Role of physical abnormalities in interpersonal perception and behavior.

Explores the impact of physical abnormalities on interpersonal relationships and investigates 1 technique available to the stigmatized to influence that impact. This technique is to indicate that the abnormality may be freely discussed or that it is a forbidden topic. The 60 male undergraduate Ss were introduced to an ostensibly naive student who was in reality a confederate and appeared either as an amputee in a wheelchair or as only slightly crippled. The shocks Ss were induced to administer the confederate were less painful when he was severely than when he was slightly crippled. It was concluded that all stigmata do not have the same interpersonal consequences and that the most marked effects occur for behaviors of which Ss have little awareness. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cadmium sulfide and cadmium selenide/cadmium sulfide nanoparticles stabilized in water with poly(cysteine acrylamide)

Cysteine acrylamide (N-acryloyl L-cysteine) stabilizes CdS nanoparticles as the particles form in aqueous dispersions. Cysteine acrylamide also exchanges for citrate on the surfaces of CdSe and core/shell CdSe/CdS nanoparticles to provide greater stability. Heating of the nanoparticle dispersions polymerizes the cysteine acrylamide on the surface to form a more efficient polydentate stabilizer. The polymer-coated nanoparticle dispersions are colloidally stable even after removal of low molecular weight solutes by dialysis. Emission quantum yields of the polymer-coated CdSe and CdSe/CdS samples were 0.9% and 2.6%, respectively, after aging of the samples in light. CdSe/CdS coated with poly(cysteine acrylamide) is colloidally stable for at least two years in the dark at 5 degrees C.     

Multiple-dial check reading: Pointer symmetry compared with uniform alignment.

24 Ss participated in two experiments in which they were required to pick out, from printed panels containing 16 dials, the dial with a deviating pointer. Two versions of a uniformly-aligned configuration and one version of a symmetrically-aligned configuration were studied. S was required to identify both the "different" dial and the direction of the deviating pointer. It was found that (1) both configurations were equally effective for check reading after extended practice, (2) early in practice symmetrical alignment configurations appear to be more difficult, (3) transfer effects from pointer symmetry to uniform alignment are greater than transfer effects in the other direction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Residential mobility, self-concept, and positive affect in social interactions.

The present research examined (a) the link between personal history of residential mobility and the self-concept and (b) the implications of such a link for positive affect in social interactions. Study 1 showed that the personal self was more central to the self-definition of frequent movers than to that of nonmovers, whereas the collective self was more central to the self-definition of nonmovers than to that of frequent movers. Results from a laboratory and a 2-week event sampling study (Studies 2 and 3) demonstrated that frequent movers felt happier when an interaction partner accurately perceived their personal selves, whereas nonmovers felt happier when a partner accurately perceived their collective selves. These findings present the first direct evidence on how personal history of residential mobility is linked to important individual differences in the self and positive affect in social interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Categorization and communication in the face of prejudice: When describing perceptions changes what is perceived.

In the face of prejudice against an ingroup, common ground for communication exists when people use similar social categories to understand the situation. Three studies tested the hypothesis that describing perceptions of prejudice can fundamentally change those perceptions because communicators account for the common ground in line with conversational norms. When women (Study 1), African Americans (Study 2), and Americans (Study 3) simply thought about suspected prejudice against their ingroup, categorization guided their perceptions: Participants assimilated their views of the prejudiced event toward the perceptions of ingroup members but contrasted away from the perceptions of outgroup members. Conversely, when participants described their perceptions, they contrasted away from the given category information and actually arrived at the opposite perceptions as those who merely thought about the prejudiced event. Study 3 identified an important qualification of these effects by showing that they were obtained only when participants could assume their audience was familiar with the common ground. Implications are discussed for understanding the role of communication in facilitating and inhibiting collective action about prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling study of the effects of overlapping Ca2+ microdomains on neurotransmitter release

Although single-channel Ca2+ microdomains are capable of gating neurotransmitter release in some instances, it is likely that in many cases the microdomains from several open channels overlap to activate vesicle fusion. We describe a mathematical model in which transmitter release is gated by single or overlapping Ca2+ microdomains produced by the opening of nearby Ca2+ channels. This model accounts for the presence of a mobile Ca2+ buffer, provided either that the buffer is unsaturable or that it is saturated near an open channel with Ca2+ binding kinetics that are rapid relative to Ca2+ diffusion. We show that the release time course is unaffected by the location of the channels (at least for distances up to 50 nm), but paired-pulse facilitation is greater when the channels are farther from the release sites. We then develop formulas relating the fractional release following selective or random channel blockage to the cooperative relationship between release and the presynaptic Ca2+ current. These formulas are used with the transmitter release model to study the dependence of this form of cooperativity, which we call Ca2+ current cooperativity, on mobile buffers and on the local geometry of Ca2+ channels. We find that Ca2+ current cooperativity increases with the number of channels per release site, but is considerably less than the number of channels, the theoretical upper bound. In the presence of a saturating mobile buffer the Ca2+ current cooperativity is greater, and it increases more rapidly with the number of channels. Finally, Ca2+ current cooperativity is an increasing function of channel distance, particularly in the presence of saturating mobile buffer.