Author Index

Authors Index

Author Index     

Experiencing positive affect and negative affect during stress: relationships to cardiac reactivity and to facial expressions

We examined the relationship between experienced positive/negative affect and cardiac reactivity and facial muscle movements during laboratory tasks with different demands. Heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period, and facial electromyography were measured during startle, mental arithmetic, reaction time task, and speech task. The results revealed that individuals experiencing high levels of positive affect exhibited more pronounced parasympathetic, heart rate, and orbicularis oculi reactivity than others. Individuals who experienced high levels of negative affects during the tasks showed higher corrugator supercilii responses. Men and women showed slightly different response patterns. To conclude, cardiac reactivity may be associated with positive involvement and enthusiasm in some situations and all reactivity should not automatically be considered as potentially pathological.     

Facial reactions to different emotionally relevant stimuli

Facial EMG activity was measured from the Corrugator supercilii and the Zygomatic major muscle regions while 48 subjects were exposed to pictures of angry and happy facial expressions, snakes and flowers as well as low and high preference nature scenes. The valency perspective predicted that facial reactions should be related to the intensity of the positive and the negative valency of stimuli. The mimicking behavior approach predicted that facial reactions should only be reflected as a mimicking response to the facial stimuli, whereas the evolutionary:biological perspective predicted that the most clearcut positive and negative facial reactions should be evoked by facial stimuli and by snakes. In support of the latter perspective, the present results showed that angry faces and snakes evoked the most distinct Corrugator supercilii muscle response, whereas happy faces evoked the largest Zygomatic major muscle response.     

The limits of perceived magnitude: Comparison among individuals and among perceptual continua

Two models of perceived magnitude that focus on the concept of dynamic range (DR) for sensory systems are summarized and compared. The first asserts that, whereas the size of DR varies physically from one perceptual continuum to another, all are subjectively equal. The other asserts that, for any given continuum, whereas the size of DR varies over individual observers, the subjective range does not.A test of the second model is reported for perceived effort for a range of loads on a bicycle ergometer. Both DR and judgmental (magnitude estimation) range estimates were obtained for 30 subjects. The former exhibited the expected variability over subjects, but there was no support for the predicted invariance of the latter. However, it is concluded, first, that the finding constitutes disconfirming evidence for the second model only if it is assumed that magnitude estimates are proportional to perceived magnitude, an issue which itself remains in dispute, and second, that the testability of the second model is doubtful unless a measure can be identified that is a stateable function of perceived magnitude.     

Sex differences in the relationship of height to children's actual and attributed social and cognitive competencies

In three studies, the relationship of children's height to both (a) adults' attributions regarding the children and (b) preschoolers' social and cognitive competencies were examined. Sex differences were consistent with stereotypic conceptions. In the first two studies, mothers of preschool children rated photographs of toddlers varying in height on a variety of social and cognitive abilities. The mothers also assigned punishment to the children for hypothetical transgressions. In Experiment 1, mothers rated the large boys as more competent than the average-sized and small boys (even when effects of mothers' perceptions of the children's ages were covaried). In Experiment 2, involving female stimuli, mothers rated small girls as being less able (especially less independent) than average-sized or tall girls. While the effect of height on mothers' attributions was still evident when the effects of perceived age of the children were covaried, the pattern of results was less clear. Mothers assigned more punishment to tall girls (but not tall boys) than to small girls regardless of perceptions of age. In Experiment 3, height was associated with boys', but not girls', competence on tasks of logical ability and boys' sociometric nominations of whom they prefer to play with (significant for girls, marginally significant for boys). Height was not highly correlated with peers' perceptions of competence. The implications of the research for the socialization process are discussed.The authors wish to express their gratitude to the parents, teachers, and children at the Child Study Laboratory, Students' Child Center, Palo Alto Preschools, and Tempe Preschool. The authors would also like to thank Michael Gunzelman, Michelle White, Julie Mankowski, Marsha Kaplan, and Melissa Rook for their able assistance in data collection.     

Superstars are not necessarily role models: Morality perceptions moderate the impact of competence perceptions on supervisor role modeling

There is a general assumption that we choose role models from the ranks of those who have demonstrated extraordinary competence. However, the person perception literature supports the expectation that morality may also matter, and that we may be most likely to role model competent individuals if we also believe that they have good moral character. To test this possibility, we conducted four studies of adults’ role modeling of workplace supervisors. Study 1 (N = 245) and Study 2 (N = 110) showed that workplace supervisors’ perceived competence was most strongly associated with role model perceptions when the supervisor was also seen as moral. Study 3 (N = 492) and 4 (N = 335) replicated these findings with pre‐registered experiments, and revealed indirect effects of supervisor attributes on role modeling through emulation. Results suggest that we choose organizational role models who have achieved success in ways that are in line with our moral values.     

Are expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal associated with stress-related symptoms?

Emotion dysregulation is thought to be critical to the development of negative psychological outcomes. Gross (1998b) conceptualized the timing of regulation strategies as key to this relationship, with response-focused strategies, such as expressive suppression, as less effective and more detrimental compared to antecedent-focused ones, such as cognitive reappraisal. In the current study, we examined the relationship between reappraisal and expressive suppression and measures of psychopathology, particularly for stress-related reactions, in both undergraduate and trauma-exposed community samples of women. Generally, expressive suppression was associated with higher, and reappraisal with lower, self-reported stress-related symptoms. In particular, expressive suppression was associated with PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms in the trauma-exposed community sample, with rumination partially mediating this association. Finally, based on factor analysis, expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal appear to be independent constructs. Overall, expressive suppression, much more so than cognitive reappraisal, may play an important role in the experience of stress-related symptoms. Further, given their independence, there are potentially relevant clinical implications, as interventions that shift one of these emotion regulation strategies may not lead to changes in the other.     

Working memory training revisited: A multi-level meta-analysis of n-back training studies

The efficacy of working memory (WM) training has been a controversial and hotly debated issue during the past years. Despite a large number of training studies and several meta-analyses, the matter has not yet been solved. We conducted a multi-level meta-analysis on the cognitive transfer effects in healthy adults who have been administered WM updating training with n-back tasks, the most common experimental WM training paradigm. Thanks to this methodological approach that has not been employed in previous meta-analyses in this field, we were able to include effect sizes from all relevant tasks used in the original studies. Altogether 203 effect sizes were derived from 33 published, randomized, controlled trials. In contrast to earlier meta-analyses, we separated task-specific transfer (here untrained n-back tasks) from other WM transfer tasks. Two additional cognitive domains of transfer that we analyzed consisted of fluid intelligence (Gf) and cognitive control tasks. A medium-sized transfer effect was observed to untrained n-back tasks. For other WM tasks, Gf, and cognitive control, the effect sizes were of similar size and very small. Moderator analyses showed no effects of age, training dose, training type (single vs. dual), or WM and Gf transfer task contents (verbal vs. visuospatial). We conclude that a substantial part of transfer following WM training with the n-back task is task-specific and discuss the implications of the results to WM training research.