Emotional arousal and task performance.

42 male Ss were exposed to either a hostility inducing or a neutral confederate and then tested on both stereotyped and nonstereotyped forms of a simple lever pressing task. As predicted, emotional arousal (hostility) had no effect on performance of the relatively stereotyped task but led to a considerable though transitory drop in performance after changeover to a nonstereotyped task requiring concentration. This result corroborates in a laboratory setting previous reports of research done in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of fear arousal and suppression of fear upon social perception.

A research was designed to study the effects of fear arousal and suppression of fear upon social perception. "It was hypothesized that individuals subjected to a fear-producing situation would tend to project their feelings upon some social objects, and further, instructions to inhibit emotional reactions would increase the amount of projection." Sixty male volunteers from introductory psychology classes were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Control, Fear-Expression and Fear-Suppression. "The data indicate that the arousal of fear results in a tendency to project fear onto a stimulus object in the environment. The results are also consistent with the hypothesis that suppression facilitates the tendency to project although, in this latter instance, one is less confident in rejecting the null hypothesis. Several alternative explanations of the effects of the suppression variable were considered and the role of cognitive variables in the projection process were discussed." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of physiological arousal level, frustration, and task complexity on performance.

This paper investigates the effects of initial heart-rate level, frustration, and task complexity on digit-symbol performance. Low (LD) and high (HD) heart-rate Ss worked on a digit-symbol problem immediately before and after a frustration manipulation which raised heart rate about 20 beats/min. The results indicated that HD Ss achieved higher initial performance scores than LD Ss on tasks of relatively low complexity; however, following frustration LD Ss manifested a significantly greater increment in performance than HD Ss. The latter group showed a trend toward a decrement in performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of negative verbal cues upon verbal behavior.

Research which investigated the capacity to modify behavior, starting from the framework of Skinner's operant conditioning paradigm and utilizing verbal behavior, was found to have primarily explored the effect of positive secondary reinforcement. The present investigation explored the effect of a negative verbal cue presented under different schedules of reinforcement upon verbal behavior. Ss (male VA psychiatric patients) responded to projective techniques. The E varied the frequency of negative verbal reinforcement defined as "unh unh." The hypothesis that such a negative reinforcement would depress verbal behavior was substantiated, with a periodic schedule of reinforcement being more effective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between projective and direct measures of fear arousal.

The present study reports on the use of a projective measure which in 2 independent replications appeared to be a valid measure of level of induced fear, and which showed a high correlation (+.75) with a direct response scale. However, the data suggest that despite the magnitude of their relationship, the 2 measures are differentially sensitive to expressions of motivation which reflect the Ss' general style of defensive emotional response. Ss who reported themselves as being reticent in expressing their feelings of pain showed greater fear arousal on the projective measure than on the direct measure, while the opposite was true of Ss who reported that they were likely to express their pain to others (p     

Temporal gradient of fear arousal in psychopaths.

Skin conductance of psychopathic (P) and nonpsychopathic (NP) criminals and noncriminal controls (N = 11 each group) was monitored while the numbers 1-12 were consecutively presented on a memory drum. After the 1st trial, Ss were informed that on each of the remaining 5 trials they would receive a strong electric shock when Number 8 appeared. Log conductance increases in the interval prior to shock were significantly smaller and began later for the P than for the NP Ss. The psychopaths were less responsive to shock than were the NP criminals but did not differ significantly from the noncriminal controls. There were no significant differences among groups in the rate of recovery from the effects of shock. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that the temporal gradient of fear arousal and response inhibition is steeper for psychopaths than for normal persons. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The verbal threat information pathway to fear in children: The longitudinal effects on fear cognitions and the immediate effects on avoidance behavior.

Verbal information has long been assumed to be an indirect pathway to fear. Children (aged 6-8 or 12-13 years) were exposed to threat, positive, or no information about 3 novel animals to see the long-term impact on their fear cognitions and the immediate impact on avoidance behavior. Their directly (self-report) and indirectly (implicit association task) measured attitudes toward the animals changed congruent with the information provided, and the changes persisted up to 6 months later. Verbal threat information also induced behavioral avoidance of the animal. Younger children formed stronger animal- threat and animal-safe associations because of threat and positive verbal information than older children, but there were negligible age effects on self-reported fear beliefs and avoidance behaviors. These results support theories of fear acquisition that suppose that verbal information affects components of the fear emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and the conditioning of verbal behavior.

Ninety hospitalized psychiatric patients were administered the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. The S's were then required to make up sentences in response to a stimulus card on which were printed a verb and one of six pronouns. E reinforced any sentence starting with I or WE by saying "good" or flashing a light. Scores on the Taylor scale showed a relationship to the amount of conditioning produced by "good." Light, as applied in this study, does not function as a reinforcer in a verbal situation. Implications for further research are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of subliminal stimulation upon autonomic and verbal behavior.

Using the subception hypothesis of Lazarus and McCleary, 2 hypotheses pertaining to the effect upon verbal and autonomic behavior of subliminal visual stimulation were tested. The hypotheses stated that: response latencies and GSRs would be determined by the affective value of the stimuli, and the verbal guesses made during subliminal stimulation would be associations to the stimulus items. 7 Ss were used, and after subliminal presentation of the stimuli, each S was presented with his responses and asked to match them against the stimulus items. The part of the hypothesis pertaining to response latencies was not supported, but the part pertaining to GSRs was confirmed. The second hypothesis, likewise, was confirmed. 18 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational citizenship behavior and performance evaluations: Exploring the impact of task interdependence.

