Projection or Persuasive Press? Contrary Effects of Personal Opinion and Perceived News Coverage on Estimates of Public Opinion

This study explores the effects of personal opinion and perceived media content on individuals' assessments of public opinion, as well as the curious phenomenon that, although people perceive public agreement with their own point of view, they tend to see press coverage as disagreeable. One hypothesis, based on theories of projection of personal opinion, predicts that people will see public opinion as much like their own, but a contrary outcome is suggested by 2 interrelated hypotheses, the hostile media effect and the persuasive press inference. Data were collected on 4 issues from a large, representative national sample and provided evidence for all 3 effects. Projection received the most consistent support, but findings indicate that this assimilation effect can be substantially offset by media coverage seen as both disagreeable and influential.     

CSs and USs: What's the difference?

Differences in processing representations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (CSs and UCSs) may result from either their temporal order in training (i.e., CSs precede UCSs) or the greater biological significance of UCSs. The CS- and UCS-preexposure effects were used to probe this question. These effects are similar except that context extinction between preexposure and training more readily attenuates the UCS- than the CS-preexposure effect. In Experiments 1, 2, and 5, context extinction following preexposure to the stimulus that later served as Event 1 in Event 1?→?Event 2 pairings alleviated the response deficit due to Event 1 preexposure if Event 1 was biologically significant. In Experiments 3 and 4, context extinction alleviated the response deficit due to Event 2 preexposure if Event 2 was biologically significant. Thus, biological significance and not temporal order determines how a representation will be processed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overshadowing and latent inhibition counteract each other: support for the comparator hypothesis

In 4 conditioned lick suppression experiments with rats, the combined effects of latent inhibition treatment followed by overshadowing treatment were assessed as a test of the comparator hypothesis's (R.R. Miller & L.D. Matzel, 1988) explanations of overshadowing and latent inhibition. Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed the prediction of the comparator hypothesis that combined latent inhibition and overshadowing treatments attenuate the response deficit produced by either treatment alone. Furthermore, consistent with the comparator hypothesis, posttraining changes in the associative status of the putative comparator stimulus altered responding to the target conditioned stimulus (Experiment 3), and switching contexts between latent inhibition and overshadowing treatments (Experiment 4) eliminated the interaction between the latent inhibition and overshadowing treatments.     

Nonverbal communication deficits and response to performance feedback in depression.

Evaluated aspects of recent behavioral and cognitive theories of depression. Social-skill concepts were conceived as involving 2 component processes, termed receptive and expressive communication, and the ability of depressed Ss to engage in these behaviors was studied within a nonverbal communication paradigm. Three groups of 10 females—depressed, psychiatric control, and normal control—had their facial expressions videotaped while exposed to a differential classical conditioning procedure, with pictorial stimuli following 1 CS, auditory stimuli following a 2nd CS, and a neutral event following a 3rd CS. In a 2nd session, the Ss observed the videotapes of other Ss, one from each diagnostic group, and judged which type of conditioning trial the observed S was undergoing, in addition to predicting their anticipated performance prior to each set of judgments. Results indicate that the depressed Ss were the most difficult to judge correctly; this deficit did not seem to be attributable to idiosyncratic response predispositions on the part of the depressives. This finding is interpreted as consistent with P. M. Lewinsohn's (see PA, Vol 53:7587) theory. Predictions of performance did not differ significantly between groups, failing to support one aspect of A. T. Beck's (1967) theory. For all groups, changes in Ss' ratings of their anticipated performance were highly correlated with the discrepancy between predicted and actual performance on previous trials. This finding is contrary to a prediction derived from M. E. Seligman's (see record 1973-06430-001) model of depression. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deactivation kinetics and modelling of coke removal under supercritical conditions for the example of ethylbenzene disproportionation

Deactivation kinetics and coke removal kinetics were derived from experimental studies on the disproportionation of ethylbenzene with a protonated Y-faujasite (Z-14) in a loop reactor under supercritical conditions. Derivation of the steady state kinetics of ethylbenzene disproportionation permitted determination of the catalyst activity. At small educt mole fractions of ethylbenzene, owing to the modest removal of coke the deactivation kinetics can be described by a power relationship. The rate of coke removal can be correlated with the activity and the deactivation rate of the catalyst.     

Synthesis of α, ω-dichloro polyindene and poly(isobutylene-b-indene-b-isobutylene) employing Kennedy's inifer technique

Summary Kennedy's inifer technique has been modified and used for the preparation of ,-dichloro polyindene (PInCl₂). This telechelic has subsequently been used as initiator for the cationic isobutylene polymerization in conjunction with AlEt₂-Cl coinitiator. The resulting materials have been characterized by fractionation and GPC investigations.