Effects of prime task on affective priming by facial expressions of emotion

Priming of affective word evaluation by pictures of faces showing positive and negative emotional expressions was investigated in two experiments that used a double task procedure where participants were asked to respond to the prime or to the target on different trials. The experiments varied between-subjects the prime task assignment and the prime-target interval (SOA, stimulus onset asynchrony). Significant congruency effects (that is, faster word evaluation when prime and target had the same valence than when they were of opposite valence) were observed in both experiments. When the prime task oriented the subjects to an affectively irrelevant property of the faces (their gender), priming was observed at SOA 300 ms but not at SOA 1000 ms (Experiment 1). However, when the prime task assignment explicitly oriented the subjects to the valence of the face, priming was observed at both SOA durations (Experiment 2). These results show, first, that affective priming by pictures of facial emotion can be obtained even when the subject has an explicit goal to process a non-affective property of the prime. Second, sensitivity of the priming effect to SOA duration seems to depend on whether it is mediated by intentional or unintentional activation of the valence of the face prime.     

Impact of parenting styles on adolescents' self-esteem and internalization of values in Spain

The relationship of parenting styles with adolescents' outcomes was analyzed within a sample of Spanish adolescents. A sample of 1456 teenagers from 13 to 16 years of age, of whom 54.3% were females, reported on their parents' child-rearing practices. The teenagers' parents were classified into one of four groups (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, or neglectful). The adolescents were then contrasted on two different outcomes: (1) priority given to Schwartz's self-transcendence (universalism and benevolence) and conservation (security, conformity, and tradition) values and (2) level of self-esteem (appraised in five domains: academic, social, emotional, family and physical). The results show that Spanish adolescents from indulgent households have the same or better outcomes than adolescents from authoritative homes. Parenting is related with two self-esteem dimensions--academic and family--and with all the self-transcendence and conservation values. Adolescents of indulgent parents show highest scores in self-esteem whereas adolescents from authoritarian parents obtain the worst results. In contrast, there were no differences between the priority given by adolescents of authoritative and indulgent parents to any of the self-transcendence and conservation values, whereas adolescents of authoritarian and neglectful parents, in general, assign the lowest priority to all of these values.     

Computer speech-based remediation for reading disabilities: the size of spelling-to-sound unit in a transparent orthography

This study was designed to assess the effects of four reading-training procedures for children with reading disabilities (RD) in a transparent orthography, with the aim of examining the effects of different spelling-to-sound units in computer speech-based reading. We selected a sample of 83 Spanish children aged between 7 years 1 month and 10 years 6 months (M = 105.2, SD = 7.8) whose pseudoword reading performance was below the 25th percentile and IQ > 90. The participants were randomly assigned to five groups: (a) the whole-word training group (WW) (n = 17), (b) the syllable training group (S)(n = 16), (c) the onset-rime training group (OR) (n = 17), (d) the phoneme training group (P) (n = 15), and (e) the untrained control group (n = 18). Children were pre- and post-tested in word recognition, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and orthographic and phonological tasks. The results indicate that experimental groups who participated in the phoneme and syllable conditions improved their word recognition in comparison with the control group. In addition, dyslexics who participated in the phoneme, syllable, and onset-rime conditions made a greater number of requests during computer-based word reading under conditions that required extensive phonological computation (low frequency words and long words). Reading time, however, was greater for long words in the phoneme group during computer-based reading. These results suggest the importance of training phonological processes in improving word decoding in children with dyslexia who learn in a consistent orthography.     

Personality: a vulnerability factor in rhinitis?

Personality traits were assessed in 63 patients with persistent allergic or non-allergic rhinitis with the Karolinska Scales of Personality, developed with the aim of measuring psychobiological vulnerability factors, and were compared with a reference group comprising a random sample of 400 sex- and age-stratified subjects. The patients' personality profile differed slightly - within one standard deviation - but significantly from the reference group on a number of factors together suggestive of a disinhibitory disposition, an inclination to express anxiety through somatic rather than psychological channels, difficulties in maintaining emotional distance to others, and a limited awareness of aggressive affect, a pattern that suggests that they expose themselves to more stimulation than they can process in terms of thought and feelings, generating sustained physiological arousal that may contribute to the development of their intolerance reactions.     

