Masked nonword repetition effects in yes/no and go/no-go lexical decision: A test of the evidence accumulation and deadline accounts

The pattern of masked repetition priming effects for word and nonword targets differs across tasks: Maskedpriming effects in lexical decision occur for positive responses (i.e., words), but not for negative responses (nonwords), whereas masked-priming effects in the cross-case same-different task occur for positive responses (same), but not for negative responses (different)—regardless of lexical status. Here, we examined whether masked nonword priming effects are greater when the task involves an active go response to nonwords than when it involves the standard yes/no procedure in lexical decision. The obtained masked repetition priming effect for nonwords was of similar size in yes/no and go/no-go tasks. This finding is compatible with accounts of nonword priming that posit that nonword responses are produced by actively accumulating evidence for the nonword alternative in yes/no and go/no-go procedures, whereas it is inconsistent with the assumption of a deadline for no responses in the yes/no task.     

System‐perpetuating asymmetries between explicit and implicit intergroup attitudes among indigenous and non‐indigenous Chileans

The present research demonstrates a dissociation between explicit and implicit intergroup evaluation in the reciprocal attitudes between indigenous (Mapuche) and non‐indigenous Chileans. In both social groups, the explicit measures of attitudes towards the respective in‐group and out‐group were compared with the Implicit Association Test scores. The results indicate that the members of the low‐status minority might explicitly express a moderate evaluative preference for their in‐group but might implicitly devalue it. Conversely, the members of the high‐status majority might implicitly devalue their out‐group but might explicitly express no bias. These results are theoretically framed in terms of system justification, conventional stereotypes and motivated correction processes.     

Is tenderness a basic emotion?

The article presents the case to consider tenderness a basic emotion, using the criteria proposed by Ekman (in Handbook of cognition and emotion, Wiley, England, 1999). The first part of the article reviews the relationship between tenderness and the related concepts of love and empathy. The next section reviews evidence concerning whether tenderness meets some of Ekman’s criteria. The last section reports an experiment testing whether tenderness meets Ekman’s criterion of distinct subjective experience. Participants watched scenes designed to induce different emotions. Results showed that a scene could induce high levels of tenderness and low levels of joy if that scene also induced high levels of sadness. These results suggest that the subjective experience of tenderness is distinct from that of joy.     

Investigating stereotype structure with empirical network models

In this work we present empirical network models as a new approach in the investigation of stereotype structure. We will argue that empirical network models can provide more insight into stereotype structure because they do not suffer from the inherent constraints of factor analysis and multidimensional scaling (e.g., group features interpreted homogeneously only on the basis of their shared variance, impossibility to adequately represent cognitive schemas, difficulties to make inferences on the basis of dimensions potentially overlapping). In the present research we show how empirical network models can represent stereotypes as dynamic cognitive structures clustered in different substructures. These structures will be based on both the stereotype content and the co-occurrence of features in each group target. Additionally, this research shows how using empirical networks can contribute to broadening the interpretation of stereotypes representing them in the framework of prejudice or intergroup attitudes.     

Reading Difficulties in Low-SES Children: A Study of Cognitive Profiles

Reading difficulties of children growing up in poverty contexts have not received as much attention as those of children from middle-income families. This paper analyzes the reading-related cognitive profiles of Argentine, Spanish-speaking, low-SES children with reading difficulties (RD), by comparing them with chronological age- (CA) and reading age- (RA) matched children from the same socioeconomic background. Ninety children (30 in each group) participated in the study. Testing included reading, spelling, verbal memory, phonological sensitivity, rapid naming, letter knowledge, and vocabulary measures. Results showed that children from the RD group performed significantly worse than their same-age peers. These findings would suggest the presence of a cognitive vulnerability in children with reading difficulties. Interestingly, when compared with children from the RA-matched control group, children in the RD group only obtained significantly lower scores in phoneme segmentation and letter-sound recognition tasks. Cognitive profiles of low-income children growing in poverty differ from cognitive profiles described for middle-income children with dyslexia. Given that teaching of letter sounds is not included in Argentina’s mandatory curriculum, it is possible that letter-sound teaching constitutes an environmental factor that interacts with other risk factors to produce reading difficulties in poverty contexts.     

