Acquisition of joint attention by olive baboons gesturing toward humans

Animal Cognition - Joint attention is a core ability of human social cognition which broadly refers to the coordination of attention with both the presence and activity of social partners. In both...     

Anthropomorphizing brands: The role of attributed brand traits in interactive CSR communication and consumer online endorsements

Consumers tend to relate to brands in similar ways as they relate to individuals and groups. However, relatively little is known about the attribution of human traits to brands in online contexts. The current research focused on the role of attributed brand traits in interactive corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and positive electronic word‐of‐mouth intentions. Results of an online survey (N = 174) revealed that higher levels of perceived interactivity were associated with stronger attributions of morality, sociability, and competence traits to brands. Yet only attributed brand morality was associated with consumers' willingness to endorse the brand and its CSR message on social networking sites. These findings underline the importance of brands' openness to dialogue regarding the promotion of CSR activities. Furthermore, these findings suggest that consumers are most likely to feel that brands can represent their identity when brand morality is considered to be high.     

Remembering specific features of emotional events across time: The role of REM sleep and prefrontal theta oscillations

When an episode of emotional significance is encountered, it often results in the formation of a highly resistant memory representation that is easily retrieved for many succeeding years. Recent research shows that beyond generic consolidation processes, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep importantly contributes to this effect. However, the boundary conditions of consolidation processes during REM sleep, specifically whether these extend to source memory, have not been examined extensively. The current study tested the effects of putative consolidation processes emerging during REM sleep and slow wave sleep (SWS) on item and source memory of negative and neutral images, respectively. Results demonstrate superior emotional relative to neutral item memory retention after both late night REM sleep and early night SWS. Emotional source memory, on the other hand, exhibited an attenuated decline following late night REM sleep, whereas neutral source memory was selectively preserved across early night SWS. This pattern of results suggests a selective preservation of emotional source memory during REM sleep that is functionally dissociable from SWS-dependent reprocessing of neutral source memory. This was further substantiated by a neurophysiological dissociation: Postsleep emotional source memory was selectively correlated with frontal theta lateralization (REM sleep), whereas postsleep neutral item memory was correlated with SWS spindle power. As such, the present results contribute to a more comprehensive characterization of sleep-related consolidation mechanisms underlying emotional and neutral memory retention. Subsidiary analysis of emotional reactivity to previously encoded material revealed an enhancing rather than attenuating effect of late night REM sleep on emotional responses.     

Secondary traumatic stress in emergency medicine clinicians

Previously called Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS), secondary exposure to trauma is now considered a valid DSM-5 Criterion A stressor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous studies have found high rates of STS in clinicians who treat traumatically injured patients. However, little research has examined STS among Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs). The current study enrolled EM providers (N = 118) working in one of 10 hospitals to examine risk factors, protective factors, and the prevalence of STS in this understudied population. Most of the participants were physicians (72.9%), Caucasian (85.6%), and male (70.3%) with mean age of 39.7 (SD = 8.9). Overall, 12.7% of the sample screened positive for STS with clinical levels of intrusion, arousal, and avoidance symptom clusters, and 33.9% had at least one symptom cluster at clinical levels. Low resilience and a history of personal trauma were positively associated with positive STS screens and STS severity scores. Borderline significance suggested that female gender and spending ≥10% of one’s time with trauma patients could be additional risk factors. Findings suggest that resilience-building interventions may be beneficial.     

The effect of feedback on children’s metacognitive judgments: a heuristic account

In three experiments, we investigated whether the feedback effect on the accuracy of children’s metacognitive judgments results from an improvement in monitoring processes or the use of the Anchoring-and-Adjustment heuristic. Experiment 1 revealed that adding feedback increased the accuracy of young children’s (aged 4, 6, and 8 years) memory prediction. In Experiment 2, the influence of an external anchor on children’s metacognitive judgment was established. Finally, in Experiment 3, two memory tasks that differed in terms of difficulty were administered. Participants were randomly assigned to an anchoring (high/low/no anchor) and a feedback (feedback/no feedback) condition. Results demonstrated that children in the feedback condition adjusted their predictions toward the feedback, regardless of the task’s difficulty. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that external information provided by feedback is used as an anchor for judgment. This interpretation is strengthened by the correlation found between the two scores computed to assess participants’ susceptibility to anchoring and feedback effects, which indicates that children who are more sensitive to the anchoring effect are also more sensitive to the feedback effect.     

Compassion Predictors in Undergraduates: A Catholic College Example

Compassion is sorely needed in contemporary society, including within faith-based colleges. Past research has examined the prevention of compassion fatigue in healthcare professions, but relatively little research exists on the predictors of compassion, particularly among student populations. This study examines the factors associated with higher compassion levels in graduating college seniors, revealing demographic, experiential, and belief-related factors contributing to compassion. Results suggest that the general profile of a highly compassionate graduating college senior is a student who is female, politically liberal, religious, studying the natural or social sciences, actively involved in community service or volunteering, and who has undergone workshops on racial/cultural awareness and sensitivity.     

Political Tolerance and Religion: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis, 1984–2014

Using data from the 1984–2014 General Social Survey, we employ cross classified random effects models to examine age-period-cohort changes in political tolerance by religion, incorporating religious belief, belonging, and behavior into the analyses. The results show large cohort and period based changes in political tolerance of the various religious traditions. The results also suggest that the primary driver of changes over time in political tolerance is best attributed to period effects, not cohort replacement, although there is some evidence of a cohort effect among Roman Catholics. Finally, our results demonstrate that aggregate data analyses can lead to noticeably different results and thus can mask substantial differences between groups.     

Offender Characteristics: A Study of 23 Violent Offenders in Sweden

Twenty-three offenders convicted of homicide or attempted murder/manslaughter, and their respective crimes, were examined to identify any common characteristics. Court documents were assessed, and the most prominent information of the offenders was that they were often single, most of them had no psychiatric diagnoses, the most frequent modus operandi was a knife or sharp weapon (although firearms resulted in more homicides), and the most common homicide typology was domestic disputes, and disputes between friends or acquaintances. Based on a cluster analysis, two profiles emerged: one with so-called traditional criminals and another profile over-represented with offenders who commit domestic crimes.