Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation

Language for number is an important case study of the relationship between language and cognition because the mechanisms of non-verbal numerical cognition are well-understood. When the Pirahã (an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe who have no exact number words) are tested in non-verbal numerical tasks, they are able to perform one-to-one matching tasks but make errors in more difficult tasks. Their pattern of errors suggests that they are using analog magnitude estimation, an evolutionarily- and developmentally-conserved mechanism for estimating quantities. Here we show that English-speaking participants rely on the same mechanisms when verbal number representations are unavailable due to verbal interference. Followup experiments demonstrate that the effects of verbal interference are primarily manifest during encoding of quantity information, and—using a new procedure for matching difficulty of interference tasks for individual participants—that the effects are restricted to verbal interference. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that number words are used online to encode, store, and manipulate numerical information. This linguistic strategy complements, rather than altering or replacing, non-verbal representations.     

Preferences surf on the currents of words: Implicit verb causality influences evaluative conditioning

It is a psychological truism that thought shapes language. However, the idea that language constrains cognition is less well understood and has been debated in philosophy, linguistic, and psychology. The goal of the present research was to investigate the influence of language, as given in linguistic categories, on the formation of evaluations in an interpersonal impression formation context. Specifically, we examined the role of different verb classes in the formation of interpersonal (dis‐)likes within an evaluative conditioning (EC) paradigm. EC refers to the change in liking in a conditioned stimulus (CS) as a result of its' pairing with an unconditioned stimulus (US). In contrast to traditional EC accounts that assume the rigid and unrestricted change in valence due to CS–US co‐occurrence, we found that EC was moderated by language, that is, by the linguistic status of the US. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Economic Hardship, Neighborhood Context, and Parenting: Prospective Effects on Mexican�CAmerican Adolescent��s Mental Health

This study examined family and neighborhood influences relevant to low-income status to determine how they combine to predict the parenting behaviors of Mexican-American mothers and fathers. The study also examined the role of parenting as a mediator of these contextual influences on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Study hypotheses were examined in a diverse sample of Mexican-American families in which 750 mothers and 467 fathers reported on their own levels of parental warmth and harsh parenting. Family economic hardship, neighborhood familism values, and neighborhood risk indicators were all uniquely associated with maternal and paternal warmth, and maternal warmth mediated the effects of these contextual influences on adolescent externalizing symptoms in prospective analyses. Parents' subjective perceptions of neighborhood danger interacted with objective indicators of neighborhood disadvantage to influence maternal and paternal warmth. Neighborhood familism values had unique direct effects on adolescent externalizing symptoms in prospective analyses, after accounting for all other context and parenting effects.     

Disconnections of African American Public Housing Residents: Connections to Physical Activity, Dietary Habits and Obesity

African American (AA) and low SES populations report poor health behaviors and outcomes. This study aimed to increase understanding of barriers to participating in healthful behaviors and programs in AA residents of public housing. Twenty two apparently healthy, AA residents (50% female, M = 43.9 years) completed in depth interviews, which were taped, transcribed and analyzed using a constant comparison approach. Residents demonstrated some awareness of health recommendations, but described limited adherence. Physical activity for recreation was reported as primarily for youth, with adults engaging in limited physical activity (primarily incidental to other activities). Barriers reported by residents were both personal and environmental. Few residents were aware of local neighborhood opportunities for physical activity or healthful eating. Future efforts should focus on increasing understanding of health promoting behaviors and awareness and efficacy of residents to connect with the resources of their surrounding communities.     

The effects of romantic partners’ goal congruence on affective well-being

Affective well-being in romantic couples was examined from the perspective of interdependence theory. The independent variables were (a) presence of partner, (b) whether an activity met the actor’s goals, and (c) goals of the actor’s partner. Dependent variables were feelings of closeness and affective well-being (happiness, sadness, anger, anxiety). We predicted a three-way interaction with the highest affective well-being when partners are together and activities meet both partners’ goals. In Study 1, data from 194 married individuals who participated in an experience sampling study supported our predictions. Feelings of closeness partially mediated the effect on affective well-being. Study 2 replicated the findings with 112 participants in dating relationships who recalled specific events and made ratings about goals and affective well-being.     