Does experienced pain affects local brain volumes? Insights from a clinical acute pain model

Background/Objective:To study pain-brain morphometry associations as a function of post-surgery stages (anesthesia, pain and analgesia) in an acute pain model. Method:Impacted mandible third molar were extracted. Before surgery, an anatomical T1 scan was obtained. Regional brain volumen and subcortical nuclei shapes were obtained. Statistical analyses were done using multiple regression, being pain scores the predictors and voxel volumes, subcortical nuclei volumes and subcortical nuclei shapes, the outcomes. Results:Pain was significantly larger at pain than at anesthesia and analgesia stages, and was higher during anesthesia than during analgesia. Pain intensity was related to grey matter in several cortical (Insula, Mid Frontal and Temporal Gyruses, Precuneus, Anterior Cingulate), and subcortical nuclei (Hippocampus, Thalamus, Putamen, Amygdala), depending of the post-surgical stage. A larger number of brain areas showed significance at pain that at anesthesia and analgesia stages. Conclusions:The relationships of regional brain volumes and subcortical nuclei shapes with pain scores seemed to be unsteady, as they changed with the patient's actual pain stage.     

Depression as a predictor of perceived social support and demand: a componential approach using a prospective sample of older adults

This study examined the relationship of the cognitive, mood, and somatic components of depression on perceptions of social support and social demand among older adults (n = 851) over two years. Factor-analyses confirmed the factor structure of our multicomponential model of depression. Results supported our proposal that interpersonal specificity, as measured by depressive cognition about self and others, is important to predicting changes in perceived support and demand over time. Each component of depression was related to social support and social demand cross-sectionally, whereas only the cognitive component of depression predicted changes in support and demand prospectively. Future research should consider the pathways linking depressive cognition to perceived support and demand.     

Implicit ambivalence from attitude change: an exploration of the PAST model

Traditional models of attitude change have assumed that when people appear to have changed their attitudes in response to new information, their old attitudes disappear and no longer have any impact. The present research suggests that when attitudes change, the old attitude can remain in memory and influence subsequent behavior. Four experiments are reported in which initial attitudes were created and then changed (or not) with new information. In each study, the authors demonstrate that when people undergo attitude change, their old and new attitudes can interact to produce evaluative responses consistent with a state of implicit ambivalence. In Study 1, individuals whose attitudes changed were more neutral on a measure of automatic evaluation. In Study 2, attitude change led people to show less confidence on an implicit but not an explicit measure. In Studies 3 and 4, people whose attitudes changed engaged in greater processing of attitude-relevant information than did individuals whose attitudes were not changed.     

Hippocampal gene expression profiling in spatial discrimination learning

Learning and long-term memory are thought to involve temporally defined changes in gene expression that lead to the strengthening of synaptic connections in selected brain regions. We used cDNA microarrays to study hippocampal gene expression in animals trained in a spatial discrimination-learning paradigm. Our analysis identified 19 genes that showed statistically significant changes in expression when comparing Nai;ve versus Trained animals. We confirmed the changes in expression for the genes encoding the nuclear protein prothymosin(alpha) and the delta-1 opioid receptor (DOR1) by Northern blotting or in situ hybridization. In additional studies, laser-capture microdissection (LCM) allowed us to obtain enriched neuronal populations from the dentate gyrus, CA1, and CA3 subregions of the hippocampus from Nai;ve, Pseudotrained, and spatially Trained animals. Real-time PCR examined the spatial learning specificity of hippocampal modulation of the genes encoding protein kinase B (PKB, also known as Akt), protein kinase C(delta) (PKC(delta)), cell adhesion kinase(beta) (CAK(beta), also known as Pyk2), and receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase(zeta/beta) (RPTP(zeta/beta)). These studies showed subregion specificity of spatial learning-induced changes in gene expression within the hippocampus, a feature that was particular to each gene studied. We suggest that statistically valid gene expression profiles generated with cDNA microarrays may provide important insights as to the cellular and molecular events subserving learning and memory processes in the brain.     

Improving attitudes towards minority groups by thinking about the thoughts and meta-cognitions of their members

Research on persuasion has shown that for attitudes to change people need to take into consideration not only the thoughts message recipients generate in response to proposals but also how people think about their own thoughts (metacognition). In the present research, we introduce a new perspective for improving outgroup attitudes focused on the distinction between cognition and metacognition but this time applied to the perceptions of others’ minds. Specifically, we examined to what extent thinking about the mental processes of outgroup members influences attitudes towards those outgroups. We compared the impact of thinking about how others think (perceived primary cognition) with how others think about their own thoughts (perceived secondary cognition or metacognition). In the primary cognition treatment, participants answered questions about the thinking processes of outgroup members. In the secondary cognition treatment, participants answered questions that required them to consider how outgroup members think about their own thoughts (i.e., metacognition). Compared to controls, these treatments were capable of improving attitudes of Spanish citizens towards Syrian refugees, South American immigrants, and Roma people. A third study used a minimal group paradigm in which a fictitious outgroup was described as having primary (vs. secondary) cognition. A final study also tested the implications of assuming that groups have one type of cognition or another. The effects of the two treatments varied depending on the type of outgroup.