Social exclusion impairs self-regulation

Six experiments showed that being excluded or rejected caused decrements in self-regulation. In Experiment 1, participants who were led to anticipate a lonely future life were less able to make themselves consume a healthy but bad-tasting beverage. In Experiment 2, some participants were told that no one else in their group wanted to work with them, and these participants later ate more cookies than other participants. In Experiment 3, excluded participants quit sooner on a frustrating task. In Experiments 4-6, exclusion led to impairment of attention regulation as measured with a dichotic listening task. Experiments 5 and 6 further showed that decrements in self-regulation can be eliminated by offering a cash incentive or increasing self-awareness. Thus, rejected people are capable of self-regulation but are normally disinclined to make the effort.     

Parent Programs for Reducing Adolescent’s Antisocial Behavior and Substance Use: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Two theoretically based parent training programs, delivered in real-world settings by the social services, were examined in this randomized controlled trial for effectiveness in reducing adolescents’ antisocial behavior and substance use. Two hundred and thirty-seven (237) adolescents in ages between 12 and 18 and their parents were assigned to one of two programs or to a wait-list control condition. The programs were the nine weekly group sessions program Comet 12–18 (Swedish Parent Management Training Program) and the six weekly ParentSteps (Swedish shortened version by Strengthening Families Program 10–14). Outcome measures were antisocial behavior, substance use, and delinquency, and psychosocial dysfunction. Data based on adolescents’ and parents’ ratings of the adolescents’ problem behavior at baseline and 6 months later were analyzed with repeated measures ANVOA, Logistic regression, and Kruskal–Wallis H test. The results showed that parents’ ratings of adolescents’ antisocial behaviors decreased significantly over time, but no time by group effect emerged. No program effects were found in the adolescents’ self-reported antisocial behavior, delinquency, or psychosocial functioning. A threefold risk of illicit drug use was found in both intervention groups. The results suggest that neither Comet nor ParentSteps had beneficial effects on adolescent’s antisocial or delinquent behavior, or on alcohol use. The only significant group difference found was a threefold risk of drug use in the intervention adolescents at follow-up, but for several reasons this finding should be interpreted with caution. Trial registration number: ISRCTN76141538.     

作为体验实践的同感与同情——现象学分析与佛教教义之比较

众所周知,胡塞尔对交互主体性的分析是以同感为基础的。现在,这样一种同感经验在胡塞尔那里被描述为,它既涉及我们身体所特有的空间性,也涉及两个身体的一种时间结对、以及从我们的心理状态向他人心理状态的一种独特想象的转化。我想把对他人的这样一种多层次的经验,与大乘佛教传统中的一些教义(首先出现于印度,而后传到西藏)对同情经验的描述方式作一个比较。实际上,在这种教义体系中被非常具体地加以描述的“tonglen”实践(西藏人这样称呼),就其植根于身体中并使时间同步而言,尤其是就想象被考虑的方式而言,都以多种形式回应着胡塞尔的同感经验。在生活空间、时间和想象等方面,通过比较这两者的实践与理论,我们将能估价它们的亲和性、它们的差异,进而最终说明它们如何才能相互启发,甚至相互促进。     

On the role of regular phonological variation in lexical access: evidence from voice assimilation in French

The present study investigated whether lexical access is affected by a regular phonological variation in connected speech: voice assimilation in French. Two associative priming experiments were conducted to determine whether strongly assimilated, potentially ambiguous word forms activate the conceptual representation of the underlying word. Would the ambiguous word form [sud] (either assimilated soute 'hold' or soude 'soda') facilitate "bagage" 'luggage', which is semantically related to soute but not to soude? In Experiment 1, words in either canonical or strongly assimilated form were presented as primes. Both forms primed their related target to the same extent. Potential lexical ambiguity did not modulate priming effects. In Experiment 2, the primes such as assimilated soute pronounced [sud] used in Experiment 1 were replaced with primes such as soude canonically pronounced [sud]. No semantic priming effect was obtained with these primes. Therefore, the effect observed for assimilated forms in Experiment 1 cannot be due to overall phonological proximity between canonical and assimilated forms. We propose that listeners must recover the intended words behind the assimilated forms through the exploitation of the remaining traces of the underlying form, however subtle these traces may be.     

