Coherence, not conditional meaning, accounts for the relevance effect.

Missing-link conditionals like "If bats have wings, Paris is in France" are generally felt to be unacceptable even though both clauses are true. According to the , this is explained by a conventional requirement of an inferential connection between conditional clauses. Bayesian theorists have denied the need for such a requirement, appealing instead to a requirement of discourse coherence that extends to all ways of connecting clauses.

Belief versus knowledge: An epic battle, but no clear victor.

The knowledge-first approach is attractive and consistent with a wide variety of evidence. So is the opposing belief-first picture. I explain why the target article's criticisms of the latter fail, and argue that the outcome is a stalemate.

How many kinds of reasoning? Inference, probability, and natural language semantics.

The "new paradigm" unifying deductive and inductive reasoning in a Bayesian framework (Oaksford & Chater, 2007; Over, 2009) has been claimed to be falsified by results which show sharp differences between reasoning about necessity vs. plausibility (Heit & Rotello, 2010; Rips, 2001; Rotello & Heit, 2009). We provide a probabilistic model of reasoning with modal expressions such as "necessary" and "plausible" informed by recent work in formal semantics of natural language, and show that it predicts the possibility of non-linear response patterns which have been claimed to be problematic.

How necessary is the unconscious as a predictive, explanatory, or prescriptive construct?

We elucidate the epistemological futility of using concepts such as unconscious thinking in research. Focusing on Newell & Shanks' (N&S's) use of the lens model as a framework, we clarify issues with regard to unconscious-thought theory (UTT) and self-insight studies. We examine these key points: Brunswikian psychology is absent in UTT; research on self-insight did not emerge to explore the unconscious; the accuracy of judgments does not necessitate the unconscious; and the prescriptive claim of UTT is unfounded.

Psychological science and sound public policy: video recording of custodial interrogations.

Interrogation-induced false confessions virtually guarantee that the innocent suspects who made them will be wrongly prosecuted and convicted. One widely endorsed recommendation for curbing such miscarriages of justice is to video record custodial interrogations in their entirety, the belief being that the resulting audiovisual record will enable trial fact finders to make more accurate assessments of the voluntariness and veracity of suspects' statements. Psychological science, however, highlights a variety of potential pitfalls associated with the video-recording practice.

Videotaped interrogations and confessions: what's obvious in hindsight may not be in foresight.

As expressed in the White Paper, the time has indeed come to make transparency of custodial interrogations the rule, rather than the exception. Widespread implementation of the recommendation to video record interrogations in their entirety and with a camera perspective that permits a clear view of both the suspect and interrogator(s) will achieve this goal admirably. The White Paper authors also imply that such video recordings will likely make it easier for later fact finders to detect and reject false confessions.

The deliberation-without-attention effect: evidence for an artifactual interpretation.

Proponents of unconscious-thought theory assert that letting the unconscious "mull it over" can enhance decisions. In a series of recent studies, researchers demonstrated that participants whose attention was focused on solving a complex problem (i.e.

Videotaped interrogations and confessions: does a dual-camera approach yield unbiased and accurate evaluations?

Although an equal-focus camera perspective-suspect and interrogator each displayed in profile-produces relatively unbiased assessments of videotaped interrogations-confessions, many in law enforcement may consider it less than satisfactory because a full-face view of the suspect is precluded and thus potentially important information revealed in his or her expressions may be unavailable for fact finders' consideration. The present research investigated whether a dual-camera approach, wherein the full faces of both the suspect and interrogator are presented in a split-screen format simultaneously, is a viable alternative to an equal-focus format. Experiment 1 in fact demonstrated that the dual-camera approach does produce relatively unbiased assessments of voluntariness and guilt.

Dispositional optimism and engagement: the moderating influence of goal prioritization.

Research indicates that a positive relationship generally exists between dispositional optimism and goal engagement and attainment. The authors argue, however, that dispositional optimism may not always be associated with more active goal pursuit. Rather, they hypothesized that this relationship is moderated by how highly a goal is prioritized.

Camera perspective bias in videotaped confessions: evidence that visual attention is a mediator.

Several experiments have demonstrated a camera perspective bias in evaluations of videotaped confessions: videotapes with the camera focused on the suspect lead to judgments of greater voluntariness than alternative presentation formats. The present research investigated potential mediators of this bias. Using eye tracking to measure visual attention, Experiment 1 replicated the bias and revealed that changes in camera perspective are accompanied by corresponding changes in duration of fixation on the suspect and interrogator.

Camera perspective bias in videotaped confessions: experimental evidence of its perceptual basis.

The camera perspective from which a criminal confession is videotaped influences later assessments of its voluntariness and the suspect's guilt. Previous research has suggested that this camera perspective bias is rooted in perceptual rather than conceptual processes, but these data are strictly correlational. In 3 experiments, the authors directly manipulated perceptual processing to provide stronger evidence of its mediational role.

Gender differences in attitudes toward gay men and lesbians: the role of motivation to respond without prejudice.

Research has uncovered consistent gender differences in attitudes toward gay men, with women expressing less prejudice than men (Herek, 2003). Attitudes toward lesbians generally show a similar pattern, but to a weaker extent. The present work demonstrated that motivation to respond without prejudice importantly contributes to these divergent attitudes.

Videotaped interrogations and confessions: a simple change in camera perspective alters verdicts in simulated trials.

Prior research has indicated that altering the perspective from which a videotaped confession is recorded influences assessments of the confession's voluntariness. The authors examined whether this camera perspective bias persists in more ecologically valid contexts. In Study 1, neither a realistic videotaped trial simulation nor potentially corrective judicial instruction was sufficient to mitigate the prejudicial effect of camera perspective on mock jurors' assessments of voluntariness or on their all-important final verdicts.

Illusory causation: why it occurs.

Considerable evidence indicates that people overattribute causality to a given stimulus when it is salient or the focus of their attention--the so-called illusory-causation phenomenon. Although illusory causation has proved to be quite robust and generalizable, a compelling explanation for it has not been empirically documented. Four social-attribution studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that illusory causation occurs because salient information is initially registered, or perceptually organized, differently than nonsalient information.