Cultural Similarity, Foreign Policy Actions, and Regime Perception: An Experimental Study of International Cues and Democratic Peace

This study examines previous explanations of democratic peace in light of sociocultural factors and foreign policy actions that influence public perceptions of another country. Two experiments assessed the effects of relevant sociocultural and foreign policy action cues on perception of the regime type of a target nation and on public approval of the use of force. The findings suggest that sociocultural cues affect regime perception. Moreover, perceived similarity of a target nation and foreign policy actions are significant determinants of the public approval of the use of force in addition to perceptions of regime type.     

Appreciating phenomenology and feminism: Researching quiltmaking and communication

Conclusion The effort to appreciate phenomenology and feminism in the study of quiltmaking discourse self-reflexively joins a philosophy of experience with a politics of women's experiences. At the same time it reveals method to be an embodied practice which involves knowledge as power, and it discovers power relations between researchers and the researched within particular contexts and relationships. For phenomenology, these reflections may encourage closer attention to the en-gendering and situating of the subject within social and cultural conditions. Also they may challenge us to ask: who benefits from phenomenological understanding? For feminism, this effort may encourage greater self-critique in regard to the phenomena of women's experiences. Simultaneously, these reflections may temper an uncritical embracing of phenomenological methods. Perhaps these reflections can best be seen as a working out of a pattern that joins phenomenology, feminism, and their compatible and contradictory relations like the three layers of a quilt. In this embodied and ongoing labor of piecing and quilting I have attempted to expose the seams and the gaps rather than smooth over their differences. Research, like quiltmaking, functions as both a noun and a verb, a product and a practice, engaged bodily and mindfully as a project in the world.     

Correlations of glucose metabolism and structural damage to language function in aphasia

Studies of aphasic patients using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron computed tomographs have shown areas of metabolic depression in the left hemisphere larger than the area of infarction noted on CT. To evaluate these metabolic differences in relationship to language abnormalities, 11 patients had metabolic scans, CT, and were administered the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Battery and the Porch Index of Communicative Ability. Correlation analyses were computed between metabolic, CT, and language data. CT demonstrated reliable correlations of speaking, oral reading, and repetition to Wernicke' area, consistent with current anatomic language models, while metabolic data from areas posterior, inferior, and superior to the traditional Wernicke's area and the head of the caudate nucleus also had reliable correlations with aphasic language function. The utilization of both structural and metabolic brain measures may improve our understanding of the anatomy of language as related to aphasia.     

A shortened version of the Southern Illinois university speech situation checklist for the identification of speech-related anxiety

This study investigated the ability of the 51-item Southern Illinois University Speech Situation Checklist (SSC) to differentiate stutterers known to have high levels of speech-related anxiety from nonstutterers with normal levels of speech- related anxiety. Checklist responses of 65 randomly selected subjects (33 stutterers and 32 nonstutterers) were subjected to a stepwise discriminant analysis. The analysis identified a combination of 21 SSC items that had significant discriminative power. Subsequently, the derived discriminant equation achieved 93% accuracy in correctly classifying a hold-out sample of 29 subjects (14 stutterers and 15 nonstutterers). These results strongly suggest that the 21 items of the SSC identified by discriminant analysis may provide an effective screening device for identifying disfluent speakers who experience an abnormal amount of speech-related anxiety.     

Achievement motivation for males and females as a determinant of attributions for success and failure

Male and female college students, divided according to levels of achievement motivation, were asked to do an anagram task at which their success or failure was determined by experimental manipulation of the problems they were given. Their ratings of ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as possible causes for success or failure indicated that those with high achievement motivation of both sexes made relatively higher ratings for ability and lower ratings for task difficulty. Females tended to employ higher ratings for luck, and females with high achievement motivation made maximal use of effort as a causal factor. Theoretical implications and potential applications of these data are discussed.     

On-line choice and the representation of serially structured stimuli

Three groups of pigeons were trained to discriminate between a target temporal sequence, consisting of red, green, and blue, and distractor sequences consisting of all other combinations of these three colors presented on a pecking key. Response alternatives were provided during the course of the trial (on-line decisions) as well as the end of the trial (postsequence decisions). Different temporal phrasing patterns emphasized the first stimulus in the sequence, the final stimulus, or all stimuli equally. The phrasing pattern did not affect the speed of acquisition, but groups receiving emphasized stimuli relied more heavily on those stimuli than on the other stimuli for their discriminations. The patterns of both on-line choices during the sequence and terminal choices following the sequence were consistent with the use of hierarchical representations and inconsistent with a simple item-by-item prospective discrimination scheme.     

The effects of COVID-19 stressors and family life on anxiety and depression one-year into the COVID-19 pandemic

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19)-related stressors and family health on adult anxiety and depressive symptoms 1 year into the pandemic. The sample consisted of 442 adults living in the United States who were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Results indicated that compared to a sample 1 month into the pandemic, participants in the current sample reported worse family health and increases in both positive and negative perceptions of the pandemic on family life and routines. COVID-19 stressors and perceived negative effects of the pandemic on family life increased the odds for moderate-to-severe depression and anxiety while having more family health resources decreased the odds for depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants reported lower odds for worse depression and anxiety since the beginning of the pandemic when they reported more positive family meaning due to the pandemic. The results suggest a need to consider the impact of family life on mental health in pandemics and other disasters.     

Using equivalence-based instruction to teach piano skills to children

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) on learning to play individual notes and simple songs on the piano. Participants were 4 typically developing children and 4 children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They were exposed to a series of auditory–visual matching-to-sample procedures using musical stimuli. Following training, participants were tested on the emergence of novel untrained relations and generalization in the form of playing two songs on a keyboard. Results suggest that the EBI was effective in teaching piano playing skills with both typically developing children and children with ASD. The success of this procedure is indicative of the wide-ranging applications of EBI to novel and creative domains.     

Spouses' responses to the dietary nonadherence of their partners managing diabetes

The association between patients' dietary nonadherence and spouses' involvement in patients' diabetes diet was examined, with spouses' anxiety about nonadherence considered as a mediator of this association. Daily diary data from 128 older adult patients with type 2 diabetes and their spouses were analyzed using multilevel models. Results revealed that on days when patients reported less adherence to their diabetes diet than usual, spouses reported greater anxiety about patients' diabetes management, which, in turn, was related to greater spousal persuasion and pressure the same day. The association between patients' nonadherence and diet‐related support on the same day was not mediated, however, through spouses' anxiety. The findings contribute to an understanding of spouses' responses to patients' nonadherence to their diabetes regimen.