Browsing by Author "Oriet, Chris"

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Open Access
An exploration of conceptual similarity in multiple target visual search
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2024-01) Laderoute, Lee-Amber Marie; Oriet, Chris; Loucks, Jeff; Smith, Austen
Visual search studies generally suggest that multiple target visual search is more difficult and less efficient than traditional single target search, with costs to both RT and accuracy. Typically, these studies use dual target trials and abstract stimuli. A study by Laderoute (2021) using varying target set sizes and naturalistic stimuli found better performance for many-target search, with per-item RTs that decreased as target set size increased. Interestingly, increasing the perceptual similarity of the targets had no effect on search performance. However, in that study, regardless of the perceptual similarity condition, all targets within a trial were always the same type of item. It is possible that this high degree of conceptual similarity between targets facilitated search performance. The present study further explores the many-target benefit and assesses the possibility of a conceptual similarity effect. Participants searched naturalistic scenes for 2, 6, or 18 targets. On each trial, targets were either variations of the same item, items belonging to the same specific category, or items belonging to the same general category (e.g., hair ties, hair accessories, toiletries). Performance was best in the same-item 18-target condition. Mean per-item RT decreased as target set size increased, with little to no effect on accuracy. Search performance was best for same-item targets, and worse for samecategory and similar-category targets, with very similar performance in the two “category” conditions. The effect of conceptual similarity decreased as target set size increased. This study provides additional information about the factors that enhance and impair multiple target visual search performance, and has relevance for both professional and non-professional searchers.
Open Access
Anchoring has little effect when forming first impressions of facial attractiveness
(SAGE Publications, 2024-09-25) Kramer, Robin S.; Koca, Yaren; Mireku, Michael O.; Oriet, Chris
First impressions based on facial appearance affect our behaviour towards others. Since the same face will appear different across images, over time, and so on, our impressions may not be equally weighted across exposures but are instead disproportionately influenced by earlier or later instances. Here, we followed up on previous work which identified an anchoring effect, whereby higher attractiveness ratings were given to a person after viewing naturally varying images of their face presented in descending (high-to-low), rather than ascending (low-to-high), order of attractiveness of these images. In Experiment 1 ( n = 301), we compared these ‘descending’ and ‘ascending’ conditions for unfamiliar identities by presenting six-image sequences. Although we found higher attractiveness ratings for the ‘descending’ condition, this small effect equated to only 0.22 points on a 1–7 response scale. In Experiment 2 ( n = 307), we presented these six-image sequences in a random order and found no difference in attractiveness ratings given to these randomly ordered sequences when compared with those resulting from both our ‘descending’ and ‘ascending’ conditions. Further, we failed to detect an influence of the earlier images in these random sequences on attractiveness ratings. Taken together, we found no compelling evidence that anchoring could have an effect on real-world impression formation.
Open Access
Attentional blink: Restricted attention necessitates conscious perception
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-11) Galan, Mickenzie Arthur; Oriet, Chris; Phenix, Tom; Pandey, Mamata
In attention capture studies, a target stimulus is poorly identified when presented 200-500 ms after the presentation of a task-relevant distractor, a phenomenon referred to as the attentional blink. Evidence regarding the necessity of consciously perceiving the distractor in yielding an attentional blink is inconsistent in the literature. The goal of this thesis was to clarify under which conditions conscious perception of a distractor is necessary to trigger an attentional blink. It was hypothesized that the presence of a blink would vary according to the predictions of the novel restricted attention hypothesis, such that additional conditions must be met for a distractor to capture attention and cause a blink. The results provide evidence for this hypothesis, such that attention becomes restricted when attention is deployed broadly. Critically, it was found that conscious perception was a necessary condition in triggering a blink only when attention was deployed broadly. It was suggested that conscious perception becomes necessary in such conditions because it is responsible for shifting attention to the location of interest. This finding was interpreted through the novel diffused attention model. The present thesis clarifies when and why conscious perception becomes necessary. Keywords: attentional blink, attention capture, contingent capture, conscious perception
Open Access
Can change detection succeed when change localization fails?
(American Psychological Association, 2020-07-02) Oriet, Chris; Giesinger, Candice; Stewart, Kaiden M.
