Sentential synonymity judgment

Despite the acknowledged theoretical importance of sentential synonymity, there has been little interest in the psychological mechanisms responsible for recognizing it. Here an attempt is made to explore ways in which specific models originally devised for other particular psycholinguistic tasks (e.g., sentence-picture verification, three-term series problems, syllogistic reasoning) can be generalized to synonymity judgment and ways in which recent psychosemantic theories can be made more specific to deal with this same paradigm. Differential predictions from these models are derived for a set of spatiotemporal bidimensional comparative synonym pairs (e.g., High before Low, First above Second), and an experiment to test these predictions is reported. It is argued that, although the results are consonant with predictions from one type of model, they do not favor it definitively. This is because models of this type do not detail how bidimensional comparatives can be parsed into the same propositional representation and because other models can be subjected to further post hoc modifications to account for the data. Finally, general problems arising from attempts to adapt existing models to new tasks are discussed.     

Can the Discretionary Nature of Certain Criteria Lead to Differential Prediction Across Cultural Groups?

We examined the conjecture that relations between constructs across cultures may be susceptible to cultural moderation where the performance of the criterion construct is discretionary. This hypothesis was investigated using the relationship between personality and three performance constructs, with samples from the United States and New Zealand, two ideologically distinct cultures with respect to achievement orientation. All hypotheses were supported by results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses using bias free measures, suggesting that considering whether construct behaviors are discretionary is important when considering the merit of generalizing research findings across cultures.     

What Difference Can a Year Make? Changes in Functional and Aesthetic Body Satisfaction Among Male and Female Adolescents Over a Year

The current study explored changes in functional and aesthetic body satisfaction among Australian adolescents over a year. Data were collected from 1,342 Australian adolescents (567 males, 775 females) across two grade cohorts (Grades 8 and 10) at Wave 1 (W1; mean age = 13.7) and again 12 months later at Wave 2 (W2). Participants' functional and aesthetic body satisfaction, body mass index (BMI), and relative pubertal timing were measured. Body image change was explored across both grade cohort and gender, controlling for differences in BMI change and relative pubertal timing. Females reported lower overall (functional and aesthetic) body satisfaction than males. Participants reported higher functional and aesthetic body satisfaction at W1 than W2. Although both males and females reported a significant decrease in body satisfaction over the 12‐month period, this decrease was stronger among female participants. ^?Cohort differences were also found with older adolescents reporting lower functional body satisfaction.     

Production benefits both recollection and familiarity

In three experiments, we investigated the roles of recollection and familiarity in the production effect—the finding that words read aloud are remembered better than words read silently. Experiment 1, using the remember/know procedure, and Experiment 2, using the receiver operating characteristic procedure, converged in demonstrating that production enhanced both recollection and familiarity. Experiment 3 supported the role of recollection by demonstrating that specific episodic information—that is, whether a word had been studied aloud or silently—was stronger for items studied aloud. These findings fit with an explanation of the production effect as hinging on two factors: greater recollection of distinctive information from the study episode, and more familiarity due to greater attention allocated to the material studied aloud.     

Objects, events and "to be" verbs in Spanish--an ERP study of the syntax-semantics interface

In Spanish, objects and events at subject position constrain the selection of different forms of the auxiliary verb “to be”: locative predicates about objects require “estar en”, while those relating to events require “ser en”, both translatable as “to be in”. Subjective ratings showed that while the “object + ser + en” is considered as incorrect, the “event + estar + en” combination is also perceived as unacceptable but to a lesser degree. In an ERP study, we evaluated the impact of a purely semantic distinction (object versus events) on the subsequent processing of these auxiliary verbs followed by locatives in Spanish. For the “ser en” predicate, the P600 component was larger when the subject was an object than when it was an event. This P600 effect is consistent with an online repair of the defining predicate when it does not fit with the adequate semantic properties of the subject. On the other hand, for the “estar en” predicate, event subjects when compared to object subjects showed more positive ongoing amplitudes between 280 and 380 ms after the presentation of the “en” preposition, followed by a longer positive wave starting around 400 ms and lasting until 700 ms after the presentation of the following determiner, with central and frontal scalp distributions respectively. Thus, the different subject-predicate combinations, depending on the semantic features of the subjects, triggered syntactic reparatory processes at a structural level. These findings are consistent with an incremental interpretation of sentence meaning based on the interaction between syntactic and semantic information.     

