Differences in the perception of an authority figure and a nonauthority figure by Navy recruits.

"As predicted from previous work in fearevoking objects and resistance to perceptual distortion, Navy recruits viewing persons through aniseikonic lenses showed higher distortion thresholds when viewing an authority figure than when viewing a nonauthority figure." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual rigidity as measured by aniseikonic lenses.

"The general hypothesis that the time delay and degree of distortion with aniseikonic lenses are meaningfully related to other measures of perceptual and personality rigidity is supported by the data." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hemispheric laterality and memory bias for threat in anxiety disorder.

Examined auditory perceptual asymmetries and explicit memory biases for threat in patients with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder relative to healthy control Ss. They did not find a greater explicit memory bias for threat in the anxiety patients. However, explicit memory biases for threat were associated with perceptual asymmetry scores; patients with a greater right-ear (left hemisphere) advantage exhibited an explicit memory bias for threat material, whereas patients with a lower right-ear advantage displayed apparent cognitive avoidance of threat material. Memory for threat words was unrelated to perceptual asymmetry in healthy control Ss. These findings suggest that neuropsychological variables may partly determine the degree to which anxiety patients process threatening stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait versus state anxiety, authoritarianism and ego threat versus physical threat.

Examined the effects of individual differences (authoritarianism, trait anxiety) and situational factors (ego and physical threat) on state anxiety (A-state). 60 male undergraduates were given Kohn's Authoritarianism-Rebellion Scale, the WAIS Block Design subtest, Endler's S-R Inventory of Anxiousness, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. It was predicted that high and low authoritarian Ss, and high and low trait anxiety (A-trait) Ss would report different amounts of A-state arousal as a function of ego threat. Ss were divided into 2 groups of high and low authoritarians and performed a task under ego-threat (failure) or physical-threat (shock) conditions. A post hoc split of Ss' A-trait scores provided A-state data on high vs low A-trait under threat conditions. Ego threat and physical threat both produced A-state arousal. Physical threat created greater A-state arousal than ego threat for high A-trait Ss. Contrary to W. F. Hodges's 1968 findings, under physical threat high A-trait Ss reported greater A-state arousal than low A-trait Ss. C. D. Spielburger's trait-state anxiety theory is compared with N. S. Endler and J. McV. Hunt's interaction model of anxiety. (French summary) (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body image and asymmetry of body reactivity.

The hypothesis tested was that the more definitely one distinguishes the right and left sides of his body in his body image, the more likely he is to show differential reactivity in the left vs. right sides of his body. Ss compared homologous body parts while viewing them through aniseikonic lenses to determine body-image differentiation. Body reactivity was determined by means of GSR recordings. Right handed Ss who clearly distinguished their right and left body sides were likely to show a GSR gradient showing the left side to be more reactive than the right. 21 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences between identified and anonymous subjects in responding to an industrial opinion survey.

A comparison of attitude survey responses between identified and nonidentified manufacturing employees was made under 2 conditions of identification. 1 involved a face-to-face designation by the respondee's manager as to which group he was to be in (high threat), and the other involved a random allocation as the respondee entered the testing room (low threat). All Ss were assured confidentiality of their responses, and the nonidentified respondees were assured anonymity. A positive distortion in responses took place under both identified conditions but significantly more under high threat. Moreover, the items themselves produced variable distortion. Items dealing with salary and with ratings of top management produced consistent positive distortions, whereas items dealing with work pressure and S's manager produced little or no distortion even under conditions of high threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vicarious anxiety: A systematic evaluation of a vicarious threat to self-esteem.

