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Psychologists often express concerns about the inclusion of psychology in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap initiative. Most Roadmap themes focus on biomedical research, forming the basis for psychologists’ concerns. Although most Roadmap funding goes toward biomedical research, social and behavioral scientists do win support. It is reasonable to ask, however, why the Roadmap is focused so exclusively on medical research. One explanation is that medical interventions are seen as the natural translation of basic biomedical research, whereas psychological interventions are not perceived as following from basic behavioral research. Psychologists working in academic health centers represent the best opportunity for creating such linkages, and therefore the best potential bridge for psychology connecting to the NIH Roadmap.

Transparency, openness, and reproducibility are readily recognized as vital features of science (1, 2). When asked, most scientists embrace these features as disciplinary norms and values (3). Therefore, one might expect that these valued features would be routine in daily practice. Yet, a growing body of evidence suggests that this is not the case (4–6).

Why are Attitudes Important?, A.G. Greenwald Interdependence of Attitude Theory and Measurement, T.M. Ostrom The Structure of Individual Attitudes and of Attitude Systems, W.J. McGuire The Cognitive Representation of Attitudes, A.R. Pratkanis The Structural Bases of Consistency Among Political Attitudes - Effects of Political Expertise and Attitude Importance, C.M. Judd and J.A. Krosnick Structure and Function in Political Belief Systems, P.E. Tetlock On the Power and Functionality of Attitudes - the Role of Attitude Accessibility, R.H. Fazio Automatic and Controlled Processes in Prejudice - the Role of Stereotypes and Personal Beliefs, P.G. Devine Attitudes, Decisions and Habits as Determinants of Repeated Behaviour, D.L. Ronis et al Attitude Structure and Behaviour, I. Ajzen Attitude Structure and Function - From Tripartite to the Homeostasis Model of Attitude, J.T. Cacioppo et al Operationalizing Functional Theories of Attitude, S. Shavitt Understanding the Functions of Attitudes - Lessons from Personality and Social Behaviour, M. Snyder and K.G. Debono Beliefs as Possessions - a Functional Analysis, R.P. Abelson and D.A. Prentice Need for Structure in Attitude Formation and Expression, D.W. Jamieson and M.P. Zanna On Defining Attitude and Attitude Theory - Once More With Feeling, S.J. Breckler and E.C. Wiggins Why Attitudes are Important (Defining Attitude and Attitude Theory 20 Years Later), A.G. Greenwald.

After a series of instrument development studies, a mail survey was conducted with 196 randomly selected family day care providers (FDCPs) and child care center workers (CCCWs) residing in the state of Maryland (response rates were 76.6% and 70.5%, respectively). Embedded in the instrument were three job stress scales, specific to child care workers, measuring job demands, job control, and job resources. Extensive psychometric testing of the three 17-item instruments demonstrated several areas of strength. The job demands scale, because of its breadth of stressors covered, fared slightly worse on indicators of reliability (alpha = 0.77; mean interitem correlation [MIC] = 0.17; item-to-total correlations [ITCs] = 0.14 to 0.49) than did job control (alpha = 0.88; MIC = 0.31; ITCs = 0.26 to 0.69) and job resources (alpha = 0.89; MIC = 0.35; ITCs = 0.32 to 0.70). Known groups validity was demonstrated through a conceptually meaningful pattern of differences between FDCPs and CCCWs. Construct validity for all three scales was demonstrated by a pattern of stronger correlations with conceptually similar versus dissimilar instruments. Average correlations with similar versus dissimilar instruments were: job demands, 0.54 versus 0.24; job control, 0.74 versus 0.30; and job resources, −0.53 versus 0.30. Similar to the reliability analysis, results of factor analysis were stronger for job control and job resources than for job demands.

We compared, in 4- and 23-month-old Fischer-344 rats, the effects of nerve growth factor (NGF) on basal forebrain cholinergic neurons with behavioral performance in acetylcholine-dependent memory tasks (recent and reference memory). Noncholinergic monoamine markers in target fields of cholinergic neurons were also investigated. We found that NGF has contrasting effects on recent memory in the two age groups in causing improvement in aged rats and deterioration in young rats. In addition, NGF caused significant increase in the size of cholinergic perikarya in all sectors of the basal nucleus complex (BNC). Higher doses of NGF were required to produce hypertrophy in aged animals, a pattern consistent with a lower sensitivity to NGF of aged cholinergic neurons. Analysis of covariance showed that the behavioral effects of NGF were eliminated after covarying out the hypertrophy of cholinergic perikarya. Therefore, NGF causes hypertrophy of cholinergic perikarya regardless of age, and this neurobiological measure correlates with the effects of NGF on recent memory. Reference memory improved moderately only in old rats. This mild effect covaried with an increase in choline acetyltransferase activity in neocortex. Cortical terminal fields of noradrenergic and serotoninergic pathways were not affected by NGF. Taken together, our results indicate that NGF influences recent memory in an age- and transmitter-specific fashion. We postulate that the direct cause of the effects of NGF on memory is not perikaryal hypertrophy per se but rather an increased density of terminals, which always accompanies perikaryal hypertrophy. Although these results continue to support the use of NGF for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, they raise questions regarding the therapeutic role of NGF for degeneration of BNC neurons occurring in young age. J. Comp. Neurol. 405:491–507, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

