Effects of and attention to graphic warning labels on cigarette packages

Objective: The present study investigates the effects of graphic cigarette warnings compared to text-only cigarette warnings on smokers’ explicit (i.e. ratings of the packages, cognitions about smoking, perceived health risk, quit intentions) and implicit attitudes. In addition, participants’ visual attention towards the graphic warnings was recorded using eye-tracking methodology.Design and methods: Sixty-three smokers participated in the present study and either viewed graphic cigarette warnings with aversive and non-aversive images or text-only warnings. Data were analysed using analysis of variance and correlation analysis.Results: Especially, graphic cigarette warnings with aversive content drew attention and elicited high threat. However, whereas attention directed to the textual information of the graphic warnings predicted smokers’ risk perceptions, attention directed to the images of the graphic warnings did not. Moreover, smokers’ in the graphic warning condition reported more positive cognitions about smoking, thus revealing cognitive dissonance.Conclusion: Smokers employ defensive psychological mechanisms when confronted with threatening warnings. Although aversive images attract attention, they do not promote health knowledge. Implications for graphic health warnings and the importance of taking their content (i.e. aversive vs. non-aversive images) into account are discussed.     

Eye movement inductions influence health behaviour: the working memory account of persuasion

Abstract

Objective: Because the working memory (WM) has a limited capacity, the cognitive reactions towards persuasive information in the WM might be disturbed by taxing it by other means, in this study, by inducing voluntary eye movements (EMi). This is expected to influence persuasion.

Methods: Participants (N?=?127) listened to an auditory persuasive message on fruit and vegetable consumption, that was either framed positively or negatively. Half of them was asked to keep following a regularly moving dot on their screen with their eyes. At pretest, cognitive self-affirmation inclination (CSAI) was assessed as individual difference to test possible moderation effects.

Results: The EMi significantly lowered the quality of the mental images that participants reported to have of the persuasive outcomes. With regard to self-reported fruit and vegetable consumption after two weeks, EMi significantly lowered consumption when CSAI was high but it significantly increased consumption when CSAI was low.

Conclusions: The results verify our earlier findings that induced EM can influence persuasion. Although it remains unclear whether the effects of EMi were caused by disturbing mental images of persuasive outcomes or self-regulative reactions to these images, or both, the WM account may provide new theoretical as well as practical angles on persuasion.     

The Contribution of Executive Skills to Reading Comprehension

Although word recognition deficits (WRD) are a known cause of reading comprehension deficits (RCD), other contributions to RCD, including executive function (EF), have not been fully explored. We examined the contribution of EF (working memory and planning), along with attention, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary to reading comprehension in 60 children (including 16 WRD and 10 RCD), ages 9–15 years. After controlling for commonly accepted contributors to reading comprehension (i.e., attention, decoding skills, fluency, and vocabulary), EF continued to make a significant contribution to reading comprehension but not to word recognition skills. These findings highlight the need for consideration of the role of EF in RCD.     

Collective contributions to career efficacy in adolescents: A cross-cultural study

This study extended the concept of collective efficacy to supplement the variable of career self-efficacy to predict vocational exploration and commitment among adolescents. We developed a Collective Contributions to Career Efficacy Scale (CCCE) to measure adolescents' perceived contributions from parents, teachers, and peers on their career-related matters. A total of 1175 high school students from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Michigan participated in the study by completing the CCCE, the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSE-SF), and the Vocational Exploration and Commitment Subscale (VEC). Using multi-sample Structural Equation Modeling, we found that the effect of CCCE on VEC was mediated by CDSE. Although we found cultural differences in the overall level of the vocational measures among the Hong Kong, Shanghai, and American students, the mediation model was confirmed in all three groups of students.     

The role of repeated interviewing in children's responses to cross‐examination‐style questioning

The negative effect of cross‐examination‐style questioning on children's accuracy is likely to be due to the complex and credibility‐challenging questions that characterize the interview. Given that cross‐examination occurs after at least one prior interview, however, it is equally possible that repeated interviewing per se impairs children's accuracy, and that the questions asked have little bearing on children's responses. To examine this issue, 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children (n= 82) and 9‐ and 10‐year‐old children (n= 103) took part in a surprise event and were then interviewed using an analogue of direct examination. Either 1 week or 6 months later, half of the children were re‐interviewed with an analogue of cross‐examination designed to challenge their direct examination responses. Remaining children were re‐interviewed with the same questions that were asked during direct examination. Children's accuracy decreased following their second interview, irrespective of age or delay; however, delay particularly impacted younger children's second interview performance. Children's accuracy was most impaired following a cross‐examination‐style interview. Overall, cross‐examination‐style questioning appears to be particularly detrimental to obtaining accurate event reports from children.     

