Narrative Development in Bilingual Kindergarteners: Can Arthur Help?

This study examined the effects of the children's TV program Arthur on the development of narrative skills over an academic year for Spanish-speaking English-language learners. In October, February, and June of their kindergarten year, children were asked to tell a story, in English, prompted by 3 pictures. Before the 2nd and 3rd assessments, half of the 108 children were randomly assigned to view Arthur 3 times a week during school hours, and the other half, which formed the control group, viewed the children's program Between the Lions on the same schedule. Individual growth modeling analysis showed that children who viewed Arthur had steeper growth trajectories than those who viewed Between the Lions. Boys displayed better English narrative skills than girls but no difference in narrative growth rate. The results suggest that certain educational TV programs can assist in some aspects of the language development of bilingual children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An inexpensive method to determine the efficiency of a television program.

By telephoning people and asking them if they had watched a just-shown TV program, the size of the audience is estimated. "Efficiency, or most per thousand home exposures, is selected as the criterion." Based on material used in a PhD dissertation the technique of sequential analysis permits, with stated risks of error, a decision about the efficiency of a TV program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The memory enhancement effect of emotion is absent in conceptual implicit memory.

Memory for emotional stimuli is superior to memory for neutral stimuli. This study investigated whether this memory advantage is present in implicit memory. Memory was tested with a test of explicit memory (associate cued recall) and a test of conceptual implicit memory (free association) identical in all respects apart from the retrieval instructions. After studying emotional and neutral paired associates, participants saw the first member of the pair, the cue; in the test of explicit memory participants were instructed to recall the associate; in the test of implicit memory participants were instructed to generate the first word coming to mind associated to the word. Depth of study processing dissociated performance in the tests, confirming that the free-association test was not contaminated by an intentional retrieval strategy. Emotional pairs were better recalled than neutral pairs in the test of explicit memory but not in the equivalent test of implicit memory. The absence of an emotion effect in implicit memory implies that emotional material does not have a privileged global mnemonic status; intentional retrieval is necessary for observing the emotion-related memory advantage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Television violence and children's aggression: Testing the priming, social script, and disinhibition predictions.

The effect of television violence on boys' aggression was investigated with consideration of teacher-rated characteristic aggressiveness, timing of frustration, and violence-related cues as moderators. Boys in Grades 2 and 3 (N?=?396) watched violent or nonviolent TV in groups of 6, and half the groups were later exposed to a cue associated with the violent TV program. They were frustrated either before or after TV viewing. Aggression was measured by naturalistic observation during a game of floor hockey. Groups containing more characteristically high-aggressive boys showed higher aggression following violent TV plus the cue than following violent TV alone, which in turn produced more aggression than did the nonviolent TV condition. There was evidence that both the violent content and the cue may have suppressed aggression among groups composed primarily of boys low in characteristic aggressiveness. Results were interpreted in terms of current information-processing theories of media effects on aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes towards newscasters as measured by the semantic differential: A descriptive case.

How valuable is the semantic differential in measuring audience attitudes toward people they see on TV? An audience of 20 people made semantic differential ratings of 3 TV personalities and the TV program used in this study, and of a person they had watched elsewhere on TV, in a pretest, posttest and follow-up. "The postprogram ratings accurately predicted the follow-up ratings." The evidence favored the validity of the technique. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GD35K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of long-term exposure to violent and sexually degrading depictions of women.

Investigated the effects of emotional desensitization to films of violence against women and the effects of sexually degrading explicit and nonexplicit films on beliefs about rape and the sexual objectification of women. Males viewed either 2 or 5 R-rated violent "slasher," X-rated nonviolent "pornographic," or R-rated nonviolent teenage-oriented ("teen sex") films. Affective reactions and cognitive perceptions were measured after each exposure. Later, these men and no-exposure control Ss completed a voir dire questionnaire, viewed a reenacted acquaintance or nonacquaintance sexual assault trial, and judged the defendant and alleged rape victim. Ss in the violent condition became less anxious and depressed and showed declines in negative affective responses. They were also less sympathetic to the victim and less empathetic toward rape victims in general. However, longer film exposure was necessary to affect general empathy. There were no differences in response between the R-rated teen sex film and the X-rated, sexually explicit, nonviolent film, and the no-exposure control conditions on the objectification or the rape trial variables. A model of desensitization to media violence and the carryover to decision making about victims is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A personal adjustment television program.

