Nomadic inhibition of attention and motor responses

Klein and MacInnes [Klein, R. M., & MacInnes, W. J. (1999). Inhibition of return is a foraging facilitator in visual search. Psychological Science, 10, 346-352] posited that the function of a phenomenon known as the inhibition of return (IOR) [Posner, M. I., & Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma, & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and performance X: Control of language processes (pp. 531-554). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum] is to facilitate the foraging of food and objects in the environment. Once a target object has been identified either the location of that target in space or a movement to that target is inhibited in order to allow the performer to shift his/her attention to something new. Interestingly, in the majority of IOR studies, participants begin their search from a central home position. This research examined IOR in a nomadic target-target paradigm in which the home position randomly appeared at one of three target locations and attentional shifts/movements progressed to other locations. In Experiment 1, participants executed simple manual button presses in response to the sequential presentation of a home position and then two target stimuli. In Experiment 2, participants made manual-aiming movements in response to the same type of presentation. Results obtained from both experiments implicate perceptual-motor mechanisms over and above the inhibition of a specific target location or response. Inhibitory effects appear to be associated with both perceptual and motor processes, and depend not only on the temporal and spatial relations between potential targets, but also on the actions required to detect or engage the targets.     

Remembering by the seat of your pants

According to dual-process theories of memory, "old" responses in recognition may reflect the separate or combined effects of two states, specific recollection and feelings of nonspecific familiarity. When decisions are based on familiarity, people may attribute enhanced perceptual fluency to memory for prior occurrence. In this experiment, we tested whether a subliminal somatic cue (a low-amplitude buzz) could enhance feelings of familiarity. The buzz increased the likelihood that participants responded "old," both correctly and incorrectly. This effect occurred only with subjectively difficult stimuli, those relatively unlikely to elicit clear recollection. When a stronger control buzz was used, the effect vanished. Results for confidence ratings were consistent with Whittlesea's SCAPE theory, producing a dissociation between hits and false alarms. Specifically, the buzz reduced confidence in hits and increased confidence in false alarms, in accord with the most likely attributions for the feelings of familiarity associated with the buzz.     

Parent-Child Relations,Need-Nurturance,and Vocational Orientation

This is a study of the relevance of nurturant parent-child relations and need-nurturance to one's vocational orientation. One hundred seventy-nine high school juniors responded to questionnaires concerning their parent-child relations, need-nurturance, and vocational choice. Students were classified as vocationally oriented toward either persons or non-persons. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the two vocational orientations in need-nurturance but not in parent-child relations. Sex differences were found in both need-nurturance and parent-child relations. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

A Critical Test of the Waist-to-Hip-Ratio Hypothesis of Female Physical Attractiveness

Recent research has led to increasingly sophisticated conjectures as to the roles that genetic heritage, prior experience, and environmental context play in the production and maintenance of complex behaviors. The field of evolutionary psychology was born of such conjectures (Stanley, 1895) and now serves as a niche for a growing number of researchers (Buss, 1995; Kenrick, 1994). One of the more provocative lines of experimental research to emerge from this alembic derives from the linkage of evolutionary theories of human mate selection with definitions of physical attractiveness based on somatic characteristics that simultaneously signal attractiveness and predict reproductive potential (Buss, 1989). The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) has been purportedly demonstrated to be a robust example of just such an invariant perceptual cue (e.g., Henss, 1995; Singh, 1993a). Here, we report that judgments of attractiveness and fecundity can be either unrelated or related, positively or negatively, to the WHR depending on waist size, hip size, and weight, and are thus inconsistent with the evolutionary argument that human physical attractiveness is fundamentally a sign of mate value.     

Finding one's way home: Notes on the texture of moral experience

In this article, I seek to illuminate the texture of moral experience. I pursue that aim through a close reading of David Lean's film, Brief Encounter, produced in 1946. The chief protagonist in the film undergoes a moral odyssey that reveals and tests all that she has understood about how to conduct a life. Her experience sheds light on the constituents of an individual moral sensibility as well as how its enactment appears in practice when one confronts a heartfelt difficulty. I argue that moral experience is best understood through the idiom of narrative and character, rather than through ethical language that places formal or universal principle at the center of the moral life. In the workshop of the moral self, as Lean's protagonist reveals, the task is not to fashion or take on universal principles but rather to cultivate virtuous relations with other people in the here-and-now.     

Adherence-health status relationships in childhood diabetes

Used 24-hr recall interviews to assess adherence in a sample of seventy-eight 6- to 19-year-olds with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus over a 3-month period. Thirteen adherence measures were quantified and grouped into six adherence factors (Injection, Exercise, Diet Type, Testing/Eating Frequency, Calories Consumed, and Concentrated Sweets). Prevailing glucose levels over a 2- to 3-month interval were indexed by glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HA1c) and glycosylated serum protein (GSP) assays. Fasting triglycerides (TRIG) and total cholesterol (CHOL) assays were used to estimate lipid metabolism. Adolescents were generally less adherent than their young counterparts. Using hierarchical multiple-regression techniques, HA1c and GSP were not reliably predicted by most of the adherence factors; only Calories Consumed showed any predictive power. No significant regression equations emerged for CHOL. In contrast, TRIG was significantly associated with five of the six adherence factors; in all cases, adherence interacted with the patients' metabolic status (as defined by HA1c) at study entry, suggesting that adherence had different effects for youngsters in good versus poor diabetes control.     

Attitudes of adolescents toward division of labor in the home

A statewide study of adolescents' attitudes toward division of labor in the home was conducted to determine if adolescents are becoming more egalitarian in their approach to sex roles. This investigation attempted to examine adolescents' attitudes toward household tasks based on gender and maternal employment. A survey-research design was employed to collect data on 893 students in grades 7 to 12 as part of a larger study to develop a profile of today's adolescents. In general, the findings indicated that adolescents' attitudes were still somewhat traditional. Although some variations in sex-role performance of tasks were evident between males and females and students with employed and unemployed mothers, these differences were not significant.     

Reliability of the Chronic Mild Stress paradigm: Implications for research and animal welfare

The Chronic Mild Stress (CMS) model for depression has become central to the empirical literature on depression. There are however inconsistencies in the literature concerning the robustness of the phenomenon of anhedonia following CMS procedures. We report that not only did our procedures (modeled on the original reports) fail to induce an anhedonia, but in fact led to increased sucrose consumption. Furthermore, corticosterone levels following CMS procedures were lower than following control procedures. Given that this is not the first report of such findings, it is important to evaluate whether and which aspects of the experimental methodology are necessary or sufficient to induce the state of anhedonia.     

Understanding consumer purchase of free‐of cosmetics: A value‐driven TRA approach

This study concerns the free‐of trend on the cosmetics market as expressed by a tendency among consumers to prefer cosmetics that are free of certain ingredients. Combining the Theory of Reasoned Action with a value‐driven approach, this study empirically investigates the association between consumers' personal values and their attitude and behaviour associated with purchasing free‐of cosmetics. A quantitative online survey of 250 Danish female consumers was conducted using self‐administering questionnaires. The findings indicate that consumers' willingness to purchase free‐of cosmetics (R² = .48) is both influenced by attitude (β = .65) and perceived subjective norm (β = .21) with attitude having the largest predictive power. Moreover, consumers' attitude towards willingness to purchase free‐of cosmetics seems to be value driven. Our results indicate that two values, self‐transcendence (β = .28) and self‐enhancement (β = ?.21), significantly influence attitude towards free‐of cosmetics purchase (R² = .10). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.