in young children.
(2011-04) Brooker, Rebecca J.; Buss, Kristin A.; Dennis, Tracy A.
Despite recent evidence that neural correlates of error monitoring such as the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) are visible in children sooner than previously thought, little is known about these components early in life. Error-monitoring components can be noninvasively recorded from a very early age and have been proposed as biological markers of risk for psychopathology. Therefore, the current study represents an attempt to examine the presence of these components in a sample of very young children and explore their associations with affect and attentional control. Fifteen children between ages 4 and 8 participated in two laboratory episodes: interacting with a stranger and completing a computerized flanker task. Shy and bold behaviors were scored during the stranger interaction and parents reported on temperament-based affective behaviors. Both ERN and Pe were visible in children as young as age 4. A trend-level interaction was observed between age and gender in association with ERN amplitudes. Age and gender were unrelated to the Pe. Greater ERN and Pe were associated with better poorer orienting and greater attentional focusing, respectively. Greater Pe was also linked to less observed boldness. Implications for studies of the development of performance monitoring in children are discussed.
An ERP study of conflict monitoring in 4- to 8-year-old children: Associations with temperament.
(2011-04) Buss, Kristin A.; Dennis, Tracy A.; Brooker, Rebecca J.; Sippel, Lauren M.
Although there is great interest in identifying the neural correlates of cognitive processes that create risk for psychopathology, there is a paucity of research in young children. One event-related potential (ERP), the N2, is thought to index conflict monitoring and has been linked cognitive and affective risk factors for anxiety. Most of this research, however, has been conducted with adults, adolescents, and older children, but not with younger children. To address this gap, the current study examined 26 4–8-year-olds, who completed a cued flanker task while EEG was continuously recorded. We assessed whether the N2 was detectable in this group of young children and examined associations between the N2 and factors reflecting affective risk (e.g., reduced executive attention, temperamental effortful control, and temperamental surgency). We documented an N2 effect (greater N2 amplitude to incongruent versus congruent flankers), but only in children older than 6 years of age. Increases in the N2 effect were associated with less efficient executive attention and lower temperamental effortful control. We discuss the implications of these findings and consider how they may inform future studies on biomarkers for cognitive and affective risk factors for anxiety.
Infusing Psychological Need Support into Faculty Search Processes: Broadening the Search Experiment Results
(Montana State University, Bozeman, 2013) Smith, Jessi L.; Rushing, Sara
This poster presents the objectives, methods, and results of the Broadening the Search Experiment performed by the ADVANCE Project TRACS.
ADVANCE Project TRACS
(Montana State University, Bozeman, 2013) Smith, Jessi L.; Rushing, Sara
This poster presents the objectives, initiatives, and research objectives of ADVANCE Project TRACS in 2013.
ADVANCE Project TRACS Charrette Posters
(Montana State University, Bozeman, 2013) Smith, Jessi L.; Rushing, Sara
These posters, presented on April 9, 2013, show data on recruiting new female faculty hires, job satisfaction, baseline indicators, and opinions on existing programs.
Faculty Transition posters
(Montana State University, Bozeman, 2013) Smith, Jessi L.; Rushing, Sara; ADVANCE Project TRACS
These posters present data collected by ADVANCE Project TRACS about MSU faculty hiring. Topics include, salary equity, retention, tenure and promotion, and start up packages.
ADVANCE Project TRACS Charrette Posters 2013
(2013) Smith, Jessi L.; Rushing, Sara
These posters, presented in 2013, show data on recruiting new female faculty hires, job satisfaction, baseline indicators, and opinions on existing programs.
MSU Faculty Job Satisfaction: A Test of Self-Determination Theory
(Montana State University, Bozeman, 2013) Smith, Jessi L.; Rushing, Sara
This poster presents the changes found in job satisfaction of MSU faculty members from Fall 2012 to Fall 2013 and it's relation to involvement with ADVANCE by ADVANCE Project TRACS.
Gender stereotypes of leadership behaviors: Social metacognitive evidence
(SCIKNOW, 2013) Block, Richard A.; Crawford, Kevin Charles
Gender stereotyping of leadership behaviors is pervasive. Although women and men show few differences in leadership behaviors, experienced male managers rate male and female managers’ leadership qualities differently. Participants in this study comprised 107 women and 103 men with little or no management experience. They were asked to estimate how experienced male managers had previously rated women and men on 14 leadership behaviors. We compared these data to those previous data. The participants made social-metacognitive estimates accurately: Their estimates correlated with the previous ratings made by experienced male managers, even though the male managers had access to actual workplace observations. Thus, stereotyping in organizations involves gender stereotypes rather than actual workplace observations. People stereotype other people in organizations because they import stereotypes from non-organizational settings.
Timing and time perception: A selective review and commentary on recent reviews
(Frontiers Research Foundation, 2014) Block, Richard A.; Grondin, Simon
A clear example of the progress in the field of timing and time perception could be obtained by contrasting two articles published 30 years apart in the influential Annual Review of Psychology (ARP): one by Fraisse (1984), and one by Allman et al. (2014). The fact that there was one author 30 years ago, and a group of authors now, is a tangible sign of the contemporary way of approaching scientific research. In his review, Fraisse emphasized the distinction between time perception and time estimation; in their review, Allman et al. focused on the internal clock and the cerebral bases of timing and time perception.
