I said, you said: the production effect gets personal

Saying a word out loud makes it more memorable than simply reading it silently. This robust finding has been labeled the production effect and has been attributed to the enhanced distinctiveness of produced relative to unproduced items (MacLeod et al. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 671–685, 2010). Produced items have the additional information that they were spoken aloud encoded in their representations, and this information is useful during retrieval in certifying prior encoding. The present study explored whether production must be self-performed to be beneficial, or whether another person’s production also makes an item more memorable. In two experiments, the production effect was shown to be reliable when production was done by someone other than the rememberer (i.e., by the experimenter or by another participant), but substantially smaller than the benefit from self-performed production. Intriguingly, the effect was intermediate when production was done by both the rememberer and another person. Distinctiveness—and hence the production effect—is greatest to the extent that it is personal.     

Contributions of the nucleus accumbens and its subregions to different aspects of risk-based decision making

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) has been implicated in mediating different forms of decision making in humans and animals. In the present study, we observed that inactivation of the rat NAc, via infusion of GABA agonists, reduced preference for a large/risky option and increased response latencies on a probabilistic discounting task. Discrete inactivations of the NAc shell and core revealed further differences between these regions in mediating choice and response latencies, respectively. The effect on choice was attributable to reduced win–stay performance (i.e., choosing risky after a being rewarded for a risky choice on a preceding trial). Moreover, NAc inactivation altered choice only when the large/risky option had greater long-term value, in terms of the amount of food that could be obtained over multiple trials relative to the small/certain option. Inactivation of the NAc or the shell subregion also slightly reduced preference for larger rewards on a reward magnitude discrimination. Thus, the NAc seems to play a small role in biasing choice toward larger rewards, but its contribution to behavior is amplified when delivery of these rewards is uncertain, helping to direct response selection toward more favorable outcomes.     

Integration of the pleasant events and activity restriction models: development and validation of a "PEAR" model of negative outcomes in Alzheimer's caregivers

This study examined an activity restriction/pleasurable activities mismatch model for psychosocial and health-related outcomes. A total of 108 spousal caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were assessed for their experience of social and recreational activities over the past month as well as their perception of how restricted they were for engaging in social and recreational activities. Participants were divided into three groups based on their reported activities and activity restriction: HPLR = High Pleasant Events + Low Activity Restriction (i.e., reference group; N = 28); HPHR/LPLR = Either High Pleasant Events + High Activity Restriction or Low Pleasant Events + Low Activity Restriction (N = 43); LPHR = Low Pleasant Events + High Activity Restriction (N = 37). We hypothesized that participants reporting low pleasant events combined with high activity restriction (LPHR) would demonstrate greater disturbance relative to other two groups in multiple outcome domains, including: (a) greater mood disturbance, (b) greater use of negative coping factors, (c) reduced use of positive coping strategies, (d) reduced report of psychological resource factors (e.g., personal mastery, self-efficacy), and (e) increased report of subjective health difficulties (e.g., sleep disturbance). Results generally supported our hypotheses, suggesting that assessment of both constructs is important for best predicting quality of well-being in AD caregivers, and potentially for establishing maximal effect in behavior therapy for caregivers.     

Challenging the Stubborn Core of Opposition to Equality: Racial Contact and Policy Attitudes

A Random Digit Dialing survey (n = 794) examined the interracial contact experiences and racial attitudes of White South Africans. The survey measured racial attitudes not only in terms of individuals' prejudice, but also in terms of their perceptions of group threat, perceived injustice, and support for various government policies designed to rectify the legacy of apartheid. The results indicated that the frequency and quality of interracial contact predicted Whites' support for both race compensatory and race preferential policies of redress, and these effects were partly mediated by perceived threat, sense of fairness, and racial prejudice. The research points to a potential rapprochement between the social psychological theories of intergroup contact and group positioning theories derived from the work of Blumer. It also highlights the value of adopting a more expansive and politically nuanced conception of the “consequences” of contact and desegregation.     

Personality Neuroscience and the Biology of Traits

Personality neuroscience involves the use of neuroscience methods to study individual differences in behavior, motivation, emotion, and cognition. Personality psychology has contributed much to identifying the important dimensions of personality, but relatively little to understanding the biological sources of those dimensions. However, the rapidly expanding field of personality neuroscience is increasingly shedding light on this topic. This article provides a survey of progress in the use of neuroscience to study personality traits, organized using a hierarchical model of traits based on the Big Five dimensions: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness/Intellect. Evidence is reviewed for hypotheses about the biological systems involved in each trait.     

The Six-Sided Vision of Said Nursi: Towards a Spiritual Architecture of the Risale-i Nur

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, the eponymous progenitor of the contemporary Nurculuk movement, was arguably the most influential, if woefully under-researched, Turkish Muslim thinker of the twentieth century. Nurculuk, a faith-based movement consisting of an estimated seven million followers worldwide, stands out from other contemporary Muslim religious and ideological groupings not only for its uncompromising focus on the renewal of individual rather than collective faith, but also for its eschewal of any kind of religiously legitimized violence or militancy for the sake of politico-ideological ends. This article is an attempt at an overview of Nursi's idiosyncratically irenic approach to the highly contentious issue of jihad, itself key to our understanding of the staunch apoliticism he espoused in later life.