The relationship of academic major and career choice status to anxiety among college freshmen

This study examines the relationship of career and academic major choice status to levels of state anxiety among undergraduate students. A total of 179 resident freshmen responded to a questionnaire concerning their career development status. On the basis of that information, subjects were arranged within a 2 × 2 factorial design of two dichotomous variables: career choice status (decided/undecided) and major choice status (declared/undeclared). Participants were administered the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. An analysis of variance of state anxiety scores yielded a significant main effect for career choice status, with subjects reporting they had already decided on a career direction exhibiting lower levels of state anxiety than those who had not.     

Acoustic and phonological factors in vowel identification

Vowels are better identified in a consonantal syllabic context than as isolated vowels. This finding is contrary to predictions from traditional theories of vowel perception. The poor perception of isolated vowels might be attributed to a lack of dynamic acoustic cues or to familiarity effects related to the phonological rules of English. Vowel identification tests were conducted using six talkers, nine vowels, and seven syllabic contexts. Consonantal context improved vowel identification; final consonants aided identification more than initial consonants. No consistent support was found for the effect of phonological rules but duration information was seen to play a critical role. Results constitute a challenge to traditional theories of vowel perception.     

Emotional impact feedback affects how people remember an analogue trauma event

Do external motivational processes—in the form of social influences—shape people's memories for trauma? In this experiment, we examined the effects of social influence on memory and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology for an analogue traumatic event. Seventy-two participants watched a distressing film; some received feedback about others' reactions to the film that either emphasised or downplayed the distressing nature of the film; control participants received no feedback. A week later, participants reported their symptoms, rated their memory on a number of characteristics and we tested their memory for the film's content. Participants who received feedback downplaying the film reported fewer PTSD-related analogue symptoms and weaker memory characteristics than their counterparts. The results suggest that people's memory phenomenology and analogue symptoms are influenced by others' feedback, but only when others' reactions downplayed the distressing nature of the film.     

Photographs cause false memories for the news

What is the effect on memory when seemingly innocuous photos accompany false reports of the news? We asked people to read news headlines of world events, some of which were false. Half the headlines appeared with photographs that were tangentially related to the event; others were presented without photographs. People saw each headline only once, and indicated whether they remembered the event, knew about it, or neither. Photos led people to immediately and confidently remember false news events. Drawing on the Source Monitoring Framework (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993), we suggest that people often relied on familiarity and other heuristic processes when making their judgments and thus experienced effects of the photos as evidence of memory for the headlines.     

Evaluations of Clergy Children Versus Non-Clergy Children: Does a Negative Stereotype Exist?

Studies that have been conducted on PKs (children of the clergy) are limited and outdated. But it has been thought that numerous stresses coincide with being a PK. This study tried to document the existence of a negative stereotype of PKs. The participants were 63 college students consisting of 40 Non-PKs and 23 PKs. They were given a mock college application to evaluate and then asked to rate the applicant on various dimensions. The participants rated one of three applicants: PK with bad behavior, PK with good behavior, or non-PK with bad behavior. The bad behavior was a DWI offense. Results indicated limited support of the hypothesis of a negative stereotype of PKs. A separate questionnaire given to the PKs inquiring about the stresses of their lifestyle revealed that PKs do report experiencing a significant amount of stress.