Talking about visually perceived events: Communication effects on eyewitness memory

Communicators' tuning of a message about a social target to their audience's evaluation can shape their representation of the target. This audience‐tuning effect has been demonstrated with ambiguous text passages as input material. We examined whether the effect also occurs when communicators learn about the target's behaviours from visual (nonverbal) input material. In Experiment 1, participants watched a soundless video depicting ambiguous behaviours of a target, described the video to an audience who liked (vs. disliked) the target, and subsequently recalled the video. Both message and recall were biased towards the audience's judgement. In Experiment 2, the video depicted a forensically relevant event, specifically ambiguous behaviours of two persons involved in a bar brawl. Participants tuned their event retellings to their audience's responsibility judgement and remembered the event accordingly. In both experiments, the effect of the audience's judgement on recall was statistically mediated by the extent to which the message was tuned to the audience. The more participants experienced a shared reality with their audience the stronger was the message‐recall correlation (Experiment 2). We conclude that the audience‐tuning effect for visually perceived information depends on the communicators' creation of a shared reality with their audience. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Meta-analytic Review of the Role of Child Anxiety Sensitivity in Child Anxiety

Conflicting findings exist regarding (1) whether anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a construct distinct from anxiety in children and (2) the specific nature of the role of AS in child anxiety. This study uses meta-analytic techniques to (1) determine whether youth (ages 6–18 years) have been reported to experience AS, (2) examine whether AS differentiates anxiety disordered youth from youth without diagnoses, and (3) ascertain whether AS distinguishes youth with panic disorder from those with other anxiety disorders. The weighted mean effect size analyses included 15 studies and 6,579 participants. Results suggested positive correlational relationships between AS and anxiety for children (r = 0.26) and adolescents (r = 0.36) and higher levels of AS for anxiety disordered youth than non-clinical youth (d = 0.64). Findings tentatively suggested higher levels of AS for youth with panic disorder than youth diagnosed with other anxiety disorders. Implications and future directions in the research of child AS are discussed.     

Media depictions of physical and relational aggression: connections with aggression in young adults' romantic relationships

Various studies have found that viewing physical or relational aggression in the media can impact subsequent engagement in aggressive behavior. However, this has rarely been examined in the context of relationships. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to examine the connection between viewing various types of aggression in the media and perpetration of aggression against a romantic partner. A total of 369 young adults completed a variety of questionnaires asking for their perpetration of various forms of relationship aggression. Participants' exposure to both physical and relational aggression in the media was also assessed. As a whole, we found a relationship between viewing aggression in the media and perpetration of aggression; however, this depended on the sex of the participant and the type of aggression measured. Specifically, exposure to physical violence in the media was related to engagement in physical aggression against their partner only for men. However, exposure to relational aggression in the media was related to romantic relational aggression for both men and women.     

Specific previous experience affects perception of harmony and meter

Prior knowledge shapes our experiences, but which prior knowledge shapes which experiences? This question is addressed in the domain of music perception. Three experiments were used to determine whether listeners activate specific musical memories during music listening. Each experiment provided listeners with one of two musical contexts that was presented simultaneously with a melody. After a listener was familiarized with melodies embedded in contexts, the listener heard melodies in isolation and judged the fit of a final harmonic or metrical probe event. The probe event matched either the familiar (but absent) context or an unfamiliar context. For both harmonic (Experiments 1 and 3) and metrical (Experiment 2) information, exposure to context shifted listeners' preferences toward a probe matching the context that they had been familiarized with. This suggests that listeners rapidly form specific musical memories without explicit instruction, which are then activated during music listening. These data pose an interesting challenge for models of music perception which implicitly assume that the listener's knowledge base is predominantly schematic or abstract.     

Courtship, competition, and the pursuit of attractiveness: mating goals facilitate health-related risk taking and strategic risk suppression in women

Two experiments explored the possibility that specific health risks observed among young women may be influenced by attractiveness-enhancement goals associated with mating. Study 1 (n=257) demonstrated that priming women with intersexual courtship and intrasexual competition increased their willingness to go tanning and take dangerous diet pills. Study 2 (n=148) conceptually replicated these results and revealed that increased willingness to take these risks is mediated by diminished feelings of vulnerability to the negative health effects associated with these behaviors when mating goals are salient. Findings provide evidence that mating goals play a role in the continued popularity of these dangerous behaviors in women. Furthermore, the current results bridge the existing gap between health belief and self-presentational models of risk behaviors to yield novel insights into the psychology of risk taking.     