A variety of statistical and analytical issues should be considered whenever psychosocial resource variables are used in cancer research. Measures of resource variables should not be used unless their validity and reliability have been firmly established. Once one decides to measure a resource variable, the sample must be large enough to detect real effects. Most resource variables are measured along a quantitative dimension (e.g., low to high self-esteem). The common practice of imposing cut points on such measures often produces a loss of valuable information. It is also important to recognize that most of the commonly used statistical methods represent only linear relationships among variables. Special statistical methods are needed to represent potential nonlinear relationships. Distinguishing between resource variables that function as moderators and those that function as mediators can be useful. Finally, multivariate statistical methods such as factor analysis and covariance structure modeling provide powerful tools for analyzing psychosocial resource variables, but they must be used with caution.

A field experiment investigated the accuracy of blood donor's memory for the emotions they experienced during blood donation. Compared to what they reported at the time of donation, the donors remembered a greater contrast between predonation and postdonation emotions. The donors also remembered experiencing more anxiety than they actually did. The bias in memory was especially pronounced among relatively inexperienced donors who had not been asked to report on their emotion prior to their actual donations. The memory boas was also related to donors' attitudes at the time of recall. Donors' intentions to donate blood again were reliably predicted by a combination of attitude and emotion measures. Discussion considers a potential intervention for improving donor return rates.

The behavioral effects of human nerve growth factor (NGF) were assessed in Fischer-344 rats of two ages: 4 months old (4MO) and 23 months old (23MO). Recent memory was tested in delayed alteration (T maze), reference memory in a place discrimination (water maze), and sensorimotor skills in a battery of sensorimotor tasks. Each rat was preoperatively trained in each task, given either a control procedure (CON), or continuous infusion of human NGF via an osmotic minipump, and retested again 3 weeks later. Two doses of NGF were delivered: 40 micrograms and 160 micrograms (total amount infused over a period of 4 weeks). In 23MO-NGF rats, both doses improved performance in the recent memory task, and in some measures of the place learning task, but had no effect on sensorimotor skills. In 4MO-NGF rats, the low dose impaired performance in the recent memory task, but not in the place discrimination or in the sensorimotor tasks. These data indicate that human NGF can reverse age-related cognitive impairments in old rats. However, the present study also raises the issue of potential detrimental effects that NGF may exert in young normal subjects.

Ambivalence is expressed when a person endorses both positive and negative attitudinal positions. Ambivalence is commonly measured by having respondents provide separate ratings of the positive and negative components of their attitudes. A number of different equations have been proposed for combining the two ratings into a numerical index of ambivalence. However, similarities and differences among the equations are not well understood. This article introduces a graphical method to help identify the important properties of an ambivalence index. Five ambivalence indexes were compared and contrasted by using this method, and only two were found to possess satisfactory properties. The same indexes were also computed from respondents' ratings of 26 attitude topics, and it was found that empirical differences among the indexes were relatively small.

Attitudes are learned predispositions to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object. Three studies examined whether responses elicited by an attitude object depend on the form in which the object is mentally represented. Subjects indicated their preferences for odors in response to descriptive labels (a symbolic representation) and in response to unlabeled scratch-and-sniff patches (a perceptual representation). The correspondence between ratings of symbolic and perceptual object representations was substantially lower than the reliability of ratings within either representational domain. Accessibility of attitudes (indexed by judgment times) was increased by prior expression of attitudes within the same representational domain but not by prior expression of attitudes in the other domain. Discussion considers the importance of these results for models of attitude structure and function.

The effectiveness of a persuasive communication often depends on the nature of recipient-generated cognitive responses. Cognitive responses can have their origin in the recipient's own attitude, in message contents, and in sources unrelated to the communication. The present study focused on the recipient's attitude as a source for cognitive responses. Drawing from theory and research on attitude structure, a distinction was made between affective and evaluative components of attitude. It was then proposed that each attitude component may contribute in unique ways to the production of cognitive responses. Subjects viewed two lengthy communications on the topic of legalized abortion, one arguing in support of the pro-life position and the other in support of the pro-choice position. Measures of global attitude, affect, evaluation, and cognitive responding were taken after each message. For both communications, cognitive responses were most strongly related to the affective component of precommunication attitudes and to the evaluative component of postcommunication attitudes. The importance of these results for the study of attitude structure and attitude change are discussed.

