Dialogical Masculinities: Diverse Youth Resisting Dominant Masculinity

The meaning of the construct “masculinity” differs culturally and changes over time. Although cultural constructions of the phenomenon change, at any given time hegemonic pressures promote participants’ compliance to masculinity norms. This hegemonic process often results in the underlying assumptions that masculinity is an essentialized unitary phenomenon and that conforming to cultural requisites is adaptive and healthy. In the field of psychology, past research investigating resistance to this hegemony and diverse constructions of masculinities categorized resistance as pathological and problematic. More recently, researchers have turned their attention to ways in which conforming to dominant hegemonic masculinity norms can be problematic and maladaptive, allowing for an understanding of the adaptive qualities that come with resisting and negotiating with hegemony. Specifically, there has been an interest in understanding diverse discourse constructions as sources of resistance to hegemonic masculinity. This project was focused on understanding the ways in which hegemonic-resistant masculinities were constructed with a group of young men who work on a youth team to prevent domestic violence. Using the constructivist framework of the dialogical self, we gleaned four distinct I-positions of masculinity that help to support a fluid and diverse process of negotiating a hegemonic-resistant and adaptive form of masculinity.     

English semantic word-pair norms and a searchable Web portal for experimental stimulus creation

As researchers explore the complexity of memory and language hierarchies, the need to expand normed stimulus databases is growing. Therefore, we present 1,808 words, paired with their features and concept–concept information, that were collected using previously established norming methods (McRae, Cree, Seidenberg, & McNorgan Behavior Research Methods 37:547–559, 2005). This database supplements existing stimuli and complements the Semantic Priming Project (Hutchison, Balota, Cortese, Neely, Niemeyer, Bengson, & Cohen-Shikora 2010). The data set includes many types of words (including nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), expanding on previous collections of nouns and verbs (Vinson & Vigliocco Journal of Neurolinguistics 15:317–351, 2008). We describe the relation between our and other semantic norms, as well as giving a short review of word-pair norms. The stimuli are provided in conjunction with a searchable Web portal that allows researchers to create a set of experimental stimuli without prior programming knowledge. When researchers use this new database in tandem with previous norming efforts, precise stimuli sets can be created for future research endeavors.     

Distinct Visual Cues Mediate Aperture Shaping for Grasping and Pantomime-Grasping Tasks

The authors examined whether the top-down requirements of dissociating the spatial relations between stimulus and response in a goal-directed grasping task renders the mediation of aperture trajectories via relative visual information. To address that issue, participants grasped differently sized target objects (i.e., grasping condition) and also grasped to a location that was dissociated from the target object (i.e., pantomime-grasping condition). Just noticeable difference (JND) values associated with the early through late stages of aperture shaping were computed to examine the extent to which motor output adhered to, or violated, the psychophysical principles of Weber's law. As expected, JNDs during the late stages of the grasping condition violated Weber's law: a result evincing the use of absolute visual information. In contrast, JNDs for the pantomime-grasping condition produced a continuous adherence to Weber's law. Such a result indicates that dissociating a stimulus from a response is a perception-based task and results in aperture shaping via relative visual information.     

Pro- and Antisaccades: Dissociating Stimulus and Response Influences the Online Control of Saccade Trajectories

The authors examined whether the diminished online control of antisaccades is related to a trade-off between movement planning and control or the remapping of target properties to a mirror-symmetrical location (i.e., vector inversion). Pro- and antisaccades were examined in a standard no-delay schedule wherein target onset served as the movement imperative and a delay cuing schedule wherein responses were initiated 2,000 ms following target onset. Importantly, the delay cuing schedule was employed to equate pro- and antisaccade reaction times. Online control was evaluated by indexing the strength of trajectory amendments at normalized increments of movement time. Antisaccades exhibited fewer online corrections than prosaccades, and this result was consistent across cuing schedules. Thus, the diminished online control of antisaccades cannot be tied to a trade-off between movement planning and control. Rather, the authors propose that the intentional nature of dissociating stimulus and response (i.e., vector inversion) engenders a slow mode of cognitive control that is not optimized for fast oculomotor corrections.     