Affect in the aftermath: how goal pursuit influences implicit evaluations

Previous research has shown that the activation of a goal leads to more implicit positivity toward goal-relevant stimuli. We examined how the actual pursuit of a goal influences subsequent implicit positivity toward such stimuli. Participants were consciously or non-consciously primed with a goal, or not, and then completed a goal-relevant task on which they succeeded or failed. We then measured their goal-relevant implicit attitudes. Those who were primed with the goal (consciously or non-consciously) and experienced success exhibited more implicit positivity toward the goal, compared with the no-goal condition. Experiencing failure in the goal priming conditions reduced implicit positivity toward the goal, indicating disengagement from the goal. We discuss the theoretical implications for understanding the role of implicit attitudes in self-regulation.     

“[No] Doctor but My Master”: Health Reform and Antislavery Rhetoric in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

This essay examines Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) in light of new archival findings on the medical practices of Dr. James Norcom (Dr. Flint in the narrative). While critics have sharply defined the feminist politics of Jacobs’s sexual victimization and resistance, they have overlooked her medical experience in slavery and her participation in reform after escape. I argue that Jacobs uses the rhetoric of a woman-led health reform movement underway during the 1850s to persuade her readers to end slavery. This essay reconstructs both contexts, revealing that Jacobs links enslaved women’s physical and sexual vulnerability with her female readers’ fears of male doctors’ threats to modesty and of their standard bleed-and-purge treatments. Jacobs illustrates that slavery damages women’s health as much as heroic medicine, and thus merits the political activism of her readers. Specifically, Jacobs dramatizes her conflicts with the rapacious physician-master at moments that are crucial to women’s health: marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. Ultimately, this essay advances a new understanding of the role of health reform in social change: it galvanized other movements such as women’s rights and abolition, particularly around issues of bodily autonomy for women and African Americans.     

Clinical Utility of Chromosomal Microarray Analysis of DNA from Buccal Cells: Detection of Mosaicism in Three Patients

Mosaic chromosomal abnormalities are relatively common. However, mosaicism may be missed due to multiple factors including failure to recognize clinical indications and order appropriate testing, technical limitations of diagnostic assays, or sampling tissue (s) in which mosaicism is either not present, or present at very low levels. Blood leukocytes have long been the “gold standard” sample for cytogenetic analysis; however, the culturing process for routine chromosome analysis can complicate detection of mosaicism since the normal cell line may have a growth advantage in culture, or may not be present in the cells that produce metaphases (the lymphocytes). Buccal cells are becoming increasingly utilized for clinical analyses and are proving to have many advantages. Buccal swabs allow for simple and noninvasive DNA collection. When coupled with a chromosomal microarray that contains single nucleotide polymorphic probes, analysis of buccal cells can maximize a clinician’s opportunity to detect cytogenetic mosaicism. We present three cases of improved diagnosis of mosaic aberrations using buccal specimens for chromosomal microarray analysis. In each case, the aberration was either undetectable in blood or present at such a low level it likely could have gone undetected. These cases highlight the limitations of certain laboratory methodologies for identifying mosaicism. We also present practice implications for genetic counselors, including clinic workflow changes and counseling approaches based on increasing use of buccal samples.     

A Review of Recent FDA Drug Safety Communications for Pediatric Psychotropics

To alert professionals and consumers about safety risks associated with approved drugs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) periodically issues Drug Safety Communications, or DSCs (previously known as advisories, warnings, and health care professional letters). This review consolidates balanced information from 22 DSCs issued over the last 15 years by the FDA for drugs with pediatric indications (for any disorder) that are used to treat pediatric emotional and behavioral disorders (ADHD drugs, antipsychotics, antidepressants, and antiepileptics/anticonvulsants). A single-source document of pediatric DSCs for these drugs was needed because none existed previously; finding DSC information on the FDA website can be challenging; and other information sources (e.g., manufacturer or advocacy websites, blogs, other media reports) may lack the objectivity or accuracy that the FDA is charged to maintain. This consolidation is intended to enable better informed risk-benefit analysis around treatment selection and drug safety monitoring. For the 22 DSCs, we summarize the safety concerns, the populations affected, and when available from the FDA, the incidence of the adverse events, precursors, and factors that may increase or mitigate the risk of these very serious (e.g., sudden death, life-threatening rash, liver failure), but typically low incidence (<1 %) adverse events (cardiometabolic complications with atypical antipsychotics and suicidality with antidepressants are more common). This review does not address the far more common, but usually less serious, side effects that also accompany these drugs. Implications of this review for research and practice are discussed.     

Between Black and White: Examining Grey Literature in Meta-analyses of Psychological Research

The inclusion of grey literature in meta-analyses and reviews is controversial. We examine both the advantages and challenges of including grey literature in meta-analyses. An exemplar meta-analysis of behavioral parenting interventions on parent behavior, child behavior, and parent adjustment outcomes is used to demonstrate these issues. It also explores the influence of the inclusion of grey literature on outcomes, including whether effect sizes are affected by the inclusion of grey literature and describes the challenges of searching for grey literature using traditional search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Homogeneity and publication bias are also examined. Based on these results, recommendations are presented for meta-analysts and researchers.