Reactivity of normal and VMH-lesion rats to quinine-adulterated foods: Negative evidence for negative finickiness.

Conducted 2 experiments with ventromedial hypothalamic (VMH) and normal rats to examine (1) whether the anorexic properties of quinine depend on quinine's sensory properties or on its postingestive effects, and (2) whether VMH rats overrespond to quinine adulteration. These issues were examined by comparing the feeding adjustments to quinine by VMH and normal male Long-Evans rats in a sham-feeding situation and under normal feeding circumstances, on Ss' initial exposure to this drug. In Exp I, 17 Ss received VMH lesions or sham lesions before being sham fed with various concentrations of quinine. In Exp II, 18 lesioned or sham-lesioned Ss were fed unadulterated food for 12 days, followed by a meal adulterated with quinine, 2 days of pure mash, and 1 day of quinine. Quinine caused significant depression of food intake in Ss. Little evidence exists for a conclusion that VMH rats are more reactive than normals to quinine-adulterated foods. Results suggest that major food intake perturbations of VMH rats are in response to hedonically positive dietary manipulations. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative evidence and grammatical morpheme acquisition.

Investigated children's use of negative evidence in language acquisition. Recent research has demonstrated that parents differentially correct children's ungrammatical sentences compared with grammatical sentences through recasts (i.e., negative evidence). This study investigated children's imitations of new grammatical morphemes contained in corrective recasts. These imitations were compared with imitations of grammatical morphemes contained in positive evidence provided by discourse types such as topic continuations. One hour of conversation in 12 23-mo-old children and their mothers was examined. Children were 2 to 3 times more likely to imitate the correct grammatical morpheme after corrective recasts than after any other form of positive evidence. The implications and limitations of these findings for theories of language acquisition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative evidence concerning the generality of rigidity.

"The question of whether rigidity effects tend to be generalized throughout most aspects of the individual's mental behavior remains confused. The present study can only be said to have added to the negative side of the argument… . Perhaps the strongest features of the experimental design reported here are the close controls inherent in individual testing and the use of very similar tasks. If evidence of a general trait is not observable in these procedures, it is difficult to maintain expectations of discovering such evidence elsewhere." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative outcomes: What is the evidence on self-administered treatments?

D. C. Mohr (see record 1995-30134-001) suggested that high deterioration rates may occur in self-directed treatments. The investigators examined data from 5 studies of self-administered treatment for depression and found in contrast much lower rates (9% vs. 19%) than those cited in Mohr's review. The negative response rates for the self-administered treatments compared favorably with the negative response rates in the therapist-administered treatments provided in the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program. The findings indicate that it may be the manner in which participants are prepared for self-administered treatment that is critical. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the irrelevance of the classical negative evidence concerning the effect of attitudes on behavior.

Discusses 3 classic studies by R. T. La Piere (1934), B. Kutner et al (1952), and R. D. Minard (1952) which are often cited by researchers and textbook authors as evidence that attitudes do not affect behavior. The methodology of these studies is criticized, and it is argued that they provide inappropriate evidence for the behavior-attitude controversy. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive reappraisal of negative affect: Converging evidence from EMG and self-report.

Prior psychophysiological studies of cognitive reappraisal have generally focused on the down-regulation of negative affect, and have demonstrated either changes in self-reports of affective experience, or changes in facial electromyography, but not both. Unfortunately, when taken separately, these measures are vulnerable to different sources of bias, and alternative explanations might account for changes in these indicators of negative affect. What is needed is a study that (a) obtains measures of self-reported affect together with facial electromyography, and (b) examines the use of reappraisal to regulate externally and internally generated affective responses. In the present study, participants up- or down-regulated negative affect in the context of both negative and neutral pictures. Up-regulation led to greater self reports of negative affect, as well as greater corrugator and startle responses to both negative and neutral stimuli. Down-regulation led to lesser reports of negative affect, and lesser corrugator responses to negative and neutral stimuli. These results extend prior research by (a) showing simultaneous effects on multiple measures of affect, and (b) demonstrating that cognitive reappraisal may be used both to regulate responses to negative stimuli and to manufacture a negative response to neutral stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The issue of negative evidence: Adult responses to children's language errors.

This study was designed to assess one of the major assumptions of current language learning theories: Adults ignore children's speech errors. We observed both parents (n?=?16) and nonparent adults (n?=?13) conversing with children and examined the conversations for evidence of adults' differential responding to the children's syntactic, phonological, and semantic errors. Results indicated that adults were more likely to repeat verbatim a well-formed sentence than an ill-formed sentence. In contrast, adults were more likely to repeat with changes, or request clarification of, a sentence containing syntactic or phonological errors than well-formed sentences. Adults also more frequently used the correct syntactic or phonological form in the immediately subsequent sentence if the child's preceding sentence contained only one syntactic or phonological error rather than multiple errors. Overall, the results indicate that all adults tend to respond differentially to children's language mistakes, with parents showing greater sensitivity than adults who are not parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative life events, perceived stress, negative affect, and susceptibility to the common cold.

