Snakes and cats in the flower bed: fast detection is not specific to pictures of fear-relevant animals

The observation that snakes and spiders are found faster among flowers and mushrooms than vice versa and that this search advantage is independent of set size supports the notion that fear-relevant stimuli are processed preferentially in a dedicated fear module. Experiment 1 replicated the faster identification of snakes and spiders but also found a set size effect in a blocked, but not in a mixed-trial, sequence. Experiment 2 failed to find faster identification of snake and spider deviants relative to other animals among flowers and mushrooms and provided evidence for a search advantage for pictures of animals, irrespective of their fear relevance. These findings suggest that results from the present visual search task cannot support the notion of preferential processing of fear relevance.     

Knockdown of Nurr1 in the rat hippocampus: implications to spatial discrimination learning and memory

Nurr1 expression is up-regulated in the brain following associative learning experiences, but its relevance to cognitive processes remains unclear. In these studies, rats initially received bilateral hippocampal infusions of control or antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) 1 h prior to training in a holeboard spatial discrimination task. Such pre-training infusions of nurr1 antisense ODNs caused a moderate effect in learning the task and also impaired LTM tested 7 d later. In a second experiment, ODN infusions were given immediately after the animals had received two sessions of training, during which all animals showed normal learning. Although antisense treated rats were significantly impaired during the post-infusion stages of acquisition of the task, no group differences were observed during the LTM test given 7 d later. These animals were subjected 3 d later to reversal training in the same maze in the absence of any additional treatments. Remarkably, rats previously treated with antisense ODNs displayed perseveration: The animals were fixated with the previously learned pattern of baited holes, causing them to be significantly impaired in the extinction of acquired spatial preferences and future learning. We postulate that Nurr1 function in the hippocampus is important for normal cognitive processes.     

Perspective taking promotes action understanding and learning

People often learn actions by watching others. The authors propose and test the hypothesis that perspective taking promotes encoding a hierarchical representation of an actor's goals and subgoals-a key process for observational learning. Observers segmented videos of an object assembly task into coarse and fine action units. They described what happened in each unit from either the actor's, their own, or another observer's perspective and later performed the assembly task themselves. Participants who described the task from the actor's perspective encoded actions more hierarchically during observation and learned the task better.     

Relation of emotion-related regulation to children's social competence: a longitudinal study

The differential relations of children's emotion-related regulation (i.e., effortful control and impulsivity) to their personality resiliency, adult-rated popularity, and social competence were examined in children who were 4.5-7.9 years old and who were remeasured 2 years later. Parents and teachers reported on all constructs, and children's attentional persistence was observed. Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediating role of resiliency on the relations between regulation/control and popularity using two-wave longitudinal data. The results provide some evidence of the mediating role of resiliency in the relations between effortful control and popularity, provide some evidence of bidirectional effects, and also buttress the view that emotional regulation should be differentiated into effortful and reactive forms of control.     

Déjà Vu all over again: re-revisiting the conceptual status of early word learning: comment on Smith and Samuelson (2006)

The authors assert that L. B. Smith and L. Samuelson's (2006) most recent critique of A. E. Booth, S. R. Waxman, and Y. T. Huang's (2005) work missed its mark, deflecting attention from the important theoretical difference between the two sets of authors' positions and focusing instead on imagined differences and minor expositional complaints. The authors' goal in this response is twofold. First, they aim to redirect attention to the 1 clear difference between the 2 theoretical positions regarding word learning, a difference that is focused on the role of conceptual (in conjunction with perceptual) information in word learning. Second, they place L. B. Smith and L. Samuelson's (2006) current critique in the context of previous exchanges.     

Math and science motivation: A longitudinal examination of the links between choices and beliefs

This study addresses the longitudinal associations between youths' out-of-school activities, expectancies-values, and high school course enrollment in the domains of math and science. Data were collected on 227 youth who reported on their activity participation in 5th grade, expectancies-values in 6th and 10th grade, and courses taken throughout high school. Math and science course grades at 5th and 10th grade were gathered through school record data. Results indicated youths' math and science activity participation predicted their expectancies and values, which, in turn, predicted the number of high school courses above the predictive power of grades. Although there were mean-level differences between boys and girls on some of these indicators, relations among indicators did not significantly differ by gender.     

Hemispheric processing of inferences: The effects of textual constraint and working memory capacity

In this study, we investigated hemispheric differences in the generation of bridging and predictive inferences. Participants read texts that provided either strong or weak causal constraints for a particular bridging (Experiment 1) or predictive (Experiment 2) inference and performed a lexical decision task to inference-related targets presented to the left or the right hemisphere. Facilitation for strongly constrained bridging and predictive inferences was found in both hemispheres. In contrast, facilitation for weakly constrained inferences was stronger in the right than in the left hemisphere for both bridging and predictive inferences, although for the latter there was some facilitation in the left hemisphere as well. We also considered whether these effects differ as a function of the working memory capacity of the reader. High working memory capacity readers showed greater facilitation for strongly constrained inferences than for weakly constrained inferences in both hemispheres, whereas low working memory capacity readers showed this same pattern in the left hemisphere but showed equal facilitation for strongly and weakly constrained inferences in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that hemispheric processing, textual constraint, and working memory capacity interact to affect how readers generate causal inferences.     

Self-conscious emotions and self-regulation in the promotion of condom use

Two prospective studies examined the self-regulatory role of anticipated negative self-conscious emotions (ANSCE) in the theory of planned behavior. In Study 1, 147 undergraduates reported condom attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, ANSCE (shame and guilt) should they not use condoms, and intentions to use condoms during the coming 6 weeks. At a 6-week follow-up, ANSCE predicted condom use intentions and behavior and partially mediated the effect of attitudes and norms on both. Study 2 experimentally tested the social nature of self-consciousness in ANSCE; 61 female undergraduates read a scenario priming the private-self or social-self or were assigned to a no-scenario control. They reported condom attitudes, perceived control, ANSCE, condom use intentions, and a 6-week follow-up. ANSCE again predicted condom use intentions. A test of moderated mediation indicated that ANSCE influenced condom intentions more in the social-self condition than in the control condition. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The perception of tempo in music

Tempo is one factor that is frequently associated with the expressive nature of a piece of music. Composers often indicate the tempo of a piece of music through the use of numerical markings (beats min(-1)) and subjective terms (adagio, allegro). Three studies were conducted to assess whether listeners were able to make consistent judgments about tempo that varied from piece to piece. Listeners heard short extracts of Scottish music played at a range of tempi and were asked to make a two-alternative forced choice of "too fast" or "too slow" for each extract. The responses for each study were plotted as proportion of too fast responses as a function of tempo for each piece, and cumulative normal curves were fitted to each data set. The point where these curves cross 0.5 is the tempo at which the music sounds right to the listeners, referred to as the optimal tempo. The results from each study show that listeners are capable of making consistent tempo judgments and that the optimal tempo varies across extracts. The results also revealed that rhythm plays a role, but not the only role in making temporal judgments.     

The liebowitz social anxiety scale as a self-report instrument: a preliminary psychometric analysis

The Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS) is a commonly used clinician-administered instrument. The present study reports on the properties of a self-report version of the LSAS (LSAS-SR). About 175 participants diagnosed with social phobia participated in the study. The LSAS-SR showed overall good psychometric properties as indicated by the results of test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the scale was sensitive to treatment change. The construct validity of the LSAS-SR, however, remains to be further explored. These findings support the utility of the LSAS-SR, which has the advantage of saving valuable clinician time compared to the clinician-administered version.