Investigated in 3 studies, Ss' state anxiety arousal in response to an in vivo vicarious threat to self-esteem. In Studies 1 and 2, a total of 70 undergraduates were exposed to a guest speaker who provided the anxiety manipulation. All Ss completed R. Hogan's empathy scale (see record 1969-12966-001), the Adult Norwicki-Strickland Internal–External Control Scale, and the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. In addition, Ss in Study 2 also completed the Defense Mechanism Inventory. Inboth Studies, correlation and median split analyses indicated that high empathic and low trait anxious Ss reported elevated state anxiety in response to the vicarious threat. When Ss were matched on initial state anxiety, high empathy Ss were found to have experienced vicarious anxiety, whereas Ss low on empathy did not. In addition to replicating Study 1, Study 2 found that the Helplessness factor of locus of control was significantly negatively related to empathy, and the cognitive reappraisal styles of reversal (denial, reaction formation) and projection were related to state anxiety decreases. Study 3 with 14 undergraduates provided evidence for the absence of a confound. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral control over aversive events: Does control that requires effort reduce anxiety and physiological arousal?

Investigated whether the amount of effort required to control an aversive event influenced the amount of anxiety and physiological arousal associated with the aversive event. 89 male undergraduates participated in a 3 (unavoidable threat, avoidable threat, no threat)?×?2 (high-effort task performance, low-effort task performance)?×?2 (anticipation period, performance period) factorial experiment. Results indicate that (a) the aversive event (threat of electrical shock) increased Ss' anxiety and physiological arousal; (b) exercising control was effective for decreasing Ss' anxiety to the nonthreat level, but only when low effort was required; (c) the prospect of control decreased Ss' physiological arousal to the no-threat level while the Ss were waiting to exercise control over the aversive event; and (d) while actually exercising the control, Ss showed high physiological arousal similar to Ss who could not control the event. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual rigidity and closure as functions of anxiety.

Ss chosen from an introductory class in psychology were given the Grice Revision of the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety. High and low scorers were evenly divided as to sex and assigned to threatening or non-threatening instruction groups. Perceptual tasks were then administered. The results indicated that threat induced anxiety modified perceptual processes significantly in the case of tachistoscopic closure, rigidity, and stability. These three functions involve maintaining constancy of a previously established percept in the face of incompatible cues from the environment. Manifest anxiety was related only to the stability test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of stress and anxiety on the processing of threat stimuli.

Two experiments extended the work of C. MacLeod and A. Mathews (see record 1989-23867-001) and examined whether a cognitive bias for threat information is a function of state or trait anxiety. Color-naming and attention deployment tasks were used to assess the effects of a stress manipulation procedure on attentional responses in high and low trait anxious Ss. Ss under high stress selectively allocated processing resources toward threat stimuli, irrespective of their trait anxiety level. There was no consistent evidence of a cognitive bias associated with trait anxiety, and the effect of the stress manipulation did not apppear to be mediated by state anxiety. It was suggested that trait factors do not modify attentional biases associated with acute stress but may influence such biases when stress is prolonged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of negative feedback, threat of shock, and level of trait anxiety on the arousal of two components of anxiety.

Investigated the effects of threat of failure and threat of shock on the state anxiety reactions of 175 male undergraduates differing in level of trait anxiety. Consistent with the worry-emotionality distinction, worry scores were aroused only in the failure-threat situation, while emotionality scores tended to be elevated only in the shock-threat condition. Contrary to predictions derived from Spielberger's 1966 State-Trait anxiety theory, A-state scores were higher for high A-trait Ss than for low A-trait Ss in all groups. The prediction of a relationship between A-trait and worry scores was not supported. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and perceptual structure: Individual differences in neuropsychological function.

Studied the cognitive performance of 24 high and 36 low trait anxious undergraduates under conditions of high and low situational stress, using tasks requiring greater contribution of the right or left hemisphere. In addition, a perceptual task was adapted from visual information processing research to assess Ss' global or analytic approaches to perception; if anxiety increased the left hemisphere's contribution to perception, anxious Ss might be expected to be more analytic and detail oriented. Results show no significant differences on left hemisphere tasks but a significant interaction of trait by state anxiety for right hemisphere tasks: Low trait Ss performed better and high trait Ss performed more poorly under situational stress. Trait anxiety showed a significant main effect on visual information processing strategy, low Ss tending to be more global and high Ss tending to process the stimulus analytically. Results support the utility of a neuropsychological model in describing the effects of emotion on perception. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ivo Kohler (1915–1985).

