A nation challenged: the impact of foreign threat on America's tolerance for diversity

Three experiments investigated how perceived foreign threats to the United States can influence Americans' endorsement of assimilation and multiculturalism as models for foreign and domestic intergroup relations. The initial study, conducted during the 6-month anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (9/11), discovered that a diverse group of Americans preferred assimilation as a foreign policy and multiculturalism as a domestic policy. After reading that foreigners were supporting the dominant global status of the United States, however, Americans in Experiment 2 no longer expressed this preference for assimilation as a model for foreign intergroup relations. Experiment 3 discovered that Americans primed with 9/11 (i.e., a foreign threat) revealed higher levels of national identity than did those primed with the Columbine massacre (i.e., a domestic threat); moreover, level of national identity predicted support for multiculturalism as a domestic policy and assimilation as a foreign policy.     

Cultural influences on neural substrates of attentional control

Behavioral research has shown that people from Western cultural contexts perform better on tasks emphasizing independent (absolute) dimensions than on tasks emphasizing interdependent (relative) dimensions, whereas the reverse is true for people from East Asian contexts. We assessed functional magnetic resonance imaging responses during performance of simple visuospatial tasks in which participants made absolute judgments (ignoring visual context) or relative judgments (taking visual context into account). In each group, activation in frontal and parietal brain regions known to be associated with attentional control was greater during culturally nonpreferred judgments than during culturally preferred judgments. Also, within each group, activation differences in these regions correlated strongly with scores on questionnaires measuring individual differences in culture-typical identity. Thus, the cultural background of an individual and the degree to which the individual endorses cultural values moderate activation in brain networks engaged during even simple visual and attentional tasks.     

Temporomandibular Disorder in Brazilian Patients: A Preliminary Study

The objective of the current study was to evaluate disease-related beliefs, adherence to treatment, quality of life, coping strategies and cognitive status in a group of Brazilian patients with Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD). Thirty patients were evaluated with a semi-directed interview, the Coping Strategies Inventory, and a Mini-Mental State Examination. Although half (50%) of the patients had known their diagnosis long term, 40% of the sample were not correctly following proposed treatment. All patients had a similar pattern of pain behavior related to TMD, while disease-related beliefs, quality of life and coping strategies were variable. Expectations about treatment also had significant association with treatment adherence. The findings of this study suggest that a more thorough understanding of individual differences in TMD is warranted.     

Comparison of single- and double-stage designs in the prevalence estimation of eating disorders in community samples

The aim of this research was to compare two different case-identification designs: (a) a one-stage anonymous design using the Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994) as diagnostic instrument and (b) a two-stage-non-anonymous design using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT; Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) and the EDE-Q as screening instruments and the clinical interview Eating Disorders Examination (EDE; Fairbumrn & Cooper, 1993) as diagnostic instrument, in the estimation of eating disorders prevalence in community samples. Both epidemiological designs were compared in: eating disorders prevalence, population at risk, and weekly frequency of associated symptomatology (binge eating episodes, self-vomiting) within a sample of 559 scholars (14 to 18 year-old males and females) studying in the region of Madrid. Eating disorders prevalence estimation using single-stage design was 6.2%, and 3% using the two-stage design; however, these differences were not significant (p = .067). No significant differences between the two procedures were found either in population at risk or in weekly frequency of reported self-vomiting. Reported binge eating episodes were higher in the one-stage design. The use of a two-stage procedure with clinical interview (vs. questionnaire) leads to a better understanding of the items (specially the most ambiguous ones) and thus, to a more accurate prevalence estimation.     

Construction of a depression scale with the Rasch model

This study examines the psychometric properties of a depression questionnaire. The goal was to improve the technical quality of traditional measures of depression in Spanish youth. 310 participants, aged 18-24 years, filled in the self-report questionnaire. The data were analyzed by means of the Rasch model. Results show that model fit, average item reliability (.97), and average person reliability (.88) are high. After deleting four indicators showing misfit and 12 showing sex bias, the resulting scale measures clinical depression objectively. Using this scale, the expected sex-related differences are found.     

