Fit for persuasion: the effects of nonverbal delivery style,message framing,and gender on message effectiveness

This study examined two experimental variables, delivery style and message framing, that have yet to be examined together in the regulatory fit literature. College students (mean age = 30) watched a video message encouraging regular exercise delivered in an eager or vigilant nonverbal style and framed in terms of gain or loss. Results revealed significant fit effects involving gender, delivery style, and message framing. The eager message was perceived as more effective by men whereas the vigilant message was perceived as more effective by women. A message framing by delivery style fit effect also emerged for perceived message effectiveness. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.     

The roles of family history of dyslexia,language, speech production and phonological processing in predicting literacy progress

It is well established that speech, language and phonological skills are closely associated with literacy, and that children with a family risk of dyslexia (FRD) tend to show deficits in each of these areas in the preschool years. This paper examines what the relationships are between FRD and these skills, and whether deficits in speech, language and phonological processing fully account for the increased risk of dyslexia in children with FRD. One hundred and fifty‐three 4–6‐year‐old children, 44 of whom had FRD, completed a battery of speech, language, phonology and literacy tasks. Word reading and spelling were retested 6 months later, and text reading accuracy and reading comprehension were tested 3 years later. The children with FRD were at increased risk of developing difficulties in reading accuracy, but not reading comprehension. Four groups were compared: good and poor readers with and without FRD. In most cases good readers outperformed poor readers regardless of family history, but there was an effect of family history on naming and nonword repetition regardless of literacy outcome, suggesting a role for speech production skills as an endophenotype of dyslexia. Phonological processing predicted spelling, while language predicted text reading accuracy and comprehension. FRD was a significant additional predictor of reading and spelling after controlling for speech production, language and phonological processing, suggesting that children with FRD show additional difficulties in literacy that cannot be fully explained in terms of their language and phonological skills.     

Meaning attribution in the West African green monkey: influence of call type and context

The search for the evolutionary roots of human language has fuelled much research into the cognitive mechanisms underlying communication in nonhuman animals. One core issue has been whether the context-specific calls of nonhuman animals are meaningful, with call meaning inferred from recipients’ responses in the absence of supporting contextual cues. This direct inference may well offer an oversimplified view of how vocalisations are perceived, however, as responses under natural conditions are likely guided by contextual cues as well as by the signal. In this study, we investigate how the anti-predator responses of green monkeys, Chlorocebus sabaeus, are affected by alarm call structure and by context. We first simulated the presence of leopards and snakes to elicit alarm vocalisations and to identify predator-typical response behaviours. In both contexts, the monkeys produced chirp calls that revealed only graded variation in relation to predator type. We then carried out playback experiments to explore whether green monkeys would respond with predator-typical behaviour to leopard and snake chirps, and whether contextual cues, in the form of pre-exposure to a leopard or snake model, would modify these responses. Irrespective of context, subjects were more likely to respond to leopard chirps with a leopard-typical response. Predator priming did not have a significant effect on the type of response, but, together with call type, did affect response duration. This suggests that the immediate attribution of meaning was influenced by acoustic cues, whilst receiver’s prior knowledge was incorporated to guide subsequent behaviour.     

Norms on the gender perception of role nouns in Czech,English, French,German, Italian,Norwegian, and Slovak

We collected norms on the gender stereotypicality of an extensive list of role nouns in Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Slovak, to be used as a basis for the selection of stimulus materials in future studies. We present a Web-based tool (available at https://www.unifr.ch/lcg/) that we developed to collect these norms and that we expect to be useful for other researchers, as well. In essence, we provide (a) gender stereotypicality norms across a number of languages and (b) a tool to facilitate cross-language as well as cross-cultural comparisons when researchers are interested in the investigation of the impact of stereotypicality on the processing of role nouns.     

Validation of the Ambivalent and Purposeful Engagement – Trait Measure

The Ambivalent and Purposeful Engagement-Trait Measure (APE-TM) was developed to assess two ways that people may react to stressful social interactions: ambivalent engagement (AE: counterproductive attempts to avoid thoughts and feelings) and purposeful engagement (PE: effortfully approaching and working through thoughts and feelings). We carried out three studies in undergraduate and clinical populations to (i) test the robustness of previous psychometric findings and (ii) determine whether AE and PE are specific to social anxiety. Across three studies, our results indicate that the APE-TM is a psychometrically valid measure of ambivalent and purposeful engagement. However, PE appeared less specific to social anxiety and may represent a more general tendency toward adaptive coping. In contrast, AE was specific to social anxiety in both undergraduate samples and clinical samples of individuals with a variety of anxiety disorders and depression.     

Pet Peeves and Happiness: How Do Happy People Complain?

The present study was designed to investigate the relationships among mindfulness, happiness, and the expression of pet peeves. Previous research has established a positive correlation between happiness and mindfulness, but, to date, no research has examined how each of these variables is related to complaining in the form of pet peeves. Four hundred ten male and female college students listed the pet peeves they had with a current or former relationship partner. They also completed measures of happiness, positive and negative affect, depression, mindfulness, relationship satisfaction, and satisfaction with life. Pet peeves were negatively correlated with relationship satisfaction, well-being, and mindfulness. Consistent with hypotheses, support was found for the mediating role of mindfulness in the relationship between happiness and pet peeves.     

The MMPI‐2 in chronic psychiatric illness

While previous studies on the MMPI‐2 in patients with schizophrenia and depression have used mixed samples of both early stage and chronic psychiatric patients. Here, it is investigated whether chronicity itself might have a differential effect on the MMPI‐2 profiles of these patients and whether demoralization ‘associated with long‐term illness’ affects the scales of the MMPI‐2. Thirty long‐term patients with schizophrenia, 30 long‐term patients with depression, and 30 healthy participants completed the MMPI‐2. Groups were compared on Clinical Scales and on the Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales. Patients with schizophrenia differed from patients with depression on 14 MMPI‐2 scales and from healthy controls on 10 scales, generally showing mean UT‐scores < 65, indicating a subjective experience of (near) normal functioning. Patients with depression differed from healthy controls on 17 scales mostly with UT‐scores > 65, indicating impaired functioning. Demoralization was higher in patients with depression than in patients with schizophrenia and both psychiatric groups differed from the healthy control group. It is concluded that long‐term patients with depression show impaired functioning and high demoralization, while long‐term patients with schizophrenia surprisingly show near normal functioning and less demoralization.