Self-Consciousness,Self-presentation,and Performance Under Pressure: Who Chokes,and When?

Choking under pressure by persons low and high in self-consciousness was examined as a function of two sources of performance pressure: audience and performance feedback. Subjects competed with an alleged opponent on a psychomotor task while alone, before a supportive (same team) audience, or a nonsupportive (opposing team) audience. Before the critical trial, subjects learned that their team was either somewhat ahead of or somewhat behind the opposing team. Self-consciousness, audience, and feedback interacted to affect performance during the critical trial. When disappointing the audience was likely, subjects low in self-consciousness choked. Subjects high in self-consciousness tended to choke when they were told that their team had fallen behind. It is suggested that persons who are low and high in self-consciousness experience different types of performance pressure due to disparate self-presentational motives.     

Do Students with Different Characteristics Take Part in Psychology Experiments at Different Times of the Semester?

ABSTRACT In this study we examined 15 personality and demographic differences between psychology students who took part in experiments at different times of the semester and different times of the day. In general, few significant relations were found and those that did emerge were small in magnitude. Females and freshmen signed up for experiments earlier in the semester. Females took part in their first experiment earlier in the semester, as did students who were Protestant and who came from smaller home towns. Students low in self-consciousness also tended to begin participating earlier. Extraverts participated earlier in the day than introverts. Results generally were consistent with previous findings of differences between research volunteers and non-volunteers. However, it was concluded that because of their small magnitude and inconsistency from site to site, with a few precautions experimenters probably need not be concerned that timing effects threaten the external validity of psychological research outcomes.     

Effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unconstrained social interaction

This article provides a meta-analytic review of the experimental effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unstructured social interaction. In the reviewed experiments, children or adolescents were exposed to violent or control presentations and their postexposure behavior was coded for aggression during spontaneous social interaction. Exposure to media violence significantly enhanced viewers' aggressive behavior when the findings were aggregated across studies, but the effect was not uniform across investigations. Only suggestive evidence was obtained concerning moderators of the effect: Marginally stronger relations were obtained in those studies using a cross-section of the normal population of children (vs. emotionally disturbed children) and in those studies conducted in laboratory settings (vs. other contexts).     

Sensation seeking and financial risk taking in everyday money matters

The present study investigated the degree to which the previously established relationship between sensation seeking and risk taking associated with gambling could be extended to everyday financial matters (e.g., personal banking activities). The subjects, classified into high and low sensation seekers, were asked to make a series of everyday financial decisions that varied in their degrees of risk. Overall, the results indicate high sensation seekers displayed greater risk-taking tendencies in everyday financial matters than low sensation seekers. This difference in everyday financial risk taking between high and low sensation seekers was also found within each gender group. Implications and suggestions for future research involving sensation seeking in other personal and professional financial decision-making areas are also presented.     

Assertion modeling and stimuli effects on assertive behavior and self-efficacy in adolescents

The present investigation examined variations of modeling and stimuli with 61 adolescents selected for unassertive or aggressive behavior toward teachers. A 3 × 2 × 2 factorial design evaluated the effects of type of assertion modeling (three sessions of overt vs covert vs no-modeling), type of training stimuli (single involving teachers only vs multiple involving teachers, parents and peers) and type of initial behavior (unassertive vs aggressive) on behavioral role-play and self-efficacy. Modeling, particularly overt modeling, improved assertive behavior in teacher situations, peer situations and total teacher, parent, and peer situations. The use of single type stimuli improved self-efficacy in total teacher, parent and peer situations, and in novel situations involving others. Behavior but not self-efficacy was differentially affected by initial unassertive or aggressive behavior of participants. Self-efficacy and behavior were only moderately correlated. Results suggest effectiveness of short-term modeling with adolescents and different specificity properties of self-efficacy and assertive behavior.     

Recognizing faces in and out of context

Two experiments are reported which examined the influence of context on face recognition accuracy for novel and familiar faces respectively. Context was manipulated by varying the physical background against which the faces appeared. In Experiment I, 80 student subjects observed 18 faces before attempting to recognize them in a sequence of 36 alternatives. For half the subjects, the backgrounds changed from study to test, while for the remainder they stayed the same. In addition, for half the subjects, both the pose and expression of the face also changed, while for the others it remained constant. Changes in pose plus expression and context significantly reduced recognition accuracy for the target faces. Experiment II used an identical design, except that the faces of celebrities replaced the novel faces. The influence of context was eliminated but the effects of pose and expression were maintained. However, when only faces which were actually identified by subjects were considered, the effects of pose and expression, too, were eliminated. The significance of these findings for theories of contextual memory are discussed.     

Computer games for the teaching of reading

The development and implementation of programs of computer-based instruction for reading are discussed.