ADVANCE Project TRACS Charrette Posters 2014
(2014-04) Smith, Jessi L.; Burroughs, Beth; Handley, Ian M.; Stoop, Chatanika
These posters, presented in 2014, show data on recruiting new female faculty hires, job satisfaction, baseline indicators, and opinions on existing programs.
Harsh parenting and fearfulness in toddlerhood interact to predict amplitudes of preschool error-related negativity.
(2014-07) Brooker, Rebecca J.; Buss, Kristin A.
Temperamentally fearful children are at increased risk for the development of anxiety problems relative to less-fearful children. This risk is even greater when early environments include high levels of harsh parenting behaviors. However, the mechanisms by which harsh parenting may impact fearful children's risk for anxiety problems are largely unknown. Recent neuroscience work has suggested that punishment is associated with exaggerated error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential linked to performance monitoring, even after the threat of punishment is removed. In the current study, we examined the possibility that harsh parenting interacts with fearfulness, impacting anxiety risk via neural processes of performance monitoring. We found that greater fearfulness and harsher parenting at 2 years of age predicted greater fearfulness and greater ERN amplitudes at age 4. Supporting the role of cognitive processes in this association, greater fearfulness and harsher parenting also predicted less efficient neural processing during preschool. This study provides initial evidence that performance monitoring may be a candidate process by which early parenting interacts with fearfulness to predict risk for anxiety problems.
A Multi-Million Dollar Opportunity: How Social Psychology Can ADVANCE the Participation of Women Faculty in STEM
(Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 2014-08) Smith, Jessi L.
NSF ADVANCE-IT grants are multimillion dollar, 5 year, cooperative agreements aimed at creating, sustaining, and studying ways to broaden the participation of women faculty in STEM. Social psychological science has much to offer in methodological and theoretical tools to design, measure, test, analyze, and interpret the impact of cultural transformation on the recruitment and retention of women faculty, as well as the benefits of enhancing faculty diversity. This is why this summer I organized a symposium on Using Social Psychological Science to ADVANCE the Participation of Women STEM Faculty at the 2014 meeting of the Association of Psychological Science. I wanted to inspire others to get involved, not just as consultants, but also as PIs and Co-PIs who can break new theoretical and applied ground within social psychology to study – and help solve – this incredibly important and persistent problem.
Profiles of observed infant anger predict preschool behavior problems: Moderation by life stress
(American Psychological Association, 2014-10) Brooker, Rebecca J.; Buss, Kristin A.; Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn; Aksan, Nazan; Davidson, Richard J.; Goldsmith, H. Hill
Using both traditional composites and novel profiles of anger, we examined associations between infant anger and preschool behavior problems in a large, longitudinal data set (N = 966). We also tested the role of life stress as a moderator of the link between early anger and the development of behavior problems. Although traditional measures of anger were largely unrelated to later behavior problems, profiles of anger that dissociated typical from atypical development predicted behavior problems during preschool. Moreover, the relation between infant anger profiles and preschool behavior problems was moderated such that, when early life stress was low, infants with atypical profiles of early anger showed more preschool behavior problems than did infants with normative anger profiles. However, when early life stress was high, infants with atypical and normative profiles of infant anger did not differ in preschool behavior problems. We conclude that a discrete emotions approach including latent profile analysis is useful for elucidating biological and environmental developmental pathways to early problem behaviors.
Ethnic Identity, Drinking Motives, and Alcohol Consequences Among Alaska Native and Non-Native College Students
(2014-12) Skewes, Monica C.; Blume, Arthur W.
This research involves the examination of drinking motives, alcohol consequences, and ethnic identity in a sample of Native and non-Native college student drinkers in Alaska. Although more Alaska Native students are abstinent from alcohol compared to any other ethnic group, Native students who do drink experience greater alcohol consequences and dependence symptoms. Therefore, we attempted to examine the influence of ethnic identity on alcohol consequences in a diverse sample of Native and non-Native students in Alaska. Findings showed that drinking motives, as measured by the Drinking Motives Questionnaire (social, coping, enhancement, and conformity), significantly predicted alcohol consequences after controlling for frequency of monthly binge drinking. In addition, after controlling for depression, binge drinking, and drinking motives, one aspect of ethnic identity (Affirmation, Belonging, and Commitment) was significantly negatively related to alcohol consequences, whereas another aspect of ethnic identity (Ethnic Identity Search) was not. Taken together, these findings suggest that interventions for college student alcohol misuse that target Native students should be culturally grounded and focused on enhancing the Affirmation, Belonging, and Commitment to one's ethnic heritage and should address drinking motives, especially drinking to cope, as a way to reduce alcohol related harm.
