The Beck Anxiety Inventory–Trait (BAIT): A Measure of Dispositional Anxiety Not Contaminated by Dispositional Depression

If aesthetic aspects of art are objective and reside in the art. as Arnheim (1954) argues. then perceiving them may be akin to any other kind of reality testing. Further, if neurosis impairs reality testing, it would also impair aesthetic judgment, especially if aesthetic cues are vital and relevant to the human experience as Arnheim maintains. This hypothesis was investigated by administration of personality tests to measure neuroticism, especially Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), and art judgment tasks, especially Child's slide comparisons, to 105 University of Michigan undergraduates, The hypothesis was supported by a high negative correlation between the 16PF's neuroticism scale and art judgment, r = -.48; t (103) = -5.61 ,p < .0001. The results are discussed in terms of growth versus adjustment models of mental health, and the possible inhibiting role of verbalization over visualization in aesthetic perception.     

Events and constructs in the science of psychology

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Interbehavioral psychology and scientific analysis of data and operations

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Electroencephalographic intercentral interaction as a reflection of normal and pathological human brain activity

The authors summarized EEG findings and defined the nature of the intercentral EEG relationships in different functional states in healthy subjects and patients with organic cerebral pathology, based on a coherence analysis. Similar EEG characteristics in healthy individuals were identified: an anterior-posterior gradient of average coherence levels, the type of cortical-subcortical relationships in anterior cerebral structures. Right- and left-handed individuals showed frequent and regional differences in EEG coherence, which mainly reflected specificity of intracortical relationships. Development and regression of pathology in right-and left-handed individuals with organic brain lesions were thought to be caused by these differences. Lesions of regulatory structures (diencephalic, brain stem and limbic structures) provoked a more diffused kind of changes of intercentral relationships, in contrast to cortical pathology. These changes tended to reciprocate. The dynamic nature of intercentral relationships and their interhemispheric differences was revealed when changing functional states of the brain (increase and decrease of functional level) in healthy individuals and patients with organic cerebral pathology in the process of conscious and psychic activity restoration. Changing activity predominance of certain regulatory structures was considered one of the most important factors determining the dynamic nature of EEG coherence.     

The listener's temperament and perceived tempo and loudness of music

The relationship between the listener's temperament and perceived magnitude of tempo and loudness of music was studied using the techniques of magnitude production, magnitude estimation scaling and cross‐modal matching. Four piano pieces were presented at several levels of tempo and loudness. In Study 1, participants adjusted tempo and loudness of music to their subjective level of comfort. In Study 2, participants estimated these parameters on a numerical scale and matched the length of a line segment to the estimates of these musical features. The results showed significant correlations of selected aspects of perceived tempo with perseveration and endurance as well as of selected aspects of perceived loudness with endurance and emotional reactivity. Perceived tempo and loudness, as measured by magnitude production and cross‐modal matching tasks, do not seem to systematically correlate with the six formal characteristics of behaviour distinguished in the most recent version of the Regulative Theory of Temperament (RTT). Additionally, there is some evidence that they are selectively associated with reactivity and activity, the dimensions of a previous version of the RTT. The study extends the methodology of research on music preferences and the stimulatory value of music. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Validating self-report measures of state and trait anxiety against a physiological measure

While anxiety research frequently uses only self-report measures to assess dimensions of state and trait anxiety, the present study sought to corroborate these self-report measures using a physiological measure, namely heart rate. Another aim of the present study was to test the multidimensional interaction model of anxiety in a social evalua-tion situation (i.e., a seminar presentation), using a physiological measure of state anxiety. Graduate psychology students completed a state anxiety questionnaire and were attached to a heart rate recorder prior to a class seminar presentation. One week later, students completed trait and state anxiety questionnaires and were again at-tached to a heart rate recorder prior to seminar observation by others. Heart rate was elevated during seminar presentation relative to seminar observation, reached maxi-mum values during the first 15 minutes of seminar presentation and then decreased over time. State anxiety scores indicate that participants were experiencing consider-ably more anxiety just before presenting the seminar than just before observing a seminar. Heart rate during seminar presentation was significantly correlated with self-report state anxiety and self-report social evaluation trait anxiety, but not with seminar grade. Support was found for the multidimensional interaction model of anxiety using the physiological measure (i.e., heart rate). A modified version of this paper was presented at the 101^st Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. This research was supported, in part, by Grant No. 410-94-1473 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to the second author. The authors wish to thank the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine for providing the Medilog recorders. Reprint requests should be sent to Norman S. Endler at the address above.     

Evolution and the science of psychology

The Psychological Record -     

Reaction times and speed-of-processing: Their relationship to timed and untimed measures of intelligence

Eighty-one university students were given a battery of reaction time tests, measuring the speed with which they performed various elementary cognitive processes, and a group test of intelligence which yielded timed and untimed scores. Multiple regression analyses indicated that speed of information-processing was an equally good predictor of timed and untimed intelligence test performance, and that various combinations of speed-of-processing variables accounted for as much as 48% of the variance in intelligence test scores. Different speed-of-processing variables varied relatively systematically in the extent to which they correlated with the individual subtests and scales of the intelligence test.