Effects of a Synthetic Predator Odor (TMT) on Freezing,Analgesia, Stereotypy,and Spatial Memory

The Psychological Record - Exposing rats to the predator odor of trimethylthiazoline (TMT), obtained from the red fox, was compared to exposure to the novel control odor of citronella. In...     

Fear of Failure Biases Affective and Attentional Responses to Lexical and Pictorial Stimuli

The purpose of this investigation was to examine whether attentional biases would be noticed among individuals differing in levels of fear of failure (FF) as they viewed pictorial and lexical stimuli depicting various affective content. Indices of natural selective attention, namely, viewing time and self-reported affect, were assessed in 137 college students during free viewing picture and word presentation conditions. As hypothesized, FF was (a) negatively associated with self-reported dominance and valence for failure- and unpleasant-themed stimuli, and (b) positively associated with arousal ratings for unpleasant pictures. Although initially suppressed by neuroticism, partial correlation coefficients revealed a significant positive relationship between FF and viewing time for failure pictures. Results are discussed in the context of current theories of emotional reactivity and attentional biases pertaining to the nature of FF. Recommendations are provided for future research to elaborate the mechanisms involved in detrimental effects of FF.     

The prediction of above-average participation in volunteerism: a test of the theory of planned behavior and the volunteers functions inventory in older Australian adults

In the present prospective study of 81 older volunteers from a nonprofit organization in Australia, the authors compared the predictive utility of I. Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior with that of E. G. Clary and M. Snyder's (1991) functional approach to volunteering. The authors mailed questionnaires to 385 volunteers in two waves of data collection. The first wave measured theory-of-planned-behavior variables and functional-approach variables. The second wave measured self-reported volunteering behavior for the previous month. Regression analyses supported both the theory of planned behavior and the functional approach; the theory of planned behavior accounted for a significantly larger proportion of variance in above-average participation in self-reported volunteerism. The findings of the present study provided some support for both the theory of planned behavior and the functional approach as models of self-reported volunteerism.     

Childhood Temperament and Family Environment as Predictors of Internalizing and Externalizing Trajectories From Ages 5 to 17

Childhood temperament and family environment have been shown to predict internalizing and externalizing behavior; however, less is known about how temperament and family environment interact to predict changes in problem behavior. We conducted latent growth curve modeling on a sample assessed at ages 5, 7, 10, 14, and 17 (N = 337). Externalizing behavior decreased over time for both sexes, and internalizing behavior increased over time for girls only. Two childhood variables (fear/shyness and maternal depression) predicted boys' and girls' age-17 internalizing behavior, harsh discipline uniquely predicted boys' age-17 internalizing behavior, and maternal depression and lower family income uniquely predicted increases in girls' internalizing behavior. For externalizing behavior, an array of temperament, family environment, and Temperament × Family Environment variables predicted age-17 behavior for both sexes. Sex differences were present in the prediction of externalizing slopes, with maternal depression predicting increases in boys' externalizing behavior only when impulsivity was low, and harsh discipline predicting increases in girls' externalizing behavior only when impulsivity was high or when fear/shyness was low.     

Semantic feature knowledge and picture naming in dementia of Alzheimer's type: a new approach

This study addresses continuing controversies concerning the nature of semantic impairment in early dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), and the relationship between conceptual knowledge and picture naming. A series of analyses of fine-grained feature knowledge data show that: (1) distinctive features of concepts were more vulnerable than shared; (2) the amount of attribute knowledge about a concept was associated reliably, and in a graded fashion, with the ability to name a picture of that item; (3) sensory features were differentially important in naming; and (4) the degree of disruption to different types of attribute knowledge did not vary between items from living and nonliving domains. These findings are discussed in the context of contemporary cognitive and computational models of semantic memory organisation.     

