Uncovering hockey fans' motivations behind their derogatory behaviors and how these motives predict psychological well-being and quality of social identity

ObjectiveThis article tested whether hockey fans' selfdetermined and non self-determined motivation for engaging in derogatory behaviors against an outgroup team predicted the frequency of these behaviors, fans' psychological well-being, and the quality of their social identity as a fan of their team. The two psychological theories we employ in the current research (i.e., self-determination theory and social identity theory) have different assumptions concerning the motivation behind derogatory fan behavior.DesignThree correlational studies were conducted among hockey fans.MethodsFans of rival hockey fans (Study 1; N = 45), fans of the Montreal Canadiens (Study 2; N = 181), and fans of NHL teams (Study 3; N = 105) completed measures of selfdetermination to engage in derogatory behaviors, frequency of these behaviors, psychological well-being, and quality of social identity. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to test if the frequency, well-being, and quality of social identity variables were predicted by the self-determined and non self-determined motivations to engage in derogatory behaviors.ResultsAs expected based on self-determination theory (SDT), the more hockey fans engage in derogatory behaviors for non self-determined reasons, the lower their well-being and the less frequently they report engaging in the derogatory behaviors. Moreover, as expected based on social identity theory (SIT), the more hockey fans engage in the derogatory behaviors for self-determined reasons, the higher their well-being, the frequency of these behaviors, and the more positive their social identity.ConclusionsTheses results are interpreted in light of SDT and SIT's theoretical propositions. Comparisons are made with prior studies conducted on this topic.     

Neural correlates of the effects of morphological family frequency and family size: an MEG study

Schreuder and Baayen (Schreuder. R., & Baayen, R. H. (1997). How complex simplex words can be. Journal of Memory and Language 37, 118-139) report that lexical decision times to nouns are not sensitive to the cumulative frequency of the noun's morphological derivatives in its "morphological family", even though such a cumulative frequency effect is obtained in the domain of inflection. Under a decomposition view of derivational morphology, this constitutes a puzzling exception to the robust finding that lexical frequency is one of the major determinants of behavioral response latencies. If morphologically complex words are decomposed, each occurrence of a member of a noun's morphological family should add to its root-frequency. We investigated the effects of morphological family frequency on the magnetoencephalographic response component M350, which shows sensitivity to factors affecting early stages of lexical processing, including lexical frequency. We hypothesized that high morphological family frequency should have a facilitory effect on the M350, even though no such effect can be seen in response time, presumably due to competition among possible root-affix combinations. Contrary to this hypothesis, we found that high family frequency elicits an M350 inhibition, suggesting that competition among morphological family members occurs at the M350. The result is significant, since there is evidence that competition among phonologically similar words occurs after, not at, the M350. Thus, our results suggest that competition within a morphological family precedes competition within a phonological similarity neighborhood.     

Time constraints and resource sharing in adults' working memory spans

This article presents a new model that accounts for working memory spans in adults, the time-based resource-sharing model. The model assumes that both components (i.e., processing and maintenance) of the main working memory tasks require attention and that memory traces decay as soon as attention is switched away. Because memory retrievals are constrained by a central bottleneck and thus totally capture attention, it was predicted that the maintenance of the items to be recalled depends on both the number of memory retrievals required by the intervening treatment and the time allowed to perform them. This number of retrievals:time ratio determines the cognitive load of the processing component. The authors show in 7 experiments that working memory spans vary as a function of this cognitive load.     

Temporal references in dreams and autobiographical memory

In an attempt to determine whether temporal references identified in dreams follow the same temporal distributions as those documented for autobiographical memories, 28 younger women (18-35 years of age) and 30 older women (60-77 years of age) kept a home dream diary for 1 week and then slept 1 night in the laboratory for rapid eye movement sleep dream collection. The following morning, they identified temporal references in their dreams and produced a sample of autobiographical memories using the semantic cuing method. For both groups, there was a linear decrease in temporal references identified in dreams and autobiographical memories with increased remoteness for the last 30 years. As predicted, for the older group, there were similar cubic trends reflecting a disproportionately higher number of both temporal references identified in dreams and autobiographical memories from adolescence/early adulthood compared with adulthood and childhood. The results support the notion of continuity between waking and dreaming memory processes.     

