The Contribution of Music to Positive Aging: A Review

Many people value music as an important part of their everyday lives. The published literature reveals that the role of music in life is varied: it can be recreational, educational, social, emotional, therapeutic, and spiritual. The importance and relevance of music depends on the life needs and interests of the individual and the social group within which he/she lives. It is now widely recognized that music for many older people is crucial in supporting a sense of well-being. The article reviews the evidence on the role of music in promoting health and well-being, and how it can produce positive psychological and physiological benefits for individuals. The aim of this article is to increase awareness among health professionals of the importance of music and discuss how it can be used to add to older people's lives.     

The influence of facial feedback on race bias

Two studies were conducted to examine whether facial feedback can modulate implicit racial bias as assessed by the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Participants were surreptitiously induced to smile through holding a pencil in their mouth while viewing photographs of unfamiliar Black or White males or performed no somatic configuration while viewing the photographs (Study 1 only). All participants then completed the IAT with no facial manipulation. Results revealed a spreading attitude effect, with significantly less racial bias against Blacks among participants surreptitiously induced to smile during prior viewing of Black faces than among participants surreptitiously induced to smile during prior viewing of White faces.     

The APA Style Converter: a Web-based interface for converting articles to APA style for publication

The APA Style Converter is a Web-based tool with which authors may prepare their articles in APA style according to the APAPublication Manual (5th ed.). The Converter provides a user-friendly interface that allows authors to copy and paste text and upload figures through the Web, and it automatically converts all texts, references, and figures to a structured article in APA style. The output is saved in PDF or RTF format, ready for either electronic submission or hardcopy printing.     

Concurrent validity of the Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence and the Kaufman brief intelligence test among psychiatric inpatients

This study examined the convergent and discriminant validity of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test for 85 psychiatric inpatients. The correlation between the WASI Full Scale and K-BIT Composite IQ scores was significant (r = .89, p < .001). Multitrait-multimethod analysis of the subtest scores showed that the K-BIT had higher internal consistency for its two subtests but, therefore, less differentiation of cognitive functioning than the brief Wechsler scale, as would be expected due to the larger number and diversity of the latter subtests. Correlations among the Wechsler scale subtests were lower than among those for the K-BIT, so the former may tap different cognitive functions and yield more clinically useful information than the latter. This brief Wechsler scale appears to be a valid screening measure of verbal, performance. and general intellectual ability for use with an inpatient psychiatric population when considerations of the setting or patient preclude administration of a longer measure of intellectual ability.     

To Jim,from Fiji

A braided epistolary essay, “To Jim, from Fiji,” explores three kinds of relationships: how musicians share music; the relationship of an artist to art itself; and human interaction with the divine via music. The article begins as a personal letter to the writer's Jungian therapist, then tells the story of a trip to Fiji, where music became the entryway to a deep and connective experience. The sections weave together to develop an inquiry into how humans use music to relate with each other and with a numinous reality, where the artist can become “vassal and vessel both.”     

The costs and benefits of providing feedback during learning

It seems uncontroversial that providing feedback after a test, in the form of the correct answer, enhances learning. In real-world educational situations, however, the time available for learning is often constrained— and feedback takes time. We report an experiment in which total time for learning was fixed, thereby creating a trade-off between spending time receiving feedback and spending time on other learning activities. Our results suggest that providing feedback is not universally beneficial. Indeed, under some circumstances, taking time to provide feedback can have a negative net effect on learning. We also found that learners appear to have some insight about the costs of feedback; when they were allowed to control feedback, they often skipped unnecessary feedback in favor of additional retrieval attempts, and they benefited from doing so. These results underscore the importance of considering the costs and benefits of interventions designed to enhance learning.