Proactive and Retroactive Effects of Negative Suggestion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Alan S.; Brown, Christine M.; Mosbacher, Joy L.; Dryden, W. Erich

2006-01-01

The negative effects of false information presented either prior to (proactive interference; PI) or following (retroactive interference; RI) true information was examined with word definitions (Experiment 1) and trivia facts (Experiment 2). Participants were explicitly aware of which information was true and false when shown, and true-false…

Effects of syntactic structure in the memory of concrete and abstract Chinese sentences.

PubMed

Ho, C S; Chen, H C

1993-09-01

Smith (1981) found that concrete English sentences were better recognized than abstract sentences and that this concreteness effect was potent only when the concrete sentence was also affirmative but the effect switched to an opposite end when the concrete sentence was negative. These results were partially replicated in Experiment 1 by using materials from a very different language (i.e., Chinese): concrete-affirmative sentences were better remembered than concrete-negative and abstract sentences, but no reliable difference was found between the latter two types. In Experiment 2, the task was modified by using a visual presentation instead of an oral one as in Experiment 1. Both concrete-affirmative and concrete-negative sentences were better memorized then abstract ones in Experiment 2. The findings in the two experiments are explained by a combination of the dual-coding model and Marschark's (1985) item-specific and relational processing. The differential effects of experience with different language systems on processing verbal materials in memory are also discussed.

Prospective Investigation of the Contrast Avoidance Model of Generalized Anxiety and Worry.

PubMed

Crouch, Tara A; Lewis, Jamie A; Erickson, Thane M; Newman, Michelle G

2017-07-01

The factors that maintain generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms and worry over time are not entirely clear. The Contrast Avoidance Model (CAM) postulates that individuals at risk for pathological worry and GAD symptoms uniquely fear emotional shifts from neutral or positive emotions into negative emotional states, and consequently use worry to maintain negative emotion in order to avoid shifts or blunt the effect of negative contrasts. This model has received support in laboratory experiments, but has not been investigated prospectively in the naturalistic context of daily life. The present study tested the CAM in a longitudinal experience sampling study with a subclinical sample. Participants selected to represent a broad range of symptoms (N = 92) completed baseline measures of GAD and depression symptoms, and eight weekly assessments of worry, experiences of negative emotional contrasts during their worst event of the week, and situation-specific negative emotion. Consistent with the CAM, GAD symptoms prospectively predicted higher endorsement of negative contrast experiences as worst events, independent of depression symptoms. Unsurprisingly, higher negative contrasts predicted higher negative emotion. However, both higher baseline GAD symptoms and weekly worry uniquely moderated (reduced) this relationship, providing consistent support for the idea that worry may blunt the emotional effects of contrasts. Depression symptoms did not have the same moderating effect. These findings support the CAM in an ecologically valid context. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A cultural perspective on emotional experiences across the life span.

PubMed

Grossmann, Igor; Karasawa, Mayumi; Kan, Chiemi; Kitayama, Shinobu

2014-08-01

Past research suggests that older adults place a greater priority on goals of maintaining positive experiences and distancing from negative experiences. We hypothesized that these aging-related differences in emotional experiences are more pronounced in Western cultures that encourage linear approaches to well-being compared with Eastern cultures that encourage more dialectic approaches to well-being. We compared reports of positive and negative emotional experiences from random samples of Americans (a culture characterized by focus on positive and distancing from negative experiences) and Japanese (a culture characterized by its endorsement of dialectical experiences). In support of our hypothesis, older Americans reported significantly less negative emotions in unpleasant situations, relative to their younger counterparts. Furthermore, both trait-level negativity (i.e., rumination) and interpersonal negativity (i.e., recall of unpleasant relationships and intensity of an unpleasant interpersonal experience) were lower among older compared with younger Americans. In contrast, such aging-related effects were absent in the Japanese respondents. Even though older and younger Japanese reported the same amount of negative emotions in unpleasant situations, older Japanese also reported more positive emotions in the same unpleasant situations. Together, these findings highlight the role of culture for understanding how emotional experiences unfold across adulthood.

Microwave experiments with left-handed materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shelby, Richard Allen

It has previously been predicted that materials that have a simultaneous negative permittivity and negative permeability, called left-handed materials (LHM), will possess very unusual properties, such as negative refraction, inverse Doppler effect, and reversed Cherenkov radiation. In this dissertation I present results from microwave experiments designed to confirm that LHMs will exhibit negative refraction. I also present a discussion about the LHM design, and numerical, electromagnetic simulations. The experiments presented here include transmission experiments, refraction experiments, and surface plasmon experiments. The refraction experiments in Chapter 4 directly observe negative refraction for the first time. The results from the other experiments are consistent with theoretical models and support the claim that negative refraction has been observed. The materials used in the experiments presented here are fabricated, structured materials that contain fiberglass and copper with unit cell parameters on the order of millimeters. Metamaterials have been defined as being composite materials whose bulk properties are different than those of the constituent materials. By this definition, the LHMs used here are metamaterials, so long as the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves being used to probe the LHM are longer than the unit cell parameter.

[Undesired treatment effects in behavior group therapy: Frequency and spectrum].

PubMed

Linden, M; Walter, M; Fritz, K; Muschalla, B

2015-11-01

Psychotherapy not only has positive but also negative effects, which is especially true for group psychotherapy due to psychodynamic and interactional processes. Using the UE-G questionnaire 71 patients who participated in cognitive behavioral group psychotherapy reported on negative experiences in the context of the group therapy. The answers were then validated in a qualitative interview. Of the patients 98.6% reported about at least one negative experience and 43.7% about severe or extremely severe negative experiences. Most prominent was the induction of hopelessness and demoralization by what patients saw and heard from other patients in the group. Burdensome and therefore undesired treatment effects are regularly seen in group psychotherapy, because of treatment or patient related factors. In any case they must be taken into account during treatment, in the training of group psychotherapists and in quality control.

The effect of evaluation on co-occurrence memory judgement.

PubMed

Bar-Anan, Yoav; Amzaleg-David, Efrat

2014-01-01

Three experiments tested the effect of an attitude towards an object on the memory judgement of whether this object co-occurred with positive versus negative stimuli. We induced positive or negative attitudes towards novel male stimuli, and paired each man with an equal number of positive and negative animals. In a memory test, participants reported more co-occurrences of same-valence man/animal pairs than opposite-valence pairs. This valence-compatibility effect occurred even when attitudes were induced after the pairing (Experiment 1), when participants knew that each man occurred with an equal number of positive and negative animals (Experiment 2), and in reports of clear memory of pairs that did not co-occur (Experiment 3). The present findings suggest that evaluation causes illusory correlation even when the co-occurring stimuli are not traits or behaviours attributed to the attitude object. The results question the validity of co-occurrence memory judgements as measures of co-occurrence awareness in evaluative conditioning (EC) research.

Assessing the Personal Negative Impacts of Hooking Up Experienced by College Students: Gender Differences and Mental Health.

PubMed

Napper, Lucy E; Montes, Kevin S; Kenney, Shannon R; LaBrie, Joseph W

2016-09-01

Hooking up is a normative behavior among college students that is associated with a range of positive and negative consequences. While previous research has primarily focused on women's negative experiences of hooking up, the current study explored the relationships among hooking up behaviors, psychological distress, and a broad range of negative effects of hooking up in both male and female college students. Using a multisite sample of college students, we developed the 14-item Negative Impact of Hookups Inventory (NIHI) to assess negative health outcomes, emotional responses, and social consequences associated with hooking up. Unprotected sex and having more hookup partners were associated with greater negative experiences of hooking up. Contrary to expectations, there were no gender differences in the total number of negative hookup effects, although men reported more frequent hookups. In addition, negative impacts of hooking up were positively associated with psychological distress regardless of gender. The NIHI may offer a useful tool to assess the negative impacts of hooking up. Understanding students' hookup experiences is an important step toward developing targeted health interventions related to hooking up behavior in young adult populations.

Effects of Emotion on Associative Recognition: Valence and Retention Interval Matter

PubMed Central

Pierce, Benton H.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2011-01-01

In two experiments, we examined the effects of emotional valence and arousal on associative binding. Participants studied negative, positive, and neutral word pairs, followed by an associative recognition test. In Experiment 1, with a short-delayed test, accuracy for intact pairs was equivalent across valences, whereas accuracy for rearranged pairs was lower for negative than for positive and neutral pairs. In Experiment 2, we tested participants after a one-week delay and found that accuracy was greater for intact negative than for intact neutral pairs, whereas rearranged pair accuracy was equivalent across valences. These results suggest that, although negative emotional valence impairs associative binding after a short delay, it may improve binding after a longer delay. The results also suggest that valence, as well as arousal, needs to be considered when examining the effects of emotion on associative memory. PMID:21401233

The affective regulation of cognitive priming.

PubMed

Storbeck, Justin; Clore, Gerald L

2008-04-01

Semantic and affective priming are classic effects observed in cognitive and social psychology, respectively. The authors discovered that affect regulates such priming effects. In Experiment 1, positive and negative moods were induced before one of three priming tasks; evaluation, categorization, or lexical decision. As predicted, positive affect led to both affective priming (evaluation task) and semantic priming (category and lexical decision tasks). However, negative affect inhibited such effects. In Experiment 2, participants in their natural affective state completed the same priming tasks as in Experiment 1. As expected, affective priming (evaluation task) and category priming (categorization and lexical decision tasks) were observed in such resting affective states. Hence, the authors conclude that negative affect inhibits semantic and affective priming. These results support recent theoretical models, which suggest that positive affect promotes associations among strong and weak concepts, and that negative affect impairs such associations (Clore & Storbeck, 2006; Kuhl, 2000). (Copyright) 2008 APA.

Racial/ethnic disparities in US college students' experience: Discrimination as an impediment to academic performance.

PubMed

Stevens, Courtney; Liu, Cindy H; Chen, Justin A

2018-03-22

Using data from 69,722 US undergraduates participating in the spring 2015 National College Health Assessment, we examine racial/ethnic differences in students' experience of discrimination. Logistic regression predicted the experience of discrimination and its reported negative effect on academics. Additional models examined the effect of attending a Minority Serving Institution (MSI). Discrimination was experienced by 5-15% of students, with all racial/ethnic minority groups examined- including Black, Hispanic, Asian, AI/NA/NA, and Multiracial students- more likely to report discrimination relative to White students. Of students who experienced discrimination, 15-25% reported it had negatively impacted their academic performance, with Hispanic and Asian students more likely to report negative impacts relative to White students. Attending an MSI was associated with decreased experiences of discrimination. Students from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds are disproportionately affected by discrimination, with negative impacts for academic performance that are particularly marked for Hispanic and Asian students.

Tragedy or tragicomedy: Mixed feelings induced by positive and negative emotional events.

PubMed

Xia, Mu; Chen, Jie; Li, Hong

2016-08-01

Based on the theory of appraisal, we predicted that positive and negative events happening to the same people or things in a specific chronological order (i.e., a negative event following a positive event) would induce different mixed feelings than the same events happening to different people or things. Pairs of emotional pictures with different captions were used to create two event groups. In the "tragic event" group, the positive and negative events happened to the same person or things, and in the "tragicomic event" group, the positive and negative events happened to different people or things. We designed two experiments to explore and compare the generation of mixed feelings in those two groups. In Experiment 1, the negative event was shown first, and in Experiment 2, the negative event was shown second (although the chronological order of the depicted events was the same). The participants were 381 undergraduates: 195 in Experiment 1 and 186 in Experiment 2. In both experiments, we found that tragic events introduced less intense mixed feelings than did tragicomic events due to fewer pleasurable feelings induced by the tragic events. There was no significant difference in the report of negative emotions between the groups. Appraisal theory and negative bias effects may explain these results.

Impacts of a gape limited Brook Trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, on larval Northwestern salamander, Ambystoma gracile, growth: A field enclosure experiment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Currens, C.R.; Liss, W.J.; Hoffman, R.L.

2007-01-01

The formation of amphibian population structure is directly affected by predation. Although aquatic predators have been shown to have direct negative effects on larval salamanders in laboratory and field experiments, the potential impacts of gape-limited fish on larval salamander growth has been largely underexplored. We designed an enclosure experiment conducted in situ to quantify the effects of gape-limited Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) on larval Northwestern Salamander (Ambystoma gracile) growth. We specifically tested whether the presence of fish too small to consume larvae had a negative effect on larval growth. The results of this study indicate that the presence of a gape-limited S. fontinalis can have a negative effect on growth of larval A. gracile salamanders. Copyright 2007 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.

Tests of the Aversive Summation Hypothesis in Rats: Effects of Restraint Stress on Consummatory Successive Negative Contrast and Extinction in the Barnes Maze

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortega, Leonardo A.; Prado-Rivera, Mayerli A.; Cardenas-Poveda, D. Carolina; McLinden, Kristina A.; Glueck, Amanda C.; Gutierrez, German; Lamprea, Marisol R.; Papini, Mauricio R.

2013-01-01

The present research explored the effects of restraint stress on two situations involving incentive downshift: consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC) and extinction of escape behavior in the Barnes maze. First, Experiment 1 confirmed that the restraint stress procedure used in these experiments increased levels of circulating…

The varieties of ecstatic experience: an exploration of the subjective experiences of ecstasy.

PubMed

Sumnall, Harry R; Cole, Jon C; Jerome, Lisa

2006-09-01

Previous investigations of the subjective effects of MDMA (material sold as ecstasy) have conducted interviews and surveys of various groups of ecstasy users within particular sub-populations. This study examined subjective drug effects reported by different sub-populations of ecstasy users and explored whether the function or purpose served by using ecstasy influenced the nature of the drug experience. Drawing on previous measures of alterations in consciousness, psychedelic drugs and cannabis, and informal interviews with ecstasy users and MDMA researchers, a 130-item survey assessing subjective effects of ecstasy/MDMA was developed. Principal components analysis of responses of ecstasy users revealed six components; perceptual alterations, entactogenic effects, prosocial effects, aesthetic effects, negative effects and sexual effects. The derived scale was used to predict ecstasy use behaviours, and functions and experiences of use. A variety of component scores were related to ecstasy use parameters; in particular, heavier users expected fewer negative, perceptual and aesthetic effects from taking the drug. The reasons given for using ecstasy (use function) also influenced reported drug effects. Abstainers expected greater negative, perceptual, aesthetic and sexual effects than users. These data indicate that the subjective ecstasy experience is influenced by a variety of extra-psychopharmacological factors. Drug intervention strategies may be made more effective by targeting particular user groups defined by reasons given for substance use, as it is likely that their experiences of ecstasy effects will differ. Future research into ecstasy may be improved by recognizing user diversity.

Influence of affective valence on working memory processes.

PubMed

Gotoh, Fumiko

2008-02-01

Recent research has revealed widespread effects of emotion on cognitive function and memory. However, the influence of affective valence on working or short-term memory remains largely unexplored. In two experiments, the present study examined the predictions that negative words would capture attention, that attention would be difficult to disengage from such negative words, and that the cost of attention switching would increase the time required to update information in working memory. Participants switched between two concurrent working memory tasks: word recognition and a working memory digit updating task. Experiment 1 showed substantial switching cost for negative words, relative to neutral words. Experiment 2 replicated the first experiment, using a self-report measure of anxiety to examine if switching cost is a function of an anxiety-related attention bias. Results did not support this hypothesis. In addition, Experiment 2 revealed switch costs for positive words without the effect of the attention bias from anxiety. The present study demonstrates the effect of affective valence on a specific component of working memory. Moreover, findings suggest why affective valence effects on working memory have not been found in previous research.

Negative emotion boosts quality of visual working memory representation.

PubMed

Xie, Weizhen; Zhang, Weiwei

2016-08-01

Negative emotion impacts a variety of cognitive processes, including working memory (WM). The present study investigated whether negative emotion modulated WM capacity (quantity) or resolution (quality), 2 independent limits on WM storage. In Experiment 1, observers tried to remember several colors over 1-s delay and then recalled the color of a randomly picked memory item by clicking a best-matching color on a continuous color wheel. On each trial, before the visual WM task, 1 of 3 emotion conditions (negative, neutral, or positive) was induced by having observers to rate the valence of an International Affective Picture System image. Visual WM under negative emotion showed enhanced resolution compared with neutral and positive conditions, whereas the number of retained representations was comparable across the 3 emotion conditions. These effects were generalized to closed-contour shapes in Experiment 2. To isolate the locus of these effects, Experiment 3 adopted an iconic memory version of the color recall task by eliminating the 1-s retention interval. No significant change in the quantity or quality of iconic memory was observed, suggesting that the resolution effects in the first 2 experiments were critically dependent on the need to retain memory representations over a short period of time. Taken together, these results suggest that negative emotion selectively boosts visual WM quality, supporting the dissociable nature quantitative and qualitative aspects of visual WM representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Influence of negative emotion on the framing effect: evidence from event-related potentials.

PubMed

Ma, Qingguo; Pei, Guanxiong; Wang, Kai

2015-04-15

The framing effect is the phenomenon in which different descriptions of an identical problem can result in different choices. The influence of negative emotions on the framing effect and its neurocognitive basis are important issues, especially in the domain of saving lives, which is essential and highly risky. In each trial of our experiment, the emotion stimulus is presented to the participants, followed by the decision-making stimulus, which comprises certain and risky options with the same expected value. Each pair of options is positively or negatively framed. The behavioral results indicate a significant interactive effect between negative emotion and frame; thus, the risk preference under the positive frame can be enhanced by negative emotions, whereas this finding is not true under the negative frame. The event-related potential analysis indicates that choosing certain options under the positive frame with negative emotion priming generates smaller P2 and P3 amplitudes and a larger N2 amplitude than with neutral emotion priming. The event-related potential findings indicate that individuals can detect risk faster and experience more conflict and increased decision difficulty if they choose certain options under the positive frame with negative priming compared with neutral priming.

Who Chokes Under Pressure? The Big Five Personality Traits and Decision-Making under Pressure.

PubMed

Byrne, Kaileigh A; Silasi-Mansat, Crina D; Worthy, Darrell A

2015-02-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the Big Five personality factors could predict who thrives or chokes under pressure during decision-making. The effects of the Big Five personality factors on decision-making ability and performance under social (Experiment 1) and combined social and time pressure (Experiment 2) were examined using the Big Five Personality Inventory and a dynamic decision-making task that required participants to learn an optimal strategy. In Experiment 1, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed an interaction between neuroticism and pressure condition. Neuroticism negatively predicted performance under social pressure, but did not affect decision-making under low pressure. Additionally, the negative effect of neuroticism under pressure was replicated using a combined social and time pressure manipulation in Experiment 2. These results support distraction theory whereby pressure taxes highly neurotic individuals' cognitive resources, leading to sub-optimal performance. Agreeableness also negatively predicted performance in both experiments.

[Effects of the recipient's response on the emotions and cognitions of female undergraduates disclosing negative emotional experiences in interpersonal relationships].

PubMed

Endo, Hiroko; Yukawa, Shintaro

2013-04-01

The relationship between a recipient's response to a disclosure of negative emotional experiences, and the resulting negative emotions, hesitation in self-disclosure (interpersonal and intra-personal hesitation), and negatively-confused thoughts of the person making the disclosure were investigated. Female undergraduates (N=271) were asked to write about angry or sad events in their interpersonal relationships that they had disclosed to someone. Then they completed a questionnaire assessing the recipient's responses, negative emotions such as anger and depression caused by the recipient's responses, hesitation in self-disclosure about the events, and negatively-confused thoughts about the events. The results of covariance structure analysis indicated that a recipient's rejection in response to the disclosure of negative emotional experiences resulted in negative thoughts caused by an increase of negative emotions and hesitation in self-disclosure. The results also showed that a recipient's acceptance also increased depression in the person making the self-disclosure, which intensified the intra-personal hesitation, and increased negatively-confused thoughts.

How do people learn from negative evidence? Non-monotonic generalizations and sampling assumptions in inductive reasoning.

PubMed

Voorspoels, Wouter; Navarro, Daniel J; Perfors, Amy; Ransom, Keith; Storms, Gert

2015-09-01

A robust finding in category-based induction tasks is for positive observations to raise the willingness to generalize to other categories while negative observations lower the willingness to generalize. This pattern is referred to as monotonic generalization. Across three experiments we find systematic non-monotonicity effects, in which negative observations raise the willingness to generalize. Experiments 1 and 2 show that this effect emerges in hierarchically structured domains when a negative observation from a different category is added to a positive observation. They also demonstrate that this is related to a specific kind of shift in the reasoner's hypothesis space. Experiment 3 shows that the effect depends on the assumptions that the reasoner makes about how inductive arguments are constructed. Non-monotonic reasoning occurs when people believe the facts were put together by a helpful communicator, but monotonicity is restored when they believe the observations were sampled randomly from the environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Good things don't come easy (to mind): explaining framing effects in judgments of truth.

PubMed

Hilbig, Benjamin E

2012-01-01

Recently, the general phenomenon of a positive-negative-asymmetry was extended to judgments of truth. That is, negatively framed statements were shown to receive substantially higher truth ratings than formally equivalent statements framed positively. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying this effect are unknown, so far. In the current work, two potential accounts are introduced and tested against each other in three experiments: On the one hand, negative framing may induce increased elaboration and thereby persuasion. Alternatively, negative framing could yield faster retrieval or generation of evidence and thus influence subjective veracity via experiential fluency. Two experiments drawing on response latencies and one manipulating the delay between information acquisition and judgment provide support for the fluency-based account. Overall, results replicate and extend the negatively-biased framing effect in truth judgments and show that processing fluency may account for it. © 2011 Hogrefe Publishing

The influence of negative ions in helium-oxygen barrier discharges: III. Simulation of laser photodetachment and comparison with experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nemschokmichal, Sebastian; Tschiersch, Robert; Meichsner, Jürgen

2017-11-01

The laser photodetachment experiment in a diffuse helium-oxygen barrier discharge is evaluated by a 1D fluid simulation. As in the experiment, the simulated discharge operates in helium with 400 {ppm} oxygen admixture at 500 {mbar} inside a discharge gap of 3 {mm}. The laser photodetachment is included by the interaction of negative ions with a temporally and spatially dependent photon flux. The simulation with the usually applied set of reactions and rate coefficients provides a much lower negative ion density than needed to explain the impact on the discharge characteristics in the experiment. Further processes for an enhanced negative ion formation and their capabilities of reproducing the experimental results are discussed. These further processes are additional attachment processes in the volume and the negative ion formation at the negatively charged dielectric. Both approaches are able to reproduce the measured laser photodetachment effect partially, but the best agreement with the experimental results is achieved with the formation of negative ions at the negatively charged dielectric.

The Costs of Suppressing Negative Emotions and Amplifying Positive Emotions During Parental Caregiving.

PubMed

Le, Bonnie M; Impett, Emily A

2016-03-01

How do parents feel when they regulate their emotional expressions in ways that are incongruent with their genuine feelings? In an experimental study, parents reported experiencing lower authenticity, emotional well-being, relationship quality, and responsiveness to their children's needs when they recalled caregiving experiences in which they suppressed negative emotions and amplified positive emotions, relative to a control condition. In a 10-day daily experience study, parents tended to use both regulation strategies simultaneously. In addition, assessing their unique effects indicated that positive emotion amplification, but not negative emotion suppression, had an indirect effect on parental outcomes via authenticity, with negative emotion suppression no longer being costly. This indirect effect was dampened when accounting for care difficulty. In both studies, effects were independent of a child's mood. The current results suggest that parents' attempts to suppress negative and amplify positive emotions during child care can detract from their well-being and high-quality parent-child bonds. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Negative Emotion Does Not Modulate Rapid Feature Integration Effects

PubMed Central

Trübutschek, Darinka; Egner, Tobias

2012-01-01

Emotional arousal at encoding is known to facilitate later memory recall. In the present study, we asked whether this emotion-modulation of episodic memory is also evident at very short time scales, as measured by “feature integration effects,” the moment-by-moment binding of relevant stimulus and response features in episodic memory. This question was motivated by recent findings that negative emotion appears to potentiate first-order trial sequence effects in classic conflict tasks, which has been attributed to emotion-modulation of conflict-driven cognitive control processes. However, these effects could equally well have been carried by emotion-modulation of mnemonic feature binding processes, which were perfectly confounded with putative control processes in these studies. In the present experiments, we tried to shed light on this question by testing explicitly whether feature integration processes, assessed in isolation of conflict–control, are in fact susceptible to negative emotion-modulation. For this purpose, we adopted a standard protocol for assessing the rapid binding of stimulus and response features in episodic memory (Experiment 1) and paired it with the presentation of either neutral or fearful background face stimuli, shown either at encoding only (Experiment 2), or at both encoding and retrieval (Experiment 3). Whereas reliable feature integration effects were observed in all three experiments, no evidence for emotion-modulation of these effects was detected, in spite of significant effects of emotion on response times. These findings suggest that rapid feature integration of foreground stimulus and response features is not subject to modulation by negative emotional background stimuli and further suggest that previous reports of emotion-modulated trial–transition effects are likely attributable to the effects of emotion on cognitive control processes. PMID:22509172

Effects of Trait Hostility, Mapping Interface, and Character Identification on Aggressive Thoughts and Overall Game Experience After Playing a Violent Video Game.

PubMed

Jung, Younbo; Park, Namkee; Lee, Kwan Min

2015-12-01

This study investigated the effects of trait-level hostility, interface types, and character identification on aggressive thoughts and overall game experience after playing a violent video game. Results showed that the mapping interface made participants with high trait-level hostility more readily accessible to aggressive contracts, yet it did not have any significant impact for participants with low trait-level hostility. Participants with low trait-level hostility reported more positive game experience in the mapping interface condition, while participants with high trait-level hostility in the same condition reported more negative game experience. Results also indicated that character identification has moderating effects on activating aggressive thoughts and mediating effects on overall game experience. Implications regarding possible ways of reducing potentially negative outcomes from violent games are discussed.

Conditions for positive and negative recencies in running memory-span recognition.

PubMed

Ruiz, R Marcos; Elosúa, M Rosa

2013-10-01

A positive recency effect in a running-span recognition procedure was obtained in Experiment 1 for hits and for intratrial false alarms. In running recall procedures, recency does not fit well with an active updating hypothesis. In Experiment 2, in which the beginning of the target set was marked with a cue upon presentation, the recency effects disappeared. In Experiments 3 and 4 participants were forced to maintain 2 items in memory until the last one was presented for recognition. These three items were the target set. When the last item presentation was uncertain-because of the variable length list-an unexpected negative recency effect appeared. An explanation for this change from positive to negative recency is offered based on the sharing of attentional resources put forward by others for similar procedures. © 2013.

Misery Has More Company Than People Think: Underestimating the Prevalence of Others’ Negative Emotions

PubMed Central

Jordan, Alexander H.; Monin, Benoît; Dweck, Carol S.; Lovett, Benjamin J.; John, Oliver P.; Gross, James J.

2014-01-01

Four studies document underestimations of the prevalence of others’ negative emotions, and suggest causes and correlates of these erroneous perceptions. In Study 1A, participants reported that their negative emotions were more private or hidden than their positive emotions; in Study 1B, participants underestimated the peer prevalence of common negative, but not positive, experiences described in Study 1A. In Study 2, people underestimated negative emotions and overestimated positive emotions even for well-known peers, and this effect was partially mediated by the degree to which those peers reported suppression of negative (vs. positive) emotions. Study 3 showed that lower estimations of the prevalence of negative emotional experiences predicted greater loneliness and rumination and lower life satisfaction, and that higher estimations for positive emotional experiences predicted lower life satisfaction. Taken together, these studies suggest that people may think they are more alone in their emotional difficulties than they really are. PMID:21177878

First experiences of high-fidelity simulation training in junior nursing students in Korea.

PubMed

Lee, Suk Jeong; Kim, Sang Suk; Park, Young-Mi

2015-07-01

This study was conducted to explore first experiences of high-fidelity simulation training in Korean nursing students, in order to develop and establish more effective guidelines for future simulation training in Korea. Thirty-three junior nursing students participated in high-fidelity simulation training for the first time. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, data were collected from reflective journals and questionnaires of simulation effectiveness after simulation training. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze simulation effectiveness and content analysis was performed with the reflective journal data. Five dimensions and 31 domains, both positive and negative experiences, emerged from qualitative analysis: (i) machine-human interaction in a safe environment; (ii) perceived learning capability; (iii) observational learning; (iv) reconciling practice with theory; and (v) follow-up debriefing effect. More than 70% of students scored high on increased ability to identify changes in the patient's condition, critical thinking, decision-making, effectiveness of peer observation, and debriefing in effectiveness of simulation. This study reported both positive and negative experiences of simulation. The results of this study could be used to set the level of task difficulty in simulation. Future simulation programs can be designed by reinforcing the positive experiences and modifying the negative results. © 2014 The Authors. Japan Journal of Nursing Science © 2014 Japan Academy of Nursing Science.

Neighbourhood effects on educational attainment of adolescents, buffered by personality and educational commitment.

PubMed

Nieuwenhuis, Jaap; Hooimeijer, Pieter; Meeus, Wim

2015-03-01

Research has repeatedly shown that neighbourhood disadvantage negatively influences individual educational outcomes. However, the great variation in outcomes indicates substantial unobserved heterogeneity. Looking at the rates of obtaining a basic educational qualification, the hypothesis is that individual traits of adolescents can buffer neighbourhood effects. First, adolescents with a more resilient personality may be better able to cope with neighbourhood adversity. And second, educational commitments might buffer adolescents from negative neighbourhood influences. These hypotheses are tested employing survival analysis, using six wave panel data, containing information on ten years of adolescents' lives. The results show that resilients experience no negative influence of neighbourhood disadvantage, while both undercontrollers and overcontrollers do. And, the stronger adolescents' educational commitments, the less they experience the negative effect of neighbourhood adversity. In sum, neighbourhood effects are found, but not for everybody. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Working memory affects false memory production for emotional events.

PubMed

Mirandola, Chiara; Toffalini, Enrico; Ciriello, Alfonso; Cornoldi, Cesare

2017-01-01

Whereas a link between working memory (WM) and memory distortions has been demonstrated, its influence on emotional false memories is unclear. In two experiments, a verbal WM task and a false memory paradigm for negative, positive or neutral events were employed. In Experiment 1, we investigated individual differences in verbal WM and found that the interaction between valence and WM predicted false recognition, with negative and positive material protecting high WM individuals against false remembering; the beneficial effect of negative material disappeared in low WM participants. In Experiment 2, we lowered the WM capacity of half of the participants with a double task request, which led to an overall increase in false memories; furthermore, consistent with Experiment 1, the increase in negative false memories was larger than that of neutral or positive ones. It is concluded that WM plays a critical role in determining false memory production, specifically influencing the processing of negative material.

Evaluative priming of naming and semantic categorization responses revisited: a mutual facilitation explanation.

PubMed

Schmitz, Melanie; Wentura, Dirk

2012-07-01

The evaluative priming effect (i.e., faster target responses following evaluatively congruent compared with evaluatively incongruent primes) in nonevaluative priming tasks (such as naming or semantic categorization tasks) is considered important for the question of how evaluative connotations are represented in memory. However, the empirical evidence is rather ambiguous: Positive effects as well as null results and negatively signed effects have been found. We tested the assumption that different processes are responsible for these results. In particular, we argue that positive effects are due to target-encoding facilitation (caused by a congruent prime), while negative effects are due to prime-activation maintenance (caused by a congruent target) and subsequent response conflict. In 4 experiments, we used a negative prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) to minimize target-encoding facilitation and maximize prime maintenance. In a naming task (Experiment 1), we found a negatively signed evaluative priming effect if prime and target competed for naming responses. In a semantic categorization task (i.e., person vs. animal; Experiments 2 and 3), response conflicts between prime and target were significantly larger in case of evaluative congruence compared with incongruence. These results corroborate the theory that a prime has more potential to interfere with the target response if its activation is maintained by an evaluatively congruent target. Experiment 4a/b indicated valence specificity of the effect. Implications for the memory representation of valence are discussed. 2012 APA, all rights reserved

On Buffers and Boosters: Social Support for Negative and Positive Life Events.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sandler, Irwin N.

Social support has been studied in the context of its relationship to and effect on negative experiences. While this buffer aspect of social support is important, support may also play a satisfaction-enhancing role. Both the negative event-buffering and positive event-boosting effect of social support on students' satisfaction with their college…

Exploring the role of positive and negative consequences in understanding perceptions and evaluations of individual drinking events

PubMed Central

Lee, Christine M.; Patrick, Megan E.; Neighbors, Clayton; Lewis, Melissa A.; Tollison, Sean J.; Larimer, Mary E.

2016-01-01

While research has established that drinking more alcohol is associated with experiencing more positive and negative alcohol-related consequences, less is known about how college students evaluate their drinking experiences. Evaluations of drinking events may vary with factors such as how much one drinks, which consequences one experiences, and the context (i.e., where and with whom) one drinks on a given occasion. This research used daily data (Level 2: N=166 students, 61% female; Level 1: N=848 person drinking days) to explore the relationship between quantity of alcohol consumed and experience of specific domains of positive and negative consequences and to examine how the experience of specific consequences related to overall evaluation of the drinking experience. Drinking on a given day was positively associated with experiencing more negative (social and personal) and more positive (image, fun/social, and relaxation) consequences. With respect to the formation of overall impressions, negative (social and personal) consequences were associated with less favorable evaluations whereas positive (image, fun/social, and relaxation) consequences were associated with more favorable evaluations of the drinking experience. Indirect effects analyses suggested that consequences (negative personal, negative social, positive fun/social, and positive relaxation) significantly mediated the relationship between drinking and overall evaluation at the daily level. These results underscore the importance of considering both positive and negative consequences in understanding students’ choices to drink and how they evaluate their experiences. PMID:20385445

The Affective Bases of Risk Perception: Negative Feelings and Stress Mediate the Relationship between Mental Imagery and Risk Perception.

PubMed

Sobkow, Agata; Traczyk, Jakub; Zaleskiewicz, Tomasz

2016-01-01

Recent research has documented that affect plays a crucial role in risk perception. When no information about numerical risk estimates is available (e.g., probability of loss or magnitude of consequences), people may rely on positive and negative affect toward perceived risk. However, determinants of affective reactions to risks are poorly understood. In a series of three experiments, we addressed the question of whether and to what degree mental imagery eliciting negative affect and stress influences risk perception. In each experiment, participants were instructed to visualize consequences of risk taking and to rate riskiness. In Experiment 1, participants who imagined negative risk consequences reported more negative affect and perceived risk as higher compared to the control condition. In Experiment 2, we found that this effect was driven by affect elicited by mental imagery rather than its vividness and intensity. In this study, imagining positive risk consequences led to lower perceived risk than visualizing negative risk consequences. Finally, we tested the hypothesis that negative affect related to higher perceived risk was caused by negative feelings of stress. In Experiment 3, we introduced risk-irrelevant stress to show that participants in the stress condition rated perceived risk as higher in comparison to the control condition. This experiment showed that higher ratings of perceived risk were influenced by psychological stress. Taken together, our results demonstrate that affect-laden mental imagery dramatically changes risk perception through negative affect (i.e., psychological stress).

The Affective Bases of Risk Perception: Negative Feelings and Stress Mediate the Relationship between Mental Imagery and Risk Perception

PubMed Central

Sobkow, Agata; Traczyk, Jakub; Zaleskiewicz, Tomasz

2016-01-01

Recent research has documented that affect plays a crucial role in risk perception. When no information about numerical risk estimates is available (e.g., probability of loss or magnitude of consequences), people may rely on positive and negative affect toward perceived risk. However, determinants of affective reactions to risks are poorly understood. In a series of three experiments, we addressed the question of whether and to what degree mental imagery eliciting negative affect and stress influences risk perception. In each experiment, participants were instructed to visualize consequences of risk taking and to rate riskiness. In Experiment 1, participants who imagined negative risk consequences reported more negative affect and perceived risk as higher compared to the control condition. In Experiment 2, we found that this effect was driven by affect elicited by mental imagery rather than its vividness and intensity. In this study, imagining positive risk consequences led to lower perceived risk than visualizing negative risk consequences. Finally, we tested the hypothesis that negative affect related to higher perceived risk was caused by negative feelings of stress. In Experiment 3, we introduced risk-irrelevant stress to show that participants in the stress condition rated perceived risk as higher in comparison to the control condition. This experiment showed that higher ratings of perceived risk were influenced by psychological stress. Taken together, our results demonstrate that affect-laden mental imagery dramatically changes risk perception through negative affect (i.e., psychological stress). PMID:27445901

Effect of anxiety on memory for emotional information in older adults.

PubMed

Herrera, Sara; Montorio, Ignacio; Cabrera, Isabel

2017-04-01

Several studies have shown that anxiety is associated with a better memory of negative events. However, this anxiety-related memory bias has not been studied in the elderly, in which there is a preferential processing of positive information. To study the effect of anxiety in a recognition task and an autobiographical memory task in 102 older adults with high and low levels of trait anxiety. Negative, positive and neutral pictures were used in the recognition task. In the autobiographical memory task, memories of the participants' lives were recorded, how they felt when thinking about them, and the personal relevance of these memories. In the recognition task, no anxiety-related bias was found toward negative information. Individuals with high trait anxiety were found to remember less positive pictures than those with low trait anxiety. In the autobiographical memory task, both groups remembered negative and positive events equally. However, people with high trait anxiety remembered life experiences with more negative emotions, especially when remembering negative events. Individuals with low trait anxiety tended to feel more positive emotions when remembering their life experiences and most of these referred to feeling positive emotions when remembering negative events. Older adults with anxiety tend to recognize less positive information and to present more negative emotions when remembering life events; while individuals without anxiety have a more positive experience of negative memories.

Effects of different yeast cell wall supplements added to maize- or wheat-based diets for broiler chickens.

PubMed

Morales-López, R; Auclair, E; Van Immerseel, F; Ducatelle, R; García, F; Brufau, J

2010-06-01

1. Three experiments were carried out to study the effects of two experimental yeast cell wall (YCW) supplements, one from the yeast extract industry and the other from the brewery industry, added to maize or wheat based-diets, on performance and intestinal parameters of broiler chickens (Ross 308). 2. In the first and second experiments, a completely randomised block design with 4 experimental treatments was used: T-1) Negative control, no additives T-2) Positive control, avilamycin group (10 mg/kg feed), T-3) Yeast extract-YCW (500 mg/kg), and T-4) Brewery-YCW (500 mg/kg feed). There were 6 replicates of 20 (experiment 1) and 22 (experiment 2) chicks per treatment. 3. In experiment 1 (wheat based diets), yeast extract-YCW increased BW and daily feed intake (42 d). The effects were comparable to those of avilamycin. In experiment 2 (maize based diet), avilamycin, yeast extract-YCW and brewery-YCW treatments improved the feed conversion ratio with respect to the negative control group (0 to 14 d). 4. At 24 d, in both experiments, the ileal nutrient digestibility and ileal bacterial counts were not affected by any experimental treatment. In maize diets, lower intestinal viscosity was obtained with avilamycin, yeast extract-YCW and brewery-YCW than with the negative control. In wheat diets, yeast extract-YCW and brewery-YCW reduced intestinal viscosity. 5. A third experiment was conducted to study the effect of yeast extract-YCW on animal performance, intestinal mucosa morphology and intestinal viscosity. A 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments was used; one factor was the dietary yeast extract-YCW supplementation (0 or 500 mg/kg feed) and the other the cereal in the diet (maize or wheat). 6. At 43 d, the heaviest BW was in chickens fed on yeast extract-YCW compared to those given the negative control. At 22 d, yeast extract-YCW increased villus height, mucus thickness and number of goblet cells with respect to negative control. 7. Results of these experiments suggest that supplementation of yeast extract-YCW to broiler chicken diets increased animal performance by favouring intestinal mucosal development.

Context-specific control and the Stroop negative priming effect.

PubMed

Milliken, Bruce; Thomson, David R; Bleile, Karmen; MacLellan, Ellen; Giammarco, Maria

2012-01-01

The present study highlights the utility of context-specific learning for different probe types in accounting for the commonly observed dependence of negative priming on probe selection. Using a Stroop priming procedure, Experiments 1a and 1b offered a demonstration that Stroop priming effects can differ qualitatively for selection and no-selection probes when probe selection is manipulated between subjects, but not when it is manipulated randomly from trial to trial within subject (see also Moore, 1994). In Experiments 2 and 3, selection and no-selection probes served as two contexts that varied randomly from trial to trial, but for which proportion repeated was manipulated separately. A context-specific proportion repeated effect was observed in Experiment 2, characterized by modest quantitative shifts in the repetition effects as a function of the context-specific proportion repeated manipulation. However, with a longer intertrial interval in Experiment 3, a context-specific proportion repeated manipulation that focused on the no-selection probes changed the repetition effect qualitatively, from negative priming when the proportion repeated was .25 to positive priming when the proportion repeated was .75. The results are discussed with reference to the role of rapid, context-specific learning processes in the integration of prior experiences with current perception and action.

