Response Style Theory Revisited: Gender Differences and Stereotypes in Rumination and Distraction

Response Style Theory [S. Nolen-Hoeksema (1987) “Sex Differences in Unipolar Depression: Evidence and Theory,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 101, pp. 259–282] suggests that, when depressed, women ruminate on their sad feelings while men distract themselves from theirs. We sought to examine this gender difference in more detail. In Study 1, 155 students provided stereotype ratings or self-reports of responses to depression. The stereotype ratings conformed precisely to Response Style Theory yet exaggerated self-reported gender differences, especially for men. In Study 2, 40 roommate pairs completed a similar set of ratings. Again, other-ratings conformed exactly to Response Style Theory's predictions while self-ratings showed a more moderated pattern. In both studies, women reported ruminating more than did men, yet men and women were equally likely to report distraction. We conclude by examining several hypotheses for the discrepancies between stereotypes and self-reports for men as well as the increased rates of rumination among women.     

Visual biasing of auditory localization in azimuth and depth

Correctly integrating sensory information across different modalities is a vital task, yet there are illusions which cause the incorrect localization of multisensory stimuli. A common example of these phenomena is the "ventriloquism effect". In this illusion, the localization of auditory signals is biased by the presence of visual stimuli. For instance, when a light and sound are simultaneously presented, observers may erroneously locate the sound closer to the light than its actual position. While this phenomenon has been studied extensively in azimuth at a single depth, little is known about the interactions of stimuli at different depth planes. In the current experiment, virtual acoustics and stereo-image displays were used to test the integration of visual and auditory signals across azimuth and depth. The results suggest that greater variability in the localization of sounds in depth may lead to a greater bias from visual stimuli in depth than in azimuth. These results offer interesting implications for understanding multisensory integration.