Integration of melody and text in memory for songs

Two experiments examined whether the memory representation for songs consists of independent or integrated components (melody and text). Subjects heard a serial presentation of excerpts from largely unfamiliar folksongs, followed by a recognition test. The test required subjects to recognize songs, melodies, or texts and consisted of five types of items: (a) exact songs heard in the presentation; (b) new songs; (c) old tunes with new words; (d) new tunes with old words; and (e) old tunes with old words of a different song from the same presentation (‘mismatch songs’). Experiment 1 supported the integration hypothesis: Subjects' recognition of components was higher in exact songs (a) than in songs with familiar but mismatched components (e). Melody recognition, in particular, was near chance unless the original words were present. Experiment 2 showed that this integration of melody and text occurred also across different performance renditions of a song and that it could not be eliminated by voluntary attention to the melody.     

Awe and guilt: Desirability and feasibility appeals in social media green campaigns

As the world has become increasingly concerned about environmental plastic pollution, private and public sectors remain devoted to creating effective green marketing campaigns on social media platforms. Drawing upon construal level theory and appraisal tendency theory, this research examines the interaction effect of green ad appeals and two distinct emotions—awe and guilt—on consumers' social media engagement and pro-environmental intentions. The findings from two experimental studies demonstrate that when individuals experience awe, desirability (vs. feasibility) message appeals generate stronger engagement in social media green campaigns. In contrast, it was found that when individuals experience guilt, feasibility (vs. desirability) message appeals enhance social media engagement and pro-environmental behaviors more effectively. This research offers novel theoretical contributions to the existing body of literature and provides practical insights by suggesting that awe and guilt act as moderators leading to greater consumer responses when used with matching social media messages promoting green campaigns.     

The mood effect: How mood,disclosure language and ad skepticism influence the effectiveness of native advertising

This research investigated the interplay between mood, disclosure language, and ad skepticism on consumers' recognition and evaluation of native advertising. During two online experiments, participants first received a mood manipulation and then read an article-style native advertisement. Results from both studies indicated that participants were more likely to recognize a native ad with an explicit rather than an implicit disclosure label, and a negative mood was more likely than a positive mood to drive participants to recognize the native ad. More importantly, participants in a positive mood evaluated a native ad with an implicit disclosure more favorably than an ad with an explicit disclosure. By contrast, participants in a negative mood responded more positively to a native ad with explicit disclosure compared to an ad with implicit disclosure. Study 2 demonstrated that the interaction between mood and disclosure language was further moderated by individuals' levels of ad skepticism. These results are believed to provide meaningful theoretical and practical implications to the field of native advertising and consumer behavior.     

Book Reviews

S idney L evin and R alph J. K ahana (Eds). Psychodynamic studies on ageing
H ans D ieckmann : Probleme der Lebensmitte—Krise, Umkehr, Neubeginn     

Effects of an Accelerated Reading Course on SAT-V Scores

3 groups of university freshmen took the SAT-V before and after a course in Accelerated Reading. The mean post-test scores for 2 groups increased slightly less than 10 points, while the mean post-test score for the third group decreased significantly. It is concluded that for the type of students used in this study, a course emphasizing speed and accuracy of reading is not of value in increasing scores on the verbal part of the Scholastic Aptitude Test.     

Interference with memory for lifted weight

An adaptation-level model for memory was tested by interpolating different weights between the standard and comparison weights. The results suggest that the model should be modified to account for the general tendency to use alternative categories of judgment with equal frequency. In terms of the modified model, memory for the standard shifts toward the value of the interfering stimulus, the magnitude of shift being proportional to the difference between the interfering stimulus and the value the memory would otherwise have had.     

PIGEONS ARE SENSITIVE TO THE SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF COMPLEX VISUAL STIMULI

Abstract— Two experiments investigated the role of spatial organisation in the discrimination and generalization of complex visual stimuli by pigeons. In Experiment 1, after pigeons had been trained to discriminate line drawings of four objects, they were tested with novel pictures in which the same component parts of the objects were spatially rearranged. The spatially scrambled pictures led to a dramatic drop in recognition accuracy, hut responding remained above chance. In Experiment 2, pigeons reached a high level of discriminative performance when required to choose among four different spatial arrangements of the same object parts. These results confirm Cerella's (1980) conclusion that pigeons discriminate the component parts of complex visual stimuli, but. unless it is assumed that the scrambling deleted or created emergent features, the results disconfirm his conclusion that spatial organization plays no role in pigeons' picture perception.