Trial spacing is a determinant of cue interaction

Four conditioned lick suppression experiments with rats examined the effect of trial spacing on cue interaction. Experiments 1 and 2 found overshadowing to be eliminated with massed compound stimulus-outcome pairings and the usual trial spacing effect to be reversed with compound acquisition trials. Experiment 3 found that whether acquisition compound-outcome pairings were massed or spaced determined the effect of posttraining extinction treatment. Extinction of the overshadowing cue reduced responding following massed training and increased responding following spaced training. Extinction of the context decreased responding following massed training. Experiment 4 found the conditioning and devaluation results to be associative and stimulus specific. These results are in accord with the extended comparator hypothesis (J. C. Denniston, H. I. Savastano, & R. R. Miller, 2001).     

The distinctiveness of hardiness, positive emotionality, and negative emotionality in National Guard soldiers

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to investigate the distinctiveness of hardiness (using the Short Hardiness Scale; Bartone, 1995) from the broader personality traits of negative emotionality and positive emotionality (NEM and PEM; assessed with items from the MMPI-2 PSY-5 scales); in a sample of 981 Army National Guard soldiers. Exploratory factor analyses demonstrated that hardiness items loaded on a separate factor from PEM and NEM items, and confirmatory factor analysis suggested that hardiness is not simply a sub-facet of either PEM or NEM. However, subsequent regression analyses found that hardiness did not predict symptoms of PTSD or depression beyond the effects of PEM and NEM among combat exposed soldiers.     

Default spacing is the optimal spacing for word reading

Increased interletter spacing is thought to reduce crowding effects and to enhance fluent reading. Several studies have shown beneficial effects of increased interletter spacing on reading speed and accuracy, especially in poor readers. Therefore, increased interletter spacing appears to be a relatively easy way to enhance reading performance. However, in adult readers reading speed was shown to be impeded with increased interletter spacing. Thus, findings on interletter spacing are still inconclusive. In the current study we examined the effect of a range of interletter spacings (?0.5, default, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2) on naming fluency of monosyllabic and bisyllabic words in beginning (Grade 2) and more advanced (Grade 4) readers. Additionally we tested the effects of spacing in a subsample of poor readers. In contrast to previous findings, neither beginning nor advanced readers benefited from an increase in interletter spacing. However, they did show reduced reading fluency when letter spacing was smaller than the default spacing, which may be indicative of a crowding effect. Poor readers showed a similar pattern. We conclude that an increase in interletter spacing has no effect on word naming fluency.     

Rationality,emotionality, and testing

Controversy and confusion surround the question of the appropriateness of tests for minority groups. The amount of emotion aroused by this question tends to cloud issues and impede rational thinking. It is believed that the matter should be approached rationally and that examining it relative to empirical, construct, and content validity will be helpful. Conclusions are drawn regarding the fairness of tests for minority groups as a result of examining research evidence and authoritative opinion.     

Temperamental emotionality in preschoolers and parental mood disorders

A number of models developed in the adult psychopathology literature (i.e., L. A. Clark & D. Watson, 1991) have asserted that low levels of positive emotionality (PE) are predisposing factors or precursors for depression and represent a form of temperamental risk for depression. Further support for this claim would derive from evidence linking low PE to known indicators of risk for depression. The authors examined the association between temperamental emotionality in young children and parental mood disorders. One hundred unselected preschool-aged children completed a battery of emotion-eliciting tasks tapping aspects of PE, negative emotionality (NE), and behavioral inhibition (BI). Parental psychopathology was assessed with semistructured diagnostic interviews. Low PE in children was associated with maternal, but not paternal, mood disorder. The low PE-maternal depression link was relatively specific, as there were few associations between low PE and other forms of parental psychopathology or between NE and BI and parental mood disorders.     

Word imageability influences the emotionality effect in episodic memory

Cognitive Processing - This study examines how and to what extent imageability influences the effect of word emotionality in episodic memory. A total of 52 young adults successively performed a...     

Preschoolers' beliefs about sex and age differences in emotionality

The goal of the present study was to assess preschoolers' beliefs about the frequency and intensity with which boys, girls, women, and men experience anger, sadness, and happiness. Sixty-seven middle-class preschool children (35 girls, 32 boys) were presented with drawings of adult and child figures of each sex, and were asked to rate how frequently and intensely the emotions were felt (91% of the children were white; the remainder were primarily black). Children's gender stereotyped beliefs were particularly strong for sadness and appeared to be based on a deficit-experience model for males. Sex of target differences also were found for children's beliefs about anger (favoring males). However, the sex difference in anger was based more on the degree to which anger is believed to be experienced rather than on differences in beliefs regarding males' and females' capacity to experience anger. Age of target differences were also found for sadness and anger, but not for happiness. It was concluded that preschoolers' beliefs about differences in emotions are complex, and vary as a function of the sex and age of the target person, and as a function of the specific emotion.Partial support for Richard Fabes was provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BNS-8807784). Partial support for Carol Martin was provided by a Women's Studies Research Award (CM1-1001) and a Faculty Grant in Aid (RWR-B658) from Arizona State University. The authors would like to thank Anita Petitti, Dennis Barrett, Amy Vogelson, Melinda Deacon, Kris Hughes, Amy Secklin, Hilary Rose, Melanie Smith, and Melinda Smith for their assistance with data collection and stimulus preparation. Thanks also goes to the teachers, staff, and children at the Arizona State University Child Laboratory Programs.     

Worry and emotionality components of test anxiety

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between trait measures of Worry and Emotionality and test anxiety related variables. Ninety-eight undergraduate students completed the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) and the following self-report measures toward the end of the psychology exam: Checklist of Positive and Negative Thought, Checklist of Body Sensations (CBS), and Subjective Units of Discomfort Scale (SUDS). Further, the students' scores on the psychology exam and the students' grade point averages (GPA) served as outcome measures of test anxiety. In general the results supported the discriminant validity of the Worry and Emotionality subscales of the TAI. Worry was found to be correlated with measures of internal dialogue and Emotionality was found to be correlated with the self-reported arousal measures.