The goal of the current project is to develop a multivariate statistical strategy for the formation of behavioral indices of performance and, further, to apply this strategy to establish the relationship between age and important characteristics of performance. The strategy was to begin with a large set of measures that span a broad range of behaviors. The behavioral effects of the following variables were examined: Age (4, 12, 24, and 30 months), genotype [Fischer 344 and a hybrid (F1) of Fischer 344 and Brown Norway (F344xBN)], gender (Fischer 344 males and Fischer 344 females), long-term diet (ad lib diet or dietary restriction beginning at 4 months of age), and short-term diet (ad lib diet or dietary restriction during testing). The behavioral measures were grouped into conceptually related indicators. The indicators within a set were submitted to a principal component analysis to help identify the summary indices of performance, which were formed with the assumption that these component scores would offer more reliable and valid measures of relevant aspects of behavioral performance than would individual measures taken alone. In summary, this approach has made a number of important contributions. It has provided sensitive and selective measures of performance that indicated contributions of all variables: psychological process, age, genotype, gender, long-term and short-term diet and has increased the sensitivity of behavioral measures to age-related behavioral impairment. It has also improved task-manageability by decreasing the number of meaningful variables without losing important information, consequently providing a simplification of the pattern of changes.

The nature of age-related changes in cholinergic function and their relationship to age-related behavioral decline were examined in the present study. Male Fischer-344 rats of four ages (four, 11, 17 and 23 months) were tested in a battery of cognitive tasks. Discrete microdissections of brain areas involved in cognitive function were performed, and activity of choline acetyltransferase and levels of hemicholinium-3 binding were determined to assess the integrity of cholinergic innervation. Age-related changes in cholinergic markers occurred predominantly in the medial septal area and its target areas (hippocampus and cingulate cortex), and were also present in the posterior caudate. However, most of the age-related changes in cholinergic markers were already present at ages at which behavioral impairment was not yet maximal. There were some consistent correlations between behavioral and neurochemical measures, independent of age, but these accounted for relatively small proportions of variance in behavioral performance. For most of these correlations, lower levels of presynaptic cholinergic markers were related to better behavioral performance. In brain areas in which correlations changed with age, lower levels of presynaptic cholinergic markers were associated with better performance in young rats, whereas higher levels were associated with better performance in aged rats. Recent lesion studies using a toxin selective for basal forebrain cholinergic neurons have suggested that these neurons do not play as central a role in learning and memory in young and aged animals as was previously thought. When considered in this context, the present results suggest that preserved cholinergic function in old age might act indirectly to sustain cognitive ability. Changes in cholinergic function may represent one of a number of age-related neurobiological events that underlie behavioral impairments, or may be a permissive factor for other age-related processes that are more directly responsible for cognitive impairments.

Neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) were analyzed morphometrically in 21 rhesus monkeys ranging in age from 9 to 33 years. Numbers of cholinergic neurons were similar across all ages at several NBM levels in either Nissl-stained paraffin sections or sections processed immunocytochemically for nerve growth factor receptor (p75LNGFr) Size of NBM neurons was larger in aged monkeys than young monkeys at all NBM levels, particularly in the most posterior subdivision. A subset of monkeys were behaviorally characterized shortly before death, and partial correlation analyses indicated that increased age was associated with declines in recognition memory, visuospatial orientation, and reaction time. Controlling for age, spatial memory and concurrent discrimination abilities were associated with lower cell number in intermediate NBM. Numbers of neurons in anterior NBM did not correlate with any behavioral measure. These observations indicate that numbers of NBM cholinergic neurons are stable with age, that NBM neurons become hypertrophic in older animals, and that morphometric indices of cholinergic neurons are associated with cognitive function.

The increasing volume and complexity of civil litigation is placing a burden on court systems and juries. Civil trials are longer, and involve an increasing array of challenging legal and factual issues. Judges must often adopt a more active, managerial role, and attorneys must strike a balance between effective adversarial representation and cooperative handling of complex cases. The focus of this chapter is on the management of complex civil litigation. We start by tracing the history of the right to trial by jury, giving special attention to the complexity exception to this right. The legal debate surrounding the right to trial by jury in complex cases leads to a consideration of two important issues, each of which is addressed from both legal and social science perspectives.

