Can the location negative priming process operate in a proactive manner?

The location negative priming (NP) effect refers to the fact that the processing of a current target stimulus (probe trial) is delayed when it appears at a location that has recently contained a distractor event (prime trial), relative to when it occurs at a previously unoccupied position. One view is that the process causing the NP effect involves the inhibition of the internal representation of the prime-distractor event, and that the future processing of target stimuli that involve this event are prolonged because this distractor inhibition is persistent. In this study, we examined the possibility that the NP process (inhibition) could act proactively; specifically asking whether inhibition could be allocated to a location merely predicted to hold a future distractor event. To do this, we cued the probe distractor's location using an otherwise traditional location NP paradigm. No evidence of a proactive NP process was obtained. Probe-trial target latency was the same whether it appeared at the cued distractor location or at a new location, but was delayed when it occupied the prime-distractor location (NP effect). The location NP process is seemingly a reactive one, applying inhibition only when an actual distractor is present, much as past theories have implied.     

Synaesthesia: the prevalence of atypical cross-modal experiences

Sensory and cognitive mechanisms allow stimuli to be perceived with properties relating to sight, sound, touch, etc, and ensure, for example, that visual properties are perceived as visual experiences, rather than sounds, tastes, smells, etc. Theories of normal development can be informed by cases where this modularity breaks down, in a condition known as synaesthesia. Conventional wisdom has held that this occurs extremely rarely (0.05% of births) and affects women more than men. Here we present the first test of synaesthesia prevalence with sampling that does not rely on self-referral, and which uses objective tests to establish genuineness. We show that (a) the prevalence of synaesthesia is 88 times higher than previously assumed, (b) the most common variant is coloured days, (c) the most studied variant (grapheme-colour synaesthesia)--previously believed most common--is prevalent at 1%, and (d) there is no strong asymmetry in the distribution of synaesthesia across the sexes. Hence, we suggest that female biases reported earlier likely arose from (or were exaggerated by) sex differences in self-disclosure.     

Sexuality and Exercise Motivations: Are Gay Men and Heterosexual Women Most Likely to be Motivated by Concern About Weight and Appearance?

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between sexuality and exercise motivations in 93 British bar staff. Participants who self-identified as heterosexual, gay, or lesbian completed the revised version of the Exercise Motivations Inventory and reported exercise frequency. Heterosexual men scored lower on appearance motives than did heterosexual women and gay men, higher on enjoyment motives than did gay men, and higher on competition motives than did women and gay men. Men were significantly less likely than women to be motivated by weight management. Heterosexual men also reported exercising significantly more frequently than the other three groups. Suggestions for targeted exercise promotion initiatives are discussed.     

Potential Effects of Faking on the NEO-PI-R: Willingness and Ability to Fake Changes Who Gets Hired in Simulated Selection Decisions

The impact of response distortion (faking) on selection decisions was investigated. Participants (N = 224) completed the NEO-PI-R under instructions to “make the most favorable impression” and/or “answer honestly.” Those instructed to fake were often over-represented at the top of the score distributions as instructions to fake resulted in higher scores both between and within groups in a test–retest situation. There was significantly lower correspondence between participants’ honest scores and their faked scores as well as multiple instances where participants with unfavorable honest scores subsequently produced the most favorable scores when faking. Response distortion may remain a serious threat to the use of personality test scores in selection.

Mothers' depressed mood and anxiety levels are reduced after massaging their preterm infants

Forty mothers whose preterm infants were about to be discharged from the Neonatal Intermediate Care Nursery (NICU) were randomly assigned to two groups: the first group of mothers conducted preterm infant massage and the second group only observed their preterm infants receiving massage. Both groups of mothers had lower depressed mood scores following the session. However, only the group who massaged their infants had lower anxiety scores after the session.     

Partial support from a non-replication: comment on Roma, Silberberg, Ruggiero, and Suomi (2006)

A purported replication by P. G. Roma, A. Silberberg, A. M. Ruggiero, and S. J. Suomi of the authors' previous study claims to contradict their finding that capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) refuse to exchange with an experimenter if their partner receives a superior reward. Roma et al. used no exchange task, however, or any other task. Roma et al. offered frustration as explanation of their findings, yet failed to statistically prove that the effect of frustration is stronger than that of inequity. They also misrepresented the dependent measure of the authors' study. Reanalysis of the authors' own data indicated no role of frustration, that is, no effect of previous experience with a superior reward. The authors conclude that Roma et al.'s study is not a replication and does not disprove the authors' findings.     

Retrospective assessment of childhood sexual and physical abuse: a comparison of scaled and behaviorally specific approaches

This study compared retrospective reports of childhood sexual and physical abuse as assessed by two measures: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), which uses a Likert-type scaling approach, and the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI), which employs a behaviorally specific means of assessment. Participants included 1,195 undergraduate students recruited from three geographically diverse universities. Agreement was high across the two measures in the classification of victim status (92% and 80% for sexual and physical abuse, respectively). However, the CTQ classified more participants as sexually abused than did the CAMI, whereas the opposite trend was found for physical abuse. For child physical abuse, many participants reporting abusive acts on the CAMI scored below the cut-point for physical abuse on the CTQ. Classification differences for both types of abuse were largely unrelated to demographic factors, socially desirable responding, or self-reported withholding of information. The implications of these results are discussed in light of future research using retrospective methods of assessing childhood abuse.