Feeling Blue or Turquoise? Emotional Differentiation in Major Depressive Disorder

PubMed Central

Demiralp, Emre; Thompson, Renee J.; Mata, Jutta; Jaeggi, Susanne M.; Buschkuehl, Martin; Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Ellsworth, Phoebe C.; Demiralp, Metin; Hernandez-Garcia, Luis; Deldin, Patricia J.; Gotlib, Ian H.; Jonides, John

2014-01-01

Some individuals have very specific and differentiated emotional experiences, such as anger, shame, excitement, and happiness, whereas others have more general affective experiences of pleasure or discomfort that are not as highly differentiated. Considering that individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) have cognitive deficits for negative information, we predicted that people with MDD would have less differentiated negative emotional experiences than would healthy people. To test this hypothesis, we assessed participants' emotional experiences using a 7-day experience-sampling protocol. Depression was assessed using structured clinical interviews and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. As predicted, individuals with MDD had less differentiated emotional experiences than did healthy participants, but only for negative emotions. These differences were above and beyond the effects of emotional intensity and variability. PMID:23070307

Are precues effective in proactively controlling taboo interference during speech production?

PubMed

White, Katherine K; Abrams, Lise; Hsi, Lisa R; Watkins, Emily C

2018-02-07

This research investigated whether precues engage proactive control to reduce emotional interference during speech production. A picture-word interference task required participants to name target pictures accompanied by taboo, negative, or neutral distractors. Proactive control was manipulated by presenting precues that signalled the type of distractor that would appear on the next trial. Experiment 1 included one block of trials with precues and one without, whereas Experiment 2 mixed precued and uncued trials. Consistent with previous research, picture naming was slowed in both experiments when distractors were taboo or negative compared to neutral, with the greatest slowing effect when distractors were taboo. Evidence that precues engaged proactive control to reduce interference from taboo (but not negative) distractors was found in Experiment 1. In contrast, mixing precued trials in Experiment 2 resulted in no taboo cueing benefit. These results suggest that item-level proactive control can be engaged under certain conditions to reduce taboo interference during speech production, findings that help to refine a role for cognitive control of distraction during speech production.

When sex is more than just sex: attachment orientations, sexual experience, and relationship quality.

PubMed

Birnbaum, Gurit E; Reis, Harry T; Mikulincer, Mario; Gillath, Omri; Orpaz, Ayala

2006-11-01

The authors explored the contribution of individual differences in attachment orientations to the experience of sexual intercourse and its association with relationship quality. In Study 1, 500 participants completed self-report scales of attachment orientations and sexual experience. The findings indicated that whereas attachment anxiety was associated with an ambivalent construal of sexual experience, attachment avoidance was associated with more aversive sexual feelings and cognitions. In Study 2, 41 couples reported on their attachment orientations and provided daily diary measures of sexual experiences and relationship interactions for a period of 42 days. Results showed that attachment anxiety amplified the effects of positive and negative sexual experiences on relationship interactions. In contrast, attachment avoidance inhibited the positive relational effect of having sex and the detrimental relational effects of negative sexual interactions. The authors discuss the possibility that attachment orientations are associated with different sex-related strategies and goals within romantic relationships.

Valence asymmetries in attitude ambivalence.

PubMed

Snyder, Aaron I; Tormala, Zakary L

2017-04-01

Existing models of ambivalence suggest that as the number of conflicting reactions (e.g., attitude components) increases, so too does the experience of ambivalence. Interestingly, though, these models overwhelmingly assume that this relationship is independent of valence. Across 3 studies we observe that this effect is in fact heavily influenced by 2 established valence asymmetries: positivity offset (baseline positive reactions even in the absence of positive information) and negativity bias (greater impact of negative reactions than positive reactions). Consistent with positivity offset, we observe that subjective ambivalence is greater when people have univalent negative rather than univalent positive attitudes. However, as conflicting information is acquired, subjective ambivalence rises more quickly when that information is negative rather than positive. The latter effect is consistent with negativity bias and suggests that although people feel more conflicted when they have only negative (vs. only positive) reactions, they also feel more conflicted when they have mostly positive (vs. mostly negative) reactions. Our investigation also uncovers an interesting consequence of these asymmetries: When people have mixed reactions, they do not experience maximum ambivalence at equal levels of positivity and negativity, as suggested by canonical ambivalence theory. Rather, subjective ambivalence peaks when positive reactions outnumber negative reactions. These effects are found to have downstream consequences for other dimensions of attitude strength. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Enhanced conflict-driven cognitive control by emotional arousal, not by valence.

PubMed

Zeng, Qinghong; Qi, Senqing; Li, Miaoyun; Yao, Shuxia; Ding, Cody; Yang, Dong

2017-09-01

Emotion is widely agreed to have two dimensions, valence and arousal. Few studies have explored the effect of emotion on conflict adaptation by considering both of these, which could have dissociate influence. The present study aimed to fill the gap as to whether emotional valence and arousal would exert dissociable influence on conflict adaptation. In the experiments, we included positive, neutral, and negative conditions, with comparable arousal between positive and negative conditions. Both positive and negative conditions have higher arousal than neutral ones. In Experiment 1, by using a two-colour-word Flanker task, we found that conflict adaptation was enhanced in both positive and negative contexts compared to a neutral context. Furthermore, this effect still existed when controlling stimulus-response repetitions in Experiment 2, which used a four-colour-word Flanker task. The findings suggest emotional arousal enhances conflict adaptation, regardless of emotional valence. Thus, future studies should consider emotional arousal when studying the effect of emotion on conflict adaptation. Moreover, the unique role of the emotional context in conflict-driven cognitive control is emphasised.

Core Self-Evaluations and Individual Strategies of Coping with Unemployment among Displaced Spanish Workers.

PubMed

Virkes, Tihana; Maslić Seršić, Darja; Lopez-Zafra, Esther

2017-10-30

Unemployment has negative but also positive effects on mental health and general well-being depending on which coping strategies the individual use. Our aim was to determine the contribution of core self-evaluations in explaining the coping strategies of job search and job devaluation, as well as to test the potential moderation effect of job search and mediation effect of job devaluation on the relationship between self core-evaluations and both positive and negative experience of unemployment. One hundred seventy-eight individuals who lost their jobs involuntarily for a longer period than one month completed a questionnaire while attending to employment office. Results show that there is a significant relation between core-self evaluations and job devaluation (.37**). Furthermore, core-self evaluations were positively related to positive experience of unemployment (r = .31; p < .01) and negatively related to negative experience of unemployment (r = .60; p < .01). Moreover, self-core evaluations predicted both coping with unemployment strategies (job devaluation; β = .26; p < .01 and job search β = .19; p < .05). However, job search did not moderate the relationship between core self-evaluations and experience of unemployment. But, individuals with a longer duration of the current period of unemployment and higher core self-evaluations had a more positive experience of unemployment, and job devaluation partially mediated this relation (SE = .002; p = .038). These results imply that programs interventions should include the improvement of core self-evaluations and the positive experience of unemployed people.

That's not funny! - But it should be: effects of humorous emotion regulation on emotional experience and memory.

PubMed

Kugler, Lisa; Kuhbandner, Christof

2015-01-01

Previous research has shown that humorous reappraisal can reduce elicited negative emotions, suggesting that humor may be a functional strategy to cope with emotionally negative situations. However, the effect of humorous reappraisal on later memory about the emotion-eliciting situation is currently unknown, although this is crucial for more adaptive responding in future situations. To address this issue, we examined the effects of humorous reappraisal on both emotional experience and memory, compared to non-humorous rational reappraisal and a non-reappraisal control condition. Replicating previous findings, humorous reappraisal reduced evoked negative valence and arousal levels very effectively, and the down-regulation of experienced negative emotions was even more pronounced after humorous compared to rational reappraisal. Regarding later memory for emotion-eliciting stimuli, both humorous and rational reappraisal reduced free recall, but recognition memory was unaffected, with memory strength being stronger after humorous than after rational reappraisal. These results indicate that humor seems to be indeed an optimal strategy to cope with negative situations because humor can help us to feel better when confronted with negative stimuli, but still allows us to retrieve stimulus information later when afforded to do so by the presence of appropriate contextual features.

Testing the effects of suppression and reappraisal on emotional concordance using a multivariate multilevel model.

PubMed

Butler, Emily A; Gross, James J; Barnard, Kobus

2014-04-01

In theory, the essence of emotion is coordination across experiential, behavioral, and physiological systems in the service of functional responding to environmental demands. However, people often regulate emotions, which could either reduce or enhance cross-system concordance. The present study tested the effects of two forms of emotion regulation (expressive suppression, positive reappraisal) on concordance of subjective experience (positive-negative valence), expressive behavior (positive and negative), and physiology (inter-beat interval, skin conductance, blood pressure) during conversations between unacquainted young women. As predicted, participants asked to suppress showed reduced concordance for both positive and negative emotions. Reappraisal instructions also reduced concordance for negative emotions, but increased concordance for positive ones. Both regulation strategies had contagious interpersonal effects on average levels of responding. Suppression reduced overall expression for both regulating and uninstructed partners, while reappraisal reduced negative experience. Neither strategy influenced the uninstructed partners' concordance. These results suggest that emotion regulation impacts concordance by altering the temporal coupling of phasic subsystem responses, rather than by having divergent effects on subsystem tonic levels. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Conflict-driven adaptive control is enhanced by integral negative emotion on a short time scale.

PubMed

Yang, Qian; Pourtois, Gilles

2018-02-05

Negative emotion influences cognitive control, and more specifically conflict adaptation. However, discrepant results have often been reported in the literature. In this study, we broke down negative emotion into integral and incidental components using a modern motivation-based framework, and assessed whether the former could change conflict adaptation. In the first experiment, we manipulated the duration of the inter-trial-interval (ITI) to assess the actual time-scale of this effect. Integral negative emotion was induced by using loss-related feedback contingent on task performance, and measured at the subjective and physiological levels. Results showed that conflict-driven adaptive control was enhanced when integral negative emotion was elicited, compared to a control condition without changes in defensive motivation. Importantly, this effect was only found when a short, as opposed to long ITI was used, suggesting that it had a short time scale. In the second experiment, we controlled for effects of feature repetition and contingency learning, and replicated an enhanced conflict adaptation effect when integral negative emotion was elicited and a short ITI was used. We interpret these new results against a standard cognitive control framework assuming that integral negative emotion amplifies specific control signals transiently, and in turn enhances conflict adaptation.

Comparing the effects of positive and negative feedback in information-integration category learning.

PubMed

Freedberg, Michael; Glass, Brian; Filoteo, J Vincent; Hazeltine, Eliot; Maddox, W Todd

2017-01-01

Categorical learning is dependent on feedback. Here, we compare how positive and negative feedback affect information-integration (II) category learning. Ashby and O'Brien (2007) demonstrated that both positive and negative feedback are required to solve II category problems when feedback was not guaranteed on each trial, and reported no differences between positive-only and negative-only feedback in terms of their effectiveness. We followed up on these findings and conducted 3 experiments in which participants completed 2,400 II categorization trials across three days under 1 of 3 conditions: positive feedback only (PFB), negative feedback only (NFB), or both types of feedback (CP; control partial). An adaptive algorithm controlled the amount of feedback given to each group so that feedback was nearly equated. Using different feedback control procedures, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that participants in the NFB and CP group were able to engage II learning strategies, whereas the PFB group was not. Additionally, the NFB group was able to achieve significantly higher accuracy than the PFB group by Day 3. Experiment 3 revealed that these differences remained even when we equated the information received on feedback trials. Thus, negative feedback appears significantly more effective for learning II category structures. This suggests that the human implicit learning system may be capable of learning in the absence of positive feedback.

Inhibition of Return Is Modulated by Negative Stimuli: Evidence from Subliminal Perception.

PubMed

Pan, Fada; Wu, Xiaogang; Zhang, Li; Ou, Yuhong

2017-01-01

Inhibition of return (IOR) is considered as a "blindness mechanism" that emotional stimuli have no impact on it. Most previous studies suggested that IOR was not modulated by emotional cues. However, one key question they ignored was that only supraliminal presentation of emotional stimuli was used in their experiments. The present experiment is aimed at exploring the possible interaction between the IOR effect and subliminal emotional process. We manipulated three different kinds of valence strength of negative stimuli (high negative, HN; moderate negative, MN; low negative, LN) which were presented under the subliminal perception level and an event-related potentials (ERPs) recording was adopted. The results showed that, compared to MN and HN, the IOR effect triggered by peripheral cues was more significant for LN with aspects of behavioral and electrophysiological data (a reduction P1 effect, more negative on cued trials than on uncued trials for both early posterior Nd and Nd components). This indicated that IOR can be modulated by emotionally relevant stimuli. The automatic processing that was triggered by subliminally negative stimuli of peripheral cues had an influence on the shifting of spatial attention that was triggered by IOR. These two mechanisms may occur in the perceptual stage simultaneously.

Understanding the Function of Emotional Eating: Does it Buffer the Stress Response and Help Us Cope

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-05-09

Eating and Coping 25 these negative effects were most likely related to their presumed impact on health and weight. E. Comfort Foods...2003). Coping strategies can either amplify or reduce the stress experience, and therefore can either negatively or positively effect health...clinical behavior to understand. Finally, the effectiveness of stressors is much higher for negative stress than for positive (Westermann et al., 1996

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Primary Care Experiences in Patient-Centered Medical Homes among Veterans with Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders.

PubMed

Jones, Audrey L; Mor, Maria K; Cashy, John P; Gordon, Adam J; Haas, Gretchen L; Schaefer, James H; Hausmann, Leslie R M

2016-12-01

Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) may be effective in managing care for racial/ethnic minorities with mental health and/or substance use disorders (MHSUDs). How such patients experience care in PCMH settings is relatively unknown. We aimed to examine racial/ethnic differences in experiences with primary care in PCMH settings among Veterans with MHSUDs. We used multinomial regression methods to estimate racial/ethnic differences in PCMH experiences reported on a 2013 national survey of Veterans Affairs patients. Veterans with past-year MHSUD diagnoses (n = 65,930; 67 % White, 20 % Black, 11 % Hispanic, 1 % American Indian/Alaska Native[AI/AN], and 1 % Asian/Pacific Island[A/PI]). Positive and negative experiences from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) PCMH Survey. Veterans with MHSUDs reported the lowest frequency of positive experiences with access (22 %) and the highest frequency of negative experiences with self-management support (30 %) and comprehensiveness (16 %). Racial/ethnic differences (as compared to Whites) were observed in all seven healthcare domains (p values < 0.05). With access, Blacks and Hispanics reported more negative (Risk Differences [RDs] = 2 .0;3.6) and fewer positive (RDs = -2 .3;-2.3) experiences, while AI/ANs reported more negative experiences (RD = 5.7). In communication, Blacks reported fewer negative experiences (RD = -1.3); AI/ANs reported more negative (RD = 3.6) experiences; and AI/ANs and APIs reported fewer positive (RD = -6.5, -6.7) experiences. With office staff, Hispanics reported fewer positive experiences (RDs = -3.0); AI/ANs and A/PIs reported more negative experiences (RDs =  3.4; 3.7). For comprehensiveness, Blacks reported more positive experiences (RD = 3.6), and Hispanics reported more negative experiences (RD = 2.7). Both Blacks and Hispanics reported more positive (RDs = 2.3; 4.2) and fewer negative (RDs = -1.8; -1.9) provider ratings, and more positive experiences with decision making (RDs = 2.4; 3.0). Blacks reported more positive (RD = 3.9) and fewer negative (RD = -5.1) experiences with self-management support. In a national sample of Veterans with MHSUDs, potential deficiencies were observed in access, self-management support, and comprehensiveness. Racial/ethnic minorities reported worse experiences than Whites with access, comprehensiveness, communication, and office staff helpfulness/courtesy.

'Help me! I'm old!' How negative aging stereotypes create dependency among older adults.

PubMed

Coudin, Genevieve; Alexopoulos, Theodore

2010-07-01

This study examined the effects of negative aging stereotypes on self-reported loneliness, risk-taking, subjective health, and help-seeking behavior in a French sample of older adults. The aim of this study was to show the detrimental effects of negative aging stereotypes on older adults' self-evaluations and behaviors, therefore contributing to the explanations of the iatrogenic effect of social environments that increase dependency (e.g., health care institutions). In the first experiment conducted on 57 older adults, we explored the effects of positive, neutral, or negative stereotype activation on the feeling of loneliness and risk taking decision. The second experiment (n = 60) examined the impact of stereotype activation on subjective health, self-reported extraversion as well as on a genuine help-seeking behavior, by allowing participants to ask for the experimenter's help while completing a task. As predicted, negative stereotype activation resulted in lower levels of risk taking, subjective health and extraversion, and in higher feelings of loneliness and a more frequent help-seeking behavior. These findings suggest that the mere activation of negative stereotypes can have broad and deleterious effects on older individuals' self-evaluation and functioning, which in turn may contribute to the often observed dependency among older people.

Into the Woods or a Stroll in the Park: How Virtual Contact with Nature Impacts Positive and Negative Affect

PubMed Central

McAllister, Elizabeth; Schutte, Nicola S.

2017-01-01

This study examined the effects of virtual contact with nature on positive and negative affect, and investigated the psychological process of perceived restorativeness as a mediator of this relationship. A sample of 220 Australians aged between 18 and 75 years (M = 49.07, SD = 14.34, female = 72%) participated in the study. Participants were randomly allocated to one of the three experimental conditions experienced through video presentations: (1) ‘wild’ nature, (2) ‘urban’ nature, and (3) non-nature control. They then completed measures of perceived restorativeness as well as positive and negative affect. Compared to the non-nature control condition, the experience of wild nature resulted in significantly higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect. The experience of urban nature resulted in significantly lower levels of negative affect only compared to the non-nature control video. Experience of wild and urban nature resulted in greater perceptions of restorativeness as compared to the non-nature control video. Restorativeness was a significant underlying psychological mediating path through which nature experience exerted its influence on affect. These results have the potential to inform nature-based green care interventions for mental health as well as for urban planning to maximize beneficial effects of natural environments. PMID:28708074

Into the Woods or a Stroll in the Park: How Virtual Contact with Nature Impacts Positive and Negative Affect.

PubMed

McAllister, Elizabeth; Bhullar, Navjot; Schutte, Nicola S

2017-07-14

This study examined the effects of virtual contact with nature on positive and negative affect, and investigated the psychological process of perceived restorativeness as a mediator of this relationship. A sample of 220 Australians aged between 18 and 75 years (M = 49.07, SD = 14.34, female = 72%) participated in the study. Participants were randomly allocated to one of the three experimental conditions experienced through video presentations: (1) 'wild' nature, (2) 'urban' nature, and (3) non-nature control. They then completed measures of perceived restorativeness as well as positive and negative affect. Compared to the non-nature control condition, the experience of wild nature resulted in significantly higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect. The experience of urban nature resulted in significantly lower levels of negative affect only compared to the non-nature control video. Experience of wild and urban nature resulted in greater perceptions of restorativeness as compared to the non-nature control video. Restorativeness was a significant underlying psychological mediating path through which nature experience exerted its influence on affect. These results have the potential to inform nature-based green care interventions for mental health as well as for urban planning to maximize beneficial effects of natural environments.

The effect of negative performance stereotypes on learning.

PubMed

Rydell, Robert J; Rydell, Michael T; Boucher, Kathryn L

2010-12-01

Stereotype threat (ST) research has focused exclusively on how negative group stereotypes reduce performance. The present work examines if pejorative stereotypes about women in math inhibit their ability to learn the mathematical rules and operations necessary to solve math problems. In Experiment 1, women experiencing ST had difficulty encoding math-related information into memory and, therefore, learned fewer mathematical rules and showed poorer math performance than did controls. In Experiment 2, women experiencing ST while learning modular arithmetic (MA) performed more poorly than did controls on easy MA problems; this effect was due to reduced learning of the mathematical operations underlying MA. In Experiment 3, ST reduced women's, but not men's, ability to learn abstract mathematical rules and to transfer these rules to a second, isomorphic task. This work provides the first evidence that negative stereotypes about women in math reduce their level of mathematical learning and demonstrates that reduced learning due to stereotype threat can lead to poorer performance in negatively stereotyped domains. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Ethnic Harassment, Ethnic Identity Centrality, and Well-Being.

PubMed

Wolfram, Hans-Joachim; Linton, Kenisha; McDuff, Nona

2018-02-12

In this study, we examined the direct effect of (positive vs. negative) evaluation of potentially harassing experiences due to ethnic background on impaired well-being as well as the moderating effect of ethnic identity centrality on the relationship between (lower vs. higher) frequency of potentially harassing experiences and impaired well-being. Using a gender-balanced sample with equal proportions of black and minority ethnic and white undergraduate students (N = 240), we found that, expectedly, ethnic identity centrality intensified the effects of higher frequency of potentially harassing experiences on lower self-esteem and lower positive affect. Unexpectedly, however, gender identity centrality buffered the effects of higher frequency as well as more negative evaluation of potentially harassing experiences on lower self-esteem, indicating that gender identity centrality may be a protective resource, even though it is not specific to ethnic harassment. Exploratory analyses revealed that for black and minority ethnic respondents with high ethnic identity centrality and for white respondents with low ethnic identity centrality, there were associations between more negative evaluation of potentially harassing experiences and lower self-esteem and lower positive affect. This finding might indicate that ethnic identity centrality was a risk factor in black and ethnic minority respondents, but a protective factor in white respondents.

Retro-Active Emotion: Do Negative Emotional Stimuli Disrupt Consolidation in Working Memory?

PubMed

Kandemir, Güven; Akyürek, Elkan G; Nieuwenstein, Mark R

2017-01-01

While many studies have shown that a task-irrelevant emotionally arousing stimulus can interfere with the processing of a shortly following target, it remains unclear whether an emotional stimulus can also retro-actively interrupt the ongoing processing of an earlier target. In two experiments, we examined whether the presentation of a negative emotionally arousing picture can disrupt working memory consolidation of a preceding visual target. In both experiments, the effects of negative emotional pictures were compared with the effects of neutral pictures. In Experiment 1, the pictures were entirely task-irrelevant whereas in Experiment 2 the pictures were associated with a 2-alternative forced choice task that required participants to respond to the color of a frame surrounding the pictures. The results showed that the appearance of the pictures did not interfere with target consolidation when the pictures were task-irrelevant, whereas such interference was observed when the pictures were associated with a 2-AFC task. Most importantly, however, the results showed no effects of whether the picture had neutral or emotional content. Implications for further research are discussed.

Affective Priming with Associatively Acquired Valence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aguado, Luis; Pierna, Manuel; Saugar, Cristina

2005-01-01

Three experiments explored the effect of affectively congruent or incongruent primes on evaluation responses to positive or negative valenced targets (the "affective priming" effect). Experiment 1 replicated the basic affective priming effect with Spanish nouns: reaction time for evaluative responses (pleasant/unpleasant) were slower on…

Effects of Emotional Valence and Arousal on Time Perception

PubMed Central

Van Volkinburg, Heather; Balsam, Peter

2016-01-01

We examined the influence of emotional arousal and valence on estimating time intervals. A reproduction task was used in which images from the International Affective Picture System served as the stimuli to be timed. Experiment 1 assessed the effects of positive and negative valence at a moderate arousal level and Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with the addition of a high arousal condition. Overestimation increased as a function of arousal during encoding of times regardless of valence. For images presented during reproduction, overestimation occurred at the moderate arousal level for positive and negative valence but underestimation occurred in the negative valence high arousal condition. The overestimation of time intervals produced by emotional arousal during encoding and during reproduction suggests that emotional stimuli affect temporal information processing in a qualitatively different way during different phases of temporal information processing. PMID:27110491

Work Experience, Socialization, and Civil Liberties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korman, Abraham K.

1975-01-01

Examines the effects of work experience on attitudes and behaviors in the area of civil liberties; (1) noting that hierarchical structure, rigidity and specialization seem to generate negative effect toward civil libertarian concerns, and (2) proposing a theoretical model designed to predict the conditions under which work experience may be…

Differences in Expressivity Based on Attractiveness: Target or Perceiver Effects?

PubMed

Rennels, Jennifer L; Kayl, Andrea J

2015-09-01

A significant association exists between adults' expressivity and facial attractiveness, but it is unclear whether the association is linear or significant only at the extremes of attractiveness. It is also unclear whether attractive persons actually display more positive expressivity than unattractive persons (target effects) or whether high and low attractiveness influences expressivity valence judgments (perceiver effects). Experiment 1 demonstrated adult ratings of attractiveness were predictive of expressivity valence only for high and low attractive females and medium attractive males. Experiment 2 showed that low attractive females actually display more negative expressivity than medium and high attractive females, but there were no target effects for males. Also, attractiveness influenced expressivity valence judgments (perceiver effects) for both females and males. Our findings demonstrate that low attractive females are at a particular disadvantage during social interactions due to their low attractiveness, actual displays of negative expressivity, and perceptions of their negative expressivity.

Differences in Expressivity Based on Attractiveness: Target or Perceiver Effects?

PubMed Central

Rennels, Jennifer L.; Kayl, Andrea J.

2015-01-01

A significant association exists between adults’ expressivity and facial attractiveness, but it is unclear whether the association is linear or significant only at the extremes of attractiveness. It is also unclear whether attractive persons actually display more positive expressivity than unattractive persons (target effects) or whether high and low attractiveness influences expressivity valence judgments (perceiver effects). Experiment 1 demonstrated adult ratings of attractiveness were predictive of expressivity valence only for high and low attractive females and medium attractive males. Experiment 2 showed that low attractive females actually display more negative expressivity than medium and high attractive females, but there were no target effects for males. Also, attractiveness influenced expressivity valence judgments (perceiver effects) for both females and males. Our findings demonstrate that low attractive females are at a particular disadvantage during social interactions due to their low attractiveness, actual displays of negative expressivity, and perceptions of their negative expressivity. PMID:26366010

Negative incidental emotions augment fairness sensitivity.

PubMed

Liu, Cuizhen; Chai, Jing Wen; Yu, Rongjun

2016-04-22

Previous studies have shown that task-unrelated emotions induced incidentally exert carryover effects on individuals' subsequent decisions in financial negotiations. However, the specificity of these emotion effects are not clear. In three experiments, we systematically investigated the role of seven transiently induced basic emotions (disgust, sadness, anger, fear, happiness, surprise and neutral) on rejection of unfair offers using the ultimatum game. We found that all negative emotions (disgust, sadness, anger and fear), but not happiness or surprise, significantly increased rejection rates, suggesting that the effect of incidental negative emotions on fairness is not specific to the type of negative emotion. Our findings highlight the role of fleeting emotions in biasing decision-making processes and suggest that all incidental negative emotions exert similar effects on fairness sensitivity, possibly by potentiating attention towards negative aspects of the situation.

Post-encoding emotional arousal enhances consolidation of item memory, but not reality-monitoring source memory.

PubMed

Wang, Bo; Sun, Bukuan

2017-03-01

The current study examined whether the effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory extends to reality-monitoring source memory and, if so, whether the effect depends on emotionality of learning stimuli and testing format. In Experiment 1, participants encoded neutral words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video. The 24-hour delayed test showed that emotional arousal had little effect on both item memory and reality-monitoring source memory. Experiment 2 was similar except that participants encoded neutral, positive, and negative words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. The results showed that positive and negative emotional arousal induced after encoding enhanced consolidation of item memory, but not reality-monitoring source memory, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli. Experiment 3, identical to Experiment 2 except that participants were tested only on source memory for all the encoded items, still showed that post-encoding emotional arousal had little effect on consolidation of reality-monitoring source memory. Taken together, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli and regardless of testing format of source memory (conjunction test vs. independent test), the facilitatory effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory does not generalize to reality-monitoring source memory.

Do Social Support, Self-Efficacy and Resilience Influence the Experience of Stress in Ghanaian Orphans? An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salifu Yendork, Joana; Somhlaba, Nceba Z.

2015-01-01

Much of the literature suggests that the availability of certain protective factors can help to buffer the adverse effects of negative life events such as parental loss and the negative experiences surrounding placement in orphanages. Following on from this perspective, the present study explores the influence of perceived social support,…

Positive life events predict salivary cortisol in pregnant women.

PubMed

Pluess, Michael; Wurmser, Harald; Buske-Kirschbaum, Angelika; Papousek, Mechthild; Pirke, Karl-Martin; Hellhammer, Dirk; Bolten, Margarete

2012-08-01

Maternal stress during pregnancy has been repeatedly associated with problematic child development. According to the fetal programming hypothesis adverse experiences during pregnancy increase maternal cortisol, which is then assumed to exert a negative effect on fetal development. Recent studies in non-pregnant women report significant associations between positive emotionality and low cortisol levels. We tested in a sample of 60 pregnant women whether both negative and positive life events independently predicted third-trimester baseline awakening cortisol levels. While the effect of negative life events proved unrelated positive life events significantly predicted lower cortisol levels. These findings suggest that positive experiences are of relevance regarding maternal morning cortisol levels in pregnancy reflecting a resource with potentially beneficial effects for the mother and the developing fetus. It might be promising for psychological intervention programs to focus on increasing positive experiences of the expecting mother rather than exclusively trying to reduce maternal stress during pregnancy. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

That’s not funny! – But it should be: effects of humorous emotion regulation on emotional experience and memory

PubMed Central

Kugler, Lisa; Kuhbandner, Christof

2015-01-01

Previous research has shown that humorous reappraisal can reduce elicited negative emotions, suggesting that humor may be a functional strategy to cope with emotionally negative situations. However, the effect of humorous reappraisal on later memory about the emotion-eliciting situation is currently unknown, although this is crucial for more adaptive responding in future situations. To address this issue, we examined the effects of humorous reappraisal on both emotional experience and memory, compared to non-humorous rational reappraisal and a non-reappraisal control condition. Replicating previous findings, humorous reappraisal reduced evoked negative valence and arousal levels very effectively, and the down-regulation of experienced negative emotions was even more pronounced after humorous compared to rational reappraisal. Regarding later memory for emotion-eliciting stimuli, both humorous and rational reappraisal reduced free recall, but recognition memory was unaffected, with memory strength being stronger after humorous than after rational reappraisal. These results indicate that humor seems to be indeed an optimal strategy to cope with negative situations because humor can help us to feel better when confronted with negative stimuli, but still allows us to retrieve stimulus information later when afforded to do so by the presence of appropriate contextual features. PMID:26379608

Using an Electronic Highlighter to Eliminate the Negative Effects of Pre-Existing, Inappropriate Highlighting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gier, Vicki; Kreiner, David; Hudnell, Jason; Montoya, Jodi; Herring, Daniel

2011-01-01

The purpose of the present experiment was to determine whether using an active learning technique, electronic highlighting, can eliminate the negative effects of pre-existing, poor highlighting on reading comprehension. Participants read passages containing no highlighting, appropriate highlighting, or inappropriate highlighting. We hypothesized…

Evidence of successful modulation of brain activation and subjective experience during reappraisal of negative emotion in unmedicated depression.

PubMed

Dillon, Daniel Gerard; Pizzagalli, Diego Andrea

2013-05-30

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine cognitive regulation of negative emotion in 12 unmedicated patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 24 controls. The participants used reappraisal to increase (real condition) and reduce (photo condition) the personal relevance of negative and neutral pictures during fMRI as valence ratings were collected; passive viewing (look condition) served as a baseline. Reappraisal was not strongly affected by MDD. Ratings indicated that both groups successfully reappraised negative emotional experience. Both groups also showed better memory for negative vs. neutral pictures 2 weeks later. Across groups, increased brain activation was observed on negative/real vs. negative/look and negative/photo trials in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), rostral anterior cingulate, left parietal cortex, caudate, and right amygdala. Depressive severity was inversely correlated with activation modulation in the left DLPFC, right amygdala, and right cerebellum during negative reappraisal. The lack of group differences suggests that depressed adults can modulate the brain activation and subjective experience elicited by negative pictures when given clear instructions. However, the negative relationship between depression severity and effects of reappraisal on brain activation indicates that group differences may be detectable in larger samples of more severely depressed participants. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sensitivity of negative subsequent memory and task-negative effects to age and associative memory performance.

PubMed

de Chastelaine, Marianne; Mattson, Julia T; Wang, Tracy H; Donley, Brian E; Rugg, Michael D

2015-07-01

The present fMRI experiment employed associative recognition to investigate the relationships between age and encoding-related negative subsequent memory effects and task-negative effects. Young, middle-aged and older adults (total n=136) were scanned while they made relational judgments on visually presented word pairs. In a later memory test, the participants made associative recognition judgments on studied, rearranged (items studied on different trials) and new pairs. Several regions, mostly localized to the default mode network, demonstrated negative subsequent memory effects in an across age-group analysis. All but one of these regions also demonstrated task-negative effects, although there was no correlation between the size of the respective effects. Whereas negative subsequent memory effects demonstrated a graded attenuation with age, task-negative effects declined markedly between the young and the middle-aged group, but showed no further reduction in the older group. Negative subsequent memory effects did not correlate with memory performance within any age group. By contrast, in the older group only, task-negative effects predicted later memory performance. The findings demonstrate that negative subsequent memory and task-negative effects depend on dissociable neural mechanisms and likely reflect distinct cognitive processes. The relationship between task-negative effects and memory performance in the older group might reflect the sensitivity of these effects to variations in amount of age-related neuropathology. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Memory. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[The effects of charity advertising on donations and donors' explicit and implicit evaluations of recipients].

PubMed

Kawamura, Yuta; Kusumi, Takashi

2015-04-01

Advertisements for charity generally employ one of two advertising strategies. The first appeals to the efficacy of support, while the second appeals to the necessity of support. Two experiments investigated the effect of each type of charity advertising on donations and on donors' explicit and implicit evaluations of the recipients. The results indicated that although participants' explicit evaluations of charity recipients were not changed by efficacy-based advertising, they were negatively influenced by necessity-based advertising. Furthermore, Experiment 1 detected moderating effects of empathic concern. The explicit evaluations of participants in the necessity-based advertising group were negatively correlated with their empathic concern. Implicit evaluations were consistently negative in both groups. Both advertising strategies were more effective at securing donations than the control group, which did not use any strategies. These findings suggest practical implications for charity advertising.

Negative incidental emotions augment fairness sensitivity

PubMed Central

Liu, Cuizhen; Chai, Jing Wen; Yu, Rongjun

2016-01-01

Previous studies have shown that task-unrelated emotions induced incidentally exert carryover effects on individuals’ subsequent decisions in financial negotiations. However, the specificity of these emotion effects are not clear. In three experiments, we systematically investigated the role of seven transiently induced basic emotions (disgust, sadness, anger, fear, happiness, surprise and neutral) on rejection of unfair offers using the ultimatum game. We found that all negative emotions (disgust, sadness, anger and fear), but not happiness or surprise, significantly increased rejection rates, suggesting that the effect of incidental negative emotions on fairness is not specific to the type of negative emotion. Our findings highlight the role of fleeting emotions in biasing decision-making processes and suggest that all incidental negative emotions exert similar effects on fairness sensitivity, possibly by potentiating attention towards negative aspects of the situation. PMID:27101931

The "common good" phenomenon: Why similarities are positive and differences are negative.

PubMed

Alves, Hans; Koch, Alex; Unkelbach, Christian

2017-04-01

Positive attributes are more prevalent than negative attributes in the social environment. From this basic assumption, 2 implications that have been overlooked thus far: Positive compared with negative attributes are more likely to be shared by individuals, and people's shared attributes (similarities) are more positive than their unshared attributes (differences). Consequently, similarity-based comparisons should lead to more positive evaluations than difference-based comparisons. We formalized our probabilistic reasoning in a model and tested its predictions in a simulation and 8 experiments (N = 1,181). When participants generated traits about 2 target persons, positive compared with negative traits were more likely to be shared by the targets (Experiment 1a) and by other participants' targets (Experiment 1b). Conversely, searching for targets' shared traits resulted in more positive traits than searching for unshared traits (Experiments 2, 4a, and 4b). In addition, positive traits were more accessible than negative traits among shared traits but not among unshared traits (Experiment 3). Finally, shared traits were only more positive when positive traits were indeed prevalent (Experiments 5 and 6). The current framework has a number of implications for comparison processes and provides a new interpretation of well-known evaluative asymmetries such as intergroup bias and self-superiority effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Fast Color Grouping and Slow Color Inhibition: Evidence for Distinct Temporal Windows for Separate Processes in Preview Search

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braithwaite, Jason J.; Humphreys, Glyn W.; Hulleman, Johan; Watson, Derrick G.

2007-01-01

The authors report 4 experiments that examined color grouping and negative carryover effects in preview search via a probe detection task (J. J. Braithwaite, G. W. Humphreys, & J. Hodsoll, 2003). In Experiment 1, there was evidence of a negative color carryover from the preview to new items, using both search and probe detection measures. There…

The emotional eyewitness: the effects of emotion on specific aspects of eyewitness recall and recognition performance.

PubMed

Houston, Kate A; Clifford, Brian R; Phillips, Louise H; Memon, Amina

2013-02-01

The present set of experiments aimed to investigate the effects of negative emotion on specific aspects of eyewitness recall and recognition performance. The experience of emotion was manipulated between subjects, with participants either viewing a crime scenario (a mugging) or a neutral scenario (a conversation). Eyewitness recall was categorized into descriptions of the perpetrator, critical incident, victim, and environmental details. The completeness and accuracy of eyewitness recall across categories of detail were measured in Experiment 1. A significant main effect of negative emotion was found for the completeness of recall. Furthermore, a significant main effect of the completeness of eyewitness statements was found, but not for their accuracy. However, these main effects were qualified by a significant interaction between emotion and category of detail recalled. Specifically, emotional participants provided a more complete description of the perpetrator than neutral participants; however, they were less able than their neutral counterparts to describe what the perpetrator did to the victim. In light of these findings, Experiment 2 investigated whether enhanced completeness of perpetrator descriptions during recall translated into an enhanced ability to recognize the perpetrator from a photographic lineup by emotional compared with neutral participants. Results from Experiment 2 suggest that while emotional participants again provide a more complete description of the perpetrator, they are less able than their neutral counterparts to recognize the perpetrator from a photographic lineup. Results are discussed in terms of a retrieval motivation hypothesis of negative emotional experience and the possible consequences for eyewitness testimony. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Predispositions to approach and avoid are contextually sensitive and goal dependent.

PubMed

Bamford, Susan; Ward, Robert

2008-04-01

The authors show that predispositions to approach and avoid do not consist simply of specific motor patterns but are more abstract functions that produce a desired environmental effect. It has been claimed that evaluating a visual stimulus as positive or negative evokes a specific motor response, extending the arm to negative stimuli, and contracting to positive stimuli. The authors showed that a large congruency effect (participants were faster to approach pleasant and avoid unpleasant stimuli, than to approach unpleasant and avoid pleasant stimuli) could be produced on a novel touchscreen paradigm (Experiment 1), and that the congruency effect could be reversed by spatial (Experiment 2) and nonspatial (Experiment 3) response effects. Thus, involuntary approach and avoid response activations are not fixed, but sensitive to context, and are specifically based on the desired goal. (Copyright) 2008 APA.

Those Who Laugh Are Defenseless: How Humor Breaks Resistance to Influence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strick, Madelijn; Holland, Rob W.; van Baaren, Rick B.; van Knippenberg, Ad

2012-01-01

Three experiments illustrate that humor in advertisements prevents the development of negative brand associations due to resistance. Previous research on humor in advertising suggested that humor can counter negative responses during ad processing, but less is known about the effect of humor on the development of negative brand associations in…

Negative Transfer and Positive Interference: Some Confusion in Introductory Psychology Textbooks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, Edward

1981-01-01

Discusses weakness in 11 introductory psychology textbooks in distinguishing between the terms proactive behavior and negative transfer. Negative transfer relates to a detrimental effect of prior experience on the learning of a new task, whereas proactive interference concerns a detrimental affect of prior interference on the recall of a second…

Time-limited effects of emotional arousal on item and source memory.

PubMed

Wang, Bo; Sun, Bukuan

2015-01-01

Two experiments investigated the time-limited effects of emotional arousal on consolidation of item and source memory. In Experiment 1, participants memorized words (items) and the corresponding speakers (sources) and then took an immediate free recall test. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video 5, 35, or 50 min after learning, and 24 hours later they took surprise memory tests. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that (a) a reality monitoring task was used; (b) elicitation delays of 5, 30, and 45 min were used; and (c) delayed memory tests were given 60 min after learning. Both experiments showed that, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal did not enhance item recall memory. Second, both experiments showed that negative arousal enhanced delayed item recognition memory only at the medium elicitation delay, but not in the shorter or longer delays. Positive arousal enhanced performance only in Experiment 1. Third, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal had little effect on source memory. These findings have implications for theories of emotion and memory, suggesting that emotion effects are contingent upon the nature of the memory task and elicitation delay.

Subliminal understanding of negation: unconscious control by subliminal processing of word pairs.

PubMed

Armstrong, Anna-Marie; Dienes, Zoltan

2013-09-01

A series of five experiments investigated the extent of subliminal processing of negation. Participants were presented with a subliminal instruction to either pick or not pick an accompanying noun, followed by a choice of two nouns. By employing subjective measures to determine individual thresholds of subliminal priming, the results of these studies indicated that participants were able to identify the correct noun of the pair--even when the correct noun was specified by negation. Furthermore, using a grey-scale contrast method of masking, Experiment 5 confirmed that these priming effects were evidenced in the absence of partial awareness, and without the effect being attributed to the retrieval of stimulus-response links established during conscious rehearsal. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fear among the extremes: how political ideology predicts negative emotions and outgroup derogation.

