Multidimensional scaling of musical time estimations

The aim of this study was to identify the psycho-musical factors that govern time evaluation in Western music from baroque, classic, romantic, and modern repertoires. The excerpts were previously found to represent variability in musical properties and to induce four main categories of emotions. 48 participants (musicians and nonmusicians) freely listened to 16 musical excerpts (lasting 20 sec. each) and grouped those that seemed to have the same duration. Then, participants associated each group of excerpts to one of a set of sine wave tones varying in duration from 16 to 24 sec. Multidimensional scaling analysis generated a two-dimensional solution for these time judgments. Musical excerpts with high arousal produced an overestimation of time, and affective valence had little influence on time perception. The duration was also overestimated when tempo and loudness were higher, and to a lesser extent, timbre density. In contrast, musical tension had little influence.     

Ecological Contexts in Adolescent Pregnancy: The Role of Individual,Sociodemographic, Familial and Relational Variables in Understanding Risk of Occurrence and Adjustment Patterns

Adolescent pregnancy appears today as an intricate tapestry where different dimensions interact. In our study we examined the associations between individual, sociodemographic, familial, and relational variables and their impact on the occurrence of pregnancy and adolescents’ adjustment to it. Participants were Portuguese pregnant and non-pregnant adolescents (N = 833). Ecological contexts were characterized, and individual and relational adjustment (depressive symptoms and quality of life; perceived quality of relationship with significant others—parents, romantic partner and friends) were evaluated. Differences between the ecologies of adolescents in both groups were identified. Familial and relational variables were significantly associated with both the risk of pregnancy and more difficulties in adjustment. Implications for preventive intervention are discussed.     

Comparison of two self-regulated and strategic instructional programs for improving writing competence

This study compared the efficacy of two versions of an instructional program aimed at developing strategic and self-regulated writing competence. In the full version, strategy instruction, students were taught strategies for producing effective text, using a combination of direct (explicit, declarative, metacognitive knowledge) instruction, teacher modeling, and collaborative and individual practice. In a modeling-only version, direct instruction was omitted. 72 Spanish 6th grade students were taught in one of three groups: Full Strategy Instruction (N=24); Modeling only (N=25), and a normal curriculum (no strategy instruction) control (N=23). Pre and posttest measures of written texts, self-efficacy and self-knowledge of writing were taken. Pre and posttest scores on writing ability tests indicated similar improvement in both intervention groups, relative to control, in both holistic measures of text quality and in counts of text features associated with mature, reader-focused composition. We found no differences between intervention groups. These findings suggest that modeling and student practice alone are sufficient to develop effective writing strategies in typically-developing 6th grade students.     

Cognitive and emotional covariates of violence exposure among former prisoners: links to antisocial behavior and emotional distress and implications for theory

In this study, formerly incarcerated men (N = 123) were assessed for their experiences with violence in the community as well as their current behavioral and mental health status (antisocial behavior and emotional distress). Participants also completed measures of two constructs theorized to moderate relations between exposure to violence and outcomes: cognitive beliefs supporting aggressive responding and negative emotional reactivity to witnessed violence. Data on key social-demographic background factors affecting outcomes were also collected. Analyses showed that, after controlling the effects of background factors, relationships between experiences with violence in the community and behavioral/mental health were moderated by cognitive beliefs and emotional reactivity. At high levels of support for aggressive responding, significant positive links were observed between exposure to violence and antisocial behavior as well as emotional distress. At high levels of negative reactivity to violence, a significant positive link was observed between exposure to violence and emotional distress (but not antisocial behavior). Findings are discussed with respect to research and theory on the effects of exposure to violence in high-risk adult populations.     

The relationship between history of violent and criminal behavior and recognition of facial expression of emotions in men with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

Social psychological research underscores the relation between aggression and emotion. Specifically, regulating negative affect requires the ability to appraise restraint‐producing cues, such as facial signs of anger, fear and other emotions. Individuals diagnosed with major mental disorders are more likely to have engaged in violent behavior than mentally healthy members of the same communities. We examined whether violent and criminal behavior in men with schizophrenia is related to emotion recognition abilities. Forty‐one men with schizophrenia underwent a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting mild and extreme intensities of happy, sad, angry, fearful and neutral faces, balanced for gender and ethnicity. History of violence was assessed by the Life History of Aggression Scale and official records of arrests. Psychopathology was rated using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale. Criminal behavior was associated with poor emotion recognition, especially for fearful and angry facial expressions. History of aggression was also associated with more severe positive symptoms and less severe negative symptoms. These findings suggest that misinterpretation of social cues such as angry and fearful expression may lead to a failure in socialization and adaptive behavior in response to emotional situation, which may result in a higher number of criminal arrests. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–8, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Representations of Family Practices, Belief in Sex Differences, and Sexism

