A RESOURCE ACCOUNT OF INHIBITION

Abstract— In a letter-naming task, a letter will be named more slowly if it was a distractor on the previous trial. This negative priming effect has been instrumental in renewed interest in inhibition. The present research explored whether inhibition is a result of controlled attention. When the naming task was performed under a mental work load, negative priming was diminished as work load increased. This finding suggests that inhibition is a product of controlled resources and that group differences in inhibition may result from differences in controlled attentional resources, not from inefficient inhibitory mechanisms.     

Common factors in the enhancement of dyadic coping

Stress and coping are important constructs in understanding the dynamics of close relationships. Couple therapy and marital distress prevention approaches have become increasingly focused on these variables to gain knowledge of how stress and coping may impact the quality and stability of close relationships. In this paper, we outline couple's coping enhancement training (CCET) and the coping-oriented couple's therapy (COCT); both, couple interventions derived from stress and coping research. We address specific features of each approach and report data on their efficacy and effectiveness. We also examine both the common and specific factors that may play a role in the effectiveness of these approaches.     

Metaphorically feeling: comprehending textural metaphors activates somatosensory cortex

Conceptual metaphor theory suggests that knowledge is structured around metaphorical mappings derived from physical experience. Segregated processing of object properties in sensory cortex allows testing of the hypothesis that metaphor processing recruits activity in domain-specific sensory cortex. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we show that texture-selective somatosensory cortex in the parietal operculum is activated when processing sentences containing textural metaphors, compared to literal sentences matched for meaning. This finding supports the idea that comprehension of metaphors is perceptually grounded.     

The impact of rater agreeableness and rating context on the evaluation of poor performance

We tested the effects of rater agreeableness on the rating of others’ poor performance in performance appraisal (PA). We also examined the interactions between rater agreeableness and two aspects of the rating context: ratee self‐ratings and the prospect of future collaboration with the ratee. Participants (n= 230) were allocated to one of six experimental groups (a 3 × 2 between‐groups design) or a control group (n= 20). Participants received accurate, low‐deviated, or high‐deviated self‐ratings from the ratee. Half were notified they would collaborate with the ratee in a future task. High rater agreeableness, positive deviations in self‐rating, and the prospect of future collaboration were all independent predictors of higher PA ratings. The interactions between rater agreeableness and rating context were very small. We argue that conflict avoidance is an important motivation in the PA process.