Criminal thinking patterns, aggression styles, and the psychopathic traits of late high school bullies and bully-victims

This study explored the current psychological characteristics and criminal behavior history of individuals who retrospectively reported being bullies, bully-victims, victims, or controls (i.e. neither victims nor bullies) during their last 2 years of high school. College students (n = 960) completed measures of criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy, and criminal behavior online. We predicted bullies and bully-victims would demonstrate the highest scores for criminal thinking, proactive aggression, psychopathy, and have the most criminal infractions. Bullies and bully-victims had significantly higher scores on criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy, and criminal behaviors than victims or controls. Additionally, men were significantly higher in criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy, and had more criminal acts than women. There were no gender by bully group interactions. Logistic regression analyses differentiated bully-victims from bullies. Bully-victims tended to be male, higher in criminal thinking, and higher in reactive aggression. In addition, bully-victims were distinct from victims, showing higher criminal thinking and higher proactive aggression.     

Feeling like you know who you are: perceived true self-knowledge and meaning in life

The essence of who a person really is has been labeled the "true self," and an emerging area of research suggests that this self-concept plays an important role in the creation of a fulfilling existence. Three studies investigate the role of the subjective feeling that one possesses knowledge of one's true self in meaning in life judgments. Consistently, the perception of availability of true self-knowledge (operationalized as the metacognitive experience of ease in describing one's true self) predicted meaning in life judgments over and above other potentially related constructs such as mood and self-esteem. Conversely, the subjective availability of knowledge of how one actually behaves (i.e., one's actual self) was unrelated to meaning in life judgments. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Lateralisation of language and emotion in schizotypal personality: Evidence from dichotic listening

Striking disturbances have been reported in language and emotional prosody processing by patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. In view of this and of research suggesting that schizotypal personality traits can also be expressed sub-clinically, the present study aimed to discover whether similar disturbances would be reflected in cognitive laterality patterns when symptoms of schizotypy are present yet at a non-clinical level. A dichotic listening task was used to examine the sensitivity and speed with which 132 right-handed participants (85 females and 47 males, mean age = 32.44, SD = 12.29) detected both words and emotional prosody, all of whom also completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. Findings indicated that both high (n = 64) and low (n = 68) schizotypy groups demonstrated the typical right ear advantage for the detection of words and left ear advantage for the detection of emotional prosody. Individuals with higher schizotypal personality scores also demonstrated poorer sensitivity in detecting emotional prosody. These results reveal that within the healthy population, higher levels of schizotypy are not associated with the atypical lateralisation of language and emotion. Nevertheless, the existence of these symptoms does signal the presence of shared characteristics with the clinical sphere, namely poorer emotion recognition performance.     

Confidence via correction: The effect of judgment correction on consumer confidence

At times, consumers are motivated to reduce the influence of a product recommendation on their judgments. Based on previous research, it is unclear whether this correction process will increase or decrease consumers' confidence in their judgments. We find that source credibility moderates the effect of correction on confidence: correction decreases confidence when a product recommendation comes from a high credibility source but increases confidence when the same message comes from a low credibility source. As a result, correction increases the effectiveness of recommendations from low credibility sources on purchase intentions. Notably, this “confidence via correction” effect is further moderated by elaboration, such that the effect is attenuated for high elaboration consumers. Our results have implications for understanding consumers' reactions to persuasive messages and for both marketing practitioners and consumer protection agencies using correction cues to influence message persuasiveness.     

Interaction Between the Parenting Alliance and Parent–Child Activities in a Clinic-Referred Sample of 2 to 18-year-olds

Several decades of research have demonstrated a link between marital, parenting, and child domains. The present study examined the nature of these links by testing the moderating effect of the parent–child relationship on the association between the parenting alliance and internalizing and externalizing problems in 324 dual-parent families of 2-to-18-year-old clinic-referred youth. Findings indicated that positive parent–child activities directly related to children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, and modified the nature of the association between the parenting alliance and internalizing problems in families of 6-to-10-year-olds. Interestingly, in families where parents engaged in fewer positive activities with their children, a strong parenting alliance actually related to greater child internalizing problems. Findings support the importance of understanding the interaction between the marital and child domains in order to effectively intervene with families of children experiencing behavior problems.