The effects of tempo and familiarity on children's affective interpretation of music

When and how does one learn to associate emotion with music? This study attempted to address this issue by examining whether preschool children use tempo as a cue in determining whether a song is happy or sad. Instrumental versions of children's songs were played at different tempos to adults and children ages 3 to 5 years. Familiar and unfamiliar songs were used to examine whether familiarity affected children's identification of emotion in music. The results indicated that adults, 4 year olds and 5 year olds rated fast songs as significantly happier than slow songs. However, 3 year olds failed to rate fast songs differently than slow songs at above-chance levels. Familiarity did not significantly affect children's identification of happiness and sadness in music.     

New variations of intrahemispheric and interhemispheric processing indexed by the dimond paradigm

We report 2 experiments designed to demonstrate that unilateral tachistoscopic stimulation would yield a response time (RT) advantage over bilateral stimulation in a simple experiment, whereas the opposite pattern would occur in a complex version of the same task, as predicted by the intrahemispheric resource limitation model of Banich and colleagues. Experiment 1 was a go/no-go task in which participants had to press a key when two shapes (circles or squares) were identical on the computer screen. A unilateral field advantage was obtained that was accentuated in several task conditions that yielded overall longer RTs, mostly in the bilateral condition. Experiment 2 was similar but required a more complex judgment: The go trials were to 2 stimuli identical on 1 dimension (shape or color) but not both or neither. The RTs were significantly and substantially longer than in Experiment 1 and exhibited a nonsignificant bilateral field advantage, which differed significantly from the unilateral field advantage obtained in Experiment 1. These results support the intrahemispheric resource limitation model of Banich and colleagues. However, several within-experiment effects are in direct opposition to this model and are best explained as limitations of commissural relay of perceptual information.     

Fairness Reactions to Personnel Selection Methods: A look at professionals in Mumbai,India

This study expands upon Steiner and Gilliland's selection fairness research. Professionals (N = 114) from Mumbai, India rated 12 employee selection methods on favorability and provided the bases for those ratings. In line with previous research, interviews and resumes were rated most favorably, while graphology and honesty tests were rated least favorably. Perceived face validity, opportunity to perform, and widespread use of selection methods were highly correlated with favorability ratings, while interpersonal warmth, scientific evidence, and respectful of privacy exhibited weak correlations with favorability ratings. Work sample tests, which have previously been rated favorably, were rated unfavorably. Exploratory analysis showed that participants viewed assessment centers favorably and online information unfavorably. Outcome favorability was highly correlated with favorability ratings.     

Low Rates of African American Participation in Genetic Counseling and Testing for BRCA1/2 Mutations: Racial Disparities or Just a Difference?

Low rates of genetic counseling among African American women have generated concerns about disparities; however, to the extent that women's decisions to accept or decline counseling are consistent with their values, then lower participation may reflect preferences and not disparities. We evaluated the extent to which women were satisfied with their decision about participating in genetic counseling for BRCA1/2 mutations and identified variables that were associated significantly with satisfaction. Prospective study of decision satisfaction with 135 African American women who had a minimum 5% prior probability of having a BRCA1/2 mutation. Decision satisfaction was evaluated one month after women were offered participation in genetic counseling using a structured questionnaire. Women were satisfied with their participation decision; more than 80% reported that their decision was consistent with their family values. However, women who declined pre-test counseling had significantly lower satisfaction scores. Our findings highlight the importance ensuring that racial differences that are due to preferences and values are not misclassified as disparities in order to identify and address the root causes of disparate treatment.     

Cognitive vulnerability to depression during middle childhood: Stability and associations with maternal affective styles and parental depression

Theories of cognitive vulnerability to depression (CVD) imply that CVD is early-emerging and trait-like; however, little longitudinal work has tested this premise in middle childhood, or examined theoretically relevant predictors of child CVD. We examined test–retest correlations of self-referent encoding task performance and self-reported attributional styles and their associations with parental characteristics in 205 seven-year-olds. At baseline, child CVD was assessed, structured clinical interviews were conducted with parents, and ratings of observed maternal affective styles were made. Children’s CVD was re-assessed approximately one and two years later. Both measures of children’s CVD were prospectively and concurrently associated with children’s depressive symptoms and showed modest stability. Multilevel modeling indicated that maternal criticism and paternal depression were related to children’s CVD. Findings indicate that even early-emerging CVD is a valid marker of children’s depression risk.     