"This article describes some of our experiences in presenting a television program on personal adjustment on a commercial station over a period of one year. It is also an announcement of the availability of 13 half-hour kinescope recordings of these programs through the Educational TV and Radio Center." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cigarette advertising and onset of smoking in children: questionnaire survey

OBJECTIVE: To investigate uptake of smoking in a cohort of 11 to 12 year olds related to awareness of advertised cigarette brands named. DESIGN: Self completed questionnaires administered to whole classes of schoolchildren in June 1993 and June 1994. SETTING: Primary, middle, and secondary schools in the north and south of England. SUBJECTS: 1450 pupils aged 11 and 12 years at the time of the first survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Onset of smoking and brands smoked by the second survey related to cigarette brands named in the first one. Less advertised brands were used as the base for calculating odds ratios. RESULTS: Girls who named the most advertised brands-namely, Benson and Hedges alone (odds ratio = 2.50, 95% confidence interval = 1.18 to 5.30) or Benson and Hedges and Silk Cut (2.15, 1.04 to 4.42) in the first survey were at greatest risk of taking up smoking by the second one. The difference was similar but not significant for boys. Boys and girls who named the least advertised brands in the first survey were at no greater risk of taking up smoking by the second survey than those who named no brands (boys odds ratio = 0.49 (0.24 to 1.01); girls 0.79 (0.38 to 1.62)). New smokers were more likely to smoke any available brand (29.5%) or a less advertised brand such as Embassy (24.6%) than the most advertised ones, Benson and Hedges (19.7%) and Silk Cut (14.8%). Established smokers were more selective, only 15% smoking any available brand and 38.3% smoking Benson and Hedges. CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette advertising appears to increase children's awareness of smoking at a generic level and encourages them to take up the behaviour, beginning with any cigarettes which are available and affordable.     

Flesch readability formula applied to television programs.

A Flesch readability analysis was made of eight daytime adult interest programs and twenty-five evening once-a-week network TV programs. Both types of program used audible vocabularies that were relatively simple and contained relatively large amounts of human interest. Although the Reading Ease and Human Interest scores were significantly correlated, neither was correlated significantly with Telepulse ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of valence in attempted thought suppression

Thought control was investigated in participants (N = 72) who were shown either a violent, humorous or neutral film and then administered either suppression or nonsuppression instructions. Following the presentation of a three minute segment from one film, participants monitored their thoughts for two 3-minute periods. In Period 1, participants were administered suppression or nonsuppression instructions relating to thoughts of the film. In Period 2, participants were instructed to think about anything. During both periods participants were instructed to press a response button if they had a trauma-related thought. Participants who viewed the violent film gave higher ratings of distress and lower pleasantness ratings than those who viewed the humorous and neutral films. Participants who were given suppression instructions demonstrated a delayed increase in trauma-related thoughts in the period subsequent to suppression across the valence conditions.     

Does television violence cause aggression?

In a previous study 3rd graders who preferred violent TV programs were rated more aggressive in school by peers. In a 10-yr follow-up, 211 males and 216 females of the original 875 Ss were interviewed as to their television habits and again rated their peers on aggressive behavior. It was found that the violence of programs preferred by male 3rd graders was even more strongly related to aggression 10 yr. later. Cross-lagged correlations, partial correlations, and multiple regression indicate a probable causative influence of watching violent TV programs in early formative years on later aggression. Although TV violence was not the only cause of aggressive behavior, its effect was relatively independent and explained a larger proportion of variance than any other single factor studied, e.g., IQ, social status, ethnicity, and parental disharmony. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Eron on Television Violence and Aggression.

