Attraction to a dissimilar stranger as a function of level of effectance arousal

An experiment was carried out to demonstrate that the relationship between attitudes of a stranger and attraction to that stranger can be mediated by effectance arousal and the consequent information search to reduce the arousal. The argument posited was that individuals under high effectance arousal produced by a confusing and ambiguous film would be attracted to dissimilar others as a source of information and uncertainty reduction. Results indicated that high levels of arousal produced greater attraction to a dissimilar stranger than to a similar stranger. This finding was reversed when an explanation was provided along with the confusing film, lending support to the uncertainty reduction position.     

Racial Differences in Children's Responses to Inequity1

Racial differences were examined in the responses of grammar school boys to an unfair distribution of rewards. Our primary interests were equity-restoration and inequity distress. Race of the three participants, allocator of rewards, beneficiary, and victim were varied in a factorial design. Generally, children who profited from the unfair distribution made no attempt to restore equity regardless of race. Black children who were victims did try to restore equity when the allocator was also black. All victims experienced emotional distress that was more extreme when the allocator's race was different from their own. Victims also justified their mistreatment by blaming themselves. There was no evidence of guilt on the part of the beneficiaries who disavowed the inequity. Thus equity-restoration through denial of responsibility by the advantaged and justification of inequity by the disadvantaged resulted in acceptance of a fundamentally unfair situation by beneficiary and victim alike.     

Automated assessment of conditioning parameters for context and cued fear in mice

A behavioral technique often used to evaluate the cognitive performance of rats and mice is the fear conditioning paradigm. During conditioned fear experiments, freezing responses shown by rodents after exposure to environmental stimuli previously paired to an aversive experience provide a behavioral index of the animal's associative abilities. The present study examined the ability of a computer-controlled automated Freeze Monitor system for recording immobility behavior in mice. The sensitivity of the automated procedure to detect group differences caused by the application of various training protocols was also evaluated. Statistical analyses revealed significant positive correlations between immobility scores obtained with the automated apparatus and hand-scored data collected by a continuous or a time-sampling method. Behavioral patterns recorded by the computerized system were very similar to those obtained by the hand-scoring methods adopted. In particular, during context testing, exposure to environmental stimuli previously paired with a mild foot shock (unconditioned stimulus [US]) evoked increased immobility behavior in mice conditioned with the US compared with levels of immobility displayed by mice previously confined to the same contextual stimuli without receiving the US. Moreover, although during conditioned stimulus (CS) testing, mice previously exposed to the US displayed high levels of immobility when confined to environmental cues much different from those paired with the US (contextual fear generalization), both hand-scored and automated results revealed the effect of CS–US pairing (increased immobility) only in mice trained to associate the two stimuli (paired group) but not in mice exposed to both CS and US separated by a 40-sec time interval (unpaired group) or in mice receiving only the US (US group) during conditioning sessions. Overall, the results show associative conditioning measured in an automated apparatus and highlight the utility of obtaining both latency as well as beam interruption parameters.     

Body sensations associated with emotions in Rarámuri Indians, rural Javanese, and three student samples

Cultural variations in the associations of 12 body sensations with 7 emotions were studied in 2 rural samples from northern Mexico (n = 61) and Java, Indonesia (n = 99), with low exposure to Western influences and in 3 university student samples from Belgium (n = 75), Indonesia (n = 85), and Mexico (n = 123). Both parametric and nonparametric analyses suggest that findings from previous studies with only student samples (K. R. Scherer & H. G. Wallbott, 1994) were generalizable to the 2 rural samples. Some notable cultural deviations from common profiles were also identified. Implications of the findings for explanations of body sensations experienced with emotions and the cross-cultural study of emotions are discussed.     

Bayesian Risk Assessment in Genetic Testing for Autosomal Dominant Disorders with Age-Dependent Penetrance

Risk assessment is an essential component of genetic counseling and testing, and the accuracy of risk assessment is critical for decision making by consultands. However, it has been shown that genetic risk calculations may have high error rates in practice. Risk calculations for autosomal dominant disorders are frequently complicated by age-dependent penetrance and sensitivities of less than 100% in genetic testing. We provide methods of risk calculation for prototypical pedigrees of a family at risk for an autosomal dominant disorder with age-dependent penetrance. Our risk calculations include scenarios in which the sensitivity of genetic testing is less than 100%, and in which the sensitivity of genetic testing varies for different family members at risk. Our Bayesian methods permit autosomal dominant disease probabilities to be calculated accurately, taking into account all relevant information. Our methods are particularly useful for hereditary cancer syndromes, in which genetic testing can seldom achieve 100% sensitivity. Our methods can be applied to many different scenarios, including those where the sensitivity of genetic testing varies for different family members at risk. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.     

The neurobiology of virtual reality pain attenuation.

During the past decade, virtual reality (VR) has gained recognition as a means of attenuating pain during medical procedures. However, while investigators have examined the effects of virtual environments on level of distraction, subjective pain intensity, and brain activity, there have been only a handful of investigations into the neurobiological mechanisms associated with VR's efficacy. In an effort to explain how VR may alter pain perception and produce analgesia, as well as to guide the development of novel and improved VR pain treatments, this review aims to link the wealth of empirical data examining the neurobiology of pain to the growing field of VR. This review is separated into three main sections: (a) a brief overview of the current literature on the use of VR for the treatment of pain; (b) a review of the basic neurobiology of how pain is detected, processed, and controlled by the brain; and (c) an exploration into how current VR pain treatments may impact the pain system to produce analgesia. In addition, the future of VR for pain treatment is discussed, including how current treatments might be improved and novel ways to use VR to treat pain might be developed. Speculation on future VR interventions is based on our current understanding of how the brain processes pain and how VR appears to alter this process and produce analgesia.     

Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate dissociation between affective experience and motivated behavior

Self-reported emotional experience does not differ between patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, suggesting that the anhedonia in schizophrenia instead reflects decoupling of affect from motivated behavior. In 2 behavioral conditions, participants with schizophrenia and healthy participants were able to prolong or decrease exposure to stimuli while stimuli were present or alter the likelihood of future exposure to stimuli on the basis of internal representations. They also provided self-reports of affective experience. Patients showed weaker correspondence between behavior and ratings than did comparison participants. The effect was amplified when patients responded on the basis of internal rather than evoked stimulus representations. These data suggest that the motivational deficits in schizophrenia reflect problems in the ability to translate experience into action.     

Neuroscientific evidence for defensive avoidance of fear appeals

Previous studies indicate that people respond defensively to threatening health information, especially when the information challenges self‐relevant goals. The authors investigated whether reduced acceptance of self‐relevant health risk information is already visible in early attention allocation processes. In two experimental studies, participants were watching high‐ and low‐threat health commercials, and at the same time had to pay attention to specific odd auditory stimuli in a sequence of frequent auditory stimuli (odd ball paradigm). The amount of attention allocation was measured by recording event‐related brain potentials (i.e., P300 ERPs) and reaction times. Smokers showed larger P300 amplitudes in response to the auditory targets while watching high‐threat instead of low‐threat anti‐smoking commercials. In contrast, non‐smokers showed smaller P300 amplitudes during watching high as opposed to low threat anti‐smoking commercials. In conclusion, the findings provide further neuroscientific support for the hypothesis that threatening health information causes more avoidance responses among those for whom the health threat is self‐relevant.