Presents an obituary for Ivo Kohler, known for his study of human visual perception. In his most important work, which was reported in 1951, he described the results of a number of studies in which he and other subjects wore various types of glasses and goggles with prisms and/or colored lenses. Kohler will be remembered in a number of ways: for his outstanding contributions to the study of perceptual distortion and reorganization; for approaching perceptual problems from highly ingenious vantage points, including cybernetics and information theory; and, for his dedication to the development of novel electronic gadgetry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The validity of hypnotically induced visual hallucinations.

Varying degrees of visual distortion were found to be related to varying degrees of hypnotic trance. In general, hypnotically induced perceptual distortion was not as effective as the "real thing." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meaning dimensions and male-female voice perception in schizophrenics with good and poor premorbid adjustment.

This study explored certain aspects of perceptual distortion in schizophrenia. Among schizophrenics with a good premorbid adjustment, schizophrenics with a poor premorbid adjustment, and normals, auditory perception of spoken material was compared as a function of (a) sex of voice and (b) dimensions of meaning. The Ss listened to successive presentations of a recorded spoken word, mixed with decreasing amounts of masking noise, until their recognition threshold were established. Schizophrenics with poor premorbid adjustment responding to the female voice had significantly higher thresholds than those responding to the male voice. This finding did not occur in schizophrenics with good premorbid adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of an "anxiety-reducing" medication on group behavior under threat.

Three member teams worked on a group task under three experimental conditions: a threat condition in which Ss received an anxiety reducing medication, a threat condition with Ss receiving no medication, and a control nonthreat condition. Threat was imposed by structuring the sessions as evaluative tests whose results would become part of the Ss ROTC records. The Bales category system was used to obtain behavioral indices and the S's perception of their group and motivational state were obtained from an adjective check list. The results indicate that medication produces changes in the emotional and motivational state of the Ss along three dimensions, anxiety, elation, and assertion. "Medicated groups may be characterized as having an active, non-aggressive 'good time' with no especial concern for effective performance on the task." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of anxiety level and psychological stress on verbal learning.

"It was predicted that under neutral conditions high anxiety (high drive) Ss would exhibit a performance superior to that of low anxiety (low drive) Ss on a paired-associate learning task with minimal intratask interference but that under conditions of psychological stress (report of inadequate prior performance) high anxiety Ss, due to the greater arousal of interfering extratask responses, would no longer exhibit the superiority found under neutral conditions. Results indicated that while the high anxiety Ss under neutral instructions were significantly superior to the low anxious, as predicted, and the Ss operating under stress were inferior to their neutral controls, the predicted interaction between anxiety level and stress was not found." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety, Attention, and Coping with Threat.

It was hypothesized that anxiety provoked by a threat over which S had no control would lead to reduced responsiveness to stimuli in the periphery of attention, but that no such effect would be evident when S was given a means of coping with the threat. Ss threatened with shock performed no differently than an unthreatened control group on a tracking task occupying the center of their attention, but had significantly longer reaction times (RTs) to lights which went on occasionally at the periphery of their visual field. Ss told they could avoid the shock with good performance showed no such increase in RT. Some of the effects of anxiety were discussed in terms of these attentional changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional bias in emotional disorders.

Tested a visual attention paradigm with 16 Ss referred by general practitioners for anxiety management training and 16 undergraduate controls. Ss were administered the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. Words (either threat related or neutral) were simultaneously presented on 2 areas of the screen of a microcomputer. The ensuing distribution of visual attention was measured. Findings indicate that clinically anxious (but not clinically depressed) Ss consistently shifted attention toward threat words, resulting in reduced detection latencies for probes appearing in the vicinity of such stimuli. Control Ss, on the other hand, tended to shift attention away from such material. Results support the existence of anxiety-related encoding bias. It is suggested that this cognitive mechanism may contribute to the maintenance of such mood disorders. (27 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)