Statistical summary representations (SSRs) are thought to be computed by the visual system to provide a rapid summary of the properties of sets of similar objects. Recently, it has been suggested that a change in the statistical properties of a set can be identified even when changes to the individual items comprising the set cannot. Haberman and Whitney (2011) showed that subjects were correctly able to report which of two consecutively presented sets of faces was, on average, happier, even when participants were unable to localize any of the items contributing to this change. In this paper, we revisit this conclusion, and suggest that the results supporting it may be an artifact of the paradigm used. In four experiments we find little evidence to suggest that subjects can reliably detect a change in the average size or emotion of an array of faces when they are unable to localize changes to individual items. The results are well accounted for by assuming that observers are selectively attending to individual items and then inferring the direction of the overall change based on the behaviour of the attended items. We suggest that this occurs because change localization requires focused attention to individual items, impeding calculation of SSRs which requires global attention to the entire set. We conclude that there is currently little evidence that SSRs can facilitate change detection when individual change localization fails.
Open Access
Can Meaning Associated with Perceptual Grouping Modulate Attention?
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-05) Pandey, Mamata; Oriet, Chris; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Robinson, Katherine; Mouhoub, Malek; Arnell, Karen
In an environment rich with information, performance on a task depends on the ability to select only the relevant pieces of information for achieving a current goal. Cognitive psychologists propose that selective attention helps to segregate the relevant information from the irrelevant information. A combination of bottom-up and top-down factors jointly influences the settings of the attentional filter (Spalek, Falcon & Di Lollo, 2006) such that only task-relevant information is selected for further processing. However, biologically- and socially-important stimuli like affective faces are proposed to influence allocation of attention (Vuilleumier & Schwartz, 2001). Task-irrelevant emotional faces are proposed to capture attention in a way that is detrimental to performance on a primary task (Eastwood, Smilek & Merikle, 2003). The present study was carried out to examine whether task-irrelevant affective faces can capture attention even when attention is maintained in a focused mode. Subjects searched for a unique red target letter (T2) in a stream of black distractor letters presented at the rate of 1item per 84 ms in an RSVP sequence. Two straight lines and a curve were also presented in the periphery and in the same frame as a distractor letter (T1). The perceptual groups formed by the specific arrangements of the peripheral elements (face/ non-face), the time interval between T1 and T2 (lag), and the colour (black irrelevant / red relevant) of the peripheral elements were manipulated. The extent to which the peripheral elements captured attention was measured as differences in the accuracy with which T2 was identified in these different conditions. The results from six experiments indicate that T2 identification was impaired by lag and relevance but not by the presence of a face. Contrary to claims made in the literature the results of the present study indicated that distractions from socially-important stimuli like affective Gestalt faces can be averted when the spread of spatial attention is controlled and when these stimuli do not match the top-down settings adopted for the current task. The observations made in the present study also suggest possible differences between the mechanisms involved when a target is searched in space than when a target is searched in time. Keywords: face, perceptual groupings, attentional capture.
Open Access
Children and the Law: How Does Early Contact with Law Enforcement Predict Severity and Frequency of Offending Later in Life?
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2021-07) Audette, Kim Ellen; Oriet, Chris; Price, Heather; Sharpe, Donald; Wright, Kristi; Watkinson, Ailsa; Lee, Zina
Based on observations recorded through police contact, this study examined the influence of individual and environmental factors on predicting involvement in offence type categories (Non-Violent; Violent; Sexual) in samples of children before and after the age of criminal responsibility (age 12). The sample comprised 2,862 Canadians (1,732; 61% male and 1,123; 39% female) between the ages of 0 and 18, with law enforcement contact prior to the age of 12. A larger proportion of males in both the under 12 and over 12 samples were in the Non-Violent Offence type than the other two offence types. However, more females over 12 were in Violent Offence type than the other two offence types. Various factors emerged as predictors that were differentially influential for males versus females in the under 12 and over 12 categories. Mental Health, Age of First Contact, Alcohol/Drug Use and Violence in the Home were predictors for different offence types for males and females in the under 12 sample. In the over 12 sample the following predictors emerged: Alcohol/Drug Use; Age of First Contact; and Child Welfare Concerns differently for males and females in the Violent and Sexual groups. Further, different variables predicted changes in group membership after age 12 and a high rate of desisters was observed. Across all under 12 offence types, a high proportion of desisters was observed. This study addresses several gaps in the extant literature: onset of criminal behaviour prior to the age of criminal responsibility (age 12); differential law enforcement contacts (i.e., witness, victim, and perpetrator); escalation in offence severity; concentration on rural policing areas and Saskatchewan First Nations communities.
