CLASSICAL CONDITIONING OF DECREASES IN HUMAN SYSTOLIC BLOOD PRESSURE1

Decrease in human systolic blood pressure of 4.35 mm Hg (range: 0 to 12 mm Hg) were classically conditioned in normal and hypertensive subjects using a delayed conditioning paradigm in which a 30-sec auditory stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) was followed immediately by tilting the subject 15° head-down to elicit small decreases in blood pressure. Conditioning occurred within five trials. A control group demonstrated that sensitization of the reflex by repeated tilting could not account for the blood-pressure decreases associated with the conditioned stimulus in experimental subjects.     

Men's fabric preferences related to age, inherent color vision, and perceptual disembedding ability

Non-random samples of 27 color-normal and 27 color-blind men between the ages of 18 and 52 were administered measures of color vision, fabric preferences, and perceptual disembedding (field dependence). Pearson product-moment correlation and analysis of variance were used to test associations among the variables. Results showed the rank order of men's fabric preferences from least to most preferred were pattern, large design, tint, textured, small design, shade, smooth, and plain. There was one significant relationship between age and a preference for tints. No significant relationships were found among fabric preferences and color vision, fabric preference and field dependence, or age and field dependence. Color-blind men were significantly more field-independent than color-normal men in the sample. It was concluded that social as opposed to inherent factors helped to determine men's fabric preferences.     

When simple things are meaningful: Working memory strength predicts children’s cognitive flexibility

People often perseverate, repeating outdated behaviors despite correctly answering questions about rules they should be following. Children who perseverate are slower to respond to such questions than children who successfully switch to new rules, even after controlling for age and processing speed. Thus, switchers may have stronger working memory strength than perseverators, with stronger rule representations supporting both flexible switching and faster responses to questions. Alternatively, better inhibitory abilities may support switchers’ faster responses by helping to resolve conflict. The current study tested these accounts using a new one-dimensional card sort. Even with all possible sources of conflict removed, switchers still responded faster than perseverators to questions about rules, supporting the graded working memory account.     

Towards a popular queer Mariology: rediscovering the virgin through popular religiosity

ABSTRACT

In the dominant theological production of Mary as holy “Virgin,” theological discourses have ironically hyper-sexualized the Mother of God. This article explores the sexuality of the Virgin, introducing a Popular Queer Mariology. Engaging with Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s treatment of Guadalupe/la Chingada/la Llorona, as well as veneration of Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, this article contends that popular religiosity provides resources for queering the figure of Mary in ways that destabilizes whore/virgin binaries and affirms death, finitude, and the materiality of the body that dominant theological discourses have attempted to negate.     

Positive mental imagery and mental health amongst university students in Pakistan

Mental health problems amongst university students pose a major public health challenge, and this is particularly the case in Pakistan. Alongside broader societal and cultural pressures, cognitive factors likely also play a role in the development of and resilience to mental health problems and may provide a feasible target for interventions. The current study built on previous research in primarily European samples investigating the relationship between one cognitive factor, positive future-oriented mental imagery, and mental health, extending this to a sample of university students in Pakistan (N = 1838). In a cross-sectional design, higher vividness of positive future-oriented mental imagery was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and higher levels of positive mental health amongst participants completing questionnaire measures on paper (N = 1430) or online (N = 408). In the sample completing the measures on paper, these relationships remained statistically significant even when controlling for socio-demographic and mental health-related variables. The results provide a foundation for further investigating positive mental imagery as a potential mechanism of mental health and intervention target amongst university students in Pakistan.     

When propriety is improper

Philosophical Studies - We argue that philosophers ought to distinguish epistemic decision theory and epistemology, in just the way ordinary decision theory is distinguished from ethics. Once one...     

Effects of string length on the organization of rat string-pulling behavior

Animal Cognition - The string-pulling paradigm has been adapted to investigate many psychological phenomena across a range of animal species. Although varying string length has been shown to...