Tone sequences with conflicting fundamental pitch and timbre changes are heard differently by musicians and nonmusicians

An Auditory Ambiguity Test (AAT) was taken twice by nonmusicians, musical amateurs, and professional musicians. The AAT comprised different tone pairs, presented in both within-pair orders, in which overtone spectra rising in pitch were associated with missing fundamental frequencies (F0) falling in pitch, and vice versa. The F0 interval ranged from 2 to 9 semitones. The participants were instructed to decide whether the perceived pitch went up or down; no information was provided on the ambiguity of the stimuli. The majority of professionals classified the pitch changes according to F0, even at the smallest interval. By contrast, most nonmusicians classified according to the overtone spectra, except in the case of the largest interval. Amateurs ranged in between. A plausible explanation for the systematic group differences is that musical practice systematically shifted the perceptual focus from spectral toward missing-F0 pitch, although alternative explanations such as different genetic dispositions of musicians and nonmusicians cannot be ruled out. ((c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).     

Emotion regulation and culture: are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture-specific?

Emotional suppression has been associated with generally negative social consequences (Butler et al., 2003; Gross & John, 2003). A cultural perspective suggests, however, that these consequences may be moderated by cultural values. We tested this hypothesis in a two-part study, and found that, for Americans holding Western-European values, habitual suppression was associated with self-protective goals and negative emotion. In addition, experimentally elicited suppression resulted in reduced interpersonal responsiveness during face-to-face interaction, along with negative partner-perceptions and hostile behavior. These deleterious effects were reduced when individuals with more Asian values suppressed, and these reductions were mediated by cultural differences in the responsiveness of the suppressors. These findings suggest that many of suppression's negative social impacts may be moderated by cultural values.     

Symptom-system fit in couples: emotion regulation when one or both partners smoke

In a laboratory smoking experiment, 25 couples in which 1 or both partners continued to smoke despite 1 of them having heart or lung disease discussed a health-related disagreement before and during a period of smoking. Immediately afterward, the partners used independent joysticks to recall their continuous emotional experience during the interaction while watching themselves on video. Participants in dual-smoker couples reported increased positive emotion contingent upon lighting up, whereas those in single-smoker couples reported the opposite. The results highlight the role of smoking in close relationships, particularly in regulating emotional closeness when both partners smoke. Attention to this fit between symptom and system may be useful in helping couples achieve stable cessation.     

The Role of Death Qualification in Jurors' Susceptibility to Pretrial Publicity1

Two hundred residents of Florida's 12^th Judicial Circuit completed questions measuring participants' level of death-penalty support, death-qualification status, knowledge of the facts surrounding an actual capital case, and attitudes toward the defendant in the aforementioned capital case. Results indicated that death-qualified participants were better able to correctly identify the defendant, recognize most of the factual details of the case, think that the defendant was guilty, and recommend the death penalty. In addition, death-qualified jurors were more likely to feel that the pretrial publicity surrounding the case would have minimal impact on the defendant's right to due process. Legal applications and implications are discussed.     

Direct and Indirect Assessment of Gender Role Identification

Differences in gender role identification exist among both men and women. Earlier researchers have developed several instruments to measure the degree to which individuals identify with the masculine or feminine gender role. In the present study we examined a number of these measurement procedures. Undergraduate students (N?=?45) were administered three direct and two indirect measures of gender role identification. In addition, participants were exposed to a psychological stress test that was relatively masculine. Findings reveal that direct and indirect instruments tap different underlying constructs of gender role identification that are nevertheless positively correlated. Furthermore, results suggest that one of the indirect measures, the Gender Implicit Association Test (GIAT), is a promising instrument to provide an estimate of gender role identification. Of all gender role identification measures the GIAT was (a) most sensitive to sex differences and (b) the only significant predictor of systolic blood pressure responses during and after the relatively masculine stress task.     

Reducing the neural search space for hominid cognition: What distinguishes human and great ape brains from those of small apes?

Differences in the psychological capacities of closely related species are likely due to differences in their brains. Here, we review neuroanatomical comparisons between hominids (i.e., great apes and humans) and their closest living relatives, the hylobatids (i.e., small apes). We report the differences in quantitative, as well as qualitative, neural characteristics on the basis of 19 comparative studies that each included representatives of all hominid genera and at least one genus of hylobatid. The current data are patchy, based on a small number of hylobatids and few neuroanatomical features. Yet a systematic interspecies comparison could help reduce the neuroanatomical search space for the neural correlates underlying psychological abilities restricted to hominids. We illustrate the potential power of this approach by discussing the neural features of visual self-recognition.     

The effects of study order and backward associative strength on illusory recollection: A source-strength effect does not always occur

We investigated illusory recollection by dividing lists of associated words into three subsets (high, medium and low) based on their backward associative strength (BAS) to an unstudied theme. Participants studied these subsets at different visual locations on a computer screen and afterwards were given a source memory test. In Experiment 1, we varied the order in which high- and medium-BAS subsets were studied. In Experiment 2, we again manipulated study order as well as the associative strength of the medium-BAS subsets (strong or weak). Across both experiments, illusory recollection was constrained by both study order and BAS. Source attributions to the high-BAS location were more likely (a source-strength effect) when high-BAS items were studied first or studied following items of relatively low associative strength. However, attributions to the strong medium-BAS studied location were more likely when these items were studied before high-BAS items. These findings are interpreted as resulting from misbinding of source details at encoding which can be explained by the activation-monitoring theory of illusory recollection.     

Separate or together? Women-only public spaces and participation of Saudi women in the public domain in Saudi Arabia

Gender segregation in the public domain has become a cornerstone of the Saudi interpretation of Islam (Doumato 2009). It is a development that has led to the coming about of extensive separate public spaces that are only for women (Doumato 2009; Hamdan 2005; Le Renard 2008, 2014). In these women-only public spaces, women undertake activities that are by them and for them, therewith reinforcing the existence of these separate structures. This institutionalisation and practice of women-only public spaces, as well as its opposite phenomenon of ‘mixing’ between the two sexes (ikhtilā?) however is contested and led to a heated debate. This debate centres around the question of whether and if so, how women should participate in the public domain. Starting with an overview of the historical development of women-only public spaces and ikhtilā? in Saudi Arabia, I will show how these have evolved. Drawing on fieldwork among urban, educated Saudi women, I shed light on how attitudes and strategies of female respondents regarding women-only public spaces and ikhtilā? are related to their ideas about their presence in the public domain and notions of ‘the liberation of women’, ‘empowerment’, and ‘the rise of women’. I conclude by demonstrating how ideas about the participation of women in the public sphere are positioned as part of the construction of a local, ‘enchanted’ modernity (Deeb, 2006) that has a material and a spiritual dimension.