Denominational Differences in US Synagogues' Promotion of Youth Physical Activity Programming

Journal of Religion and Health - Less than 25% of US children 6–17 years of age are sufficiently active. Faith-based settings are one of the nine societal sectors tasked with promoting...     

Assessing metacognitive skills in waking and sleep: a psychometric analysis of the Metacognitive, Affective, Cognitive Experience (MACE) questionnaire

The Metacognitive, Affective, Cognitive Experience (MACE) questionnaire was designed to assess metacognition across sleep and waking (Kahan & LaBerge, 1996). The present research evaluates the psychometric properties of the MACE. Data from two recent studies (N=185) were used to assess the inter-item consistency, test-retest reliability, and factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity of the MACE. Results show that the MACE is a reliable measure with good construct validity. Exploratory factor analyses revealed one self-regulation and two monitoring factors. One monitoring factor emphasized monitoring internal conditions; the other emphasized monitoring external conditions. This factor structure is consistent with the Metacognitive Model (Nelson & Narens, 1990). Tests of convergent and discriminant validity suggest that the MACE is assessing metacognition and is appropriately related to similar constructs such as mindfulness and self-consciousness. The implication of these findings as well as suggestions for research and clinical applications of the MACE are discussed.     

Melatonin and Sleep Qualities in Healthy Adults: Pharmacological and Expectancy Effects

The impact of expectancy on melatonin's effects on sleep qualities was investigated. Both the pharmacological dose of 6 mg of melatonin and the expectation of receiving melatonin were predicted to improve subjective ratings of sleep qualities. The balanced placebo design varied 2 factors within-subjects: actual treatment and expected treatment. Adults (N = 53; 21 men and 32 women) between the ages of 26 and 71 years were administered either 6 mg of melatonin or a placebo for 8 nights. An instructional manipulation directed participants' expectations. Participants rated their nightly sleep experiences. Results revealed that feelings upon awakening differed between genders and that expecting melatonin increased ratings of sleep continuity. Most important, high ratings of “grogginess/tiredness” were associated with receiving melatonin, regardless of expectancy, as well as with receiving placebo when melatonin was expected. Overall, the findings underscore the need to consider expectancy and gender differences in research on melatonin and sleep experiences.     

The impact of September 11 on dreaming

This study focuses on a set of dreams related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and their aftermath, using content analysis and cognitive psychology to explore the interweaving of external public catastrophe and internal psychological processes. The study tests several recent claims in contemporary dream research, including the central image theory of Hartmann [Hartmann, E., & Basile, R. (2003). Dream imagery becomes more intense after 9/11/01. Dreaming, 13(2), 61-66; Hartmann, E., & Brezler, T. (2008). A systematic change in dreams after 9/11/01. Sleep, 31(2), 213-218], the media exposure factor postulated by Propper [Propper, R. E., Stickgold, R., Keeley, R., & Christman, S. D. (2007). Is television traumatic? Dreams, stress, and media exposure in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Psychological Science, 18(4), 334-340], the continuity hypothesis of Domhoff [Domhoff, W. G. (1996). Finding meaning in dreams: A quantitative approach. New York: Plenum], the cognitive and metacognitive approach of Kahan [Kahan, T. L. (2001). Consciousness in dreaming: A metacognitive approach. In K. Bulkeley (Ed.), Dreams: A reader on the religious, cultural, and psychological dimensions of dreaming (pp. 333-360). New York: Palgrave], and the threat simulation theory of Revonsuo [Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23(6), 877-901]. Our findings suggest the terrorist attacks had a tangible impact on the content of many people's dreams, but did not fundamentally alter the cognitive processing features of their dreaming. The 9/11 attacks affected what they dreamed about, but not the way they dreamed.     

Dreaming and waking: similarities and differences revisited

Dreaming is often characterized as lacking high-order cognitive (HOC) skills. In two studies, we test the alternative hypothesis that the dreaming mind is highly similar to the waking mind. Multiple experience samples were obtained from late-night REM sleep and waking, following a systematic protocol described in Kahan (2001). Results indicated that reported dreaming and waking experiences are surprisingly similar in their cognitive and sensory qualities. Concurrently, ratings of dreaming and waking experiences were markedly different on questions of general reality orientation and logical organization (e.g., the bizarreness or typicality of the events, actions, and locations). Consistent with other recent studies (e.g., [Bulkeley and Kahan, 2008] and [Kozmová and Wolman, 2006] ), experiences sampled from dreaming and waking were more similar with respect to their process features than with respect to their structural features.     

