Fast trial pacing in a lexical decision task reveals a decay of automatic semantic activation

We report an experiment showing that reducing attentional resources by presenting trials with a short, 400 ms intertrial interval (ITI) (a) did not affect semantic priming at a 160 ms prime-to-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA), relative to a 2500 ms ITI, and (b) eliminated the priming that occurred at a 1200 ms SOA when the ITI was 2500 ms. However, the elimination of priming at the 1200 ms SOA occurred only when the relatedness proportion (RP, proportion of related primes and targets) was .25 and not when it was .75. We interpret these results as showing that attentional/strategic priming occurs with an RP as low as .25, but only when sufficient attentional resources are available. Equally important, this is the first direct evidence that automatic semantic activation decays within 1200 ms in the standard semantic-priming/lexical-decision paradigm when attentional resources are not being used to maintain the goal of sustaining prime activation. We further argue that the frequent occurrences of related primes and targets with a high RP serve as reminders to maintain that goal such that cognitive load does not reduce long-SOA priming when the RP is high.     

Sex-Stereotyped and Nonstereotyped Introductions of New Toys in the Preschool Classroom: An Observational Study of Teacher Behavior and Its Effects

In Study 1, the behavior of teachers in introducing sex-typed and nonsex-typed toys in the classroom was observed in nine preschool classes. Results indicated that teachers called on more boys to demonstrate a "masculine" toy than girls, p<01. No significant differences were found in the mean number of boys and girls called on to demonstrate "neutral" or "feminine" toys. However, teachers were more variable in demonstrating the sex-typed feminine toys than the nonstereotyped toy, p<05. In a second study, two sets of toys, each including five dolls and five trucks, were introduced using stereotyped and nonstereotyped introductions to two classes of 3- and 4-year-old children. No significant sex differences in toy choices were found following the nonstereotyped introductions. Following the stereotyped introductions, the children's toy choices were consistent with sex-role stereotypes. These results are consistent with laboratory studies suggesting that bias in the introduction of toys by adults may contribute to the sex-typing of specific activities.     

Working Memory and Motor Activity: A Comparison Across Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,Generalized Anxiety Disorder,and Healthy Control Groups

Converging findings from recent research suggest a functional relationship between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related hyperactivity and demands on working memory (WM) in both children and adults. Excessive motor activity such as restlessness and fidgeting are not pathognomonic symptoms of ADHD, however, and are often associated with other diagnoses such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Further, previous research indicates that anticipatory processing associated with anxiety can directly interfere with storage and rehearsal processes of WM. The topographical similarity of excessive motor activity seen in both ADHD and anxiety disorders, as well as similar WM deficits, may indicate a common relationship between WM deficits and increased motor activity. The relationship between objectively measured motor activity (actigraphy) and PH and visuospatial WM demands in adults with ADHD (n = 21), adults with GAD (n = 21), and healthy control adults (n = 20) was examined. Although all groups exhibited significant increases in activity from control to WM conditions, the ADHD group exhibited a disproportionate increase in activity, while activity exhibited by the GAD and healthy control groups was not different. Findings indicate that ADHD-related hyperactivity is uniquely related to WM demands, and appear to suggest that adults with GAD are no more active relative to healthy control adults during a cognitively demanding laboratory task.     

Going backstage: a psychoanalytically informed study with amateur musicians in adult mental health services

Many mental health service users engage in potentially therapeutic amateur music practice, though the role of this in the maintenance of mental health is largely unexplored. The application of psychoanalytic ideas to music-playing gives suggestions for how this activity could helpfully sublimate distress. For this study, six men who attend adult mental health services and play a musical instrument took part in three unstructured hour-long interviews. The material was analysed with a psychoanalytically informed method. Four inter-related themes emerged: ‘Left on the outside’; ‘Playing and linking’; ‘A beautiful gift to myself’; and ‘Frustrating play’. In the lives of these amateur musicians, music’s role as a transitional object and means of containing distress is explored. There is discussion of the narcissistic function of music and the dynamics around music as an exhibitionistic act. The value of paying attention to music in the life of a patient is considered.     

