Gender differences in parent-child conversations about past emotions

In this study, we examined the emotional content of parents’ conversations about past events with their 40-month-old children. Subjects were 24 white middle-class children and their mothers and fathers. At separate home visits, each parent independently engaged the child in conversation about three events that parent and child had experienced together only once before. Mothers and fathers talked about emotional aspects of events in similar ways, but they both used a greater number and variety of emotion words with daughters than with sons. Parents also mentioned sad aspects of events more with daughters than with sons. Implications of the differential socialization of emotion for boys and girls are discussed.     

Illusion magnitude as a function of visual field exposure

Forty-eight right-handed subjects divided into four groups, each consisting of six males and six females, were employed in an investigation of cerebral hemispheric influence on the perception of tachistoscopically presented simultaneous and successive versions of the Mueller-Lyer figure. The simultaneous version exposed in the left visual field resulted in a larger effect than did right visual field exposures. The successive version exposed in the right visual field resulted in a larger illusion magnitude than it did in the left visual field. The magnitude of visual field differences in response to the successive version was greater than visual field differences found in response to the simultaneous version     

Do dogs (Canis familiaris) seek help in an emergency?

The question of whether dogs recognize an emergency and understand the need to seek help from a bystander was tested in two experiments. In the first experiment, dogs' owners feigned a heart attack in an open field, and in the second experiment, dogs' owners experienced an accident in which a bookcase fell on them and pinned them to the floor. In these experiments, one or two bystanders were available to which dogs could go for help. The dogs' behavior was taped for 6 min after the owner had fallen and was later scored for the frequency and time the dogs spent performing different behaviors. In no case did a dog solicit help from a bystander. It is concluded that dogs did not understand the nature of the emergency or the need to obtain help.     

Externalizing and personalizing biases in persecutory delusions: the relationship with poor insight and theory-of-mind

The presence of externalizing bias (EB) for negative events together with personalizing bias (PB) (a bias to blame others rather than circumstances) may jointly constitute a vulnerability to develop persecutory delusions (PDs). Whereas EB purportedly serves to defend a vulnerable self-concept by avoiding negative self-attributions and might therefore exacerbate poor insight, PB may reflect cognitive deficits, including theory-of-mind impairment. We investigated these proposals in 34 schizophrenic patients with a history of PDs and 21 healthy controls. Patients with moderate- to severe-PDs and patients without a current PD showed excessive EB which was, surprisingly, absent in patients with mild persecutory delusions (mild-PDs). That EB might wax and wane with fluctuating delusional intensity was interpreted in accord with a new dynamic model of attribution self-representation cycles. As predicted, EB exacerbated poor insight. However, counter to predictions, theory-of-mind impairment did not increase PB, which was marked in all participants, whether clinical or non-clinical; instead, theory-of-mind impairment was also correlated with poor insight. Our findings indicate multiple pathways to poor insight, one of which is a theory-of-mind difficulty, impairing the capacity to simulate other perspectives for the purpose of critically evaluating one's own beliefs and circumstances.     

Bring It On: Proactive Coping with Discrimination

We investigated proactive coping with discrimination among heavy women in both a high impact lab study (101 women) and a daily diary study (62 women). Heavy women assessed greater harm and fewer coping resources for discriminatory, as compared to non-discriminatory, hassles (Study 2). Primary appraisals of harm were important determinants of proactive coping, including primary control (attempts to change the environment) and secondary control (attempts to change the self to fit the environment) directed at discriminatory stressors (Studies 1 and 2). When heavy women used primary control coping efforts, they experienced positive interpersonal outcomes (Study 1) and less negative intrapersonal outcomes (Study 2). We discuss the benefits and limitations of engaging in proactive coping and suggest avenues for future research.

Media exposure, mood, and body image dissatisfaction: an experimental test of person versus product priming

In the current study, 138 college females were randomly assigned to four media exposure conditions based on the presence or absence of an attractive person (fashion model) and the presence or absence of an appearance-related product. Outcome measures consisted of visual analogue ratings of multiple body image and mood variables. The results revealed a significant main effect for person, indicating that the presence of a model increased levels of body dissatisfaction and negative mood. No product effect emerged and there was no significant interaction between person and product. These findings suggest that the appearance priming effect of media exposure on body dissatisfaction and mood is specific to a person stimulus, with no additional effect promoted by a generic appearance-relevant stimulus.     

Effects of Irrelevant Sounds on Phonological Coding in Reading Comprehension and Short term Memory

The effects of irrelevant sounds on reading comprehension and short-term memory were studied in two experiments. In Experiment 1, adults judged the acceptability of written sentences during irrelevent speech, accompanied and unaccompanied singing, instrumental music, and in silence. Sentences varied in syntactic complexity: Simple sentences contained a right-branching relative clause ( The applause pleased the woman that gave the speech ) and syntactically complex sentences included a centre-embedded relative clause ( The hay that the farmer stored fed the hungry animals ). Unacceptable sentences either sounded acceptable ( The dog chased the cat that eight up all his food ) or did not ( The man praised the child that sight up his spinach ). Decision accuracy was impaired by syntactic complexity but not by irrelevant sounds. Phonological coding was indicated by increased errors on unacceptable sentences that sounded correct. These error rates were unaffected by irrelevant sounds. Experiment 2 examined effects of irrelevant sounds on ordered recall of phonologically similar and dissimilar word lists. Phonological similarity impaired recall. Irrelevant speech reduced recall but did not interact with phonological similarity. The results of these experiments question assumptions about the relationship between speech input and phonological coding in reading and the short-term store.     

EQUATING INVERSE PROBABILITIES IN IMPLICIT PERSONALITY JUDGMENTS

Abstract— Meehl and Rosen (1955) observed that their colleagues tended to equate the sensitivity of a sign (its probability given a diagnostic category) with its predictive accuracy (the probability of the diagnostic category given the sign). Such equating of inverse probabilities implies ignoring base rates. Later, many researchers demonstrated such neglect in a number of experimental contexts involving hypothetical judgments; others have found some use of base rates—but only when base rates were supplied by the experimenter, in which case even irrelevant base rates influenced judgment. The present study tested for equating conditional probabilities in a context similar to the contexts involved in the initial observations—that is, subjects strove for accuracy rather than attempted to make good judgments about hypothetical problems, and the base rates were generated by the subjects themselves. Neglect of base rates was revealed by within-individual comparisons showing subjects equated inverse probabilities without equating the corresponding unconditional ones.