Open Access
Does Practice Make Perfect in Children's Eyewitness Identifcation Accuracy
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-08) Therrien, Natalie Muriel; Price, Heather; Oriet, Chris; Phenix, Tom; Greenberg, Hirsch
Children accurately identify targets out of police lineups at much lower rates than adults. Furthermore, children presented with a target-absent lineup are much less accurate even when compared to their peers who view target-present lineups. Administering practice lineups to children prior to the real, or forensically relevant, lineup has been proposed in the past as a method to improve accuracy, but current literature has produced unsatisfactory results; improvement in target-absent accuracy is often accompanied by a performance cost for those selecting from a target-present lineup. Additionally, previous efforts have constructed practice lineups too obviously different from forensically relevant lineups, and have overlooked theoretical contributions stemming from developmental and cognitive research. The current study addressed these methodological issues. Results garnered suggest that practice lineups do not improve children’s identification accuracy, and that under certain circumstances they actually decrease accuracy. This may be due to practice lineups decreasing children’s decision criterion, or to a limitation children have with regards to this difficult task. Implications and future directions with regards to research are discussed. keywords: eyewitness identification, memory, children, practice
Open Access
An Empirical Test of the Relative State Model with Texas Holdem Poker Scenarios
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2021-10) Deminchuk, Jeffrey Paul; Oriet, Chris; Mishra, Sandeep; Loutzenhiser, Lynn; Brase, Gary
This study empirically tested predictions from a new evolutionary model of risky decision-making, the relative state model (RSM), using Texas holdem poker scenarios. The RSM suggests that risk taking is a product of one of two interacting pathways—need (desperation) and ability (affordance). According the RSM, decisions are made based on an assessment of one’s relative state, attributable to the interaction of embodied and situational factors within the environment of competition. Embodied factors are inherent physical or psychological capabilities of the decision-maker; situational factors determine how those capabilities compare relative to others in an environment. In the present study, I tested predictions of the RSM in a hypothetical winner-take-all poker tournament scenario. In this decision environment, card strength and number of chips represent embodied and situational factors respectively. Relative state was operationalized in a 2x2 (high/low) embodied by situational factor design with each of the four conditions designed to test predictions made by the RSM. Participants made choices between calling an all-in bet (risky) or folding (non-risky). Of n = 629 participants recruited, n = 297 passed a general poker knowledge screening quiz and were the focus of the primary analysis. Evidence for both ability and need-based risk taking was found. However, the experiment did not offer evidence for an interaction between need and ability as predicted by the RSM. Limitations of the experimental design and peculiarities of the sample suggest further enquiry is necessary. This study provides the first direct intentional experimental evidence for ability-based risk-taking, and suggests directions for future research.
Open Access
An Examination of Attentional Bias for Threat in a Motor Vehicle Accident Survivors with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2014-07) Duranceau, Sophie; Carleton, R. Nicholas; Asmundson, Gordon J.G.; Oriet, Chris; Riemann, Bradley C.
Theoretical models of anxiety suggest that cognitive vulnerabilities are involved in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Elwood, Hahn, Olatunji, & Williams, 2009). Attentional bias for threat has been identified as a cognitive vulnerability which may facilitate the development and maintenance of PTSD (Bomyea, Risbrough, & Lang, 2012). Several cognitive tasks have previously been used to assess attentional bias for threat in anxiety pathologies (i.e., emotional Stroop task, visual search task, dot probe task). The proposed investigation was designed to assess the directionality (i.e., facilitated attention, difficulty in disengagement, avoidance) and time-course of attentional bias for threat in motor vehicle accident (MVA) survivors using a contemporary dot probe task. Participants included MVA survivors with high PTSD symptoms (n = 18), MVA survivors with low PTSD symptoms (n = 46), and a control group with no history of MVA or PTSD (n = 64) recruited across North America. Results suggest that MVA survivors reporting high PTSD symptoms display a different attentional pattern than individuals without such symptoms during the early stages of cognitive processing. Specifically, MVA survivors with high PTSD symptoms 1) easily disengage their attention from MVA-related threat and, contrary to individuals without PTSD symptoms, 2) fail to engage with generally threatening stimuli. A lack of engagement with threatening stimuli could interfere with the processing and re-appraisal of threat, in turn contributing to the exacerbation of PTSD symptoms. Attention bias modification programs could be useful for the treatment of PTSD. Comprehensive results, methodological considerations, implications, and future research are discussed.