Two hundred twenty-one adults and young adults answered one of three versions of a questionnaire of opinion scales, which induced a comparison between three pairs of targets (husband and wife; husband and home helper; wife and home helper). After they evaluated the targets’ contributions to family work, participants judged whether the contributions were fair and satisfactory. Then participants’ degree of belief in sex differences and level of sexism were measured. Results show that spouses’ contributions are only judged satisfactory when wife was compared with home helper; male respondents’ reported that they believed more strongly in sex differences when husband and wife were compared; men’s and women’s level of benevolent sexism did not differ when husband was compared with home helper.     

Hormonal changes after competition predict sex‐differentiated decision‐making

Recent neuroendocrinology research has pointed out that testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) changes after social interactions can predict risk‐taking behavior in decision‐making, depending on the sex of participants. However, previous research has focused on the effects of the changes in only one hormone, rather than the interaction between them, even though C can suppress T activity. Our aim was to test, in men and women, the role of T changes moderated by C changes after competition in decision‐making. Thus, 48 males and 46 females completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) after a laboratory competition or a noncompetitive task (control task). Saliva samples were collected before and after the competition/control task. IGT was employed to measure risk‐taking decision‐making, considering the degree of uncertainty. Our results showed sex‐differentiated effects of T and C changes on risk‐taking behavior. On the one hand, men from both task groups (Competition/Control) who had higher C and T changes after competition showed more risk‐taking decision‐making (higher IG Risk). On the other hand, women from the competitive task who had high C and T showed conservative decision‐making. Therefore, these results show sex‐differentiated decision‐making profiles, which would help to understand how men and women behave after experiencing a competitive social context.     

Recognition of facial emotions in neuropsychiatric disorders

Recognition of facial emotions represents an important aspect of interpersonal communication and is governed by select neural substrates. We present data on emotion recognition in healthy young adults utilizing a novel set of color photographs of evoked universal emotions. In addition, we review the recent literature on emotion recognition in psychiatric and neurologic disorders, and studies that compare different disorders.     

Timed written picture naming in 14 European languages

We describe the Multilanguage Written Picture Naming Dataset. This gives trial-level data and time and agreement norms for written naming of the 260 pictures of everyday objects that compose the colorized Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set (Rossion & Pourtois in Perception, 33, 217–236, 2004). Adult participants gave keyboarded responses in their first language under controlled experimental conditions (N = 1,274, with subsamples responding in Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish). We measured the time to initiate a response (RT) and interkeypress intervals, and calculated measures of name and spelling agreement. There was a tendency across all languages for quicker RTs to pictures with higher familiarity, image agreement, and name frequency, and with higher name agreement. Effects of spelling agreement and effects on output rates after writing onset were present in some, but not all, languages. Written naming therefore shows name retrieval effects that are similar to those found in speech, but our findings suggest the need for cross-language comparisons as we seek to understand the orthographic retrieval and/or assembly processes that are specific to written output.     

Underlying dimensions of ecocentric and anthropocentric environmental beliefs

This study focuses on the cognitive components of general environmental attitudes. Taking as a starting point the scale of Thompson and Barton (1994) to identify ecocentric and anthropocentric motives in environmental conservation, the beliefs that guide attitudes in the person-environment relationship are analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to contrast the tripartite structure of these beliefs--based on egoistic, socioaltruistic, and biospheric aspects-with a two-dimensional structure that confronts ecocentric and anthropocentric orientations. The results obtained from two samples, a student sample (n = 212) and a sample from the general population of Madrid (n = 205), indicate the existence of a three-dimensional structure of environmental beliefs: an anthropocentric dimension based on the instrumental value of the environment for human beings, a biospheric dimension that values the environment for its own sake, and, lastly, an egobiocentric dimension that values the human being within nature as a whole.