The effect of being in a tip-of-the-tongue state on subsequent items

The tip-of-the-tongue state (TOT) is the feeling that an inaccessible item will be recalled. In the TOT induction paradigm, participants are given a list of general information questions or word definitions, and the participants indicate whether they are in a TOT for each item. The present study explored the effect that being in a TOT for one item (N) has on the recall and the likelihood of a TOT for the subsequent item (N + 1). Three experiments were conducted. All three experiments showed that TOTs do not affect the rate of recall for the next item but decrease the likelihood of a TOT for the next item. This effect extended to items occurring two items after the initial TOT (N + 2) in two experiments. Thus, TOTs are less likely to occur after another TOT than after an item not in a TOT. These data are interpreted within a metacognitive framework.     

Support for anterior temporal involvement in semantic error production in aphasia: new evidence from VLSM

Semantic errors in aphasia (e.g., naming a horse as “dog”) frequently arise from faulty mapping of concepts onto lexical items. A recent study by our group used voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) methods with 64 patients with chronic aphasia to identify voxels that carry an association with semantic errors. The strongest associations were found in the left anterior temporal lobe (L-ATL), in the mid- to anterior MTG region. The absence of findings in Wernicke’s area was surprising, as were indications that ATL voxels made an essential contribution to the post-semantic stage of lexical access. In this follow-up study, we sought to validate these results by re-defining semantic errors in a manner that was less theory dependent and more consistent with prior lesion studies. As this change also increased the robustness of the dependent variable, it made it possible to perform additional statistical analyses that further refined the interpretation. The results strengthen the evidence for a causal relationship between ATL damage and lexically-based semantic errors in naming and lend confidence to the conclusion that chronic lesions in Wernicke’s area are not causally implicated in semantic error production.     

Basic Personal Values and the Meaning of Left‐Right Political Orientations in 20 Countries

This study used basic personal values to elucidate the motivational meanings of “left” and “right” political orientations in 20 representative national samples from the European Social Survey (2002–2003). It also compared the importance of personal values and sociodemographic variables as determinants of political orientation. Hypotheses drew on the different histories, prevailing culture, and socioeconomic level of three sets of countries—liberal, traditional, and postcommunist. As hypothesized, universalism and benevolence values explained a left orientation in both liberal and traditional countries and conformity and tradition values explained a right orientation; values had little explanatory power in postcommunist countries. Values predicted political orientation more strongly than sociodemographic variables in liberal countries, more weakly in postcommunist countries, and about equally in traditional countries.     

Rate, relative risk, and method of suicide by students at 4-year colleges and universities in the United States, 2004-2005 through 2008-2009

A total of 622 suicides were reported among students attending 645 distinct campuses from 2004-2005 through 2008-2009. Adjusting for gender in the population at risk of 14.9 million student-years and for the source of these data, the student suicide rate of 7.0 was significantly and substantially lower than for a matched national sample. Suicide rates by firearm were significantly and substantially lower for both female and male students. Hanging was significantly and substantially lower for male students, less prominently so for female students. It is principally the ninefold decrease in the availability of firearms on campuses (vs. homes) and secondarily other features of the campus environment that are the bases for lower student suicide rates.     

Living in the Past,Present, and Future: Measuring Temporal Orientation With Language

Temporal orientation refers to individual differences in the relative emphasis one places on the past, present, or future, and it is related to academic, financial, and health outcomes. We propose and evaluate a method for automatically measuring temporal orientation through language expressed on social media. Judges rated the temporal orientation of 4,302 social media messages. We trained a classifier based on these ratings, which could accurately predict the temporal orientation of new messages in a separate validation set (accuracy/mean sensitivity = .72; mean specificity = .77). We used the classifier to automatically classify 1.3 million messages written by 5,372 participants (50% female; ages 13–48). Finally, we tested whether individual differences in past, present, and future orientation differentially related to gender, age, Big Five personality, satisfaction with life, and depressive symptoms. Temporal orientations exhibit several expected correlations with age, gender, and Big Five personality. More future‐oriented people were older, more likely to be female, more conscientious, less impulsive, less depressed, and more satisfied with life; present orientation showed the opposite pattern. Language‐based assessments can complement and extend existing measures of temporal orientation, providing an alternative approach and additional insights into language and personality relationships.     

Social Buffering by God: Prayer and Measures of Stress

Social buffering is characterized by attenuation of stress in the presence of others, with supportive individuals providing superior buffering. We were interested in learning if the implied presence of a supportive entity, God, would reduce acute stress. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: prayer, encouraging self-talk, and control. They were subsequently placed in a stressful situation. Self ratings of stress were lower among the prayer and self-talk conditions relative to controls. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures only among those who prayed were lower than controls; however, prayer and self-talk did not differ. Prayer alone did not significantly reduce stress, perhaps because the majority of students in the prayer condition did not consider reading a prayer to constitute praying.     

On the Proof-Theory of two Formalisations of Modal First-Order Logic

We introduce a Gentzen-style modal predicate logic and prove the cut-elimination theorem for it. This sequent calculus of cut-free proofs is chosen as a proxy to develop the proof-theory of the logics introduced in [14, 15, 4]. We present syntactic proofs for all the metatheoretical results that were proved model-theoretically in loc. cit. and moreover prove that the form of weak reflection proved in these papers is as strong as possible.     

Personal Value Priorities and National Identification

We examine relations of personal value priorities to identification with one's nation. We hypothesize that relations of values to identification depend on the motivations that can be attained by identifying with a nation. Study 1 confirmed the hypothesis that identification with one's nation correlates positively with conservation values and negatively with openness to change values in Israel and the USA. Moreover, values predicted identification with the nation above and beyond Right‐Wing Authoritarianism. Study 2 showed that increasing the salience of conservation values produced higher identification with Israel, whereas increasing the salience of openness to change values produced lower identification. Study 3 tested the hypothesis that when identification with a national group conflicts with social expectations it has different, even reversed relations with value priorities. We examined identification of recent immigrants to Israel. The more pressure immigrants felt to assimilate, the more positive the correlation of conservation values with identification with the country of residence (Israel) and the more negative the correlation of conservation values with identification with the country of origin (Russia). Taken together, the findings point to the utility of values in revealing the motivational functions of identification with a nation.     

Basic Personal Values,Core Political Values,and Voting: A Longitudinal Analysis

We theorize that political values express basic personal values in the domain of politics. We test a set of hypotheses that specify how the motivational structure of basic values constrains and gives coherence to core political values. We also test the hypothesis that core political values mediate relations of basic personal values to voting demonstrated in previous research. We measured the basic personal values, core political values, and vote of Italian adults both before (n = 1699) and after (n = 1030) the 2006 national election. Basic values explained substantial variance in each of eight political values (22% to 53%) and predicted voting significantly. Correlations and an MDS projection of relations among basic values and political values supported the hypothesized coherent structuring of core political values by basic values. Core political values fully mediated relations of basic values to voting, supporting a basic values—political values—voting causal hierarchy.