PubMed

van Prooijen, Jan-Willem; Krouwel, André P M; Boiten, Max; Eendebak, Lennart

2015-04-01

The "rigidity of the right" hypothesis predicts that particularly the political right experiences fear and derogates outgroups. We propose that above and beyond that, the political extremes (at both sides of the spectrum) are more likely to display these responses than political moderates. Results of a large-scale sample reveal the predicted quadratic term on socio-economic fear. Moreover, although the political right is more likely to derogate the specific category of immigrants, we find a quadratic effect on derogation of a broad range of societal categories. Both extremes also experience stronger negative emotions about politics than politically moderate respondents. Finally, the quadratic effects on derogation of societal groups and negative political emotions were mediated by socio-economic fear, particularly among left- and right-wing extremists. It is concluded that negative emotions and outgroup derogation flourish among the extremes. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Meta-atom cluster acoustic metamaterial with broadband negative effective mass density

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Huaijun; Zhai, Shilong; Ding, Changlin

2014-02-07

We design a resonant meta-atom cluster, via which a two-dimensional (2D) acoustic metamaterial (AM) with broadband negative effective mass density from 1560 Hz to 5580 Hz is fabricated. Experimental results confirm that there is only weak interaction among the meta-atoms in the cluster. And then the meta-atoms in the cluster independently resonate, resulting in the cluster becoming equivalent to a broadband resonance unit. Extracted effective refractive indices from reflection and transmission measurements of the 2D AM appear to be negative from 1500 Hz to 5480 Hz. The broadband negative refraction has also been demonstrated by our further experiments. We expectmore » that this meta-atom cluster AM will significantly contribute to the design of broadband negative effective mass density AM.« less

Weight stigmatization and ideological beliefs: relation to psychological functioning in obese adults.

PubMed

Friedman, Kelli E; Reichmann, Simona K; Costanzo, Philip R; Zelli, Arnaldo; Ashmore, Jamile A; Musante, Gerard J

2005-05-01

This study evaluated the relation among weight-based stigmatization, ideological beliefs about weight, and psychological functioning in an obese, treatment-seeking sample. Ninety-three obese, treatment-seeking adults (24 men and 69 women) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires measuring psychological adjustment, attitudes about weight, belief in the controllability of weight, and the frequency of weight-based stigmatization. Weight-based stigmatization was a common experience for participants. Frequency of stigmatizing experiences was positively associated with depression, general psychiatric symptoms, and body image disturbance, and negatively associated with self-esteem. Further, participants' own negative attitudes about weight problems were associated with their psychological distress and moderated the relation between the experience of stigmatization and body image. Weight-based stigmatization is a common experience for obese individuals seeking weight loss treatment and appears to contribute to poor mental health adjustment. The negative effects of these experiences are particularly damaging for those who hold strong antifat beliefs.

Sexual experience among emotionally and behaviorally disordered students in therapeutic day schools: an ecological examination of adolescent risk.

PubMed

Donenberg, Geri R; Emerson, Erin; Brown, Larry K; Houck, Christopher; Mackesy-Amiti, Mary Ellen

2012-09-01

This study examined gender differences in family, peer, partner, and mental health characteristics related to sexual experience among emotionally and behaviorally disordered students in therapeutic day schools, a population at elevated risk for negative sexual health outcomes. A total of 417 13- to 20-year-old adolescents reported on their family functioning, peer and partner relationship characteristics, mental health problems, and self-reported sexual behavior. For boys and girls, peer influence and conduct problems predicted sexual experience, and family dysfunction was related to negative peer influence. Greater rejection sensitivity was related to less sexual experience for boys and girls. The final path model revealed indirect effects of family dysfunction on boys' but not girls' sexual experiences. Findings underscore the utility of an ecological approach to understand social and personal mechanisms that increase risk and mitigate negative outcomes among emotionally and behaviorally disordered boys and girls in therapeutic day schools.

Overcoming fixation with repeated memory suppression.

PubMed

Angello, Genna; Storm, Benjamin C; Smith, Steven M

2015-01-01

Fixation (blocks to memories or ideas) can be alleviated not only by encouraging productive work towards a solution, but, as the present experiments show, by reducing counterproductive work. Two experiments examined relief from fixation in a word-fragment completion task. Blockers, orthographically similar negative primes (e.g., ANALOGY), blocked solutions to word fragments (e.g., A_L_ _GY) in both experiments. After priming, but before the fragment completion test, participants repeatedly suppressed half of the blockers using the Think/No-Think paradigm, which results in memory inhibition. Inhibiting blockers did not alleviate fixation in Experiment 1 when conscious recollection of negative primes was not encouraged on the fragment completion test. In Experiment 2, however, when participants were encouraged to remember negative primes at fragment completion, relief from fixation was observed. Repeated suppression may nullify fixation effects, and promote creative thinking, particularly when fixation is caused by conscious recollection of counterproductive information.

"None of the above" as a correct and incorrect alternative on a multiple-choice test: implications for the testing effect.

PubMed

Odegard, Timothy N; Koen, Joshua D

2007-11-01

Both positive and negative testing effects have been demonstrated with a variety of materials and paradigms (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006b). The present series of experiments replicate and extend the research of Roediger and Marsh (2005) with the addition of a "none-of-the-above" response option. Participants (n=32 in both experiments) read a set of passages, took an initial multiple-choice test, completed a filler task, and then completed a final cued-recall test (Experiment 1) or multiple-choice test (Experiment 2). Questions were manipulated on the initial multiple-choice test by adding a "none-of-the-above" response alternative (choice "E") that was incorrect ("E" Incorrect) or correct ("E" Correct). The results from both experiments demonstrated that the positive testing effect was negated when the "none-of-the-above" alternative was the correct response on the initial multiple-choice test, but was still present when the "none-of-the-above" alternative was an incorrect response.

Unconscious Processing of Facial Emotional Valence Relation: Behavioral Evidence of Integration between Subliminally Perceived Stimuli.

PubMed

Liu, Chengzhen; Sun, Zhiyi; Jou, Jerwen; Cui, Qian; Zhao, Guang; Qiu, Jiang; Tu, Shen

2016-01-01

Although a few studies have investigated the integration between some types of unconscious stimuli, no research has yet explored the integration between unconscious emotional stimuli. This study was designed to provide behavioral evidence for the integration between unconsciously perceived emotional faces (same or different valence relation) using a modified priming paradigm. In two experiments, participants were asked to decide whether two faces in the target, which followed two subliminally presented faces of same or different emotional expressions, were of the same or different emotional valence. The interstimulus interval (ISI) between the prime and the target was manipulated (0, 53, 163 ms). In Experiment 1, prime visibility was assessed post-experiment. In Experiment 2, it was assessed on each trial. Interestingly, in both experiments, unconsciously processed valence relation of the two faces in the prime generated a negative priming effect in the response to the supraliminally presented target, independent of the length of ISI. Further analyses suggested that the negative priming was probably caused by a motor response incongruent relation between the subliminally perceived prime and the supraliminally perceived target. The visual feature incongruent relation across the prime and target was not found to play a role in the negative priming. Because the negative priming was found at short ISI, an attention mechanism as well as a motor inhibition mechanism were proposed in the generation of the negative priming effect. Overall, this study indicated that the subliminal valence relation was processed, and that integration between different unconsciously perceived stimuli could occur.

Unconscious Processing of Facial Emotional Valence Relation: Behavioral Evidence of Integration between Subliminally Perceived Stimuli

PubMed Central

Jou, Jerwen; Cui, Qian; Zhao, Guang; Qiu, Jiang; Tu, Shen

2016-01-01

Although a few studies have investigated the integration between some types of unconscious stimuli, no research has yet explored the integration between unconscious emotional stimuli. This study was designed to provide behavioral evidence for the integration between unconsciously perceived emotional faces (same or different valence relation) using a modified priming paradigm. In two experiments, participants were asked to decide whether two faces in the target, which followed two subliminally presented faces of same or different emotional expressions, were of the same or different emotional valence. The interstimulus interval (ISI) between the prime and the target was manipulated (0, 53, 163 ms). In Experiment 1, prime visibility was assessed post-experiment. In Experiment 2, it was assessed on each trial. Interestingly, in both experiments, unconsciously processed valence relation of the two faces in the prime generated a negative priming effect in the response to the supraliminally presented target, independent of the length of ISI. Further analyses suggested that the negative priming was probably caused by a motor response incongruent relation between the subliminally perceived prime and the supraliminally perceived target. The visual feature incongruent relation across the prime and target was not found to play a role in the negative priming. Because the negative priming was found at short ISI, an attention mechanism as well as a motor inhibition mechanism were proposed in the generation of the negative priming effect. Overall, this study indicated that the subliminal valence relation was processed, and that integration between different unconsciously perceived stimuli could occur. PMID:27622600

Negative Priming in Free Recall Reconsidered

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Negative priming in free recall is the finding of impaired memory performance when previously ignored auditory distracters become targets of encoding and retrieval. This negative priming has been attributed to an aftereffect of deploying inhibitory mechanisms that serve to suppress auditory distraction and minimize interference with learning and retrieval of task-relevant information. In 6 experiments, we tested the inhibitory account of the effect of negative priming in free recall against alternative accounts. We found that ignoring auditory distracters is neither sufficient nor necessary to produce the effect of negative priming in free recall. Instead, the effect is more readily accounted for by a buildup of proactive interference occurring whenever 2 successively presented lists of words are drawn from the same semantic category. PMID:26595066

The effect of mood on false memory for emotional DRM word lists.

PubMed

Zhang, Weiwei; Gross, Julien; Hayne, Harlene

2017-04-01

In the present study, we investigated the effect of participants' mood on true and false memories of emotional word lists in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. In Experiment 1, we constructed DRM word lists in which all the studied words and corresponding critical lures reflected a specified emotional valence. In Experiment 2, we used these lists to assess mood-congruent true and false memory. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three induced-mood conditions (positive, negative, or neutral) and were presented with word lists comprised of positive, negative, or neutral words. For both true and false memory, there was a mood-congruent effect in the negative mood condition; this effect was due to a decrease in true and false recognition of the positive and neutral words. These findings are consistent with both spreading-activation and fuzzy-trace theories of DRM performance and have practical implications for our understanding of the effect of mood on memory.

Targeting the link between loneliness and paranoia via an interventionist-causal model framework.

PubMed

Gollwitzer, Anton; Wilczynska, Magdalena; Jaya, Edo S

2018-05-01

Targeting the antecedents of paranoia may be one potential method to reduce or prevent paranoia. For instance, targeting a potential antecedent of paranoia - loneliness - may reduce paranoia. Our first research question was whether loneliness heightens subclinical paranoia and whether negative affect may mediate this effect. Second, we wondered whether this potential effect could be targeted via two interventionist pathways in line with an interventionist-causal model approach: (1) decreasing loneliness, and (2) intervening on the potential mediator - negative affect. In Study 1 (N = 222), recollecting an experience of companionship reduced paranoia in participants high in pre-manipulation paranoia but not in participants low in pre-manipulation paranoia. Participants recollecting an experience of loneliness, on the other hand, exhibited increased paranoia, and this effect was mediated by negative affect. In Study 2 (N = 196), participants who utilized an emotion-regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, to regulate the negative affect associated with loneliness successfully attenuated the effect of loneliness on paranoia. Targeting the effect of loneliness on paranoia by identifying interventionist pathways may be one promising route for reducing and preventing subclinical paranoia. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Negative core affect and employee silence: How differences in activation, cognitive rumination, and problem-solving demands matter.

PubMed

Madrid, Hector P; Patterson, Malcolm G; Leiva, Pedro I

2015-11-01

Employees can help to improve organizational performance by sharing ideas, suggestions, or concerns about practices, but sometimes they keep silent because of the experience of negative affect. Drawing and expanding on this stream of research, this article builds a theoretical rationale based on core affect and cognitive appraisal theories to describe how differences in affect activation and boundary conditions associated with cognitive rumination and cognitive problem-solving demands can explain employee silence. Results of a diary study conducted with professionals from diverse organizations indicated that within-person low-activated negative core affect increased employee silence when, as an invariant factor, cognitive rumination was high. Furthermore, within-person high-activated negative core affect decreased employee silence when, as an invariant factor, cognitive problem-solving demand was high. Thus, organizations should manage conditions to reduce experiences of low-activated negative core affect because these feelings increase silence in individuals high in rumination. In turn, effective management of experiences of high-activated negative core affect can reduce silence for individuals working under high problem-solving demand situations. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The Effect of Traumatic Experiences and Psychiatric Symptoms on the Life Satisfaction of North Korean Refugees.

PubMed

Choi, Yeonsun; Lim, Sun Young; Jun, Jin Yong; Lee, So Hee; Yoo, So Young; Kim, Soohyun; Gwak, Ah Reum; Kim, Ji-Chul; Lee, Yu Jin; Kim, Seog Ju

2017-01-01

Successful adaptation of refugees to a new society can be hindered by traumatic experiences and psychiatric symptoms. This study aims to examine the relationship between trauma, psychiatric symptoms and life satisfaction of North Korean refugees resettled in South Korea. A total of 211 North Korean refugees living in South Korea completed a series of questionnaires on the history of their previous traumatic experiences, life satisfaction in South Korea, depression, anxiety, somatization and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. North Korean refugees who had experienced more traumatic events were less satisfied with their economic status in South Korea. Severe depression, anxiety, somatization or PTSD symptoms negatively correlated with their overall satisfaction in South Korea. In the stepwise regression model including all psychiatric symptoms and the number of traumatic experiences as dependent variables, only anxiety, but not trauma, predicted lower life satisfaction in South Korea. Traumatic experiences of North Korean refugees negatively affected the life satisfaction, especially the economic satisfaction, in South Korea. Since the negative effect of trauma was mainly mediated by psychiatric symptoms, the strategy of relieving psychiatric symptoms of traumatized refugees may help the adaptation of refugees. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Seeing the big picture: Broadening attention relieves sadness and depressed mood.

PubMed

Gu, Li; Yang, Xueling; Li, Liman Man Wai; Zhou, Xinyue; Gao, Ding-Guo

2017-08-01

We examined whether the broadened attentional scope would affect people's sad or depressed mood with two experiments, enlightened by the meaning of "seeing the big picture" and the broaden-and-build model. Experiment 1 (n = 164) is a laboratory-based experiment, in which we manipulated the attentional scope by showing participants zoomed-out or zoomed-in scenes. In Experiment 2 (n = 44), we studied how depressed mood and positive and negative emotions were affected when participants watched distant versus proximal scenes for eight weeks in real life. Healthy participants in Experiment 1, who were induced to feel sad, could return to the baseline mood after having the broadened attention task but not after having the narrowed attention task, which indicated that immediate attention broadening manipulation could function as antidotes for the lingering effects of induced negative emotions. Participants with depressed mood in Experiment 2 showed reduced depressed mood, increased positive affect, and decreased negative affect after receiving attention broadening training compared to those receiving attention narrowing training. Our findings suggest a robust role of broadened attentional scope in relieving negative emotions and even mildly depressed mood in the long run. © 2017 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Memory of childbirth in the second year: the long-term effect of a negative birth experience and its modulation by the perceived intranatal relationship with caregivers.

PubMed

Stadlmayr, W; Amsler, F; Lemola, S; Stein, S; Alt, M; Bürgin, D; Surbek, D; Bitzer, J

2006-12-01

To assess the memory of various subdimensions of the birth experience in the second year postpartum, and to identify women in the first weeks postpartum at risk of developing a long-term negative memory. DESIGN, METHOD, OUTCOME MEASURES: New mothers' birth experience (BE) was assessed 48-96 hours postpartum (T1) by means of the SIL-Ger and the BBCI (perception of intranatal relationships); early postnatal adjustment (week 3 pp: T1(bis)) was also assessed. Then, four subgroups of women were defined by means of a cluster-analysis, integrating the T1/T1(bis) variables. To evaluate the memory of the BE, the SIL-Ger was again applied in the second year after childbirth (T2). First, the ratings of the SIL-Ger dimensions of T1 were compared to those at T2 in the whole sample. Then, the four subgroups were compared with respect to their ratings of the birth experience at T2 (correlations, ANOVAs and t-tests). In general, fulfillment, emotional adaptation, physical discomfort, and anxiety improve spontaneously over the first year postpartum, whereas in negative emotional experience, control, and time-going-slowly no shift over time is observed. However, women with a negative overall birth experience and a low level of perceived intranatal relationship at T1 run a high risk of retaining a negative memory in all of the seven subdimensions of the birth experience. Women at risk of developing a negative long-term memory of the BE can be identified at the time of early postpartum, when the overall birth experience and the perceived intranatal relationship are taken into account.

Race of source effects in the elaboration likelihood model.

PubMed

White, P H; Harkins, S G

1994-11-01

In a series of experiments, we investigated the effect of race of source on persuasive communications in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (R.E. Petty & J.T. Cacioppo, 1981, 1986). In Experiment 1, we found no evidence that White participants responded to a Black source as a simple negative cue. Experiment 2 suggested the possibility that exposure to a Black source led to low-involvement message processing. In Experiments 3 and 4, a distraction paradigm was used to test this possibility, and it was found that participants under low involvement were highly motivated to process a message presented by a Black source. In Experiment 5, we found that attitudes toward the source's ethnic group, rather than violations of expectancies, accounted for this processing effect. Taken together, the results of these experiments are consistent with S.L. Gaertner and J.F. Dovidio's (1986) theory of aversive racism, which suggests that Whites, because of a combination of egalitarian values and underlying negative racial attitudes, are very concerned about not appearing unfavorable toward Blacks, leading them to be highly motivated to process messages presented by a source from this group.

Effects of Creative Thinking and Its Personality Determinants on Negative Emotion Regulation.

PubMed

Chiu, Fa-Chung; Hsu, Chih-Chun; Lin, Yao-Nan; Liu, Cheng-Hong; Chen, Hsueh-Chih; Lin, Chi-Hsiang

2018-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between creativity and negative emotion, and the effects of integrating creative insight into the reappraisal process on negative emotions. In Study 1, participants' creativity and baseline anxiety levels were measured; then anxiety was induced, and anxiety levels were reassessed. In Study 2, participants wrote about past negative events and then completed the positive and negative affect schedule. They were split into three groups (insight reappraisal, simple reappraisal, or control groups); each of them received a separate intervention, and then they completed positive and negative affect schedule again. In Study 3, participants were randomly assigned to insight reappraisal or control groups; apart from measuring cognitive changes, the procedures were identical to Study 2. All participants were undergraduate students. Results showed that flexibility, originality, risk-taking, and complexity are negatively correlated with anxiety, and that insight reappraisal can induce insight experience and enhance cognitive changes, and reduce negative emotional responses. Therefore, integrating creative insight into the reappraisal process can enhance its effectiveness in reducing negative emotions.

Relatively between extrication wave of mental load (EML) and emotion.

PubMed

Wei, J H; Pan, R T; Jin, H Y

1993-10-01

This experiment which was divided into three items studied the relativity between normal human emotion and extrication wave of mental load (EML) in a paradigm of combining CNV feedback with EML. Fourteen young persons were taken as subjects. After Fz, Cz, Pz, P3-T5 and P4-T6 were recorded, shorter EML latency and higher EML amplitude were caused by positive emotion in comparison with those caused by negative emotion. EML changes of the five recorded points were consistent under the effects of positive and negative emotions. This experiment also discussed the question of EML brain sources. Under the emotional conditions provided in the present experiment, EML possibly can be regarded as ERP index reflecting its positive and negative attributes.

Enhancing retention through reconsolidation: negative emotional arousal following retrieval enhances later recall.

PubMed

Finn, Bridgid; Roediger, Henry L

2011-06-01

When information is retrieved from memory, it enters a labile state rendering it amenable to change. This process of reconsolidation may explain, in part, the benefits that are observed in later retention following retrieval of information on an initial test. We examined whether the benefits of retrieval could be modulated by an emotional event occurring after retrieval. Participants studied Swahili-English vocabulary pairs. On a subsequent cued-recall test, each retrieval was followed by a blank screen, a neutral picture, or a picture inducing negative affect. Performance on a final cued-recall test was best for items whose initial retrieval was followed by negative pictures. This outcome occurred when a negative picture was presented immediately after (Experiment 1) or 2 s after (Experiment 2) successful retrieval, but not when it was presented after restudy of the vocabulary pair (Experiment 3). Postretrieval reconsolidation via emotional processing may enhance the usual positive effects of retrieval.

Is psychotherapy for functional somatic syndromes harmful? A mixed methods study on negative effects.

PubMed

Holsting, A F; Pedersen, H F; Rask, M T; Frostholm, L; Schröder, A

2017-07-01

Concern for negative effects of psychotherapy for functional somatic syndromes (FSS) has been expressed by clinicians and some patient associations, which may prevent patients from seeking treatment. Therefore, we sought to explore the occurrence and characteristics of negative effects from group-based psychotherapy as experienced by patients with severe or multiple FSS. An adapted version of the explanatory sequential mixed methods design was applied. We used data from an on-going pilot study on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Negative effects were measured by Inventory for the assessment of Negative Effects of Psychotherapy (INEP). In addition, telephone interviews were conducted with randomly chosen patients and patients who reported negative effects. The latter were asked to elaborate on their INEP response. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively while interview transcripts were explored by thematic analysis. Eighty patients responded to the questionnaire (89%). Negative effects to different extent (from 'slightly agree' to 'fully agree') were reported by 25 (31%). The most frequent negative effects were dependence on the therapist (12%), feeling down after therapy (6%) and insurance problems (7%). By exploring 27 participants' experiences of negative effects 3 main themes were identified: relations in therapy, outcome and transition from therapy to everyday life. Patients with FSS reported a few specific negative effects, all with low frequency. Generally, therapy was well-received. Some patients did however express negative effects both within and outside the therapeutic context. It is important to inform patients about potential negative effects prior to psychotherapy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Families’ Experiences of Doubling Up After Homelessness

PubMed Central

Bush, Hannah; Shinn, Marybeth

2017-01-01

This study examined experiences of doubling up among families after episodes of homelessness. Doubling up refers to two or more adults or families residing in the same housing unit, which has been an increasing trend in the United States in recent decades. Within the past 14 years, the number of households containing more than one family, related or unrelated, has more than tripled. Although doubling up is increasingly common among families at all income levels, this study seeks to understand the experiences of doubling up among families who have been homeless. Through qualitative interviews with caregivers of 29 families, we analyzed advantages and disadvantages of doubling up with the caregiver’s parent, other family, and nonfamily. Experiences were rated on a four-point scale—(1) mostly negative, (2) negative mixed, (3) positive mixed, and (4) mostly positive—and coded for various positive and negative themes. Overall, we found that doubling up was a generally negative experience for families in our sample, regardless of their relationship to their hosts. Common themes included negative effects on children, undesirable environments, interpersonal tension, and feelings of impermanence and instability. For formerly sheltered families in this study, doubling up after shelter did not resolve their period of housing instability and may be only another stop in an ongoing cycle of homelessness. PMID:29326758

Psychometric schizotypy predicts psychotic-like, paranoid, and negative symptoms in daily life.

PubMed

Barrantes-Vidal, Neus; Chun, Charlotte A; Myin-Germeys, Inez; Kwapil, Thomas R

2013-11-01

Positive and negative schizotypy exhibit differential patterns of impairment in social relations, affect, and functioning in daily life. However, studies have not examined the association of schizotypy with real-world expression of psychotic-like, paranoid, and negative symptoms. The present study employed experience-sampling methodology (ESM) to assess positive and negative schizotypy in daily life in a nonclinical sample of 206 Spanish young adults. Participants were prompted randomly 8 times daily for 1 week to complete assessments of their current symptoms and experiences. Positive schizotypy was associated with psychotic-like and paranoid symptoms in daily life. Negative schizotypy was associated with a subset of these symptoms and with negative symptoms in daily life. Momentary stress was associated with psychotic-like and paranoid symptoms, but only for those high in positive schizotypy. Social stress predicted momentary psychotic-like symptoms in both positive and negative schizotypy. Time-lagged analyses indicated that stress at the preceding signal predicted psychotic-like symptoms at the current assessment, but only for individuals high in positive schizotypy. The results are consistent with models linking stress sensitivity with the experience of psychotic symptoms. The findings provide cross-cultural support for the multidimensional model of schizotypy and schizophrenia. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that ESM is an effective method for predicting the experience of psychotic-like symptoms, as well as their precursors, in daily life. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Brain training for silver gamers: effects of age and game form on effectiveness, efficiency, self-assessment, and gameplay experience.

PubMed

Nacke, Lennart E; Nacke, Anne; Lindley, Craig A

2009-10-01

In recent years, an aging demographic majority in the Western world has come to the attention of the game industry. The recently released "brain-training" games target this population, and research investigating gameplay experience of the elderly using this game form is lacking. This study employs a 2 x 2 mixed factorial design (age group: young and old x game form: paper and Nintendo DS) to investigate effects of age and game form on usability, self-assessment, and gameplay experience in a supervised field study. Effectiveness was evaluated in task completion time, efficiency as error rate, together with self-assessment measures (arousal, pleasure, dominance) and game experience (challenge, flow, competence, tension, positive and negative affect). Results indicate players, regardless of age, are more effective and efficient using pen-and-paper than using a Nintendo DS console. However, the game is more arousing and induces a heightened sense of flow in digital form for gamers of all ages. Logic problem-solving challenges within digital games may be associated with positive feelings for the elderly but with negative feelings for the young. Thus, digital logic-training games may provide positive gameplay experience for an aging Western civilization.

Positive and Negative Posttraumatic Change Following Childhood Sexual Abuse Are Associated With Youths’ Adjustment

PubMed Central

Simon, Valerie A.; Smith, Erin; Fava, Nicole; Feiring, Candice

2017-01-01

Meanings made of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) experiences are important to psychosocial adjustment. The current study examined adolescents’ and young adults’ perceptions of posttraumatic change (PTC) in the self, relationships, sexuality, and worldviews attributed to prior CSA experiences. We sought to document the prevalence of positive and negative PTC and examine their unique and joint associations with psychosocial adjustment. Participants included 160 youth with confirmed cases of CSA (73% female; 8–14 years at abuse discovery) who were part of a longitudinal study of the long-term effects of CSA. Six years after discovery, youth were interviewed about their abuse experiences. Interviews were coded for the valence and strength of PTC. The majority of youth reported PTC, and negative changes were more frequent and stronger than positive changes. Controlling for age, gender, abuse severity, and negative PTC, positive PTC was associated with lower abuse stigmatization for all youth. Controlling for age, gender, abuse severity, and positive PTC, negative PTC was associated with greater abuse stigmatization, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual problems, and dating aggression for all youth. Relations of positive PTC with depression and support from friends and romantic partner were moderated by negative PTC, such that positive PTC was associated with better adjustment for youth with low versus high levels of negative PTC. Results highlight the importance of both negative and positive PTC for understanding meanings made of CSA experiences and their implications for psychosocial adjustment and intervention. PMID:26092440

Predicting complex syntactic structure in real time: Processing of negative sentences in Russian.

PubMed

Kazanina, Nina

2017-11-01

In Russian negative sentences the verb's direct object may appear either in the accusative case, which is licensed by the verb (as is common cross-linguistically), or in the genitive case, which is licensed by the negation (Russian-specific "genitive-of-negation" phenomenon). Such sentences were used to investigate whether case marking is employed for anticipating syntactic structure, and whether lexical heads other than the verb can be predicted on the basis of a case-marked noun phrase. Experiment 1, a completion task, confirmed that genitive-of-negation is part of Russian speakers' active grammatical repertoire. In Experiments 2 and 3, the genitive/accusative case manipulation on the preverbal object led to shorter reading times at the negation and verb in the genitive versus accusative condition. Furthermore, Experiment 3 manipulated linear order of the direct object and the negated verb in order to distinguish whether the abovementioned facilitatory effect was predictive or integrative in nature, and concluded that the parser actively predicts a verb and (otherwise optional) negation on the basis of a preceding genitive-marked object. Similarly to a head-final language, case-marking information on preverbal noun phrases (NPs) is used by the parser to enable incremental structure building in a free-word-order language such as Russian.

Opposing influences on conflict-driven adaptation in the Eriksen flanker task

PubMed Central

Bugg, Julie M.

2009-01-01

Compatibility effects in conflict paradigms are reduced following incompatible trials, and this effect is referred to as conflict adaptation. A perplexing pattern exists, however, with conflict-driven adaptation emerging in several paradigms (e.g., Stroop, Simon) but not consistently in the Eriksen and Eriksen (1974) flanker task. The present experiments address the seemingly elusive presence of conflict adaptation in this task. Experiment 1 shows that a negative-priming-like slowing may be masking conflict adaptation in the flanker task. In Experiment 2, conflict adaptation was revealed when a larger stimulus set designed to reduce negative priming was implemented. Taken together, the findings indicate that a consideration of processes opposing conflict adaptation in the flanker task may help reconcile prior findings. PMID:18927038

Drinking Motives and Alcohol Outcome Expectancies as Mediators of the Association between Negative Urgency and Alcohol Consumption

PubMed Central

Anthenien, Amber M.; Lembo, Jordanna; Neighbors, Clayton

2017-01-01

Objective To determine whether the effects of negative urgency, a unique facet of impulsivity marked by engaging in potentially unhealthy and rash behaviors in order to cope with anxiety or negative moods, on drinking behavior can be explained by positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies and specific drinking motives (i.e., coping and enhancement). Methods College students (N = 194) completed web-based surveys in exchange for course credit. Students completed measures of negative urgency, comprehensive effects of alcohol, drinking motives, and alcohol use behaviors. Results Results of path analysis indicated significant indirect effects of negative urgency and alcohol use through both alcohol outcome expectancies and enhancement motives. The effects of enhancement motives on drinking were mediated by positive alcohol outcome expectancies. The effects of coping motives on drinking were not attributable to negative expectancies. Conclusions Individuals high on negative urgency may consume alcohol in order to ameliorate their emotional distress due to strong desires to increase positive and decrease negative experiences associated with drinking. Emotion-focused impulsivity’s influence on drinking outcomes can be ascribed to enhancement motives for drinking as well as positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies. Prevention efforts should target drinking motives and alcohol outcome expectancies among those higher in negative urgency. PMID:27914226

Drinking motives and alcohol outcome expectancies as mediators of the association between negative urgency and alcohol consumption.

PubMed

Anthenien, Amber M; Lembo, Jordanna; Neighbors, Clayton

2017-03-01

To determine whether the effects of negative urgency, a unique facet of impulsivity marked by engaging in potentially unhealthy and rash behaviors in order to cope with anxiety or negative moods, on drinking behavior can be explained by positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies and specific drinking motives (i.e., coping and enhancement). College students (N=194) completed web-based surveys in exchange for course credit. Students completed measures of negative urgency, comprehensive effects of alcohol, drinking motives, and alcohol use behaviors. Results of path analysis indicated significant indirect effects of negative urgency and alcohol use through both alcohol outcome expectancies and enhancement motives. The effects of enhancement motives on drinking were mediated by positive alcohol outcome expectancies. The effects of coping motives on drinking were not attributable to negative expectancies. Individuals high on negative urgency may consume alcohol in order to ameliorate their emotional distress due to strong desires to increase positive and decrease negative experiences associated with drinking. Emotion-focused impulsivity's influence on drinking outcomes can be ascribed to enhancement motives for drinking as well as positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies. Prevention efforts should target drinking motives and alcohol outcome expectancies among those higher in negative urgency. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparing the effects of negative and mixed emotional messages on predicted occasional excessive drinking.

PubMed

Carrera, Pilar; Caballero, Amparo; Muñoz, Dolores

2008-01-01

In this work we present two types of emotional message, negative (sadness) versus mixed (joy and sadness), with the aim of studying their differential effect on attitude change and the probability estimated by participants of repeating the behavior of occasional excessive drinking in the near future. The results show that for the group of participants with moderate experience in this behavior the negative message, compared to the mixed one, is associated with higher probability of repeating the risk behavior and a less negative attitude toward it. These results suggest that mixed emotional messages (e.g. joy and sadness messages) could be more effective in campaigns for the prevention of this risk behavior.

The Negative Testing Effect and Multifactor Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Daniel J.; Mulligan, Neil W.

2013-01-01

Across 3 experiments, we investigated the factors that dictate when taking a test improves subsequent memory performance (the "testing effect"). In Experiment 1, participants retrieving a set of targets during a retrieval practice phase ultimately recalled fewer of those targets compared with a group of participants who studied the…

Emotions and Steroid Secretion in Aging Men: A Multi—Study Report

PubMed Central

Walther, Andreas; Waldvogel, Patricia; Noser, Emilou; Ruppen, Jessica; Ehlert, Ulrike

2017-01-01

Although aging increases the risk of cognitive and socioemotional deterioration, it has also been shown to be accompanied by an increase in experienced positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions. Steroid hormones and age-related alterations in secretion patterns have been suggested to play a crucial role in these age-related changes in emotional experience. Importantly, previous studies identified effects of neuroactive hormones on age-related alterations in emotional experience, which vary by sex and depression levels. Therefore, in three independent cross-sectional studies including a total of 776 men, we examined age-related differences in emotional experience and subsequently the moderation effect of steroid hormones. Sample one consisted of 271 self-reporting healthy (SRH) men aged between 40 and 75 years, while sample two comprised 121 men in the identical age range but only including vitally exhausted (VE) men. Sample three included 384 men aged between 25 and 78 years who reported having fathered (FA) at least one child. For the SRH men, age was negatively associated with anxiety symptoms and aggression, while negative trends emerged for depressive symptoms. In VE men, age was negatively associated with depressive symptoms and positively associated with aggression and positive emotions. For FA men, anxiety symptoms and aggression were negatively associated with age. Age trends of steroid hormones and identified moderation effects are reported. However, with adjustment for multiple comparisons, most of the significant associations fade and the reported associations need to be regarded as exploratory starting points for the further investigation of age-related alterations in emotional experience and their relation to steroid secretion. Overall, the results indicate that salivary cortisol might be a moderator of the association between age and symptoms of anxiety for SRH and VE men, while salivary testosterone seems to moderate the association between age and symptoms of anxiety or depression in VE and FA men, respectively. Both hair cortisol and progesterone seem to influence age-related alterations in anger experience. Age-related alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis emerge as promising avenues to further investigate the decrease in experienced negative emotions in aging men. PMID:29033885

Trait and State Positive Emotional Experience in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Yan, Chao; Cao, Yuan; Zhang, Yang; Song, Li-Ling; Cheung, Eric F. C.; Chan, Raymond C. K.

2012-01-01

Background Prior meta-analyses indicated that people with schizophrenia show impairment in trait hedonic capacity but retain their state hedonic experience (valence) in laboratory-based assessments. Little is known about what is the extent of differences for state positive emotional experience (especially arousal) between people with schizophrenia and healthy controls. It is also not clear whether negative symptoms and gender effect contribute to the variance of positive affect. Methods and Findings The current meta-analysis examined 21 studies assessing state arousal experience, 40 studies measuring state valence experience, and 47studies assessing trait hedonic capacity in schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia demonstrated significant impairment in trait hedonic capacity (Cohen’s d = 0.81). However, patients and controls did not statistically differ in state hedonic (valence) as well as exciting (arousal) experience to positive stimuli (Cohen’s d = −0.24 to 0.06). They also reported experiencing relatively robust state aversion and calmness to positive stimuli compared with controls (Cohen’s d = 0.75, 0.56, respectively). Negative symptoms and gender contributed to the variance of findings in positive affect, especially trait hedonic capacity in schizophrenia. Conclusions Our findings suggest that schizophrenia patients have no deficit in state positive emotional experience but impairment in “noncurrent” hedonic capacity, which may be mediated by negative symptoms and gender effect. PMID:22815785

Retrieval of past and future positive and negative autobiographical experiences.

PubMed

García-Bajos, Elvira; Migueles, Malen

2017-09-01

We studied retrieval-induced forgetting for past or future autobiographical experiences. In the study phase, participants were given cues to remember past autobiographical experiences or to think about experiences that may occur in the future. In both conditions, half of the experiences were positive and half negative. In the retrieval-practice phase, for past and future experiences, participants retrieved either half of the positive or negative experiences using cued recall, or capitals of the world (control groups). Retrieval practice produced recall facilitation and enhanced memory for the practised positive and negative past and future experiences. While retrieval practice on positive experiences did not impair the recall of other positive experiences, we found inhibition for negative past and future experiences when participants practised negative experiences. Furthermore, retrieval practice on positive future experiences inhibited negative future experiences. These positivity biases for autobiographical memory may have practical implications for treatment of emotional disorders.

Directed Forgetting of Recently Recalled Autobiographical Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnier, Amanda J.; Conway, Martin A.; Mayoh, Lyndel; Speyer, Joanne; Avizmil, Orit; Harris, Celia B.

2007-01-01

In 6 experiments, the authors investigated list-method directed forgetting of recently recalled autobiographical memories. Reliable directed forgetting effects were observed across all experiments. In 4 experiments, the authors examined the impact of memory valence on directed forgetting. The forget instruction impaired recall of negative,…

Negative effects of item repetition on source memory.

PubMed

Kim, Kyungmi; Yi, Do-Joon; Raye, Carol L; Johnson, Marcia K

2012-08-01

In the present study, we explored how item repetition affects source memory for new item-feature associations (picture-location or picture-color). We presented line drawings varying numbers of times in Phase 1. In Phase 2, each drawing was presented once with a critical new feature. In Phase 3, we tested memory for the new source feature of each item from Phase 2. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated and replicated the negative effects of item repetition on incidental source memory. Prior item repetition also had a negative effect on source memory when different source dimensions were used in Phases 1 and 2 (Experiment 3) and when participants were explicitly instructed to learn source information in Phase 2 (Experiments 4 and 5). Importantly, when the order between Phases 1 and 2 was reversed, such that item repetition occurred after the encoding of critical item-source combinations, item repetition no longer affected source memory (Experiment 6). Overall, our findings did not support predictions based on item predifferentiation, within-dimension source interference, or general interference from multiple traces of an item. Rather, the findings were consistent with the idea that prior item repetition reduces attention to subsequent presentations of the item, decreasing the likelihood that critical item-source associations will be encoded.

On the Nature of Clitics and Their Sensitivity to Number Attraction Effects

PubMed Central

Santesteban, Mikel; Zawiszewski, Adam; Erdocia, Kepa; Laka, Itziar

2017-01-01

Pronominal dependencies have been shown to be more resilient to attraction effects than subject-verb agreement. We use this phenomenon to investigate whether antecedent-clitic dependencies in Spanish are computed like agreement or like pronominal dependencies. In Experiment 1, an acceptability judgment self-paced reading task was used. Accuracy data yielded reliable attraction effects in both grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, only in singular (but not plural) clitics. Reading times did not show reliable attraction effects. In Experiment 2, we measured electrophysiological responses to violations, which elicited a biphasic frontal negativity-P600 pattern. Number attraction modulated the frontal negativity but not the amplitude of the P600 component. This differs from ERP findings on subject-verb agreement, since when the baseline matching condition obtained a biphasic pattern, attraction effects only modulated the P600, not the preceding negativity. We argue that these findings support cue-retrieval accounts of dependency resolution and further suggest that the sensitivity to attraction effects shown by clitics resembles more the computation of pronominal dependencies than that of agreement. PMID:28928686

On the Nature of Clitics and Their Sensitivity to Number Attraction Effects.

PubMed

Santesteban, Mikel; Zawiszewski, Adam; Erdocia, Kepa; Laka, Itziar

2017-01-01

Pronominal dependencies have been shown to be more resilient to attraction effects than subject-verb agreement. We use this phenomenon to investigate whether antecedent-clitic dependencies in Spanish are computed like agreement or like pronominal dependencies. In Experiment 1, an acceptability judgment self-paced reading task was used. Accuracy data yielded reliable attraction effects in both grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, only in singular (but not plural) clitics. Reading times did not show reliable attraction effects. In Experiment 2, we measured electrophysiological responses to violations, which elicited a biphasic frontal negativity-P600 pattern. Number attraction modulated the frontal negativity but not the amplitude of the P600 component. This differs from ERP findings on subject-verb agreement, since when the baseline matching condition obtained a biphasic pattern, attraction effects only modulated the P600, not the preceding negativity. We argue that these findings support cue-retrieval accounts of dependency resolution and further suggest that the sensitivity to attraction effects shown by clitics resembles more the computation of pronominal dependencies than that of agreement.

Negative experiences in childhood and the development and course of bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Jaworska-Andryszewska, Paulina; Rybakowski, Janusz

2016-10-31

The aim of this paper is to review the effects of negative childhood experiences on the development and course of bipolar disorder (BD) and to discuss the involved mechanisms. The negative childhood experiences that may play a role in BD are critical or traumatic events including all kinds of abuse, loss of a parent or parents resulting from death, suicide, separation, divorce or prolonged separation. Previous studies indicate that in BD patients negative childhood events are more frequent than in control group. In BD patients these events are associated with an earlier onset and more severe course of the illness, including more frequent relapses, suicidal behavior, substance abuse and somatic diseases. This paper presents the possibility of the specific impact of individual events on the clinical outcome of BD. Mechanisms explaining the impact of negative childhood events on the development and course of BD include the interaction between biological predisposition and stress factors, the concept of kindling and activation of negative cognitive schemas. Early negative experiences cause a modification of the expression of the mediators of stress and neurotransmitters in certain areas of the brain. The interaction of these mediators with the development of neural networks may lead to long-lasting structural and functional changes. Molecular genetic studies indicate the possibility of interactions between environmental factors (stress) and the polymorphisms of serotonin transporter, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and toll-like receptor (TLR2). It has also been hypothesized that childhood experiences affect DNA methylation, acting as a form of molecular memory and modifying brain activity over the next decade.

