Does Looking at the Positive Mean Feeling Good? Age and Individual Differences Matter

In this paper, we link age differences in gaze patterns toward emotional stimuli to later mood outcomes. While one might think that looking at more positive emotional material leads to better moods, and looking at more negative material leads to worse moods, it turns out that links between emotional looking and mood depend on age as well as individual differences. Though older people can feel good by looking more at positive material, in some cases young adults actually feel better by engaging visually with the negative. These age effects are further moderated by attentional abilities. Such findings suggest that different age groups may use looking differently, and this may reflect their preferences for using distinct emotion regulatory strategies. This work also serves as a reminder that regulatory efforts are not always successful at improving mood.     

Procedural memory and neurological disease

Abstract

Dissociations between different aspects of learning and memory in patients with amnesic syndromes and various neurodegenerative diseases has led to a fundamental revision of the taxonomy of human memory, and a greater understanding of its neurobiological basis. It has been suggested that, while lesions to temporal and diencephalic structures leave procedural learning intact, neurological disorders involving the striatum lead to deficits in this aspect of learning. However, as comparative evidence has accumulated on a variety of procedural tasks, it has become clear that different neurological diseases lead to varying patterns of impaired and intact performance. This has led to a revision of the concept of a unified procedural system in favour of parallel, independent systems, only some of which involve the striatum. There is a danger, however, that the effort to fit the patterns of functional association and dissociation into a neuroanatomical framework may be premature, It is suggested that the way forward lies in more comparative studies, but ones which (1) adopt a broader perspective, assessing other patient groups or single cases, (2) tackle the question of inter-subject variability, (3) adopt a more analytic approach to the assessment of individual performance, and which utilise theory-driven methods to assess the processes of learning at different stages, and (4) which employ complementary methods such as pharmacological manipulations in normal subjects to assess the neurochemical basis of procedural knowledge.     

Modification of verbal behavior in speech deficient children

Operant conditioning techniques were applied to the verbal behavior of three speech deficient children. Subjects A and B having no intelligible speech and Subject C having very little. Using candy and a puppet with a 13-yr-old boy (A), it was possible to condition vocalization rate. Using social reinforcement with a 6-yr-old boy (B), it was possible to extinguish animal-like sounds, to condition vocalization rate, and to shape a small vocabulary of syllables, but not to gain discriminative control over word emission. Using varied reinforcers, e.g., candy, praise, repetitions other own responses, and hand clapping with a 13-yr-old girl (C), it was possible to condition rate of verbalization, to establish appropriate mimicking, and to establish naming of five pictures. The results were consistent with the findings of Salzinger et al. (1965) and with those of Kerr et al. (1965).     

Hedonic capacity and schizotypy revisited: a taxometric analysis of social anhedonia

P. E. Meehl (1962) originally conjectured that hedonic capacity was an indicator of the latent class or taxon of schizotypy. However, P. E. Meehl (1989, 1990) subsequently diminished the role of hedonic capacity in his theory, indicating that hypohedonia is one of a dozen normal-range (nontaxonic) individual-differences factors that may potentiate the expression of schizophrenia. This dimensional-only view of hedonic capacity was tested by applying taxometric procedures to the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS; M. L. Eckblad, L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, & M. Mishlove, 1982) in a sample of college students (N = 1,526). Analyses indicated that the construct measured by the RSAS is taxonic in nature with a base rate approximating .10. These data are interpreted in the context of other findings suggesting that social anhedonia is an indicator of schizotypy.     

Partial remediation of speaker and listener behaviors in people with severe dementia

We investigated the effects of contingent reinforcement (Intervention 1) and contingent reinforcement with modeling (Intervention 2) on speaker and listener behaviors in 5 people with severe dementia. Intervention 1 generally increased listener behavior; there was no clear effect on tacting, but echoic behavior increased in the one case investigated. Given the weak baseline repertoires of these clients and the paucity of other effective interventions, even the small increases in verbal behaviors found here are important. Further gains may be achieved, for example, if reinforcement opportunity per trial type were to be increased from one to several per day or if participants were trained to echo the listener stimulus in mand compliance tasks.     

An integrated model of feedback-seeking behavior: disposition, context, and cognition

This study replicates, integrates, and extends prior research on the dispositional, contextual, and cognitive antecedents of feedback-seeking behavior. Regression analysis was used to analyze data collected from a sample of salespeople (N = 310) from 2 Fortune 500 companies. The study hypotheses were supported with the following results. First, the individual disposition of learning goal orientation and the contextual factors of leader consideration and leader initiation of structure influenced cognitions about the perceived cost and value of feedback seeking. Second, the strength of the relationship of learning goal orientation with the cost and value perceptions was moderated by the leadership style of the supervisor.     

Centrality preferences in choices among similar options

Three explanations were explored for the finding that people prefer the middle option rather than the extremes when choosing from an array of similar options. In Study 1, 68% chose the middle item from a set of three highlighters and three surveys, whereas 32% chose an item from either end, p < .0001. In Study 2, 71% selected the middle chair from a row of three chairs that were either all empty, or had a backpack occupying either one of the two end chairs, p < .0001. These results support a minimal mental effort principle rather than a preference for symmetry rule. In Study 3, 54.2% recalled more graphic items from the center poster of a 3-poster collage, whereas 31.3% and 14.5% recalled more items from the left and right posters, respectively, p < .004. These findings lend additional support to a focus of attention explanation.