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A cognitive process model is developed that predicts the 3 major symbolic comparison response time effects (distance, end, and semantic congruity) found in the results of the linear syllogistic reasoning task. The model includes a simple cormectionist learning component and dual evidence accumulation decisionmaking components. It assumes that responses can be based either on information concerning the positional difference between the presented stimulus items or on information concerning the endpoint status of each of these items. The model provides an excellent quantitative account of the mean correct response times obtained from 16 participants who performed paired comparisons of 6 ordered symbolic stimuli (3-letter names). Following the landmark studies of Moyer (1973; Mover & Landauer, 1967), a tremendous amount of research has been devoted to the examination of the representational and judgment processes that are involved in the comparison of symbolic magnitudes (e.g., see Potts et a]., 1978; more recently, see Baransfci &

With English-language readers in an experiment requiring pairwise comparative judgments of the sizes of animals, the nature of the association between the magnitudes of the animal pairs and the left or right sides of response (i.e., the SNARC effect) was reversed depending on whether the participants had to choose either the smaller or the larger member of the pair. In contrast, such a dependence of the direction of the SNARC effect on the form of the comparative instructions was not evident for pairwise comparisons of numerical magnitude made by a similar group of participants. Furthermore, exactly the same configuration of findings was obtained for a single group of Israeli-Palestinian right-to-left reading and writing participants, except that the spatial direction of the SNARC effects for both the animal-size and number comparisons were completely reversed. In a final experiment with English readers, SNARC effects paralleling those for the animal-size comparisons were obtained for pairwise comparative judgments involving the just-learned height relations between 6 imaginary individuals. As will be discussed, such results serve to extend the generality of the SNARC effect far beyond the current modal view that it simply reflects culturally influenced, long-term learned associations between numerical magnitudes and the locations on a fixed mental number line. The implications that these results have for both the Proctor and Cho (2006) polarity correspondence view and the Gevers, Verguts, Reynvoet, Caessens, and Fias (2006) computational model of the SNARC effect will also discussed.

A cognitive process model is developed that predicts the 3 major symbolic comparison response time effects (distance, end, and semantic congruity) found in the results of the linear syllogistic reasoning task. The model includes a simple connectionist learning component and dual evidence accumulation decision-making components. It assumes that responses can be based either on information concerning the positional difference between the presented stimulus items or on information concerning the endpoint status of each of these items. The model provides an excellent quantitative account of the mean correct response times obtained from 16 participants who performed paired comparisons of 6 ordered symbolic stimuli (3-letter names).

Rape-supportive cognition is both theoretically and empirically related to rape. Several types of rape-supportive cognition (cognitive distortions) have been identified in the literature, suggesting that rapists’ rape-supportive cognition may be multidimensional. The Bumby RAPE Scale is one measure of rape-supportive cognition. The authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis using polychoric correlations to examine the types of rape-supportive cognition assessed by the Bumby RAPE Scale with a sample of 280 adult male sex offenders. A two-factor model was found; the two factors were labeled Excusing Rape and Justifying Rape. The current study suggests that the Bumby RAPE Scale is multidimensional. This factor structure may provide greater precision and clarity in the assessment of rape-supportive cognition, which may facilitate more informative research and, ultimately, contribute to more effective sex offender treatment and management.