Influence of education on the pattern of cognitive deterioration in AD patients: the cognitive reserve hypothesis

The cognitive reserve hypothesis proposes that a high educational level could delay the clinical expression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) although neuropathologic changes develop in the brain. Therefore, some studies have reported that when the clinical signs of the disease emerge, high-educated patients may decline more rapidly than low-educated patients because the neuropathology is more advanced. However, these studies have only investigated the decline of global cognition or an isolated cognitive process. To study the differential deterioration pattern of several cognitive processes according to education, the performance of 20 AD patients with a high educational level and a low educational level were compared with the performance of 20 control subjects on a neuropsychological battery. The results showed that cognitive deterioration of AD patients is different according to education, although the global performance was similar in AD patients. The high-educated patients exhibited greater impairment of abstract thinking whereas the low-educated patients showed greater impairment of memory and attentional function. This confirms that some cognitive processes, such as abstract thinking, decline more rapidly in high-educated patients whereas others seem to evolve more slowly if compared to low-educated patients. In this latter case, high-educated patients may still benefit from cognitive reserve after the diagnosis of the dementia.     

Book reviews

Missing Persons: A Critique of Personhood in the Social Sciences Mary Douglas & Steven Ney, 1998 California: University of California Press 223 pp., US$24.95 ISBN 0–520–20752–1

Re‐forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity Philip A. Mellor & Chris Shilling, 1997 London: Sage Publications 234 pp., £40.00 (hb), £13.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8039–7722–0 (hb), ISBN 0–8039–7723–9 (pb)

Transnational Religion and Fading States Susanne Hoeber Rudolph & James Piscatori, eds., 1997 Boulder, Colorado, & Oxford: Westview Press viii + 280 pp., US$69.00/£50.00 (hb), US$24.00/£13.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8133–2767–9 (hb), ISBN 0–8133–2768–7 (pb)

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Society William H. Swatos, Jr., ed., 1998 London: AltaMira Press (SAGE) xiv + 590 pp., £76.00 (hb) ISBN: 0 7619–9956–0

Power and the Church: Ecclesiology in an Age of Transition Martyn Percy, 1998 London: Cassell vii + pp. 239, £35.00 (hb), £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–304–70107–6 (hb); ISBN 0304 701 05‐X (pb)

Faith and Power, Christianity and Islam in ‘Secular’ Britain Lesslie Newbigin, Lamin Sanneh & Jenny Taylor, 1998 London: SPCK 177 pp., £12.99 ISBN 0–281–05153–4

New Trends and Developments in the World of Islam Peter B. Clarke, ed., 1998 London: Luzac Oriental x + 400 pp., £37.00 ISBN 1–898–942–17‐X

Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics and Social Change in East‐Central Europe and Russia Sabrina P. Ramet, 1998 Durham & London: Duke University Press 424 pp, £66.50 (hb), £22.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8223–2056–8 (hb), ISBN 0–8223–2070–3 (pb)

New Religious Phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe Irena Borowik & Grzegorz Babinski, eds., 1997 Krakow: Nomos 392 pp., US$25 (+ p&p) ISBN 83–85527–56–7

Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition Rebecca Alpert, 1997 New York: Columbia University Press 214 pp., £19.95, US$28.00 (hb) ISBN 0–231–09660–7

Jesus is Dread: Black Theology and Black Culture in Britain Robert Beckford, 1998 London: Darton, Longman & Todd 194 pp., £10.95 ISBN: 0–232–52241–3

Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts & Geoffrey Samuel, eds., 1998 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 222 pp., £12.95 (pb) ISBN 0–7486–1057‐X

Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia Lynne Hume, 1997 Carlton South, Australia: Melbourne University Press xiii + 272 pp., $29.95 ISBN 0–522–84782‐X

Ageing and Spirituality Albert Jewell, ed., 1998 London/Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers 191 pp. £14.95 ISBN 1–85302–631‐X

Dying, Death and Bereavement in a British Hindu Community New Religious Identities in the Western World Volume 1 Shirley Firth, 1997 Leuven, Belgium: Peeters 240 pp., BEF 1070 (pb) ISBN 90–6831–976–0

