Putting yourself in the skin of a black avatar reduces implicit racial bias

Although it has been shown that immersive virtual reality (IVR) can be used to induce illusions of ownership over a virtual body (VB), information on whether this changes implicit interpersonal attitudes is meager. Here we demonstrate that embodiment of light-skinned participants in a dark-skinned VB significantly reduced implicit racial bias against dark-skinned people, in contrast to embodiment in light-skinned, purple-skinned or with no VB. 60 females participated in this between-groups experiment, with a VB substituting their own, with full-body visuomotor synchrony, reflected also in a virtual mirror. A racial Implicit Association Test (IAT) was administered at least three days prior to the experiment, and immediately after the IVR exposure. The change from pre- to post-experience IAT scores suggests that the dark-skinned embodied condition decreased implicit racial bias more than the other conditions. Thus, embodiment may change negative interpersonal attitudes and thus represent a powerful tool for exploring such fundamental psychological and societal phenomena.     

Children's discrimination of fantastic vs. realistic visual displays after watching a film with magical content

Six- and nine-yr.-old children (n=28 of each) were divided into equal experimental and control groups. The experimental groups were shown a film with a magical theme, and the control groups were shown a film with a nonmagical theme. All groups then were presented with a choice task requiring them to discriminate between ordinary and fantastic visual displays on a computer screen. Statistical analyses indicated that mean scores for correctly identifying the ordinary and fantastic displays were significantly different between experimental and control groups. The children in the experimental groups who watched the magical film had significantly higher scores on correct identifications than children in the control groups who watched the nonmagical film for both age groups. The results suggest that watching films with a magical theme might enhance children's sensitivity toward the fantasy/reality distinction.     

Therapists’ Responses to Religious/Spiritual Discussions with Trauma Versus Non-trauma Clients

This research explores therapists’ reactions to discussions of religion and spirituality in secular psychotherapy. We used a mixed method design including qualitative and quantitative components to examine data from 14 mental health professionals. Therapists acknowledged the importance of, and outlined reasons for, engaging in religious/spiritual discussions. They provided examples of the diverse ways in which their own views on religion/spirituality have an effect on their therapeutic work. Therapists view attention to religion/spirituality in trauma therapy as necessary. They see an emphasis on religion/spirituality within the treatment of traumatized clients as possessing distinctive qualities in comparison to their treatment of other populations.     

Systematic Review of Self-Report Measures of General Mental Health and Wellbeing in Adolescent Mental Health

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review - The assessment of general mental health and wellbeing is important within child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) for both clinicians and...     

Stability in cognition across early childhood. A developmental cascade

Children confront the formidable task of assimilating information in the environment and accommodating their cognitive structures to that information. Developmental science is concerned equally with two distinctive features of these processes: children's group mean level of performance through time and the standing of individual children through time. Prevailing opinion since the inception of the mental-measurement movement has been that individual development is unstable-that individual children change unpredictably in their abilities. We report results of a large-scale controlled, multivariate, prospective, microgenetic, 4-year longitudinal study that reveals a statistically significant cascade of species-typical cognitive abilities from infancy to childhood. Infancy is a recognizable starting point of life; we find that to a small but significant degree, infancy also represents a setting point in the life of the individual.     

Sales Force Activities and Marketing Strategies in Industrial Firms: Relationships and Implications

This study explores the role of the sales force in formulating and executing marketing strategies. Specifically, the relationships between sales force activities such as providing information about customer needs, hiring and training salespeople, and assessing new market segments and four marketing strategies (market penetration, product development, market development, diversification) are examined. Results indicate that the use of sales force activities is related to a firm's strategic choices, and that the relationships vary by firm size and type of offering.     

Novice motor performance: Better not to verbalize

Offline verbalization about a new motor experience is often assumed to positively influence subsequent performance. Here, we evaluated this presumed positive influence and whether it originates from declarative or from procedural knowledge using the explicit/implicit motor-learning paradigm. To this end, 80 nongolfers learned to perform a golf-putting task with high error rates (i.e., explicit motor learning), and thus relied on declarative knowledge, or low error rates (i.e., implicit motor learning), and thus relied on procedural knowledge. Afterward, they either put their memories of the previous motor experience into words or completed an irrelevant verbal task. Finally, they performed the putting task again. Verbalization did not improve novice motor performance: Putting was impaired, overall, and especially so for high-error learners. We conclude that declarative knowledge is altered by verbalization, whereas procedural knowledge is not.