And one more for the road: Commentary on the Special Issue on alcohol and eyewitness memory

Studies examining the influence of alcohol intoxication have reported mixed findings on whether it impairs eyewitness memory. Although the studies in this Special Issue investigated different questions and tested different variables, the findings of these studies collectively provide insight into mechanisms and methodological issues that may explain the ambiguous findings of alcohol intoxication and eyewitness memory. In this commentary, we first describe the experimental studies of this Special Issue. We then discuss four mechanisms that could underlie those mixed findings (alcohol myopia, disinhibition, hypervigilance, and metacognitive processes at retrieval). Last, we address methodological issues that may have contributed to those ambiguous findings (i.e., alcohol intoxication levels, automatic processing of stimuli, sensitivity of dependent variables, and possible interactions with arousal) and provide suggestions for future research to address these issues.     

Sleep disturbances and modulations in inflammation: Implications for pregnancy health

When a woman becomes pregnant, there is a vast series of physiological, vascular, and psychological changes. Among the most commonly reported changes are those involving sleep. Pregnant women report that their ability to maintain sleep and acquire continuous refreshing sleep is impaired during the perinatal period as compared to the non‐pregnant period. A growing literature supports the hypothesis that disturbed sleep (which comes in many forms) during the perinatal period is associated with an increased risk of adverse maternal, delivery, and infant outcomes. Among the suggested biological pathways linking sleep and adverse outcomes are disturbances in the immune and hormonal systems. The following paper will discuss (a) the various sleep processes that are commonly disturbed during the perinatal period and the methods used to collect sleep data; (b) the evidence linking sleep to adverse outcomes; and (c) how one specific biological pathway, the immune system, likely mediates these associations. The goal of this paper is to clarify the role that sleep disturbance has during pregnancy.     

Headphone screening to facilitate web-based auditory experiments

Psychophysical experiments conducted remotely over the internet permit data collection from large numbers of participants but sacrifice control over sound presentation and therefore are not widely employed in hearing research. To help standardize online sound presentation, we introduce a brief psychophysical test for determining whether online experiment participants are wearing headphones. Listeners judge which of three pure tones is quietest, with one of the tones presented 180° out of phase across the stereo channels. This task is intended to be easy over headphones but difficult over loudspeakers due to phase-cancellation. We validated the test in the lab by testing listeners known to be wearing headphones or listening over loudspeakers. The screening test was effective and efficient, discriminating between the two modes of listening with a small number of trials. When run online, a bimodal distribution of scores was obtained, suggesting that some participants performed the task over loudspeakers despite instructions to use headphones. The ability to detect and screen out these participants mitigates concerns over sound quality for online experiments, a first step toward opening auditory perceptual research to the possibilities afforded by crowdsourcing.     

Self-concept clarity buffers the impact of societal threat to safety on right-wing authoritarianism

Exposure to societal threat can elicit an increase in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). In this study, using a quasi-experimental vignette design (Italian community sample, N = 86), we tested the moderating role of self-concept clarity (SCC). A moderated regression showed that manipulated societal threat to safety fostered RWA only among low SCC scorers. It is concluded that SCC is an important resource for individuals facing threat conditions.     

Prosocial thinkers and the social transmission of justice

Feeling the sting of another's injustice is a common human experience. We adopt a motivated information processing approach and explore how individual differences in social motives (e.g., high vs. low collectivism) and epistemic motives (e.g., high vs. low need for closure) drive individuals' evaluative and behavioral reactions to the just and unjust treatment of others. In two studies, one in the laboratory (N = 78) and one in the field (N = 163), we find that the justice treatment of others has a more profound influence on the attitudes and behaviors of prosocial thinkers, people who are chronically higher (vs. lower) in collectivism and lower (vs. higher) in the need for closure. In all, our results suggest that chronically higher collectivism and a lower need for closure work in concert to make another's justice relevant to personal judgment and behavior.     

Drug Tolerance, Drug Addiction, and Drug Anticipation

ABSTRACT— Environmental cues associated with drugs often elicit withdrawal symptoms and relapse to drug use. Such cues also modulate drug tolerance. The contribution of drug-associated stimuli to withdrawal and tolerance is emphasized in a Pavlovian-conditioning analysis of drug administration. Conditional responses occur in the presence of cues that have been associated with the drug in the past, such as the setting in which the drug was taken. These conditional responses mediate the expression of tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Recently, it has become apparent that internal predrug cues, as well as environmental cues, elicit pharmacological conditional responses that contribute to tolerance and withdrawal. Such internal cues include cognitive or proprioceptive cues incidental to self-administration, drug-onset cues that are experienced shortly after administration, and emotional cues. According to the conditioning analysis, addiction treatment should incorporate learning principles to extinguish the association between stimuli (environmental and internal) present at the time of drug administration and the effects of the addictive drug.     

Linkages between depressive symptomatology and Internet harassment among young regular Internet users.

Recent reports indicate 97% of youth are connected to the Internet. As more young people have access to online communication, it is integrally important to identify youth who may be more vulnerable to negative experiences. Based upon accounts of traditional bullying, youth with depressive symptomatology may be especially likely to be the target of Internet harassment. The current investigation will examine the cross-sectional relationship between depressive symptomatology and Internet harassment, as well as underlying factors that may help explain the observed association. Youth between the ages of 10 and 17 (N = 1,501) participated in a telephone survey about their Internet behaviors and experiences. Subjects were required to have used the Internet at least six times in the previous 6 months to ensure a minimum level of exposure. The caregiver self-identified as most knowledgeable about the young person's Internet behaviors was also interviewed. The odds of reporting an Internet harassment experience in the previous year were more than three times higher (OR: 3.38, CI: 1.78, 6.45) for youth who reported major depressive symptomatology compared to mild/absent symptomatology. When female and male respondents were assessed separately, the adjusted odds of reporting Internet harassment for males who also reported DSM IV symptoms of major depression were more than three times greater (OR: 3.64, CI: 1.16, 11.39) than for males who indicated mild or no symptoms of depression. No significant association was observed among otherwise similar females. Instead, the association was largely explained by differences in Internet usage characteristics and other psychosocial challenges. Internet harassment is an important public mental health issue affecting youth today. Among young, regular Internet users, those who report DSM IV-like depressive symptomatology are significantly more likely to also report being the target of Internet harassment. Future studies should focus on establishing the temporality of events, that is, whether young people report depressive symptoms in response to the negative Internet experience, or whether symptomatology confers risks for later negative online incidents. Based on these cross-sectional results, gender differences in the odds of reporting an unwanted Internet experience are suggested, and deserve special attention in future studies.