Open Access
Experimentally Testing the Tree-Factor Structure of Socio-Emotional Comparisons
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2019-12) Refaie, Nabhan; Beshai, Shadi; Mishra, Sandeep; Oriet, Chris; Smith, Heather
Evolutionary theories posit that comparisons to others are essential in determining one’s relative position in a social hierarchy. Social comparison information can help guide behaviour in several ways, but has been associated with different adverse psychological issues (e.g., depression; stress). However, a purely cognitive view of social comparisons ignores the emotional content that usually accompanies them. A novel construct named socioemotional comparisons (SEC) is theorized to bridge the cognitionemotion gap. SEC is defined as experiences of negative affect following a subjective evaluation of unfair or unjust disadvantage compared to another. These comparisons are represented by three factors: malicious envy, low self-esteem, and justice sensitivity. No study, however, has examined SEC’s proposed three-factor structure. In addition, the intercorrelation of SEC’s factors should not be better explained by confounding variables such as the experience of negative affect. This research attempted to validate the SEC construct through a series of experiments. I conducted three experiments, each manipulating a separate SEC factor. I then examined how experimental manipulations changed SEC scores, and whether these changes remained once negative affect was controlled for. Results showed that experimental manipulations of malicious envy did not significantly change SEC total or factor scores. Manipulations of self-esteem and justice sensitivity significantly changed SEC total and factor scores. However, once negative affect was controlled for, these effects disappeared. In light of these results, the nature and definition of the SEC construct, limitations of the present study, clinical and theoretical implications, and directions for future research are discussed.
Open Access
Exploring the Effects of Time and Money Pressures on Environmentally Responsible Behavior within a Group Resource Conservation Context
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-10) Scerbe, Andrea; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Smythe, William; Oriet, Chris; Hurlbert, Margot
Resources we use every day such as air and water are public resources so we are all active participants in the commons. A commons dilemma is a situation in which an individual has a choice between boosting personal gain and prolonging the common resource for the good of the commons and all who share it. Commons dilemma research is thus extremely relevant to the well-being of the natural environment. Participating in socially and ecologically responsible behavior involves costs. Individuals are often confronted with inconveniences when it comes to choosing to act in an environmentally-friendly manner. The present study examines the effect of time and money cost on cooperation decisions in traditional and reverse commons dilemmas. The reverse commons dilemma features a polluting scenario, and is designed to examine how individuals respond to limited disposal rather than resource withdrawal. Previous research using a different paradigm has shown that money and time cost might not be valued in quite the same way. The results of the present study indicated an interaction between cost type (money vs. time) and dilemma type (traditional vs. reverse commons dilemma): The most cooperation was observed for time cost in the reverse commons dilemma task. These findings suggest that individuals may be more willing to devote time than money in keeping a resource un-polluted. Keywords: commons dilemma, reverse commons dilemma, time, money
Open Access
From Pictures to the People in Them: Averaging Within-Person Variability Leads to Face Familiarization
(SAGE Publications, 2022-12-05) Koca, Yaren; Oriet, Chris
Familiar faces can be confidently recognized despite sometimes radical changes in their appearance. Exposure to within-person variability—differences in facial characteristics over successive encounters—contributes to face familiarization. Research also suggests that viewers create mental averages of the different views of faces they encounter while learning them. Averaging over within-person variability is thus a promising mechanism for face familiarization. In Experiment 1, 153 Canadian undergraduates (88 female; age: M = 21 years, SD = 5.24) learned six target identities from eight different photos of each target interspersed among 32 distractor identities. Face-matching accuracy improved similarly irrespective of awareness of the target’s identity, confirming that target faces presented among distractors can be learned incidentally. In Experiment 2, 170 Canadian undergraduates (125 female; age: M = 22.6 years, SD = 6.02) were tested using a novel indirect measure of learning. The results show that viewers update a mental average of a person’s face as it becomes learned. Our findings are the first to show how averaging within-person variability over time leads to face familiarization.
