Affect intensity and processing fluency of deterrents

The theory of emotional intensity (Brehm, 1999) suggests that the intensity of affective states depends on the magnitude of their current deterrents. Our study investigated the role that fluency—the subjective experience of ease of information processing—plays in the emotional intensity modulations as reactions to deterrents. Following an induction phase of good mood, we manipulated both the magnitude of deterrents (using sets of photographs with pre-tested potential to instigate an emotion incompatible with the pre-existent affective state—pity) and their processing fluency (normal vs. enhanced through subliminal priming). Current affective state and perception of deterrents were then measured. In the normal processing conditions, the results revealed the cubic effect predicted by the emotional intensity theory, with the initial affective state being replaced by the one appropriate to the deterrent only in participants exposed to the high magnitude deterrence. In the enhanced fluency conditions the emotional intensity pattern was drastically altered; also, the replacement of the initial affective state occurred at a lower level of deterrence magnitude (moderate instead of high), suggesting the strengthening of deterrence emotional impact by enhanced fluency.     

Objective age of acquisition norms for a set of 286 words in Russian: Relationships with other psycholinguistic variables

Normative data on the objective age of acquisition (AoA) for 286 Russian words are presented in this article. In addition, correlations between the objective AoA and subjective ratings, name agreement, picture name agreement, imageability, familiarity, word frequency, and word length are provided, as are correlations between the objective AoA and two measures of exemplar dominance (exemplar generation frequency and the number of times an exemplar was named first). The correlations between the aforementioned variables are generally consistent with the correlations reported in other normative studies. The objective AoA data are highly correlated with the subjective AoA ratings, whereas the correlations between the objective AoA and other psycholinguistic variables are moderate. The correlations between the objective AoA of Russian words and similar data for other languages are moderately high. The complete word norms may be downloaded from supplementary material.     

The Incremental Validity of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A criticism leveled against the conceptualization of emotional intelligence (EI) as a personality trait is that it overlaps considerably with the higher order personality dimensions and, therefore, has weak utility. To investigate this criticism, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to synthesize the literature examining the incremental validity of the 2 adult self-report forms of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). Twenty-four articles reporting 114 incremental validity analyses of the TEIQue were reviewed according to the studies' methodological features. Additionally, data from 18 studies (providing 105 effect sizes) were pooled in a meta-analysis. Results suggest that the TEIQue consistently explains incremental variance in criteria pertaining to different areas of functioning, beyond higher order personality dimensions and other emotion-related variables. The pooled effect size was relatively small, but statistically and practically significant (ΔR² = .06, SE = .0116; 95% CI [.03, .08]). The number of covariates controlled for, the form of the TEIQue, and the focus on higher order personality dimensions versus other individual-difference constructs as baseline predictors did not affect the effect size. Analyses conducted at the factor level indicated that the incremental contribution is mainly due to the well-being and self-control factors of trait EI. Methodological issues and directions for future research are discussed.     

Preserved re-experience of discrete emotions: Amnesia and executive function

Amnesic patients can re-experience emotions elicited by forgotten events, suggesting that brain systems for episodic and emotional memory are independent. However, the range of such emotional memories remains under-investigated (most studies employing just positive–negative emotion dyads), and executive function may also play a role in the re-experience of emotions. This is the first investigation of the intensity of the emotional re-experience of a range of discrete emotions (anger, fear, sadness, and happiness) for a group of amnesic patients. Twenty Korsakoff syndrome (KS) patients and 20 neurologically normal controls listened to four novel emotional vignettes selectively eliciting the four basic emotions. Emotional experience was measured using pen-and-paper Visual Analogue Mood Scales and episodic memory using verbal recollections. After 30 min, the recollection of stories was severely impaired for the patient group, but the emotional re-experience was no different from that of controls. Notably, there was no relationship between episodic recall and the intensity of the four emotions, such that even profoundly amnesic patients reported moderate levels of the target emotion. Exploratory analyses revealed negative correlations between the intensity of basic emotions and executive functions (e.g., cognitive flexibility and response inhibition) for controls but not patients. The results suggest that discrete emotions can be re-experienced independently of episodic memory, and that the re-experience of certain discrete emotions appears to be dampened by executive control. KS patients with absent or mild cognitive symptoms should benefit from emotion-regulation interventions aimed at reducing the recognized affective burden associated with their episodic memory deficit.     

Simultaneous motion perception along multiple attributes: A new class of stimuli

This paper describes a novel class of visual stimuli that have been created to study stroboscopic motion perception along multiple attributes. The stimuli are composed of discrete elements, each of which can be characterized by an arbitrary number of attributes (color, luminance, spatial frequency, binocular disparity, etc.). There are two choices for the spatiotemporal arrangement of each attribute: to elicit either unambiguous (unidirectional) motion perception or ambiguous (bidirectional) motion perception. This affords the unique ability to elicit simultaneous motion perception in opposing directions from identical stimuli. The prevailing direction depends on the relative strength of the attributes’ contribution to the motion mechanisms (for short frame duration), or on the particular attribute being attended to (for long frame duration). Thus, this class of stimuli opens up the possibility of isolating specific motion mechanisms in the visual system.     

An Examination of Concurrent and Incremental Validity of Four Mindfulness Scales

General consensus among psychologists supports the beneficial effects of mindfulness in the treatment of a wide range of clinical conditions such as personality, mood, and anxiety disorders. Several scales used to assess this psychological construct, mainly rooted in Eastern traditions, are currently available to researchers and clinicians. However, the conceptualization and measurement of mindfulness has been considerably diverse. The present study examines the concurrent and incremental validity of four scales: the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS), the Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS), the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and the Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS). Two independent samples of 176 adults and 397 students, respectively, were recruited. With few exceptions, results were consistent across the two samples and indicated that measures based on an Eastern conceptualization of mindfulness (TMS, PHLMS, and FFMQ) show a different pattern of association with the chosen outcomes compared to the LMS, which is based on a Western conceptualization. Overall, the PHLMS showed the strongest predictive effects and the LMS the weakest in terms of both number of predicted criteria and average effect size. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The Social Structure of Political Echo Chambers: Variation in Ideological Homophily in Online Networks

We predict that people with different political orientations will exhibit systematically different levels of political homophily, the tendency to associate with others similar to oneself in political ideology. Research on personality differences across the political spectrum finds that both more conservative and more politically extreme individuals tend to exhibit greater orientations towards cognitive stability, clarity, and familiarity. We reason that such a “preference for certainty” may make these individuals more inclined to seek out the company of those who reaffirm, rather than challenge, their views. Since survey studies of political homophily face well‐documented methodological challenges, we instead test this proposition on a large sample of politically engaged users of the social‐networking platform Twitter, whose ideologies we infer from the politicians and policy nonprofits they follow. As predicted, we find that both more extreme and more conservative individuals tend to be more homophilous than more liberal and more moderate ones.