Contingent associations and the double-function,verbal-discrimination task

Three experiments examined the role of contingent associations in learning double-function, verbal-discrimination lists. Some 15-pair lists of category instances were constructed in such a way that the learning of three contingent associations based on category names would mediate correct performance for all 15 pairs. The first experiment gave no evidence that the three contingencies aided learning. The second experiment showed that subjects could be taught the three contingent associations in isolation and that they could then apply them successfully to the double-function list. To make the contingencies more apparent to the subjects, the category names were used during feedback in the third experiment. The learning was not facilitated by such feedback. It was concluded that the learning observed for the usual double-function list does not involve contingent associations.     

Implicit associational responses produced by words in pairs of unrelated words

The purpose of this study was to determine if implicit associational responses (IARs) occur to individual words presented as pairs for associative learning. The occurrence of IARs was determined by a YES-NO recognition test, and IARs for words presented singly for study provided a base line. For all conditions, false recognitions to assumed IARs occurred; the magnitude was equivalent for words presented for study as pairs as for the same words presented singly. No evidence was found that IARs occurred during the testing phase.     

Perceived frequency of concrete and abstract words

Studies are reported which show that concrete and abstract words of equal objective frequency (based on available , word counts) are not perceived as being equal. The abstract word has greater perceived frequency than the concrete word. The judged variety of contexts in which a word appears correlates very highly with perceived frequency. The results have relevance to the design of learning studies in which concrete and abstract words are used. and also to the interpretation of such experiments.     

“Seeing the Life”: Redefining Self-Worth and Family Roles Among Iraqi Refugee Families Resettled in the United States

Social and geographic displacement is a global phenomenon that precipitates novel stressors and disruptions that intersect with long-standing familial and social roles. Among the displaced are war-torn Iraqi refugee families, who must address these new obstacles in unconventional ways. This study explores how such disruptions have influenced associations between gender and apparent self-worth experienced by Iraqi refugee families upon relocation to the USA. Further, the psychosocial mechanisms requisite of any novel approach to a new social construct are explored and reveal that production in the family is at the core of instability and shifting power dynamics during resettlement, preventing family members from “seeing the life” in the USA that they had envisioned prior to immigration. Over 200 semi-structured qualitative interviews with Iraqi participants and mental health providers were conducted over the course of the study, which demonstrate a plasticity among social roles in the family and community that transcends the notion of a simple role reversal, and illustrate the complex positionalities that families under stress must approximate during such physical and social displacement.     

Pushing Up on the Glass Ceiling of Female Muscularity: Women’s Bodybuilding as Edgework

Women bodybuilders exemplify gendered deviance and risk a social stigma on top of the physical risk of partaking in this demanding sport. In the current study, we utilize Stephen Lyng’s (1990, 2005) theoretical concept of “edgework” to understand what motivates women bodybuilders to engage in this high-risk behavior. Our qualitative analysis of 29 women bodybuilders' responses to open-ended survey questions reveals that the three components of edgework (activity, skill, and sensation) are evident in their training and dietary regimens. Overall, this study offers an important theoretical contribution to the study of women’s bodybuilding while also extending Lyng’s edgework model to this understudied phenomenon.