Open Access
Impact of race on police officer's use of force decision-making
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-06) Ahlgrim, Billea Jo Marie; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Krätzig, Gregory; Oriet, Chris; Pennycook, Gordon; James, Lois
The current study investigated the potential impact of a subject of complaint’s (SOC’s) race on officer decision-making, in addition to the potential impact of several other factors (i.e., dispatch priming, policing experience, fatigue, and chronic stress). This is a serious gap in research of officer decision-making within a Canadian context, with little existing investigation. The study sample was comprised of 298 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) employees; 149 recruits from Depot Division, and 149 active duty officers from Divisions across Canada. An intimate partner violence (IPV) vignette was presented in an online format in five stages (i.e., dispatch, arrival, three escalating scenes with the SOC: sitting, standing, and with a knife). At each point of the vignette participants responded to a risk assessment questionnaire that asked them to rate their perceptions of the scenario and what intervention option they would choose at that assessment point. The factorial study design was a 2 (Experience: recruits vs member) x 2 (Race of SOC: White or Indigenous) x 2 (Dispatch Priming: + prior knowledge of SOC race) x 5 (Vignette Risk Assessment Points) with all but the last factor tested betweenparticipants. The race of the SOC was observed to impact risk assessment rating only at the most ambiguous assessment point. Specifically, when SOC behaviour was ambiguous, risk assessment ratings increased more for Indigenous SOCs than for White SOCs. This result could indicate that there was an increased reliance on racial biases and stereotypes when rating perceived level of risk during an ambiguous situation. However, despite this increased perception of risk, race did not influence intervention option choice, even in the most ambiguous situation. This suggests that either biases did not impact behaviour choices, or individuals were able to manage initial biases before choosing an intervention option. Dispatch priming of SOC race was also found to impact situational awareness ratings when the vignette was most ambiguous, indicating that the information that is provided by dispatch has the potential to impact officer decision-making, especially if the scene is ambiguous. The current study indicates the possible but limited impact of race on officers’ perceptions of risk but not on their behaviour regarding intervention options. Experience was found to impact risk assessment ratings such that active duty officers were likely to have more stable and realistic risk assessments throughout the vignette. Officers were also likely to indicate they would use less force in their intervention option choices. This highlights the importance of real work experience in developing an individual’s decision-making skills.
Open Access
Incidental statistical summary representation over time
(Arvo, 2016-02-01) Oriet, Chris; Hozempa, Kadie
Information taken in by the human visual system allows individuals to form statistical representations of sets of items. One's knowledge of natural categories includes statistical information, such as average size of category members and the upper and lower boundaries of the set. Previous research suggests that when subjects attend to a particular dimension of a set of items presented over an extended duration, they quickly learn about the central tendency of the set. However, it is unclear whether such learning can occur incidentally, when subjects are not attending to the relevant dimension of the set. The present study explored whether subjects could reproduce global statistical properties of a set presented over an extended duration when oriented to task-irrelevant properties of the set. Subjects were tested for their memory of its mean, its smallest and largest exemplars, the direction of its skew, and the relative distribution of the items. Subjects were able to accurately recall the average size circle, as well as the upper and lower boundaries of a set of 4,200 circles displayed over an extended period. This suggests that even without intending to do so, they were encoding and updating a statistical summary representation of a task-irrelevant attribute of the circles over time. Such incidental encoding of statistical properties of sets is thus a plausible mechanism for establishing a representation of typicality in category membership.
