Effects of cell-phone and text-message distractions on true and false recognition

This study examined the effects of electronic communication distractions, including cell-phone and texting demands, on true and false recognition, specifically semantically related words presented and not presented on a computer screen. Participants were presented with 24 Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists while manipulating the concurrent presence or absence of cell-phone and text-message distractions during study. In the DRM paradigm, participants study lists of semantically related words (e.g., mother, crib, and diaper) linked to a non-presented critical lure (e.g., baby). After studying the lists of words, participants are then requested to recall or recognize previously presented words. Participants often not only demonstrate high remembrance for presented words (true memory: crib), but also recollection for non-presented words (false memory: baby). In the present study, true memory was highest when participants were not presented with any distraction tasks during study of DRM words, but poorer when they were required to complete a cell-phone conversation or text-message task during study. False recognition measures did not statistically vary across distraction conditions. Signal detection analyses showed that participants better discriminated true targets (list items presented during study) from true target controls (items presented during study only) when cell-phone or text-message distractions were absent than when they were present. Response bias did not vary significantly across distraction conditions, as there were no differences in the likelihood that a participant would claim an item as "old" (previously presented) rather than "new" (not previously presented). Results of this study are examined with respect to both activation monitoring and fuzzy trace theories.     

Effects of frustration justification on hostile aggression

The present study tested Berkowitz' [1989: Psychological Bulletin 106:59-73] reformulation of the frustration-aggression hypothesis which states that any negative or aversive stimulus such as frustration, even if justified, will result in some measurable tendency to aggress, Participants' attainment of an expected gratification was either blocked in an unjustified manner, blocked in a justified manner, or not blocked at all. Degree of hostile aggression directed at the frustrating individual was measured. As predicted, justified frustration produced less hostile aggression than unjustified frustration, but even justified frustration produced more hostile aggression than no frustration at all. Results support Berkowitz' frustration-aggression reformulation. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Understanding driver anger and aggression: attributional theory in the driving environment

Two studies tested the applicability of Weiner's (1995, 1996, 2001, 2006) attributional model of social conduct to roadway environments. This model highlights the role of inferences of responsibility after making causal judgments for social transgressions. Study 1 employed written scenarios where participants were asked to imagine themselves driving on a major highway. The degree of controllability and intentionality of the driving act was manipulated experimentally by altering the specific event-related details provided to the participants. Study 2 extended this research to life events by having participants complete online driving diaries every 2 days, identifying their most negative/upsetting encounter with another motorist. The most anger-provoking event was selected from among 4 diary entries and participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire similar to that used in Study 1. Path analyses in both studies generally supported predictions derived from Weiner's model; the association between perceived controllability, intentionality, and dispositional locus of causality of the negative driving event and subsequent anger was mediated by perceptions of responsibility. Additional results in Study 2 suggested that low perceived controllability, intentionality, and dispositional locus of causality were associated with reduced perceived responsibility, which, in turn, facilitated feelings of sympathy. Anger was associated with aggressive responses to the offending driver, whereas sympathy was associated with prosocial responses. Recommendations were offered for improved driver safety, including the development of attributional retraining programs to combat self-serving attributional biases, teaching novice drivers about both formal and informal roadway communication, and the promotion of forgiveness among drivers     

Effects of attack and uncontrollable noise on aggression

After being either attacked or treated in a more neutral manner by an experimental confederate, male subjects shocked the confederate while being stimulated by loud noise. Among previously attacked subjects, possession of control over offset of the noise led to the delivery of shocks significantly shorter in duration than those given by subjects who did not have control. Mere predictability of noise offset did not have the same effect. Subjects who could control the noise did not differ from those who heard no noise with respect to the duration of shocks given. Noise had no effect on shock duration among nonattacked subjects. In a follow-up study subjects who were given bogus information that they were aroused by noise were less punitive toward an attacking confederate than subjects given no such information. The overall conclusion is that noise facilitates aggression in subjects who have been instigated to aggress to the degree that noise-produced arousal is misattributed to the instigating stimulus.     

