RESOLUTION OF LEXICAL AMBIGUITY BY EMOTIONAL STATE

Abstract— The role of emotion in the resolution of lexical ambiguity was investigated. Happy and sad subjects listened to a list of words that included homophones that had happy and neutral meanings (eg., presents-presence ) and homophones that had sad and neutral meanings (eg., mourning-morning ). Words were presented every 3 s, and subjects wrote down the words, as they heard them (Meaning could be identified by spelling in all cases). An interaction between emotional state and homophone category was observed. Sad subjects were more likely to write down sad meanings than were happy subjects. Results are discussed with reference to the literatures on both emotion and lexical access.     

Effects of erotic stimuli on sexually functional and dysfunctional women: Multiple measures before and after sex therapy

A group of 11 women entering sex therapy for treatment of low arousal, and a comparison group of 11 women experiencing no arousal deficit, viewed an erotic film, listened to an erotic audiotape, and engaged in sexual fantasy during two experimental sessions. Session I occurred pre-treatment for the low arousal group. Session II occurred post-treatment. The adequate arousal group was tested at comparable points in time. Sexual arousal was measured subjectively by self-rating and physiologically by a vaginal photoplethysmograph. Contrary to expectation, the two groups showed equivalent significant increases in physiological response during the erotic stimuli in both sessions. However, the adequate arousal group rated subjective arousal significantly higher than the low arousal group in Session I, while no difference was found between the groups in Session II. Significant correlations were present between physiological response and ratings of several affective reactions to the audiotape, though few significant correlations were found between physiological and subjective sexual arousal measures. These data indicate a discrepancy between genital responses and ratings of sexual arousal for which several interpretations are offered.     

Religion and the health belief model

This paper reviews the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Religious Problem-Solving Coping Scale (RPSC) in an attempt to clarify religion's possible roles in health care actions. The HBM has been used for many years to suggest various influences on health care, including religion. The RPSC Scale investigates religion by looking at characteristics that link religion to the everyday practice of problem solving. Measuring religious beliefs with problemsolving coping allows the influence of religion to be considered in all areas of the HBM. This paper also illustrates the impact of using the RPSC scale and the HBM with implications for ministers and suggestions for further study.The author thanks Diana D. Bransfield, Ph.D., for her helpful guidance in preparing this article.     

Evidence for the self as an imaginal prototype

This study investigated recognition memory of self-photographs which had been previously rated by subjects for their degree of reference to an imaginal prototype of “real self.” The number of false alarms to NEW photographs was found to increase with degree of self-reference to the imaginal prototype with the exception of photographs rated highest in self-reference. Females were reliably superior to males in self-recognition. Males and females also differed in nonverbal behaviors reflecting differences in their image of real self. Results were interpreted as supporting an hypothesis that the self functions as a cognitive prototype which has both imaginal and verbal characteristics.     

The role of duration and rapid temporal processing on the lateral perception of consonants and vowels

This study explored the extent to which rapid temporal processing and duration contribute to the right-ear advantage (REA) and presumably left-hemisphere processing for stop consonants and the lack of clear-cut laterality effects for vowels. Three sets of synthetic stimuli were constructed: consonant vowel stimuli [ba da ga bi di gi bu du gu] of 300 msec duration (full stimuli) and two shortened stimuli consisting either of a noise burst and 40-msec transitions (40-msec stimuli), or a noise burst and 20-msec transitions (20-msec stimuli). Stimuli were presented dichotically for consonant, vowel, and syllable identification. Results indicated a significant REA for consonants in the full and 40-msec conditions and a non-significant REA in the 20-msec condition. Nevertheless, the magnitude of laterality did not change across the three conditions. These results suggest that although transition information including duration contributes to lateralization for stop consonants, it is the presence of abrupt onsets which crucially determines lateralized processing. For vowels, there was a significant REA only in the full stimulus condition, and a significant decrement in the magnitude of the laterality effect in the two shortened stimulus conditions. These results suggest that for vowel perception, it is the nature of the acoustic cue used for phonetic identification and not duration that seems to be the critical determinant of lateralization effects.     

Avoidance extinction in goldfish

Independent groups of goldfish trained to avoid shock in a shuttlebox situation were presented with several extinction procedures in which the relationships between the conditioned stimulus and shock were altered and/or response contingencies removed. Random shock presentations, equivalent to the number of shocks received during avoidance acquisition, resulted in response decrements similar to those obtained when the conditioned stimulus was presented alone. Pairing the conditioned stimulus with shock on every trial, however, served to maintain response levels. When response-contingent punishment was superimposed upon these Pavlovian pairings, performance was facilitated slightly although punishment alone resulted in somewhat faster response reduction than that produced by exposure only to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction of avoidance responding produced by exposure to the conditioned stimulus alone was dependent on the total duration of exposure and independent of both number of stimulus onsets and response prevention. These experiments demonstrated that, in general, the procedures used to reduce avoidance responding in rats were equally effective for goldfish, with one exception: the introduction of a Pavlovian contingency following avoidance acquisition, making the previously avoidable shock unavoidable, maintained response probabilities near previously established levels.     

Problems in,and strategies for,evaluating preschool programs

Discusses the difficulty of documenting the effectiveness of preschool programs and relates this to the measuring instruments used and the type of design selected. The limitations of using standardized intelligence tests and the value of using cirterion-referenced tests are reviewed. A variety of methods are provided to assist psychologists and educators who are called upon to evaluate preschool programs. Three studies of preschool programs using different designs which involve published criterion-referenced tests are presented.     

Maternal Depression History Moderates the Association Between Criticism (but not Praise) and Depressive Symptoms in Youth

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Children of mothers with past depression are at increased risk for developing the disorder themselves; however, the specific factors that increase...     

Entrepreneurial Passion: A Review,Synthesis, and Agenda for Future Research

The present study undertakes a comprehensive and critical review of the body of empirical work on entrepreneurial passion. In particular, we document how the “first generation” of research on entrepreneurial passion and work passion in entrepreneurs has gained growing attention in various sub-fields of entrepreneurship research including entrepreneurial management, psychology, and finance. We provide an overview over theories used, definitions and measurements adopted, research methods utilized (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative, survey-based vs. experimental/intervention), the thematic focus of studies, and unit of investigation (e.g., individual vs. team). We not only flag the problems of inconsistencies and limitations with respect to theory use, the making of causal inferences, and the conceptualization and measurement of entrepreneurial passion in existing studies (e.g., jingle fallacies), but also review the antecedents and outcomes of entrepreneurial passion identified in prior work and work where it had been examined as a moderator. Following this, we offer a research agenda with concrete suggestions to act as a foundation for the “second generation” of entrepreneurial passion research that proactively addresses the issues and gaps identified in our review. Finally, we also highlight how insights from the entrepreneurial passion literature can inform scholarship on passion more broadly.