Telepsychology and Self-help: The Treatment of Fear of Public Speaking

This work presents a self-help, Internet-based telepsychology program for the treatment of public speaking fears. The system is comprised of 3 parts: The assessment protocol gives the patient information about his or her problem (i.e., amount of interference it creates in his or her life, severity, degree of fear and avoidance). The system also includes a structured treatment protocol, organized into separate blocks, reflecting the patient’s progress. This ensures that the patient does not skip any steps in the treatment (something quite common in traditional self-help manuals), which provides more control over the process. The treatment protocol is a cognitive-behavioral program that provides exposure to the feared situation using videos of real audiences. Finally, the control protocol assesses treatment efficacy, not only at closure, but also at every intermediate step. Efficacy data from 12 social phobia patients are presented from pretreatment to posttreatment and at 1-month follow-up. These preliminary data support the efficacy of our telepsychology program for the treatment of fear of public speaking. This is a preliminary work in a promising research path that examines the possibility of using the Internet for the treatment of psychological disorders.     

Knowledge alters visual contrast sensitivity

Research has shown that the visual system’s sensitivity to variations in luminance (visual contrast) within a particular area of the retina is affected in a bottom-up fashion by the ambient contrast levels in nearby regions. Specifically, changes in the ambient contrast in areas surrounding the target area alter the sensitivity to visual contrast within the target area. More recent research has shown that paying attention to the target or target area modulates contrast sensitivity, suggesting a top-down influence over contrast sensitivity that is mediated by attention. Here we report another form of top-down influence over contrast sensitivity that is unlikely to be mediated by attention. In particular, we show that knowledge and/or expectations about the levels of visual contrast that may appear in upcoming targets also affect how sensitive the observer is to the contrast in the target. This sort of knowledge-driven, top-down contrast sensitivity control could be used to preset the visual system’s contrast sensitivity to maximize discriminability and to protect contrast-sensitive processes from a contrast overload. Overall, our results suggest that existing models of contrast sensitivity might benefit from the inclusion of top-down control mechanisms.     

Enabling Interactive Exploration of Cultural Heritage: An Experience of Designing Systems for Mobile Devices

Interaction design of mobile systems is a complex activity because it requires considering new usability and user experience aspects in order to exploit the peculiar characteristics of mobile devices, such as their pervasive and ubiquitous nature. This paper discusses issues about designing, developing and evaluating mobile systems. Italy has a rich cultural heritage, and the focus in this study is on the design of systems that enable interactive exploration of historical sites, not only for enhancing the user experience but also for learning purposes. The experience of the researchers at the Interaction, Visualisation and Usability lab, University of Bari, Italy, in designing a mobile learning system, called Explore!, which supports young students learning ancient history during a visit to archaeological parks, is reported. The evaluation of Explore! through systematic field studies shows that the adopted approach is able to transform the visit to archaeological parks into a more complete and culturally rich experience.     

Acute Stress Modulates Risk Taking in Financial Decision Making

ABSTRACT— People's decisions are often susceptible to various demands exerted by the environment, leading to stressful conditions. Although a goal for researchers is to elucidate stress-coping mechanisms to facilitate decision-making processes, it is important to first understand the interaction between the state created by a stressful environment and how decisions are performed in such environments. The objective of this experiment was to probe the impact of exposure to acute stress on financial decision making and examine the particular influence of stress on decisions with a positive or negative valence. Participants' choices exhibited a stronger reflection effect when participants were under stress than when they were in the no-stress control phase. This suggests that stress modulates risk taking, potentially exacerbating behavioral bias in subsequent decision making. Consistent with dual-process approaches, decision makers fall back on automatized reactions to risk under the influence of disruptive stress.     

Genetic architecture of verbal abilities in children and adolescents

The etiology of individual differences in general verbal ability, verbal learning and letter and category fluency were examined in two independent samples of 9‐ and 18‐year‐old twin pairs and their siblings. In both age groups, we observed strong familial resemblance for general verbal ability and moderate familial resemblance for verbal learning, letter and category fluency. All familial resemblance was explained by genetic factors. There was significant covariance among the tests, which was stronger in magnitude in the adolescent cohort. The covariance was mainly explained by genetic effects shared by subtests, both in middle childhood and in late adolescence. In addition to a shared set of genes that influenced all phenotypes, there were also genetic influences specific to the different verbal phenotypes.