Physical aggression: Effects of ethnicity of target and directionality of aggression

Physical aggression of members of a powerful majority ethnic group against an opponent either from a powerless and discriminated against minority or from their own group was tested as a function of aggression directionality and aggressor's attitudes. It was hypothesized that under bidirectional aggression where the opponent could aggress as well, members of the powerful majority group would adjust their aggressive responses to that of their opponent's regardless of his ethnic origin and regardless of aggressor's attitudes. However. under unidirectional aggression where the opponent was powerless, it was expected that those subjects who held unfavourable attitudes toward members of the minority group would be more aggressive against an opponent of that group than against an opponent of his own ethnic group. Subjects who had neutral attitudes would be equally aggressive toward all opponents. Ninety-six 11th grade vocational high school male students of Western origin, were given the opportunity to administer electric shocks to an opponent who was either of Western or Oriental origin in a competitive situation, Subjects were selected according to their attitudes toward Oriental Jews. Half expressed negative attitudes, the other half neutral attitudes. Half of the subjects expected their opponent to reciprocate shocks, the others did not. Contrary to expectations it was found that the attitudes of subjects of Western origin towards Orientals did not effect their aggressive behaviour. When aggression could not be reciprocated, all subjects were more aggressive toward an opponent of Oriental than of Western origin. The findings showed that when aggression was bidirectional, all subjects adjusted their aggressive behaviour, to their opponents'. However, they were less aggressive towards an opponent of Oriental than of Western origin.     

Effects of provocation on emotions and aggression in males

The effects of provocation of emotions and human physical aggression were examined using a competitive reaction time paradigm. Fifty-four males participated in the competitive task with a fictitious opponent. Participants were assigned to two conditions, low-constant provocation and increasing provocation. Aggression was defined as the intensity of electric shocks participants selected for the opponent to receive. Negative emotions (threat, harm) and positive emotions (benefit, challenge) were assessed at four times during the experimental task. The results revealed that both aggressive responding and harm emotions differed as a function of opponent's level of provocation. There was little compelling evidence that emotions served as an important intervening variable in the relationship between provocation and aggression. Aggr. Behav. 23:1–10, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Effects of previous housing conditions on shock-induced aggression.

This study investigated shock-induced aggression as a function of housing rats in single or communal cages for varying periods of time before testing. Rates of fighting were unaffected by housing conditions when rats spent seven or 14 days in either of these settings before testing. Placing rats in these settings for 21 or 28 days before testing, however, did affect rates of fighting. Communal caging of subjects for 28 days before testing was particularly deleterious to shock-induced aggression. How rats are housed outside the experimental chamber is a variable affecting shock-induced aggression and should be considered both in designing future studies and as a topic for future investigation.     

Effects of a driver enforcement program on yielding to pedestrians

A driver-yielding enforcement program that included decoy pedestrians, feedback flyers, written and verbal warnings, and saturation enforcement for a 2-week period was evaluated in the city of Miami Beach using a multiple baseline design. During baseline, data were collected at crosswalks along two major corridors. Treatment was introduced first at selected crosswalks without traffic signals along one corridor. A week later, enforcement was shifted to crosswalks along the second corridor. Results indicated that the percentage of drivers yielding to pedestrians increased following the introduction of the enforcement program in each corridor and that these increases were sustained for a period of a year with minimal additional enforcement. The effects also generalized somewhat to untreated crosswalks in both corridors, as well as to crosswalks with traffic signals.     

Effects of racial prejudice and race of target on aggression

Three studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between prejudice and physical aggression using the competitive reaction time paradigm. In Study 1, high and low prejudiced subjects competed against either a black or white opponent. The race of the opponent did not differentially affect the aggressive behavior of either high or low prejudiced subjects. In Study 2, high prejudiced subjects were confronted with a competitor who behaved in a nonaggressive fashion. Under these conditions, the high prejudiced subjects attacked the black target more than the white target. In Study 3, high prejudiced subjects competed against an opponent who communicated nonaggressive intentions. The subjects behaved in a nonaggressive manner toward both the black and the white target. It was proposed that prejudice facilitates indiscriminate aggression in the presence of a clear threat and selective aggression in the presence of ambiguous threat.     