Interpreting Death: Christian Theology and Pastoral Practice Peter C. Jupp & Tony Roger, eds., 1997 London: Cassell 218 pp., £16.99 ISBN 0–304–33784–6

Historical Dictionary of the Bahá'í Faith Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements, No. 17 Hugh C. Adamson & Philip Hainsworth, 1998 Lanham, Md., & London: The Scarecrow Press ix + 505 pp., US$ 65.00 (hb) ISBN 0–8108–3353–0

Taking With The Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff Thenomenon’ William Patrick Patterson, 1998 Fairfax, California: Arete Communications 149 pp., US$12.95 (pb) ISBN 1–879514–10–9     

Performance feedback and self-focused attention in the classroom: When past and present interact

An experiment tested the impact of performance feedback on self-focused attention in high and low achievers. On the basis of previous research, which suggested that inconsistent feedback (i.e., feedback which contradicts one's performance history) receives considerable attention, it was predicted that such feedback would increase self-focus regardless of its valence (i.e., positive or negative). As predicted, high achievers were more self-focused when receiving failure feedback than when receiving success feedback or no feedback. The low achievers were more self-focused when receiving success feedback than when receiving failure feedback or no feedback. These findings are discussed in relation to Kluger and DeNisi's (1996) Feedback intervention theory and the literature on self-focused attention.     

Beyond left and right: Automaticity and flexibility of number-space associations

Close links exist between the processing of numbers and the processing of space: relatively small numbers are preferentially associated with a left-sided response while relatively large numbers are associated with a right-sided response (the SNARC effect). Previous work demonstrated that the SNARC effect is triggered in an automatic manner and is highly flexible. Besides the left-right dimension, numbers associate with other spatial response mappings such as close/far responses, where small numbers are associated with a close response and large numbers with a far response. In two experiments we investigate the nature of this association. Associations between magnitude and close/far responses were observed using a magnitude-irrelevant task (Experiment 1: automaticity) and using a variable referent task (Experiment 2: flexibility). While drawing a strong parallel between both response mappings, the present results are also informative with regard to the question about what type of processing mechanism underlies both the SNARC effect and the association between numerical magnitude and close/far response locations.     

Religion as practices of attachment and materiality: the making of Buddhism in contemporary London

This article aims to explore Buddhism’s often-overlooked presence on London’s urban landscape, showing how its quietness and subtlety of approach has allowed the faith to grow largely beneath the radar. It argues that Buddhism makes claims to urban space in much the same way as it produces its faith, being as much about the practices performed and the spaces where they are enacted as it is about faith or beliefs. The research across a number of Buddhist sites in London reveals that number of people declaring themselves as Buddhists has indeed risen in recent years, following the rise of other non-traditional religions in the UK; however, this research suggests that Buddhism differs from these in several ways. Drawing on Baumann’s (2002) distinction between traditionalist and modernist approaches to Buddhism, our research reveals a growth in each of these. Nevertheless, Buddhism remains largely invisible in the urban and suburban landscape of London, adapting buildings that are already in place, with little material impact on the built environment, and has thus been less subject to contestation than other religious movements and traditions. This research contributes to a growing literature which foregrounds the importance of religion in making contemporary urban and social worlds.     

Inhibitory phonetic priming: Where does the effect come from?

Both phonological and phonetic priming studies reveal inhibitory effects that have been interpreted as resulting from lexical competition between the prime and the target. We present a series of phonetic priming experiments that contrasted this lexical locus explanation with that of a prelexical locus by manipulating the lexical status of the prime and the target and the task used. In the related condition of all experiments, spoken targets were preceded by spoken primes that were phonetically similar but shared no phonemes with the target (/bak/–/dεt/). In Experiments 1 and 2, word and nonword primes produced an inhibitory effect of equal size in shadowing and same–different tasks respectively. Experiments 3 and 4 showed robust inhibitory phonetic priming on both word and nonword targets in the shadowing task, but no effect at all in a lexical decision task. Together, these findings show that the inhibitory phonetic priming effect occurs independently of the lexical status of both the prime and the target, and only in tasks that do not necessarily require the activation of lexical representations. Our study thus argues in favour of a prelexical locus for this effect.