Somatic responses in behavioral inhibition

In the present study, skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured postdecision and prefeedback in a go/no-go (GNG) task in which participants used response feedback to learn when to respond or not to respond to numeric stimuli. Like somatic markers in gambling tasks and somatic reactions to error monitoring in choice reaction time tasks, SCR patterns distinguished between correct and incorrect trials over time. These somatic reactions were disrupted by a reversal of GNG contingencies, and they were facilitated by pretraining of the stimulus—response mappings. In all cases, however, the somatic reactions appeared to be a product of competent decision making rather than a contributor to performance. Differential somatic responses to good and bad choices appear to be a robust and fairly general phenomenon, but researchers should be cautious in assuming that the somatic responses contribute to performance.     

Explicit and implicit stereotype activation effects on memory: do age and awareness moderate the impact of priming?

Two studies examined the effects of implicit and explicit priming of aging stereotypes. Implicit primes had a significant effect on older adults' memory, with positive primes associated with greater recall than negative primes. With explicit primes, older adults were able to counteract the impact of negative stereotypes when the cues were relatively subtle, but blatant stereotype primes suppressed performance regardless of prime type. No priming effects under either presentation condition were obtained for younger adults, indicating that the observed implicit effects are specific to those for whom the stereotype is self-relevant. Findings emphasize the importance of social-situational factors in determining older adults' memory performance and contribute to the delineation of situations under which stereotypes are most influential.     

Strategies for Suicide Intervention by Telephone

ABSTRACT: Within the authoritative role, the telephone counselor engages the caller in realistic talk of dying in an effort to reinstate control. Anxiety reduction is accomplished through problem clarification. Narrowing down open negative statements reduces diffuse anxiety, while reinterpreting events reduces energized anxiety. To provide hope, care can be proven as genuine implicitly by using the caller's name, filling conversation with emotive gestures, and extending “why” questions. Explicit proof can be in the form of active listening, tolerance of dispositions, and involvement such as suggesting milk, tissues, or calling on significant others. To further provide hope and to reinstate control, allowance is given for manipulation such as the caller setting the initial mood of conversation. A model is presented for pursuing alternatives and a technique of interrogative restating to broaden resources. Time-outs are posited for stymied intervention, detective work for discovering critical information, and guilt inducement as a means of recourse. To close the call, promises are extracted from and reinforcement statements are administered to the caller.