Younger and older adults’ prospective memory: the role of delay task difficulty

ABSTRACT

There is mixed evidence on the impact of delay task difficulty on prospective memory (PM) performance and little research has examined this among older adults. The present study examined younger (N = 60) and older (N = 57) adults’ prospective memory (PM) performance after completing an easy or difficult Raven’s matrices task. To assess whether delay difficulty impacted how often participants thought about their PM intention, participants were asked to report on what they thought about during the delay task itself and retrospectively after all tasks were completed. Younger adults outperformed older adults on the PM task; however, delay task difficulty had no impact PM for either age group. Reports of thinking about the intention during the delay task differed by age group depending whether they were online or retrospective, however, overall greater reports of thinking about the intention was positively associated with PM performance.     

Conscientiousness and fruit and vegetable consumption: exploring behavioural intention as a mediator

Clear associations have emerged between conscientiousness and health behaviours, such that higher levels of conscientiousness are predictive of beneficial health behaviours. This study investigated the conscientiousness-fruit and vegetable consumption relationship and whether behavioural intention mediated this relationship. A large sample of adults (N = 2136) completed an online battery of questionnaires measuring conscientiousness, behavioural intentions to consume fruit and vegetables, together with self-reported behaviour. Correlation analysis revealed that conscientiousness and each of its facets were positively associated with behavioural intention and self-reported behaviour. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that after controlling for age, gender and education, total conscientiousness, and the facets of responsibility, industriousness, order and virtue predicted self-reported behaviour. Further analysis revealed that in line with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, behavioural intention fully mediated the conscientiousness-fruit and vegetable behaviour relationship. In conclusion, low levels of conscientiousness were found to be associated with lower fruit and vegetable intentions, with the latter also associated with fruit and vegetable consumption.     

Nonshared environmental processes in social‐emotional development: an observational study of identical twin differences in the preschool period

Differences in mothers’ parenting behaviors toward their identical twin preschoolers were examined to identify nonshared environmental processes in social‐emotional development. The study included 62 pairs of 3½‐year‐old same‐sex identical twins. Indicators of each child’s social‐emotional development (temperament, prosocial behavior, behavior problems and noncompliance) and parenting environment (warmth and negativity, positive and negative control, responsiveness) were assessed using observers’, interviewers’, and parents’ ratings. Mothers treated their identical twins differently, and this differential treatment covaried in expected ways with identical twin differences in social‐emotional adjustment. The twin who received more supportive and less punitive forms of parenting was also higher in positive mood and prosocial behaviors and lower in negative mood and behavior problems when compared to her or his twin.     

Effects of increased processing load on parallel processing of visual displays

Display elements were sequentially painted upon a display scope in regular and irregular spatial-temporal orders. The primary result of Mayzner, Tresselt, and their associates is confirmed: within specified temporal-spatial limits, display elements may be perceptually blanked. Characteristics of perceptually blanked elements can, however, be revealed by forced-choice testing. The accuracy of tilt discrimination for perceptually blanked elements is equal to, or better than, that for nonblanked elements. Perceptually blanked elements can also be distinguished from absent and from partially absent elements, presumably on the basis of a crude brightness discrimination. Sequential blanking effects as revealed in the accuracy of slant detection, are not critically dependent upon the magnitude of uniform spacing between the display elements.     

Mouse aggression and the intruder-familiarity effect: evidence for multiple-factor determination c57bl

Male house mice attack their familiar cagemates less than novel intruders-an effect often attributed to habituation of aggression toward odors emanating from the cagemate. This interpretation is overly simplistic in that the effects of familiarizing preexposure depend additionally upon two factors. One factor is the aggression-inhibiting odors emanating from the test male that are deposited onto the cagemate by cohabitation. Supporting evidence is that attack inhibition to the cagemate failed to generalize to noncohabiting same-strain intruders and that eliminating physical contact between subject and cagemate during preexposure prevented the usual postexposure decline in aggression. The second factor is nonolfactory social stimuli emanating from the cagemate during aggressive encounters. The same intruder odors that elicited aggression when placed on a socially active mouse elicited only investigation when placed on models. When subjects were preexposed to an intruder's odor while prevented from socially interacting with the intruder, this investigation subsequently declined while aggression paradoxically increased.