Color Vision in Alzheimer’s Patients: Can We Improve Object Recognition With Color Cues?

Sixty-three frail, elderly patients seen in a university-based outpatient geriatric assessment clinic were divided into three dementia diagnosis categories (Alzheimer’s disease, “other” dementias, cognitively intact) to investigate the use of color cues as memory aids. Recognition time was measured for three cues: (1) same color/different form; (2) same form/different color; and (3) different color/different form. Log transformed response times were longer for form cues (same color/different form) compared to color cues (different color/same form, p =.001; different color/different form, p <.001). No differences in log transformed response time were noted among dementia categories for each test condition. Color cues make a significant difference in short-term memory recall ability compared to form cues. Vivid color-coding the environment of a frail, elderly population may enhance short-term memory and improve functional ability. This may prove to be especially useful in long-term care settings, which provide services to a variety of people with differing cognitive abilities.     

Messages about sex in the workplace: A content analysis of primetime television

Because television has the potential to shape cultural beliefs about both sexual norms and appropriate workplace behavior, it seems important to examine TV’s portrayal of “sexual etiquette” in the workplace. In a content analysis of two episodes of every primetime comedy aired on all broadcast and cable networks during fall 2000, we coded every sexual remark and behavior made in a workplace scene. Across all networks, 85 percent of programs and one in four workplace interactions contained some type of sexual content. Overall, a viewer is likely to hear eleven sexual remarks and see two to three sexual behaviors in a workplace setting per hour; this jumps to twenty-three remarks and nine behaviors on cable networks. Sexual remarks were mostly explicit, made in an office setting, by White men, and were rarely (1.4%) about sexual harassment or discrimination. Although sexual content in the workplace was generally less common on broadcast than cable networks, a broadcast network (Fox) actually had the highest overall rate, with sexual content in 38 percent of workplace scenes. Given that research suggests that TV teaches youth about sexuality and cultivates sexual attitudes and beliefs consistent with televised portrayals, it is alarming that youth may learn from television that sex in the workplace is not only commonplace, but also to be tolerated and enjoyed.     

A Transcultural Integrative Model for Ethical Decision Making in Counseling

The Transcultural Integrative Ethical Decision‐Making Model in counseling addresses the need for including cultural factors in the process of ethical dilemma resolution. This transcultural model incorporates state‐of‐the‐art concepts from multicultural theory into an ethical decision‐making model that is adapted primarily from the Integrative Model developed by V. M. Tarvydas (1998). When appropriate, this transcultural model includes aspects of other ethical resolution models, such as R. R. Cottone's (2001) Social Constructivist Model and A. H. Davis's (1997) Collaborative Model. The proposed model is presented in a step‐by‐step, linear format that can be used by counselors facing ethical dilemmas in a variety of settings and with different cultural groups.     

The stroop effect: Failure to focus attention or failure to maintain focusing?

Subjects matched the position (high or low) of a first stimulus with either the position or the meaning of a word (HI or LO) presented after an interstimulus interval (ISI). The form of the first stimulus (X or O) varied randomly within trial blocks and specified the relevant feature (meaning or position) of the second stimulus to the subject. When the relevant feature was meaning, Stroop interference from the second stimulus position was observed. This interference decreased as ISI increased. At the longest ISI, it was eliminated completely. A number of explanations for these effects are discussed and then tested in two further matching experiments. In a fourth experiment a similar decrease in interference was observed. These reductions in interference with increase in ISI appear to represent the development of attentional focusing on the relevant feature of the second stimulus. Stroop interference may occur in experiments where the relevant attribute is constant because of a difficulty associated with repeated focusing on the same attribute.     

I thought that I heard you laughing: Contextual facial expressions modulate the perception of authentic laughter and crying

It is well established that categorising the emotional content of facial expressions may differ depending on contextual information. Whether this malleability is observed in the auditory domain and in genuine emotion expressions is poorly explored. We examined the perception of authentic laughter and crying in the context of happy, neutral and sad facial expressions. Participants rated the vocalisations on separate unipolar scales of happiness and sadness and on arousal. Although they were instructed to focus exclusively on the vocalisations, consistent context effects were found: For both laughter and crying, emotion judgements were shifted towards the information expressed by the face. These modulations were independent of response latencies and were larger for more emotionally ambiguous vocalisations. No effects of context were found for arousal ratings. These findings suggest that the automatic encoding of contextual information during emotion perception generalises across modalities, to purely non-verbal vocalisations, and is not confined to acted expressions.     

Effects of morphine and naloxone upon the reactions of rats to a heat stressor

Five experiments used rats to examine the conditioned hypoalgesia induced by exposure to a heated floor. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that this hypoalgesia is mediated by non-opioid mechanisms of pain control, as evidenced by insensitivity to the opioid antagonist naloxone and by the absence of cross-tolerance with the opioid agonist morphine. Although non-opioid in nature, the acquisition of conditioned hypoalgesia was facilitated by naloxone and impaired by morphine (Experiments 3 and 4). These effects did not appear to be due to an opioid regulation of pain. (1) Pairing morphine with the heated floor attenuated acquisition in drug-tolerant rats. (2) This attenuation by morphine was removed when naloxone was given after exposure to the heated floor. (3) Conditioning was facilitated when naloxone was given after exposure to the heated floor (Experiment 5). The results were discussed in terms of an opioid regulation of (a) surprise, (b) arousal of an aversive motivational system, and (c) the affective component of pain.