Toll Like Receptor-9 Mediated Invasion in Breast Cancer

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-07-01

cancer models, but only in triple negative breast cancer cells. In line with these...expression and“dead DNA” are biologically important in triple negative breast cancer . 15. SUBJECT TERMS None provided 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF...experiments done so far in the Specific Aim # 1: Tumor TLR9 expression has a dramatic effect on prognosis in triple negative breast cancers . The lack

Suicide and War: The Mediating Effects of Negative Mood, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, and Social Support among Army National Guard Soldiers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffith, James

2012-01-01

The mediating effects of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, negative mood, and social support on the relationship of war experiences to suicidality were examined. The research literature suggested a sequence among study scales representing these constructs, which was then tested on survey data obtained from a sample of National Guard…

[The relationship between self-esteem and self-disclosure of negative information].

PubMed

Katayama, M

1996-12-01

Although self-disclosure after a negative experience may be good for our adjustment, we also feel hesitant to do so. This study investigated the relationship between self-esteem and hesitancy to disclose negative information about one's self. One hundred and fifty-five undergraduates imagined self-disclosure to a friend of high or low intimacy. They then answered a questionnaire concerning hesitancy to self-disclose negative information to friends, as well as expected negative consequences of such self-disclosure. Main results were: (1) Low intimacy strongly affected the hesitancy. (2) Factor analysis of the negative consequences found three factors: interpersonal and intra-personal negative-effect, and no positive expectation. (3) Hesitancy of high self-esteem students was most affected by the interpersonal factor. Impression management may be the reason. (4) On the other hand, low students tended to feel hurt after negative self-disclosure. Theirs was affected by the intra-personal and no positive expectation factors. Defensiveness may be the reason. The results were discussed from the viewpoint of adjustment when people have had a negative experience.

A test of the functional avoidance hypothesis in the development of overgeneral autobiographical memory.

PubMed

Hallford, D J; Austin, D W; Raes, F; Takano, K

2018-04-18

Overgeneral memory (OGM) refers to the failure to recall memories of specific personally experienced events, which occurs in various psychiatric disorders. One pathway through which OGM is theorized to develop is the avoidance of thinking of negative experiences, whereby cumulative avoidance may maladaptively generalize to autobiographical memory (AM) more broadly. We tested this, predicting that negative experiences would interact with avoidance to predict AM specificity. In Study 1 (N = 281), negative life events (over six months) and daily hassles (over one month) were not related to AM specificity, nor was avoidance, and no interaction was found. In Study 2 (N = 318), we revised our measurements and used an increased timeframe of 12 months for both negative life events and daily hassles. The results showed no interaction effect for negative life events, but they did show an interaction for daily hassles, whereby increased hassles and higher avoidance of thinking about them were associated with reduced AM specificity, independent of general cognitive avoidance and depressive symptoms. No evidence was found that cognitive avoidance or AM specificity moderated the effect of negative experiences on depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that life events over 6-12 months are not associated with AM specificity, but chronic daily hassles over 12 months predict reduced AM specificity when individuals avoid thinking about them. The findings provide evidence for the functional-avoidance hypothesis of OGM development and future directions for longitudinal studies.

Emotion words and categories: evidence from lexical decision.

PubMed

Scott, Graham G; O'Donnell, Patrick J; Sereno, Sara C

2014-05-01

We examined the categorical nature of emotion word recognition. Positive, negative, and neutral words were presented in lexical decision tasks. Word frequency was additionally manipulated. In Experiment 1, "positive" and "negative" categories of words were implicitly indicated by the blocked design employed. A significant emotion-frequency interaction was obtained, replicating past research. While positive words consistently elicited faster responses than neutral words, only low frequency negative words demonstrated a similar advantage. In Experiments 2a and 2b, explicit categories ("positive," "negative," and "household" items) were specified to participants. Positive words again elicited faster responses than did neutral words. Responses to negative words, however, were no different than those to neutral words, regardless of their frequency. The overall pattern of effects indicates that positive words are always facilitated, frequency plays a greater role in the recognition of negative words, and a "negative" category represents a somewhat disparate set of emotions. These results support the notion that emotion word processing may be moderated by distinct systems.

A perfect storm: examining the synergistic effects of negative and positive emotional instability on promoting weight loss activities in anorexia nervosa

PubMed Central

Selby, Edward A.; Cornelius, Talea; Fehling, Kara B.; Kranzler, Amy; Panza, Emily A.; Lavender, Jason M.; Wonderlich, Stephen A.; Crosby, Ross D.; Engel, Scott G.; Mitchell, James E.; Crow, Scott J.; Peterson, Carol B.; Grange, Daniel Le

2015-01-01

Growing evidence indicates that both positive and negative emotion potentially influence the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa, through both positive and negative reinforcement of weight loss activities. Such reactive emotional experience may be characterized by frequent and intense fluctuations in emotion, a construct known as “emotional instability.” The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between positive emotional instability and weight loss activities in anorexia nervosa, and to investigate the synergistic effects of positive and negative emotional instability on promoting weight loss activities. Using ecological momentary assessment methods, 118 participants with anorexia nervosa reported their emotional experiences and behaviors at least six times daily over 2 weeks using a portable digital device. Using generalized linear modeling, results indicated that high levels of both positive and negative emotional instability, and the interaction between the two, were associated with more frequent weight-loss activities, beyond anorexia subtype and mean levels of emotional intensity. These findings indicate that when women with anorexia exhibit both high levels of both positive and negative emotional instability they are more prone to a variety of weight loss activities. The importance of addressing the role of both positive and negative emotion in anorexia treatment is discussed. PMID:26379588

Ironic effects of emotion suppression when recounting distressing memories.

PubMed

Dalgleish, Tim; Yiend, Jenny; Schweizer, Susanne; Dunn, Barnaby D

2009-10-01

Theories of ironic mental control posit that under conditions in which effortful control is compromised, for example, in laboratory manipulations of mental load or in those suffering from clinical levels of negative affect, attempts to suppress negative emotions can lead to a paradoxical increase in such feelings, relative to conditions in which no suppression is attempted. In line with this, we showed that high negative affect participants, when asked to suppress (downregulate) their negative feelings while writing about a distressing personal memory, exhibited an ironically greater increase in negative emotions compared with a no-instruction condition, in contrast to low negative affect controls who were able to suppress their emotions. Comparable ironic effects were not associated with instructions to experience emotions. This first demonstration of ironic effects of emotion suppression in response to personal material in those with emotional problems sheds light into how certain emotion regulation strategies may maintain and exacerbate such conditions.

Emotional experience with dyslexia and self-esteem: the protective role of perceived family support in late adulthood.

PubMed

Carawan, Lena W; Nalavany, Blace A; Jenkins, Carol

2016-01-01

Despite the growing body of evidence that suggests dyslexia persists through the life span, there is a dearth of research that explores the complicating factor of dyslexia in late adulthood. Based upon stress and coping theory, this study examined whether perceived family support protects the impact of negative emotional experience with dyslexia on self-esteem. Adults aged 21 years and older with diagnosed or self-reported dyslexia were participants in a web-based survey. A total of 224 individuals completed the survey. These findings are from the 50 participants who reported to be 60 years or older. Completed measures include their perception of family support, emotional experience with dyslexia, self-esteem, and demographic variables. Preliminary analysis revealed that negative emotional experience with dyslexia negatively impacts self-esteem. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis demonstrated that positive perceived family support significantly buffers, mitigates, and protects the effects of negative emotional experiences with dyslexia on self-esteem in individuals with dyslexia in late adulthood. In this study, family support promoted self-esteem because as a protective dynamic, it helped older adults cope with the emotional distress associated with dyslexia. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Disclosure and Psychological Well-Being of Sexually Abused Adolescents in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Lam, Kindy Yuk-Ip

2015-01-01

The role of disclosure on psychological well-being of adolescents with child sexual abuse experience was investigated in a subsample of 74 disclosers among 800 adolescents recruited in the community in Hong Kong. The results supported that CSA experiences have differential impact on adolescents' psychological well-being. Family characteristics of the disclosers accounted for only a small amount of the variance in an array of psychological well-being measures. CSA characteristics were robust predictors of disclosers' sexual eroticism and externalizing behavioral symptoms. Disclosers' cognitive appraisal of CSA experience and quality of parental attachment were strong predictors of their self-esteem and internalizing behavioral problems. After controlling for the aforementioned factors, negative disclosure experience still significantly predicted lower self-esteem, higher sexual anxiety, more internalizing behavior, and more severe post-traumatic stress disorder responses. Research to understand the factors that generate negative disclosure experiences is needed for developing effective intervention strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of disclosure.

The polarizing effect of arousal on negotiation.

PubMed

Brown, Ashley D; Curhan, Jared R

2013-10-01

In this research, we examined the impact of physiological arousal on negotiation outcomes. Conventional wisdom and the prescriptive literature suggest that arousal should be minimized given its negative effect on negotiations, whereas prior research on misattribution of arousal suggests that arousal might polarize outcomes, either negatively or positively. In two experiments, we manipulated arousal and measured its effect on subjective and objective negotiation outcomes. Our results support the polarization effect. When participants had negative prior attitudes toward negotiation, arousal had a detrimental effect on outcomes, whereas when participants had positive prior attitudes toward negotiation, arousal had a beneficial effect on outcomes. These effects occurred because of the construal of arousal as negative or positive affect, respectively. Our findings have important implications not only for negotiation, but also for research on misattribution of arousal, which previously has focused on the target of evaluation, in contrast to the current research, which focused on the critical role of the perceiver.

Effects of Process and Outcome Accountability on Idea Generation.

PubMed

Häusser, Jan Alexander; Frisch, Johanna Ute; Wanzel, Stella; Schulz-Hardt, Stefan

2017-07-01

Previous research on the effects of outcome and process accountability on decision making has neglected the preceding phase of idea generation. We conducted a 2 (outcome accountability: yes vs. no) × 2 (process accountability: yes vs. no) experiment (N = 147) to test the effects of accountability on quantity and quality of generated ideas in a product design task. Furthermore, we examined potential negative side effects of accountability (i.e., stress and lengthened decision making). We found that (a) outcome accountability had a negative effect on quantity of ideas and (b) process accountability extended the idea generation process. Furthermore, any type of accountability (c) had a negative effect on uniqueness of ideas, (d) did not affect the quality of the idea that was selected, and (e) increased stress. Moreover, the negative effect of accountability on uniqueness of ideas was mediated by stress.

Unconscious emotion regulation: Nonconscious reappraisal decreases emotion-related physiological reactivity during frustration.

PubMed

Yuan, Jiajin; Ding, Nanxiang; Liu, Yingying; Yang, Jiemin

2015-01-01

Reappraisal of negative events is known to be useful in decreasing their emotional impact. However, existent evidence for this conclusion mostly relies on conscious, deliberate reappraisal that comes with the cost of cognitive efforts. The aim of the present study was to compare emotion regulation effects of conscious and unconscious reappraisal, which has been shown to be less costly in previous studies. Subjects randomly assigned to an unconscious reappraisal, conscious reappraisal, and control condition performed a frustrating arithmetic task. Subjective emotional experience and heart-rate reactivity were recorded. Participants primed with unconscious reappraisal showed the same decrease in heart-rate reactivity as those explicitly instructed to reappraise. In addition, the unconscious reappraisal group did not show reductions in subjective negative emotion, whereas this was significantly decreased in the conscious reappraisal group. Heart-rate reactivity was positively correlated with negative emotion ratings and negatively correlated with the positive emotion ratings. These results suggest that unconscious reappraisal is only effective in decreasing physiological consequences of frustrating emotion, but not in reducing subjective experience.

Phasic affective modulation of semantic priming.

PubMed

Topolinski, Sascha; Deutsch, Roland

2013-03-01

The present research demonstrates that very brief variations in affect, being around 1 s in length and changing from trial to trial independently from semantic relatedness of primes and targets, modulate the amount of semantic priming. Implementing consonant and dissonant chords (Experiments 1 and 5), naturalistic sounds (Experiment 2), and visual facial primes (Experiment 3) in an (in)direct semantic priming paradigm, as well as brief facial feedback in a summative priming paradigm (Experiment 4), yielded increased priming effects under brief positive compared to negative affect. Furthermore, this modulation took place on the level of semantic spreading rather than on strategic mechanisms (Experiment 5). Alternative explanations such as distraction, motivation, arousal, and cognitive tuning could be ruled out. This phasic affective modulation constitutes a mechanism overlooked thus far that may contaminate priming effects in all priming paradigms that involve affective stimuli. Furthermore, this mechanism provides a novel explanation for the observation that priming effects are usually larger for positive than for negative stimuli. Finally, it has important implications for linguistic research, by suggesting that association norms may be biased for affective words. (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Exploring the lived experience of adults using prescription opioids to manage chronic noncancer pain

PubMed Central

Brooks, Erica A; Unruh, Anita; Lynch, Mary E

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) and prescription opioid use is a highly complex and growing health care issue in Canada. Many quantitative research studies have investigated the effectiveness of opioids for chronic pain; however, gaps remain in the literature regarding the personal experience of using opioids and their impact on those experiencing CNCP. OBJECTIVE: To explore the lived experience of adults using prescription opioids to manage CNCP, focusing on how opioid medication affected their daily lives. METHODS: In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with nine adults between 40 and 68 years of age who were using prescription opioids daily for CNCP. Interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed, and subsequently analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. RESULTS: Six major themes identified positive and negative aspects of opioid use associated with social, physical, emotional and psychological dimensions of pain management. These themes included the process of decision making, and physical and psychosocial consequences of using opioids including pharmacological side effects, feeling stigmatized, guilt, fears, ambivalence, self-protection and acceptance. CONCLUSION: Although there were many negative aspects to using opioids daily, the positive effects outweighed the negative for most participants and most of the negative aspects were socioculturally induced rather than caused by the drug itself. The present study highlighted the complexities involved in using prescription opioids daily for management of CNCP for individuals living with pain. PMID:25562838

Work stressors and partner social undermining: Comparing negative affect and psychological detachment as mechanisms.

PubMed

Meier, Laurenz L; Cho, Eunae

2018-05-14

With the mounting evidence that employees' work experiences spill over into the family domain and cross over to family members, it is important to understand the underlying mechanism through which work experiences affect the family domain and what factors may alleviate the adverse impact of work stress. Expanding previous research that mainly focused on the affect-based mechanism (negative affect), the present research investigated a resource-based mechanism (psychological detachment from work) in the relationship linking two work stressors (high workload and workplace incivility) with social undermining toward the partner at home. We also explored the relative strength of the mediating effects of the two mechanisms. In addition, we tested whether relationship satisfaction moderates the proposed effect of detachment on partner undermining. We tested these research questions using two studies with differing designs: a five-wave longitudinal study (N = 470) and a multisource study (N = 131). The results suggest that stressful work experiences affect the family domain via lack of detachment as well as negative affect, that the two pathways have comparable strength, and that high relationship satisfaction mitigates the negative effect of lack of detachment on partner undermining. In sum, this research extends the spillover-crossover model by establishing that poor psychological detachment from work during leisure time is an additional mechanism that links work and family. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Twenty-Seven-Year Follow-Up of Vietnam Air War USAF POWs and Matched Controls Not Captured: A Qualitative Study.

PubMed

Sledge, William; Rozanova, Julia; Dorset, Julianne

2018-01-01

To provide a follow up of a 1976 study of the impact of captivity on U.S. Air Force (USAF) POWs and USAF Controls matched for time in Southeast Asia, military rank and aircraft crew position. Qualitative study of replies to open ended questions of positive and negative changes due to their captivity/combat experiences made by participants (POWs and Controls) who replied in both 1976 and in 2003. Both groups acknowledged positive and negative effects of the experiences in 1976. In 1976 and 2003 the POWs mainly reported negative effects on career and family domains but positive effects of individual development and growth. Controls reported mild negative effects on family in 1976, and benefits to their careers and sense of self in both 1976 and 2003. Captivity during the Vietnam War for USAF included two types of extreme duress which were the incarceration itself; and the repatriation experience which entailed re-assimilation despite loss of occupation and disrupted families. Despite these obstacles, POWs exhibited substantial resilience in achieving self-growth and how they regarded themselves psychologically in comparison to their matched control fellow aviators who while also suffering a lesser separation from family, tended to prosper in their careers and were proud of their accomplishments. Long term separation from work, family and friends and the inability to return to their families and careers with the effectiveness demanded by their ambition were a more devastating ongoing consequence of their captivity than the immediate suffering of their imprisonment.

The space flight of the Soviet-Indian crew

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nikitin, S. A.

1985-01-01

After a brief discussion of the Indian space program, the paper examines the flight of the Soyuz T-11, which included an Indian crew member. Particular attention is given to experiments conducted aboard Soyuz T-11, including the Optokinez vestibular experiment, the Vektor cardiac bioelectricity experiment, the yoga experiment for the counteraction of the negative effects of weightlessness, a supercooling experiment, and the Terra remote sensing experiment.

Early trauma, negative affect, and anxious attachment: the role of metacognition.

PubMed

Myers, Samuel G; Wells, Adrian

2015-01-01

Metacognition is linked to the etiology and maintenance of negative emotions and psychological disorder in the Self-Regulatory Executive Function Model. Although there is significant evidence supporting the model, little is currently known about the situational factors for developing dysfunctional metacognitions. The current study explored the hypothesis that early aversive experiences might be important and also tested if metacognitions could mediate the relationship between such experiences and psychological symptoms. Three hundred and fifty non-clinical adults completed a retrospective early trauma measure, as well as measures of current metacognitive beliefs, negative affect, and anxious attachment. Early emotional abuse positively and significantly correlated with several metacognitive belief dimensions but other forms of early trauma did not. Metacognition fully mediated the relationship between emotional abuse and negative affect. Anxious attachment was also positively and significantly associated with metacognitive beliefs and specific relationships remained after controlling for early emotional abuse and current negative affect. Findings are consistent with the ideas that: (i) early negative experiences, and emotional abuse in particular, could be a factor in the formation of problematic metacognitions and (ii) these metacognitions may be important in determining the effects of abuse on subsequent psychological symptoms.

Personality traits and dysfunctional construal of online health promotion messages.

PubMed

Lee, Yaeeun; Kurtz, John E

2017-10-20

With the Internet becoming increasingly popular as a source of information, blogs offering healthy lifestyle techniques and knowledge have become popular and accessible. Despite their focus on health, these blogs portray content that may be negatively construed by viewers, especially those with or at risk for eating disorders. The present study investigated changes in affect and self-esteem after viewing a prototypic health blog. Personality traits, specifically neuroticism and conscientiousness, were also investigated. A prototypic health blog was constructed after extensive review of existing blogs. A parallel format was then followed to create a home décor website for a control condition. Female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of two blog sites, and participants completed an earlier personality assessment and post-viewing study questionnaires. Contrary to the hypothesis that readers of the health blog will report more negative outcomes, no main effect of blog condition was found. However, individuals high in trait neuroticism experienced greater differences in negative affect, but not self-esteem, when viewing the health blog versus the control blog. This study found that viewing health blogs did not have immediate effects on affect and self-esteem, but more neurotic individuals were more inclined to experience negative affect when viewing health promotion messages. Personality traits assessed prior to the experiment were more predictive of negative affect and self-esteem during the experiment than blog viewing conditions. No level of evidence, experimental study.

Reducing the Effect of Stereotype Threat: The Role of Coaction Contexts and Regulatory Fit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wen, Fangfang; Zuo, Bin; Wu, Yang; Dong, Xuanhao; Wang, Wei

2016-01-01

Two experiments examined the effects of competition and cooperation contexts, as well as regulatory fit, on reducing the negative influence of stereotype threat. Experiment 1 demonstrated that in high stereotype threat conditions, participants in the cooperation context scored significantly higher on a math test than those in the competition…

War, forced displacement and growth in Laotian adults.

PubMed

Clarkin, Patrick F

2012-01-01

Evidence from several populations suggests that war negatively impacts civilian nutrition, physical growth and overall health. This effect is often enduring or permanent, particularly if experienced early in life. To assess whether the number of lifetime displacement experiences and being displaced in infancy were associated with adult height, sitting height, leg length and the sitting height ratio. Retrospective questionnaires on displacement and resettlement experiences and anthropometric data were collected from a sample of Laotian adult refugees (ethnic Hmong and Lao; n = 365). All were born in Laos or Thailand and had resettled in French Guiana or the US. Many had been displaced several times by military conflict in Laos. In bivariate analyses, being displaced in infancy and the number of lifetime displacement experiences one had were negatively associated with final adult height and leg length in both sexes. The association was stronger in females, particularly Hmong females. There was no significant association between total displacement experiences and the sitting height ratio. In multiple regression analyses, linear growth in males was negatively associated with being displaced in infancy; in females, the number of lifetime displacement experiences was a significant predictor. Forced displacement from war appears to have a lasting effect on final adult height, sitting height and leg length, although not necessarily on the sitting height ratio in this sample.

Skylab

NASA Image and Video Library

1972-05-01

This is a wide-angle view of the Orbital Workshop lower level experiment area. In center foreground is the ergometer bicycle. In center background is a litter chair for the Human Vestibular Function experiment (Skylab Experiment M131) and in right background is the Lower Body Negative Pressure System experiment (Skylab Experiment M092). The ergometer bicycle was used for metabolic activity experiments and exercise. The purpose of the Human Vestibular (irner ear) Function experiment was to examine the effect of weightlessness on man's sensitivity and susceptibility to motion rotation, and his perception of orientation. The Lower Body Negative Pressure experiment investigated the relationship between the zero gravity environment and cardiovascular deconditioning. A characteristic of cardiovascular deconditoning is the partial failure of the blood vessels resulting in the excessive pooling of the blood in the legs when a person assumes an erect posture in a gravity field. The Marshall Space Flight Center had the program management responsibility for the development of Skylab hardware and experiments.

The Role of Partners for Employees' Recovery during the Weekend

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hahn, Verena C.; Binnewies, Carmen; Haun, Sascha

2012-01-01

We examined the effects of positive and negative experiences with the partner (absorption in joint activities and conflict with the partner) during the weekend on affective states at the beginning of the following work week and tested whether recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, and mastery experiences) mediated these…

Factors Affecting the Social Experiences of Students in Elementary Physical Education Classes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suomi, Joanne; Collier, Douglas; Brown, Lou

2003-01-01

Examined factors that had a positive and negative effect on the social experiences of elementary students with and without disabilities in inclusive physical education classrooms. Data from observations and interviews indicated that the physical education teacher had a positive influence on students' social experiences, while cultures, student…

Attention Bias of Avoidant Individuals to Attachment Emotion Pictures.

PubMed

Liu, Ying; Ding, Yi; Lu, Luluzi; Chen, Xu

2017-01-27

How attachment style affects emotion processing is tightly connected with individuals' attention bias. This experiment explored avoidant individuals' attentional engagement and attentional disengagement using a cue-target paradigm in fMRI. The experimental group consisted of 17 avoidant participants, while the control group consisted of 16 secure participants; these were identified by the Experiences in Close Relationships inventory and the Relationship Questionnaire. Each reacted to pictures of positive parent-child attachment, negative parent-child attachment, positive romantic attachment, negative romantic attachment, and neutral non-attachment. Behaviorally, avoidant individuals were slower than secure individuals in responding to emotions and their attentional disengagement effect for negative parent-child emotions was stronger than positive ones. fMRI results showed that avoidant compared to secure individuals activated more strongly in the right superior temporal gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, and the left medial frontal gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, supplementary motor area, and cingulate gyrus. They also showed stronger activation in disengaging from positive than negative emotions in the bilateral fusiform and middle occipital gyri. In conclusion, avoidant individuals could detect emotions as effective as secure individuals in attentioal engaging stages. They can disengage from positive emotions with effective cognitive resources and were harder to get rid of negative emotions with insufficient resource.

Divided attention enhances the recognition of emotional stimuli: evidence from the attentional boost effect.

PubMed

Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia; Spataro, Pietro; Costanzi, Marco; Saraulli, Daniele; Cestari, Vincenzo

2018-01-01

The present study examined predictions of the early-phase-elevated-attention hypothesis of the attentional boost effect (ABE), which suggests that transient increases in attention at encoding, as instantiated in the ABE paradigm, should enhance the recognition of neutral and positive items (whose encoding is mostly based on controlled processes), while having small or null effects on the recognition of negative items (whose encoding is primarily based on automatic processes). Participants were presented a sequence of negative, neutral and positive stimuli (pictures in Experiment 1, words in Experiment 2) associated to target (red) squares, distractor (green) squares or no squares (baseline condition). They were told to attend to the pictures/words and simultaneously press the spacebar of the computer when a red square appeared. In a later recognition task, stimuli associated to target squares were recognised better than stimuli associated to distractor squares, replicating the standard ABE. More importantly, we also found that: (a) the memory enhancement following target detection occurred with all types of stimuli (neutral, negative and positive) and (b) the advantage of negative stimuli over neutral stimuli was intact in the DA condition. These findings suggest that the encoding of negative stimuli depends on both controlled (attention-dependent) and automatic (attention-independent) processes.

Positive and negative affect produce opposing task-irrelevant stimulus preexposure effects.

PubMed

Lazar, Josef; Kaplan, Oren; Sternberg, Terri; Lubow, R E

2012-06-01

In three experiments, groups were exposed to either positive or negative affect video clips, after which they were presented with a series of task-irrelevant stimuli. In the subsequent test task, subjects were required to learn an association between the previously irrelevant stimulus and a consequence, and between a new stimulus and a consequence. Induced positive affect produced a latent inhibition effect (poorer evidence of learning with the previously irrelevant stimulus than with the novel stimulus). In opposition to this, induced negative affect resulted in better evidence of learning with a previously irrelevant stimulus than with a novel stimulus. In general, the opposing effects also were present in participants scoring high on self-report questionnaires of depression (Experiments 2 and 3). These unique findings were predicted and accounted for on the basis of two principles: (a) positive affect broadens the attentional field and negative affect contracts it; and (b) task-irrelevant stimuli are processed in two successive stages, the first encodes stimulus properties, and the second encodes stimulus relationships. The opposing influences of negative and positive mood on the processing of irrelevant stimuli have implications for the role of emotion in general theories of cognition, and possibly for resolving some of the inconsistent findings in research with schizophrenia patients.

Countering the negative effects of job insecurity through participative decision making: lessons from the demand-control model.

PubMed

Probst, Tahira M

2005-10-01

This study examined the effectiveness of increased organizational participative decision making in attenuating the negative consequences of job insecurity. Data were collected from 807 employees in 6 different companies. Analyses suggest that job insecurity is related to lower coworker, work, and supervisor satisfaction and higher turnover intentions and work withdrawal behaviors. However, employees with greater participative decision-making opportunities reported fewer negative consequences of job insecurity compared with employees with fewer participative decision-making opportunities. Results are interpreted using the demand-control model and suggest that organizations that allow greater employee participative decision making may experience fewer negative side effects from today's rising levels of employee job insecurity. Copyright (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved.

Comparing the Effects of Negative and Mixed Emotional Messages on Predicted Occasional Excessive Drinking

PubMed Central

Carrera, Pilar; Caballero, Amparo; Muñoz, Dolores

2008-01-01

In this work we present two types of emotional message, negative (sadness) versus mixed (joy and sadness), with the aim of studying their differential effect on attitude change and the probability estimated by participants of repeating the behavior of occasional excessive drinking in the near future. The results show that for the group of participants with moderate experience in this behavior the negative message, compared to the mixed one, is associated with higher probability of repeating the risk behavior and a less negative attitude toward it. These results suggest that mixed emotional messages (e.g. joy and sadness messages) could be more effective in campaigns for the prevention of this risk behavior. PMID:25977606

When bad moods may not be so bad: Valuing negative affect is associated with weakened affect-health links.

PubMed

Luong, Gloria; Wrzus, Cornelia; Wagner, Gert G; Riediger, Michaela

2016-04-01

Bad moods are considered "bad" not only because they may be aversive experiences in and of themselves, but also because they are associated with poorer psychosocial functioning and health. We propose that people differ in their negative affect valuation (NAV; the extent to which negative affective states are valued as pleasant, useful/helpful, appropriate, and meaningful experiences) and that affect-health links are moderated by NAV. These predictions were tested in a life span sample of 365 participants ranging from 14-88 years of age using reports of momentary negative affect and physical well-being (via experience sampling) and assessments of NAV and psychosocial and physical functioning (via computer-assisted personal interviews and behavioral measures of hand grip strength). Our study demonstrated that the more individuals valued negative affect, the less pronounced (and sometimes even nonexistent) were the associations between everyday experiences of negative affect and a variety of indicators of poorer psychosocial functioning (i.e., emotional health problems, social integration) and physical health (i.e., number of health conditions, health complaints, hand grip strength, momentary physical well-being). Exploratory analyses revealed that valuing positive affect was not associated with the analogous moderating effects as NAV. These findings suggest that it may be particularly important to consider NAV in models of affect-health links. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of positive versus negative impact reflection on change in job performance and work-life conflict.

PubMed

Cardador, M Teresa

2014-01-01

Research on task significance and relational job design suggests that information from beneficiaries of one's work fosters perceptions of impact, and thus improved work outcomes. This paper presents results from a longitudinal field experiment examining the effect of another strategy for fostering perceptions of impact - engaging employees in regular reflection about how their work benefits others. With a sample of professionals from multiple organizations, this longitudinal study examined the effect on job performance and work-life conflict of both positive and negative impact reflection. Results show that negative impact reflection had a pronounced negative effect on job performance, but no effect on work-life conflict. Positive impact reflection had a weak positive effect on work-life conflict, but no significant effect on job performance. The direction of effects seen in the no intervention condition mirrored that of the negative impact reflection condition, suggesting a possible buffering effect for positive impact reflection. This research provides empirical and theoretical contributions to the literatures on relational job design and task significance.

The effects of positive versus negative impact reflection on change in job performance and work-life conflict

PubMed Central

Cardador, M. Teresa

2014-01-01

Research on task significance and relational job design suggests that information from beneficiaries of one’s work fosters perceptions of impact, and thus improved work outcomes. This paper presents results from a longitudinal field experiment examining the effect of another strategy for fostering perceptions of impact – engaging employees in regular reflection about how their work benefits others. With a sample of professionals from multiple organizations, this longitudinal study examined the effect on job performance and work-life conflict of both positive and negative impact reflection. Results show that negative impact reflection had a pronounced negative effect on job performance, but no effect on work-life conflict. Positive impact reflection had a weak positive effect on work-life conflict, but no significant effect on job performance. The direction of effects seen in the no intervention condition mirrored that of the negative impact reflection condition, suggesting a possible buffering effect for positive impact reflection. This research provides empirical and theoretical contributions to the literatures on relational job design and task significance. PMID:25505890

Approach Motivation as Incentive Salience: Perceptual Sources of Evidence in Relation to Positive Word Primes

PubMed Central

Ode, Scott; Winters, Patricia L.; Robinson, Michael D.

2012-01-01

Four experiments (total N = 391) examined predictions derived from a biologically-based incentive salience theory of approach motivation. In all experiments, judgments indicative of enhanced perceptual salience were exaggerated in the context of positive, relative to neutral or negative, stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, positive words were judged to be of a larger size (Experiment 1) and led individuals to judge subsequently presented neutral objects as larger in size (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, similar effects were observed in a mock subliminal presentation paradigm. In Experiment 4, positive word primes were perceived to have been presented for a longer duration of time, again relative to both neutral and negative word primes. Results are discussed in relation to theories of approach motivation, affective priming, and the motivation-perception interface. PMID:21875189

Role of negative emotion in communication about CO2 risks.

PubMed

Meijnders, A L; Midden, C J; Wilke, H A

2001-10-01

This article describes how the effectiveness of risk communication is determined by the interaction between emotional and informative elements. An experiment is described that examined the role of negative emotion in communication about CO2 risks. This experiment was based on the elaboration likelihood model and the related heuristic systematic model of attitude formation. The results indicated that inducing fear of CO2 risks leads to systematic processing of information about energy conservation as a risk-reducing strategy. In turn, this results in more favorable attitudes toward energy conservation if strong arguments are provided. Individual differences in concern seem to have similar effects.

Subliminal presentation of emotionally negative vs positive primes increases the perceived beauty of target stimuli.

PubMed

Era, Vanessa; Candidi, Matteo; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria

2015-11-01

Emotions have a profound influence on aesthetic experiences. Studies using affective priming procedures demonstrate, for example, that inducing a conscious negative emotional state biases the perception of abstract stimuli towards the sublime (Eskine et al. Emotion 12:1071-1074, 2012. doi: 10.1037/a0027200). Moreover, subliminal happy facial expressions have a positive impact on the aesthetic evaluation of abstract art (Flexas et al. PLoS ONE 8:e80154, 2013). Little is known about how emotion influences aesthetic perception of non-abstract, representational stimuli, especially those that are particularly relevant for social behaviour, like human bodies. Here, we explore whether the subliminal presentation of emotionally charged visual primes modulates the explicit subjective aesthetic judgment of body images. Using a forward/backward masking procedure, we presented subliminally positive and negative, arousal-matched, emotional or neutral primes and measured their effect on the explicit evaluation of perceived beauty (high vs low) and emotion (positive vs negative) evoked by abstract and body images. We found that negative primes increased subjective aesthetic evaluations of target bodies or abstract images in comparison with positive primes. No influence of primes on the emotional dimension of the targets was found, thus ruling out an unspecific arousal effect and strengthening the link between emotional valence and aesthetic appreciation. More specifically, that subliminal negative primes increase beauty ratings compared to subliminal positive primes indicates a clear link between negative emotions and positive aesthetic evaluations and vice versa, suggesting a possible link between negative emotion and the experience of sublime in art. The study expands previous research by showing the effect of subliminal negative emotions on the subjective aesthetic evaluation not only of abstract but also of body images.

Cancer negatively impacts on sexual function in adolescents and young adults: The AYA HOPE study.

PubMed

Wettergren, Lena; Kent, Erin E; Mitchell, Sandra A; Zebrack, Brad; Lynch, Charles F; Rubenstein, Mara B; Keegan, Theresa H M; Wu, Xiao-Cheng; Parsons, Helen M; Smith, Ashley Wilder

2017-10-01

This cohort study examined the impact of cancer on sexual function and intimate relationships in adolescents and young adults (AYAs). We also explored factors predicting an increased likelihood that cancer had negatively affected these outcomes. Participants (n = 465, ages 15-39) in the Adolescent and Young Adult Health Outcomes and Patient Experience (AYA HOPE) study completed two surveys approximately 1 and 2 years post-cancer diagnosis. We used multivariable logistic regression to determine factors negatively affected by perceptions of sexual function at 2 years post-diagnosis. Forty-nine percent of AYAs reported negative effects on sexual function at 1 year post-cancer diagnosis and 70% of those persisted in their negative perceptions 2 years after diagnosis. Those reporting a negative impact at 2 years were more likely to be 25 years or older (OR, 2.53; 95% CI, 1.44-4.42), currently not raising children (OR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.06-3.08), experiencing fatigue (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.975-0.998) and more likely to report that their diagnosis has had a negative effect on physical appearance (OR, 3.08; 95% CI, 1.97-4.81). Clinical factors and mental health were not significant predictors of negative effects on sexual function. Many AYAs diagnosed with cancer experience a persistent negative impact on sexual life up to 2 years following diagnosis. The findings underscore the need to develop routine protocols to assess sexual function in AYAs with cancer and to provide comprehensive management in the clinical setting. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Conflict adaptation in positive and negative mood: Applying a success-failure manipulation.

PubMed

Schuch, Stefanie; Zweerings, Jana; Hirsch, Patricia; Koch, Iring

2017-05-01

Conflict adaptation is a cognitive mechanism denoting increased cognitive control upon detection of conflict. This mechanism can be measured by the congruency sequence effect, indicating the reduction of congruency effects after incongruent trials (where response conflict occurs) relative to congruent trials (without response conflict). Several studies have reported increased conflict adaptation under negative, as compared to positive, mood. In these studies, sustained mood states were induced by film clips or music combined with imagination techniques; these kinds of mood manipulations are highly obvious, possibly distorting the actual mood states experienced by the participants. Here, we report two experiments where mood states were induced in a less obvious way, and with higher ecological validity. Participants received success or failure feedback on their performance in a bogus intelligence test, and this mood manipulation proved highly effective. We largely replicated previous findings of larger conflict adaptation under negative mood than under positive mood, both with a Flanker interference paradigm (Experiment 1) and a Stroop-like interference paradigm (Experiment 2). Results are discussed with respect to current theories on affective influences on cognitive control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessment of Habitat Suitability Is Affected by Plant-Soil Feedback: Comparison of Field and Garden Experiment.

PubMed

Hemrová, Lucie; Knappová, Jana; Münzbergová, Zuzana

2016-01-01

Field translocation experiments (i.e., the introduction of seeds or seedlings of different species into different localities) are commonly used to study habitat associations of species, as well as factors limiting species distributions and local abundances. Species planted or sown in sites where they naturally occur are expected to perform better or equally well compared to sites at which they do not occur or are rare. This, however, contrasts with the predictions of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis and commonly reported intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback. The few previous studies indicating poorer performance of plants at sites where they naturally occur did not explore the mechanisms behind this pattern. In this study, we used field translocation experiments established using both seeds and seedlings to study the determinants of local abundance of four dominant species in grasslands. To explore the possible effects of intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback on our results, we tested the effect of local species abundance on the performance of the plants in the field experiment. In addition, we set up a garden experiment to explore the intensity of intraspecific as well as interspecific feedback between the dominants used in the experiment. In some cases, the distribution and local abundances of the species were partly driven by habitat conditions at the sites, and species performed better at their own sites. However, the prevailing pattern was that the local dominants performed worse at sites where they naturally occur than at any other sites. Moreover, the success of plants in the field experiment was lower in the case of higher intraspecific abundance prior to experimental setup. In the garden feedback experiment, two of the species performed significantly worse in soils conditioned by their species than in soils conditioned by the other species. In addition, the performance of the plants was significantly correlated between the two experiments, suggesting that plant-soil feedback is a likely explanation of the patterns observed in the field. All of the results indicate that intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback, either biotic or abiotic, may be a key factor determining the performance of the plants in our field translocation experiment. The possible effects of negative feedback should thus be considered when evaluating results of translocation experiments in future studies.

Assessment of Habitat Suitability Is Affected by Plant-Soil Feedback: Comparison of Field and Garden Experiment

PubMed Central

Hemrová, Lucie; Knappová, Jana; Münzbergová, Zuzana

2016-01-01

Background Field translocation experiments (i.e., the introduction of seeds or seedlings of different species into different localities) are commonly used to study habitat associations of species, as well as factors limiting species distributions and local abundances. Species planted or sown in sites where they naturally occur are expected to perform better or equally well compared to sites at which they do not occur or are rare. This, however, contrasts with the predictions of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis and commonly reported intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback. The few previous studies indicating poorer performance of plants at sites where they naturally occur did not explore the mechanisms behind this pattern. Aims and Methods In this study, we used field translocation experiments established using both seeds and seedlings to study the determinants of local abundance of four dominant species in grasslands. To explore the possible effects of intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback on our results, we tested the effect of local species abundance on the performance of the plants in the field experiment. In addition, we set up a garden experiment to explore the intensity of intraspecific as well as interspecific feedback between the dominants used in the experiment. Key Results In some cases, the distribution and local abundances of the species were partly driven by habitat conditions at the sites, and species performed better at their own sites. However, the prevailing pattern was that the local dominants performed worse at sites where they naturally occur than at any other sites. Moreover, the success of plants in the field experiment was lower in the case of higher intraspecific abundance prior to experimental setup. In the garden feedback experiment, two of the species performed significantly worse in soils conditioned by their species than in soils conditioned by the other species. In addition, the performance of the plants was significantly correlated between the two experiments, suggesting that plant-soil feedback is a likely explanation of the patterns observed in the field. Conclusions All of the results indicate that intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback, either biotic or abiotic, may be a key factor determining the performance of the plants in our field translocation experiment. The possible effects of negative feedback should thus be considered when evaluating results of translocation experiments in future studies. PMID:27336400

Effect of Neonatal Clomipramine Treatment on Consummatory Successive Negative Contrast

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruetti, Eliana; Burgueno, Adriana L.; Justel, Nadia R.; Pirola, Carlos J.; Mustaca, Alba E.