Avoidance of eye gaze by adults who stutter

PurposeAdults who stutter are at significant risk of developing social phobia. Cognitive theorists argue that a critical factor maintaining social anxiety is avoidance of social information. This avoidance may impair access to positive feedback from social encounters that could disconfirm fears and negative beliefs. Adults who stutter are known to engage in avoidance behaviours, and may neglect positive social information. This study investigated the gaze behaviour of adults who stutter whilst giving a speech.Method16 adults who stutter and 16 matched controls delivered a 3-min speech to a television display of a pre-recorded lecture theatre audience. Participants were told the audience was watching them live from another room. Audience members were trained to display positive, negative and neutral expressions. Participant eye movement was recorded with an eye-tracker.ResultsThere was a significant difference between the stuttering and control participants for fixation duration and fixation count towards an audience display. In particular, the stuttering participants, compared to controls, looked for shorter time at positive audience members than at negative and neutral audience members and the background.ConclusionsAdults who stutter may neglect positive social cues within social situations that could serve to disconfirm negative beliefs and fears.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) describe the nature of anxiety experienced by adults who stutter; (b) identify the most common anxiety condition among adults who stutter; (c) understand how information processing biases and the use of safety behaviours contribute to the maintenance of social anxiety; (d) describe how avoiding social information may contribute to the maintenance of social anxiety in people who stutter; and (e) describe the clinical implications of avoidance of social information in people who stutter.     

Integrating Religion and Spirituality Into Treatment for Late-Life Anxiety: Three Case Studies

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is common in older adults and, although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious treatment for late-life GAD, effect sizes are only moderate and attrition rates are high. One way to increase treatment acceptability and enhance current cognitive behavioral treatments for GAD in older adults might be to incorporate religion/spirituality (R/S). The cases presented here illustrate the use of a 12-week modular CBT intervention for late-life anxiety, designed to allow incorporation of R/S elements in accordance with patient preferences. The three women treated using this protocol chose different levels and methods of R/S integration into therapy. All three women showed substantial improvement in worry symptoms, as well as a variety of secondary outcomes following treatment; these gains were maintained at 6-month follow-up. These preliminary results suggest that the incorporation of R/S into CBT might be beneficial for older adults with GAD. Strengths, limitations, and future directions are discussed.     

Prepared for the best: readiness to modify attentional processing and reduction in anxiety vulnerability in response to therapy

Individuals differ in the extent to which their vulnerability to anxiety is reduced by psychological therapy. However, the cognitive basis for such individual differences is still poorly understood. To test a cognitive account of differences in anxiety reduction in response to treatment, the present study examined individuals undergoing group therapy for social anxiety disorder. We assessed whether differences in their readiness to adopt selective attentional processing in response to an experimental contingency predicted positive changes in a range of anxiety measures in response to treatment. Findings were consistent with the position that readiness to alter attentional processing bias may underpin individual differences in the tendency to respond to positive experiential conditions, such as group therapy, by reducing anxiety vulnerability.     

Sleep Habits May Undermine Well-Being Through the Stressor Appraisal Process

The current study examined poor sleep hygiene as a behavioral factor that may undermine psychological and social well-being. Though the connection between sleep and well-being is well documented, the mechanism by which sleep hygiene may affect well-being is currently unknown. Using the transactional model of stress as a framework, we tested a multiple mediation model (N = 307) in which sleep hygiene predicts greater psychological and social well-being through one’s perceptions of primary and secondary appraisals. Results indicated mediation effects for both models; hassle appraisals and psychological strain fully mediated the relationship between sleep hygiene and well-being. These results suggest that well-being may be affected by sleep through the cognitive appraisal process.