A new look at vigilance and defense.

2 hypotheses were tested: (a) "Threatening tachistocopic stimuli are recognized at thresholds both higher and lower than thresholds for matched control words. The extent of deviation is related to degree of anxiety induced by the threat"; and (b) "When the associated anxiety is removed, then threshold deviations diminish. The degree of reduction is related to the decrease in anxiety." 22 adults of mixed sexes served as Ss. 2 matched lists of words were presented in an anagram-solving exercise. One list was constructed to produce failure. When all words were presented tachistoscopically for a second time, it was found that anxiety aroused by the failure correlated significantly with the absolute difference between recognition thresholds for failure and control words. This relationship persisted even after the artificial nature of the anxiety had been explained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of metaphor on processing style in a persuasion task: A motivational resonance model.

Previous research on metaphor and persuasion has suggested that metaphorical language elicits an assimilation effect wherein positive metaphors elicit positive attitudes toward the communication topic and negative metaphors elicit negative evaluations. The authors of this article propose that metaphorical content can increase or decrease motivation to systematically scrutinize a persuasive communication depending on the extent to which it "resonates" with the listener's preferences and interests. Consistent with this model, 2 experiments demonstrate that a sports metaphor increases message-relevant elaboration and sensitivity to argument strength among individuals who enjoy sports. Conversely, the sports metaphor reduces message-relevant elaboration and sensitivity to argument strength among individuals who dislike sports. Findings are discussed in the context of related research that suggests metaphor can serve alternative functions in a persuasive communication task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reprèsentations verbales et transformations des stimulus en mémoire de travail.

During their storage in episodic memory, representations of words (or of other stimuli already known to Ss) can be transformed in working memory into representations of other words or stimuli by the application of transformation rules. In that way, items that have not been presented in learning lists can be recalled or recognized. Four experiments were conducted to induce these transformations by means of appropriate cues provided to 12–18 yr olds at the same time as the learning lists stimuli. The presence of those cues influenced recall and recognition significantly in comparison with control situations without cues; in particular, Ss recognized not-presented items corresponding to induced transformations of the stimuli presented. It is assumed that such operations may go with the item's retrieval from the mental lexicon. This possibility would provide an important functional argument in favor of the mental lexicon organization in the form of generic entries from which words could be derived by the application of rules similar to those studied in the present experiment. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An experimental and theoretical analysis of perceptual defense.

"An experiment was presented that attempted to test the behavior theory model. In one group of Ss the response strengths for 10 word responses were increased by manipulating the frequency and recency of prior occurrence of these words. A second group of Ss received comparable recency and frequency experience with these 10 words, but here the experimental arrangement was such as to permit the assumption that these words would also become conditioned stimuli for anxiety. It was predicted that the variables of frequency and recency of prior exposure would lower the perceptual recognition thresholds for the experienced words, but this reduction in thresholds would be less in the second group due to the anxiety conditioned to these words. The results of the experiment confirmed these predictions." 29 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical learning by children with specific language impairment: effects of linguistic input presented at varying speaking rates

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of speaking rate variations in the linguistic input provided to children during a novel word learning task. Thirty-two school-age children participated in this investigation, including 16 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 16 normal language (NL) controls matched on mental age (MA). The younger half of the NL group also served as a vocabulary level comparison for the older half of the children with SLI. No significant rate effects were found for comprehension of novel words, with all children performing at relatively high levels of accuracy. The group with SLI demonstrated the same recognition accuracy pattern as MA matched controls for target labels versus phonetically similar/dissimilar foils only for words trained at slow rate. Rate effects were most pronounced for items with the highest difficulty level, namely production of novel words. Children with SLI produced significantly fewer words that had been presented at fast rate during training than NL children matched on mental age or vocabulary level. Individual differences and production error patterns on fast rate items were examined. The finding that variations in speaking rate had a disproportionate impact upon word learning for children with SLI was interpreted within a framework of limited processing capacity.     

Male and female spoken language differences: Stereotypes and evidence.