2013-01-01

Neonatal administration of clomipramine (CLI) produces physiological, neuroendocrinal and behavioral abnormalities in rats when they reach adulthood, which are similar to those observed in animal models of depression. In consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC), rats that have had experience drinking 32% sucrose solution drink…

Impressions That Last: Particularly Negative and Positive Experiences Reported by Parents Five Years after the End of a Child’s Successful Cancer Treatment or Death

PubMed Central

Boger, Marike; Ander, Malin; Ljótsson, Brjánn; Cernvall, Martin; von Essen, Louise; Hovén, Emma

2016-01-01

Objective To describe the experience of parenting a child diagnosed with cancer by examining particularly negative and positive experiences reported by parents of childhood cancer survivors and parents of children lost to cancer. Methods 168 parents (88 mothers, 80 fathers) participated. Data were collected five years after the end of successful treatment or the child’s death. The parents’ experiences were identified by open-ended semi-structured questions about particularly negative and positive experiences of the child’s cancer. An inductive approach was used in which the manifest verbal content of the answers was analysed using content analysis. Results The analysis revealed eight categories of negative experience (child late effects; distressing events; healthcare; impaired relationships; long-term psychological consequences; own reactions; surrounding institutions; the fact that the child got cancer) and seven categories of positive experience (healthcare; improved relationships; long-term consequences for the child; personal development; support systems; treatment outcome; unexpected joy). The categories were related to past events or to the present situation. The findings indicate variations in experiences between parents of survivors and bereaved parents, and between fathers and mothers, as some experiences were only reported by parents of survivors and some experiences were only reported by mothers. Conclusions The results highlight the importance of past and present events to parents, and accordingly the long-lasting impact of paediatric cancer on parents. The results also point to the wide range of negative as well as positive experiences involved in parenting a child diagnosed with cancer, and provide a comprehensive understanding of the overall experience for parents of children with cancer. Specifically, the findings give guidance to healthcare providers by illustrating the need to provide healthcare personnel with continuous training in communication skills, offering parents opportunities to meet other parents in the same situation and increasing the access to psychosocial supportive services and psychological care. PMID:27272318

Enhancing the effectiveness of antismoking messages via self-congruent appeals.

PubMed

Chang, Chingching

2009-01-01

A self-congruent effect model was applied to understand adolescents' responses to antismoking advertising that referred to the self or others. Experiment 1 showed that self-referring ads generated more negative smoking attitudes than other-referring ads among adolescents with independent self-construals, whereas other-referring ads generated more negative smoking attitudes than self-referring ads among adolescents with interdependent self-construals. A survey further showed that smokers rated themselves higher on a measure of independent self-construal than nonsmokers. Experiment 2 then found that self-referring ads are more effective than other-referring ads for smokers, who have independent self-construals. Findings supported the idea that health communication campaign designers can maximize message effectiveness by developing different messages for different target segments of the population based on their self-construals.

An exploratory path model of the relationships between positive and negative adaptation to cancer on quality of life among non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivors.

PubMed

Bryant, Ashley Leak; Smith, Sophia K; Zimmer, Catherine; Crandell, Jamie; Jenerette, Coretta M; Bailey, Donald E; Zimmerman, Sheryl; Mayer, Deborah K

2015-01-01

Adaptation is an ongoing, cognitive process with continuous appraisal of the cancer experience by the survivor. This exploratory study tested a path model examining the personal (demographic, disease, and psychosocial) characteristics associated with quality of life (QOL) and whether or not adaptation to living with cancer may mediate these effects. This study employed path analysis to estimate adaptation to cancer. A cross-sectional sample of NHL survivors (N = 750) was used to test the model. Eligible participants were ≥ 18 years, at least 2 years post-diagnosis, and living with or without active disease. Sixty-eight percent of the variance was accounted for in QOL. The strongest effect (-0.596) was direct by negative adaptation, approximately 3 times that of positive adaptation (0.193). The strongest demographic total effects on QOL were age and social support; <65 years of age had better QOL and better adaptation compared to those ≥ 65. Of the disease characteristics, comorbidity score had the strongest direct effect on QOL; each additional comorbidity was associated with a 0.309 standard deviation decline on QOL. There were no fully mediated effects through positive adaptation alone. Our exploratory findings support the coexistence of positive and negative adaptations perception as mediators of personal characteristics of the cancer experience. Negative adaptation can affect QOL in a positive way. Cancer survivorship is simultaneously shaped by both positive and negative adaptation with future research and implications for practice aimed at improving QOL.

The role of negative affectivity and negative reactivity to emotions in predicting outcomes in the unified protocol for the transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders.

PubMed

Sauer-Zavala, Shannon; Boswell, James F; Gallagher, Matthew W; Bentley, Kate H; Ametaj, Amantia; Barlow, David H

2012-09-01

The present study aimed to understand the contributions of both the trait tendency to experience negative emotions and how one relates to such experience in predicting symptom change during participation in the Unified Protocol (UP), a transdiagnostic treatment for emotional disorders. Data were derived from a randomized controlled trial comparing the UP to a waitlist control/delayed-treatment condition. First, effect sizes of pre- to post-treatment change for frequency of negative emotions and several variables measuring reactivity to emotional experience (emotional awareness and acceptance, fear of emotions, and anxiety sensitivity) were examined. Second, the relative contributions of change in negative emotions and emotional reactivity in predicting symptom (clinician-rated anxiety, depression, and severity of principal diagnosis) reductions were investigated. Results suggested that decreases in the frequency of negative emotions and reactivity to emotions following participation in the UP were both large in magnitude. Further, two emotional reactivity variables (fear of emotions and anxiety sensitivity) remained significantly related to symptom outcomes when controlling for negative emotions, and accounted for significant incremental variance in their prediction. These findings lend support to the notion that psychological health depends less on the frequency of negative emotions and more on how one relates to these emotions when they occur. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fifth-grade children's daily experiences of peer victimization and negative emotions: moderating effects of sex and peer rejection.

PubMed

Morrow, Michael T; Hubbard, Julie A; Barhight, Lydia J; Thomson, Amanda K

2014-10-01

This study examined the relations of fifth-grade children's (181 boys and girls) daily experiences of peer victimization with their daily negative emotions. Children completed daily reports of peer victimization and negative emotions (sadness, anger, embarrassment, and nervousness) on up to eight school days. The daily peer victimization checklist was best represented by five factors: physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, property attacks, and social rebuff. All five types were associated with increased negative daily emotions, and several types were independently linked to increased daily negative emotions, particularly physical victimization. Girls demonstrated greater emotional reactivity in sadness to social manipulation than did boys, and higher levels of peer rejection were linked to greater emotional reactivity to multiple types of victimization. Sex and peer rejection also interacted, such that greater rejection was a stronger indicator of emotional reactivity to victimization in boys than in girls.

More efficient rejection of happy than of angry face distractors in visual search.

PubMed

Horstmann, Gernot; Scharlau, Ingrid; Ansorge, Ulrich

2006-12-01

In the present study, we examined whether the detection advantage for negative-face targets in crowds of positive-face distractors over positive-face targets in crowds of negative faces can be explained by differentially efficient distractor rejection. Search Condition A demonstrated more efficient distractor rejection with negative-face targets in positive-face crowds than vice versa. Search Condition B showed that target identity alone is not sufficient to account for this effect, because there was no difference in processing efficiency for positive- and negative-face targets within neutral crowds. Search Condition C showed differentially efficient processing with neutral-face targets among positive- or negative-face distractors. These results were obtained with both a within-participants (Experiment 1) and a between-participants (Experiment 2) design. The pattern of results is consistent with the assumption that efficient rejection of positive (more homogenous) distractors is an important determinant of performance in search among (face) distractors.

Negative emotion enhances mnemonic precision and subjective feelings of remembering in visual long-term memory.

PubMed

Xie, Weizhen; Zhang, Weiwei

2017-09-01

Negative emotion sometimes enhances memory (higher accuracy and/or vividness, e.g., flashbulb memories). The present study investigates whether it is the qualitative (precision) or quantitative (the probability of successful retrieval) aspect of memory that drives these effects. In a visual long-term memory task, observers memorized colors (Experiment 1a) or orientations (Experiment 1b) of sequentially presented everyday objects under negative, neutral, or positive emotions induced with International Affective Picture System images. In a subsequent test phase, observers reconstructed objects' colors or orientations using the method of adjustment. We found that mnemonic precision was enhanced under the negative condition relative to the neutral and positive conditions. In contrast, the probability of successful retrieval was comparable across the emotion conditions. Furthermore, the boost in memory precision was associated with elevated subjective feelings of remembering (vividness and confidence) and metacognitive sensitivity in Experiment 2. Altogether, these findings suggest a novel precision-based account for emotional memories. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Implicit self-esteem compensation: automatic threat defense.

PubMed

Rudman, Laurie A; Dohn, Matthew C; Fairchild, Kimberly

2007-11-01

Four experiments demonstrated implicit self-esteem compensation (ISEC) in response to threats involving gender identity (Experiment 1), implicit racism (Experiment 2), and social rejection (Experiments 3-4). Under conditions in which people might be expected to suffer a blow to self-worth, they instead showed high scores on 2 implicit self-esteem measures. There was no comparable effect on explicit self-esteem. However, ISEC was eliminated following self-affirmation (Experiment 3). Furthermore, threat manipulations increased automatic intergroup bias, but ISEC mediated these relationships (Experiments 2-3). Thus, a process that serves as damage control for the self may have negative social consequences. Finally, pretest anxiety mediated the relationship between threat and ISEC (Experiment 3), whereas ISEC negatively predicted anxiety among high-threat participants (Experiment 4), suggesting that ISEC may function to regulate anxiety. The implications of these findings for automatic emotion regulation, intergroup bias, and implicit self-esteem measures are discussed. (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Sexual Medicine: An Experimental Approach.

PubMed

Kruger, Tillmann H C; Grob, Carolin; de Boer, Claas; Peschel, Thomas; Hartmann, Uwe; Tenbergen, Gilian; Schedlowski, Manfred

2016-11-16

Few studies have investigated placebo and nocebo effects in a human sexuality context. Studying placebo and nocebo responses in this context may provide insight into their potential to modulate sexual drive and function. To examine such effects in sexual medicine, 48 healthy, male heterosexual participants were divided into four groups. Each group received instruction to expect stimulating effects, no effect, or an inhibitory effect on sexual functions. Only one group received the dopamine agonist cabergoline; all other groups received placebo or nocebo. Modulations in sexual experience were examined through an established experimental paradigm of sexual arousal and masturbation-induced orgasm during erotic film sequences with instruction to induce placebo or nocebo effects. Endocrine data, appetitive, consummatory, and refractory sexual behavior parameters were assessed using the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale (ASEX) and the Acute Sexual Experience Scale (ASES). Results showed increased levels of sexual function after administration of cabergoline with significant effects for several parameters. Placebo effects were induced only to a small degree. No negative effects on sexual parameters in the nocebo condition were noted. This paradigm could induce only small placebo and nocebo effects. This supports the view that healthy male sexual function seems relatively resistant to negative external influences.

Reduced cognitive capacity impairs the malleability of older adults' negative attitudes to stigmatized individuals.

PubMed

Krendl, Anne C

2018-05-21

Although engaging explicit regulatory strategies may reduce negative bias toward outgroup members, these strategies are cognitively demanding and thus may not be effective for older adults (OA) who have reduced cognitive resources. The current study therefore examines whether individual differences in cognitive capacity disrupt OA' ability to explicitly regulate their bias to stigmatized individuals. Young and OA were instructed to explicitly regulate their negative bias toward stigmatized individuals by using an explicit reappraisal strategy. Regulatory success was assessed as a function of age and individual differences in cognitive capacity (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the role of executive function in implementing cognitive reappraisal strategies was examined by using a divided attention manipulation. Results from Experiment 1 revealed that individual differences in OA' cognitive capacity disrupted their ability to regulate their negative emotional response to stigma. In Experiment 2, it was found that dividing attention in young adults (YA) significantly reduced their regulatory success as compared to YA' regulatory capacity in the full attention condition. As expected, dividing YA' attention made their performance similar to OA with relatively preserved cognitive capacity. Together, the results from this study demonstrated that individual differences in cognitive capacity predicted OA' ability to explicitly regulate their negative bias to a range of stigmatized individuals.

Specific and non-specific match effects in negative priming.

PubMed

Labossière, Danielle I; Leboe-McGowan, Jason P

2018-01-01

The negative priming effect occurs when withholding a response to a stimulus impairs generation of subsequent responding to a same or a related stimulus. Our goal was to use the negative priming procedure to obtain insights about the memory representations generated by ignoring vs. attending/responding to a prime stimulus. Across three experiments we observed that ignoring a prime stimulus tends to generate higher identity-independent, non-specific repetition effects, owing to an overlap in the coarse perceptual form of a prime distractor and a probe target. By contrast, attended repetition effects generate predominantly identity-specific sources of facilitation. We use these findings to advocate for using laboratory phenomena to illustrate general principles that can be of practical use to non-specialists. In the case of the negative priming procedure, we propose that the procedure provides a useful means for investigating attention/memory interactions, even if the specific cause (or causes) of negative priming effects remain unresolved. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Couple Interactions and Relationship Quality on Plasma Oxytocin and Cardiovascular Reactivity: Empirical Findings and Methodological Considerations

PubMed Central

Smith, Timothy W.; Uchino, Bert N.; MacKenzie, Justin; Hicks, Angela; Campo, Rebecca A.; Reblin, Maija; Grewen, Karen; Amico, Janet A.; Light, Kathleen C.

2016-01-01

Cardiovascular reactivity is a potential mechanism underlying associations of close relationship quality with cardiovascular disease. Two models describe oxytocin as another mechanism. The “calm and connect” model posits an association between positive relationship experiences and oxytocin levels and responses, whereas the “tend and befriend” model emphasizes the effects of negative relationship experiences in evoking oxytocin release. In this study of 180 younger couples, relationship quality had a small, marginally significant inverse association with plasma oxytocin levels, and neither positive nor negative couple interactions evoked change in plasma oxytocin. Negative couple interactions evoked significant cardiovascular reactivity, especially among women. Hence, in the largest study of these issues to date, there was little support for key tenets of the “calm and connect” model, and only very modest support for the ”tend and befriend” model. However, findings were consistent with the view that CVR contributes to the effects of relationship difficulties on health. PMID:22543270

How Cannabis Causes Paranoia: Using the Intravenous Administration of ∆9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to Identify Key Cognitive Mechanisms Leading to Paranoia

PubMed Central

Freeman, Daniel; Dunn, Graham; Murray, Robin M.; Evans, Nicole; Lister, Rachel; Antley, Angus; Slater, Mel; Godlewska, Beata; Cornish, Robert; Williams, Jonathan; Di Simplicio, Martina; Igoumenou, Artemis; Brenneisen, Rudolf; Tunbridge, Elizabeth M.; Harrison, Paul J.; Harmer, Catherine J.; Cowen, Philip; Morrison, Paul D.

2015-01-01

Paranoia is receiving increasing attention in its own right, since it is a central experience of psychotic disorders and a marker of the health of a society. Paranoia is associated with use of the most commonly taken illicit drug, cannabis. The objective was to determine whether the principal psychoactive ingredient of cannabis—∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—causes paranoia and to use the drug as a probe to identify key cognitive mechanisms underlying paranoia. A randomized, placebo-controlled, between-groups test of the effects of intravenous THC was conducted. A total of 121 individuals with paranoid ideation were randomized to receive placebo, THC, or THC preceded by a cognitive awareness condition. Paranoia was assessed extensively via a real social situation, an immersive virtual reality experiment, and standard self-report and interviewer measures. Putative causal factors were assessed. Principal components analysis was used to create a composite paranoia score and composite causal variables to be tested in a mediation analysis. THC significantly increased paranoia, negative affect (anxiety, worry, depression, negative thoughts about the self), and a range of anomalous experiences, and reduced working memory capacity. The increase in negative affect and in anomalous experiences fully accounted for the increase in paranoia. Working memory changes did not lead to paranoia. Making participants aware of the effects of THC had little impact. In this largest study of intravenous THC, it was definitively demonstrated that the drug triggers paranoid thoughts in vulnerable individuals. The most likely mechanism of action causing paranoia was the generation of negative affect and anomalous experiences. PMID:25031222

Ulva additions alter soil biogeochemistry and negatively impact Spartina alterniflora growth

EPA Science Inventory

Decaying mats of Ulva can be washed into salt marshes by the tides as large wrack deposits, especially in eutrophic estuaries, where they can negatively impact marsh vegetation. We report on a series of field and laboratory mesocosm experiments where we examined the effects of d...

Verbal instructions targeting valence alter negative conditional stimulus evaluations (but do not affect reinstatement rates).

PubMed

Luck, Camilla C; Lipp, Ottmar V

2018-02-01

Negative conditional stimulus (CS) valence acquired during fear conditioning may enhance fear relapse and is difficult to remove as it extinguishes slowly and does not respond to the instruction that unconditional stimulus (US) presentations will cease. We examined whether instructions targeting CS valence would be more effective. In Experiment 1, an image of one person (CS+) was paired with an aversive US, while another (CS-) was presented alone. After acquisition, participants were given positive information about the CS+ poser and negative information about the CS- poser. Instructions reversed the pattern of differential CS valence present during acquisition and eliminated differential electrodermal responding. In Experiment 2, we compared positive and negative CS revaluation by providing positive/negative information about the CS+ and neutral information about CS-. After positive revaluation, differential valence was removed and differential electrodermal responding remained intact. After negative revaluation, differential valence was strengthened and differential electrodermal responding was eliminated. Unexpectedly, the instructions did not affect the reinstatement of differential electrodermal responding.

The partial-reinforcement extinction effect and the contingent-sampling hypothesis.

PubMed

Hochman, Guy; Erev, Ido

2013-12-01

The partial-reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) implies that learning under partial reinforcements is more robust than learning under full reinforcements. While the advantages of partial reinforcements have been well-documented in laboratory studies, field research has failed to support this prediction. In the present study, we aimed to clarify this pattern. Experiment 1 showed that partial reinforcements increase the tendency to select the promoted option during extinction; however, this effect is much smaller than the negative effect of partial reinforcements on the tendency to select the promoted option during the training phase. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the overall effect of partial reinforcements varies inversely with the attractiveness of the alternative to the promoted behavior: The overall effect is negative when the alternative is relatively attractive, and positive when the alternative is relatively unattractive. These results can be captured with a contingent-sampling model assuming that people select options that provided the best payoff in similar past experiences. The best fit was obtained under the assumption that similarity is defined by the sequence of the last four outcomes.

Gender-Specific Effects of Mood on Alcohol-Seeking Behaviors: Preliminary Findings Using Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration.

PubMed

Cyders, Melissa A; VanderVeen, J Davis; Plawecki, Martin; Millward, James B; Hays, James; Kareken, David A; O'Connor, Sean

2016-02-01

Although negative mood has long been implicated in differences in alcohol seeking by men and women, little research has used precise, well-controlled laboratory experiments to examine how negative mood affects alcohol-seeking behaviors. A total of 34 (19 women) community-dwelling, alcohol-using adults aged 21 to 32 (mean age = 24.86, SD = 3.40, 74.3% Caucasian; Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT] = 10.1, SD = 3.4) completed 2 counterbalanced intravenous alcohol self-administration sessions: one under negative mood and one under neutral mood. Fourteen individuals (9 women; mean age = 25.00, SD = 2.77) participated in an alcohol "liking" experiment (i.e., free access [FA] drinking) and 20 individuals (10 women; mean age = 24.77, SD = 3.73) participated in an alcohol "wanting" experiment, in which gaining access to alcohol required progressively effortful work. There was no significant difference between men and women on the AUDIT, t(32) = -0.38, p = 0.71. Priming with negative mood induction caused a significant decrease in self-reported mood (mean change = -1.85, t(32) = -6.81, p < 0.001), as intended. In FA, negative mood was associated with a significantly increased peak breath alcohol concentration (BrAC; F = 9.41, p = 0.01), with a trend toward a greater effect in men than in women (F = 2.67, p = 0.13). Negative mood also had a significant effect on peak BrAC achieved in the progressive work paradigm (F = 5.28, p = 0.04), with a significantly stronger effect in men (F = 5.35, p = 0.03) than women; men also trended toward more consistent work for alcohol across both neutral and negative sessions. These preliminary findings demonstrate a gender-specific response on how mood affects alcohol seeking and suggest gender-specific interventions to prevent mood-based alcohol consumption. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Explaining efficient search for conjunctions of motion and form: evidence from negative color effects.

PubMed

Dent, Kevin

2014-05-01

Dent, Humphreys, and Braithwaite (2011) showed substantial costs to search when a moving target shared its color with a group of ignored static distractors. The present study further explored the conditions under which such costs to performance occur. Experiment 1 tested whether the negative color-sharing effect was specific to cases in which search showed a highly serial pattern. The results showed that the negative color-sharing effect persisted in the case of a target defined as a conjunction of movement and form, even when search was highly efficient. In Experiment 2, the ease with which participants could find an odd-colored target amongst a moving group was examined. Participants searched for a moving target amongst moving and stationary distractors. In Experiment 2A, participants performed a highly serial search through a group of similarly shaped moving letters. Performance was much slower when the target shared its color with a set of ignored static distractors. The exact same displays were used in Experiment 2B; however, participants now responded "present" for targets that shared the color of the static distractors. The same targets that had previously been difficult to find were now found efficiently. The results are interpreted in a flexible framework for attentional control. Targets that are linked with irrelevant distractors by color tend to be ignored. However, this cost can be overridden by top-down control settings.

Impact of sleep restriction versus idealized sleep on emotional experience, reactivity and regulation in healthy adolescents.

PubMed

Reddy, Radhika; Palmer, Cara A; Jackson, Christine; Farris, Samantha G; Alfano, Candice A

2017-08-01

Sleep loss is associated with affective disturbances and disorders; however, there is limited understanding of specific mechanisms underlying these links, especially in adolescence. The current study tested the effects of sleep restriction versus idealized sleep on adolescents' emotional experience, reactivity and regulation (specifically cognitive reappraisal). Following 1 week of sleep monitoring, healthy adolescents (n = 42; ages 13-17 years) were randomized to 1 night of sleep restriction (4 h) or idealized sleep (9.5 h). The following day, adolescents provided self-reports of affect and anxiety and completed a laboratory-based task to assess: (1) emotional reactivity in response to positive, negative, and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS); and (2) ability to use cognitive reappraisal to decrease negative emotional responses. Large effects were observed for the adverse impact of sleep restriction on positive affect and anxiety as well as a medium-sized effect for negative affect, compared to the idealized sleep condition. Subjective reactivity to positive and neutral images did not differ between the groups, but a moderate effect was detected for reactivity to negative images whereby sleep-restricted teens reported greater reactivity. Across both sleep conditions, use of cognitive reappraisal down-regulated negative emotion effectively; however, sleep restriction did not impact upon adolescents' ability to use this strategy. These findings add to a growing body of literature demonstrating the deleterious effects of sleep restriction on aspects of emotion and highlight directions for future research in adolescents. © 2016 European Sleep Research Society.

Effects of valence and arousal on emotional word processing are modulated by concreteness: Behavioral and ERP evidence from a lexical decision task.

PubMed

Yao, Zhao; Yu, Deshui; Wang, Lili; Zhu, Xiangru; Guo, Jingjing; Wang, Zhenhong

2016-12-01

We investigated whether the effects of valence and arousal on emotional word processing are modulated by concreteness using event-related potentials (ERPs). The stimuli included concrete words (Experiment 1) and abstract words (Experiment 2) that were organized in an orthogonal design, with valence (positive and negative) and arousal (low and high) as factors in a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, the impact of emotion on the effects of concrete words mainly resulted from the contribution of valence. Positive concrete words were processed more quickly than negative words and elicited a reduction of N400 (300-410ms) and enhancement of late positive complex (LPC; 450-750ms), whereas no differences in response times or ERPs were found between high and low levels of arousal. In Experiment 2, the interaction between valence and arousal influenced the impact of emotion on the effects of abstract words. Low-arousal positive words were associated with shorter response times and a reduction of LPC amplitudes compared with high-arousal positive words. Low-arousal negative words were processed more slowly and elicited a reduction of N170 (140-200ms) compared with high-arousal negative words. The present study indicates that word concreteness modulates the contributions of valence and arousal to the effects of emotion, and this modulation occurs during the early perceptual processing stage (N170) and late elaborate processing stage (LPC) for emotional words and at the end of all cognitive processes (i.e., reflected by response times). These findings support an embodied theory of semantic representation and help clarify prior inconsistent findings regarding the ways in which valance and arousal influence different stages of word processing, at least in a lexical decision task. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vicarious learning of children's social-anxiety-related fear beliefs and emotional Stroop bias.

PubMed

Askew, Chris; Hagel, Anna; Morgan, Julie

2015-08-01

Models of social anxiety suggest that negative social experiences contribute to the development of social anxiety, and this is supported by self-report research. However, there is relatively little experimental evidence for the effects of learning experiences on social cognitions. The current study examined the effect of observing a social performance situation with a negative outcome on children's (8 to 11 years old) fear-related beliefs and cognitive processing. Two groups of children were each shown 1 of 2 animated films of a person trying to score in basketball while being observed by others; in 1 film, the outcome was negative, and in the other, it was neutral. Children's fear-related beliefs about performing in front of others were measured before and after the film and children were asked to complete an emotional Stroop task. Results showed that social fear beliefs increased for children who saw the negative social performance film. In addition, these children showed an emotional Stroop bias for social-anxiety-related words compared to children who saw the neutral film. The findings have implications for our understanding of social anxiety disorder and suggest that vicarious learning experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of social anxiety. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Age-Related Effects on Memory for Social Stimuli: The Role of Valence, Arousal, and Emotional Responses

PubMed Central

Hess, Thomas M.; Popham, Lauren E.; Growney, Claire M.

2017-01-01

Background Previous research (Hess, Popham, Dennis, & Emery, 2013) suggested that age-based positivity effects in memory were attenuated with social stimuli. We examined the degree to which this generalized across arousal levels associated with social images. We also examined variations in approach and avoidance responses to images, and how these were differentially related to memory in younger versus older adults. Methods In Experiment 1, young (22 – 43 years) and older (65 – 85 years) adults recalled positive and negative social scenes that were high or low in arousal. In Experiment 2, young (20 – 40 years) and older (65 – 83 years) adults viewed and recalled the same scenes under instructions designed to alter arousal, and approach and avoidance ratings for each image were recorded. Results In Experiment 1, age differences in recall were confined to high-arousal, negative images, with young adults exhibiting superior memory relative to older adults. There was no evidence of an age-related positivity effect for low arousal social scenes. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, but distancing instructions minimized the age difference in recall for high-arousal, negative images. Approach and avoidance ratings differentially predicted recall across age groups, with stronger associations in the young. Conclusion The results are consistent with emerging evidence demonstrating that valence-based biases associated with aging (e.g., positivity effect) are specific to the context and stimulus characteristics. Differences in prediction of recall responses from approach and avoidance ratings across age groups suggested that the observed effects in memory reflected differences in responses to the characteristics of stimuli. PMID:28230420

Orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility effects emerge even when the stimulus position is task irrelevant.

PubMed

Nishimura, Akio; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2006-06-01

The above-right/below-left mapping advantage with vertical stimuli and horizontal responses is known as the orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect. We investigated whether the orthogonal SRC effect emerges with irrelevant stimulus dimensions. In Experiment 1, participants responded with a right or left key press to the colour of the stimulus presented above or below the fixation. We observed an above-right/below-left advantage (orthogonal Simon effect). In Experiment 2, we manipulated the polarity in the response dimension by varying the horizontal location of the response set. The orthogonal Simon effect decreased and even reversed as the left response code became more positive. This result provides evidence for the automatic activation of the positive and negative response codes by the corresponding positive and negative stimulus codes. These findings extended the orthogonal SRC effect based on coding asymmetry to an irrelevant stimulus dimension.

Impact of present and past antipsychotic side effects on attitude toward typical antipsychotic treatment and adherence.

PubMed

Lambert, M; Conus, P; Eide, P; Mass, R; Karow, A; Moritz, S; Golks, D; Naber, D

2004-11-01

(1) determine which antipsychotic side effects (SE) schizophrenic patients consider the most distressing during treatment with typical antipsychotics, (2) measure the impact of actual and past SE on patients' attitude toward antipsychotics and (3) assess the influence of both on adherence. The 213 schizophrenics, treated with conventional antipsychotics, were recruited in two psychiatric hospitals in Hamburg. Subjects were assessed about type and severity of present and past side effects and their attitude and adherence to antipsychotic treatment. The 82 (39%) patients presented present SE while 131 (61%) did not. Sexual dysfunctions (P < 0.001), extrapyramidal (P < 0.05) and psychic side effects (P < 0.05) were rated as significantly subjectively more distressing than sedation or vegetative side effects. Patients presenting with present SE compared with patients without present SE had a significantly more negative general attitude toward antipsychotics (P < 0.05), were more doubtful about their efficacy (P < 0.01) and were less likely to encourage a relative to take such a medication in case of need (P < 0.001). A regression analysis indicated that nonadherence was mainly influenced by negative general and efficacy attitudes toward antipsychotics and the experience of past or present antipsychotic side effects. All antipsychotic side effects, present or past, can have a durable negative impact on patient's attitude toward antipsychotic treatment and adherence. Non-adherence is mainly determined, among other factors, by these negative attitudes, which are partly influenced by the experience of past or present antipsychotic-induced side effects.

The Effects of a Distracting N-Back Task on Recognition Memory Are Reduced by Negative Emotional Intensity

PubMed Central

Buratto, Luciano G.; Pottage, Claire L.; Brown, Charity; Morrison, Catriona M.; Schaefer, Alexandre

2014-01-01

Memory performance is usually impaired when participants have to encode information while performing a concurrent task. Recent studies using recall tasks have found that emotional items are more resistant to such cognitive depletion effects than non-emotional items. However, when recognition tasks are used, the same effect is more elusive as recent recognition studies have obtained contradictory results. In two experiments, we provide evidence that negative emotional content can reliably reduce the effects of cognitive depletion on recognition memory only if stimuli with high levels of emotional intensity are used. In particular, we found that recognition performance for realistic pictures was impaired by a secondary 3-back working memory task during encoding if stimuli were emotionally neutral or had moderate levels of negative emotionality. In contrast, when negative pictures with high levels of emotional intensity were used, the detrimental effects of the secondary task were significantly attenuated. PMID:25330251

The effects of a distracting N-back task on recognition memory are reduced by negative emotional intensity.

PubMed

Buratto, Luciano G; Pottage, Claire L; Brown, Charity; Morrison, Catriona M; Schaefer, Alexandre

2014-01-01

Memory performance is usually impaired when participants have to encode information while performing a concurrent task. Recent studies using recall tasks have found that emotional items are more resistant to such cognitive depletion effects than non-emotional items. However, when recognition tasks are used, the same effect is more elusive as recent recognition studies have obtained contradictory results. In two experiments, we provide evidence that negative emotional content can reliably reduce the effects of cognitive depletion on recognition memory only if stimuli with high levels of emotional intensity are used. In particular, we found that recognition performance for realistic pictures was impaired by a secondary 3-back working memory task during encoding if stimuli were emotionally neutral or had moderate levels of negative emotionality. In contrast, when negative pictures with high levels of emotional intensity were used, the detrimental effects of the secondary task were significantly attenuated.

Attributions of responsibility and affective reactions to decision outcomes.

PubMed

Zeelenberg, M; van der Pligt, J; de Vries, N K

2000-06-01

Immediate affective reactions to outcomes are more intense following decisions to act than following decisions not to act. This finding holds for both positive and negative outcomes. We relate this "actor-effect" to attribution theory and argue that decision makers are seen as more responsible for outcomes when these are the result of a decision to act as compared to a decision not to act. Experiment 1 (N = 80) tests the main assumption underlying our reasoning and shows that affective reactions to decision outcomes are indeed more intense when the decision maker is seen as more responsible. Experiment 2 (N = 40) tests whether the actor effect can be predicted on the basis of differential attributions following action and inaction. Participants read vignettes in which active and passive actors obtained a positive or negative outcome. Action resulted in more intense affect than inaction, and positive outcomes resulted in more intense affect than negative outcomes. Experiment 2 further shows that responsibility attributions and affective reactions to outcomes are highly correlated; that is, more extreme affective reactions are associated with more internal attributions. We discuss the implications for research on post-decisional reactions.

Prediction of ingredient quality and the effect of a combination of xylanase, amylase, protease and phytase in the diets of broiler chicks. 1. Growth performance and digestible nutrient intake.

PubMed

Cowieson, A J; Singh, D N; Adeola, O

2006-08-01

1. A total of 2208 broiler chicks were used in two growth experiments (8 treatments and 12 replicate pens in each experiment) to assess the effects of xylanase, amylase, protease and phytase in maize-based diets. 2. A positive control diet was formulated containing adequate nutrient concentrations. A negative control diet was formulated to contain approximately 628 kJ/kg, 0.13%, 0.12% and 1 to 2% less metabolisable energy (ME), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca) and amino acids, respectively, than the positive control. In addition, two further negative control diets that contained 167 or 334 kJ/kg more ME, respectively, than negative control 1 were formulated. 3. A further 4 dietary treatments were made by supplementing each of the 4 negative control diets with a combination of xylanase, amylase, protease and phytase, resulting in 8 dietary treatments in a 4 by 2 factorial arrangement. 4. The scale of the removal of energy, P, Ca and amino acids from the positive control diet was determined using least square models based on in vivo data for both the xylanase/amylase/protease cocktail and for phytase and it was predicted that performance of birds fed on negative control 1 would be returned by supplemental enzymes to that of those fed on the positive control. 5. In both experiments there was a significantly poorer performance in birds fed on the negative control 1 than in those fed on the positive control. The poorer weight gain and feed conversion ratio could be attributed in part to a reduced intake of digestible energy, P, nitrogen (N) and amino acids associated with birds fed on the negative control diet. 6. Supplementation of the negative control diets with the enzyme combination returned performance to that of the positive control in both experiments. 7. These data indicate that exogenous xylanase, amylase, protease and phytase can be used successfully in a strategically formulated low nutrient density diet to maintain performance to that of birds fed on a nutritionally adequate diet.

Get Real: Effects of Repeated Simulation and Emotion on the Perceived Plausibility of Future Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szpunar, Karl K.; Schacter, Daniel L.

2013-01-01

People frequently imagine specific interpersonal experiences that might occur in their futures. The present study used a novel experimental paradigm to examine the influence of repeated simulation of future interpersonal experiences on subjective assessments of plausibility for positive, negative, and neutral events. The results demonstrate that…

Critical Story Telling in Social Work Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Lesley

1994-01-01

Critical storytelling in a social work graduate program revealed personal and professional issues: intrusion of life experiences into the educational process, difficulty with being mature students, effects of previous negative educational experiences, and the contradictions and dilemmas inherent in social work. (SK)

Information Content Moderates Positivity and Negativity Biases in Memory

PubMed Central

Hess, Thomas M.; Popham, Lauren E.; Dennis, Paul A.; Emery, Lisa

2014-01-01

Two experiments examined the impact of encoding conditions and information content in memory for positive, neutral, and negative pictures. We examined the hypotheses that the positivity effect in memory (i.e., a bias in favor of positive or against negative information in later life) would be reduced when (a) pictures were viewed under structured as opposed to unstructured conditions, and (b) contained social as opposed to nonsocial content. Both experiments found that the positivity effect observed with nonsocial stimuli was absent with social stimuli. In addition, little evidence was obtained that encoding conditions affected the strength of the positivity effect. We argue that some types of social stimuli may engage different types of processing than nonsocial stimuli, perhaps encouraging self-referential processing that engages attention and supports memory. This processing may then conflict with the goal-driven, top-down processing that is hypothesized to drive the positivity effect. Thus, our results identify further boundary conditions associated with the positivity effect in memory, arguing that stimulus factors as well as situational goals may affect its occurrence. Further research awaits to determine if this effect is specific to all social stimuli or specific subsets. PMID:23421322

Information content moderates positivity and negativity biases in memory.

PubMed

Hess, Thomas M; Popham, Lauren E; Dennis, Paul A; Emery, Lisa

2013-09-01

Two experiments examined the impact of encoding conditions and information content in memory for positive, neutral, and negative pictures. We examined the hypotheses that the positivity effect in memory (i.e., a bias in favor of positive or against negative information in later life) would be reduced when (a) pictures were viewed under structured as opposed to unstructured conditions, and (b) contained social as opposed to nonsocial content. Both experiments found that the positivity effect observed with nonsocial stimuli was absent with social stimuli. In addition, little evidence was obtained that encoding conditions affected the strength of the positivity effect. We argue that some types of social stimuli may engage different types of processing than nonsocial stimuli, perhaps encouraging self-referential processing that engages attention and supports memory. This processing may then conflict with the goal-driven, top-down processing that is hypothesized to drive the positivity effect. Thus, our results identify further boundary conditions associated with the positivity effect in memory, arguing that stimulus factors as well as situational goals may affect its occurrence. Further research awaits to determine if this effect is specific to all social stimuli or specific subsets.

Cognitive Vulnerabilities as Predictors of Stress Generation in Early Adolescence: Pathway to Depressive Symptoms

PubMed Central

Hamilton, Jessica L.; Stange, Jonathan P.; Shapero, Benjamin G.; Connolly, Samantha L.; Abramson, Lyn Y.; Alloy, Lauren B.

2013-01-01

Although individuals with depression have been found to experience a higher rate of stress in their lives, it remains unclear to what extent other personal characteristics may contribute to stress generation. The current study extended past research by examining the effects of two theoretically and empirically supported cognitive vulnerabilities to depression (negative cognitive style and rumination) as predictors of dependent interpersonal and achievement events, independent events, and relational peer victimization. In a diverse sample of 301 early adolescents (56% female; Mage = 12.82 years), we found that negative cognitive style prospectively predicted the experience of dependent interpersonal stress and relational victimization, and that rumination did not predict stress in any of the domains. Furthermore, the occurrence of intervening stress mediated the associations between negative cognitive style and subsequent depressive symptoms. Additionally, whereas negative cognitive style predicted relational victimization among both boys and girls, girls were particularly vulnerable to developing depressive symptoms following the occurrence of relational victimization. Thus, a negative cognitive may contribute to the occurrence of stressful events, which in turn increases depressive symptoms. Girls may be particularly reactive to the effects of relational victimization, representing one pathway through which sex differences in depression may emerge. PMID:23624770

Young, Black, and Male in Foster Care: Relationship of Negative Social Contextual Experiences to Factors Relevant to Mental Health Service Delivery

PubMed Central

Scott, Lionel D.; Davis, Larry E.

2006-01-01

Among a small, cross-sectional sample of young Black males transitioning from foster care (n = 74), this study explored the relationship of their negative social contextual experiences to two factors relevant to the delivery of mental health services to them: cultural mistrust of mental health professionals and attitudes toward seeking professional help. Three domains of young Black male’s negative social contextual experiences were measured: proximal negative experiences, distal negative experiences, and negative imagery experiences. Results of multivariate an alysis of covariance (MANCOVA) controlling for custody status, counselling status and history, and psychiatric history showed that young Black males reporting a high frequency of negative social contextual experiences reported significantly greater cultural mistrust of mental health professionals and significantly less positive attitudes toward seeking professional help for mental health problems than young Black males reporting a low frequency of negative social contextual experiences. Implications and future research directions are discussed. PMID:16364428

Approach motivation as incentive salience: perceptual sources of evidence in relation to positive word primes.

PubMed

Ode, Scott; Winters, Patricia L; Robinson, Michael D

2012-02-01

Four experiments (total N = 391) examined predictions derived from a biologically based incentive salience theory of approach motivation. In all experiments, judgments indicative of enhanced perceptual salience were exaggerated in the context of positive, relative to neutral or negative, stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, positive words were judged to be of a larger size (Experiment 1) and led individuals to judge subsequently presented neutral objects as larger in size (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, similar effects were observed in a mock subliminal presentation paradigm. In Experiment 4, positive word primes were perceived to have been presented for a longer duration of time, again relative to both neutral and negative word primes. Results are discussed in relation to theories of approach motivation, affective priming, and the motivation-perception interface. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Assessing Women’s Negative Sanitation Experiences and Concerns: The Development of a Novel Sanitation Insecurity Measure

PubMed Central

Caruso, Bethany A.; Clasen, Thomas; Yount, Kathryn M.; Cooper, Hannah L. F.; Hadley, Craig; Haardörfer, Regine

2017-01-01

Lack of access to acceptable sanitation facilities can expose individuals, particularly women, to physical, social, and mental health risks. While some of the challenges have been documented, standard metrics are needed to determine the extent to which women have urination- and defecation-related concerns and negative experiences. Such metrics also are needed to assess the effectiveness of interventions to mitigate them. We developed a sanitation insecurity measure to capture the range and frequency of women’s sanitation-related concerns and negative experiences. Research was conducted in rural Odisha, India with women across various life course stages to reflect a range of perspectives. This paper documents the mixed data collection methods and the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses we employed to arrive at a final measure. The final sanitation insecurity measure includes 50 items across seven factors that reflect the physical environment, the social environment, and individual-level constraints. Most factor scores were significantly higher for unmarried women and for women who lacked access to functional latrines, indicating social and environmental influence on experiences. This measure will enable researchers to evaluate how sanitation insecurity affects health and to determine if and how sanitation interventions ameliorate women’s concerns and negative experiences associated with sanitation. PMID:28696405

Stage fright: its experience as a problem and coping with it.

