The Impact of Personality on the End of the Cold War: A Counterfactual Analysis

The end of the Cold War is examined with respect to the impact of Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, and their respective foreign secretaries. This discussion yields an approach to the systematic examination of counterfactual questions about the impact of political actors on historical outcomes.     

任务需求对基于位置的返回抑制和基于颜色的重复劣势效应的影响

在 3个实验中探讨了任务需求对基于位置的返回抑制和基于颜色的重复劣势效应的影响。实验 1选取2 3名本科生被试 ,在把所有刺激都呈现在中央视觉上的颜色辨别任务中 ,发现颜色重复条件下的反应时明显长于非重复条件下的反应时 ,出现了显著的基于颜色的重复劣势效应 ,而且它的量显著大于简单检测任务中基于颜色的重复劣势效应量。实验 2和 3在实验 1的基础上加入空间不确定性 ,分别选取 2 2名和 2 3名本科生被试 ,并要求他们分别完成颜色辨别任务和简单检测任务。结果发现 ,在颜色辨别任务中 ,既获得了基于空间的返回抑制 ,又获得了基于颜色的重复劣势效应 ,而且二者之间没有交互作用 ,即它们各自独立地发挥作用 ;而在简单检测任务中 ,只获得了基于空间的返回抑制。 3个实验的结果表明 ,在一种实验情境下出现基于何种刺激特性的重复劣势效应 ,以及其量的大小完全取决于实验中的任务需求。在文章最后还将本研究结果与一种选择性注意领域内普遍抑制模型相结合 ,进行了深入讨论     

Aggression and prosocial behaviors in social conflicts mediating the influence of cold social intelligence and affective empathy on children's social preference

This study proposes a model in which aggressive and prosocial behaviors exhibited in social conflicts mediate the influence of empathy and social intelligence to children's social preference by same‐sex peers. Data were obtained from kindergarten to the end of the first grade. The sample yielded 117 Spanish children (64 girls and 53 boys) with a mean age of 62.8 months (SD = 3.3) at the beginning of the study. For boys, affective empathy contributed to boys’ social preference through a decrease in physical aggression as responses to social conflict. For girls, affective empathy had an indirect effect on girls’ preference by increasing assistance to others in their conflicts. No mediating effect in the contribution of social intelligence on girls’ social preference was detected. Our results suggest that, only for girls, cold social intelligence can promote both indirect aggression (coercive strategic that do not leave social preference, at least at these ages) and behaviors that lead social preference (such as prosocial behaviors).     

The influence of task characteristics on younger and older adult motor overflow

This study investigated the influence of attentional and motor demands on motor overflow in 17 healthy young (18–35 years) and 17 older adults (60–80 years). Participants performed a finger pressing task by exerting either 33% or 66% of their maximal force output using their dominant or nondominant hand. Overflow was concurrently recorded in the passive hand. Attention was manipulated via a tactile stimulus presented to one or both hands for certain trials. Results showed that older adults exhibited greater overflow than young adults and that the effect of target force was exacerbated in older adults. Further, only older adult overflow was increased when tactile stimulation was directed to one or both hands. Increased overflow in older adults may result from bilateral cortical activation that is influenced by increased task demands. To perform comparatively to younger adults, older adults may compensate for age-related brain changes by recruiting an increased cortical network.     

Children's Representation of Long Duration: When Memory and Attention Meet in Processing Time

The concepts of the memory and attentional models were examined in children's and adults’ time perception in a long duration. One hundred twenty-one children in preschool through Grade 2 and 29 adults for Study 1 and 93 second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade students and 40 adults for Study 2 judged durations of tasks that varied in interest levels and cognitive demands. In Study 1, children overestimated but adults underestimated the movie that they found to be interesting. However, in Study 2, both children and adults consistently overestimated the duration of puzzles they found to be interesting. In a long duration, the findings were more in line with the memory model than with the attention model. A qualitative change also emerged in middle childhood in the way children kept track of time; this difference may influence the developing perception of long duration in children's representation. Implications of the findings are further discussed in examining the perception of long duration.     