Male speech and female speech have been observed to differ in their form, topic, content, and use. Early writers were largely introspective in their analyses; more recent work has begun to provide empirical evidence. Men may be more loquacious and directive; they use more nonstandard forms, talk more about sports, money, and business, and more frequently refer to time, space, quantity, destructive action, perceptual attributes, physical movements, and objects. Women are often more supportive, polite, and expressive, talk more about home and family, and use more words implying feeling, evaluation, interpretation, and psychological state. It is concluded that a comprehensive theory of "genderlect" must include information about linguistic features under a multiplicity of conditions. (59 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and cognitive inhibition.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated whether anxiety proneness is associated with impaired inhibitory processing. Participants made speeded decisions requiring inhibition of threatening or neutral meanings of ambiguous words, which were inappropriate in their current context. In Experiment 1 there were no differences found in inhibitory processing associated with anxiety. However, in Experiment 2, when the capacity for controlled processing was reduced by imposition of a mental load, anxious individuals showed a response pattern consistent with a general impairment of inhibitory processing. In Experiment 3, a group who had experienced a traumatic event also showed evidence of impaired inhibition, despite the absence of additional load. Thus anxiety proneness is associated with a general deficit of inhibitory processing, but this may be revealed only under conditions that limit the availability of controlled processing resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibitory processes and spoken word recognition in young and older adults: The interaction of lexical competition and semantic context.

Two experiments were conducted to examine the importance of inhibitory abilities and semantic context to spoken word recognition in older and young adults. In Experiment 1, identification scores were obtained in 3 contexts: single words, low-predictability sentences, and high-predictability sentences. Additionally, identification performance was examined as a function of neighborhood density (number of items phonetically similar to a target word). Older adults had greater difficulty than young adults recognizing words with many neighbors (hard words). However, older adults also exhibited greater benefits as a result of adding contextual information. Individual differences in inhibitory abilities contributed significantly to recognition performance for lexically hard words but not for lexically easy words. The roles of inhibitory abilities and linguistic knowledge in explaining age-related impairments in spoken word recognition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduced sensitivity to linguistic context in schizophrenic thought disorder: evidence from on-line monitoring for words in linguistically anomalous sentences

The use of linguistic context in positively thought-disordered (TD) schizophrenics was investigated through examination of their performance on an on-line word-monitoring task. Controls and non-TD schizophrenics took longer to recognize words preceded by linguistic anomalies compared with words in normal sentences. Compared with both other groups, TD schizophrenics showed significantly smaller differences in reaction time, suggesting that they were relatively insensitive to linguistic violations. TD schizophrenics were also less sensitive to linguistic violations in an off-line version of the task, in which they judged whether the sentences "made sense." Finally, these participants produced more errors on a verbal fluency task than did non-TD schizophrenics or normal controls. These findings are consistent with the theory that schizophrenic thought disorder arises from a deficit in the use of linguistic context to process and produce speech.     

Size in the visual processing of faces and words.

Three experiments, with 34 right-handed university students, studied the influence of variations of stimulus size upon recognition of words and faces. Ss viewed a series of 640 slides of words of faces presented in 1 of 5 sizes and responded as to whether or not stimulus had been previously presented. Size played an important role in the recognition of faces but was irrelevant to the recognition of words. Analysis revealed that although irrelevant to recognition, size of words was nevertheless encoded, with some consequences similar to those for recognition of faces. The likelihood of recognition declined linearly with the numbers of words intervening between a word and its recurrence, while the likelihood of recognizing a face declined exponentially in the same circumstances. Results are interpreted in terms of stimulus-specific analyses, and this view is contrasted with other notions of mental representation. Variant measures are appended. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disgust implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Psychiatric classificatory systems consider obsessions and compulsions as forms of anxiety disorder. However, the neurology of diseases associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms suggests the involvement of fronto-striatal regions likely to be involved in the mediation of the emotion of disgust, suggesting that dysfunctions of disgust should be considered alongside anxiety in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive behaviours. We therefore tested recognition of facial expressions of basic emotions (including disgust) by groups of participants with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (GTS) with an without co-present obsessive-compulsive behaviours (GTS with OCB; GTS without OCB). A group of people suffering from panic disorder and generalized anxiety were also included in the study. Both groups with obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCD; GTS with OCB) showed impaired recognition of facial expressions of disgust. Such problems were not evident in participants with panic disorder and generalized anxiety, or for participants with GTS without obsessions or compulsions, indicating that the deficit is closely related to the presence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Participants with OCD were able to assign words to emotion categories without difficulty, showing that their problem with disgust is linked to a failure to recognize this emotion in others and not a comprehension or response criterion effect. Impaired recognition of disgust is consistent with the neurology of OCD and with the idea that abnormal experience of disgust may be involved in the genesis of obsessions and compulsions.     

Communicating emotion: Linking affective prosody and word meaning.

The present study investigated the role of emotional tone of voice in the perception of spoken words. Listeners were presented with words that had either a happy, sad, or neutral meaning. Each word was spoken in a tone of voice (happy, sad, or neutral) that was congruent, incongruent, or neutral with respect to affective meaning, and naming latencies were collected. Across experiments, tone of voice was either blocked or mixed with respect to emotional meaning. The results suggest that emotional tone of voice facilitated linguistic processing of emotional words in an emotion-congruent fashion. These findings suggest that information about emotional tone is used in the processing of linguistic content influencing the recognition and naming of spoken words in an emotion-congruent manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The lack of generality in defense mechanisms as indicated in auditory perception.

