Mortality salience effects on reckless driving intentions in a motorcyclist sample: The moderating role of group riding

Campaigns against reckless driving often mention the risk of dying. Research on terror management theory indicates that death claims may backfire and foster reckless driving. Here, we studied such mortality salience effects in a motorcyclist sample. Two moderating variables, particularly interesting regarding the sample of motorcyclists, were considered: group riding (vs. riding alone) and driving‐related self‐esteem. Motorcyclists were exposed to a campaign, either highlighting mortality or not. Orthogonally, cyclists were primed with riding in a group (vs. riding alone). Driving‐related self‐esteem was assessed via a questionnaire. We predicted that reminders of riding in a group would buffer against ironic mortality effects. Supporting this hypothesis, mortality salience effects interacted with the group prime. The results indicate that death appeals are likely to backfire with cyclists riding alone rather than cyclists riding in a group, especially if motorcycling is relevant to the self.     

Examination of the Stigmas Toward Help Seeking Among Turkish College Students

This study builds on previous help‐seeking research in the United States by examining the role of counseling stigma in Turkey. Undergraduate students in Turkey (N = 520) completed self‐report measures of attitudes and intentions to seek counseling and 3 forms of help‐seeking stigma. Results indicated that perceptions of public and social network stigma each uniquely contributed to the experience of self‐stigma, which, in turn, influenced attitudes toward seeking counseling and then help‐seeking intentions.     

The time course of consolidation in visual working memory

How long does it take to form a durable representation in visual working memory? Several theorists have proposed that this consolidation process is very slow. Here, we measured the time course of consolidation. Observers performed a change-detection task for colored squares, and shortly after the presentation of the first array, pattern masks were presented at the locations of each of the colored squares to disrupt representations that had not yet been consolidated. Performance on the memory task was impaired when the delay between the colored squares and the masks was short, and this effect became larger when the number of colored squares was increased. The rate of consolidation was approximately 50 ms per item, which is considerably faster than previous proposals.     

Substantive and operational issues of response bias across levels of analysis: an example of climate-satisfaction relationships

Two studies tested whether method variance is present at multiple levels of analysis and whether methodological procedures can minimize its impact. In Study 1, 8,052 employees from 71 hotels completed measures of climate, work environment characteristics, and satisfaction. A comparison of correlations at the individual level, cross-level, cross-level split, aggregate level, and aggregate-split level of analysis revealed that response bias was present across multiple levels. Results suggest that samples should be split in half when cross-level and aggregate correlations are computed to ameliorate response bias problems that arise from individual-level method variance. In Study 2, results indicated that the temporal spacing of measures of climate and satisfaction influenced response bias. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Age-related impairment in the 250-millisecond delay eyeblink classical conditioning procedure in C57BL/6 mice

In this study we tested 4-, 9-, 12-, and 18-month-old C57BL/6 mice in the 250-msec delay eyeblink classical conditioning procedure to study age-related changes in a form of associative learning. The short life expectancy of mice, complete knowledge about the mouse genome, and the availability of transgenic and knock-out mouse models of age-related impairments make the mouse an excellent species for expanding knowledge on the neurobiologically and behaviorally well-characterized eyeblink classical conditioning paradigm. Based on previous research with delay eyeblink conditioning in rabbits and humans, we predicted that mice would be impaired on this cerebellar-dependent associative learning task in middle-age, at ~9 months. To fully examine age differences in behavior in mice, we used a battery of additional behavioral measures with which to compare young and older mice. These behaviors included the acoustic startle response, prepulse inhibition, rotorod, and the Morris water maze. Mice began to show impairment in cerebellar-dependent tasks such as rotorod and eyeblink conditioning at 9 to 12 months of age. Performance in hippocampally dependent tasks was not impaired in any group, including 18-month-old mice. These results in mice support results in other species, indicating that cerebellar-dependent tasks show age-related deficits earlier in adulthood than do hippocampally dependent tasks.     

A biologically plausible model of associative memory which uses disinhibition rather than long-term potentiation

Mammalian memory is commonly "explained" in terms of long-term potentiation (LTP) of excitatory synapses. However, depotentiation of inhibitory pathways (disinhibition) is also a known phenomenon in the brain. Artificial neural networks which are offered as partial models of the cerebrum traditionally encode memory by the potentiation of excitatory "synapses" in a manner which is thought of as analogous to LTP. Analysis shows that such models have seriously limited storage capacities. The models also depend on mechanisms which do not appear to be biologically plausible. This paper demonstrates that these difficulties are avoided by encoding memory by means of disinhibition rather than LTP. The resulting models are simple and plausible, though unconventional.     

Father Knows Best: Paternal Presence and Sexual Debut in African‐American Adolescents Living in Poverty

Adolescents found within single‐parent families without a residential father have reported higher levels of sexual debut and higher levels of reported pregnancy. Using data from the Mobile Youth Survey, the purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the presence of a father figure on the sexual debut of African‐American adolescents living in poverty and to determine if gender moderates the relationship between the presence of a father figure and sexual debut. Additionally, this study will examine the family processes in which the presence of a father figure can affect the sexual debut of African‐American adolescents who live within economically and socially disadvantaged communities. The results revealed that African‐American adolescents reporting a father figure had lower rates of sexual debut than those youth reporting no father figure. Gender was not found to be a significant moderator in the relationship between father figure presence and sexual debut. However, existing curfews and family rules did account for some of the effects of presence of a father figure and sexual debut. The results suggest that when adolescents have a father figure in their lives, it may reduce the possibility of early sexual debut.     

The Evolution of Cancer Risk Assessment in the Era of Next Generation Sequencing

Cancer genetics professionals face a new opportunity and challenge in adapting to the availability of cancer genetic testing panels, now available as a result of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology. While cancer panels have been available for over a year, we believe that there is not yet enough data to create practice guidelines. Despite this, a year of experience allows us to provide our opinion on points to consider as cancer genetic counselors incorporate this testing technology into genetic counseling practice models. NGS technology offers the ability to potentially diagnose hereditary cancer syndromes more efficiently by testing many genes at once for a fraction of what it would cost to test each gene individually. However, there are limitations and additional risks to consider with these tests. Obtaining informed consent for concurrent testing of multiple genes requires that genetics professionals modify their discussions with patients regarding the potential cancer risks and the associated implications to medical management. We propose dividing the genes on each panel into categories that vary by degree of cancer risk (e.g. penetrance of the syndrome) and availability of management guidelines, with the aim to improve patient understanding of the range of information that can come from this testing. The increased risk for identifying variants of uncertain significance (VUS) when testing many genes at once must be discussed with patients. Pretest genetic counseling must also include the possibility to receive unexpected results as well as the potential to receive a result in the absence of related medical management guidelines. It is also important to consider whether a single gene test remains the best testing option for some patients. As panels expand, it is important that documentation reflects exactly which genes have been analyzed for each patient. While this technology holds the promise of more efficient diagnosis for many of our patients, it also comes with new challenges that we must recognize and address.