The comparability of the JEPI, JEPQ and EPQ among 15- to 16-yr olds

One hundred and ninety-one 15- to 16-yr olds completed the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory (JEPI), the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). In terms of the internal consistency of the test items, and the statistical independence of the scales, the EPQ emerges as the most satisfactory measure of personality dimensions in this age group.     

Collective coping with stress: group reactions to fear, anxiety, and ambiguity.

A review of studies examining the fear-affiliation relationship revealed that none had ever observed groups in interaction while awaiting a fearful event. It was predicted that such groups would, consistent with individual member's previously studied affiliative preferences, spend more time interacting in the service of social comparison needs than would groups facing anxiety or ambiguity. This prediction was strongly supported, and in addition, it was found, as expected, that groups in the fear condition developed a relatively high degree of cohesiveness as measured by intragroup attraction ratings. The implication of these results for the interpretation of the functional relationship between stress and cohesiveness was discussed.     

The effects of different types of encoding task on memory for famous faces and names

In this study, incidental memory for familiar faces following different types of encoding task was investigated. Subjects who had been asked to name faces of celebrities at presentation subsequently remembered them significantly better than subjects who had been asked to provide contextual information about the faces, and than subjects who had been asked to distinguish them from unfamiliar faces. This effect persisted regardless of whether the tests required memory for names, faces, or biographical information. It is argued that these results can be explained in terms of the face-processing framework of Bruce and Young (1986) and the theory of episodic memory for faces put forward by Bruce (1982, 1988). However the findings are not consistent with levels of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972), nor transfer appropriate processing (Morris, Bransford, & Franks, 1977).     

On the regulation of cognitive control: action orientation moderates the impact of high demands in Stroop interference tasks

Previous research has established that people vary in action orientation, a tendency toward decisiveness and initiative, versus state orientation, a tendency toward indecisiveness and hesitation (J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann, 1994b). In the present 3 studies, the authors examined whether action orientation versus state orientation regulates cognitive control under demanding conditions. Under high demands, action-oriented participants displayed better cognitive control than did state-oriented participants in a Stroop color naming task (Studies 1-3). No similar effects were found under low demands (Studies 2-3). Functional differences between action- and state-oriented participants emerged especially when the task included a high proportion of congruent Stroop trials (Study 3). These findings suggest that action-oriented individuals are better protected against goal neglect than are state-oriented individuals.