Open Access
Investigating the Effects of Task Characteristics and Educational Interventions on Intuitive Statistical Biases
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2019-11) Welch, Patrick Grant; Oriet, Chris; Butz, Cortney J.; MacLennan, Richard; Robinson, Katherine; Trumpower, David
Past research indicates people have some capacity to intuitively (i.e., informally) detect, estimate, and apply information derived from important data characteristics (e.g., mean, sample size, SD) in various statistical judgment tasks. This research has also found that people are generally capable of making intuitive between-group comparisons, which involve comparing groups of data and making judgments on these data. However, people also tend to exhibit a bias in such comparisons against normatively integrating the withingroup variability (e.g., standard deviation; SD) of the groups with the between-group variability (e.g., mean differences) while making between-group comparisons. This can lead to errors in judgment, because accurate inferences about any differences between the groups requires considering the between-group variability in relation to the within-group variability. Few studies have investigated targeted educational interventions for overcoming this intuitive statistical bias. These studies have tended to be based on incorporating targeted educational material specific to the bias in a semester-long introductory statistics course. A brief laboratory-based educational intervention would allow for a more tightly controlled experiment with a larger sample size. For this purpose, a brief computer-delivered educational intervention was developed to offer subjects practice and feedback opportunities while engaging in between-group comparison tasks. These experimental learning condition tasks, and associated assessment tasks, were presented in the context of making judgments between products based on customers’ product ratings. The ratings for the groups were displayed visually on frequency distribution graphs. Practice opportunities consisted of allowing subjects to manipulate relevant statistical characteristics of the between-group comparisons (i.e., the mean ii difference, SD, sample size), one-at-a-time. Feedback opportunities provided subjects information on how many manipulations of the statistical characteristic being currently focused on would be necessary for there to be a significant difference between the groups. A series of three experiments using a pretest–posttest design were run to test the hypotheses that: (a) subjects will exhibit a pretest bias against normatively integrating within-group variability into their between-group comparisons; (b) that subjects receiving practice, feedback, or both opportunities would show greater improvement on their between-group comparisons at posttest than those in a control condition; and (c) that subjects receiving both practice and feedback will show greater improvement at posttest than those who received either practice or feedback alone. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive practice and/or feedback, or to a control condition with neither practice nor feedback. The dependent measures for the experiments included: (a) novel between-group comparison tasks designed for these experiments (Forced-Choice Task; used in all three experiments; Strength-Of-Evidence Task, used in Experiment 1), which displayed the data for the groups visually on frequency distribution graphs; and (b) a between-group comparison task that has been shown to elicit the bias in previous research (Intuitive ANOVA task, used in Experiments 2 and 3). The findings of these experiments revealed that subjects exhibited the bias strongly when measured with the Intuitive ANOVA task but that the bias was either extremely diminished, or unobservable, when measured with the Forced-Choice Task or the Strength-Of-Evidence Task, consistent with recent findings by other researchers. These experimental learning conditions were also found to have no reliable effect on subjects’ performance on any of the dependent measures. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.
Open Access
Lineup Composition Effects on Eyewitness Identification
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2014-12) Fitzgerald, Ryan Joseph; Oriet, Chris; Price, Heather; MacLennan, Richard; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Ruddell, Rick; Lindsay, D. Stephen
Whenever lineups are prepared for eyewitness identification, the investigator constructing the lineup must decide how to choose lineup members to appear in the lineup with the person under investigation. Accordingly, three research projects were conducted to inform lineup construction practices. The first project is a meta-analysis of lineup similarity effects. Results of the meta-analysis suggest that biased lineups yield the highest rate of suspect identifications, regardless of whether that person is guilty or innocent. When lineups with moderately similar members are compared with lineups containing highly similar members, increasing similarity reduces innocent suspect identifications and has only a small and nonsignificant effect on correct identifications. Two experimental studies were then conducted using morphing software to systematically manipulate the degree of similarity between lineup members who are known be innocent (fillers) and the lineup member who is under investigation (the suspect). In the first experiment, lineups with moderately high similarity fillers yielded a higher correct identification rate than did lineups with very high similarity fillers. When comparable procedures were used in the second experiment, fillers of low and moderately low similarity to the culprit yielded nearly identical correct identification rates. In both experiments, increasing suspect-filler similarity led to a decrease in innocent suspect misidentifications. The accumulation of evidence from the three research projects suggests lineups would be best constructed with fillers of moderate similarity to the suspect.