PubMed

Studer, Regina; Gomez, Patrick; Hildebrandt, Horst; Arial, Marc; Danuser, Brigitta

2011-10-01

This questionnaire survey of 190 university music students assessed negative feelings of music performance anxiety (MPA) before performing, the experience of stage fright as a problem, and how closely they are associated with each other. The study further investigated whether the experience of stage fright as a problem and negative feelings of MPA predict the coping behavior of the music students. Rarely addressed coping issues were assessed, i.e., self-perceived effectiveness of different coping strategies, knowledge of possible risks and acceptance of substance-based coping strategies, and need for more support. The results show that one-third of the students experienced stage fright as a problem and that this was only moderately correlated with negative feelings of MPA. The experience of stage fright as a problem significantly predicted the frequency of use and the acceptance of medication as a coping strategy. Breathing exercises and self-control techniques were rated as effective as medication. Finally, students expressed a strong need to receive more support (65%) and more information (84%) concerning stage fright. Stage fright was experienced as a problem and perceived as having negative career consequences by a considerable percentage of the surveyed students. In addition to a desire for more help and support, the students expressed an openness and willingness to seriously discuss and address the topic of stage fright. This provides a necessary and promising basis for optimal career preparation and, hence, an opportunity to prevent occupational problems in professional musicians.

High Correlated Paternity Leads to Negative Effects on Progeny Performance in Two Mediterranean Shrub Species

PubMed Central

Nora, Sofia; Aparicio, Abelardo; Albaladejo, Rafael G.

2016-01-01

Anthropogenic habitat deterioration can promote changes in plant mating systems that subsequently may affect progeny performance, thereby conditioning plant recruitment for the next generation. However, very few studies yet tested mating system parameters other than outcrossing rates; and the direct effects of the genetic diversity of the pollen received by maternal plants (i.e. correlated paternity) has often been overlooked. In this study, we investigated the relation between correlated paternity and progeny performance in two common Mediterranean shrubs, Myrtus communis and Pistacia lentiscus. To do so, we collected open-pollinated progeny from selected maternal plants, calculated mating system parameters using microsatellite genotyping and conducted sowing experiments under greenhouse and field conditions. Our results showed that some progeny fitness components were negatively affected by the high correlated paternity of maternal plants. In Myrtus communis, high correlated paternity had a negative effect on the proportion and timing of seedling emergence in the natural field conditions and in the greenhouse sowing experiment, respectively. In Pistacia lentiscus, seedling emergence time under field conditions was also negatively influenced by high correlated paternity and a progeny survival analysis in the field experiment showed greater mortality of seedlings from maternal plants with high correlated paternity. Overall, we found effects of correlated paternity on the progeny performance of Myrtus communis, a self-compatible species. Further, we also detected effects of correlated paternity on the progeny emergence time and survival in Pistacia lentiscus, an obligate outcrossed species. This study represents one of the few existing empirical examples which highlight the influence that correlated paternity may exert on progeny performance in multiple stages during early seedling growth. PMID:27835658

High Correlated Paternity Leads to Negative Effects on Progeny Performance in Two Mediterranean Shrub Species.

PubMed

Nora, Sofia; Aparicio, Abelardo; Albaladejo, Rafael G

2016-01-01

Anthropogenic habitat deterioration can promote changes in plant mating systems that subsequently may affect progeny performance, thereby conditioning plant recruitment for the next generation. However, very few studies yet tested mating system parameters other than outcrossing rates; and the direct effects of the genetic diversity of the pollen received by maternal plants (i.e. correlated paternity) has often been overlooked. In this study, we investigated the relation between correlated paternity and progeny performance in two common Mediterranean shrubs, Myrtus communis and Pistacia lentiscus. To do so, we collected open-pollinated progeny from selected maternal plants, calculated mating system parameters using microsatellite genotyping and conducted sowing experiments under greenhouse and field conditions. Our results showed that some progeny fitness components were negatively affected by the high correlated paternity of maternal plants. In Myrtus communis, high correlated paternity had a negative effect on the proportion and timing of seedling emergence in the natural field conditions and in the greenhouse sowing experiment, respectively. In Pistacia lentiscus, seedling emergence time under field conditions was also negatively influenced by high correlated paternity and a progeny survival analysis in the field experiment showed greater mortality of seedlings from maternal plants with high correlated paternity. Overall, we found effects of correlated paternity on the progeny performance of Myrtus communis, a self-compatible species. Further, we also detected effects of correlated paternity on the progeny emergence time and survival in Pistacia lentiscus, an obligate outcrossed species. This study represents one of the few existing empirical examples which highlight the influence that correlated paternity may exert on progeny performance in multiple stages during early seedling growth.

Adolescent experiences of discrimination, harassment, connectedness to community and comfort with sexual orientation reported by adult men who have sex with men as a predictor of adult HIV status.

PubMed

Raymond, H Fisher; Chen, Yea-Hung; Stall, Ron D; McFarland, Willi

2011-04-01

Using data from a probability based sample of adult men who have sex with men (MSM) we examined the association of negative life factors during adolescence and adult HIV status. 521 MSM reported on experiences of connectedness to community, comfort with sexuality, harassment and discrimination due to their sexual orientation at ages 12-18 years. HIV status was determined by serological testing. Overall, men reported moderate levels of being harassed, being discriminated against and high levels of feeling disconnected from gay communities while reporting high levels of being uncomfortable with their sexuality at those ages. However, in analyses of scores on these factors, higher experiences of harassment, higher levels of discrimination and more discomfort with sexuality at these ages are associated with HIV-negative status as adults. This study suggests that the relationship between negative adolescent experiences among MSM and adult HIV infection may not be straightforward, but may also dependent upon aspects of the intensity of the negative experiences, the relationship of the victim and the perpertrator(s), the sexual identity of the victim at the time and/or the number of these experiences or the length of time over which they occurred. Studies investigating specific multiple stressors in adolescent gay development and their effect on adult health outcomes are needed.

Gaze-cueing effect depends on facial expression of emotion in 9- to 12-month-old infants

PubMed Central

Niedźwiecka, Alicja; Tomalski, Przemysław

2015-01-01

Efficient processing of gaze direction and facial expression of emotion is crucial for early social and emotional development. Toward the end of the first year of life infants begin to pay more attention to negative expressions, but it remains unclear to what extent emotion expression is processed jointly with gaze direction at this age. This study sought to establish the interactions of gaze direction and emotion expression in visual orienting in 9- to 12-month-olds. In particular, we tested whether these interactions can be explained by the negativity bias hypothesis and the shared signal hypothesis. We measured saccadic latencies in response to peripheral targets in a gaze-cueing paradigm with happy, angry, and fearful female faces. In the Pilot Experiment three gaze directions were used (direct, congruent with target location, incongruent with target location). In the Main Experiment we sought to replicate the results of the Pilot experiment using a simpler design without the direct gaze condition. In both experiments we found a robust gaze-cueing effect for happy faces, i.e., facilitation of orienting toward the target in the gaze-cued location, compared with the gaze-incongruent location. We found more rapid orienting to targets cued by happy relative to angry and fearful faces. We did not find any gaze-cueing effect for angry or fearful faces. These results are not consistent with the shared signal hypothesis. While our results show differential processing of positive and negative emotions, they do not support a general negativity bias. On the contrary, they indicate that toward the age of 12 months infants show a positivity bias in gaze-cueing tasks. PMID:25713555

Internally and externally generated emotions in people with acquired brain injury: preservation of emotional experience after right hemisphere lesions

PubMed Central

Salas Riquelme, Christian E.; Radovic, Darinka; Castro, Osvaldo; Turnbull, Oliver H.

2015-01-01

The study of emotional changes after brain injury has contributed enormously to the understanding of the neural basis of emotion. However, little attention has been placed on the methods used to elicit emotional responses in people with brain damage. Of particular interest are subjects with right hemisphere [RH] cortical lesions, who have been described as presenting impairment in emotional processing. In this article, an internal and external mood induction procedure [MIP] was used to trigger positive and negative emotions, in a sample of 10 participants with RH damage, and 15 healthy controls. Emotional experience was registered by using a self-report questionnaire. As observed in previous studies, internal and external MIPs were equally effective in eliciting the target emotion, but the internal procedure generated higher levels of intensity. Remarkably, participants with RH lesions were equally able to experience both positive and negative affect. The results are discussed in relation to the role of the RH in the capacity to experience negative emotions. PMID:25762951

Internally and externally generated emotions in people with acquired brain injury: preservation of emotional experience after right hemisphere lesions.

PubMed

Salas Riquelme, Christian E; Radovic, Darinka; Castro, Osvaldo; Turnbull, Oliver H

2015-01-01

The study of emotional changes after brain injury has contributed enormously to the understanding of the neural basis of emotion. However, little attention has been placed on the methods used to elicit emotional responses in people with brain damage. Of particular interest are subjects with right hemisphere [RH] cortical lesions, who have been described as presenting impairment in emotional processing. In this article, an internal and external mood induction procedure [MIP] was used to trigger positive and negative emotions, in a sample of 10 participants with RH damage, and 15 healthy controls. Emotional experience was registered by using a self-report questionnaire. As observed in previous studies, internal and external MIPs were equally effective in eliciting the target emotion, but the internal procedure generated higher levels of intensity. Remarkably, participants with RH lesions were equally able to experience both positive and negative affect. The results are discussed in relation to the role of the RH in the capacity to experience negative emotions.

Animal experimental studies using small intestine endoscope

PubMed Central

Liu, Jin-Hua; Liu, Dan-Yang; Wang, Li; Han, Li-Ping; Qi, Zhe-Yu; Ren, Hai-Jun; Feng, Yan; Luan, Feng-Ming; Mi, Liang-Tian; Shan, Shu-Mei

2017-01-01

AIM To assess the feasibility and safety of a novel enteroscope, negative-pressure suction endoscope in examining the small intestine of a porcine model. METHODS In vitro experiments in small intestinal loops from 20 pigs and in vivo experiments in 20 living pigs were conducted. RESULTS In in vitro experiments, a negative pressure of > 0.06 MPa was necessary for optimal visualization of the intestine, and this pressure did not cause gross or histological damage to the mucosa. For satisfactory examination of the small intestine in vivo, higher negative pressure (> 1.00 MPa) was required. Despite this higher pressure, the small intestine did not show any gross or microscopic damage in the suctioned areas. The average time of examination in the living animals was 60 ± 7.67 min. The animals did not experience any apparent ill effects from the procedure. CONCLUSION Small intestine endoscope was safely performed within a reasonable time period and enabled complete visualization of the intestine in most cases. PMID:28611521

The Skylab Orbital Workshop Experiment Area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

This is a wide-angle view of the Orbital Workshop lower level experiment area. In center foreground is the ergometer bicycle. In center background is a litter chair for the Human Vestibular Function experiment (Skylab Experiment M131) and in right background is the Lower Body Negative Pressure System experiment (Skylab Experiment M092). The ergometer bicycle was used for metabolic activity experiments and exercise. The purpose of the Human Vestibular (irner ear) Function experiment was to examine the effect of weightlessness on man's sensitivity and susceptibility to motion rotation, and his perception of orientation. The Lower Body Negative Pressure experiment investigated the relationship between the zero gravity environment and cardiovascular deconditioning. A characteristic of cardiovascular deconditoning is the partial failure of the blood vessels resulting in the excessive pooling of the blood in the legs when a person assumes an erect posture in a gravity field. The Marshall Space Flight Center had the program management responsibility for the development of Skylab hardware and experiments.

Changing smoking attitudes by strengthening weak antismoking beliefs - Taiwan as an example.

PubMed

Chang, Chingching

2006-12-01

I first explored the strength of Taiwanese high school students' beliefs regarding five antismoking messages. Findings of a nationwide survey showed that the students held these beliefs in the following order of decreasing strength: second-hand smoke damages health, smoking has long-term health consequences, smoking has short-term health consequences, cigarette marketers are manipulative, and smokers are perceived negatively. Experiment one further showed that antismoking ads featuring weakly held beliefs are more effective than those featuring strongly held beliefs. Experiment two demonstrated that antismoking campaigns need to be framed carefully; in general, it is more effective to positively frame messages about strongly held antismoking beliefs but negatively frame messages about weakly held antismoking beliefs.

Effect of the challenger experience on elementary children's attitudes to science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarvis, Tina; Pell, Anthony

2002-12-01

This research explored how the Challenger experience influenced over 655 elementary boys' and girls' general attitudes to science and space during the 5 months after their visit by examining their responses to four different attitude scales. These were administered to the 10- to 11-year-olds immediately before and after the Challenger experience as well as 2 and 5 months later. Knowledge tests were also administered before and after the visit. A sample of children completed an existing measure of anxiety. Although there were mainly positive outcomes immediately after the Challenger experience, there were some negative effects. There were also noticeable differences between boys and girls. Some 24% of pupils were inspired to become scientists. There was also less fear of space travel with a greater appreciation of the use of science to protect the planet after the visit. Most girls improved and maintained their attitudes toward science in society. A sizeable number of pupils were relatively unaffected by the experience and there was a significant negative effect on a small group of anxious girls. There are indications that previsit preparation and careful choice of roles during the simulation are important.

Negative-mass mitigation of Coulomb repulsion for terahertz undulator radiation of electron bunches

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Balal, N.; Magory, E.; Bandurkin, I. V.

2015-10-19

It is proposed to utilize the effect of negative mass for stabilization of the effective axial size of very dense and short electron bunches produced by photo-injector guns by using combined undulator and strong uniform magnetic fields. It has been shown that in the “abnormal” regime, an increase in the electron energy leads to a decrease in the axial velocity of the electron; due to the negative-mass effect, the Coulomb repulsion of electrons leads to their attraction and formation of a fairly stable and compact bunch “nucleus.” An undulator with a strong uniform magnetic field providing the negative-mass effect ismore » designed for an experimental source of terahertz radiation. The use of the negative-mass regime in this experiment should result in a long-pulse coherent spontaneous undulator emission from a short dense moderately relativistic (5.5 MeV) photo-injector electron bunch with a high (up to 20%) efficiency and a narrow frequency spectrum.« less

Experiences With Parents and Youth Physical Health Symptoms and Cortisol: A Daily Diary Investigation

PubMed Central

Lippold, Melissa A.; McHale, Susan M.; Davis, Kelly D.; Almeida, David M.; King, Rosalind B.

2014-01-01

Using daily diary data, this study examined the associations between positive and negative parent-youth experiences and youth cortisol and physical health symptoms among a sample of adolescents (N=132, Mean Age = 13.39). On days when girls reported more negative experiences than usual, they exhibited more physical health symptoms and flatter evening cortisol slopes than usual. Negative experiences with mothers were associated with higher dinner and bedtime youth cortisol levels (between-person). Daily positive experiences with fathers were linked with lower dinner cortisol levels. Youth with high levels of negative experiences, on average, were less sensitive to daily variation in negative experiences than youth who experienced lower parental negativity. We discuss the benefits of a daily diary approach. PMID:27231418

Effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behavior.

PubMed

Greitemeyer, Tobias; Osswald, Silvia

2010-02-01

Previous research has documented that playing violent video games has various negative effects on social behavior in that it causes an increase in aggressive behavior and a decrease in prosocial behavior. In contrast, there has been much less evidence on the effects of prosocial video games. In the present research, 4 experiments examined the hypothesis that playing a prosocial (relative to a neutral) video game increases helping behavior. In fact, participants who had played a prosocial video game were more likely to help after a mishap, were more willing (and devoted more time) to assist in further experiments, and intervened more often in a harassment situation. Results further showed that exposure to prosocial video games activated the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, which in turn promoted prosocial behavior. Thus, depending on the content of the video game, playing video games not only has negative effects on social behavior but has positive effects as well. Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved

Negative impressions of childbirth in a North-West England student population.

PubMed

Thomson, Gill; Stoll, Kathrin; Downe, Soo; Hall, Wendy A

2017-03-01

Sociocultural childbirth representations can influence the perceptions of childbirth negatively. In this paper we report on a survey study to explore the factors associated with negative impressions of childbirth in a North-West England University student sample. We also explored whether different sources and perceptions of childbirth information were linked to fear of childbirth. All students received a survey link via an online messaging board and/or direct e-mail. Female students who were 18-40 years of age and childless (but planned to have children in the future) were invited to participate. Demographics, birth preferences, a fear of birth and general anxiety measures were included as well as questions about what sources of information shaped students' attitudes toward pregnancy and birth (i.e. visual/written media, experiences of friends/family members, school-based education and other) and impressions of birth from these sources (i.e. positive, negative, both positive and negative and not applicable). Eligible students (n = 276) completed the online questionnaire. The majority were Caucasian (87%) with a mean age of 22.6 years. Ninety-two students (33.3%) reported negative childbirth impressions through direct or vicarious sources. Students with negative birth impressions were significantly more likely to report higher fear of birth scores. Negatively perceived birth stories of friends/family members, and mixed perceptions of visual media representations of birth were associated with higher fear of birth scores. Having witnessed a birth first-hand and describing the experience as amazing was linked to lower fear scores. First-hand observations of birth, especially positive experiences, had implications for salutary outcomes. Negative or conflicting perceptions of vicarious experiences were associated with increased levels of childbirth fear. While further research is needed, these insights suggest a need for positive birth stories and messages to be disseminated to mitigate any negative effects of indirect accounts.

Negative and Positive Pretrial Publicity Affect Juror Memory and Decision Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruva, Christine L.; McEvoy, Cathy

2008-01-01

The experiment examined the effects of exposure to pretrial publicity (PTP) and delay on juror memory and decision-making. Mock jurors read news articles containing negative PTP, positive PTP, or unrelated articles. Five days later, they viewed a videotaped murder trial, after which they made decisions about guilt. Finally, all participants…

Instructor Accents in Online Education and Their Effect on Learning and Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanchez, C. A.; Khan, S.

2016-01-01

Reductions in perceptual fluency have been shown to negatively impact attitudes towards learning material, but not learning itself. The current study extends this work to spoken presentations and examines whether the presence of a foreign accent negatively affects learners' experience in an online learning environment. Results indicate that the…

Positive and Negative Experiences of Social Support and Risk of Dementia in Later Life: An Investigation Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

PubMed Central

Khondoker, Mizanur; Rafnsson, Snorri Bjorn; Morris, Stephen; Orrell, Martin; Steptoe, Andrew

2017-01-01

Background: Having a network of close relationships may reduce the risk of developing dementia. However, social exchange theory suggests that social interaction entails both rewards and costs. The effects of quality of close social relationships in later life on the risk of developing dementia are not well understood. Objective: To investigate the effects of positive and negative experiences of social support within key relationships (spouse or partner, children, other immediate family, and friends) on the risk of developing dementia in later life. Methods: We analyzed 10-year follow up data (2003/4 to 2012/13) in a cohort of 10,055 dementia free (at baseline) core participants aged 50 years and over from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Incidence of dementia was identified from participant or informant reported physician diagnosed dementia or overall score of informant-completed IQCODE questionnaire. Effects of positive and negative experiences of social support measured at baseline on risk of developing dementia were investigated using proportional hazards regression accommodating interval censoring of time-to-dementia. Results: There were 340 (3.4%) incident dementia cases during the follow-up. Positive social support from children significantly reduced the risk of dementia (hazard ratio, HR = 0.83, p = 0.042, 95% CI: 0.69 to 0.99). Negative support from other immediate family (HR = 1.26, p = 0.011, CI: 1.05 to 1.50); combined negative scores from spouse and children (HR = 1.23, p = 0.046, CI: 1.004 to 1.51); spouse, children, and other family (HR = 1.27, p = 0.021, CI = 1.04 to 1.56); other family & friends (HR = 1.25, p = 0.033, CI: 1.02 to 1.55); and the overall negative scores (HR = 1.31, p = 0.019, CI: 1.05 to 1.64) all were significantly associated with increased risk of dementia. Conclusion: Positive social support from children is associated with reduced risk of developing dementia whereas experiences of negative social support from children and other immediate family increase the risk. Further research is needed to better understand the causal mechanisms that drive these associations. PMID:28387667

Positive and Negative Experiences of Social Support and Risk of Dementia in Later Life: An Investigation Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

PubMed

Khondoker, Mizanur; Rafnsson, Snorri Bjorn; Morris, Stephen; Orrell, Martin; Steptoe, Andrew

2017-01-01

Having a network of close relationships may reduce the risk of developing dementia. However, social exchange theory suggests that social interaction entails both rewards and costs. The effects of quality of close social relationships in later life on the risk of developing dementia are not well understood. To investigate the effects of positive and negative experiences of social support within key relationships (spouse or partner, children, other immediate family, and friends) on the risk of developing dementia in later life. We analyzed 10-year follow up data (2003/4 to 2012/13) in a cohort of 10,055 dementia free (at baseline) core participants aged 50 years and over from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Incidence of dementia was identified from participant or informant reported physician diagnosed dementia or overall score of informant-completed IQCODE questionnaire. Effects of positive and negative experiences of social support measured at baseline on risk of developing dementia were investigated using proportional hazards regression accommodating interval censoring of time-to-dementia. There were 340 (3.4%) incident dementia cases during the follow-up. Positive social support from children significantly reduced the risk of dementia (hazard ratio, HR = 0.83, p = 0.042, 95% CI: 0.69 to 0.99). Negative support from other immediate family (HR = 1.26, p = 0.011, CI: 1.05 to 1.50); combined negative scores from spouse and children (HR = 1.23, p = 0.046, CI: 1.004 to 1.51); spouse, children, and other family (HR = 1.27, p = 0.021, CI = 1.04 to 1.56); other family & friends (HR = 1.25, p = 0.033, CI: 1.02 to 1.55); and the overall negative scores (HR = 1.31, p = 0.019, CI: 1.05 to 1.64) all were significantly associated with increased risk of dementia. Positive social support from children is associated with reduced risk of developing dementia whereas experiences of negative social support from children and other immediate family increase the risk. Further research is needed to better understand the causal mechanisms that drive these associations.

Happiness increases verbal and spatial working memory capacity where sadness does not: Emotion, working memory and executive control.

PubMed

Storbeck, Justin; Maswood, Raeya

2016-08-01

The effects of emotion on working memory and executive control are often studied in isolation. Positive mood enhances verbal and impairs spatial working memory, whereas negative mood enhances spatial and impairs verbal working memory. Moreover, positive mood enhances executive control, whereas negative mood has little influence. We examined how emotion influences verbal and spatial working memory capacity, which requires executive control to coordinate between holding information in working memory and completing a secondary task. We predicted that positive mood would improve both verbal and spatial working memory capacity because of its influence on executive control. Positive, negative and neutral moods were induced followed by completing a verbal (Experiment 1) or spatial (Experiment 2) working memory operation span task to assess working memory capacity. Positive mood enhanced working memory capacity irrespective of the working memory domain, whereas negative mood had no influence on performance. Thus, positive mood was more successful holding information in working memory while processing task-irrelevant information, suggesting that the influence mood has on executive control supersedes the independent effects mood has on domain-specific working memory.

Positive emotion can protect against source memory impairment.

PubMed

MacKenzie, Graham; Powell, Tim F; Donaldson, David I

2015-01-01

Despite widespread belief that memory is enhanced by emotion, evidence also suggests that emotion can impair memory. Here we test predictions inspired by object-based binding theory, which states that memory enhancement or impairment depends on the nature of the information to be retrieved. We investigated emotional memory in the context of source retrieval, using images of scenes that were negative, neutral or positive in valence. At study each scene was paired with a colour and during retrieval participants reported the source colour for recognised scenes. Critically, we isolated effects of valence by equating stimulus arousal across conditions. In Experiment 1 colour borders surrounded scenes at study: memory impairment was found for both negative and positive scenes. Experiment 2 used colours superimposed over scenes at study: valence affected source retrieval, with memory impairment for negative scenes only. These findings challenge current theories of emotional memory by showing that emotion can impair memory for both intrinsic and extrinsic source information, even when arousal is equated between emotional and neutral stimuli, and by dissociating the effects of positive and negative emotion on episodic memory retrieval.

Stereotype Threat Reinterpreted as a Regulatory Mismatch

PubMed Central

Grimm, Lisa R.; Markman, Arthur B.; Maddox, W. Todd; Baldwin, Grant C.

2008-01-01

Research documents performance decrements resulting from the activation of a negative task-relevant stereotype. We combine a number of strands of work to identify causes of stereotype threat in a way that allows us to reverse the effects and improve the performance of individuals with negative task-relevant stereotypes. We draw on prior work suggesting that negative stereotypes induce a prevention focus, and other research suggesting that people exhibit greater flexibility when their regulatory focus matches the reward structure of the task. This work suggests that stereotype threat effects emerge from a prevention focus combined with tasks that have an explicit or implicit gains reward structure. We find flexible performance can be induced in individuals who have a negative task-relevant stereotype by using a losses reward structure. We demonstrate the interaction of stereotypes and the reward structure of the task using chronic stereotypes and GRE math problems (Experiment 1), and primed stereotypes and a category learning task (Experiments 2a and 2b). We discuss implications of this research for other work on stereotype threat. PMID:19159133

Negative plant-soil feedback predicts tree-species relative abundance in a tropical forest.

PubMed

Mangan, Scott A; Schnitzer, Stefan A; Herre, Edward A; Mack, Keenan M L; Valencia, Mariana C; Sanchez, Evelyn I; Bever, James D

2010-08-05

The accumulation of species-specific enemies around adults is hypothesized to maintain plant diversity by limiting the recruitment of conspecific seedlings relative to heterospecific seedlings. Although previous studies in forested ecosystems have documented patterns consistent with the process of negative feedback, these studies are unable to address which classes of enemies (for example, pathogens, invertebrates, mammals) exhibit species-specific effects strong enough to generate negative feedback, and whether negative feedback at the level of the individual tree is sufficient to influence community-wide forest composition. Here we use fully reciprocal shade-house and field experiments to test whether the performance of conspecific tree seedlings (relative to heterospecific seedlings) is reduced when grown in the presence of enemies associated with adult trees. Both experiments provide strong evidence for negative plant-soil feedback mediated by soil biota. In contrast, above-ground enemies (mammals, foliar herbivores and foliar pathogens) contributed little to negative feedback observed in the field. In both experiments, we found that tree species that showed stronger negative feedback were less common as adults in the forest community, indicating that susceptibility to soil biota may determine species relative abundance in these tropical forests. Finally, our simulation models confirm that the strength of local negative feedback that we measured is sufficient to produce the observed community-wide patterns in tree-species relative abundance. Our findings indicate that plant-soil feedback is an important mechanism that can maintain species diversity and explain patterns of tree-species relative abundance in tropical forests.

Do Tuition Fees Affect Enrollment Behavior? Evidence from a "Natural Experiment" in Germany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hubner, Malte

2012-01-01

This paper uses the introduction of tuition fees in seven of the sixteen German states in 2007 as a natural experiment to identify the effects of tuition prices on enrollment probabilities. Based on information on enrollment decisions of the entire population of high-school graduates between 2002 and 2008, I find a negative effect of tuition fees…

Social closeness and feedback modulate susceptibility to the framing effect.

PubMed

Sip, Kamila E; Smith, David V; Porcelli, Anthony J; Kar, Kohitij; Delgado, Mauricio R

2015-01-01

Although we often seek social feedback (SFB) from others to help us make decisions, little is known about how SFB affects decisions under risk, particularly from a close peer. We conducted two experiments using an established framing task to probe how decision-making is modulated by SFB valence (positive, negative) and the level of closeness with feedback provider (friend, confederate). Participants faced mathematically equivalent decisions framed as either an opportunity to keep (gain frame) or lose (loss frame) part of an initial endowment. Periodically, participants were provided with positive (e.g., "Nice!") or negative (e.g., "Lame!") feedback about their choices. Such feedback was provided by either a confederate (Experiment 1) or a gender-matched close friend (Experiment 2). As expected, the framing effect was observed in both experiments. Critically, an individual's susceptibility to the framing effect was modulated by the valence of the SFB, but only when the feedback provider was a close friend. This effect was reflected in the activation patterns of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, regions involved in complex decision-making. Taken together, these results highlight social closeness as an important factor in understanding the impact of SFB on neural mechanisms of decision-making.

When Feeling Bad Can Be Good: Mixed Emotions Benefit Physical Health Across Adulthood.

PubMed

Hershfield, Hal E; Scheibe, Susanne; Sims, Tamara L; Carstensen, Laura L

2013-01-01

Traditional models of emotion-health interactions have emphasized the deleterious effects of negative emotions on physical health. More recently, researchers have turned to potential benefits of positive emotions on physical health as well. Both lines of research, though, neglect the complex interplay between positive and negative emotions and how this interplay affects physical well-being. Indeed, recent theoretical work suggests that a strategy of "taking the good with the bad" may benefit health outcomes. In the present study, the authors assessed the impact of mixed emotional experiences on health outcomes in a 10-year longitudinal experience-sampling study across the adult life span. The authors found that not only were frequent experiences of mixed emotions (co-occurrences of positive and negative emotions) strongly associated with relatively good physical health, but that increases of mixed emotions over many years attenuated typical age-related health declines.

When Feeling Bad Can Be Good: Mixed Emotions Benefit Physical Health Across Adulthood

PubMed Central

Hershfield, Hal E.; Scheibe, Susanne; Sims, Tamara L.; Carstensen, Laura L.

2013-01-01

Traditional models of emotion–health interactions have emphasized the deleterious effects of negative emotions on physical health. More recently, researchers have turned to potential benefits of positive emotions on physical health as well. Both lines of research, though, neglect the complex interplay between positive and negative emotions and how this interplay affects physical well-being. Indeed, recent theoretical work suggests that a strategy of “taking the good with the bad” may benefit health outcomes. In the present study, the authors assessed the impact of mixed emotional experiences on health outcomes in a 10-year longitudinal experience-sampling study across the adult life span. The authors found that not only were frequent experiences of mixed emotions (co-occurrences of positive and negative emotions) strongly associated with relatively good physical health, but that increases of mixed emotions over many years attenuated typical age-related health declines. PMID:24032072

Paying less but harvesting more: the effect of unconscious acceptance in regulating frustrating emotion.

PubMed

Ding, NanXiang; Yang, JieMin; Liu, YingYing; Yuan, JiaJin

2015-08-01

Previous studies indicate that emotion regulation may occur unconsciously, without the cost of cognitive effort, while conscious acceptance may enhance negative experiences despite having potential long-term health benefits. Thus, it is important to overcome this weakness to boost the efficacy of the acceptance strategy in negative emotion regulation. As unconscious regulation occurs with little cost of cognitive resources, the current study hypothesizes that unconscious acceptance regulates the emotional consequence of negative events more effectively than does conscious acceptance. Subjects were randomly assigned to conscious acceptance, unconscious acceptance and no-regulation conditions. A frustrating arithmetic task was used to induce negative emotion. Emotional experiences were assessed on the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale while emotion- related physiological activation was assessed by heart-rate reactivity. Results showed that conscious acceptance had a significant negative affective consequence, which was absent during unconscious acceptance. That is, unconscious acceptance was linked with little reduction of positive affect during the experience of frustration, while this reduction was prominent in the control and conscious acceptance groups. Instructed, conscious acceptance resulted in a greater reduction of positive affect than found for the control group. In addition, both conscious and unconscious acceptance strategies significantly decreased emotion-related heart-rate activity (to a similar extent) in comparison with the control condition. Moreover, heart-rate reactivity was positively correlated with negative affect and negatively correlated with positive affect during the frustration phase relative to the baseline phase, in both the control and unconscious acceptance groups. Thus, unconscious acceptance not only reduces emotion-related physiological activity but also better protects mood stability compared with conscious acceptance. This suggests that the clinical practice of acceptance therapy may need to consider using the unconscious priming of an accepting attitude, instead of intentionally instructing people to implement such a strategy, to boost the efficacy of acceptance in emotion regulation.

Adverse effects of social pressure to be thin on young women: an experimental investigation of the effects of "fat talk".

PubMed

Stice, Eric; Maxfield, Jennifer; Wells, Tony

2003-07-01

Experiments have found that pressure to be thin from the media promotes body dissatisfaction and negative affect, but the effects of social pressure to be thin have not been examined experimentally. Thus, this study tested whether social pressure to be thin fosters body dissatisfaction and negative affect. Young women (N = 120) were randomly assigned to a condition wherein an ultra-thin confederate complained about how fat she felt and voiced intentions to lose weight or a control condition wherein she discussed a neutral topic. Exposure to social pressure to be thin resulted in increased body dissatisfaction but not negative affect. The effects were not moderated by initial thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, or social support. Results support the assertion that peer pressure to be thin promotes body dissatisfaction but suggest that this factor may not contribute to negative affect. Copyright 2003 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Are positive and negative reinforcement "different"? Insights from a free-operant differential outcomes effect.

PubMed

Magoon, Michael A; Critchfield, Thomas S; Merrill, Dustin; Newland, M Christopher; Schneider, W Joel

2017-01-01

Although theoretical discussions typically assume that positive and negative reinforcement differ, the literature contains little unambiguous evidence that they produce differential behavioral effects. To test whether the two types of consequences control behavior differently, we pitted money-gain positive reinforcement and money-loss-avoidance negative reinforcement, scheduled through identically programmed variable-cycle schedules, against each other in concurrent schedules. Contingencies of response-produced feedback, normally different in positive and negative reinforcement, were made symmetrical. Steeper matching slopes were produced compared to a baseline consisting of all positive reinforcement. This free-operant differential outcomes effect supports the notion that that stimulus-presentation positive reinforcement and stimulus-elimination negative reinforcement are functionally "different." However, a control experiment showed that the feedback asymmetry of more traditional positive and negative reinforcement schedules also is sufficient to create a "difference" when the type of consequence is held constant. We offer these findings as a small step in meeting the very large challenge of moving negative reinforcement theory beyond decades of relative quiescence. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Risky Disclosures on "Facebook": The Effect of Having a Bad Experience on Online Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christofides, Emily; Muise, Amy; Desmarais, Serge

2012-01-01

Social network websites are widely used by adolescents, but disclosing in this environment has inherent risks, as does connecting with others online. In a sample of 256 adolescent "Facebook" users, the authors explore the relationship between having a negative experience, privacy knowledge, and behavior. Their reports of bad experiences on…

Systemic insecticide and gibberellin reduced cone damage and increased flowering in a spruce seed orchard.

PubMed

Rosenberg, O; Almqvist, C; Weslien, J

2012-06-01

Insects feeding in conifer cones are difficult to control with nonsystemic insecticides. Newly developed systemic insecticides that can be injected into tree trunks may be a possible way of reducing both insect damage and negative side-effects to the surrounding environment, compared with conventional spraying. Several insecticides that could be injected into tree stems were tested on Picea abies (L.) Karst. In one experiment, insecticides (bifenthrin, deltamethrin, abamectin, and imidacloprid) were injected during flowering; in a second experiment two of these insecticides (abamectin and imidacloprid) were injected 1 yr before the expected flowering. In the second experiment insecticide treatment was also combined with treatments with the flower stimulating hormone, gibberellin (GA(4/7)). The only insecticide that reduced damage was abamectin, both after injection during flowering and after injection 1 yr before the expected flowering. Injections with GA(4/7) increased flowering and were as efficient as the conventional application method of drilling but abamectin was not effective in combination with the drilling method. There was no negative effect of the insecticide injections on seed quality. The injections were ineffective against the seed chalcid Megastigmus strobilobius (Ratzeburg), which was found to have an unexpected, negative effect on seed quality. Our results suggest that it may be possible to reduce damage from certain insect species, and to increase flowering by injecting abamectin and GA(4/7) in the year before a cone crop.

Flat-roof phenomenon of dynamic equilibrium phase in the negative bias temperature instability effect on a power MOSFET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yue; Zhuo, Qing-Qing; Liu, Hong-Xia; Ma, Xiao-Hua; Hao, Yue

2014-05-01

The effect of the static negative bias temperature (NBT) stress on a p-channel power metal—oxide—semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is investigated by experiment and simulation. The time evolution of the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) degradation has the trend predicted by the reaction—diffusion (R—D) model but with an exaggerated time scale. The phenomena of the flat-roof section are observed under various stress conditions, which can be considered as the dynamic equilibrium phase in the R—D process. Based on the simulated results, the variation of the flat-roof section with the stress condition can be explained.

Conflict and disfluency as aversive signals: context-specific processing adjustments are modulated by affective location associations.

PubMed

Dreisbach, Gesine; Reindl, Anna-Lena; Fischer, Rico

2018-03-01

Context-specific processing adjustments are one signature feature of flexible human action control. However, up to now the precise mechanisms underlying these adjustments are not fully understood. Here it is argued that aversive signals produced by conflict- or disfluency-experience originally motivate such context-specific processing adjustments. We tested whether the efficiency of the aversive conflict signal for control adaptation depends on the affective nature of the context it is presented in. In two experiments, high vs. low proportions of aversive signals (Experiment 1: conflict trials; Experiment 2: disfluent trials) were presented either above or below the screen center. This location manipulation was motivated by existing evidence that verticality is generally associated with affective valence with up being positive and down being negative. From there it was hypothesized that the aversive signals would lose their trigger function for processing adjustments when presented at the lower (i.e., more negative) location. This should then result in a reduced context-specific proportion effect when the high proportion of aversive signals was presented at the lower location. Results fully confirmed the predictions. In both experiments, the location-specific proportion effects were only present when the high proportion of aversive signals occurred at the more positive location above but were reduced (Experiment 1) or even eliminated (Experiment 2) when the high proportion occurred at the more negative location below. This interaction of processing adjustments with affective background contexts can thus be taken as further hint for an affective origin of control adaptations.

The mechanism of valence-space metaphors: ERP evidence for affective word processing.

PubMed

Xie, Jiushu; Wang, Ruiming; Chang, Song

2014-01-01

Embodied cognition contends that the representation and processing of concepts involve perceptual, somatosensory, motoric, and other physical re-experiencing information. In this view, affective concepts are also grounded in physical information. For instance, people often say "feeling down" or "cheer up" in daily life. These phrases use spatial information to understand affective concepts. This process is referred to as valence-space metaphor. Valence-space metaphors refer to the employment of spatial information (lower/higher space) to elaborate affective concepts (negative/positive concepts). Previous studies have demonstrated that processing affective words affects performance on a spatial detection task. However, the mechanism(s) behind this effect remain unclear. In the current study, we hypothesized that processing affective words might produce spatial information. Consequently, spatial information would affect the following spatial cue detection/discrimination task. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to remember an affective word. Then, they completed a spatial cue detection task while event-related potentials were recorded. The results indicated that the top cues induced enhanced amplitude of P200 component while participants kept positive words relative to negative words in mind. On the contrary, the bottom cues induced enhanced P200 amplitudes while participants kept negative words relative to positive words in mind. In Experiment 2, we conducted a behavioral experiment that employed a similar paradigm to Experiment 1, but used arrows instead of dots to test the attentional nature of the valence-space metaphor. We found a similar facilitation effect as found in Experiment 1. Positive words facilitated the discrimination of upper arrows, whereas negative words facilitated the discrimination of lower arrows. In summary, affective words might activate spatial information and cause participants to allocate their attention to corresponding locations. Valence-space metaphors might be grounded in attention allocation.

How cannabis causes paranoia: using the intravenous administration of ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to identify key cognitive mechanisms leading to paranoia.

PubMed

Freeman, Daniel; Dunn, Graham; Murray, Robin M; Evans, Nicole; Lister, Rachel; Antley, Angus; Slater, Mel; Godlewska, Beata; Cornish, Robert; Williams, Jonathan; Di Simplicio, Martina; Igoumenou, Artemis; Brenneisen, Rudolf; Tunbridge, Elizabeth M; Harrison, Paul J; Harmer, Catherine J; Cowen, Philip; Morrison, Paul D

2015-03-01

Paranoia is receiving increasing attention in its own right, since it is a central experience of psychotic disorders and a marker of the health of a society. Paranoia is associated with use of the most commonly taken illicit drug, cannabis. The objective was to determine whether the principal psychoactive ingredient of cannabis-∆(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-causes paranoia and to use the drug as a probe to identify key cognitive mechanisms underlying paranoia. A randomized, placebo-controlled, between-groups test of the effects of intravenous THC was conducted. A total of 121 individuals with paranoid ideation were randomized to receive placebo, THC, or THC preceded by a cognitive awareness condition. Paranoia was assessed extensively via a real social situation, an immersive virtual reality experiment, and standard self-report and interviewer measures. Putative causal factors were assessed. Principal components analysis was used to create a composite paranoia score and composite causal variables to be tested in a mediation analysis. THC significantly increased paranoia, negative affect (anxiety, worry, depression, negative thoughts about the self), and a range of anomalous experiences, and reduced working memory capacity. The increase in negative affect and in anomalous experiences fully accounted for the increase in paranoia. Working memory changes did not lead to paranoia. Making participants aware of the effects of THC had little impact. In this largest study of intravenous THC, it was definitively demonstrated that the drug triggers paranoid thoughts in vulnerable individuals. The most likely mechanism of action causing paranoia was the generation of negative affect and anomalous experiences. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.

The problem of false positives and false negatives in violent video game experiments.