The interplay between executive control and motor functioning in Williams syndrome

Previous studies suggest that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetically based neurodevelopmental disorder, show specific weaknesses in visual attention and response inhibition within the visuospatial domain. Here we examine the extent to which impairments in attentional control extend to the visuomotor domain using a well‐validated measure of choice stepping reaction time (CSRT) in individuals with WS. We examined the interaction between executive control and visually guided stepping using a verbal fluency dual‐task or Go/NoGo paradigm during CSRT performance. Relationships between dual‐task and inhibitory stepping and behavioural inattention and hyperactivity were also examined. Our results showed clear dual‐task costs in stepping response times when performing a concurrent cognitive task in the WS group when compared to spatial and verbal ability matched typically developing controls. Although no group differences in stepping accuracy were observed between the WS and typically developing control groups, the WS group showed progressive slowing and more variable response times across the duration of the Go/NoGo task. These results suggest dysfunction in circuits involved in top‐down attentional control processes in WS. These findings provide novel evidence that core executive control deficits in WS extend to the visuomotor domain, and impact on ADHD‐related inattentive symptoms.     

Homotopy and heterotopy and the bilateral field advantage in the Dimond paradigm

Pairs of homotopic and heterotopic visual bilateral stimuli and pairs of unilateral visual stimuli were presented to 12 normal right-handed university students requiring a key press if they were of the same form. As predicted from the known histology of the corpus callosum (massive preponderance of homotopic fibers), homotopic presentations yielded significantly faster reaction times than heterotopic stimulations. Bilateral pairs of stimuli were also advantaged in comparison with unilateral trials, replicating Sereno and Kosslyn [Sereno, A. B., & Kosslyn, S. M. (1991). Discrimination within and between hemifields: a new constraint on theories of attention. Neuropsychologia, 29, 659-675]. Moreover, certain attentional processes have never been investigated in the Dimond paradigm and this study provides evidence to the effect that discriminative reaction times to stimulus pairs are strongly influenced by their proximity to the fixation point. In similar previous experiments, the homotopy/heterotopy observation and the bilateral field advantage may have been distorted by that particular confound, as well as several others.     

Virtual reality exposure therapy: 150-degree screen to desktop PC.

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) developed using immersive or semi-immersive virtual environments present a usability problem for practitioners. To meet practitioner requirements for lower cost and portability VRET programs must often be ported onto desktop environments such as the personal computer (PC). However, success of VRET has been shown to be linked to presence, and the environment's ability to evoke the same reactions and emotions as a real experience. It is generally accepted that high-end virtual environments (VEs) are more immersive than desktop PCs, but level of immersion does not always predict level of presence. This paper reports on the impact on presence of porting a therapeutic VR application for schizophrenia from the initial research environment of a semi-immersive curved screen to PC. Presence in these two environments is measured both introspectively and across a number of causal factors thought to underlie the experience of presence. Results show that the VR exposure program successfully made users feel they were "present" in both platforms. While the desktop PC achieved higher scores on presence across causal factors participants reported they felt more present in the curved screen environment. While comparison of the two groups was statistically significant for the PQ but not for the IPQ, subjective reports of experiences in the environments should be considered in future research as the success of VRET relies heavily on the emotional response of patients to the therapeutic program.     

Is infant-directed speech prosody a result of the vocal expression of emotion?

Many studies have found that infant-directed (ID) speech has higher pitch, has more exaggerated pitch contours, has a larger pitch range, has a slower tempo, and is more rhythmic than typical adult-directed (AD) speech. We show that the ID speech style reflects free vocal expression of emotion to infants, in comparison with more inhibited expression of emotion in typical AD speech. When AD speech does express emotion, the same acoustic features are used as in ID speech. We recorded ID and AD samples of speech expressing love-comfort, fear, and surprise. The emotions were equally discriminable in the ID and AD samples. Acoustic analyses showed few differences between the ID and AD samples, but robust differences across the emotions. We conclude that ID prosody itself is not special. What is special is the widespread expression of emotion to infants in comparison with the more inhibited expression of emotion in typical adult interactions.     

Nevertheless,she persisted (in science research): Enhancing women students’ science research motivation and belonging through communal goals

Social Psychology of Education - There is no doubt that connections with other people motivate behavior; yet science is stereotyped as being lonely work devoid of communal connections. Drawing from...