A number of studies point to the efficiency with which people process self-relevant trait information. The derivative models of self-cognition account for many judgement latency and memory effects. These models tend to limit themselves, however, by neglecting the cognitive representation of the traits themselves. In contrast, research on implicit personality theory has focused on the cognitive representation of trait information, but has not always addressed the relationship between self and the judged traits. These two research domains were linked in an effort to specify the cognitive representation of self. A method for locating individuals and traits within the same spatial representation was developed and validated in two studies. In Study 1, subjects exhibited superior recall for traits located closest to self. In Study 2, subjects rapidly selected which of two traits better or least described self. ‘Better’ judgements were faster with increasing closeness to self of selected traits whereas ‘least’ judgements were faster with increasing closeness to self of non-selected traits, supporting the view of self as a fixed anchor in self-relevant decision making. Taken as a whole, these two studies provided further evidence for the self as an evaluative organization of knowledge.

Methods of covariance structure modeling are frequently applied in psychological research. These methods merge the logic of confirmatory factor analysis, multiple regression, and path analysis within a single data analytic framework. Among the many applications are estimation of disattenuated correlation and regression coefficients, evaluation of multitrait-multimethod matrices, and assessment of hypothesized causal structures. Shortcomings of these methods are commonly acknowledged in the mathematical literature and in textbooks. Nevertheless, serious flaws remain in many published applications. For example, it is rarely noted that the fit of a favored model is identical for a potentially large number of equivalent models. A review of the personality and social psychology literature illustrates the nature of this and other problems in reported applications of covariance structure models.

A prevalent model of attitude structure specifies three components: affect, behavior, and cognition. The validity of this tripartite model was evaluated. Five conditions needed for properly testing the three-component distinction were identified. Two new studies were then designed to validate the tripartite model. A consideration of the tripartite model's theoretical basis indicated that the most important validating conditions are (a) the use of nonverbal, in addition to verbal, measures of affect and behavior, and (b) the physical presence of the attitude object. Study 1, in which subjects' attitudes toward snakes were examined, indicated very strong support for this tripartite model: The model was statistically acceptable, its relative fit was very good, and the intercomponent correlations were moderate (.38 less than r less than .71). Study 2 was a verbal report analogue of Study 1. Results from Study 2 indicated that higher intercomponent correlations occurred when attitude measures derived solely from verbal reports and when the attitude object was not physically present.

A distinction is made between affect and evaluation in the structure of attitudes. Affect refers to emotional responses and feelings engendered by an attitude object. Evaluation refers to thoughts, beliefs, and judgments about an attitude object. In Study 1, multiple measures of affect and evaluation were collected in six attitude domains. Estimates of the disattenuated correlation between affect and evaluation varied from .25 to .89, supporting discriminant validity of the distinction. Affect and evaluation were both correlated with a global measure of attitude, even when the effects of one were partialled from the other. Study 2 focused on the attitude domain of blood donation. The disattenuated correlation between affect and evaluation was .52. Affect, but not evaluation, was correlated with independent measures of mood. Self-reported behaviors relating to blood donation were more strongly related to affect than to evaluation. However, the relationship between affect and behavior diminished with increasing experience in donating blood. These results have important implications for theories of attitude structure, techniques of attitude measurement, and studies of attitude change and the attitude-behavior relationship.

In two experiments, we examined the manner in which people sequence and chunk their exposure to artistic and nonartistic stimuli differing in pleasingness. A new forced-choice paradigm with fixed time allotments for five choice alternatives was used in both studies. In Experiment 1, subjects made repeated choices among four types of music and an aversive tone, whereas in Experiment 2, the choices were made among Hvc types of slides ranging from nude females to assault victims. In both studies, subjects had to be exposed to 2 min each of the five alternatives, but the order and chunking, in 15-sec intervals, was up to them. For both auditory and visual stimuli, subjects chose the aversive ones early in the session and reserved the most pleasing stimuli for the end. Runs of aversive stimuli were interspersed with exposure to the moderately pleasing ones. For music, but not visual stimuli, the most pleasing type was chosen in the longest runs. The results were interpreted in terms of global and local aesthetic- choice strategies people use to optimize mood.

Attitudes toward blood donation are frequently assumed to vary along a single dimension from unfavorable to favorable. In contrast, theories of attitude structure specify three distinct attitude components: affect, cognition, and behavior. This article describes the development of three new scales for the measurement of affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of attitudes toward blood donation. The scales were developed using the method of equal-appearing intervals and were administered to both donors of blood and nondonors. Correlations among the scales were relatively small and supported the three-component distinction. Affect was more strongly correlated with the number of prior donations than was cognition, which suggested an important role for emotional factors in blood donation. Scores on all three scales showed the attitudes of blood donors to be more favorable than those of nondonors.