Brief wakeful resting boosts new memories over the long term

A brief wakeful rest after new verbal learning enhances memory for several minutes. In the research reported here, we explored the possibility of extending this rest-induced memory enhancement over much longer periods. Participants were presented with two stories; one story was followed by a 10-min period of wakeful resting, and the other was followed by a 10-min period during which participants played a spot-the-difference game. In Experiment 1, wakeful resting led to significant enhancement of memory after a 15- to 30-min period and also after 7 days. In Experiment 2, this striking enhancement of memory 7 days after learning was demonstrated even when no retrievals were imposed in the interim. The degree to which people can remember prose after 7 days is significantly affected by the cognitive activity that they engage in shortly after new learning takes place. We propose that wakeful resting after new learning allows new memory traces to be consolidated better and hence to be retained for much longer.     

Moral and Group‐based Criteria in Children's Evaluation of Peers after Transgressions

The present study investigated how group membership criteria and moral understanding can affect children's evaluations of peers after different types of transgressions. In all, the study included 47 participants attending a junior school in Cornwall. All participants were allocated to an in‐group and responded to a number of questions which tested intergroup bias and the differential evaluation of norm‐violating peers from the in‐group and the out‐group. Overall, moral transgressions (physical and relational aggression) were evaluated more negatively than a social‐conventional transgression. However, those who violated group norms by expressing positive attitudes towards the out‐group were viewed differently depending on both moral and group‐based criteria. These different criteria for evaluating peers were uncorrelated. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Body dissatisfaction from adolescence to young adulthood: Findings from a 10-year longitudinal study

Given mixed findings regarding the unique trajectories of female and male adolescents’ body dissatisfaction over time, comprehensive longitudinal examinations are needed. This 10-year longitudinal, population-based study, with 1902 participants from diverse ethnic/racial and socioeconomic backgrounds in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, examined changes in body dissatisfaction from adolescence to young adulthood. Results revealed that: (a) female and male participants’ body dissatisfaction increased between middle and high school, (b) body dissatisfaction increased further during the transition to young adulthood, and (c) this increase was associated with an increase in BMI over time, such that the upward trend in body dissatisfaction became nonsignificant when BMI was controlled. These results highlight a trend in which diverse female and male youth are increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies as their BMI increases from middle school to young adulthood, and emphasize the need for targeted prevention efforts to intervene in this trajectory and mitigate potential harm.     

Achievement Motivation and Coping Behavior of Normal and Problematic Preadolescent Kibbutz Children

The achievement motive (n Ach) of 183 kibbutz children aged 9–14, of whom 62 were considered problematic, was investigated. The n Ach score, derived from responses to TAT-like cards, was highly related to the child's hierarchical status within his social age group, as assessed by teachers and peers in areas of skill and known criteria of excellence, but not to his ability to deal with undefined or chance situations. Normal girls, especially those reared in a consistent reinforcement system, scored significantly higher than normal boys and problematic children.     

Self-conscious emotions and self-regulation in the promotion of condom use

Two prospective studies examined the self-regulatory role of anticipated negative self-conscious emotions (ANSCE) in the theory of planned behavior. In Study 1, 147 undergraduates reported condom attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, ANSCE (shame and guilt) should they not use condoms, and intentions to use condoms during the coming 6 weeks. At a 6-week follow-up, ANSCE predicted condom use intentions and behavior and partially mediated the effect of attitudes and norms on both. Study 2 experimentally tested the social nature of self-consciousness in ANSCE; 61 female undergraduates read a scenario priming the private-self or social-self or were assigned to a no-scenario control. They reported condom attitudes, perceived control, ANSCE, condom use intentions, and a 6-week follow-up. ANSCE again predicted condom use intentions. A test of moderated mediation indicated that ANSCE influenced condom intentions more in the social-self condition than in the control condition. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Focusing and restricting: two aspects of motivational selectivity in adulthood

Using a short-term longitudinal design, the authors investigated implications of 2 facets of motivational selectivity--restricting (to few goals) and focusing (on central and similar goals)--for goal-pursuit investment. Participants were 20-69 years old (Time 1, N = 177; Time 2, N = 160). Results show that motivational selectivity in terms of focusing (but not in terms of restricting) is associated with an enhanced involvement in goal pursuit (assessed 3 months later), irrespective of age. Structural equation models demonstrated that this association is completely mediated by the degree of mutual facilitation among goals. Furthermore, motivational selectivity increases from middle to older adulthood. This contributes to the maintenance of high goal involvement into later adulthood, despite aging-related increases in resource limitations.     

Memory consolidation for the discrimination of frequency-modulated tones in mongolian gerbils is sensitive to protein-synthesis inhibitors applied to the auditory cortex

Differential conditioning of Mongolian gerbils to linearly frequency-modulated tones (FM) has recently received experimental attention. In the study of the role of cerebral protein synthesis for FM discrimination memory, gerbils received post-training bilateral injections of anisomycin into the auditory cortex under light halothane anesthesia. Compared with saline-treated controls, anisomycin-treated gerbils showed a discrimination decrement during the subsequent three days of training. They markedly improved their performance within training sessions, but started each session at low levels. When repeatedly trained gerbils received post-session injections of anisomycin, discrimination performance during subsequent sessions was similar to the pre-injection performance, indicating that retention, retrieval, reconsolidation, and expression of the established reaction were not affected. However, the improvement of a partially established discrimination reaction was impaired after this treatment. Intracortical injections of emetine confirmed this finding. Neither drug affected FM discrimination learning when given several days before the initial training. Our results suggest that protein-synthesis inhibitors applied to the auditory cortex of gerbils during the post-acquisition phase interfered with learning and memory-related aspects of FM processing. The resulting deficit was evident for a number of post-injection training days. This effect was probably due to impaired consolidation, i.e., processes required for long-term stabilization or retrieval of the memory trace while leaving short-term memory intact.     

Finiteness and verb-second in German agrammatism

This study presents results from sentence-completion and grammaticality-judgement tasks with seven German-speaking agrammatic aphasics and seven age-matched control subjects examining verb finiteness marking and verb-second (V2) placement. The patients were found to be selectively impaired in tense marking in the face of preserved mood and agreement marking. Moreover, our results revealed that V2 scores varied across our patients, with some showing impaired and others preserved V2 performance. These findings will be discussed in the light of different syntactic accounts of agrammatism.     

“They'll take a gun to me before I get that shot”: Rationalization,emotions, and misinformation in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy

Vaccine hesitancy—the reluctance, delay, or refusal to vaccinate regardless of availability—is not a new concept in psychology, medicine, or public health. However, given the emotions surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine, hesitancy has proven difficult to overcome. To-date, the bulk of available data on vaccine hesitancy are quantitative, leaving room for exploratory investigations into the reasons adults remain unvaccinated. This qualitative study assessed the motivations, beliefs, and perceptions of individuals who have decided to remain unvaccinated against COVID-19. We had one exploratory research question: What social psychological justifications emerge from vaccine hesitant people's explanations of their decisions to remain unvaccinated? To assess this question, we conducted 18 interviews with unvaccinated adults throughout 2021–2022. The interviews consisted of 20 questions regarding participants' perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine and their intentions to get vaccinated. Thematic analysis revealed four main themes in the answers provided by participants: rationalization; identity, beliefs and potential modifiers; emotional responses; and information sources. These results offer insight for future vaccination efforts.