Look who's talking? Sound changes gaze behaviour in a dynamic social scene

Humans often look at other people in natural scenes, and previous research has shown that these looks follow the conversation and that they are sensitive to sound in audiovisual speech perception. In the present experiment, participants viewed video clips of four people involved in a discussion. By removing the sound, we asked whether auditory information would affect when speakers were fixated, how fixations between different observers were synchronized, and whether the eyes or mouth were looked at most often. The results showed that sound changed the timing of looks—by alerting observers to changes in conversation and attracting attention to the speaker. Clips with sound also led to greater attentional synchrony, with more observers fixating the same regions at the same time. However, looks towards the eyes of the people continued to dominate and were unaffected by removing the sound. These findings provide a rich example of multimodal social attention.     

Interest in Participating in Smoking Cessation Treatment Among Latino Primary Care Patients

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease and death for U.S. Latinos. This study identified correlates of interest in participating in a smoking cessation program among urban Latinos seen in community clinics. Interviews were completed with 141 current smokers. Participants were predominantly Spanish-speaking (93%) males (66%), who were on average 37.6 years old and smoked 8.7 cigarettes per day. Over two-thirds (63%) of participants were “definitely interested” in participating in a smoking cessation program. Participants who smoked more cigarettes per day and reported greater nicotine dependence, depression, and readiness to quit were more likely to be interested, while those employed fulltime were less likely to report high interest. Treatment preferences were consistent with Clinical Practice Guidelines recommending counseling, social support, and pharmacotherapy. Results support recommendations that healthcare providers intervene with all Latino smokers, including light smokers and those who do not report initial interest in smoking cessation.     

Deletion of the GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit impairs recency-dependent object recognition memory

Deletion of the GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit impairs short-term spatial recognition memory. It has been suggested that short-term recognition depends upon memory caused by the recent presentation of a stimulus that is independent of contextual-retrieval processes. The aim of the present set of experiments was to test whether the role of GluA1 extends to nonspatial recognition memory. Wild-type and GluA1 knockout mice were tested on the standard object recognition task and a context-independent recognition task that required recency-dependent memory. In a first set of experiments it was found that GluA1 deletion failed to impair performance on either of the object recognition or recency-dependent tasks. However, GluA1 knockout mice displayed increased levels of exploration of the objects in both the sample and test phases compared to controls. In contrast, when the time that GluA1 knockout mice spent exploring the objects was yoked to control mice during the sample phase, it was found that GluA1 deletion now impaired performance on both the object recognition and the recency-dependent tasks. GluA1 deletion failed to impair performance on a context-dependent recognition task regardless of whether object exposure in knockout mice was yoked to controls or not. These results demonstrate that GluA1 is necessary for nonspatial as well as spatial recognition memory and plays an important role in recency-dependent memory processes.     

Therapist Use-of-Self Orientations Questionnaire: A Reliability and Validity Study

This article describes the development of the Therapist Use-of-Self Orientation Questionnaire (TUSO-Q), an instrument designed to measure therapists’ use-of-self orientations while working with clients. A total of 373 therapists participated in this study. Exploratory factor analysis in the structural equation modeling context revealed three different therapist use-of-self orientations: Transpersonal, Contextual, and Instrumental. The final model provided an excellent fit to the data. TUSO-Q scores exhibited satisfactory evidence of internal consistency reliability and construct validity. Implications for the scale’s use in clinical research and training are discussed.     

Competitive short-term and long-term memory processes in spatial habituation

Exposure to a spatial location leads to habituation of exploration such that, in a novelty preference test, rodents subsequently prefer exploring a novel location to the familiar location. According to Wagner's (1981) theory of memory, short-term and long-term habituation are caused by separate and sometimes opponent processes. In the present study, this dual-process account of memory was tested. Mice received a series of exposure training trials to a location before receiving a novelty preference test. The novelty preference was greater when tested after a short, rather than a long, interval. In contrast, the novelty preference was weaker when exposure training trials were separated by a short, rather than a long interval. Furthermore, it was found that long-term habituation was determined by the independent effects of the amount of exposure training and the number of exposure training trials when factors such as the intertrial interval and the cumulative intertrial interval were controlled. A final experiment demonstrated that a long-term reduction of exploration could be caused by a negative priming effect due to associations formed during exploration. These results provide evidence against a single-process account of habituation and suggest that spatial habituation is determined by both short-term, recency-based memory and long-term, incrementally strengthened memory.     

Mind over matter: internalization of the thinness norm as a moderator of responsiveness to norm misperception education in college women.

The authors examine the effectiveness of norm misperception education in decreasing disordered eating. One hundred seven 1st-year college women completed questionnaires assessing their own and others' actual and ideal body size as well as their own disordered eating and were then randomly assigned to read either a norm misperception or a control brochure. Participants completed questionnaires immediately after reading the brochures and again 3 months later. Although there were no main effects of brochure condition at the follow-up, participants who primarily compared themselves with other college women and who read the norm misperception brochure had higher actual and ideal weight as well as less frequent disordered eating. The discussion focuses on the theoretical and applied implications of these findings.     

Comparing educational interventions: Correcting misperceived norms improves college students' mental health attitudes

This research targeted potential psychological contributors to college students' low levels of help‐seeking for mental distress using a field experiment. Researchers randomly assigned 520 undergraduates to 15‐min interventions: a novel, theory‐driven social norms intervention correcting misperceived distress, stigma, and help‐seeking norms; a general education intervention increasing mental health awareness; and a stress management active control condition. The norms intervention instilled more accurate perceptions of mental health norms and temporarily reduced perceived public stigma compared to other conditions. The norms and general education interventions improved attitudes toward seeking help for mental distress for at least 2 months, relative to the control. Effects on help‐seeking behavior were not observed in this timeframe. This research elucidates the robustness of brief social psychological mental health interventions on college campuses.     

“I Am Moral,But You Are Deterred”: Differential Attributions About Why People Obey the Law1

This research examined the different attributions that individuals make for law‐abiding behavior by different people. Experiment 1 reveals that individuals believe that they and other highly moral people are motivated to obey laws because of internal reasons (e.g., laws reflect valued rules and moral behavior), whereas they believe that criminals are motivated by external reasons (e.g., fear of punishment). However, Experiment 2 shows that even some criminals are seen as motivated to obey laws regarding particular types of crimes because of internal factors. Experiment 3 replicates these general findings using a between‐subjects design. Finally, Experiment 4 shows that individuals believe that they are motivated to obey laws regarding minor transgressions (e.g., speed limits) for both internal and external reasons. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for both psychological theory and social policy.