Intermanual cross-talk effects in unimanual choice reactions

Intermanual interactions originate at different levels of motor control. Interactions during specification of movement characteristics should affect reaction time for choice between left-hand and right-hand movements. In two experiments combinations of short and long target amplitudes for reversal movements of the left and right hand were cued with variable precueing intervals. Upon presentation of the response signal a unimanual left-hand or right-hand movement had to be produced. Reaction time was faster when same target amplitudes were precued than when different target amplitudes were. At short precueing intervals the longer reaction time with different target amplitudes (early effect) was accompanied by an amplitude assimilation: Short amplitudes were too long, and long amplitudes were too short. At longer precueing intervals the longer reaction time with different target amplitudes (late effect) was accompanied by a higher choice accuracy. These findings are taken to indicate a transient parametric coupling of amplitude specifications, which produces the early and the late effects by way of different mechanisms-namely different degrees of advance specification and generalized de-coupling, which affects the process of choice between hands.     

Determinants of structural choice in visually situated sentence production

Three experiments investigated how perceptual, structural, and lexical cues affect structural choices during English transitive sentence production. Participants described transitive events under combinations of visual cueing of attention (toward either agent or patient) and structural priming with and without semantic match between the notional verb in the prime and the target event. Speakers had a stronger preference for passive-voice sentences (1) when their attention was directed to the patient, (2) upon reading a passive-voice prime, and (3) when the verb in the prime matched the target event. The verb-match effect was the by-product of an interaction between visual cueing and verb match: the increase in the proportion of passive-voice responses with matching verbs was limited to the agent-cued condition. Persistence of visual cueing effects in the presence of both structural and lexical cues suggests a strong coupling between referent-directed visual attention and Subject assignment in a spoken sentence.     

Therapy for couples after an affair: A randomized-controlled trial

To examine the efficacy of a couples treatment approach for promoting recovery from a recently disclosed affair, 89 couples that disclosed an affair by one of the partners in the past 6 months were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 46) or to a control group that waited about 3 months for treatment (n = 43). The couples completed self-report measures (Beck Depression Inventory, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Partnership Questionnaire) at pre- and post-treatment. Since about half of the couples dropped out for various reasons (e.g., ongoing affair, separation), we used multiple imputations to handle the missing data problem. We analyzed the dyadic data with hierarchical linear modeling in a two-level model. Significant improvements on scores of anxiety corresponded with large effect sizes for both partners. Yet significant improvements on depression scores were only found for the unfaithful partner with moderate effect size. Results suggest that the treatment can improve individual complaints, but not relationship satisfaction in a sufficient amount for both partners. Hence, future research should address how this intervention could encourage couples to maintain therapy, and how they might achieve more and sustained improvement in relationship satisfaction.     

Recall termination in free recall

Although much is known about the dynamics of memory search in the free recall task, relatively little is known about the factors related to recall termination. Reanalyzing individual trial data from 14 prior studies (1,079 participants in 28,015 trials) and defining termination as occurring when a final response is followed by a long nonresponse interval, we observed that termination probability increased throughout the recall period and that retrieval was more likely to terminate following an error than following a correct response. Among errors, termination probability was higher following prior-list intrusions and repetitions than following extralist intrusions. To verify that this pattern of results can be seen in a single study, we report a new experiment in which 80 participants contributed recall data from a total of 9,122 trials. This experiment replicated the pattern observed in the aggregate analysis of the prior studies.     

Morningness-eveningness and sleep habits among adolescents: age and gender differences

Previous research has indicated the need to use large samples in different cultural contexts in order to clarify age and gender differences on morningness-eveningness and sleep habits. The goal of our research was to study the relationship between morningness-eveningness and sleep habits in a large sample of 2,649 adolescents between 12 and 16 years. The Morningness- Eveningness Scale for Children and an adaptation of the School Sleep Habits Survey measures were used. Results indicated a greater tendency toward eveningness with age and higher eveningness in 13- and 14-year-old girls. Older adolescents claimed later rising time on weekends, later bedtime and shorter sleep length, and greater social jetlag, weekend rise time delay, and weekend bedtime delay. Girls reported earlier rising time on weekdays, later rising time on weekends, longer sleep length on weekends, and greater social jetlag and weekend rising time delay. Lastly, evening oriented adolescents claimed later rising time and bedtime, shorter sleep length on weekdays but longer sleep duration on weekends, and greater social jetlag, weekend rising time delay, and weekend bedtime delay.     

Sex differences of salivary cortisol secretion in patients with major depression

Depression is associated with increased cortisol secretion and occurs more often in women than in men. Thus, it has been hypothesized that differences in cortisol secretion might, in part, be responsible for the greater risk of developing depression in women. However, only few studies have examined sex differences in baseline cortisol secretion in depressed patients and healthy controls. We examined sex effects on cortisol secretion in 52 medication-free patients with major depression (37 women, 15 men, mean ± SD age 35 ± 11 years, Hamilton Depression Scale mean score 27 ± 5) and 50 healthy age- and sex-matched control subjects. Salivary cortisol concentrations were measured at 8:00, 12:00, 16:00, and 22:00 h. Repeated measures analysis of covariance revealed a group × sex interaction (p = 0.05). Post hoc tests revealed higher cortisol concentrations in depressed compared to healthy men [F(1;29) = 7.5, p = 0.01]. No differences were found between depressed and non-depressed women. Our results do not support the hypothesis that differences in cortisol secretion between depressed and non-depressed subjects are more pronounced in women than in men. Study characteristics and methods as well as sex-specific confounding variables such as menstrual cycle, menopause and the use of oral contraceptives may account for inconclusive results across studies.     

Does Happiness Increase in Old Age? Longitudinal Evidence from 20 European Countries

Journal of Happiness Studies - Several studies indicate that happiness follows a U-shape over the life cycle: Happiness decreases after the teenage years until reaching its nadir in middle age. A...     

Beauty: Neglected,but alive and kicking

This article is a commentary on ‘Ten years of a model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments: The aesthetic episode – developments and challenges in empirical aesthetics’ (Leder & Nadal, 2014, this issue). It focuses on the importance of beauty in aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments. Beauty is considered as a formal inherent property of visual stimuli that has the potential to elicit visual pleasure by direct sensory stimulation. It is argued that any comprehensive model of aesthetic experience must account fully for cognitive aspects of aesthetics (cultural, conceptual, psychological, and individual factors) as well as intrinsic properties of beautiful visual stimuli and how they relate to basic mechanisms of visual perception, which are universal among humans.     

Measuring Four Perspectives of Justice Sensitivity With Two Items Each

People differ systematically in their vulnerability to injustice. We present two-item scales for the efficient measurement of justice sensitivity from 4 perspectives (victim, observer, beneficiary, perpetrator). In Study 1 using a quota-based sample of German adults, a latent state–trait analysis revealed the factorial validity and high reliabilities of the scales. In Study 2 employing a large random sample, we tested for measurement invariance of the items within the context of our short 2-item scales compared to the original 10-item scales. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses confirmed that the validity of the indicators and the internal structure of the assessed constructs did not change across item contexts. In both studies, correlations with personality dimensions and life satisfaction provide evidence for the validity of our scales. With the presented instrument, future research can extend scientific knowledge regarding the role of individual differences in reactions to injustice for the explanation of well-being and physical health.