Patterns of brain-electrical activity during declarative memory performance in 10-month-old infants

This study of infant declarative memory concurrently examined brain-electrical activity and deferred imitation performance in 10-month-old infants. Continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) measures were collected throughout the activity-matched baseline, encoding (modeling) and retrieval (delayed test) phases of a within-subjects deferred imitation task. Infants were divided into two memory performance groups based on the exhibition of ordered-recall after a 24-h delay. Whereas no group differences were found in EEG collected during encoding, performance-group differences in EEG were present during retrieval. Infants who successfully displayed ordered-recall showed a pattern of increasing EEG from baseline to task at anterior temporal scalp locations, whereas infants showing no ordered-recall displayed no changes in EEG from baseline to task. These findings are discussed with respect to the biobehavioral developments underlying declarative memory abilities.     

Consumer reactions to the decreased usage message: The role of elaborative processing

This research examines consumer reactions to an emerging trend among corporate social responsibility initiatives—the promotion of decreased usage of the company's own core products. The results across three experiments suggest that the presence of a decreased usage message that highlights incongruity between the marketing message and the company's goals leads to negative company evaluations. The authors demonstrate that elaborative processing underlies these effects by examining the moderating role of the need for cognition and cognitive load. Further, perceived incongruity and cognitive elaboration mediate the findings. The implications for marketers and consumers are discussed.     

Evaluating the two-component inspection model in a simplified luggage search task

Visual inspection of X-ray images of luggage is a time-pressured task that typically shows large initial training effects, but there exists a paucity of models capable of evaluating performance and speed concurrently. In the present study, visual inspection ability during learning was modeled using Drury’s two-component inspection model (TCM; Drury, 1975) in a laboratory experiment involving 12 younger (mean age = 20.8 years) and 12 older (mean age = 60.0 years) naive participants undertaking a simplified luggage search task. Model fits and assumptions were found to be reliable and accurately reflected improvement with training for decision time, although neither search nor decision components of the model individually showed a significant effect of age. The decision component of the model showed larger improvement with training than did the search component, and stopping-time policy accurately reflected the improvements found between ages and within training levels. The TCM is a useful supplement to detection theory when speed of performance is a factor.     

The role of attachment in influencing reactions to manipulated feedback from romantic partners

A study of 80 couples (mean age 24) examined the impact of attachment patterns on reactions to manipulated positive or negative feedback, ostensibly from partners. As expected, individuals high in attachment anxiety reported more negative mood and the least indifference to partner feedback. In addition, those high in attachment anxiety reported more negative reactions to negative feedback compared to those low in anxiety. Those high in attachment anxiety reported lower self‐competence after receiving negative feedback than those low in anxiety. Further, reactions to manipulated feedback mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and self‐competence. Attachment models play a role in determining reactions to partner feedback and moderate how feedback is used to maintain self‐views. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can a Laboratory Measure of Emotional Processing Enhance the Statistical Prediction of Aggression and Delinquency in Detained Adolescents with Callous-unemotional Traits?

In this cross-sectional study, we investigated whether the combination of the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and emotional deficits to distressing stimuli, assessed by a computerized dot-probe task, enhanced the statistical prediction of aggression and delinquency in a sample of 88 detained and predominantly African-American (68%) adolescents (M age = 15.57; SD = 1.28). Overall, self-reported CU traits were associated with self-report measures of aggression and delinquency, but not with official records of arrests. However, there was an interaction between CU traits and emotional deficits for predicting self-reported aggression, self-reported violent delinquency, and a record of violent arrests. Youth high on CU traits and who showed a deficit in their responses to visual depictions of distress showed the highest levels of aggression and violent delinquency.     

Religious Fundamentalism and Gender Differences

The role of religious fundamentalism and its relationship to shame and guilt was evaluated in 107 students who attend a church-sponsored university. A number of personality measures were given and gender differences were analyzed. The role of externalization was similar for males in this sample to that of earlier studies. However, it was found that females showed positive correlations between externalization and both shame and guilt. For females, more fundamentalistic religious training may help to contribute to an external orientation at the expense of identifying with a personal religion, and appropriate guilt.     

Welche Rolle spielt die Diagnostik in der systemischen Psychotherapie?

Diagnostic procedures in systemic psychotherapy are bound to raise questions: These procedures are indebted to a medical model which is pathology- and deficit-oriented and which requires that diagnosis precedes therapy. Yet diagnostic procedures in systemic psychotherapy are mainly geared to assessing the psychic and social domains rather than the domain of medicine proper. The article takes up some of the issues and problems deriving from this state of affairs.     

Carding for the Purchase of Alcohol: I'm Tougher Than Other Clerks Are1

The present research examined whether clerks believed themselves to be more likely to card customers than “other” clerks. Store clerks (N= 121) from 23 stores of a major grocery chain rated 4 person‐product profiles of hypothetical shoppers each representing distinctive lifestyle groups. Embedded within a series of items were key questions that asked how likely it was that they and other clerks would ask for identification from the shopper for the purchase of alcohol. Across all conditions, data revealed a significant positivity bias suggesting that the clerks felt that they were much better than other clerks at determining who should be asked for identification. The data are discussed in terms of their motivational implications for the false uniqueness bias.