The influence of task interdependence on the importance attributed to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in evaluations of employee performance was investigated in 3 studies. In Study 1,238 undergraduates were exposed to a task interdependence manipulation and a unit-level performance manipulation and provided citizenship ratings. In Study 2,148 master of business administration students were exposed to a task interdependence manipulation and then rated the importance of OCB in their evaluations of employee performance. In Study 3,130 managers rated the task interdependence in their unit of principal responsibility and the importance of OCB in their overall evaluations of employee performance. The results suggest task interdependence may affect the importance attributed to OCB by evaluators. Implications of these results are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude change through reward of verbal behavior.

"72 Ss were induced to engage in debates on 3 different issues, taking sides opposite to those which they had indicated as their own in an opinion pretest. Half of the Ss were rewarded, in a predetermined order, by a purported vote which proclaimed them the better debators, while the other half were punished by presumably losing the debate. Posttests of Ss' opinions showed a tendency of the 'winners' to change their opinions in the direction of their debates, while the 'losers' did not change significantly. A control group of nondebators likewise showed no significant change in opinions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of fear and guilt in inhibiting unacceptable behavior.

80 male college students completed the Mosher Incomplete Sentences Test which was scored for sex guilt. The Ss were assigned by alternation to a fear-reduction or fear-induction experimental condition which preceded a perceptual defense task. The results supported the prediction derived from social learning theory that the inhibitory behavior of Ss who score low on a measure of sex guilt is more influenced by situational cues relevant to the probability of external punishment for sex-related behavior than is the inhibitory behavior of the high-sex-guilt group. The results suggested that the high-sex-guilt S is relatively insensitive to situational cues concerning the probability of external punishment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of task interdependence on the relationship between helping behavior and group performance.

The authors examine whether task interdependence moderates the relationship between the helping form of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and group performance. In a laboratory study, 62 groups with 3 members each completed a card-sequencing activity in which the level of task interdependence among group members was manipulated. Independent evaluators assessed helping by viewing videotapes of the groups' interactions during the sequencing activities. Performance was measured as a combined function of group speed and accuracy. Two prior field studies reported contradictory results regarding the impact of helping on group performance. Results from this study suggest that task interdependence may explain these results, and that the relationship between helping and group performance depends on the level of task interdependence required of group members. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies of the conditioning of verbal behavior.

"Thirty-one articles reporting studies of the conditioning of verbal behavior were reviewed in terms of setting, verbal responses, reinforcement stimuli, populations, controls, length of sessions, relationships to personality variables, results, and awareness. The majority of the studies report positive results with the use of generalized conditioned reinforcers such as good and mmm-hmmm. The studies reviewed demonstrate that general principles of learning can be fruitfully applied to the experimental analysis of verbal behavior." 108-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Operant conditioning of verbal behavior of dysthymics and hysterics.

Previous findings (Eysenck, 1955; Franks, 1956) indicated that neurotics of the dysthymic type react differentially to conditioning procedures than hysterics, and that conditionability is related to extraversion-introversion. The present study investigates the validity of these findings using verbal conditioning techniques. The results did not confirm the hypothesis; the Ss were not distinguished by ease of conditionability, measures of extraversion and anxiety, but were by Edwards (1957) Social Desirability scale. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HI88G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and autonomic arousal.

32 female undergraduates were classified as having high fear (HF) or low fear (LF) of spiders. After reduction of orienting responses to pictures of neutral animals, experimental Ss were shown pictures of a spider, and control Ss were shown pictures of a snake. Using the response to the last neutral stimulus as a base line, HF experimental Ss when 1st shown a spider yielded greater GSRs than other groups. This increase in GSR responding for HF experimental Ss was, for 2 more trials, maintained relative to control Ss. HF experimental Ss also yielded GSRs of greater duration than all other groups when 1st shown the spider stimulus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of motivation in verbal learning and performance.

"It is the major thesis of the present paper that the question as to whether a given variable acts as a motive or reflects a motivational state can be answered only in the context of explicit assumptions concerning the particular ways in which motivational variables can be differentiated from other variables in their influence on behavior. In view of the current confusions between the concepts of motivation and habit, it would appear to be particularly desirable to distinguish between the associative and nonassociative properties of variables." 57 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional task aptitude and performance anxiety.

Anxious responding (trait, state, and test anxiety) has a negative impact on overt performance. Researchers have used a unidimensional method of assessing anxiety and performance, although a more informative approach would involve a comprehensive assessment battery and multiple performance tasks. Incorporating this strategy, the authors measured the impact of anxiety on 4 attentional processing tasks. Results revealed that "types" of anxiety symptoms were differentially related to attentional task performance; test anxiety accounted for the most variance in predicting performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (D. Wechsler, 1997) letter-number sequencing and digit-span subtests, trait anxiety and fear of negative evaluation were more significant in predicting Stroop performance, and math anxiety accounted for the largest variance toward understanding Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (C. W. Lejuez, C. W. Kahler, & R. A. Brown, 2003) scores. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)