On pedagogy

Humans are adapted to spontaneously transfer relevant cultural knowledge to conspecifics and to fast-learn the contents of such teaching through a human-specific social learning system called 'pedagogy' (Csibra & Gergely, 2006). Pedagogical knowledge transfer is triggered by specific communicative cues (such as eye-contact, contingent reactivity, the prosodic pattern of 'motherese', and being addressed by one's own name). Infants show special sensitivity to such 'ostensive' cues that signal the teacher's communicative intention to manifest new and relevant knowledge about a referent object. Pedagogy offers a novel functional perspective to interpret a variety of early emerging triadic communicative interactions between adults and infants about novel objects they are jointly attending to. The currently dominant interpretation of such triadic communications (mindreading) holds that infants interpret others' object-directed manifestations in terms of subjective mental states (such as emotions, dispositions, or intentions) that they attribute to the other person's mind. We contrast the pedagogical versus the mindreading account in a new study testing 14-month-olds' interpretation of others' object-directed emotion expressions observed in a communicative cueing context. We end by discussing the far-reaching implications of the pedagogical perspective for a wide range of early social-cognitive competences, and for providing new directions for future research on child development.     

Experiencing education in the new Christian schools in the United Kingdom: listening to the male graduates

The new independent Christian schools developed by parents and evangelical churches in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s remain controversial among both Christian and secular educators. In response to this controversy, the present study traced 106 men who had graduated from these schools between 1985 and 2003 and analysed their evaluation of the education they had received in these schools within four main themes: the quality of the education, the context of Christian and moral nurture, the quality of relationships (among the pupils, with the teachers and with the wider world) and preparation received for life after leaving school. Although there were some issues of criticism, the balance of opinion among the former pupils within all four areas was generally supportive of the new independent Christian schools, which were generally perceived as having prepared them well for life.     

Lack of strategy holding: A new pattern of learning deficit in cortical dementias

The aim of this study was to demonstrate, by means of systematic research and qualitative data analysis, the presence, among a group of patients with fronto‐temporal lobar degeneration of a subgroup that, at variance with the standard pattern, is able to devise and implement learning strategies, but appear impaired at carrying them on from a trial to the next. In order to provide evidence of the existence of a group of patients showing this type of learning disability, that we refer to as lack of strategy holding, we performed a stepwise hierarchical cluster analysis of a set of variables whose scores were selected from the subject's performance at the Test de Aprendizaje Verbal España‐Complutense. Results substantiate the segregation of three groups of subjects characterized by the following patterns of performance: normal elderly individuals, who show a quite preserved ability to discover a semantic strategy along the learning trials and to carry it from a trial to the next, patients presenting with a deficit in implementing semantic learning strategies and possibly use of serial and/or phonological strategies to perform the task, and to patients who, although able to generate and implement appropriate learning strategies, appear unable to carry them over the learning trials. The presence of this new pattern raises a few questions that seem worth trying to address.     

Symmetrical interaction of sex and expression in face classification tasks

Classification of faces as to their sex or their expression—with sex and expression varying orthogonally—was studied in three experiments. In Experiment 1, expression classification was influenced by sex, with angry male faces being classified faster than angry female faces. Complementarily, sex classification was faster for happy than for angry female faces. In Experiment 2, mutual interaction of sex and expression was also found when the participants were asked to classify top and bottom face segments. In Experiment 3, a face inversion effect was found for both sex and expression classification of whole faces. However, a symmetrical interaction between sex and expression was again found. The results are discussed in terms of configural versus feature processing in the perception of face sex and expression and of their relevance to face perception models that postulate independent processing of different facial features. 2009 The Psychonomic Society, Inc.     

The Reverse-Caricature Effect Revisited: Familiarization With Frontal Facial Caricatures Improves Veridical Face Recognition

Prior research suggests that recognition of a person's face can be facilitated by exaggerating the distinctive features of the face during training. We tested if this 'reverse-caricature effect' would be robust to procedural variations that created more difficult learning environments. Specifically, we examined whether the effect would emerge with frontal rather than three-quarter views, after very brief exposure to caricatures during the learning phase and after modest rotations of faces during the recognition phase. Results indicate that, even under these difficult training conditions, people are more accurate at recognizing unaltered faces if they are first familiarized with caricatures of the faces, rather than with the unaltered faces. These findings support the development of new training methods to improve face recognition.     

The Influence of Social Regard on the Customer–Service Firm Relationship: The Moderating Role of Length of Relationship

Purpose  

The authors examine the influence of employees’ social regard toward the customers on customer satisfaction, trust, and word of mouth. In addition, we analyzed the moderating role of length of relationship between the service provider and the customer on the effects of social regard on the customer relationship outcomes.