Early information processing among infants with and without spina bifida

This study focuses on the development of early visual information processing among infants with spina bifida (SB) compared to typically developing infants using the habituation–dishabituation paradigm. Analyses were conducted in two stages. First infants were evaluated to determine if 18-month old infants (SB = 47; Control = 40) differed in their ability to shift attention and habituate to two female faces, as well as their responses to composite and novel stimuli. Second, relations between these variables and infant motor and mental functioning were evaluated. The results of the study indicated that difficulties with visual attention skills can be detected as early as 18 months of age among infants with SB. Infants with SB differed significantly from controls on attention getting. Although there were no differences found on habituation and composite tasks, infants with SB differed significantly from controls on their ability to dishabituate. Implications are discussed.     

Socially Assigned Gender Nonconformity: A Brief Measure for Use in Surveillance and Investigation of Health Disparities

Discrimination and violence targeting people perceived as gender nonconforming have been linked to a range of negative health outcomes, and large-scale representative data are needed to begin population surveillance of associated health disparities. A brief self-report measure of gender expression as perceived by others was tested using cognitive interviewing methods in a diverse sample of 82 young adults aged 18–30 years, recruited from the New England region in the U.S. Results identified themes related to item clarity, gender expression variation, undesirability of highest or lowest ends of item range, and tension between self and others’ perceptions. The item performed as expected and is recommended for use on studies of health disparities, including statewide and national public health surveillance tools.     

Motor adaptation and manual transfer: Insight into the persistent nature of sensorimotor representations

It is well known that sensorimotor memories are built and updated through experience with objects. These representations are useful to anticipatory and feedforward control processes that preset grip and load forces during lifting. When individuals lift objects with qualities that are not congruent with their memory-derived expectations, feedback processes adjust motor plans to achieve successful lifts and contribute to the updating of the stored representations. The two experiments presented examine motor adaptation to an illusory size–weight lifting task, and the transfer of this motor adaptation to the unexposed hand. In Experiment 1, performers acquired motor adaptation with their right hand and transfer was measured on their left hand. In Experiment 2, adaptation was acquired with the left hand and transfer was measured on the right hand. In order to investigate the persistence of sensorimotor memories, these experiments measure adaptation, retention, and transfer after 15 min and 24 h delay periods. Both experiments confirm that experience with objects leads to adaptation of force scaling processes, that these adaptations transcend effector and are persistent. The results are discussed in terms favouring interpretations that describe motor adaptations to illusion as being centrally available.     

The Impact of Organizational Culture on Attraction and Recruitment of Job Applicants

Purpose  

This research examined how job pursuit and application decisions of male and female job applicants are impacted by beliefs about the organization’s culture.     

Is early word-form processing stress-full? How natural variability supports recognition

In a series of studies, we examined how mothers naturally stress words across multiple mentions in speech to their infants and how this marking influences infants’ recognition of words in fluent speech. We first collected samples of mothers’ infant-directed speech using a technique that induced multiple repetitions of target words. Acoustic analyses revealed that mothers systematically alternated between emphatic and nonemphatic stress when talking to their infants. Using the headturn preference procedure, we then tested 7.5-month-old infants on their ability to detect familiarized bisyllabic words in fluent speech. Stress of target words (emphatic and nonemphatic) was systematically varied across familiarization and recognition phases of four experiments. Results indicated that, although infants generally prefer listening to words produced with emphatic stress, recognition was enhanced when the degree of emphatic stress at familiarization matched the degree of emphatic stress at recognition.     

The Role of Social Cognition in the Religious Fundamentalism‐Prejudice Relationship

The study examines the indirect effects of religious fundamentalism on prejudice through cognitive style and fear of invalidity. Undergraduates (n= 199) completed measures of religious fundamentalism, homophobia, modern racism, hostile and benevolent sexism, need for cognition, need for structure, preference for consistency, and fear of invalidity. Need for cognition partially mediated the relationship between religious fundamentalism and both homophobia and benevolent sexism. Preference for consistency partially mediated the relationship between religious fundamentalism and hostile sexism. The indirect effect of religious fundamentalism on modern racism through preference for consistency approached statistical significance. The interaction between need for structure and fear of invalidity partially mediated the relationship between religious fundamentalism and both homophobia and hostile sexism, with individuals high in need for structure and low in fear of invalidity having higher religious fundamentalism and prejudice.     

Mere exposure has differential effects on attention allocation to threatening and neutral stimuli

The mere exposure (ME) effect is the phenomenon whereby familiar stimuli are rated more positively than their novel counterparts (e.g., Zajonc, 1968). Though the effect of mere familiarity on a variety of affective judgments is robust and well documented, relatively little research has examined the effects of ME on other non-affective outcomes. The current research addressed this issue by examining the effects of ME on selective attention to threatening and neutral stimuli. We predicted and found that threatening stimuli, which typically arouse negative affect and capture attention, were attended to less following ME; conversely, neutral stimuli, which typically do not arouse affect nor capture attention, were attended to more following ME. The implications of these findings for the literatures on mere exposure and attention are discussed as are speculations about mediators of these effects.     

Detecting racial identification: The role of phenotypic prototypicality

Little is known about what cues are used to infer the racial identification of others and whether or not identification inferences are accurate. Three studies provide evidence that phenotypic prototypicality (PP), the degree to which an individual looks like a prototypical member of his or her racial group, shapes inferences about racial identification. Participants assumed that high PP Blacks were more racially identified than low PP Blacks. In addition to serving as an identification cue for observers, PP was related to self-perceptions, as Blacks and Latinos who were higher in PP were in fact more identified with their racial group than minorities who were lower in PP. Furthermore, unacquainted judges accurately detected Black and Latino targets' racial identification based on PP. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for intergroup relationships.