The role of attention in the associative binding of emotionally arousing words

In the present study, we examined the role of attention in modulating the memory benefit of emotional arousal for same-valence word pair associations. To assess the role of attention either at encoding or at retrieval, participants studied lists of positive, neutral, and negative words pairs under full attention, divided attention at encoding, or divided attention at retrieval, and then were tested on the single words and on the associations between words. Consistent with past studies, memory accuracy was higher for emotional items than for neutral items, and no memory difference was observed across emotional arousal conditions for associations when encoding occurred under full attention. In contrast, memory accuracy was higher for emotionally arousing items and associations relative to neutral items when encoding occurred under divided attention. Finally, dividing attention at retrieval revealed similar effects across emotion conditions, suggesting that retrieval of emotional stimuli relative to neutral stimuli, unlike encoding, does not benefit from automatic processing. The discussion emphasizes the role of automatic processing during encoding in producing the benefit of emotionally enhanced memory, as well as the extent to which controlled attention is responsible for eliminating or reversing (relative to neutral materials) emotionally enhanced memory for associations. Additionally, the implications of the divided-attention-at-retrieval manipulation include consideration of the way in which emotional items may be consciously processed during encoding.     

Personal factors related to compassion fatigue in health professionals

This study examines the role of some personal and professional factors in compassion fatigue among health-care professionals. Research participants included 182 (89 mental and 93 medical) health-care professionals who completed an assessment battery measuring compassion fatigue, emotion management, trait emotional intelligence, situation-specific coping strategies, and negative affect. Major findings indicate that both self-report “trait” emotional intelligence and ability-based emotion management are inversely associated with compassion fatigue; adaptive coping is inversely related to compassion fatigue; and differences exist between mental and medical professions in emotional intelligence, coping strategies, and negative affect. Furthermore, problem-focused coping appears to mediate the association between trait emotional intelligence and compassion fatigue. These findings shed light on the role of emotional factors in compassion fatigue among health-care professionals. Beyond enhancing our knowledge of practitioners' professional quality of life, the current study serves as a basis for the early identification of groups of practitioners at risk for compassion fatigue.     

Knowledge and Action,Reason and Habit,in Jewish and Muslim Philosophies of Education

Jewish and Muslim philosophers, alike, regarded the formation of proper habits to be the key to effective education. They also considered rational acceptance of religious obligation to be mandatory for successful observance. This essay examines the relationship between these two dimensions of religious education: knowledge and reason on the one hand, and habit and action on the other hand, in the philosophical and pedagogical works of Abu Hāmid al-Ghazāli (1058–1111,) Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), and the anonymous Sefer Ha-Hinnukh (13th century).     

Big fish in big ponds: A multilevel analysis of test anxiety and achievement in special gifted classes

Abstract

This study analyzes the effects of individual achievement and achievement level of student reference group on test anxiety in a national sample of 769 gifted Israeli students (grade levels 4–9), which was previously investigated by Zeidner and Schleyer (1999a). We hypothesized that when controlling for individual achievement, students’ experiences of test anxiety should increase with the increasing ability level of their peer reference group. It was assumed that this effect was largely mediated by reference group effects on academic self-concept (big-fish-little-pond effect). Zeidner and Schleyer found that gifted students within a gifted peer reference group showed higher levels of test anxiety than gifted students within a non-gifted peer reference group. Of note, the present study focused exclusively on gifted students attending special gifted classes. The main research question was whether or not the assumed effects of individual and class achievement can be found for gifted students in special gifted classes when taking the variance of achievement level (grades) of the special gifted classes into account. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) methodology, the assumed effects were vindicated for this special group of high ability students. Thus, in line with previous results, the Worry component of test anxiety was more highly reactive to the effects of individual achievement than the Emotionality component. Also, in line with our theoretical assumptions, achievement/anxiety relations were largely mediated by the effects of academic self-concept.     

Anxiety and bodily symptoms under the threat of missile attacks: The israeli scene

Abstract

The present research, conducted in Israel during the recent “Desert Storm” operation in the Gulf, sets out to assess the degree of anxiety and bodily symptoms of Israeli citizens, threatened by Scud missile attacks and undergoing a period of acute stress. Data were gathered via questionnaires distributed during the crisis period to over 500 respondents, most of them residing in Haifa, one of the high-risk areas for the missile attacks at the time. State anxiety was reported to be highly elevated during the crisis period, in comparison with norm group data collected during normal times. The most frequently reported bodily symptoms were changes in eating habits (loss of appetite or overeating), fatigue, and insomnia. Women reported more anxiety and bodily symptoms, on average, than men, as well as higher tension, fear and depression. The younger adults in the sample reported more anxiety and bodily symptoms, as well as tension, fear and depression, than their older counterparts. Lower levels of fear and depression were reported at the later stages of the crisis than at the earlier ones; most stress indicators evidenced lower levels with the passage of time. Finally, a strong positive relationship between anxiety and bodily symptoms was found, over and above the contribution of background variables and response tendencies. The possible explanations for the effects of background variables, as well as the strong relationship between anxiety and symptoms reported, are discussed.     