Gestalt grouping and common onset masking

A four-dot mask that surrounds and is presented simultaneously with a briefly presented target will reduce a person's ability to identity that target if the mask persists beyond target offset and attention is divided (Enns & Di Lollo, 1997, 2000). This masking effect, referred to as common onset masking, reflects reentrant processing in the visual system and can best be explained with a theory of object substitution (Di Lollo, Enns, & Rensink, 2000). In the present experiments, we investigated whether Gestalt grouping variables would influence the strength of common onset masking. The results indicated that (1) masking was impervious to grouping by form, similarity of color, position, luminance polarity, and common region and (2) masking increased with the number of elements in the masking display.     

Melatonin and sleep qualities in healthy adults: pharmacological and expectancy effects

The impact of expectancy on melatonin's effects on sleep qualities was investigated. Both the pharmacological dose of 6 mg of melatonin and the expectation of receiving melatonin were predicted to improve subjective ratings of sleep qualities. The balanced placebo design varied 2 factors within-subjects: actual treatment and expected treatment. Adults (N = 53; 21 men and 32 women) between the ages of 26 and 71 years were administered either 6 mg of melatonin or a placebo for 8 nights. An instructional manipulation directed participants' expectations. Participants rated their nightly sleep experiences. Results revealed that feelings upon awakening differed between genders and that expecting melatonin increased ratings of sleep continuity. Most important, high ratings of "grogginess/tiredness" were associated with receiving melatonin, regardless of expectancy, as well as with receiving placebo when melatonin was expected. Overall, the findings underscore the need to consider expectancy and gender differences in research on melatonin and sleep experiences.     

Perceptual interactions between primes,masks, and targets: Further evidence for object updating

The negative compatibility effect (NCE) is the finding that, under certain conditions, responses to targets are faster when preceded by incompatible primes than when preceded by compatible primes and this effect now appears to be caused, at least in part, by facilitation resulting from perceptual interactions between the prime, mask, and target when task-relevant masks are used (Lleras & Enns, 2004, 2005, 2006). The current experiment reports a new methodology that allows us to systematically explore the ways in which these perceptual effects influence reaction times and error rates. The data indicate that mask–target overlap, mask–prime overlap, and having a task-relevant prime all affect performance in experiments examining the NCE. In addition, our data provide additional support that object-based updating contributes to the NCE when perceptual interactions between stimuli are likely.     

生活医学化与健康恐慌的关系及其反思*--论Michael Fitzpatrick《健康的暴政：医生及生活方式的控制》

迈克尔·菲茨帕特里克的《健康的暴政：医生及生活方式的控制》一书,以健康干预为主线,以健康政治化、生活医学化、疾病道德化为主题,论述了生活医学化的不同方面和形成过程,并力图揭示医学化背后隐含着的医学对社会的干预和控制。其中作者关于生活医学化和健康恐慌的一些哲学思考,尤其是生活医学化与健康恐慌的内涵及特点、生活医学化与健康恐慌的关系以及对生活医学化的审视与反思,在一定程度上蕴涵着对当今社会发展的启示。     

Looking at object-substitution masking in depth and motion: toward a two-object theory of object substitution

When attention is divided, a briefly presented target surrounded by four small dots is difficult to identify when the dots persist beyond target offset, but not when these dots terminate with the target. This object-substitution masking effect likely reflects processes at both the image level and the object level. At the image level, visual contours of the mask make feature extraction difficult. Recent data (Lleras & Moore, 2003) suggest that, at the object level, an object file is created for the target-plus-mask, and this single-object token later morphs into a single-object token containing the mask alone. In the present experiments, we used stimuli presented in 3-D space and apparent motion; the results indicate that object-substitution masking also arises when the mask and the target are represented in two separate object tokens and the mask token interferes with the target token.