Stress,Coping and Adjustment in Victims of Sexual Assault: The role of psychological defense mechanisms

The paper considers sexual abuse within a stress and coping framework with particular emphasis on victim-initiated psychological defense mechanisms in the recovery process. Analysis of case history data from 40 adolescent victims of sexual abuse indicated that 90% used psychological defense mechanisms, particularly repression, emotional insulation and rationalisation. The paper explores the usefulness of such mechanisms from a theoretical and applied perspective and compares these Singaporean findings with earlier research conducted in the United States.     

Hands-free versus hand-held cell phone conversation on a braking response by young drivers

As some states allow motorists to use hands-free cell phones only while driving, this study was done to examine some braking responses to see if conversing on these two types of cell phones affects quick responding. College-age drivers (n=25) completed reaction time trials in go/no-go situations under three conditions: control (no cell phone or conversation), and conversing on hands-free and hand-held cell phones. Their task involved moving the right foot from one pedal to another as quickly as possible in response to a visual signal in a lab setting. Significantly slower reaction times, movement times, and total response times were found for both cell phone conditions than for the control but no differences between hands-free and hand-held phone conditions. These findings provide additional support that talking on cell phones, regardless if it is hands-free or hand-held, reduces speed of information processing.     

Critical bands and mixed-frequency scaling: sequential dependencies, equal-loudness contours, and power function exponents

Stimuli of random intensities and various but predictable frequencies were presented for repeated magnitude estimations on the same scale (mixed-frequency scaling). The frequencies for a particular judgment session were selected so that they lay either inside each other's critical bands or outside them. Contrastive dependencies of current magnitude estimation responses on previous stimuli of a different frequency were significantly affected by whether the two frequencies were inside or outside each other's critical bands, while assimilative dependencies were not. This reinforces the idea that such dependencies are sensory in nature and arise from a different mechanism than do the assimilative dependencies. Mixed-frequency scaling of loudness also gives rise to cross-frequency matching functions from which equal-loudness contours can be calculated. These contours calculated from the present judgments are similar to those produced from other methods, even when they are extrapolated to untested intensities. Power function exponents for loudness scaled in this way are larger for lower frequencies, as has been found in previous studies, and are consistent with the flattening of the calculated equal-loudness contours for low frequencies as intensity increases.     

Monocular and Binocular Vision in the Control of Goal-Directed Movement

In the present research the authors examined the time course of binocular integration in goal-directed aiming and grasping. With liquid-crystal goggles, the authors manipulated vision independently to the right and left eyes of 10 students during movement preparation and movement execution. Contrary to earlier findings reported in catching experiments (I. Olivier, D. J. Weeks, K. L. Ricker, J. Lyons, & D. Elliott, 1998), neither a temporal nor a spatial binocular advantage was obtained in 1 grasping and 2 aiming studies. That result suggests that, at least in some circumstances, monocular vision is sufficient for the precise control of limb movements. In a final aiming experiment involving 3-dimen- sional spatial variability and no trial-to-trial visual feedback about performance, binocular vision was associated with greater spatial accuracy. Binocular superiority appeared to be most pronounced when participants were unable to adjust their limb control strategy or procedure on the basis of terminal feedback about performance.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting of arithmetic facts

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is a widely studied phenomenon of human memory, but RIF of arithmetic facts remains relatively unexplored. In 2 experiments, we investigated RIF of simple addition facts (2 + 3 = 5) from practice of their multiplication counterparts (2 × 3 = 6). In both experiments, robust RIF expressed in response times occurred only for high-strength small-number addition facts with sums ≤ 10, indicating that RIF from multiplication practice was interference dependent. RIF of addition-fact memory was produced by multiplication retrieval (2 × 3 = ?) but not multiplication study (2 × 3 = 6), supporting an inhibitory mechanism of RIF in arithmetic memory. Finally, RIF occurred with multiplication practiced in word format (three × four) and addition tested later in digit format (3 + 4), which provides evidence that digit and written-word formats for arithmetic accessed a common semantic retrieval network. The results support the view that addition and multiplication facts are stored in an interrelated semantic network and that RIF of competing addition facts is an intrinsic process of multiplication fact retrieval.     

How sweet it is to be loved by you: the role of perceived regard in the terror management of close relationships

Drawing from terror management theory, the present research examined whether people turn to close relationships to manage the awareness of mortality because they serve as a source of perceived regard. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that mortality salience (MS) leads people to exaggerate how positively their romantic partners see them and demonstrated that people are more committed to their partners to the extent that their romantic partners serve as a source of perceived regard after MS (Study 3). Study 4 revealed that activating thoughts of perceived regard from a partner in response to MS reduced death-thought accessibility. Studies 5 and 6 demonstrated that MS led high relationship contingent self-esteem individuals to exaggerate perceived regard from a partner, and this heightened regard led to greater commitment to one's partner. Study 7 examined attachment style differences and found that after MS, anxious individuals exaggerated how positively their parents see them, whereas secure individuals exaggerated how positively their romantic partners see them. Together, the present results suggest that perceptions of regard play an important role in why people pursue close relationships in the face of existential concerns.     

Cues to personality and health in the facial appearance of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Humans (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) can extract socially-relevant information from the static, non-expressive faces of conspecifics. In humans, the face is a valid signal of both personality and health. Recent evidence shows that, like humans, chimpanzee faces also contain personality information, and that humans can accurately judge aspects of chimpanzee personality relating to extraversion from the face alone (Kramer, King, and Ward, 2011). These findings suggest the hypothesis that humans and chimpanzees share a system of personality and facial morphology for signaling socially-relevant traits from the face. We sought to test this hypothesis using a new group of chimpanzees. In two studies, we found that chimpanzee faces contained health information, as well as information of characteristics relating to extraversion, emotional stability, and agreeableness, using average judgments from pairs of individual photographs. In a third study, information relating to extraversion and health was also present in composite images of individual chimpanzees. We therefore replicate and extend previous findings using a new group of chimpanzees and demonstrate two methods for minimizing the variability associated with individual photographs. Our findings support the hypothesis that chimpanzees and humans share a personality signaling system.