Age-Related Differences in Cued Recall: Effects of Support at Encoding and Retrieval

The literature is unclear about the relative contributions of environmental supporting conditions to younger and older adults’ episodic memory performance. The work reported addresses the conditions under which different support patterns are obtained. In three experiments, younger and older adults learned picture-word pairs and were then tested with a cued-recall task. Supportive conditions included semantic relations between the pair members (all experiments), and first-letter cues for the target words at retrieval (Experiments 2 and 3). Results of the three experiments indicated different patterns of support for younger and older adults, depending on the number and location of the supporting conditions used. These different patterns are in line with the suggestion that whereas younger adults benefit substantially from support at encoding only, older adults require support at both encoding and retrieval. Alternative accounts of the results are also discussed.     

Does Test Anxiety Bias Scholastic Aptitude Test Performance by Gender and Sociocultural Group?

This study examines the commonly held contention that test anxiety may serve as a source of bias in the scholastic aptitude test performance of gender and ethnic minority groups. In addition, this study examines sex and sociocultural group differences in the level and pattern of test anxiety among Israeli college students. The sample was composed of 163 male and 198 female students sitting for scholastic aptitude tests routinely administered to all student applicants as part of their college admissions procedures. About 67% were of Western cultural extraction whereas the remainder were of Eastern extraction. Significant differences in text anxiety scores for males and females were observed, with greater sex group differentiation on the Emotionality than on the Worry scale. Test anxiety scores were not discernible by ethnicity or social class. Furthermore, test anxiety was not differentially related to aptitude test scores by sex or sociocultural group membership. Thus, this study lends little evidence to the common contention that test anxiety differentially debilitates the aptitude test scores of females and ethnic minority student candidates.     

ISRAELI MOBILIZATION AND THE OVERSEAS VOLUNTEERS IN THE SIX-DAY WAR

This article examines the mobilization of the Israeli home front and the overseas volunteering movement that began in May 1967 and continued through the summer of 1968. The mobilization in the Six-Day War included manifestations of solidarity and volunteering in diverse fields. The Israeli government and the Histadrut sent volunteers to frontier communities and raised funds from the public to finance the war. The movement included World Jewry, which also participated in fundraising through an emergency campaign and sent thousands of volunteers to Israel. The goal of the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency to transform the volunteering movement into a Jewish immigration movement to Israel and to strengthen the bond between Israel and World Jewry, shaped the character of this movement. The article examines the character of this movement and discusses the nature of the encounter between the overseas volunteers and Israeli society.     

Is the emotional Stroop task a special case of mood induction? Evidence from sustained effects of attention under emotion

Sustained effects of emotion are well known in everyday experience. Surprisingly, such effects are seldom recorded in laboratory studies of the emotional Stroop task, in which participants name the color of emotion and neutral words. Color performance is more sluggish with emotion words than with neutral words, the emotional Stroop effect (ESE). The ESE is not sensitive to the order in which the two groups of words are presented, so the effect of exposure to emotion words does not extend to disrupting performance in a subsequent block with neutral words. We attribute this absence of a sustained effect to habituation engendered by excessive repetition of the experimental stimuli. In a series of four experiments, we showed that sustained effects do occur when habituation is removed, and we also showed that the massive exposure to negative stimuli within the ESE paradigm induces a commensurately negative mood. A novel perspective is offered, in which the ESE is considered a special case of mood induction.     

Sensitivity of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (64-Card Version) versus the Tower of London (Drexel Version) for detecting executive dysfunction in children with epilepsy

Executive function deficits are common in children and adolescents with epilepsy. Though the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) is often considered the “gold standard” for executive function assessment, its sensitivity—particularly in the case of the 64-card version (WCST-64)—is insufficiently established in pediatric samples, including children and adolescents with epilepsy. The present investigation assesses the sensitivity of the WCST-64 in children and adolescents with epilepsy in comparison to another measure: the Tower of London – Drexel Version (TOL-DX). A total of 88 consecutively referred children and adolescents with epilepsy were administered both the WCST-64 and TOL-DX as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. The sensitivity of WCST-64 and TOL-DX variables were established and relations with epilepsy severity measures and other executive function measures were assessed. Of the WCST-64 variables, Perseverative Responses is the most sensitive, but detected executive function impairment in only 19% of this clinically referred sample; in contrast, the TOL-DX Rule Violations detected executive function impairment in half of the sample. Further, TOL-DX performances are more strongly related to epilepsy severity variables and other executive function measures in comparison to the WCST-64. Despite its popularity amongst clinicians, the WCST-64 is not as sensitive to executive dysfunction in comparison to other measures of comparable administration time, such as the TOL-DX.