Counting the Faithful: Measuring Local Religious Contexts in the United States

This study compares the estimates of religious composition of counties in the United States from three independent datasets: the 2010 Religious Congregational Membership Study (RCMS); the 2010 Infogroup Congregational membership data (INFO); and the Gallup Daily Poll—a large national survey with more than 1.3 million respondents. My analyses suggest that the estimates for most major religious groups from the three datasets are highly correlated to each other. In addition, the measures of local religious compositions from the three datasets successfully predict the religious composition of friendship networks in a large, nationally representative survey. These findings suggest that RCMS, the most widely used data source for measuring local religious composition in the United States, has a convergent and predictive validity. My analyses, however, also highlight important challenges in measuring geographic distributions of non‐Christian populations, as well as total religious populations in all religious traditions.     

The influence of spatial representation on valence judgements: An event-related potential study

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the nature of space-valence congruency effects. We presented participants with up or down arrows at the centre of the screen and then asked participants to identify whether the following target words had the emotional valence. The target words included positive emotional words (e.g., “happy” and “delight”), negative emotional words (e.g., “sad” and “depressive”) and neutral words (e.g., “history” and “country”). Behavioural data showed that the positive targets were identified faster when they are primed by up arrows than when primed by down arrows, whereas the negative targets were identified faster when they are primed by down arrows than when primed by up arrows. The ERP analysis showed larger P2 amplitudes were found in the congruent condition (i.e., the positive targets following up arrows or the negative targets following down arrows) than in the incongruent condition (i.e., the positive targets following down arrows or the negative targets following up arrows). Furthermore, larger N400 amplitudes were found in the incongruent condition compared with the congruent condition. Moreover, larger LPC amplitudes were found in the congruent condition compared with the incongruent condition. Therefore, in addition to replicating the space-valence congruency effects in a neutral/emotional judgement task, our study also extended previous studies by showing that spatial information modulates the processing of the emotional words at multiple stages.     

Variability and recognition memory: Are there analogous indexical effects in music and speech?

Indexical effects refer to the influence of surface variability of the to-be-remembered items, such as different voices speaking the same words or different timbres (musical instruments) playing the same melodies, on recognition memory performance. The nature of timbre effects in melody recognition was investigated in two experiments. Experiment 1 showed that melodies that remained in the same timbre from study to test were discriminated better than melodies presented in a previously studied but different, or unstudied timbre at test. Timbre effects are attributed solely to instance-specific matching, rather than timbre-specific familiarity. In Experiment 2, when a previously unstudied timbre was similar to the original timbre and it played the melodies at test, performance was comparable to the condition when the exact same timbre was repeated at test. The use of a similar timbre at test enabled the listener to discriminate old from new melodies reliably. Overall, our data suggest that timbre-specific information is encoded and stored in long-term memory. Analogous indexical effects arising from timbre (nonmusical) and voice (nonlexical) attributes in music and speech processing respectively are implied and discussed.     

Video game experience and its influence on visual attention parameters: An investigation using the framework of the Theory of Visual Attention (TVA)

Experts with video game experience, in contrast to non-experienced persons, are superior in multiple domains of visual attention. However, it is an open question which basic aspects of attention underlie this superiority. We approached this question using the framework of Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) with tools that allowed us to assess various parameters that are related to different visual attention aspects (e.g., perception threshold, processing speed, visual short-term memory storage capacity, top-down control, spatial distribution of attention) and that are measurable on the same experimental basis. In Experiment 1, we found advantages of video game experts in perception threshold and visual processing speed; the latter being restricted to the lower positions of the used computer display. The observed advantages were not significantly moderated by general person-related characteristics such as personality traits, sensation seeking, intelligence, social anxiety, or health status. Experiment 2 tested a potential causal link between the expert advantages and video game practice with an intervention protocol. It found no effects of action video gaming on perception threshold, visual short-term memory storage capacity, iconic memory storage, top-down control, and spatial distribution of attention after 15 days of training. However, observations of a selected improvement of processing speed at the lower positions of the computer screen after video game training and of retest effects are suggestive for limited possibilities to improve basic aspects of visual attention (TVA) with practice.     

The Effects of Social Capital and Neighborhood Characteristics on Intimate Partner Violence: A Consideration of Social Resources and Risks