"Recent studies of perceptual behavior have demonstrated that there is a change in recognition threshold as a function of the 'emotionality' attached to a stimulus. It has been proposed that the change in threshold is a function of the type of mechanisms used to cope with anxiety generally. Since there is reason to doubt the generality of this assertion, this study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that those patients who use intellectualization as the preferred type of mechanisms to handle anxiety will perceive emotional words at lower thresholds than those patients who use predominantly repressive mechanisms." Results indicate no difference in perceptual recognition thresholds for the two groups of patients. Combined patient groups, however, had lower thresholds than normals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

William James and "Vicious Intellectualism" in psychology.

Linguistic concepts allow us to break our world into intelligible parts. William James warns, however, that conceptualizing can easily turn into "vicious intellectualism." This happens when words (concepts) subsume unique particulars under one name, a quality is abstracted from the many particulars, the two are contrasted vis-á-vis, and then the abstraction is declared independent of, temporally prior to, and causally related to the events or processes from which it was derived. Psychology has committed this logical fallacy with concepts such as emotions, personality, and mental illness. To mistake these concepts for "thing like" entities that produce behavior is intellectually forgetful given their linguistic origin. The work of Emmanuel Levinas, Charles Taylor, and C. Terry Warner, among others, will be used to provide an alternative theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognition, anxiety, and prediction of performance in 1st-year law students.

Two models to predict academic performance using ability, affective, and cognitive variables were evaluated using students in their 1st year of law school. Participants were assessed before the beginning of classes and prior to and immediately following 2 anxiety-arousing 1st-year academic milestones: a final exam and an oral argument. In the path analysis for the exam model, only the Law School Aptitude Test was predictive of performance. Trait anxiety predicted self-efficacy for cognitive control, which predicted thoughts, which in turn predicted state anxiety. State anxiety, however, did not predict exam grades. In the oral argument model, a clear path of significant predictors could be traced from communication apprehension to self-efficacy for affective control, to state anxiety, and finally to oral argument score. Thus, different processes appear to operate in each of the 2 academic tasks. The implications of the results for law school education and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Surface form typicality and asymmetric transfer in episodic memory for spoken words.

A series of experiments was conducted to determine whether the typicality of the surface form of speech would affect memory retention of spoken words. For each surface characteristic studied, a continuous recognition-memory task was used in which listeners based recognition judgments on word identity alone. For "typical" items, repetition benefits did not depend on whether the surface forms of the 1st and 2nd occurrences matched or mismatched. For "atypical" items, a larger repetition benefit occurred when the surface forms of the 2 occurrences matched. These results suggest that episodic memory for spoken words may be directly related to the perceived typicality of particular surface characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some disparate thoughts on the idea of a unified psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy unification is considered from a number of perspectives. Some origins of human tendencies to value unification are explored including innate "binding" phenomena in the brain and the effects on human thought of our ubiquitous use of metaphor. Possible disadvantages of premature attempts to unify disparate psychotherapy techniques are considered. An argument is advanced favoring case-by-case reconsiderations of "unifying" options. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rebuilding the ship at sea: The historical and theoretical problems of constructionist epistemologies in psychology.

Argues that constructionist positions may provide important answers to critiques of psychological theories in the twentieth century. Focus is on the mental characterization of psychology and the intentional nature of the mental. The constructionist argument in psychology is drawn by tracing its roots in the sociology of knowledge and antifoundational philosophy. The problems of language bear centrally on the constructionist thesis, particularly the view that psychological phenomena are inherently linguistic and lingual. In recent years, constructionist programs in psychology have begun to reorient and reconstruct understandings of the subject matter in such areas as social, developmental, and cognitive psychology. The charge of relativism remains a serious challenge for the constructionist, although a coherentist interpretation of constructionist justifications may resolve this issue. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and memory: a recall bias for threatening words in high anxiety

Few studies have directly examined the relationship between trait anxiety and explicit memory for emotionally congruent material. Evidence from clinically anxious subjects, however, suggests a recall bias favouring non-threatening words as opposed to threatening words. Two experiments are reported which examined the recall performance of high- and low-trait anxious subjects. Contrary to the clinical anxiety findings, there was evidence of a recall bias for threatening rather than non-threatening words in the high-trait anxious group. Further analysis, however, revealed that the recall bias was associated with state anxiety and depression levels rather than trait anxiety. The two experiments also showed that recall was greater for words appearing at the end of the list as opposed to words presented elsewhere in the list. The theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.