Embodied Cognition and Humor: The Impact of Weight Sensations on Humor Experience and the Moderating Role of Gender

Research in the field of embodied cognition has shown that incidental weight sensations influence people’s evaluation of different issues. The present study expands the scope of weight-related embodiment research and investigates whether experienced funniness of cartoons is affected by haptic sensorimotor experiences. We found an interaction between gender and weight sensations (light versus heavy clipboard) on the experienced funniness of nonsense cartoons. The experienced funniness in male recipients was enhanced by heaviness, but this effect was reversed in the group of females. The effect was also present when inferring the funniness experience of other recipients. Moreover, the participants’ general mood was worsened by heaviness. Weight did not affect the extent to which serious social issues are considered with humor, but men showed a stronger tendency to do so. Overall, the results expand the current scope in embodiment research, highlight the necessity to consider inter-individual differences in this field and introduce new aspects to humor research.     

Teaching Mathematics for Spatial Justice: An Investigation of the Lottery

This article explores integrating place-based education with critical mathematics toward teaching mathematics for spatial justice. Local Lotto, a curricular module with associated digital tools, was designed to investigate the lottery as a critical spatial phenomenon and piloted in urban high schools. This article describes findings from the second iteration in a remedial class in a low-income neighborhood. The research questions consider how the spatial focus supported the learning of mathematics and provided opportunities for students to think critically about the lottery using that mathematics. Findings include student interest in and engagement with the theme of the lottery familiar from outside of school with associated social justice implications. Students used mathematics and spatial evidence, at various levels of spatial scale, to support arguments about the lottery with greater success at narrower levels of scale. Suggestions about further innovations to scaffold place in a “critical pedagogy of place” in mathematics are provided.     

Differential roles for hippocampal areas CA1 and CA3 in the contextual encoding and retrieval of extinguished fear

Recent studies demonstrate that context-specific memory retrieval after extinction requires the hippocampus. However, the contribution of hippocampal subfields to the context-dependent expression of extinction is not known. In the present experiments, we examined the roles of areas CA1 and CA3 of the dorsal hippocampus in the context specificity of extinction. After pairing an auditory conditional stimulus (CS) with an aversive footshock (unconditional stimulus or US), rats received extinction sessions in which the CS was presented without the US. In Experiment 1, pretraining neurotoxic lesions in either CA1 or CA3 eliminated the context dependence of extinguished fear. In Experiment 2, lesions of CA1 or CA3 were made after extinction training. In this case, only CA1 lesions impaired the context dependence of extinction. Collectively, these results reveal that both hippocampal areas CA1 and CA3 contribute to the acquisition of context-dependent extinction, but that only area CA1 is required for contextual memory retrieval.     

Interference control in preschoolers: factors influencing performance on the day–night task

Two experiments investigated preschoolers' interference control in variants of the day–night task. The day–night task involves instructing children across 16 trials to say the word ‘day’ when viewing a card depicting a nighttime sky and to say ‘night’ when shown a picture of the daytime sky. The purpose of the experiments was to investigate whether the depiction on each card distracts children because it is semantically associated with the instructed response or because the depicted item cues the alternative (incorrect) response within the response set. The results in the first study (N=23, M=52.65 months) and second study (N=54, M=50.81 months) indicate that a close semantic relation between the picture and the target response does not pose substantial interference for preschoolers. In contrast, the pictured item poses a significant challenge for preschoolers when it depicts the interfering alternative in the response set. Theoretical implications of these results for the development of interference control are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The central nucleus of the amygdala is essential for acquiring and expressing conditional fear after overtraining

The basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) is critical for the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats. Nonetheless, rats with neurotoxic BLA lesions can acquire conditional fear after overtraining (75 trials). The capacity of rats with BLA lesions to acquire fear memory may be mediated by the central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA). To examine this issue, we examined the influence of neurotoxic CEA lesions or reversible inactivation of the CEA on the acquisition and expression of conditional freezing after overtraining in rats. Rats with pretraining CEA lesions (whether alone or in combination with BLA lesions) did not acquire conditional freezing to either the conditioning context or an auditory conditional stimulus after extensive overtraining. Similarly, post-training lesions of the CEA or BLA prevented the expression of overtrained fear. Lastly, muscimol infusions into the CEA prevented both the acquisition and the expression of overtrained fear, demonstrating that the effects of CEA lesions are not likely due to the destruction of en passant axons. These results suggest that the CEA is essential for conditional freezing after Pavlovian fear conditioning. Moreover, overtraining may engage a compensatory fear conditioning circuit involving the CEA in animals with damage to the BLA.     

Women outperform men in distinguishing between authentic and nonauthentic smiles

Women tend to be more accurate in decoding facial expressions than men. We hypothesized that women’s better performance in decoding facial expressions extends to distinguishing between authentic and nonauthentic smiles. We showed participants portrait photos of persons who smiled because either they saw a pleasant picture (authentic smile) or were instructed to smile by the experimenter (nonauthentic smile) and asked them to identify the smiles. Participants judged single photos of persons depicting either an authentic or a nonauthentic smile, and they judged adjacent photos of the same person depicting an authentic smile and a nonauthentic smile. Women outperformed men in identifying the smiles when judging the adjacent photos. We discuss implications for judging smile authenticity in real life and limitations for the observed sex difference.     

A Matter of Life and Death: Understanding Continuing Bonds and Post-traumatic Growth When Young Adults Experience the Loss of a Close Friend

Young adults establish networks of friends for companionship, support, assistance, and resource exchange. Friends have been found to play an essential role in promoting young adults’ health and well-being. Yet, relatively little is known about how young adults cope with the death of a close friend. Studies of grief and bereavement in adulthood focus primarily on the death of a family member. In the present qualitative study, we examined the narrative accounts of 20 young adults (ages 21–34) to describe the prevalence and nature of continuing bonds and post-traumatic growth experiences in coping with the death of a close friend. Participants completed semi-structured interviews in which they described the circumstances of their friend’s death, the nature of their friendship, whether and how they continued their relationship with their deceased friend, and the impact of their friend’s death in their everyday lives. Overall, young adults articulated ways that they continued their relationship with the deceased friend that included personal communication, personal change, and homage activities. Post-traumatic growth experiences as a result of their friend’s death included behavioral changes and personal changes in outlook. The narratives of all participants reflected their simultaneous experience of continuing relationship ties with the deceased and a sense of personal growth as a result of their friend’s death. We report areas of overlap and distinctions between expressions of continuing bonds and post-traumatic growth in the lived experience of young adults coping with the loss of a friend. Implications of findings for future research are discussed.