SAMHSA philosophy and statement on ethical principles

As the major federal agency responsible for improving the delivery and effectiveness of substance abuse and mental health services to the American public, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is aware that its programs deal with especially sensitive issues. As a national leader in advancing effective services to persons with addictive and mental disorders, SAMHSA has stewardship over important interventions affecting personal, community, institutional, and social values. Inherent in SAMHSA's mission and goals is a commitment to protect and promote the human, civil, and legal rights and moral freedoms of those individuals and groups who participate in SAMHSA-funded activities and to demonstrate that Agency policies and procedures are congruent with publicly acceptable ethical principles and standards of conduct. A foundation of mutual trust between SAMHSA officials and participants as well as sensitivity to issues of public accountability will hasten and strengthen progress toward this shared vision.     

Joint action: bodies and minds moving together

The ability to coordinate our actions with those of others is crucial for our success as individuals and as a species. Progress in understanding the cognitive and neural processes involved in joint action has been slow and sparse, because cognitive neuroscientists have predominantly studied individual minds and brains in isolation. However, in recent years, major advances have been made by investigating perception and action in social context. In this article we outline how studies on joint attention, action observation, task sharing, action coordination and agency contribute to the understanding of the cognitive and neural processes supporting joint action. Several mechanisms are proposed that allow individuals to share representations, to predict actions, and to integrate predicted effects of own and others' actions.     

Reaction Time of Healthy Older Adults Is Reduced While Walking Fast

Attentional requirements of walking at various speeds in older adults were examined. Twenty healthy older adults (69.9?±?2.77?years; 8 males) were asked to walk a distance of 10?m at a self-selected speed as well as 30% quicker and 30% slower. Concurrently, reaction time (RT) was evaluated by having participants respond as fast as possible to randomly presented auditory stimuli. Results reveal that an accelerated walking speed generated faster RT than slow and self-selected speeds, while no difference was found between the latter. Faster RTs during an accelerated walking speed may have been precipitated by the reduced equilibrium demands of the task.     

The effects of differential vowel prolongations on perceptions of speech naturalness

Prolongation of speech sounds is currently used to modify stuttering and enhance fluency. Prolonged speech (PS) (e.g., prolonged vowels, prolongation throughout utterances) is, however, often perceived as unnatural by listeners. This study examined at which durations and in which contexts 52 college students (primary language was American English) perceived PS to be unnatural. Stimuli were limited to controlled variation in prolongation of the vowel in the middle single-syllable word of a carrier phrase (i.e., say word again). The prolongation was effected by digital waveform manipulation within the Kay Elemetrics Computerized Speech Laboratory (CSL). The listeners judged if they strongly agreed, agreed, or disagreed that the phrases sounded natural. Results indicated that the extent of vowel duration (and possibly context) does influence listener's perception of speech naturalness, findings which can be applied to facilitate fluency therapy.

Educational objectives: (1) The reader will learn about and be able to summarize the digital waveform manipulation procedure in the study. (2) The reader will learn about and be able to describe the effects of differential vowel prolongation on listener's perception of speech naturalness. (3) The reader will learn about and evaluate how differential vowel prolongation can be used to enhance fluency.     

Performance and learning goals for emotion regulation

Goal orientation theory is concerned with performance and learning goals in academic, athletic, and other ability areas. Here we examine performance and learning goals for emotion regulation. We define performance goals for emotion regulation as seeking to prove one’s ability to manage emotions; learning goals for emotion regulation are defined as seeking to improve one’s ability to manage emotions. In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that performance goals for emotion regulation would be associated with greater use of defensive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms. Results from both studies showed that individuals with greater performance goals for emotion regulation reported higher levels of rumination and thought suppression and greater depressive symptoms, while individuals with greater learning goals reported greater use of cognitive reappraisal. The findings suggest that goals for emotion regulation may help explain individual differences in use of defensive versus constructive emotion regulation strategies.