The impact of valence framing on response expectancies of side effects and subsequent experiences: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: Pre-treatment side effect expectancies often influence subsequent experiences; however, expectancy-based reduction strategies are lacking. We explored whether framing information about adverse responses (in positive or negative formats) altered expectancies and experiences of a cold pressor task. We further investigated associations between expectancies and experiences, to inform potential interventions.

Design: Healthy volunteers (N?=?134), randomised to receive positively- or negatively-framed pre-cold pressor task information, self-rated 12 expectancies for cold pressor experiences, emotional state and coping style.

Main Outcome Measures: Self-reports of the same 12-experiences (recorded during and after the experiment) were assessed.

Results: Framing had minimal impact on expectancies and experiences; however, discomfort threshold (p?=?.08, d?=?0.22) showed a trend in the expected direction. Hierarchical regressions revealed expectancies uniquely, significantly predicted 6–23% of the variance for 11 subsequent experiences. Following a popular charity event (Ice Bucket Challenge), all participants showed higher ‘discomfort thresholds’ (p?=?.001, d?=?0.59), and those in the negative frame reported more overall ‘discomfort’ (p?=?.01, d?=?0.60) than participants in the positive condition.

Conclusion: Expectancies uniquely influenced subsequent cold pressor experiences. Framing had minimal impact in this ‘analogue’ medical setting, only influencing ‘discomfort threshold’. ‘Discomfort threshold’ and overall ‘discomfort’ were also impacted by a social media challenge, highlighting a potential area for intervention.     

Crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion within teams: a longitudinal multilevel study

This study investigated the crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion among team members and the moderating effect of cohesiveness and social support on this process. Participants were 310 employees of an employment agency in the Netherlands, working in one of 100 teams. Multilevel analysis using a longitudinal design did not reveal a main effect of crossover. However, consistent with the study's hypotheses, the results showed a moderating effect of team cohesiveness and social support. We detected crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion across time from the group to individual team members only in teams characterized by high levels of cohesiveness and social support. Teams characterized by low levels of cohesiveness and social support showed no crossover of job demands and exhaustion. The findings demonstrate that team-level moderators play an important role in crossover processes. Moreover, social support and cohesiveness may not always be positive.     

Effects of pre-learning stress on memory for neutral, positive and negative words: Different roles of cortisol and autonomic arousal

Stress can have enhancing or impairing effects on memory. Here, we addressed the effect of pre-learning stress on subsequent memory and asked whether neutral and emotionally valent information are differentially affected by specific stress components, autonomic arousal and stress-induced cortisol. Ninety-six healthy men and women underwent either a stressor (modified cold pressor test) or a control warm water exposure. During stress, participants showed comparable autonomic arousal (heart rate, blood pressure), while 60 percent showed an increase of cortisol (responders vs. 40 percent non-responders). Ten minutes after the cold pressor test neutral, positive and negative words were presented. Free recall was tested 1 and 24 h later. Overall, positive and negative words were better recalled than neutral words. Stress enhanced the recall of neutral words independently of cortisol response. In contrast, the free recall of negative words was enhanced in cortisol responders in the 1-h but not 24-h test which might suggest different effects of cortisol on consolidation and reconsolidation processes. Recall for positive words was unaffected by stress-induced cortisol. To summarize, (i) pre-learning stress can enhance memory for neutral words independently of cortisol and (ii) stress effects on memory for negative words appear to rely on stress-induced cortisol elevations, the absence of this effect for positive words might be at least partly due to differences in arousal evoked by positive vs. negative words.     

“A Father’s Touch:” Negotiating Masculinity and Sexual Subjectivity in Child Care

This essay explores changing attitudes towards male caregivers in postwar America to understand conceptions of prepubescent gender and sexuality. While the 1950s have been viewed as a period of rigid gender conventions, the demands of a baby boom generation allowed men unexpected roles as caregivers. In the 1960s and 1970s, challenges to the status quo along with fears of female-headed households encouraged men to move into the field of child care, but this was particularly short lived. Political backlash and a failing economy turned male daycare workers into suspects, revealing the ambiguity that so often distorts children’s interactions with men.