Perceptual difficulty and the right ear advantage for vowels

The results of a series of four dichotic listening experiments confirm that under appropriate conditions vowels show a right ear advantage (REA) comparable to that of consonants. The conditions all cause perceptual difficulty, adversely affecting the accurate registration of both inputs in the auditory system. The addition of noise, shortening of the vowel stimuli, and the use of a more confusable set of vowels, each had the effect of increasing REA. Results are compatible with an explanation of ear advantage in terms of competition at the auditory rather than the phonetic level, in which short-term precategorical acoustic storage (PAS) may play a critical role.     

The effects of atropine and adrenergic antagonists on behavioral arousal in rats

Two experiments investigated the mechanism for changes in measures of behavioral arousal inhibition in rats following administration of atropine. In Experiment 1, 40-day-old rats were given administrations of atropine sulfate, the alpha-, beta-adrenergic blocker labetalol, or both. The drugs, either alone or in combination, increased transport response intensity, whereas both together increased dorsal immobility durations. In Experiment 2, rats were given atropine, the beta-adrenergic antagonist propranolol, the alpha-adrenergic antagonist phentolamine, or a combination of two of the drugs. Propranolol blocked atropine-induced increases in transport response, and phentolamine was without effect. Phentolamine, when combined with atropine, increased dorsal immobility durations. Results are discussed with respect to aspects common to both transport response and dorsal immobility.     

Reliability and validity of a new scale to measure prejudice: The GRISMS

The goal of the present research was to assess the reliability and validity of the fiftyitem Modified Godfrey-Richman ISM Scale (M-GRISMS). The sample consisted of seventy-one female and sixty male introductory psychology students. Test items included various ethnic groups (Racism subscale), religious groups (Religion subscale), and the Heterosexist and Sexist subscales. Each of these was parsed into various subcategories, e.g., the Racism subscale assessed attitudes toward African-Americans, Asian-Americans, European-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The final version of the M-GRISMS (the M-GRISMS-M) was found to be highly reliable and valid. Eight independent factors traversed two or more “isms.”     

Exclusion and Discrimination: Zimbabwean Migrant Children and South African Schools

Post-2005 migration movements from Zimbabwe to South Africa have included a growing number of children. These children face considerable difficulties in accessing the South African educational system. School attendance rates are significantly lower amongst migrant than South African children. This paper is based on recent interviews with Zimbabwean parents and guardians in Cape Town and Johannesburg and shows the levels and types of discrimination they and their children face as well as their powerlessness to effect change. The exclusion of migrant children from education contravenes South Africa’s international human rights obligations as well as its own Bill of Rights and Department of Education directives. The Department of Home Affairs, however, makes schools sites for the enforcement of the draconian provisions of the 2002 Immigration Act. School authorities therefore operate with conflicting mandates. The evidence suggests that most prefer to side with the Department of Home Affairs and make their schools unwelcoming spaces for Zimbabwean children.     

Do We Know Where We Stand? Neighborhood Relative Income,Subjective Social Status,and Health

Bridging research on relative income and subjective social status (SSS), this study examines how neighborhood relative income is related to ones' SSS, and in turn, physical and mental health. Using a survey sample of 1807 U.S. adults, we find that neighborhood median income significantly moderates the relationship between household income and self‐reported physical and mental health. Low‐income individuals living in high‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative disadvantage) report better physical and mental health than low‐income individuals living in low‐income neighborhoods. In addition, high‐income individuals living in low‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative advantage) report higher SSS (relative to neighbors), whereas low‐income individuals living in high‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative disadvantage) also report higher SSS. We draw from social comparison theory to interpret these results positing that downward comparisons may serve an evaluative function while upward comparisons may result in affiliation with better‐off others. Finally, we demonstrate that SSS explains the relationship between neighborhood relative income and health outcomes, providing empirical support for the underlying influence of perceived social position.     