Women’s Bragging Rights: Overcoming Modesty Norms to Facilitate Women’s Self-Promotion
(2014-12) Smith, Jessi L.; Huntoon, Meghan
Within American gender norms is the expectation that women should be modest. We argue that violating this “modesty norm” by boasting about one’s accomplishments causes women to experience uncomfortable situational arousal that leads to lower motivation for and performance on a self-promotion task. We hypothesized that such negative effects could be offset when an external source for their situational arousal was made available. To test hypotheses, 78 women students from a U.S. Northwestern university wrote a scholarship application essay to promote the merits of either the self (modesty norm violated) or another person as a letter of reference (modesty norm not violated). Half were randomly assigned to hear information about a (fake) subliminal noise generator in the room that might cause “discomfort” (misattribution available) and half were told nothing about the generator (normal condition: misattribution not available). Participants rated the task and 44 new naive participants judged how much scholarship money to award each essay. Results confirmed predictions: under normal conditions, violating the modesty norm led to decreased motivation and performance. However, those who violated the modesty norm with a misattribution source reported increased interest, adopted fewer performance-avoidance goals, perceived their own work to be of higher quality, and produced higher quality work. Results suggest that when a situation helps women to escape the discomfort of defying the modesty norm, self-promotion motivation and performance improve. Further implications for enhancing women’s academic and workplace experiences are discussed.
ADVANCE Project TRACS Charrette Posters 2015
(2015) Smith, Jessi L.; Handley, Ian M.; Honea, Joy; Shanahan, Elizabeth A.; Skewes, Monica C.; Belou, Rebecca M.
These posters, presented in 2015, show data on recruiting new female faculty hires, job satisfaction, baseline indicators, and opinions on existing programs.
The Role of Altruistic Values in Motivating Underrepresented Minority Students for Biomedicine
(2015-02) Thoman, Dustin B.; Brown, Elizabeth R.; Mason, Andrew; Harmsen, Allen; Smith, Jessi L.
Understanding how cultural values influence undergraduate students’ science research experiences and career interest is important in efforts to broaden participation and to diversify the biomedical research workforce. The results from our prospective longitudinal study demonstrated that underrepresented minority student (URM) research assistants who see the altruistic value of conducting biomedical research feel more psychologically involved with their research over time, which, in turn, enhances their interest in pursuing a scientific research career. These altruistic motives are uniquely influential to URM students and appear to play an important role in influencing their interest in scientific research careers. Furthermore, seeing how research can potentially affect society and help one's community does not replace typical motives for scientific discovery (e.g., passion, curiosity, achievement), which are important for all students. These findings point to simple strategies for educators, training directors, and faculty mentors to improve retention among undergraduate URM students in biomedicine and the related sciences.
Assessment of Unconscious Decision Aids Applied to Complex Patient-Centered Medical Decisions
(2015-02) Manigault, Andrew Wilhelm; Handley, Ian Michael; Whillock, Summer Rain
"Background: To improve patient health, recent research urges for medical decision aids that are designed to enhance the effectiveness of specific medically related decisions. Many such decisions involve complex information, and decision aids that independently use deliberative (analytical and slower) or intuitive (more affective and automatic) cognitive processes for such decisions result in suboptimal decisions. Unconscious thought can arguably use both intuitive and deliberative (slow and analytic) processes, and this combination may further benefit complex patient (or practitioner) decisions as medical decision aids. Indeed, mounting research demonstrates that individuals render better decisions generally if they are distracted from thinking consciously about complex information after it is presented (but can think unconsciously), relative to thinking about that information consciously or not at all. Objective: The current research tested whether the benefits of unconscious thought processes can be replicated using an Internet platform for a patient medical decision involving complex information. This research also explored the possibility that judgments reported after a period of unconscious thought are actually the result of a short period of conscious deliberation occurring during the decision report phase. Methods: A total of 173 participants in a Web-based experiment received information about four medical treatments, the best (worst) associated with mostly positive (negative) side-effects/attributes and the others with equal positive-negative ratios. Next, participants were either distracted for 3 minutes (unconscious thought), instructed to think about the information for 3 minutes (conscious thought), or moved directly to the decision task (immediate decision). Finally, participants reported their choice of, and attitudes toward, the treatments while experiencing high, low, or no cognitive load, which varied their ability to think consciously while reporting judgments. Cognitive load was manipulated by having participants memorize semi-random (high), line structured (low), or no dot patterns and recall these intermittently with their decision reports. Overall then, participants were randomly assigned to the conditions of a 3 (thought condition) by 3 (cognitive-load level) between-subjects design. Results: A logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds of participants choosing the best treatment were 2.25 times higher in the unconscious-thought condition compared to the immediate-decision condition (b=.81, Wald=4.32, P=.04, 95% CI 1.048-4.836), and 2.39 times greater compared to the conscious-thought condition (b=.87, Wald=4.87, P=.027, 95% CI 1.103-5.186). No difference was observed between the conscious-thought condition compared to the immediate-decision condition, and cognitive load manipulations did not affect choices or alter the above finding. Conclusions: This research demonstrates a plausible benefit of unconscious thinking as a decision aid for complex medical decisions, and represents the first use of unconscious thought processes as a patient-centered medical decision aid. Further, the quality of decisions reached unconsciously does not appear to be affected by the amount of cognitive load participants experienced.