Understanding associations between negatively biased attention and depression and social anxiety: positively biased attention is key

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: Although research supports the premise that depressed and socially anxious individuals direct attention preferentially toward negative emotional cues, little is known about how attention to positive emotional cues might modulate this negative attention bias risk process. The purpose of this study was to determine if associations between attention biases to sad and angry faces and depression and social anxiety symptoms, respectively, would be strongest in individuals who also show biased attention away from happy faces.

Methods: Young adults (N?=?151; 79% female; M?=?19.63 years) completed self-report measures of depression and social anxiety symptoms and a dot probe task to assess attention biases to happy, sad, and angry facial expressions.

Results: Attention bias to happy faces moderated associations between attention to negatively valenced faces and psychopathology symptoms. However, attention bias toward sad faces was positively and significantly related to depression symptoms only for individuals who also selectively attended toward happy faces. Similarly, attention bias toward angry faces was positively and significantly associated with social anxiety symptoms only for individuals who also selectively attended toward happy faces.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that individuals with high levels of depression or social anxiety symptoms attend preferentially to emotional stimuli across valences.     

My Disaster Recovery: a pilot randomized controlled trial of an Internet intervention

Abstract

This pilot study tested the efficacy of the My Disaster Recovery (MDR) website to decrease negative affect and increase coping self-efficacy. Fifty-six survivors of Hurricane Ike were recruited from a larger study being conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch at the first anniversary of the storm. Restricted randomization was used to assign participants to the MDR website, an information-only website, or a usual care condition. Group×time interactions indicated that MDR reduced participant worry more than the other conditions. A similar trend was also identified for depression. Both websites were accessed a small to moderate amount and participants reported mixed satisfaction for both websites. Although the effect sizes for worry and depression were in the moderate to large range, small sample size and timing of the intervention qualify the findings. These preliminary findings encourage further evaluation of MDR with a larger, demographically diverse sample and indicate that the MDR website might be helpful in reducing worry and depression.     

Applied Research and Zoo Education: The Evolution and Evaluation of a Public Talks Program using Unobtrusive Video Recording of Visitor Behavior

ABSTRACT

The provision of high-quality conservation education has become a priority for modern zoos. This can be delivered in a number of differing ways to account for differences in learning styles and prior knowledge of zoo visitors. At Chester Zoo (United Kingdom), a team of full-time and highly trained interpreters (known as presenters) deliver a diverse public talks program every day of the year. Although these talks attract a large audience, little was understood about their impact on the visitor. As a result, an extensive, unobtrusive study using video recording equipment was undertaken to assess visitor behavior. Results suggest that visitor attentiveness was much higher among those individuals who found themselves in a better viewing position (where they could see the animal and presenter). Visitors who were in poor-visibility positions showed less attention than visitors who were observed under control conditions, without an accompanying talk, indicating a high environmental component to learning potential. When interactive elements were included in a talk (such as an animal feed or enrichment activity) attentiveness was dramatically increased. More crucially, however, was that during talks where there was no interactivity or animals were inactive, attentiveness fell to below control levels, suggesting that heightened visitor expectations created by the anticipation for the talk were not being met—a serious barrier to learning. These findings offer a series of measures that can be taken to improve the educational impact of a zoo talks program whilst, at the same time, providing a better quality experience for zoo visitors.     

Self-Construing In Former Child Soldiers

This article presents a repertory grid study of young people who had experienced civil war in Sierra Leone, some as child soldiers and others as noncombatants. Unexpected findings included that the former combatants viewed themselves more favorably than did noncombatants. The findings are discussed in terms of individual and social construing processes, drawing on narratives and interview and focus group responses obtained from the participants in the larger investigation of which this study was part. Particular consideration is given to the role of forgiveness.