Eron's (February 1982) discussion in this journal of the results from his second longitudinal study, the Chicago Circle Study (CCS), of the relationship, in young people, between TV violence viewing (TVVV) and the trait of aggression contains one mystifying omission: No longitudinal findings are reported! There are nonlagged (i.e., Contemporaneous) correlations between TVVV and aggression in abundance (see Eron's Table 1), but not a single lagged (i.e., longitudinal) one. These nonlagged correlations, by themselves, tell us nothing about the question that Eron's longitudinal study was presumably to answer: What is the long-term effect of watching violent TV on the development of the trait of aggression? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attractiveness of the underling: An automatic power?→?sex association and its consequences for sexual harassment and aggression.

One characteristic of men who sexually harass is that they are not aware that their actions are inappropriate or a misuse of their power (L. F Fitzgerald, 1993a). We investigated the existence and automaticity of a mental association between the concepts of power and sex, and its consequences for sexual harassment tendencies. Using a subliminal priming paradigm, Experiment 1 demonstrated an automatic link between power and sex, and only for men high in the likelihood to sexually harass or aggress. In Experiment 2, male participants were unobtrusively primed with either power related or neutral stimuli. For men likely to sexually aggress, but not other participants, attraction ratings of a female confederate were significantly higher in the power priming than the neutral priming condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate and long-term recognition and generalization of advertised products as a function of age and presentation mode.

Examined 30 preschoolers' (aged 3–5 yrs), 30 kindergartners', and 30 2nd graders' immediate and long-term recognition memory for advertised products following an audio, video, or audiovisual presentation of commercials. A 3?×?3 factorial design was employed, with presentation mode (visual only, auditory only, and combined auditory and visual) and age of S as the factors. Ss recognized advertised products more often following exposure to visual or audiovisual commercial presentations than to auditory presentations. Age differences were detected for immediate and long-term product recognition. An errors analysis revealed that Ss of all 3 ages reported being exposed to nonadvertised foods that were members of the same class as the advertised products more frequently than would have been expected by chance. Findings are discussed in terms of the generalized effects of children's TV advertising. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations of television viewing and reading: Findings from a 4-year longitudinal study.

This longitudinal study explored the long-term effects of television viewing on the development of children's reading competencies. Among 2 cohorts of German children (N? = 165, N? = 167), measures of television viewing were collected over 4 years, and tests of reading speed and reading comprehension were administered annually. As a main result, TV genre (educational vs. entertainment programs) produced different effects. Whereas educational program viewing was positively correlated with reading achievement, relations between entertainment program viewing and reading performance were generally negative. Children who were classified as heavy viewers (average viewing time per day = 117 min) showed lower progress in reading over time as compared to medium and light viewers (average viewing times per day 69 and 35 min, respectively). Partial support was found only for 1 of the 3 tested causal mechanisms, namely television-induced reduction in leisure-time book reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intact and impaired conceptual memory processes in amnesia.

To examine the status of conceptual memory processes in amnesia, a conceptual memory task with implicit or explicit task instructions was given to amnesic and control groups. After studying a list of category exemplars, participants saw category labels and were asked to generate as many exemplars as possible (an implicit memory task) or to generate exemplars that had been in the prior study list (an explicit memory task). After incidental deep or shallow encoding of exemplars, amnesic patients showed normal implicit memory performance (priming), a normal levels-of-processing effect on priming, and impaired explicit memory performance. After intentional encoding of exemplars, amnesic patients showed impaired implicit and explicit memory performance. Results suggest that although amnesic patients can show impairments on implicit and explicit conceptual memory tasks, their deficit does not generalize to all conceptual memory tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes of U.S. and Czech/Slovak mental health and health professionals toward five types of sexually explicit materials