Self-motion perception during locomotor recalibration: more than meets the eye

Do locomotor aftereffects depend specifically on visual feedback? In 7 experiments, 116 college students were tested, with closed eyes, at stationary running or at walking to a previewed target after adaptation, with closed eyes, to treadmill locomotion. Subjects showed faster inadvertent drift during stationary running and increased distance (overshoot) when walking to a target. Overshoot seemed to saturate (i.e., reach a ceiling) at 17% after as little as 1 min of adaptation. Sidestepping at test reduced overshoot, suggesting motor specificity. But inadvertent drift effects were decreased if the eyes were open and the treadmill was drawn through the environment during adaptation, indicating that these effects involve self-motion perception. Differences in expression of inadvertent drift and of overshoot after adaptation to treadmill locomotion may have been due to different sets of ancillary cues available for the 2 tasks. Self-motion perception is multimodal.     

Motivation influences the underestimation of cumulative risk

Past research has shown that people typically underestimate the cumulative risk of events. This effect has mainly been interpreted as resulting from the use of cognitive heuristics and judgment strategies, such as availability or anchoring and adjustment. The authors suggest that motivational processes can be an additional force in the generation of cumulative risk estimates. Using an experimental design, Study 1 shows that people underestimate the cumulative risk of infection with sexually transmitted diseases of appealing prospective sexual partners by using risk-irrelevant information for their judgment. Using a correlational design, Study 2 demonstrates that people underestimate the cumulative risk of being infected with a sexually transmitted disease and that commitment to the present partner is directly related to a low cumulative risk estimate as well as indirectly through its effect on the perceived risk of the present partner. Together, the two studies demonstrate that motivation influences the underestimation of cumulative risk.     

Pauses and durations exhibit a serial position effect

This article reports evidence of two kinds of serial position effects in immediate serial recall: One involves interresponse pauses, and the other response durations. In forward and backward recall, responding was faster at initial and final positions than at center positions, exhibiting a bow-shaped function relative to serial position. These data were obtained in a spoken recall study in which ungrouped lists of four to six words and postcuing of recall direction were used. The pause pattern is consistent with several models of serial memory, including a distinctiveness model (Brown, Neath, & Chater, 2002) and a version of the ACT—R model augmented with a spontaneous grouping strategy (Maybery, Parmentier, & Jones, 2002). The duration pattern suggests that response articulation depends on the processing context, rather than being modular.     

Typicality effects in contingency-shaped generalized equivalence classes

Two experiments were conducted using match-to-sample methodologies in an effort to model lexical classes, which include both arbitrary and perceptual relations between class members. Training in both experiments used a one-to-many mapping procedure with nonsense syllables as samples and eight sets of abstract stimuli as comparisons. These abstract stimuli differed along a number of dimensions, four of which were critical to the experimenter-defined class membership. Stimuli in some comparison sets included only one of the class-defining features, but stimuli in other sets included two, three, or all four of the critical features. After mastery of the baseline training, three types of probe tests were conducted: symmetry, transitivity/equivalence, and novel probe tests in which the training nonsense syllables served as samples, and comparisons were novel abstract stimuli that included one or more of the class-defining features. Symmetry and transitivity/equivalence probe tests showed that the stimuli used in training became members of equivalence classes. The novel stimuli also became class members on the basis of inclusion of any of the critical features. Thus these probe tests revealed the formation of open-ended generalized equivalence classes. In addition, typicality effects were observed such that comparison sets with more critical features were learned with fewer errors, responded to more rapidly, and judged to be better exemplars of the class. Contingency-shaped stimulus classes established through a match-to-sample procedure thus show several important behavioral similarities to natural lexical categories.     

When what you know is not enough: expertise and gender dynamics in task groups

This study investigates how the contribution, identification, and consideration of expertise within groups are affected by gender differences. The authors examined the effects of member expertise and gender on others' perceptions of expertise, actual and own perceptions of influence, and group performance on a decision-making task. The authors' findings are consistent with social role theory and expectation states theory. Women were less influential when they possessed expertise, and having expertise decreased how expert others perceived them to be. Conversely, having expertise was relatively positive for men. These differences were reflected in group performance, as groups with a female expert underperformed groups with a male expert. Thus, contrary to common expectations, possessing expertise did not ameliorate the gender effects often seen in workgroups. The findings are discussed in light of their implications for organizational workgroups in which contribution of expertise is critical to group performance.