After completing questionnaires assessing stressful life events, perceived stress, and negative affect, 394 healthy Ss were intentionally exposed to a common cold virus, quarantined, and monitored for the development of biologically verified clinical illness. Consistent with the hypothesis that psychological stress increases susceptibility to infectious agents, higher scores on each of the 3 stress scales were associated with greater risk of developing a cold. However, the relation between stressful life events and illness was mediated by a different biologic process than were relations between perceived stress and illness and negative affect and illness. That these scales have independent relations with illness and that these relations are mediated by different processes challenges the assumption that perceptions of stress and negative affect are necessary for stressful life events to influence disease risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

HCV and diabetes mellitus: evidence for a negative association

OBJECTIVE: Uncontrolled, retrospective clinical studies have recently claimed that HCV infection could trigger the onset of diabetes mellitus (DM). We sought to verify the association between DM and liver diseases of different etiology, stage, and severity in a prospective study including gender- and age-matched controls. METHODS: Two hundred forty-seven patients with liver cirrhosis (184 men, 116 with an associated hepatocellular carcinoma, 34% in Child-Pugh's class A) were evaluated (group 1). One hundred fifty-seven (63.5) of them were HCV positive, 38 (15.5%) HBV positive, 49 (19.8%) alcohol abusers, and three (1.2%) cryptogenic. Two control groups were also included. The first control group consisted of 138 patients with chronic hepatitis due to HCV infection (73.9%), HBV infection (15.9%), or alcohol abuse (10.2%) (group 2). The second control group included 494 patients with an acute osteoarticular trauma, age- and gender-matched with patients in group 1 (group 3). RESULTS: Diabetes mellitus was present in 32.3%, 3.6%, and 9.7% of patients in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. When compared with controls (group 3), DM was significantly less frequent in group 2 (p < 0.004) and significantly more frequent in group 1 (p < 0.0001). The prevalence of DM was not different among patients with HCV, HBV infection, or alcohol abuse. In group 3, the prevalence of DM appeared to increase steadily with age. On the contrary, in patients with liver cirrhosis (group 1) DM was detected in about 20-30% of cases in all decades of age. In group 2, diabetics were found only in the 7th and 8th decades of life. At multivariate analysis cirrhosis and age were the only two factors independently associated with DM; odds ratios were 12.5 (95% confidence interval [C.I.], 6.74-20.4) for cirrhosis, and 1.47 for age (95% C.I. 0.39-2.55). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings disprove HCV infection as a trigger factor for DM, which should not be listed among the various extrahepatic manifestations of this viral infection.     

No negative evidence revisited: Beyond learnability or who has to prove what to whom.

P. Gordon (see record 1990-14375-001) in his commentary on N. J. Bohannon and L. Stanowicz (see record 1989-00984-001) argued that (a) the original M. E. Gold (1967) learnability proof bears little relevance for innateness of language, (b) the Bohannon and Stanowicz results do not justify abandoning innate restraints on language learning, and (c) there may be cases in which such feedback is unavailable. In this reply, the relevant and irrelevant aspects of both the original Gold proof and more modern attempts at learnability are discussed. Uniqueness, a concept central to all modern formal models, is also adaptable to account for the negative evidence available in the child's input language. Rates of feedback found in Bohannon and Stanowicz are shown to be sufficient to spur learning in many species, including concept formation tasks in humans, and anecdotal counterevidence against the universality of negative evidence is discounted. It is suggested that using innate factors as a "default" explanation is a dangerous and counterproductive scientific endeavor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and the search for negative evaluations: More evidence of the role of self-verification strivings.

W. B. Swann et al (see record 1992-27469-001) suggested that depressed and dysphoric persons verify their self-conceptions by seeking rather negative appraisals. J. M. Hooley and J. E. Richters (see record 1992-27439-001) and L. B. Alloy and A. J. Lipman (see record 1992-27420-001) have worried that (1) idiosyncratic features of the Swann et al participants and design may have produced their effects and (2) Swann et al presented no evidence that self-verification strivings are motivated. The authors address these issues empirically. Study 1 showed that 20 dysphoric participants preferred interacting with a person who appraised them unfavorably over participating in another study, in comparison with 30 nondysphorics. Study 2 revealed that 26 dysphoric persons responded to feedback that challenged their negative self-view by working to reaffirm their low self-esteem, in comparison with 47 nondysphorics. These findings support the notion that at some level depressed and dysphoric persons want rather negative appraisals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children do show negative priming: Further evidence for early development of an intact selective control mechanism.