Does working memory training lead to generalized improvements in children with low working memory? A randomized controlled trial

Children with low working memory typically make poor educational progress, and it has been speculated that difficulties in meeting the heavy working memory demands of the classroom may be a contributory factor. Intensive working memory training has been shown to boost performance on untrained memory tasks in a variety of populations. This first randomized controlled trial with low working memory children investigated whether the benefits of training extend beyond standard working memory tasks to other more complex activities typical of the classroom in which working memory plays a role, as well as to other cognitive skills and developing academic abilities. Children aged 7–9 years received either adaptive working memory training, non‐adaptive working memory training with low memory loads, or no training. Adaptive training was associated with selective improvements in multiple untrained tests of working memory, with no evidence of changes in classroom analogues of activities that tax working memory, or any other cognitive assessments. Gains in verbal working memory were sustained one year after training. Thus the benefits of working memory training delivered in this way may not extend beyond structured working memory tasks.     

Occurrence of imagery and its link with early memories in agoraphobia

Recent cognitive models suggest that mental imagery can help us understand the maintenance of anxiety disorders (e.g., de Silva, 1986; Hackmann, Surawy, & Clark, 1998). However, imagery is relatively unexplored within agoraphobia. Such images are also thought to be useful in uncovering memories that occurred around the onset of a disorder (Hackmann, Clark, & McManus, 2000). A total of 20 patients with agoraphobia and 20 matched controls took part in this investigation. Participants described any recurrent images they experienced in agoraphobic situations, and also any associated memories. All patients with agoraphobia (but no control participants) reported having distinct recurrent images in “agoraphobic situations”. Most images involved several sensory modalities and in the majority of cases appeared to be linked with unpleasant memories of events experienced many years previously. While these exploratory findings require replication, potential treatment implications are discussed.     

Intrusive images and intrusive thoughts as different phenomena: Two experimental studies

According to the dual representation theory of PTSD, intrusive trauma images and intrusive verbal thoughts are produced by separate memory systems. In a previous article it was shown that after watching an aversive film, participants in non-movement conditions reported more intrusive images than participants in a free-to-move control condition (Hagenaars, Van Minnen, Holmes, Brewin, & Hoogduin, 2008). The present study investigates whether the experimental conditions of the Hagenaars et al. study had a different effect on intrusive thoughts than on intrusive images. Experiment 2 further investigated the image–thoughts distinction by manipulating stimulus valence (trauma film versus neutral film) and assessing the subsequent development of intrusive images and thoughts. In addition, both experiments studied the impact of peri-traumatic emotions on subsequent intrusive images and thoughts frequency across conditions. Results showed that experimental manipulations (non-movement and trauma film) caused higher levels of intrusive images relative to control conditions (free movement and neutral film) but they did not affect intrusive thoughts. Peri-traumatic anxiety and horror were associated with subsequent higher levels of intrusive images, but not intrusive thoughts. Correlations were inconclusive for anger and sadness. The results suggest intrusive images and thoughts can be manipulated independently and as such can be considered different phenomena.     

Interpretive habit is strengthened by cognitive bias modification

We investigated the nature of the memory mechanisms underlying cognitive bias modification by applying Jacoby's (1991) process-dissociation procedure to responses during the transfer task. In the two training conditions (negative and benign), students imagined themselves in 100 ambiguous scenarios, most with potentially negative resolutions; the ambiguity was resolved in a consistently negative or benign direction by completing the fragment of a final word. Control participants completed non-ambiguous, non-emotional scenarios. Next all participants responded on a final training block, where half of the scenarios were completed negatively and half benignly. Transfer was assessed by examining choices in the completion of test scenarios when participants were instructed to respond in the same way as they had to a final-block training scenario that was situationally similar. Benign training facilitated correct responding to benign analogues and impaired correct responding to negative analogues. Performance in the negative-training and control conditions was similar. Process-dissociation procedures revealed that this newly established habit and not controlled recollection provided the basis for transfer.