PubMed

Ferguson, Christopher J

The problem of false positives and negatives has received considerable attention in behavioral research in recent years. The current paper uses video game violence research as an example of how such issues may develop in a field. Despite decades of research, evidence on whether violent video games (VVGs) contribute to aggression in players has remained mixed. Concerns have been raised in recent years that experiments regarding VVGs may suffer from both "false positives" and "false negatives." The current paper examines this issue in three sets of video game experiments, two sets of video game experiments on aggression and prosocial behaviors identified in meta-analysis, and a third group of recent null studies. Results indicated that studies of VVGs and aggression appear to be particularly prone to false positive results. Studies of VVGs and prosocial behavior, by contrast are heterogeneous and did not demonstrate any indication of false positive results. However, their heterogeneous nature made it difficult to base solid conclusions on them. By contrast, evidence for false negatives in null studies was limited, and little evidence emerged that null studies lacked power in comparison those highlighted in past meta-analyses as evidence for effects. These results are considered in light of issues related to false positives and negatives in behavioral science more broadly. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Ties That Bind: Midlife Parents' Daily Experiences With Grown Children.

PubMed

Fingerman, Karen L; Kim, Kyungmin; Birditt, Kira S; Zarit, Steven H

2016-04-01

Daily pleasant or stressful experiences with grown children may contribute to parental well-being. This diary study focused on midlife parents' ( N = 247) reports regarding grown children for 7 days. Nearly all parents (96%) had contact with a child that week via phone, text, or in person. Nearly all parents shared laughter or enjoyable interactions with grown children during the study week. More than half of parents experienced stressful encounters (e.g., child got on nerves) or stressful thoughts about grown children (e.g., worrying, fretting about a problem). Pleasant and stressful experiences with grown children were associated with parents' positive and negative daily moods. A pleasant experience with a grown child the same day as a stressful experience mitigated effects of those stressful experiences on negative mood, however. The findings have implications for understanding intergenerational ambivalence and stress buffering in this tie.

The Ties That Bind: Midlife Parents’ Daily Experiences With Grown Children

PubMed Central

Fingerman, Karen L.; Kim, Kyungmin; Birditt, Kira S.; Zarit, Steven H.

2015-01-01

Daily pleasant or stressful experiences with grown children may contribute to parental well-being. This diary study focused on midlife parents’ (N = 247) reports regarding grown children for 7 days. Nearly all parents (96%) had contact with a child that week via phone, text, or in person. Nearly all parents shared laughter or enjoyable interactions with grown children during the study week. More than half of parents experienced stressful encounters (e.g., child got on nerves) or stressful thoughts about grown children (e.g., worrying, fretting about a problem). Pleasant and stressful experiences with grown children were associated with parents’ positive and negative daily moods. A pleasant experience with a grown child the same day as a stressful experience mitigated effects of those stressful experiences on negative mood, however. The findings have implications for understanding intergenerational ambivalence and stress buffering in this tie. PMID:27022198

Bad Attitudes: Why Design Students Dislike Teamwork

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tucker, Richard; Abbasi, Neda

2016-01-01

Positive experiences of teamwork in design contexts significantly improve students' satisfaction with teaching and their attitudes towards future teamwork. Thus, an understanding of the factors leading to negative and positive team experiences can inform strategies to support effective teamwork. This paper examines design students' perceptions and…

Differential Susceptibility to Rearing Experience: The Case of Childcare

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pluess, Michael; Belsky, Jay

2009-01-01

Background: Inconsistencies regarding developmental effects of non-maternal childcare may be caused by neglecting the possibility that children are differentially susceptible towards such experiences. Method: Interactions between difficult/negative child temperament and childcare type, quantity, and quality on teacher-rated behavior problems and…

The Effect of Autogenic Training on Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, and Performance on Nursing Student Simulation.

PubMed

Holland, Brian; Gosselin, Kevin; Mulcahy, Angela

The increased anxiety experienced by nursing students during simulations can serve as a significant barrier to learning. The use of anxiety-reducing techniques such as autogenic training (AT) can mitigate the negative effects of anxiety and improve the overall learning experience. The investigators in this study sought to understand the effect of AT on student performance and self-efficacy during simulation experiences. The use of AT was an effective technique to decrease anxiety and increase performance among nursing students during nursing simulations. Reducing anxiety during simulations can improve the student learning experience.

Cultivation of high-biomass crops on coal mine spoil banks: can microbial inoculation compensate for high doses of organic matter?

PubMed

Gryndler, Milan; Sudová, Radka; Püschel, David; Rydlová, Jana; Janousková, Martina; Vosátka, Miroslav

2008-09-01

Two greenhouse experiments were focused on the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in planting of high-biomass crops on reclaimed spoil banks. In the first experiment, we tested the effects of different organic amendments on growth of alfalfa and on the introduced microorganisms. While growth of plants was supported in substrate with compost amendment, mycorrhizal colonization was suppressed. Lignocellulose papermill waste had no negative effects on AMF, but did not positively affect growth of plants. The mixture of these two amendments was found to be optimal in both respects, plant growth and mycorrhizal development. Decreasing doses of this mixture amendment were used in the second experiment, where the effects of microbial inoculation (assumed to compensate for reduced doses of organic matter) on growth of two high-biomass crops, hemp and reed canarygrass, were studied. Plant growth response to microbial inoculation was either positive or negative, depending on the dose of the applied amendment and plant species.

A systematic review of HIV partner counseling and referral services: client and provider attitudes, preferences, practices, and experiences.

PubMed

Passin, Warren F; Kim, Angela S; Hutchinson, Angela B; Crepaz, Nicole; Herbst, Jeffrey H; Lyles, Cynthia M

2006-05-01

The objectives of this study were to understand client and provider attitudes, experiences, and practices regarding HIV partner notification in the United States and to help identify future research and program needs. The goals of this study were to synthesize the literature reporting client and provider attitudes, experiences, and practices and to identify potential negative effects of HIV partner notification. This study consisted of a systematic qualitative review. Clients were willing to self-notify partners and participate in provider notification, and few reported negative effects. The majority of health care providers were in favor of HIV partner notification; however, they did not consistently refer index clients to HIV partner notification programs. Considering that clients have positive attitudes toward self- and provider referral, local HIV prevention programs need to ensure that all HIV-positive clients are offered partner notification services. Additional research is needed to assess the potential risks of notifying partners and to identify effective techniques to improve client and provider participation.

Mixed Emotional Experience Is Associated with and Precedes Improvements in Psychological Well-Being

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The relationships between positive and negative emotional experience and physical and psychological well-being have been well-documented. The present study examines the prospective positive relationship between concurrent positive and negative emotional experience and psychological well-being in the context of psychotherapy. Methods 47 adults undergoing psychotherapy completed measures of psychological well-being and wrote private narratives that were coded by trained raters for emotional content. Results The specific concurrent experience of happiness and sadness was associated with improvements in psychological well-being above and beyond the impact of the passage of time, personality traits, or the independent effects of happiness and sadness. Changes in mixed emotional experience preceded improvements in well-being. Conclusions Experiencing happiness alongside sadness in psychotherapy may be a harbinger of improvement in psychological well-being. PMID:22539987

Negative Experiences on Facebook and Depressive Symptoms Among Young Adults.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Samantha R; Buka, Stephen L; Marshall, Brandon D L; Carey, Kate B; Clark, Melissa A

2016-11-01

To examine whether negative Facebook (FB) experiences were independently associated with depressive symptoms among young adults in a longitudinal family cohort. Negative FB experiences were measured by type (e.g., bullying or meanness, unwanted contact, misunderstandings, or any), recency, number of experiences, and severity of upset. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Generalized estimating equations were used to account for sibling correlation; adjusted models were constructed for each negative FB experience measure accounting for sex, race/ethnicity, social support, adolescent depressive symptoms, parental psychological distress, average monthly income, educational attainment, and employment. In a sample of 264 young adults, all negative FB experience measures were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. There is a clear association between negative FB experience and depressive symptoms. Future work should examine: (1) whether negative FB experiences cause incident depression or exacerbate preexisting depression; and (2) who is most prone to being upset by negative FB experiences. With further research, recommendations for limiting or altering FB use among high-risk subpopulations could be useful in reducing depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of Promotion and Compunction Interventions on Real Intergroup Interactions: Promotion Helps but High Compunction Hurts

PubMed Central

Greenland, Katy; Xenias, Dimitrios; Maio, Gregory R.

2017-01-01

HIGHLIGHTS  We show the promotion intervention has positive effects during intergroup contact, but that high levels of compunction can have negative effects. Intergroup contact is probably the longest standing and most comprehensively researched intervention to reduce discrimination. It is also part of ordinary social experience, and a key context in which discrimination is played out. In this paper, we explore two additional interventions which are also designed to reduce discrimination, but which have not yet been applied to real intergroup interactions. The promotion intervention encourages participants to relax and enjoy an interaction, while the compunction intervention motivates participants to avoid discrimination. Across two studies, we tested the separate effects of promotion (Study 1) and then compunction (Study 2) on participants' interactions with a confederate whom they believed to have a history of schizophrenia. In Study 1, participants received either a promotion intervention to “relax and have an enjoyable dialogue” or no intervention (control; n = 67). In Study 2, participants completed a Single-Category Implicit Attitude Test before being told that they were high in prejudice (high compunction condition) or low in prejudice (low compunction condition; n = 62). Results indicated that promotion was associated with broadly positive effects: participants reported more positive experience of the interaction (enjoyment and interest in a future interaction), and more positive evaluations of their contact partner (increased friendliness and reduced stereotyping). There were no effects on participants' reported intergroup anxiety. In contrast, high compunction had broadly negative effects: participants reported more negative experiences of the interaction and more negative evaluations of their contact partner (using the same dependent measures outlined above). In addition, participants in the high compunction condition reported increased intergroup anxiety and increased self-anxiety (anxiety around thinking or doing something that is prejudiced). Participants in the high compunction condition also reported reduced expectancies of self-efficacy (i.e., they were less confident that they would be able to make a good impression). PMID:28439248

Effects of Promotion and Compunction Interventions on Real Intergroup Interactions: Promotion Helps but High Compunction Hurts.

PubMed

Greenland, Katy; Xenias, Dimitrios; Maio, Gregory R

2017-01-01

HIGHLIGHTS   We show the promotion intervention has positive effects during intergroup contact, but that high levels of compunction can have negative effects. Intergroup contact is probably the longest standing and most comprehensively researched intervention to reduce discrimination. It is also part of ordinary social experience, and a key context in which discrimination is played out. In this paper, we explore two additional interventions which are also designed to reduce discrimination, but which have not yet been applied to real intergroup interactions. The promotion intervention encourages participants to relax and enjoy an interaction, while the compunction intervention motivates participants to avoid discrimination. Across two studies, we tested the separate effects of promotion (Study 1) and then compunction (Study 2) on participants' interactions with a confederate whom they believed to have a history of schizophrenia. In Study 1, participants received either a promotion intervention to "relax and have an enjoyable dialogue" or no intervention (control; n = 67). In Study 2, participants completed a Single-Category Implicit Attitude Test before being told that they were high in prejudice (high compunction condition) or low in prejudice (low compunction condition; n = 62). Results indicated that promotion was associated with broadly positive effects: participants reported more positive experience of the interaction (enjoyment and interest in a future interaction), and more positive evaluations of their contact partner (increased friendliness and reduced stereotyping). There were no effects on participants' reported intergroup anxiety. In contrast, high compunction had broadly negative effects: participants reported more negative experiences of the interaction and more negative evaluations of their contact partner (using the same dependent measures outlined above). In addition, participants in the high compunction condition reported increased intergroup anxiety and increased self-anxiety (anxiety around thinking or doing something that is prejudiced). Participants in the high compunction condition also reported reduced expectancies of self-efficacy (i.e., they were less confident that they would be able to make a good impression).

Alertness Modulates Conflict Adaptation and Feature Integration in an Opposite Way

PubMed Central

Chen, Jia; Huang, Xiting; Chen, Antao

2013-01-01

Previous studies show that the congruency sequence effect can result from both the conflict adaptation effect (CAE) and feature integration effect which can be observed as the repetition priming effect (RPE) and feature overlap effect (FOE) depending on different experimental conditions. Evidence from neuroimaging studies suggests that a close correlation exists between the neural mechanisms of alertness-related modulations and the congruency sequence effect. However, little is known about whether and how alertness mediates the congruency sequence effect. In Experiment 1, the Attentional Networks Test (ANT) and a modified flanker task were used to evaluate whether the alertness of the attentional functions had a correlation with the CAE and RPE. In Experimental 2, the ANT and another modified flanker task were used to investigate whether alertness of the attentional functions correlate with the CAE and FOE. In Experiment 1, through the correlative analysis, we found a significant positive correlation between alertness and the CAE, and a negative correlation between the alertness and the RPE. Moreover, a significant negative correlation existed between CAE and RPE. In Experiment 2, we found a marginally significant negative correlation between the CAE and the RPE, but the correlation between alertness and FOE, CAE and FOE was not significant. These results suggest that alertness can modulate conflict adaptation and feature integration in an opposite way. Participants at the high alerting level group may tend to use the top-down cognitive processing strategy, whereas participants at the low alerting level group tend to use the bottom-up processing strategy. PMID:24250824

Psychophysiological effects of self-regulation method: EEG frequency analysis and contingent negative variations.

PubMed

Ikemi, A

1988-01-01

Experiments were conducted to investigate the psychophysiological effects of self-regulation method (SRM), a newly developed method of self-control, using EEG frequency analysis and contingent negative variations (CNV). The results of the EEG frequency analysis showed that there is a significant increase in the percentage (power) of the theta-band and a significant decrease in the percentage (power) of the beta-band during SRM. Moreover, the results of an identical experiment conducted on subjects in a drowsy state showed that the changes in EEG frequencies during SRM can be differentiated from those of a drowsy state. Furthermore, experiments using CNV showed that there is a significant reduction of CNV amplitude during SRM. Despite the reduced amplitude during SRM, the number of errors in a task to evoke the CNV was reduced significantly without significant delay of reaction time. When an identical experiment was conducted in a drowsy state, CNV amplitude was reduced significantly, but reaction time and errors increased. From these experiments, the state of vigilance during SRM was discussed as a state of 'relaxed alertness'.

Impaired emotional memory enhancement on recognition of pictorial stimuli in Alzheimer's disease: no influence of the nature of encoding.

PubMed

Chainay, Hanna; Sava, Alexandra; Michael, George A; Landré, Lionel; Versace, Rémy; Krolak-Salmon, Pierre

2014-01-01

There is some discrepancy in the results regarding emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Some studies report better retrieval of emotional information, especially positive, than neutral information. This observation is similar to the positivity effect reported in healthy older adults. It was suggested that this effect is due to privileged, deeper and more controlled processing of positive information. One way of testing this is to control both the intention to encode the information and the cognitive resources involved during encoding. Studies investigating EEM in AD patients did not systematically control the nature of encoding. Consequently, the purpose of our study was to examine EEM in AD while manipulating the nature of encoding. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1 the intention to encode stimuli was manipulated by giving or not giving instructions to participants about the subsequent retrieval. In Experiment 2 cognitive resources involved during encoding were varied (low vs high). In both experiments participants performed immediate recognition task of negative, positive and neutral pictures. 41 mild AD patients and 44 older healthy adults participated in Exp. 1, and 17 mild AD patients and 20 older healthy adults participated in Exp. 2. AD patients did not present EEM. Positivity effect, better performance for positive than neutral and negative pictures was observed with older healthy adults. The data suggest that EEM is disturbed in mild AD patients, with respect to both negative and positive stimuli, at least concerning laboratory, not real-life material. They also suggest there is a positivity effect in healthy older adults and lend support to the idea that this effect is due to preferential cognitive processing of positive information in this population. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The relationship between negative life events and suicidal behavior: moderating role of basic psychological needs.

PubMed

Rowe, Catherine A; Walker, Kristin L; Britton, Peter C; Hirsch, Jameson K

2013-01-01

Individuals who experience negative life events may be at increased risk for suicidal behavior. Intrapersonal characteristics, such as basic psychological needs, however, may buffer this association. To assess the potential moderating role of overall basic psychological needs, and the separate components of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, on the association between negative life events and suicidal behavior. Our sample of 439 college students (311 females, 71%) completed the following self-report surveys: Life Events Scale, Basic Psychological Needs Scale, Beck Depression Inventory - II, and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised. In support of our hypotheses, negative life events were associated with greater levels of suicidal ideation and attempts, and satisfaction of basic psychological needs, including autonomy, relatedness, and competence, significantly moderated this relationship, over and above the effects of the covariates of age, sex, and depressive symptoms. Suicidal behavior associated with the experience of negative life events is not inevitable. Therapeutically bolstering competence, autonomy, and relatedness may be an important suicide prevention strategy for individuals experiencing life stressors.

Negative plant-phyllosphere feedbacks in native Asteraceae hosts - a novel extension of the plant-soil feedback framework.

PubMed

Whitaker, Briana K; Bauer, Jonathan T; Bever, James D; Clay, Keith

2017-08-01

Over the past 25 years, the plant-soil feedback (PSF) framework has catalyzed our understanding of how belowground microbiota impact plant fitness and species coexistence. Here, we apply a novel extension of this framework to microbiota associated with aboveground tissues, termed 'plant-phyllosphere feedback (PPFs)'. In parallel greenhouse experiments, rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbiota of con- and heterospecific hosts from four species were independently manipulated. In a third experiment, we tested the combined effects of soil and phyllosphere feedback under field conditions. We found that three of four species experienced weak negative PSF whereas, in contrast, all four species experienced strong negative PPFs. Field-based feedback estimates were highly negative for all four species, though variable in magnitude. Our results suggest that phyllosphere microbiota, like rhizosphere microbiota, can potentially mediate plant species coexistence via negative feedbacks. Extension of the PSF framework to the phyllosphere is needed to more fully elucidate plant-microbiota interactions. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Emotional episodes in the everyday lives of people with schizophrenia: the role of intrinsic motivation and negative symptoms.

PubMed

McCormick, Bryan P; Snethen, Gretchen; Lysaker, Paul H

2012-12-01

Research on emotional experience has indicated that subjects with schizophrenia experience less positive, and more negative emotional experience than non-psychiatric subjects in natural settings. Differences in the experience of emotion may result from differences in experiences such that everyday activities may evoke emotions. The purpose of this study was to identify if everyday experience of competence and autonomy were related to positive and negative emotion. Adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were recruited from day treatment programs (N=45). Data were collected using experience-sampling methods. A number of subjects failed to meet data adequacy (N=13) but did not differ from retained subjects (N=32) in symptoms or cognition. Positive and negative emotion models were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling Everyday activities were characterized by those reported as easily accomplished and requiring at most moderate talents. Positive emotional experiences were stronger than negative emotional experiences. The majority of variance in positive and negative emotion existed between persons. Negative symptoms were significantly related to positive emotion, but not negative emotion. The perception that motivation for activity was external to subjects (e.g. wished they were doing something else) was related to decreased positive emotion and enhanced negative emotion. Activities that required more exertion for activities was related to enhanced positive emotion, whereas activities that subjects reported they wanted to do was associated with reduced negative emotion. The implications of this study are that everyday experiences of people with schizophrenia do affect emotional experience and that management of experience to enhance positive emotion may have therapeutic benefits. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Recidivism in a Sample of Juvenile Offenders in Community-Based Treatment.

PubMed

Wolff, Kevin T; Baglivio, Michael T; Piquero, Alex R

2017-08-01

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been identified as a key risk factor for a range of negative life outcomes, including delinquency. Much less is known about how exposure to negative experiences relates to continued offending among juvenile offenders. In this study, we examine the effect of ACEs on recidivism in a large sample of previously referred youth from the State of Florida who were followed for 1 year after participation in community-based treatment. Results from a series of Cox hazard models suggest that ACEs increase the risk of subsequent arrest, with a higher prevalence of ACEs leading to a shorter time to recidivism. The relationship between ACEs and recidivism held quite well in demographic-specific analyses. Implications for empirical research on the long-term effects of traumatic childhood events and juvenile justice policy are discussed.

Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Adolescents' Well-Being: The Role of Cross-Ethnic Friendships and Friends' Experiences of Discrimination.

PubMed

Benner, Aprile D; Wang, Yijie

2017-03-01

There is an extensive body of work documenting the negative socioemotional and academic consequences of perceiving racial/ethnic discrimination during adolescence, but little is known about how the larger peer context conditions such effects. Using peer network data from 252 eighth graders (85% Latino, 11% African American, 5% other race/ethnicity), the present study examined the moderating role of cross-ethnic friendships and close friends' experiences of discrimination in the link between adolescents' perceptions of discrimination and well-being. Cross-ethnic friendships and friends' experiences of discrimination generally served a protective role, buffering the negative effects of discrimination on both socioemotional well-being and school outcomes. Overall, results highlight the importance of considering racial/ethnic-related aspects of adolescents' friendships when studying interpersonal processes closely tied to race/ethnicity. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Is the emotional Stroop task a special case of mood induction? Evidence from sustained effects of attention under emotion.

PubMed

Ben-Haim, Moshe Shay; Mama, Yaniv; Icht, Michal; Algom, Daniel

2014-01-01

Sustained effects of emotion are well known in everyday experience. Surprisingly, such effects are seldom recorded in laboratory studies of the emotional Stroop task, in which participants name the color of emotion and neutral words. Color performance is more sluggish with emotion words than with neutral words, the emotional Stroop effect (ESE). The ESE is not sensitive to the order in which the two groups of words are presented, so the effect of exposure to emotion words does not extend to disrupting performance in a subsequent block with neutral words. We attribute this absence of a sustained effect to habituation engendered by excessive repetition of the experimental stimuli. In a series of four experiments, we showed that sustained effects do occur when habituation is removed, and we also showed that the massive exposure to negative stimuli within the ESE paradigm induces a commensurately negative mood. A novel perspective is offered, in which the ESE is considered a special case of mood induction.

Feeling Better About Self After Receiving Negative Feedback: When the Sense That Ability Can Be Improved Is Activated.

PubMed

Hu, Xinyi; Chen, Yinghe; Tian, Baowei

2016-01-01

Past studies suggest that managers and educators often consider negative feedback as a motivator for individuals to think about their shortcomings and improve their work, but delivering negative feedback does not always achieve desired results. The present study, based on incremental theory, employed an intervention method to activate the belief that a particular ability could be improved after negative feedback. Three experiments tested the intervention effect on negative self-relevant emotion. Study 1 indicated conveying suggestions for improving ability reduced negative self-relevant emotion after negative feedback. Study 2 tested whether activating the sense of possible improvement in the ability could reduce negative self-relevant emotion. Results indicated activating the belief that ability could be improved reduced negative self-relevant emotion after failure, but delivering emotion management information alone did not yield the same effect. Study 3 extended the results by affirming the effort participants made in doing the test, and found the affirmation reduced negative self-relevant emotion. Collectively, the findings indicated focusing on the belief that the ability could be improved in the future can reduce negative self-relevant emotion after negative feedback.

A randomized trial of a cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis intervention on positive and negative affect during breast cancer radiotherapy

PubMed Central

Schnur, Julie B.; David, Daniel; Kangas, Maria; Green, Sheryl; Bovbjerg, Dana H.; Montgomery, Guy H.

2009-01-01

Breast cancer radiotherapy can be an emotionally difficult experience. Despite this, few studies have examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions to reduce negative affect, and none to date have explicitly examined interventions to improve positive affect among breast cancer radiotherapy patients. The present study examined the effectiveness of a multimodal psychotherapeutic approach, combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis (CBTH), to reduce negative affect and increase positive affect in 40 women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either CBTH or standard care. Participants completed weekly self-report measures of positive and negative affect. Repeated and univariate analyses of variance revealed that the CBTH approach reduced levels of negative affect [F (1, 38) = 13.49; p = .0007], and increased levels of positive affect [F (1, 38) = 9.67; p = .0035, ω2 = .48], during the course of radiotherapy. Additionally, relative to control group, the CBTH group demonstrated significantly more intense positive affect [F (1,38) = 7.09; p = .0113, d = .71] and significantly less intense negative affect [F (1,38) = 10.30; p = .0027, d = .90] during radiotherapy. The CBTH group also had a significantly higher frequency of days where positive affect was greater than negative affect (85% of days assessed for the CBTH group versus 43% of the Control group) [F (1,38) = 18.16; p = .0001, d = 1.16]. Therefore, the CBTH intervention has the potential to improve the affective experience of women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy. PMID:19226611

User experience while viewing stereoscopic 3D television

PubMed Central

Read, Jenny C.A.; Bohr, Iwo

2014-01-01

3D display technologies have been linked to visual discomfort and fatigue. In a lab-based study with a between-subjects design, 433 viewers aged from 4 to 82 years watched the same movie in either 2D or stereo 3D (S3D), and subjectively reported on a range of aspects of their viewing experience. Our results suggest that a minority of viewers, around 14%, experience adverse effects due to viewing S3D, mainly headache and eyestrain. A control experiment where participants viewed 2D content through 3D glasses suggests that around 8% may report adverse effects which are not due directly to viewing S3D, but instead are due to the glasses or to negative preconceptions about S3D (the ‘nocebo effect'). Women were slightly more likely than men to report adverse effects with S3D. We could not detect any link between pre-existing eye conditions or low stereoacuity and the likelihood of experiencing adverse effects with S3D. Practitioner Summary: Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) has been linked to visual discomfort and fatigue. Viewers watched the same movie in either 2D or stereo 3D (between-subjects design). Around 14% reported effects such as headache and eyestrain linked to S3D itself, while 8% report adverse effects attributable to 3D glasses or negative expectations. PMID:24874550

Effect of Emotion and Type of Encoding on Memory for Actions: Verbal and Subject-Performed Tasks.

PubMed

Borg, Céline; Bouazza, Zineb; Godeau, Marielle; Getenet, Jean-Claude; Chainay, Hanna

2018-05-29

The present study examines whether the interaction between emotion and the enactment effect (body involvement) improves memory in people with Alzheimer disease (AD). Two experiments with drawings of actions were conducted, in which two types of encoding were used: motor and verbal. In experiment 1, with 13 AD patients and 13 older healthy adults, the encoding was incidental. In experiment 2, with 17 mild AD patients and 21 older healthy adults, it was intentional. In experiment 1, no effect of enactment or emotion was observed in the AD patients. In experiment 2, effects of enactment and emotion (better recall for negative actions) were observed in the AD patients. This pattern of results was also observed in the elderly control adults in both experiments. These results confirm effects observed in normal ageing and indicate a more subtle effect on AD. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Helping employees sleep well: Effects of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia on work outcomes.

PubMed

Barnes, Christopher M; Miller, Jared A; Bostock, Sophie

2017-01-01

Drawing from recent research advances indicating the harmful effects of insomnia on negative affect, job satisfaction, self-control, organizational citizenship behavior, and interpersonal deviance, we hypothesized that treating insomnia with Internet based cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia would lead to improvements in these outcomes. In a field experiment with a randomized wait-list control group, we found that treatment had a beneficial direct effect on negative affect, job satisfaction, and self-control. Moreover, the effect of treatment on job satisfaction was mediated by negative affect. We were not able to detect a direct effect of treatment on organizational citizenship behavior or interpersonal deviance. However, treatment had a beneficial indirect effect on organizational citizenship behavior through the mediators of negative affect and job satisfaction, and a beneficial indirect effect on interpersonal deviance through the mediator of self-control. These results move the applied psychology literature on insomnia beyond simply pointing out problematic effects of employee insomnia to providing evidence of a partial solution to such effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Immoral Assumption Effect: Moralization Drives Negative Trait Attributions.

PubMed

Meindl, Peter; Johnson, Kate M; Graham, Jesse

2016-04-01

Jumping to negative conclusions about other people's traits is judged as morally bad by many people. Despite this, across six experiments (total N = 2,151), we find that multiple types of moral evaluations--even evaluations related to open-mindedness, tolerance, and compassion--play a causal role in these potentially pernicious trait assumptions. Our results also indicate that moralization affects negative-but not positive-trait assumptions, and that the effect of morality on negative assumptions cannot be explained merely by people's general (nonmoral) preferences or other factors that distinguish moral and nonmoral traits, such as controllability or desirability. Together, these results suggest that one of the more destructive human tendencies--making negative assumptions about others--can be caused by the better angels of our nature. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Dissociative Mothers' Subjective Experience of Parenting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benjamin, Lynn R.; And Others

1996-01-01

A study of 54 mothers with a dissociative disorder, 20 mothers with other mental problems, and 20 normal mothers investigated what effect, if any, dissociation had on parenting. When tested on the Subjective Experiences of Parenting Scale, mothers with dissociation presented significantly more negative parenting behavior and attitudes. (CR)

Service workers' chain reactions to daily customer mistreatment: Behavioral linkages, mechanisms, and boundary conditions.

PubMed

Chi, Nai-Wen; Yang, Jixia; Lin, Chia-Ying

2018-01-01

Drawing on the stressor-emotion model, we examine how customer mistreatment can evoke service workers' passive forms of deviant behaviors (i.e., work withdrawal behavior [WWB]) and negative impacts on their home life (i.e., work-family conflict [WFC]), and whether individuals' core self-evaluations and customer service training can buffer the negative effects of customer mistreatment. Using the experience sampling method, we collect daily data from 77 customer service employees for 10 consecutive working days, yielding 546 valid daily responses. The results show that daily customer mistreatment increases service workers' daily WWB and WFC through negative emotions. Furthermore, employees with high core self-evaluations and employees who received customer service training are less likely to experience negative emotions when faced with customer mistreatment, and thus are less likely to engage in WWB or provoke WFC. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Improving older adults' memory performance using prior task success.

PubMed

Geraci, Lisa; Miller, Tyler M

2013-06-01

Holding negative aging stereotypes can lead older adults to perform poorly on memory tests. We attempted to improve older adults' memory performance by giving them task experience that would counter their negative performance expectations. Before participating in a memory experiment, younger and older adults were given a cognitive task that they could either successfully complete, not successfully complete, or they were given no prior task. For older adults, recall was significantly higher and self-reported anxiety was significantly lower for the prior task success group relative to the other groups. There was no effect of prior task experience on younger adults' memory performance. Results suggest that older adults' memory can be improved with a single successful prior task experience. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Correlates of New Graduate Nurses' Experiences of Workplace Mistreatment.

PubMed

Read, Emily; Laschinger, Heather K

2015-10-01

This study explores correlates of new graduate nurses’ experiences of workplace mistreatment. New graduate nurses’ experiences of workplace mistreatment, such as bullying, coworker incivility, and supervisor incivility, negatively influence nurses’ work and health. It is unclear whether these forms of workplace mistreatment have similar precipitating factors and outcomes. We surveyed 342 new graduate nurses in Ontario to explore correlates of 3 forms of workplace mistreatment. Workplace incivility and bullying were significantly related to authentic leadership, structural empowerment, worklife fit, and psychological capital. Bullying was more strongly related to job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and mental and physical health outcomes than supervisor and coworker incivility. New graduate nurses’ experiences of 3 types of workplace mistreatment are related to organizational and health factors, although bullying appears to have stronger negative effects.

Soil feedback and pathogen activity in Prunus serotina throughout its native range

Treesearch

Kurt O. Reinhart; Alejandro Royo; Wim H. Van der Putten; Keith Clay

2005-01-01

1 Oomycete soil pathogens are known to have a negative effect on Prunus serotina seedling establishment and to promote tree diversity in a deciduous forest in Indiana, USA. Here, we investigate whether negative feedbacks operate widely in its native range in eastern USA. 2 In laboratory experiments, soil sterilization was used to test the...

Successive Negative Contrast after Partial Reinforcement in the Consummatory Behavior of Rats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pellegrini, Santiago; Muzio, Ruben N.; Mustaca, Alba E.; Papini, Mauricio R.

2004-01-01

Rats given access to a 32% sucrose solution later reject a 4% solution significantly more than controls that have only received the 4% solution. In Experiment 1, this consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC) effect was attenuated by previous exposure to 50% partial reinforcement. Furthermore, recovery from cSNC was also facilitated by…

Strategy Effects Counteract Distractor Inhibition: Negative Priming with Constantly Absent Probe Distractors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frings, Christian; Wentura, Dirk

2006-01-01

It is an accepted, albeit puzzling finding that negative priming (NP) hinges on the presence of distractors in probe displays. In three experiments without probe distractors, the authors yielded evidence that response-biasing processes based on the contingency between prime and probe displays may have caused this finding. It is argued that it is…

A Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Negative Rearing Experiences on Adolescents' Social Withdrawal and Aggression.

PubMed

Lee, Kyung-Suk; Choi, Ok-Joo; Kim, Joon-Ho

2017-09-01

Children who have experienced negative rearing behaviors show a lack of self-confidence due to emotional instability and are reserved in interpersonal relationships. This can lead to failure in social adaptation and a high risk of depression, suicide, criminal acts, and anti-social behaviors. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effects of experiencing negative parental rearing behaviors, such as neglect and abuse, on adolescents' social withdrawal and aggression, by utilizing multivariate latent growth models. Data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Study (KCYPS), a survey conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute targeting a cohort of three different age groups (grade 1, grade 4, and grade 7), from 2010 to 2016 was used. Multi-stage stratified sampling methods were used in the KCYPS, which surveyed the students and parents of the selected grade levels. This study analyzed the data for grade 7, from second year (grade 8) to fourth year (grade 10). Negative rearing experiences had a significant effect on social withdrawal and aggression, and this influence was shown to persist over the long term. This study examined the long-term developmental trajectory in the relationship between risk factors for adolescent development. Furthermore, the relationship between risk factors was shown to have not only short term but long-term effects as well, which reinforces the limitations of previous studies.

A Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Negative Rearing Experiences on Adolescents' Social Withdrawal and Aggression

PubMed Central

Lee, Kyung-Suk; Choi, Ok-Joo

2017-01-01

Background Children who have experienced negative rearing behaviors show a lack of self-confidence due to emotional instability and are reserved in interpersonal relationships. This can lead to failure in social adaptation and a high risk of depression, suicide, criminal acts, and anti-social behaviors. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effects of experiencing negative parental rearing behaviors, such as neglect and abuse, on adolescents' social withdrawal and aggression, by utilizing multivariate latent growth models. Methods Data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Study (KCYPS), a survey conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute targeting a cohort of three different age groups (grade 1, grade 4, and grade 7), from 2010 to 2016 was used. Multi-stage stratified sampling methods were used in the KCYPS, which surveyed the students and parents of the selected grade levels. This study analyzed the data for grade 7, from second year (grade 8) to fourth year (grade 10). Results Negative rearing experiences had a significant effect on social withdrawal and aggression, and this influence was shown to persist over the long term. Conclusion This study examined the long-term developmental trajectory in the relationship between risk factors for adolescent development. Furthermore, the relationship between risk factors was shown to have not only short term but long-term effects as well, which reinforces the limitations of previous studies. PMID:29026488

Mood effects on attitude judgments: independent effects of mood before and after message elaboration.

PubMed

Bless, H; Mackie, D M; Schwarz, N

1992-10-01

This study investigated the independent effects of induced mood on the encoding of persuasive messages and on the assessment of attitude judgments. In Experiment 1, positive or negative mood was induced either before the encoding of a counterattitudinal message or before the assessment of attitude judgments. When mood was induced before message presentation, Ss in a bad mood were more persuaded by strong than by weak arguments, whereas Ss in a good mood were equally persuaded by strong and by weak arguments. When Ss encoded the message in a neutral mood, however, the advantage of strong over weak arguments was more pronounced when Ss were in a good rather than in a bad mood at the time of attitude assessment. In Experiment 2, Ss exposed to a counterattitudinal message composed of either strong or weak arguments formed either a global evaluation or a detailed representation of the message. Positive, negative, or neutral mood was then induced. Ss in a good mood were most likely and Ss in a negative mood least likely to base their reported attitudes on global evaluations.

Trading experience modulates anterior insula to reduce the endowment effect

PubMed Central

Tong, Lester C. P.; Ye, Karen J.; Asai, Kentaro; Ertac, Seda; List, John A.; Nusbaum, Howard C.; Hortaçsu, Ali

2016-01-01

People often demand a greater price when selling goods that they own than they would pay to purchase the same goods—a well-known economic bias called the endowment effect. The endowment effect has been found to be muted among experienced traders, but little is known about how trading experience reduces the endowment effect. We show that when selling, experienced traders exhibit lower right anterior insula activity, but no differences in nucleus accumbens or orbitofrontal activation, compared with inexperienced traders. Furthermore, insula activation mediates the effect of experience on the endowment effect. Similar results are obtained for inexperienced traders who are incentivized to gain trading experience. This finding indicates that frequent trading likely mitigates the endowment effect indirectly by modifying negative affective responses in the context of selling. PMID:27482098

Trading experience modulates anterior insula to reduce the endowment effect.

PubMed

Tong, Lester C P; Ye, Karen J; Asai, Kentaro; Ertac, Seda; List, John A; Nusbaum, Howard C; Hortaçsu, Ali

2016-08-16

People often demand a greater price when selling goods that they own than they would pay to purchase the same goods-a well-known economic bias called the endowment effect. The endowment effect has been found to be muted among experienced traders, but little is known about how trading experience reduces the endowment effect. We show that when selling, experienced traders exhibit lower right anterior insula activity, but no differences in nucleus accumbens or orbitofrontal activation, compared with inexperienced traders. Furthermore, insula activation mediates the effect of experience on the endowment effect. Similar results are obtained for inexperienced traders who are incentivized to gain trading experience. This finding indicates that frequent trading likely mitigates the endowment effect indirectly by modifying negative affective responses in the context of selling.

Psychological Well-being of Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren among Older Chinese Americans: Burden or Blessing?

PubMed Central

Tang, Fengyan; Xu, Ling; Chi, Iris; Dong, XinQi

2016-01-01

The rapid increase in grandparents caring for grandchildren has received growing attention; however, relatively little research has focused on Chinese American grandparents and their caregiving experiences. Drawing on cross-sectional data from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly (PINE) – a community-engaged, epidemiological study of Chinese American adults aged 60 and older, we examined the relationships between caregiving experiences and psychological well-being. Among 2,365 older adults who answered the question about grandparent caregiving, 818 (35%) were designated as caregivers, spending an average of 12 hours a week on childcare. About one in five caregivers reported caregiving burden, pressure, or negative health effect of caregiving. Compared with noncaregivers, caregivers had better psychological well-being, with significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, and loneliness. But increased levels of caregiving burden, pressure from adult children, and perceived negative effect were related to increased rates for psychological distress. With a strong cultural expectation for family care, grandparent caregiving is generally associated with positive psychological well-being; but it is also a stress process, especially when older adults feel pressured and/or burdened to provide childcare. The study implies that cultural values and life transitions may shape grandparent caregiving experiences and well-being, pointing to the importance of respecting cultural differences in family caregiving. Understanding both positive and negative aspects of grandparent caregiving and the underlying mechanisms will help healthcare professionals identify caregivers at risk of psychological distress and provide proper interventions to attenuate negative outcomes while maximizing positive experience in Chinese American older adults. PMID:27641829

Psychological Well-Being of Older Chinese-American Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren.

PubMed

Tang, Fengyan; Xu, Ling; Chi, Iris; Dong, XinQi

2016-11-01

The rapid increase in grandparents caring for grandchildren has received growing attention, but little research has focused on Chinese-American grandparents and their caregiving experiences. Drawing on cross-sectional data from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly-a community-engaged, epidemiological study of Chinese-American adults aged 60 and older, the relationships between caregiving experiences and psychological well-being were examined. Of 2,365 older adults who answered the question about grandparent caregiving, 818 (35%) were designated as caregivers, spending an average of 12 hours a week on childcare. About one in five caregivers reported caregiving burden, pressure, or negative health effect of caregiving. Caregivers had better psychological well-being than noncaregivers, with significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, and loneliness. For caregivers, higher levels of caregiving burden, pressure from adult children, and perceived negative effect were related to greater rates of psychological distress. With a strong cultural expectation of family care, grandparent caregiving is generally associated with positive psychological well-being, but it can also be stressful, especially when older adults feel pressured to provide childcare or that doing so is a burden. The study implies that cultural values and life transitions may shape grandparent caregiving experiences and well-being, indicating the importance of respecting cultural differences in family caregiving. Understanding positive and negative aspects of grandparent caregiving and the underlying mechanisms will help healthcare professionals identify caregivers at risk of psychological distress and provide proper interventions to attenuate negative outcomes while maximizing positive experiences for Chinese-American older adults. © 2016, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2016, The American Geriatrics Society.

Negative evaluations of self and others, and peer victimization as mediators of the relationship between childhood adversity and psychotic experiences in adolescence: the moderating role of loneliness.

PubMed

Murphy, Siobhan; Murphy, Jamie; Shevlin, Mark

2015-09-01

Previous research has identified an association between traumatic experiences and psychotic symptoms. Few studies, however, have explored the underlying mechanisms and contingent nature of these associations in an integrated model. This study aimed to test a moderated mediation model of negative childhood experiences, associated cognitive processes, and psychotic experiences within a context of adolescent loneliness. Cross-sectional survey. A total of 785 Northern Irish secondary school adolescents completed the survey. A moderated mediation model was specified and tested. Childhood experiences of threat and subordination were directly associated with psychotic experiences. Analyses indicated that peer victimization was a mediator of this effect and that loneliness moderated this mediated effect. A new model is proposed to provide an alternative framework for assessing the association between trauma and psychotic experience in adolescence that recognizes loneliness as a significant contextual moderator that can potentially strengthen the trauma-psychosis relationship. Moderated mediation analyses poses an alternative framework to the understanding of trauma-psychosis associations Adolescent loneliness is a vulnerability factor within this association Data are based on a Northern Irish sample with relatively low levels of loneliness Cross-sectional data cannot explore the developmental course of these experiences in adolescence. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

[Study on early intervention of compound nutrition for cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease].