Open Access
Linguistic Analysis of Communication in a Therapist- Assisted Internet-Based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Program for Individuals with Generalized Anxiety Disorder
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2014-07) Dirkse, Dale Alexandra; Hadjistavropoulos, Heather; Klest, Bridget; Oriet, Chris; McNutt, Kathleen
Background: Therapist-assisted Internet-based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (TAICBT) is an empirically supported method of treating generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). In addition to the cognitive and behavioural elements found within face-to-face Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), TAICBT includes elements of expressive writing, through email communication with a therapist. Expressive writing has been associated with positive outcomes; furthermore, certain linguistic dimensions in expressive writing have been associated with psychological and physical health benefits, such as less frequent use of negative emotion words, and greater use of positive emotion words. No research to date has analyzed linguistic dimensions in client communication over the course of a TAICBT program. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to understand how clients with symptoms of GAD are communicating with their online therapists, and explore whether their communication style was related to successful participation. Research Questions: Six research questions were posed for analyses: Is there a relationship between client online communication (i.e., word count and percentage of specific word categories) and symptom measures (e.g., general anxiety, work and social adjustment)? Does communication change over the course of 12 modules? Do participants who have completed all 12 modules, compared to those that completed fewer than 12 modules, differ in baseline communications submitted to their therapists? Do program completers who are classified as symptomatic versus asymptomatic on the GAD-7 after program completion differ in overall communication submitted to their therapists? For program completers, do change scores on symptom measures from preto post-treatment correlate with overall communication? For program completers, do scores on therapeutic alliance, treatment satisfaction, and comfort with emotional expressivity correlate with overall communication? Method: Data was obtained from a previously-conducted study. Specifically, written communication submitted to therapists by 107 adult clients with symptoms of GAD during the course of a 12 module TAICBT program was analyzed along with generalized anxiety, worry, and work and social adjustment scores completed pre-, mid- and post-treatment. Analyses: Clients’ written communication was screened for typographical errors and analyzed by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Software (Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales, & Booth, 2007). Results: Significant relationships emerged between negative emotion words, anxiety words, insight words, and past tense words, with symptom measures of anxiety and worry; these categories also changed over time. A higher number of negative emotion and anxiety words differentiated clients that dropped out of the program earlier versus those that dropped later, and demonstrated a negative relationship with therapeutic alliance and treatment satisfaction. Discussion: Results suggest there is utility in paying attention to linguistic categories as they can be used as indicators of client progress and well-being. Findings improve our understanding of the client experience of participating in TAICBT, with some linguistic trends being consistent with what clinicians would expect to see from a client's successful participation in therapy. Other findings offer new insight into communication that may be particularly relevant to clients with symptoms of GAD. Findings confirm that clients are engaging with the program and opening up to their therapists. In addition to generating new knowledge about the process of TAICBT, the potential mechanisms of change, and potential predictors of success within TAICBT, the current findings could also facilitate improvement in the way TAICBT is delivered in the future.
Open Access
Metamemory and Lineup Selection: Can Children’s Metacognitive Beliefs Influence Lineup Selection?
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2021-05) Adams, Alyssa Susan; Oriet, Chris; Price, Heather; Bruer, Kaila; Phenix, Tom; Pica, Emily
Child eyewitnesses pose a continuous challenge for the criminal justice system. Researchers have made repeated attempts to combat children’s problematic over-choosing from a photographic lineup (e.g., Pozzulo & Lindsay, 1999), but difficulties remain. Although there have been multiple hypotheses put forth that attempt to explain why children struggle with correctly rejecting target-absent lineups (i.e., saying the perpetrator is not there when s/he is not), none have fully explained the reason for children’s error patterns (Dunlevy & Cherryman, 2013; Pozzulo & Lindsay, 1997). One possibility is that children overestimate the accuracy of their own memory. Children often exhibit similar levels of metacognitive abilities as adults; however, children have been repeatedly shown to be overconfident in their lineup decisions (Keast et al., 2007). Assuming appropriate metacognitive function, this overconfidence may be a result of children’s failure to consider factors that could disconfirm their lineup decision, and they may need to be explicitly informed of the complexity of an eyewitness identification. Providing children with such a warning after a lineup identification has been previously shown to result in only a slight reduction in overconfidence (Keast et al., 2007). In the present study, child participants were placed into one of three conditions (control, metacognition, and metacognition + warning) to determine if reflection on metamemory beliefs in combination with a warning on memory fallibility would influence their photographic lineup choosing behaviour. Although there was some indication that those who believed they were generally good at the task chose with a higher frequency, there was no indication that this belief was related to the accuracy of those choices. Those who were choosers were significantly more inaccurate than the non-chooser’s, and overall the instruction manipulations were unsuccessful. More work needs to be done to determine if children’s prospective beliefs on memory can subsequently influence their performance during recognition memory tasks.