Effects of noise and attack on aggression and physiological arousal

Sixty male subjects were first given either 10 shocks or 2 shocks by an experimental confederate. Two-thirds were then stimulated with loud and aversive noise while the other one-third were not so stimulated. In one of the noise-stimulated conditions, the subject was free to terminate the noise. In the other condition, the subject had no control over the noise. Subjects in all conditions were then given an opportunity to aggress against the confederate. Measures of skin conductance, pulse rate, and blood pressure were made after the subject had been shocked and again after the noise had been given. Subjects who had been given 10 shocks followed by uncontrollable noise gave shocks of longer duration than subjects in any other condition. Subjects given uncontrollable noise also showed evidence of being more physiologically aroused than those given controllable noise or no noise.This research was supported by Grant GS 40171 from the National Science Foundation to the first author.     

Effects of septal-forebrain lesions on maternal aggression and maternal care

Septal-forebrain lesions significantly increased the defensive reactions of lactating Long-Evans rats (n = 13) relative to nonlesioned control females. The lesions greatly enhanced defensive behaviors on a number of standard tests (e.g., responsiveness to humans and anesthetized conspecifics) while abolishing aggression toward intruding male conspecifics. The lesions also produced a striking disruption in maternal behavior as evidenced by absence of nest building, reduced litter weights, failure to retrieve, lick, or nurse pups, and increased cannibalization. While these results cannot be interpreted as indicating that maternal aggression is equivalent to offense, they are congruent with such a view. Certainly they are not supportive of a view that maternal aggression is primarily defensive. The lesion-induced abolition of maternal attack may have resulted from an inhibition of offensive tendencies by heightened defensiveness and/or reduced pup stimulation. There was no evidence that the lesion-induced impairment in maternal behavior resulted from a failure to sequence the individual behavioral acts comprising maternal behavior. Rather, all features of maternal care seemed to be greatly attenuated.     

Relationship of seat belt use to health and driver behaviors

Seat belts are effective safety devices for protecting car occupants from injuries and fatalities in road vehicle accidents. Seat belt use has been reported to be related to some health and driving-related behaviors. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what degree seat belt use can be seen as health behavior or driver behavior. Participants were 252 licensed Turkish drivers (180 males, 72 females) with the mean age of 30.8 (SD = 12.15). A questionnaire including questions related to health-related behaviors, driver behaviors and seat belt use was used. Results of factor analysis showed that seat belt use in front seat grouped with driver behaviors (e.g., driving errors and violations) but not with health-related behaviors (e.g., healthy diet and sports participation). Regression analyses showed that seat belt use in back seat; and, regular walking and adequate sleep were positively related to seat belt use in front seat, whereas being male, driving errors and smoking frequency were negatively related to seat belt use in front seat. The present findings suggest that seat belt use can be considered in the context of driver behaviors such as driving errors and violations.     

Effects of norms and norm-violations on inhibition and instigation of aggression

It was hypothesized that in a competitive interaction in which an opponent first used threats and fines a) subjects would use the highest level of coercion that could be justified by the available norms, b) subjects would be inhibited by a norm that justified using only low levels of coercion, but c) when the opponent used a magnitude of coercion which exceeded the norm, subjects would also violate the norm and retaliate with an equally high magnitude of coercion, and d) subjects would use the maximum levels of coercion when engaging in a competitive game without norms. These hypotheses were examined in a 3 × 2 factorial experiment in which the amount of coercion allowable by a norm (Low Norm, High Norm, and No Information) and the level of coercion (Low or High) were manipulated. As predicted, aggressive reactions by subjects were inhibited when the provoker conformed to a low norm by using a low level of coercion. On the other hand, subjects retaliated by using a high level of coercion when the level of coercion used by a provoker violated the norm. Subjects who could justify their behavior by the availability of a high punitive norm tended to use all of the coercive power available to them even when the provoker used a low level of coercion. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Quantifying aggression: Effects of identity of stimulus

A test for children's insight into relations between behaviour and aggressive emotion showed that kindergarten children showed an increase in ratings of emotion corresponding to an increase in aggressive behaviour (positive relation), and that an increase in ratings of emotions corresponding to a decrease in aggression-related behaviour (negative relation) was shown by seven- and nine-year-old children. Cognition of relations between aggressive emotion and behaviour seemed to be developed earlier than cognition of relations between intention and behaviour as observed in a previous study. Results from the test also indicated that the magnitude of emotion ratings differed in identity (same stimulus person) and non-identity (differed stimulus persons) stimulus conditions.