Reactions to stimuli that were shortly before presented as distractors are usually slowed down; this phenomenon is known as negative priming. Negative priming is an accepted index for tapping into selective control mechanisms. Although this effect is well established for adults, it has been claimed that children do not show negative priming. Recently, however, V. E. Pritchard and E. Neumann (see record 2004-11032-006) challenged this view and concluded that selective control mechanisms are already fully developed in young children. The authors of the present study analyzed differences between older studies, in which no negative priming had been observed, and the Pritchard and Neumann (2004) study. In sum, the present study yielded further evidence for an intact selective control mechanism in young children. The authors also linked this empirical finding to the broader literature on negative priming by a direct comparison with an adult sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative identity priming is contingent on stimulus repetition.

Five experiments demonstrate that negative identity priming is contingent on stimulus repetition. In ignored repetition conditions, priming was initially positive and became negative as the number of repetitions increased. Moreover, it was repetition as a target, not as a distractor, that was critical for negative priming. The effects of repetition were general: They were found with both naming and same–different paradigms, verbal and pictorial material, familiar and unfamiliar stimuli, and vocal and manual responses. Findings support an activation-based model of negative priming (G. B. Malley & D. L. Strayer, 1995) and are problematic for the episodic retrieval model of negative priming (W. T. Neill & L. A. Valdes, 1992). Finally, the experiments did not replicate B. DeSchepper and A. Treisman's (1996) reported negative priming with nonrepeated novel shapes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of negative ions on cognitive performance.

Male and female subjects (undergraduate students) participated in two studies designed to investigate the impact of negative air ions on cognitive performance. In the first experiment, they worked on three different tasks (proofreading, memory span, word finding) in the presence of low, moderate, or high concentrations of such ions. Results indicated that among men, performance on two of these tasks (proofreading and memory span) was enhanced by moderate but not by high concentrations of ions. In the second experiment, undertaken to extend the generality of these initial results, male and female subjects performed two additional tasks (letter copying, decision making) in the presence of low, moderate, or high concentrations of ions. Output on the letter copying task increased significantly as ion level rose among both sexes. With respect to decision making, the tendency of male (but not female) participants to select initially preferred alternatives was significantly enhanced by moderate concentrations of negative ions. Together, the findings of these studies suggest that negative air ions can indeed exert appreciable effects on cognitive performance. However, contrary to claims often associated with advertising for commercially produced ion generators, these effects are neither simple nor uniformly beneficial in nature. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of daily stress on negative mood.

This article examines the influence of daily stressors on mental health in a community sample. Ss were 166 married couples who completed diaries each day for 6 weeks. In pooled within-person analyses, daily stressors explained up to 20% of the variance in mood. Interpersonal conflicts were by far the most distressing events. Furthermore, when stressors occurred on a series of days, emotional habituation occurred by the second day for almost all events except interpersonal conflicts. Contrary to certain theoretical accounts, multiple stressors on the same day did not exacerbate one another's effects; rather, an emotional plateau occurred. Finally, on days following a stressful event, mood was better than it would have been if the stressor had not happened. These results reveal the complex emotional effects of daily stressors, and in particular, they suggest that future investigations should focus primarily on interpersonal conflicts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of stimulus repetition on negative priming.

Potential age-related differences in the influence of stimulus repetition on negative and positive priming were investigated in a same-different picture comparison task. Forty-eight young adults and 48 old adults compared a target picture of a familiar object with a standard picture of a familiar object to determine if they were the same or different, while ignoring an overlapping distractor picture presented in a different color. Negative priming effects increased in magnitude with the repetition of the experimental stimuli in a similar fashion for both young and old adults. Conversely, positive priming effects decreased in magnitude with increases in stimulus repetition for both young and old adults. These data suggest that identity-based inhibition develops in a similar fashion from young adulthood to old age. Furthermore, these data add to the growing body of studies that suggest age invariance in the ability to inhibit task-irrelevant information on the basis of stimulus identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subtyping women with bulimia nervosa along dietary and negative affect dimensions: Further evidence of reliability and validity.

Studies have found that individuals with bulimia nervosa can be classified into dietary and dietary-negative affect subtypes and that the latter exhibit greater eating pathology, psychiatric comorbidity, and functional impairment; a more protracted clinical course; and a worse treatment response. In this report, the authors describe 2 prospective studies that found that young women with threshold (n = 48) and subthreshold (n = 83) bulimic pathology can be classified into dietary and dietary-negative affect subtypes; that two subtyping approaches produced similar results (mean κ = .94); that the subtyping distinction showed 4-week test-retest reliability (κ = .61); and that the dietary-negative affect subtype showed greater eating pathology, emotional distress, functional impairment, treatment seeking, and lower likelihood of recovery over 6-month and 3-year follow-ups than the dietary subtype. The dieting-negative affect subtyping distinction evidenced greater test-retest reliability and concurrent and predictive validity than did the purging-nonpurging subtyping distinction. The additional evidence for the reliability and validity of this subtyping scheme, particularly the prognostic utility, suggests it is worth additional inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)