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a growing public health problem, and gaps exist in knowledge with respect to appropriate prevention and treatment strategies. A growing body of research evidence suggests that beyond individual factors (e.g., socio‐economic status, psychological processes, substance abuse problems), neighborhood characteristics, such as neighborhood economic disadvantage, high crime rates, high unemployment and social disorder, are associated with increased risk for IPV. However, existing research in this area has focused primarily on risk factors inherent in neighborhoods, and has failed to adequately examine resources within social networks and neighborhoods that may buffer or prevent the occurrence of IPV. This study examines the effects of neighborhood characteristics, such as economic disadvantage and disorder, and individual and neighborhood resources, such as social capital, on IPV among a representative sample of 2412 residents of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Using a population based sample of 2412 randomly selected Toronto adults with comprehensive neighborhood level data on a broad set of characteristics, we conducted multi‐level modeling to examine the effects of individual‐ and neighborhood‐level effects on IPV outcomes. We also examined protective factors through a comprehensive operationalization of the concept of social capital, involving neighborhood collective efficacy, community group participation, social network structure and social support. Findings show that residents who were involved in one or more community groups in the last 12 months and had high perceived neighborhood problems were more likely to have experienced physical IPV. Residents who had high perceived social support and low perceived neighborhood problems were less likely to experience non‐physical IPV. These relationships did not differ by neighborhood income or gender. Findings suggest interesting contextual effects of social capital on IPV. Consistent with previous research, higher levels of perceived neighborhood problems can reflect disadvantaged environments that are more challenged in promoting health and regulating disorder, and can create stressors in which IPV is more likely to occur. Such analyses will be helpful to further understanding of the complex, multi‐level pathways related to IPV and to inform the development of effective programs and policies with which to address and prevent this serious public health issue.     

Do the Effects of Adolescent Employment Differ by Employment Intensity and Neighborhood Context?

Research on the effects of adolescent employment on primarily middle‐class youth suggests that intense employment, working more than 15 or 20 hours during the school year, is associated with increased participation in risky behavior. Despite these findings, scholars who focus on the development of youth living in low‐income urban areas often hypothesize that adolescent employment will have beneficial effects on this population. There is some evidence that adolescent employment is associated with increased educational achievement and adult employment for low‐income urban youth. The impact of adolescent employment on future engagement in risky behavior across levels of neighborhood deprivation and employment intensity was investigated on a sample of 1,057 adolescents from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a longitudinal study of neighborhood effects on development. After controlling for individual characteristics, intense employment during adolescence did predict increased use of cigarettes and alcohol and having a greater number of sexual partners 2 years after employment was measured. There were no significant interactions between neighborhood SES and adolescent employment status on involvement in risky behavior. These findings suggest that intense adolescent employment is associated with detrimental developmental outcomes for youth regardless neighborhood context.     

Personality links to anger: Evidence for trait interaction and differentiation across expression style

Anger is a commonly experienced emotion, although marked individual differences in the expression of anger are observed. Basic dimensions of personality (e.g., Big Five traits) have been shown to predict the experience of trait anger; however, little work has addressed the personality correlates of broader conceptualisations of trait anger (e.g., inward or outward expressions). Additionally, while some recent work has suggested that basic personality traits may show interactive influences on anger expression this work has yet to be independently confirmed. In a large sample of adults we examined, firstly, how Big Five traits associated with several components of anger as measured by the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. Secondly, we examined whether these associations were further qualified by interactions between Big Five traits. Results indicated neuroticism and, to a lesser extent, (low) agreeableness, were the traits most associated with components of trait anger. Conscientiousness and extraversion were also noted to show links to more focal components of anger. Moderation was observed: conscientiousness moderated neuroticism’s relationship with anger control, and agreeableness and conscientiousness, in a three-way interaction, moderated neuroticism’s relationship with trait anger. These observations help to further clarify the role of Big Five personality traits as a foundation for the experiences of anger, demonstrating how anger style varies across personality configuration.     

My Recency,Our Primacy: How Social Connection Influences Evaluations of Sequences

Individuals have many life experiences (e.g., work and vacations) that consist of a series of interconnected episodes (i.e., temporal sequences). Assessments of such experiences are integral to daily life in that they facilitate future planning and behaviors for individuals. Therefore, these experiences often culminate in evaluations of their global affect. Past work has shown that retrospective, affective evaluations of these sequences generally exhibit an “end effect,” whereby a sequence's end intensity—but not its start intensity—is disproportionately weighted. Yet, researchers have largely investigated experiences that occur alone. In contrast, many real‐world experiences vary in their extent of social connection to others (e.g., working in an office with others versus alone in a cubicle). The present work fills this gap by showing the moderating role of social connection on how episodes are weighted in global affective ratings. Five studies involving two autobiographical experiences spanning several days each (workweek and spring break) and two brief simulated experiences show that high social connection leads to greater (lesser) weighting of the first (last) episode. To our knowledge, we are the first to demonstrate that these effects persist across different forms of social connection (i.e., interpersonal interaction versus semantic priming tasks) and are supported regardless of whether social connection occurs at encoding or retrieval of an experience. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is the benefit of retrieval practice modulated by motivation?

Retrieval practice tends to produce better long-term learning than rereading, but laboratory studies have typically used arbitrary material that subjects may not care to learn. The observed advantage of retrieval practice may be exaggerated because low motivation may result in deficient processing during (usually passive) rereading. Thus, when subjects are motivated to learn the material, the type of study strategy (whether retrieval practice or rereading) might be less important. To test this hypothesis, we conducted 3 experiments in which we manipulated the incentives (using monetary bonuses or time savings) for learning Swahili–English word pairs. Items that had undergone retrieval practice were better recalled than reread items on a final test 2 days later, but this effect did not interact with incentive level. These results provide some reassurance that lab findings from the testing effects literature likely generalize to real-world situations in which motivation to learn may be greater.