Sad and happy emotion discrimination in music by children with cochlear implants

Children using cochlear implants (CIs) develop speech perception but have difficulty perceiving complex acoustic signals. Mode and tempo are the two components used to recognize emotion in music. Based on CI limitations, we hypothesized children using CIs would have impaired perception of mode cues relative to their normal hearing peers and would rely more heavily on tempo cues to distinguish happy from sad music. Study participants were children with 13 right CIs and 3 left CIs (M = 12.7, SD = 2.6 years) and 16 normal hearing peers. Participants judged 96 brief piano excerpts from the classical genre as happy or sad in a forced-choice task. Music was randomly presented with alterations of transposed mode, tempo, or both. When music was presented in original form, children using CIs discriminated between happy and sad music with accuracy well above chance levels (87.5%) but significantly below those with normal hearing (98%). The CI group primarily used tempo cues, whereas normal hearing children relied more on mode cues. Transposing both mode and tempo cues in the same musical excerpt obliterated cues to emotion for both groups. Children using CIs showed significantly slower response times across all conditions. Children using CIs use tempo cues to discriminate happy versus sad music reflecting a very different hearing strategy than their normal hearing peers. Slower reaction times by children using CIs indicate that they found the task more difficult and support the possibility that they require different strategies to process emotion in music than normal.     

Effective regulation of affect: An action control perspective on emotion regulation

The present review adopts an action control perspective on emotion regulation, contextualising the gap between emotion control goals (e.g., I want to remain calm) and emotional outcomes (e.g., anger, anxiety, and aggression) in terms of the broader literature on goal pursuit. We propose that failure to effectively regulate emotions can result from difficulties with the self-regulatory tasks of (i) identifying the need to regulate, (ii) deciding whether and how to regulate, and (iii) enacting a regulation strategy. Next we review evidence that a technique traditionally associated with regulating behavioural goals (forming implementation intentions or “if-then” planning) can help to overcome these difficulties. Meta-analysis indicated that forming implementation intentions is effective in modifying emotional outcomes, with a large effect relative to no regulation instructions (k = 21, N = 1306 d ₊ = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.61 to 1.20) and a medium-sized effect relative to goal intention instructions (k = 29, N = 1208, d ₊ = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.42 to 0.65). Our conclusion is that research on emotion regulation might benefit from an action control perspective and the interventions that this perspective offers.     

False memories and fantastic beliefs: 15 years of the DRM illusion

This article reviews research using the Deese/Roediger—McDermott (DRM) associative memory illusion, whereby people falsely remember words that were not presented. This illusion has broadly influenced basic theories of memory in cognitive psychology and neuroscience and naturally raises the question as to how these theories apply to more complex autobiographical memories. Some applicability is evident from research linking individual differences in the DRM illusion to false autobiographical memories (e.g., misremembering public events) and fantastic autobiographical beliefs (e.g., memories from past lives). But which aspects generalize? Here it is argued that a process—oriented approach is needed in order to answer this question. Many productive years of DRM research indicate that multiple and often opposing psychological processes cause even the most basic false memories. In light of these discoveries, more researchers need to use methods that isolate these component processes if the goal is to understand false memories both in the lab and in life.     

Remembering words not presented in lists: Can we avoid creating false memories?

Can subjects avoid creating false memories as outlined in Roediger and McDermott’s (1995) false recognition paradigm if they are forewarned about this memory illusion? We presented subjects with semantically related word lists, followed by a recognition test. The test was composed of studied words, semantically related nonstudied words (critical lures), and unrelated nonstudied words. One group of subjects was uninformed about the false recognition effect, a second group was urged to minimize all false alarms, and a third group was forewarned about falsely recognizing critical lures. Compared with the uninformed and cautious subjects, the forewarned subjects reduced their false alarm rate for critical lures, and they made remember and know judgments equally often for recognized studied words and critical lures. But forewarning did not eliminate the false recognition effect, as these subjects and those in the other groups made numerous false recognitions in this task.     

阅读预期对快速阅读理解的影响的实验研究

探讨阅读预期对快速阅读的理解水平与进程的影响。实验１探讨阅读预期对快速阅读理解水平的影响。阅读文章前分别给予被试正确、中性与误导的标题提示,结果表明,不同类型的标题提示对快速阅读的理解成绩有显著的影响,而对正常速度阅读的理解成绩影响效果不显著。实验２探讨阅读预期对快速阅读过程的词句加工程度的影响。结果表明,对优生来说,正确标题提示组发现文章中锗字的成绩显著低于误导标题提示组,差生的不同标题提示组发现错字的成绩差异不显著。两个实验的结果初步表明,快速阅读文章过程会更多地利用概念推动,较少地需要材料信息。     

Modifying the behavior of leaders: A state-wide attempt

Project Breakthrough is a two-year, two-phase cooperative effort to retrain leadership personnel in special education and pupil personnel services by utilizing the resources of universities, P.L. 85–926, as amended, Title VI-A, ESEA, local education agencies, and the state education agency. Two hundred selected teacher consultants, school psychologists, and supervisors and directors of special education and pupil personnel were trained in the effective utilization and application of reinforcement theory and directive and/or diagnostic teaching techniques with handicapped children. A state plan for utilizing limited sources to effect state-wide behavioral changes is outlined, along with management and implementation strategies.     

Differential effects of subdiaphragmatic vagotomy on NaCl-induced aversion learning

The vagus nerve has been proposed in numerous studies as one of the peripheral mechanisms involved in drug-induced taste aversion learning, although available data have been controversial. The differential results obtained in the present series of experiments with vagotomy and NaCl-induced short-term and long-term aversion learning suggest that the vagal system plays a decisive role in tasks requiring the rapid detection of an aversive substance in the gastrointestinal tract (short-term tasks). In contrast, this mechanism appears to be unnecessary in long-term tasks, where learning may be mediated by alternative slower-acting peripheral mechanisms such as the humoral system.     

Reexamining the familial association between asthma and ADHD in girls

The objective of this study is to further evaluate the association between asthma and ADHD, addressing issues of familiality in female probands. A case control study of referred ADHD proband girls, controls, and relatives are used. Participants include 140 ADHD proband girls and 122 non-ADHD comparisons, with 417 and 369 first-degree biological relatives, respectively. Relatives are stratified into four groups according to proband ADHD and asthma status. The authors compare rates of asthma and ADHD in relatives. ADHD does not increase the risk for asthma in probands. Patterns of familial aggregation are mostly consistent with independent transmission of ADHD and asthma in families of girl probands. The results extend to female probands' previously reported findings that asthma and ADHD are independently transmitted in families. These findings further support the conclusion that ADHD symptoms should not be dismissed as part of asthma symptomatology or a consequence of its treatment.