Open Access
Prenatal Testosterone, Empathy, Emotion Recognition, and Facial Mimicry in Women
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-12) Kossick, Emilie Gay; Sykes Tottenham, Laurie; Alfano, Dennis; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Oriet, Chris; Staples, Kerri
This study examined whether individual differences in facial mimicry, emotion recognition, and empathy are related to prenatal testosterone (PT) exposure. Previous studies have found relationships among facial mimicry, emotion recognition, and selfreport empathy scores; further, imaging studies suggest that mimicry, emotion recognition, and empathy have shared neural bases. Previous evidence also suggests that the development of some of these shared brain regions is influenced by prenatal sex hormones (Goldstein et al., 2001), and a recent study demonstrated that exogenous testosterone administration decreases facial mimicry in women (Hermans, Putman, & van Honk, 2006). The present study examined the relationships among PT exposure (estimated using the 2D:4D ratio), facial mimicry, emotion recognition, and self-reported empathy in 53 women between the ages of 18 and 25 years. Facial mimicry was induced and emotion recognition was tested using a newly developed Facial Expression Viewing and Recognition Task (FEVRT). During the first block of the FEVRT participants passively viewed dynamic facial expressions of emotion presented on a computer screen; in the second block they viewed and identified the emotion that was displayed. During both blocks the participants’ spontaneous facial reactions were recorded covertly using a hidden video camera. The video recordings were assessed to determine the extent of participants’ facial mimicry of the FEVRT stimuli, using Ekman, Friesen, and Hager’s Facial Action Coding System (FACS; 2002). The left 2D:4D ratio significantly predicted facial mimicry intensity, emotional empathy, and emotion recognition accuracy scores. For all of the relationships, higher estimated PT levels were associated with lower scores on the emotion measures. No relationships were found between mimicry and empathy or between mimicry and emotion recognition accuracy. Mediating relationships were not observed amongst the 2D:4D ratio and mimicry, empathy, or emotion recognition scores. These findings suggest that mimicry, emotion recognition, and empathy are distinct processes, which are each independently influenced by PT. The findings support the hypothesis that prenatal sex hormones have an effect on adult emotion processing. By understanding the role that the prenatal sex hormone environment has on the development of emotion processing, we can gain a better understanding of how individual differences in emotion processing arise.
Open Access
Problem recognition and treatment recommendations of somatic and cognitive-affective presentations of depression and generalized anxiety
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-08) Salimuddin, Saba; Beshai, Shadi; Klest, Bridget; Oriet, Chris; LeDrew, June
Major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are among the leading causes of disability in the world; yet, rates of treatment seeking are exceptionally low. Poor mental health literacy is an important barrier to treatment seeking. One component of mental health literacy that impedes help seeking is poor problem recognition, or misidentifying a disorder and its symptoms when they are present. Although a wealth of research has established that accuracy of problem recognition is associated with help seeking related constructs (e.g., types of treatments recommended, intentions to seek treatment), no study to date has examined problem recognition of MDD or GAD across varying symptom presentations. The current study aimed to examine rates of problem recognition of MDD and GAD across predominantly somatic and cognitiveaffective presentations. To address the study aims, N = 299 participants were recruited using TurkPrime. N = 292 participants were randomly assigned to either the cognitive affective condition in which they were presented with case-study vignettes of MDD and GAD with predominantly cognitive-affective presentations, or the somatic condition in which they were presented with case-study vignettes of MDD and GAD with predominantly somatic presentations. Participants’ problem recognition and treatment recommendations were assessed following each vignette. We found significant main effects of disorder (i.e., MDD, GAD) and presentation (i.e., somatic, cognitive-affective) on problem recognition, such that MDD was associated with higher recognition than GAD, and cognitive-affective presentations were associated with higher recognition than somatic presentations. A large effect of disorder, and a small effect of presentation were observed. The interaction effect of disorder and presentation on problem recognition was non-significant. Further, problem recognition was associated with treatment recommendations. However, disorder and presentation were not related to treatment recommendations. We also found a significant difference in treatment recommendations made for self and others. Findings from the current study fill a gap in the literature by providing an initial understanding of mental health literacy across symptom presentations. This is likely to aid in the further development of mental health literacy programs. Clinically, these findings also have the potential to help avoid misdiagnoses and the diagnostic delays associated with somatic presentations of MDD and GAD.