ETHNICITY AND ETHNIC IDENTITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GREEK-, ITALIAN-, AND ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN ADOLESCENTS

The present study explores the nature of ethnic identity in a sample of Greek-, Italian-, and Anglo-Australian adolescents. A questionnaire designed to elicit dimensions of ethnic identity was administered to 622 subjects in Years 9 and 11 of high school. For a sub-sample of adolescents, an interview probed for perceived similarities and differences between ethnic groups. The multidimensional nature of ethnic identity was evident from both measures. Similar dimensions emerged for the two ethnic minority groups but perceptions of ethnicity differed. For Greek-Australians, associated with recognition of their cultural separateness was a positive sense of valuing their ethnic origins. For Italian-Australians, cultural separateness was associated with a positive attitude to assimilation.     

Vocal cues to deception: A comparative channel approach

The study investigated the leakage potential of different voice and speech cues using a cue isolation and masking design. Speech samples taken from an earlier experiment were used in which 15 female students of nursing dissimulated negative affect produced by an unpleasant movie or told the truth about positive affect following a pleasant movie. Several groups of judges rated these speech samples in five conditions: (1) forward or clear, (2) electronic filtering, (3) random splicing, (4) backwards, (5) pitch inversion, (6) tone-silence sequences. The results show that vocal cues do indeed carry leakage information and that, as reflected in the differences among the conditions masking different types of cues respectively, voice quality cues may be centrally implicated. In addition, gender differences in decoding ability are discussed.     

A game-theoretic analysis of bargaining with reputations

In this paper we introduce and discuss some models of bargaining. These have the form of repeated plays of a game among pairs of individuals, with the opponents in each particular game drawn randomly from a large population. The players' information about one another is limited to a single quantity, termed reputation, which summarizes the behavior of a player in previous trials of the game, and so changes endogenously. We distinguish some possible decision rules or “customs” which players might use to determine their moves in the game as a function of their own and their opponent's reputation, and investigate whether or not these actions lead to a suitably defined social equilibrium. We then compare the equilibrium customs from the point of view of the welfare of the population as a whole.     

Slow wave sleep and recollection in recognition memory

Recognition memory performance reflects two distinct memory processes: a conscious process of recollection, which allows remembering specific details of a previous event, and familiarity, which emerges in the absence of any conscious information about the context in which the event occurred. Slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep are differentially involved in the consolidation of different types of memory. The study assessed the effects of SWS and REM sleep on recollection, by means of the "remember"/"know" paradigm. Subjects studied three blocks of 12 words before a 3-h retention interval filled with SWS, REM sleep or wakefulness, placed between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. Afterwards, recognition and recollection were tested. Recollection was higher after a retention interval rich in SWS than after a retention interval rich in REM sleep or filled with wakefulness. The results suggest that SWS facilitates the process of recollection in recognition memory.     

Reducing stereotype threat by blurring intergroup boundaries

The authors aimed to establish whether interventions designed to reduce intergroup bias could be applied to the stereotype threat domain. In three experiments, the hypothesis was tested that blurring intergroup boundaries would reduce stereotype threat. In the first study, it was found that female participants who thought about characteristics shared between the genders tended to show less preference for stereotypical female careers than did participants in the baseline condition. In Experiment 2, participants who thought about overlapping characteristics answered more math questions correctly compared to a baseline group and participants who thought about differences between the genders. In Experiment 3, a specific threat manipulation was included. Participants who completed the overlapping characteristics task before receiving the threat completed significantly more math questions correctly than did participants in the baseline and threat conditions. The findings support the idea that interventions designed to reduce intergroup bias can be applied successfully in the reduction of stereotype threat.