A gender difference in the false recall of negative words: women DRM more than men

Gender differences in susceptibility to associative memory illusions in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm were investigated using negative and neutral word lists. Women (n=50) and men (n=50) studied 20 lists of 12 words that were associates of a non-presented critical lure. Ten lists were associates of negatively valenced lures (e.g., cry, evil) and ten were associates of neutral lures (e.g., chair, slow). When asked to recall the words after each list, women falsely recalled more negative lures than men, but there was no gender difference in the false recall of neutral lures. These findings suggest that women reflect on associations within negative lists to a greater degree than men and are thereby more likely to generate the negative critical lures.     

Shared cognitive processes underlying past and future thinking: the impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on event specificity

Recent literature has argued that whereas remembering the past and imagining the future make use of shared cognitive substrates, simulating future events places heavier demands on executive resources. These propositions were explored in 3 experiments comparing the impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on speed and accuracy of past event retrieval and future event simulation. Results provide support for the suggestion that both past and future episodes can be constructed through 2 mechanisms: a noneffortful "direct" pathway and a controlled, effortful "generative" pathway. However, limited evidence emerged for the suggestion that simulating of future, compared with retrieving past, episodes places heavier demands on executive resources; only under certain conditions did it emerge as a more error prone and lengthier process. The findings are discussed in terms of how retrieval and simulation make use of the same cognitive substrates in subtly different ways.     

The local-ladder effect: social status and subjective well-being

Dozens of studies in different nations have revealed that socioeconomic status only weakly predicts an individual's subjective well-being (SWB). These results imply that although the pursuit of social status is a fundamental human motivation, achieving high status has little impact on one's SWB. However, we propose that sociometric status-the respect and admiration one has in face-to-face groups (e.g., among friends or coworkers)-has a stronger effect on SWB than does socioeconomic status. Using correlational, experimental, and longitudinal methodologies, four studies found consistent evidence for a local-ladder effect: Sociometric status significantly predicted satisfaction with life and the experience of positive and negative emotions. Longitudinally, as sociometric status rose or fell, SWB rose or fell accordingly. Furthermore, these effects were driven by feelings of power and social acceptance. Overall, individuals' sociometric status matters more to their SWB than does their socioeconomic status.     

Direct and vicarious conspicuous consumption: Identification with low‐status groups increases the desire for high‐status goods

The current research examines whether direct and vicarious identification with a low-status group affects consumers' desire for objects associated with status. Experiment 1 found that individuals who belonged to and identified with a status social category associated with relatively lower status (Blacks) exhibited an enhanced desire for high-status products compared to Blacks who did not identify with their race or individuals who belonged to a social category associated with higher status (Whites). In Experiments 2 and 3, White participants led to vicariously identify through perspective taking with Blacks (Experiment 2), or a low-status occupational group (Experiment 3) exhibited an increased desire for high-status products. Experiment 4 provided meditational evidence for a status based explanation for the relationship between identification with a low-status group and a desire for high-status products. The present work makes new inroads into understanding one factor that might lead minorities to engage in greater conspicuous consumption and provides evidence that conspicuous consumption can be elicited vicariously.     

Do Deaf Individuals’ Dating Scripts Follow the Traditional Sexual Script?

The current study investigated Deaf individuals’ dating expectations. Prior research on dating expectations has identified three common scenes: initiation/meeting, activities, and outcomes/conclusions. Participants were asked to report their expectations for each scene on a typical date. Talking was the most frequently occurring initiation activity. Dinner and a movie were among the top date activities in the activities scene. Activities were often reported as group gatherings. Dating outcomes included a good night kiss and making plans for another date. These expectations do not match prior research with hearing participants where the Traditional Sexual Script could be identified. Comparisons and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations: ideas for a relationally responsive practice

The author presents a set of philosophical assumptions that provide a different language for thinking about and responding to the persistent questions: “How can our therapy practices have relevance for people's everyday lives in our fast changing world, what is this relevance, and who determines it?” “Why do some shapes of relationships and forms of talk engage while others alienate? Why do some invite possibilities and ways forward not imagined before and others imprison us?” The author then translates the assumptions to inform a therapist's philosophical stance: a way of being. Next, she discusses the distinguishing features of the stance and how it facilitates collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations that offer fertile means to creative ends for therapists and their clients.     

Effects of early bilingualism on learning phonological regularities in a new language

Drawing on structural sensitivity theory, the current study investigated monolingual and bilingual children's ability to learn how phonemes combine to form acceptable syllables in a new language. A total of 186 monolingual and bilingual kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders in Taiwan participated in the study. Bilingual children, regardless of whether they actively used a second language at home or simply had exposure to it, showed an advantage over their monolingual peers in learning the phonological patterns in the new language. The study provides empirical support for structural sensitivity theory and calls for the need to reconceptualize the effects of early bilingualism.     

Using efficacy information to manipulate proxy efficacy in novice exercisers

ObjectivesTo examine whether proxy efficacy could be increased through an intervention targeting the four sources of efficacy using a written message.DesignPhase 1 (N = 33) tested the stimulus materials to ensure that the intervention message contained significantly more sources of efficacy than the controls. Phase 2 (N = 86) was an intervention assessing the effectiveness of the stimulus materials in increasing proxy efficacy.MethodIn Phase 1, female novice exercisers were randomly assigned to read either an attention control (AC) or proxy efficacy-enhancing (PEE) message about an exercise class leader. Participants completed manipulation checks assessing content, readability, and inclusion of the sources of efficacy. In Phase 2, participants were randomly assigned to AC or PEE groups and read the stimulus materials tested in Phase 1. In order to establish baseline efficacy, all participants read an AC message at Time 1. At Time 2 one week later, the PEE group read the PEE message while the AC group read a second AC message. Participants' proxy efficacy was assessed at both time points in Phase 2.ResultsIn Phase 1, results revealed that the participants who read the PEE message agreed that their stimulus material contained significantly more efficacy-enhancing information than did participants who read the AC messages. In Phase 2, MANCOVA revealed that, after controlling for Time 1 proxy efficacy, the PEE group had significantly greater proxy efficacy at Time 2 than the AC group.ConclusionsResults suggest that proxy efficacy can be increased through targeted written messages.     

Evaluation of a novel translational task for assessing emotional biases in different species

Changes in the processing of emotional information are key features of affective disorders. Neuropsychological tests based on emotional faces or words are used to detect emotional/affective biases in humans, but these tests are not applicable to animal species. In the present study, we investigated whether a novel affective tone discrimination task (ATDT), developed to study emotion-related behaviour in rats, could also be used to quantify changes in affective states in humans. To date, the methods used in human neuropsychology have not been applicable to animal experiments. Participants completed a training session in which they learnt to discriminate specific tone frequencies and to correctly respond in order to gain emotionally valenced outcomes, to obtain rewards (money), or to avoid punishment (an aversive sound clip). During a subsequent test session, additional ambiguous probe tones were presented at frequencies intermediate between the reward and avoidance paired tones. At the end of the task, participants completed self-report questionnaires. All participants made more avoidance responses to the most ambiguous tone cues, suggesting a bias towards avoidance of punishment. Individual differences in the degrees of bias observed were correlated with anxiety measures, suggesting the task’s sensitivity to differences in state anxiety within a healthy population. Further studies in clinical populations will be necessary to assess the task’s sensitivity to pathological anxiety states. These data suggest that this affective tone discrimination task provides a novel method to study cognitive affective biases in different species, including humans, and offers a novel assessment to study anxiety.