Negative valence can evoke a liberal response bias in syllogistic reasoning

Recently, studies have demonstrated that negative valence reduces the magnitude of the belief-bias effect in syllogistic reasoning. This effect has been localized in the reasoning stage, in the form of increased deliberation on trials where validity and conclusion believability are incongruent. Here, using signal detection theory, we show that the attenuation of belief bias observed when valence was negative can also be evoked by a liberal response bias at the decision stage. Indeed, when valence was negative participants adopted a more liberal criterion for judging syllogisms as “valid,” and were overconfident in their judgments. They also displayed less sensitivity in distinguishing between valid and invalid syllogisms. Our findings dovetail with recent evidence from memory research suggesting that negative valence can evoke a liberal response bias without improving performance. Our novel contribution is the demonstration that the attenuating effect of negative valence on belief bias can take multiples routes—by influencing the decision stage as was the case here, the reasoning stage as has been demonstrated elsewhere, and potentially both stages.     

Health Programming for Clergy: An Overview of Protestant Programs in the United States

The health of clergy is important, and clergy may find health programming tailored to them more effective. Little is known about existing clergy health programs. We contacted Protestant denominational headquarters and searched academic databases and the Internet. We identified 56 clergy health programs and categorized them into prevention and personal enrichment; counseling; marriage and family enrichment; peer support; congregational health; congregational effectiveness; denominational enrichment; insurance/strategic pension plans; and referral-based programs. Only 13 of the programs engaged in outcomes evaluation. Using the Socioecological Framework, we found that many programs support individual-level and institutional-level changes, but few programs support congregational-level changes. Outcome evaluation strategies and a central repository for information on clergy health programs are needed.     

Attention and memory biases toward body-related images among restrained eaters

This study examined biases in attention and memory toward body-related images among restrained (n = 31) and unrestrained (n = 29) eaters. Attentional allocation to images of thin and overweight bodies during a visual search task was measured by tracking participants’ eyegaze. This task was followed by a recognition test assessing participants’ memory for those images. Restrained and unrestrained eaters allocated more attention to body-related images than to control images, but there was no difference in attentional allocation between the two groups. Restrained eaters showed better recognition of body-related images that they had previously seen during the visual search task. Finally, increased attention was associated with better recognition of body-related images for both restrained and unrestrained eaters, but restrained eaters had better overall recognition regardless of the level of attention. These findings suggest that restrained eaters may have more organized strategies for processing body-related information than do unrestrained eaters.     

Tracking talking: dual task costs of planning and producing speech for young versus older adults

A digital pursuit rotor was used to monitor speech planning and production costs by time-locking tracking performance to the auditory wave form produced as young and older adults were describing someone they admire. The speech sample and time-locked tracking record were segmented at utterance boundaries and multilevel modeling was used to determine how utterance-level predictors such as utterance duration or sentence grammatical complexity and person-level predictors such as speaker age or working memory capacity predicted tracking performance. Three models evaluated the costs of speech planning, the costs of speech production, and the costs of speech output monitoring. The results suggest that planning and producing propositionally dense utterances is more costly for older adults and that older adults experience increased costs as a result of having produced a long, informative, or rapid utterance.     

Accuracy in estimating the body weight of self and others: Impact of dietary restraint and BMI

We examined the accuracy of people's estimates of their own body weight and of the body weight of other people. Female undergraduates (n = 132) self-reported their weight, were weighed by the experimenter, and completed a measure of dietary restraint. Participants also viewed 10 photographs of women ranging from underweight to obese and estimated their body weight. Individuals high in dietary restraint underestimated their own weight to a greater extent than those low in dietary restraint, but this effect was accounted for by individual differences in BMI: heavier participants underestimated their weight to a greater extent than leaner participants. Participants also underestimated the weight of heavier targets to a greater extent than they did leaner targets, but the degree of inaccuracy was not related to participants’ dietary restraint or BMI. These findings support the hypothesis that inaccuracies in self-reported weight reflect deliberate misreporting rather than a cognitive or perceptual bias.     

Seminary Students and Physical Health: Beliefs,Behaviors, and Barriers

Journal of Religion and Health - As an occupational group, clergy exhibit numerous physical health problems. Given the physical health problems faced by clergy, understanding where physical health...