Mental health and health professionals' attitudes toward sexually explicit materials in the U.S. and Czech/Slovak Republics were investigated. An instrument measuring attitudes toward educational, soft-core, hard-core, violence, and bizarre/paraphiliac sexually explicit materials was administered to sexologists, psychologist/counselors, and medical professionals. These professionals were attending conferences in the U.S. and the Czech/Slovak Republics between November 1992 and September 1993. Mental health and health professionals had the most favorable attitudes toward educational sexually explicit materials followed by soft-core and hard-core materials, respectively. They had unfavorable attitudes toward violent and bizarre/paraphiliac sexually explicit materials, with particularly negative attitudes toward violent materials. Analysis of covariance showed that strength of religious conviction was a significant covariate; thus professionals with stronger religious conviction had more negative attitudes toward all five types of sexually explicit materials. When controlling for strength of religious conviction: (i) sexologists had more positive attitudes toward most types of sexually explicit materials; (ii) Czech professionals generally had more positive attitudes toward such materials than their U.S. counterparts; and (iii) there were few differences between female and male professionals in their reported attitudes. While previous literature has reported gender differences in attitudes toward sexually explicit materials, findings from this study suggest that this effect may be due to differences in religiosity among women and men, namely, that women tend to be more religious.     

Improving condom use intentions and behavior by changing perceived partner norms: An evaluation of condom promotion videos for college students.

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of 2 condom promotion videotapes on self-efficacy, intentions, and behavior. Design: Two hundred twenty college students completed social-cognitive and behavioral measures and were then randomly assigned to receive one of two 30-min condom promotion videotapes (male or female student presenters) or to a wait-list control condition. Participants who watched 1 of the videotapes completed immediate posttest measures, and 85% of participants completed a 4-month follow-up. Main Outcome Measures: Self-efficacy for condom use, intentions to use condoms, use of condom during last sex, and consistent condom use over the last month. Results: Participants who received either video reported greater self-efficacy to refuse to have unprotected sex and intentions than controls at follow-up. Individuals who received either video were more likely than controls to report using a condom during last sex with a regular partner, and those who watched the female presenter were more likely to report consistent condom use. Conclusion: Participants benefited in terms of self-efficacy and intentions from receiving either video, but both men and women benefited more in terms of condom use behavior from receiving the female video. Future research is needed to determine whether opposite-sex speaker videos could be beneficial with a larger (and more sexually active) sample and whether these effects are maintained over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Running from the shadow: Psychological distancing from others to deny characteristics people fear in themselves.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people distance themselves from others who display characteristics they fear in themselves. In Study 1, participants were given false feedback that they were high or low in repressed anger and were given information about a person who became angry and responded in a violent or nonviolent manner. High anger feedback participants distanced themselves only from the violent person. In Study 2, high anger feedback led to distancing from a violent other but not a dishonest other, whereas dishonesty feedback led to distancing from a dishonest other but not a violent other. The results of Studies 3 and 4 replicated and extended the distancing effect with an anger induction: Participants who were insulted distanced themselves from an angry/violent person, and verbalizing their emotions about being insulted eliminated this effect. Implications for understanding defenses against undesirable self-attributions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does television violence enhance program popularity?

Two studies explored the effects of fictional TV violence on adventure show popularity. In Study 1, with 30 college students, the amount of violence occurring within 62 episodes of 11 programs was correlated with the national Nielsen viewer index. A very low, nonsignificant relationship emerged. In addition, student raters' perceptions of the programs were factor analyzed. A violence factor emerged, but reported liking for programs did not load substantially on this factor. In Study 2 an adventure program ("Police Woman") was presented to 100 college students either uncut or with violence deleted. Although the uncut version was perceived as significantly more violent, it was not liked significantly more. The violence condition accounted for approximately 1% of the variance in reported liking. There is presently little evidence indicating that violence enhances program popularity. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)