Traumatic Incidents and Experiences of Racism and Sexism: Examining Associations with Components of Critical Consciousness for System‐Involved Girls of Color

Scholarship identifies critical consciousness as a key developmental asset in promoting the well‐being of adolescents experiencing multiple socio‐structural axes of oppression. Girls of color at acute risk for legal system involvement or re‐involvement are absent from this literature. They are a critical population in which to examine this construct given their experiences of oppression and the myriad benefits of critical consciousness. The current study addresses this gap by examining traumatic incidents and experiences of racism and sexism as correlates of critical reflection and action among a sample of girls (N = 220; Mean age = 14.5 years; SD = 1.3 years). Using path analysis and multigroup modeling, we examine direct associations between these three manifestations of structural oppression and critical consciousness and explore the interplay of traumatic incidents, and racism and sexism in girls’ critical consciousness development. Findings suggest that experiences of sexism and racism, uniquely and positively predict critical action, but not critical reflection. Surprisingly, girls’ experiences of traumatic incidents do not predict reflection or action. Finally, multigroup analyses show no evidence that these associations vary by the interplay of traumatic incidents, racism, and sexism. Implications for community psychology values and juvenile legal system practice and policy are discussed.     

African indigenous games: Using Bame Nsamenang’s Africentric thoughts to reflect on our heritage,pedagogy, and practice in a global village

As we go global and begin to make early childhood practices universal, certain aspects of communities remain fixed in deep realms of their everyday living and can only be accessed by those who believe in it. Believing in it requires having faith in a practice that will always be better than what others bring as “best practice”. This is because that aspect is what defines who you are and changing it amounts to removing a piece of you with the intention of replacing it with an “artificial part”. This may be the case with African indigenous games that have been played in various settings to define the Africanness of given communities. The values that these games bring to the Africans as they try to hold on to what belongs to them, is discussed in this paper. Bame Nsamenang used such thoughts to propel the Africentrism philosophy to direct thoughts into values that are African in nature, even when there are no clear boundaries of African in Africa. This article focuses on Nsamenang’s Africentric arguments in line with promotion of African indigenous games as a heritage, pedagogy, and a practice.     

I'm a Jesus girl: coping stories of Black American women diagnosed with breast cancer

Breast cancer continues to be the most diagnosed cancer for all women, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, in the United States. Incidence rates are 1 in 8 for an American woman being diagnosed. Moreover, statistics indicate that every 13 min an American woman dies from complications related to breast cancer. Despite all the gains made in the area of cancer research, Black American women continue to have a 67% higher mortality rate than their White counterparts. There is no preparation for a diagnosis of breast cancer. Upon hearing the words: you have breast cancer, a woman’s life is forever altered. The woman’s initial reactions of denial and/or anger yield to strategic responses. These responses may strengthen the woman’s resiliency both during and following treatments. Research indicates that Black Americans, specifically Black American women, exhibit greater religiosity/spirituality than do other racial/ethnic groups. In addition, the use of religiosity/spirituality by Black Americans increases during a crisis. This qualitative study examines how religiosity/spirituality was utilized as a coping mechanism by a group of Black American women following their diagnoses of breast cancer.     

The revelation effect for autobiographical memory: A mixture-model analysis

Participants provided information about their childhood by rating their confidence about whether they had experienced various events (e.g., “broke a window playing ball”). On some trials, participants unscrambled a key word from the event phrase (e.g., wdinwo—window) or an unrelated word (e.g., gnutge—nugget) before seeing the event and giving their confidence ratings. The act of unscrambling led participants to increase their confidence that the event occurred in their childhood, but only when the confidence rating immediately followed the act of unscrambling. This increase in confidence mirrors the “revelation effect” observed in word recognition experiments. In the present article, we analyzed our data using a new signal detection mixture distribution model that does not require the researcher to know the veracity of memory judgments a priori. Our analysis reveals that unscrambling a key word or an unrelated word affects response bias and discriminability in autobiographical memory tests in ways that are very similar to those that have been previously found for word recognition tasks.