The contribution of sport fan social identity to the production of prosocial behavior.

Experimenters observed the number of sport-team-identified fans who contributed money to charity workers before and after 6 football games. Charity workers were identified as supporters of 1 of the 2 teams competing, or of neither team. Consistent with predictions, more fans contributed to in-group than to out-group-supporting charity workers. In addition, charity workers identified with either team received a higher frequency of contributions from fans of both teams together after the game relative to before; this pattern was reversed among charity workers not identified with a team. This unexpected finding suggests an increased salience of a general sport-fan identification after the game relative to before. Finally, fans of winning teams in particular contributed more to any charity worker (i.e., collapsed across in-group, out-group, and neutral supporters) after the game than before, but this pattern was reversed among fans of losing teams. This final finding is discussed with reference to both self-categorization theory and the literature on mood and prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between multisensory integration and IQ in children.

It is well accepted that multisensory integration has a facilitative effect on perceptual and motor processes, evolutionarily enhancing the chance of survival of many species, including humans. Yet, there is limited understanding of the relationship between multisensory processes, environmental noise, and children's cognitive abilities. Thus, this study investigated the relationship between multisensory integration, auditory background noise, and the general intellectual abilities of school-age children (N = 88, mean age = 9 years, 7 months) using a simple audiovisual detection paradigm. We provide evidence that children with enhanced multisensory integration in quiet and noisy conditions are likely to score above average on the Full-Scale IQ of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fourth Edition (WISC–IV). Conversely, approximately 45% of tested children, with relatively low verbal and nonverbal intellectual abilities, showed reduced multisensory integration in either quiet or noise. Interestingly, approximately 20% of children showed improved multisensory integration abilities in the presence of auditory background noise. The findings of the present study suggest that stable and consistent multisensory integration in quiet and noisy environments is associated with the development of optimal general intellectual abilities. Further theoretical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)