PubMed

Wang, Chao; Xie, Wei; Zhu, Jinfeng; Dang, Rui; Wang, Decai

2014-01-01

To observe the early prevention effect of the compound nutrients recipe for cognitive dysfunction of Alzheimer' s disease model-APP-PSN transgenic mouse. 36 APP-PSN transgenic mice aged two months randomly were divided into the intervention group supplied with compound recipe in the diet and the control group fed based feed, the former had high dose and low dose, 12 APP-PSN transgenic negative mice aged two months as the negative control were fed based feed. After 3 months' intervention, four groups' cognitive functions were evaluated using the Morris water maze, active avoidance experiment and jumping stair experiment. There was not statistically different between all the four groups for the weight and food intake. Compared with the control group, Morris water maze's incubation period of the intervention group was lower obviously, and jumping stair experiment's incubation period of the intervention group was higher obviously. In the active avoidance experiment, the high and low dose intervention group' s conditioned response accounted about 46.67% and 45.00% respectively, and the control group's conditioned response accounted about 20.83%. The differences of the three behavioral experiments between control group and intervention group had the statistical significance (P < 0.05), so the same as between control group and negative control group (P < 0.05). And there was no difference between intervention group and negative control group for the three behavioral experiments. The early supplementation with compound nutrition could postpone the occurrence and development of Alzheimer' s disease mice model's cognitive dysfunction.

Cybercrime Victimization and Subjective Well-Being: An Examination of the Buffering Effect Hypothesis Among Adolescents and Young Adults.

PubMed

Kaakinen, Markus; Keipi, Teo; Räsänen, Pekka; Oksanen, Atte

2018-02-01

The wealth of beneficial tools for online interaction, consumption, and access to others also bring new risks for harmful experiences online. This study examines the association between cybercrime victimization and subjective well-being (SWB) and, based on the buffering effect hypothesis, tests the assumption of the protective function of social belonging in cybercrime victimization. Cross-national data from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland (N = 3,557; Internet users aged 15-30 years; 49.85 percent female) were analyzed using descriptive statistics and main and moderation effect models. Results show that cybercrime victimization has a negative association with SWB after adjusting for a number of confounding factors. This association concerns both general cybercrime victimization and subcategories such as victimization to offensive cybercrime and cyberfraud. In line with the buffering effect hypothesis, social belonging to offline groups was shown to moderate the negative association between SWB and cybercrime victimization. The same effect was not found in the social belonging to online groups. Overall, the study indicates that, analogously to crime victimization in the offline context, cybercrime is a harmful experience whose negative effects mainly concern those users who have weak social ties offline to aid in coping with such stressors.

COMT-by-Sex Interaction Effect on Psychosis Proneness

PubMed Central

de Castro-Catala, Marta; Barrantes-Vidal, Neus; Sheinbaum, Tamara; Moreno-Fortuny, Artal; Kwapil, Thomas R.; Rosa, Araceli

2015-01-01

Schizotypy phenotypes in the general population share etiopathogenic mechanisms and risk factors with schizophrenia, supporting the notion of psychosis as a continuum ranging from nonclinical to clinical deviance. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a candidate susceptibility gene for schizophrenia that is involved in the regulation of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex. Several recent studies have reported a sex difference in the impact of COMT genotype on psychiatric and cognitive phenotypes and personality traits. The present study investigated the association of COMT Val158Met (rs4680) with psychometric positive and negative schizotypy and psychotic experiences in a sample of 808 nonclinical young adults. The main finding was that sex moderates the association of COMT genotype with the negative dimension of both schizotypy and psychotic experiences. Male subjects carrying the Val allele tended to score higher on the negative dimension of both trait and symptom-like measures. The results from the present study are consistent with recent work suggesting an association between negative schizotypy and diminished prefrontal dopamine availability. They support the idea that a biological differentiation underlies the positive and negative schizotypy dimensions. Additionally, these findings contribute to the growing literature on sex-specific effects of COMT on the predisposition to psychiatric disorders and personality traits. PMID:25722988

What does cognitive control feel like? Effective and ineffective cognitive control is associated with divergent phenomenology.

PubMed

Saunders, Blair; Milyavskaya, Marina; Inzlicht, Michael

2015-09-01

Cognitive control is accompanied by observable negative affect. But how is this negative affect experienced subjectively, and are these feelings related to variation in cognitive control? To address these questions, 42 participants performed a punished inhibitory control task while periodically reporting their subjective experience. We found that within-subject variation in subjective experience predicted control implementation, but not neural monitoring (i.e., the error-related negativity, ERN). Specifically, anxiety and frustration predicted increased and decreased response caution, respectively, while hopelessness accompanied reduced inhibitory control, and subjective effort coincided with the increased ability to inhibit prepotent responses. Clarifying the nature of these phenomenological results, the effects of frustration, effort, and hopelessness-but not anxiety-were statistically independent from the punishment manipulation. Conversely, while the ERN was increased by punishment, the lack of association between this component and phenomenology suggests that early monitoring signals might precede the development of control-related subjective experience. Our results indicate that the types of feelings experienced during cognitively demanding tasks are related to different aspects of controlled performance, critically suggesting that the relationship between emotion and cognitive control extends beyond the dimension of valence. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Maternal social support, quality of birth experience, and post-partum depression in primiparous women.

PubMed

Tani, Franca; Castagna, Valeria

2017-03-01

Social relationships provide individuals with a general sense of self-worth, psychological wellbeing, as well as allowing them access to resources during stressful periods and transitions in life. Pregnancy is a time of significant life change for every woman. The aim of this study was to verify the influence of social support perceived by mothers during pregnancy on the quality of their birth experience and post-partum depression. A longitudinal study at three different times was carried out on 179 nulliparous pregnant women. Women completed a Maternal Social Support Questionnaire during the third trimester of their pregnancy. Then, on the first day after childbirth, clinical birth indices were collected. Finally, a month after childbirth, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was administered. Post-partum depression was influenced negatively by maternal perceived social support and positively by negative clinical birth indices. In addition to these direct effects, analyses revealed a significant effect of maternal perceived social support on post-partum depression, mediated by the clinical indices considered. Social support perceived by mothers during pregnancy plays a significant role as a protection factor against post-partum depression, both directly and indirectly, reducing the negative clinical aspects of the birth experience.

Forgiveness of Others and Self-Forgiveness: The Predictive Role of Cognitive Distortions, Empathy, and Rumination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ascioglu Onal, Asli; Yalcin, Ilhan

2017-01-01

Purpose: People encounter many hurtful experiences in daily life. Hurtful experiences lead to negative emotions such as anger, revenge, shame, and guilt, and people need to overcome these experiences effectively in order to protect their mental health. Unforgiveness proves to be one of the most important sources of stress in an individual's life,…

The diminishing criterion model for metacognitive regulation of time investment.

PubMed

Ackerman, Rakefet

2014-06-01

According to the Discrepancy Reduction Model for metacognitive regulation, people invest time in cognitive tasks in a goal-driven manner until their metacognitive judgment, either judgment of learning (JOL) or confidence, meets their preset goal. This stopping rule should lead to judgments above the goal, regardless of invested time. However, in many tasks, time is negatively correlated with JOL and confidence, with low judgments after effortful processing. This pattern has often been explained as stemming from bottom-up fluency effects on the judgments. While accepting this explanation for simple tasks, like memorizing pairs of familiar words, the proposed Diminishing Criterion Model (DCM) challenges this explanation for complex tasks, like problem solving. Under the DCM, people indeed invest effort in a goal-driven manner. However, investing more time leads to increasing compromise on the goal, resulting in negative time-judgment correlations. Experiment 1 exposed that with word-pair memorization, negative correlations are found only with minimal fluency and difficulty variability, whereas in problem solving, they are found consistently. As predicted, manipulations of low incentives (Experiment 2) and time pressure (Experiment 3) in problem solving revealed greater compromise as more time was invested in a problem. Although intermediate confidence ratings rose during the solving process, the result was negative time-confidence correlations (Experiments 3, 4, and 5), and this was not eliminated by the opportunity to respond "don't know" (Experiments 4 and 5). The results suggest that negative time-judgment correlations in complex tasks stem from top-down regulatory processes with a criterion that diminishes with invested time. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

When choice matters: task-dependent memory effects in older adulthood.

PubMed

Depping, Miriam K; Freund, Alexandra M

2013-12-01

As goal orientation shifts across adulthood from a primary orientation toward gains to an increased importance of the prevention of losses, older adults' information processing may be particularly sensitive to potential losses if there is a possibility of avoiding them. In line with these motivational changes, we expected older adults to remember more loss-related information when choosing between 2 options than when not having to make a decision and when compared with younger adults. Using an incidental memory paradigm, we asked younger and older adults to recall as much information as possible of 2 previously presented hypothetical travel packages (Experiment 1) or 2 hospitals (Experiment 2) containing positive (gain-related), negative (loss-related), and neutral information in either a decision or a control condition (evaluating the readability of the texts). Experiment 1 showed that older adults remembered more negative information than younger adults and more negative than positive information in the choice but not in the control condition. Experiment 2 followed the same procedure using a choice between 2 hospitals for minor surgery. This choice was assumed to trigger a stronger orientation toward the prevention of losses than the choice between travel packages. As expected, in this situation, both age groups remembered more negative information relative to neutral and positive information regardless of the condition (choice vs. control). Importantly, older adults remembered more negative information in the choice condition compared with younger adults. Taken together, results suggest that the processing of decision-relevant information promotes a stronger focus on negative information in older adults. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Pre-Attentive Emotional Changes in Temporal Context

PubMed Central

Fujimura, Tomomi; Okanoya, Kazuo

2013-01-01

The ability to detect emotional change in the environment is essential for adaptive behavior. The current study investigated whether event-related potentials (ERPs) can reflect emotional change in a visual sequence. To assess pre-attentive processing, we examined visual mismatch negativity (vMMN): the negative potentials elicited by a deviant (infrequent) stimulus embedded in a sequence of standard (frequent) stimuli. Participants in two experiments pre-attentively viewed visual sequences of Japanese kanji with different emotional connotations while ERPs were recorded. The visual sequence in Experiment 1 consisted of neutral standards and two types of emotional deviants with a strong and weak intensity. Although the results indicated that strongly emotional deviants elicited more occipital negativity than neutral standards, it was unclear whether these negativities were derived from emotional deviation in the sequence or from the emotional significance of the deviants themselves. In Experiment 2, the two identical emotional deviants were presented against different emotional standards. One type of deviants was emotionally incongruent with the standard and the other type of deviants was emotionally congruent with the standard. The results indicated that occipital negativities elicited by deviants resulted from perceptual changes in a visual sequence at a latency of 100–200 ms and from emotional changes at latencies of 200–260 ms. Contrary to the results of the ERP experiment, reaction times to deviants showed no effect of emotional context; negative stimuli were consistently detected more rapidly than were positive stimuli. Taken together, the results suggest that brain signals can reflect emotional change in a temporal context. PMID:23671693

Event-related potentials elicited by pre-attentive emotional changes in temporal context.

PubMed

Fujimura, Tomomi; Okanoya, Kazuo

2013-01-01

The ability to detect emotional change in the environment is essential for adaptive behavior. The current study investigated whether event-related potentials (ERPs) can reflect emotional change in a visual sequence. To assess pre-attentive processing, we examined visual mismatch negativity (vMMN): the negative potentials elicited by a deviant (infrequent) stimulus embedded in a sequence of standard (frequent) stimuli. Participants in two experiments pre-attentively viewed visual sequences of Japanese kanji with different emotional connotations while ERPs were recorded. The visual sequence in Experiment 1 consisted of neutral standards and two types of emotional deviants with a strong and weak intensity. Although the results indicated that strongly emotional deviants elicited more occipital negativity than neutral standards, it was unclear whether these negativities were derived from emotional deviation in the sequence or from the emotional significance of the deviants themselves. In Experiment 2, the two identical emotional deviants were presented against different emotional standards. One type of deviants was emotionally incongruent with the standard and the other type of deviants was emotionally congruent with the standard. The results indicated that occipital negativities elicited by deviants resulted from perceptual changes in a visual sequence at a latency of 100-200 ms and from emotional changes at latencies of 200-260 ms. Contrary to the results of the ERP experiment, reaction times to deviants showed no effect of emotional context; negative stimuli were consistently detected more rapidly than were positive stimuli. Taken together, the results suggest that brain signals can reflect emotional change in a temporal context.

Minority stress and relationship functioning among young male same-sex couples: An examination of actor-partner interdependence models.

PubMed

Feinstein, Brian A; McConnell, Elizabeth; Dyar, Christina; Mustanski, Brian; Newcomb, Michael E

2018-05-01

In different-sex couples, individual and partner stress can both have a negative impact on relationship functioning (actor and partner effects). Gay and bisexual men experience unique stress (sexual minority stress), but few studies have examined the effects of this stress on relationship functioning among young male couples. The current study examined (a) actor and partner effects of general and minority stress (internalized stigma, microaggressions, victimization, and outness) on relationship functioning (relationship quality and negative relationship interactions), (b) interactions between individual and partner stress as predictors of relationship functioning, and (c) dyadic coping and relationship length as moderators of actor and partner effects. Actor-partner interdependence models were tested using data from 153 young male couples. There was strong support for actor effects. Higher general stress and internalized stigma were associated with lower relationship quality, but only for those in longer relationships. Additionally, higher general stress, internalized stigma, and microaggressions, and lower outness, were associated with more negative relationship interactions. There was limited support for partner effects. Having a partner with higher internalized stigma was associated with more negative relationship interactions, but none of the other partner effects were significant. There was no support for individual and partner stress interacting to predict relationship functioning or for dyadic coping as a stress buffer. Findings highlight the influence of one's own experiences of general and minority stress on relationship functioning, but raise questions about how partner stress influences relationship functioning among young male couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Distinct neural representations of placebo and nocebo effect

PubMed Central

Freeman, Sonya; Yu, Rongjun; Egorova, Natalia; Chen, Xiaoyan; Kirsch, Irving; Claggett, Brian; Kaptchuk, Ted J.; Gollub, Randy L.; Kong, Jian

2015-01-01

Expectations shape the way we experience the world. In this study, we used fMRI to investigate how positive and negative expectation can changes pain experiences in the same cohort of subjects. We first manipulated subjects’ treatment expectation of the effectiveness of three inert creams, with one cream labeled “Lidocaine” (positive expectancy), one labeled “Capsaicin” (negative expectancy) and one labeled “Neutral” by surreptitiously decreasing, increasing, or not changing respectively, the intensity of the noxious stimuli administered following cream application. We then used fMRI to investigate the signal changes associated with administration of identical pain stimuli before and after the treatment and control creams. Twenty-four healthy adults completed the study. Results showed expectancy significantly modulated subjective pain ratings. After controlling for changes in the neutral condition, the subjective pain rating changes evoked by positive and negative expectancy were significantly associated. fMRI results showed that the expectation of an increase in pain induced significant fMRI signal changes in the insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and periaqueductal gray, whereas the expectation of pain relief evoked significant fMRI signal changes in the striatum. No brain regions were identified as common to both “Capsaicin” and “Lidocaine” conditioning. There was also no significant association between the brain response to identical noxious stimuli in the pain matrix evoked by positive and negative expectancy. Our findings suggest that positive and negative expectancy engage different brain networks to modulate our pain experiences, but, overall, these distinct patterns of neural activation result in a correlated placebo and nocebo behavioral response. PMID:25776211

On the Inevitability of Aging: Essentialist Beliefs Moderate the Impact of Negative Age Stereotypes on Older Adults' Memory Performance and Physiological Reactivity.

PubMed

Weiss, David

2016-07-20

The goal of this research was to investigate how individual differences in essentialist beliefs about aging affect how older adults' respond to negative age stereotypes. Essentialist beliefs about aging (EBA) define the process of aging as fixed and inevitable rather than malleable and modifiable. Two experiments including older adults tested the hypothesis that EBA moderate the effect of negative age stereotypes on older adults' memory performance and physiological reactivity. In line with predictions, results of Experiment 1 (N = 79, 61-87 years) showed that for older adults with strong EBA, the activation of negative age stereotypes (vs neutral information) led to stereotype assimilation entailing a poorer memory performance. In contrast, for older adults with non-EBA, the activation of negative age stereotypes led to stereotype reactance entailing a better memory performance. Experiment 2 (N = 41; 65-92 years) replicated this pattern and also showed that older adults who endorsed rather than rejected EBA exhibited increased systolic blood pressure reactivity when negative age stereotypes were activated. The discussion focuses on pathways through which age stereotypes impact cognitive performance and health in later adulthood, as well as ways to stimulate positive plasticity by changing EBA. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Thermal treatment and leaching of biochar alleviates plant growth inhibition from mobile organic compounds

PubMed Central

Sackett, Tara E.; Thomas, Sean C.

2016-01-01

Recent meta-analyses of plant responses to biochar boast positive average effects of between 10 and 40%. Plant responses, however, vary greatly across systems, and null or negative biochar effects are increasingly reported. The mechanisms responsible for such responses remain unclear. In a glasshouse experiment we tested the effects of three forestry residue wood biochars, applied at five dosages (0, 5, 10, 20, and 50 t/ha) to a temperate forest drystic cambisol as direct surface applications and as complete soil mixes on the herbaceous pioneers Lolium multiflorum and Trifolium repens. Null and negative effects of biochar on growth were found in most cases. One potential cause for null and negative plant responses to biochar is plant exposure to mobile compounds produced during pyrolysis that leach or evolve following additions of biochars to soil. In a second glasshouse experiment we examined the effects of simple leaching and heating techniques to ameliorate potentially phytotoxic effects of volatile and leachable compounds released from biochar. We used Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME)–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to qualitatively describe organic compounds in both biochar (through headspace extraction), and in the water leachates (through direct injection). Convection heating and water leaching of biochar prior to application alleviated growth inhibition. Additionally, growth was inhibited when filtrate from water-leached biochar was applied following germination. SPME-GC-MS detected primarily short-chained carboxylic acids and phenolics in both the leachates and solid chars, with relatively high concentrations of several known phytotoxic compounds including acetic acid, butyric acid, 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol and benzoic acid. We speculate that variable plant responses to phytotoxic organic compounds leached from biochars may largely explain negative plant growth responses and also account for strongly species-specific patterns of plant responses to biochar amendments in short-term experiments. PMID:27635349

Advance Organizers in Secondary Special Education Resource Classrooms: Effects on Student Engagement Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Lisa

2013-01-01

Student engagement and appropriate behaviors are essential for effective instruction in secondary special education classrooms. Research suggests that proactive engagement strategies and interventions can have a greater effect on overall classroom behaviors than negative consequences. A single case experiment measured the effects of…

Contextual moderators of momentary cortisol and negative affect in adolescents' daily lives.

PubMed

Doane, Leah D; Zeiders, Katharine H

2014-05-01

To use an ecological momentary assessment design to examine the links between momentary negative affect and cortisol in a sample of adolescents preparing to transition to college. Guided by a risk and resilience framework, we also explored whether important ecological factors, perceived discrimination and social support, moderated the momentary associations between negative affect and youths' cortisol. Adolescents (N = 77) provided salivary samples and diary reports of affect and experiences five times a day over 3 days. They also completed self-report questionnaires on perceived discrimination and social support from family and friends. Within-person increases in momentary negative affect were associated with increases in cortisol. Perceived discrimination and social support from friends moderated this association. Adolescents who reported average and high levels of perceived discrimination experienced exaggerated cortisol responses to negative affect, whereas adolescents who reported low levels of perceived discrimination did not experience significant reactivity to negative affect. In contrast, adolescents who reported high levels of social support from friends experienced attenuated cortisol responses to negative affect compared with adolescents who reported average or low levels of social support from friends. This study contributes to our understanding of youths' daily socioemotional experiences and physiological reactivity by identifying how perceived discrimination and social support from friends amplified and attenuated, respectively, the effects of negative affect on cortisol reactivity. Examining these processes within adolescents' naturalistic environments advances our understanding of the moderating role of ecological characteristics in adolescents' everyday lives. Copyright © 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Arginine and vitamin E improve the immune response after a Salmonella challenge in broiler chicks

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of arginine (ARG), vitamin E (VE), and mannanoligosaccharide (MOS) on the immune response and clearance of Salmonella in broiler chickens. In each experiment, chicks were randomly distributed into 4 groups: antibiotic-free diet (negative contro...

Workplace incivility and employee sleep: The role of rumination and recovery experiences.

PubMed

Demsky, Caitlin A; Fritz, Charlotte; Hammer, Leslie B; Black, Anne E

2018-04-23

This study examines the role of negative work rumination and recovery experiences in explaining the association between workplace incivility and employee insomnia symptoms. Drawing on the perseverative cognition model of stress and the effort-recovery model, we hypothesize a moderated mediation model in which workplace incivility is associated with insomnia symptoms via negative work rumination. This indirect effect is proposed to be conditional on employees' reported level of recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment from work and relaxation during nonwork time). In examining this model, we further establish a link between workplace incivility and sleep and identify one pathway to explain this relationship, as well as resources that may be used to halt the negative spillover of workplace incivility on sleep. Based on a sample of 699 U.S. Forest Service employees, we find support for a moderated mediation model in which the association between workplace incivility and increased insomnia symptoms via increased negative work rumination was weakest for employees reporting high levels of recovery experiences during nonwork time. Findings from the current study contribute to our understanding of why workplace incivility is associated with nonwork outcomes, as well as point to implications for interventions aimed at promoting employees' recovery from work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Natural Support Systems in the Post-deployment Adjustment of Active Duty Military Personnel.

PubMed

Welsh, Janet A; Olson, Jonathan; Perkins, Daniel F; Travis, Wendy J; Ormsby, LaJuana

2015-09-01

This study examined the relations among three different types of naturally occurring social support (from romantic partners, friends and neighbors, and unit leaders) and three indices of service member well-being (self reports of depressive symptoms, satisfaction with military life, and perceptions of unit readiness) for service members who did and did not report negative experiences associated with military deployment. Data were drawn from the 2011 Community Assessment completed anonymously by more than 63,000 USAF personnel. Regression analyses revealed that higher levels of social support was associated with better outcomes regardless of negative deployment experiences. Evidence of moderation was also noted, with all forms of social support moderating the impact of negative deployment experiences on depressive symptoms and support from unit leaders moderating the impact of negative deployment experience on satisfaction with military life. No moderation was found for perceptions of unit readiness. Subgroup analyses revealed slightly different patterns for male and female service members, with support providing fewer moderation effects for women. These findings may have value for military leaders and mental health professionals working to harness the power of naturally occurring relationships to maximize the positive adjustment of service members and their families. Implications for practices related to re-integration of post-deployment military personnel are discussed.

Cognitive Aging in Parents of Children with Disabilities.

PubMed

Song, Jieun; Mailick, Marsha R; Greenberg, Jan S; Ryff, Carol D; Lachman, Margie E

2016-09-01

This study examines the cognitive functioning of parents of children with disabilities, specifically, whether there is an evidence of accelerated cognitive aging among these parents. In addition, the study investigates the moderating influences of two variables: parents' gender and stress from negative parenting experience. The analyses utilize data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (2005). The analytic sample consisted of two groups of parents, who completed the cognitive battery, the interview, and the mail-back survey: 128 parents who had children with childhood-onset disabilities and 512 matched comparison parents who had only nondisabled children. Age differences in episodic memory were more pronounced among mothers of children with disabilities than among mothers with nondisabled children, especially among mothers with higher levels of negative parenting experience. In contrast, there were no interaction effects of parenting status, age, and negative parenting experience among fathers. The results show that parenting children with disabilities over a prolonged period of time jeopardizes cognitive function (especially memory) among older mothers, possibly via the mechanism of heightened parenting stress due to higher levels of negative parenting experience. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Past racial discrimination exacerbates the effects of racial exclusion on negative affect, perceived control, and alcohol-risk cognitions among Black young adults.

PubMed

Stock, Michelle L; Peterson, Laurel M; Molloy, Brianne K; Lambert, Sharon F

2017-06-01

Racial discrimination is associated with alcohol use and risky sex cognitions and behaviors, which are risk factors for negative health outcomes, including human immunodeficiency virus infection. The current study investigated the causal impact of racial discrimination on alcohol and sexual-risk cognitions while exploring potential mediators that might help explain this relation: negative affect, perceived control, and meaningful existence. We also examined if past discrimination impacts the strength of (moderates) these effects. Participants were 287 Black/African American young adults aged 18-25. They were randomly assigned to be excluded or included by White peers via the game Cyberball. Racial exclusion (vs. inclusion) predicted greater: perceived racial discrimination, negative affect, alcohol use willingness, and reduced perceived control and meaningful existence. Furthermore, excluded participants who experienced more past racial discrimination reported the lowest perceived control, and greatest negative affect and alcohol-risk cognitions. The findings suggest that past racial discrimination exacerbates the harmful health effects of immediate experiences of discrimination.

A Meta-Analysis on Antecedents and Outcomes of Detachment from Work.

PubMed

Wendsche, Johannes; Lohmann-Haislah, Andrea

2016-01-01

Detachment from work has been proposed as an important non-work experience helping employees to recover from work demands. This meta-analysis (86 publications, k = 91 independent study samples, N = 38,124 employees) examined core antecedents and outcomes of detachment in employee samples. With regard to outcomes, results indicated average positive correlations between detachment and self-reported mental (i.e., less exhaustion, higher life satisfaction, more well-being, better sleep) and physical (i.e., lower physical discomfort) health, state well-being (i.e., less fatigue, higher positive affect, more intensive state of recovery), and task performance (small to medium sized effects). However, average relationships between detachment and physiological stress indicators and work motivation were not significant while associations with contextual performance and creativity were significant, but negative. Concerning work characteristics, as expected, job demands were negatively related and job resources were positively related to detachment (small sized effects). Further, analyses revealed that person characteristics such as negative affectivity/neuroticism (small sized effect) and heavy work investment (medium sized effect) were negatively related to detachment whereas detachment and demographic variables (i.e., age and gender) were not related. Moreover, we found a medium sized average negative relationship between engagement in work-related activities during non-work time and detachment. For most of the examined relationships heterogeneity of effect sizes was moderate to high. We identified study design, samples' gender distribution, and affective valence of work-related thoughts as moderators for some of these aforementioned relationships. The results of this meta-analysis point to detachment as a non-work (recovery) experience that is influenced by work-related and personal characteristics which in turn is relevant for a range of employee outcomes.

A Meta-Analysis on Antecedents and Outcomes of Detachment from Work

PubMed Central

Wendsche, Johannes; Lohmann-Haislah, Andrea

2017-01-01

Detachment from work has been proposed as an important non-work experience helping employees to recover from work demands. This meta-analysis (86 publications, k = 91 independent study samples, N = 38,124 employees) examined core antecedents and outcomes of detachment in employee samples. With regard to outcomes, results indicated average positive correlations between detachment and self-reported mental (i.e., less exhaustion, higher life satisfaction, more well-being, better sleep) and physical (i.e., lower physical discomfort) health, state well-being (i.e., less fatigue, higher positive affect, more intensive state of recovery), and task performance (small to medium sized effects). However, average relationships between detachment and physiological stress indicators and work motivation were not significant while associations with contextual performance and creativity were significant, but negative. Concerning work characteristics, as expected, job demands were negatively related and job resources were positively related to detachment (small sized effects). Further, analyses revealed that person characteristics such as negative affectivity/neuroticism (small sized effect) and heavy work investment (medium sized effect) were negatively related to detachment whereas detachment and demographic variables (i.e., age and gender) were not related. Moreover, we found a medium sized average negative relationship between engagement in work-related activities during non-work time and detachment. For most of the examined relationships heterogeneity of effect sizes was moderate to high. We identified study design, samples' gender distribution, and affective valence of work-related thoughts as moderators for some of these aforementioned relationships. The results of this meta-analysis point to detachment as a non-work (recovery) experience that is influenced by work-related and personal characteristics which in turn is relevant for a range of employee outcomes. PMID:28133454

Degrading emotional memories induced by a virtual reality paradigm.

PubMed

Cuperus, Anne A; Laken, Maarten; van den Hout, Marcel A; Engelhard, Iris M

2016-09-01

In Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, a dual-task approach is used: patients make horizontal eye movements while they recall aversive memories. Studies showed that this reduces memory vividness and/or emotionality. A strong explanation is provided by working memory theory, which suggests that other taxing dual-tasks are also effective. Experiment 1 tested whether a visuospatial task which was carried out while participants were blindfolded taxes working memory. Experiment 2 tested whether this task degrades negative memories induced by a virtual reality (VR) paradigm. In experiment 1, participants responded to auditory cues with or without simultaneously carrying out the visuospatial task. In experiment 2, participants recalled negative memories induced by a VR paradigm. The experimental group simultaneously carried out the visuospatial task, and a control group merely recalled the memories. Changes in self-rated memory vividness and emotionality were measured. The slowing down of reaction times due to the visuospatial task indicated that its cognitive load was greater than the load of the eye movements task in previous studies. The task also led to reductions in emotionality (but not vividness) of memories induced by the VR paradigm. Weaknesses are that only males were tested in experiment 1, and the effectiveness of the VR fear/trauma induction was not assessed with ratings of mood or intrusions in experiment 2. The results suggest that the visuospatial task may be applicable in clinical settings, and the VR paradigm may provide a useful method of inducing negative memories. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Buffers or Boosters? The Role of HRM Practices in Older Workers' Experience of Stereotype Threat.

PubMed

Oliveira, Eduardo André da Silva; Cabral-Cardoso, Carlos José

2018-01-02

Building on the social identity approach and the HRM literature, this two-wave cross-sectional study examined the effects of negative age-based metastereotypes on the age-based stereotype threat experience of older workers and on organizational disidentification. The moderator role of HRM practices in the relationship between negative age-based metastereotypes and age-based stereotype threat was also investigated. Older workers survey results (n = 469) from 14 manufacturing companies indicated that negative age-based metastereotypes correlate positively with stereotype threat. Moderation results showed that age-awareness HRM practices (training for older workers) reinforced age-based stereotype threat, whereas general HRM practices (recognition and respect) impaired it. The article suggests that the combination of age-based metastereotypes with a stereotype threat framework contributes to further understand older workers' beliefs and attitudes. It also indicates that to be effective, HRM practices should emphasize positive social identities older workers share with their colleagues, rather than giving older workers special treatment that may, after all, reinforce stigmatization.

The effectiveness of different approaches to media literacy in modifying adolescents' responses to alcohol.

PubMed

Chen, Yi-Chun Yvonnes

2013-01-01

Fearing the negative effect that alcohol advertising might have on adolescents' receptiveness to the consumption of alcohol, health educators have used media literacy as an effective strategy to mitigate the effect of these messages in the media. The present study applied parental mediation to the design and evaluations of a media literacy curriculum that targets alcohol decision-making processes illustrated in the message interpretation process model. The authors conducted a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment of 171 adolescents to examine the effect of a negative evaluative approach and a balanced evaluative approach (a combination of negative and positive evaluative strategies) to media literacy on modifying adolescents' responses to alcohol messages. Results showed that different media literacy approaches had varying degrees of effectiveness on adolescent boys and girls. After receiving a negative media literacy lesson, adolescent boys regarded television characters as less realistic and believed that drinking alcohol had negative consequences. In contrast, adolescent girls benefited more from a balanced evaluative approach as their media skepticism attitude was enhanced. Results suggest that health educators should choose tailored pedagogical approaches that are based on gender to improve decision making regarding alcohol consumption.

Kinetic modeling of particle dynamics in H- negative ion sources (invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hatayama, A.; Shibata, T.; Nishioka, S.; Ohta, M.; Yasumoto, M.; Nishida, K.; Yamamoto, T.; Miyamoto, K.; Fukano, A.; Mizuno, T.

2014-02-01

Progress in the kinetic modeling of particle dynamics in H- negative ion source plasmas and their comparisons with experiments are reviewed, and discussed with some new results. Main focus is placed on the following two topics, which are important for the research and development of large negative ion sources and high power H- ion beams: (i) Effects of non-equilibrium features of EEDF (electron energy distribution function) on H- production, and (ii) extraction physics of H- ions and beam optics.

The Impact of Power on Humanity: Self-Dehumanization in Powerlessness

PubMed Central

Yang, Wenqi; Jin, Shenghua; He, Surina; Fan, Qian; Zhu, Yijie

2015-01-01

Power gives people the ability to control themselves and their environment, and this control is considered a fundamental human need. We investigated whether experiencing powerlessness induces the experience of self-dehumanization using three methods: priming, role-playing, and cueing. People in a position of low power viewed themselves (Experiments 1–3) as less human relative to people in a position of high power; furthermore, people with low power believed that they were viewed as less human by others as well (Experiments 2–3). In all of the experiments, human nature traits were most negatively affected by powerlessness in self-perception judgments, and uniquely human traits were most negatively affected by powerlessness in meta-perception judgments. Furthermore, the powerless believed they were viewed as less human not only by the powerful people but also the outside observers of the power dynamic. Self-dehumanization also appears to be a consequence of powerlessness rather than an incidental result of a change in mood or a negative self-view. Our findings are an important extension of previous work on the adverse effects of powerlessness and dehumanization. PMID:26020267

Childhood Maltreatment, Bullying Victimization, and Psychological Distress Among Gay and Bisexual Men.

PubMed

Hart, Trevor A; Noor, Syed W; Vernon, Julia R G; Kidwai, Ammaar; Roberts, Karen; Myers, Ted; Calzavara, Liviana

Sexual minority men report higher psychological distress than heterosexual men, including depression and anxiety. Research suggests that these health disparities may be due to the heightened stressors that gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals experience. Some of these stressors occur early on in life, such as childhood abuse and bullying, and may include stressors that are topically related to sexual minority status, such as anti-gay bullying and teasing for gender nonconformity to masculine gender norms. We tested a structural equation model on the association between negative childhood experiences and adult psychological distress among 304 gay and bisexual men. The model fit the data well, and demonstrated an indirect effect of negative childhood experiences on adult psychological distress via dysfunctional thoughts toward oneself. The results integrate the childhood abuse and anti-gay bullying victimization literatures by showing that both forms of adverse childhood experiences are associated with adult psychological distress. The findings suggest the benefit of treatments to reduce negative, dysfunctional thoughts among gay and bisexual men who have experienced adverse childhood events.

The influence of charge and the distribution of charge in the polar region of phospholipids on the activity of UDP-glucuronosyltransferase.

PubMed

Zakim, D; Eibl, H

1992-07-05

Studies of the mechanism of lipid-induced regulation of the microsomal enzyme UDP-glucuronosyltransferase have been extended by examining the influence of charge within the polar region on the ability of lipids to activate delipidated pure enzyme. The effects of net negative charge, of charge separation in phosphocholine, and of the distribution of charge in the polar region of lipids were studied using the GT2p isoform isolated from pig liver. Prior experiments have shown that lipids with net negative charge inhibit the enzyme (Zakim, D., Cantor, M., and Eibl, H. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 5164-5169). The current experiments show that the extent of inhibition on a molar basis increases as the net negative charge increases from -1 to -2. The inhibitory effect of negatively charged lipids is on the functional state of the enzyme and is not due to electrostatic repulsion of negatively charged substrates of the enzyme. Although the inhibitory effect of net negative charge is removed when negative charge is balanced by a positive charge due to a quaternary nitrogen, neutrality of the polar region is not a sufficient condition for activation of the enzyme. In addition to a balance of charge between Pi and the quaternary nitrogen, the distance between the negative and positive charges and the orientation of the dipole created by them are critical for activation of GT2p. The negative and positive charges must be separated by the equivalent of three -CH2- groups for optimal activation by a lipid. Shortening this distance by one -CH2- unit leads to a lipid that is ineffective in activating the enzyme. Reversal of the orientation of the dipole in which the negative charge is on the polymethylene side of the lipid-water interface and the positive charge extends into water also produces a lipid that is not effective for activating GT2p. On the other hand, lipids with phosphoserine as the polar region, which has the "normal" P-N distance but carries a net negative charge, do not inhibit GT2p. This result again illustrates the importance of the dipole of phosphocholine for modulating the functional state of GT2p.

Studies regarding the mechanism of false negative urea breath tests with proton pump inhibitors.

PubMed

Graham, David Y; Opekun, Antone R; Hammoud, Fadi; Yamaoka, Yoshio; Reddy, Rita; Osato, Michael S; El-Zimaity, Hala M T

2003-05-01

The mechanism of false negative urea breath tests (UBTs) results among proton pump inhibitor (PPI) users is unknown. We studied the time course of PPI-associated negative UBT, the relation to Helicobacter pylori density, and whether gastric acidification would prevent false negative UBT results. In the UBT experiment, H. pylori-infected volunteers received omeprazole 20 mg b.i.d. for 13.5 days. UBTs with citric acid were done before, after 6.5 days of PPI, and 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14 days after therapy. In the culture and histology experiment, after a wash-out of >5 months, nine of the original subjects were rechallenged with omeprazole for 6.5 days. Antral and corpus biopsies for histology and culture were done before and 1 day after PPI administration. Thirty subjects (mean age 42 yr) were enrolled. UBTs were significantly reduced on day 6.5 (p = 0.031); 10 subjects (33%) developed transient negative UBTs. The UBT recovered in all but one subject by the fourth day post-PPI and in all subjects by day 14. In the culture and histology experiment, upon PPI rechallenge, three of nine subjects (33%) had negative UBTs. H. pylori density, whether measured by culture or histology, decreased with PPI therapy; antral biopsies became histologically negative in five subjects and corpus biopsies in three subjects. PPI-induced negative UBT results were related to the anti-H. pylori effect of the PPI. Acidification of the stomach did not prevent false negative UBT results. Three days is likely the minimum delay from stopping PPI until one should perform a test for active infection. A delay of 14 days is preferred.

Daily Events are Important for Age Differences in Mean and Duration for Negative Affect but not Positive Affect

PubMed Central

Charles, Susan T.; Mogle, Jacqueline; Urban, Emily J.; Almeida, David M.

2016-01-01

Across midlife and into old age, older adults often report lower levels of negative affect and similar if not higher levels of positive affect than relatively younger adults. Researchers have offered a simple explanation for this result: age is related to reductions in stressors and increases in pleasurable activities that result in higher levels of well-being. The current study examines subjective reports of emotional experience assessed across eight days in a large sample of adults (N=2022) ranging from 35 to 84 years-old. By modeling age differences before and after adjusting for daily positive uplifts and negative stressors, this paper assesses the extent to which daily events account for age differences in positive and negative affect reports. Consistent with previous research, we found that older age is related to lower means levels and shorter duration of a negative emotional experience in a model only adjusting for gender, education and ethnicity. After adjusting for daily events, however, the linear age-related effects were no longer significant. For positive affect, adjusting for daily events did not alter age-related patterns of experiencing higher mean levels and longer positive experience duration, suggesting that other factors underlie age-related increases in positive affect. PMID:27684103

Daily events are important for age differences in mean and duration for negative affect but not positive affect.

PubMed

Charles, Susan T; Mogle, Jacqueline; Urban, Emily J; Almeida, David M

2016-11-01

Across midlife and into old age, older adults often report lower levels of negative affect and similar if not higher levels of positive affect than relatively younger adults. Researchers have offered a simple explanation for this result: Age is related to reductions in stressors and increases in pleasurable activities that result in higher levels of well-being. The current study examines subjective reports of emotional experience assessed across 8 days in a large sample of adults (N = 2,022) ranging from 35 to 84 years old. By modeling age differences before and after adjusting for daily positive uplifts and negative stressors, this article assesses the extent to which daily events account for age differences in positive and negative affect reports. Consistent with previous research, the authors found that older age is related to lower mean levels and shorter duration of a negative emotional experience in a model only adjusting for gender, education, and ethnicity. After adjusting for daily events, however, the linear age-related effects were no longer significant. For positive affect, adjusting for daily events did not alter age-related patterns of experiencing higher mean levels and longer positive experience duration, suggesting that other factors underlie age-related increases in positive affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of the mGlu5 negative allosteric modulator MTEP and NMDA receptor partial agonist D-cycloserine on Pavlovian conditioned fear.

PubMed

Handford, Charlotte E; Tan, Shawn; Lawrence, Andrew J; Kim, Jee Hyun

2014-09-01

The metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor are critical for processes underlying synaptic plasticity, such as long-term potentiation. mGlu5 signaling increases neuronal excitability and potentiates NMDA receptor currents in the amygdala and the hippocampus. The present study examined the involvement of mGlu5 in the acquisition and consolidation of conditioned fear to a tone and context in mice, and explored the functional relationship between mGlu5 and NMDA receptors in this regard. Experiment 1 showed that systemic administration of the mGlu5 negative allosteric modulator 3-[(2-methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl]pyridine (MTEP) prior to conditioning significantly attenuated cue-elicited freezing during fear conditioning, which suggests that mGlu5 is necessary for the formation of a tone-shock association. This effect was dose-related (Experiment 2) and not due to any effects of MTEP on shock sensitivity or state-dependency (Experiment 3). Post-conditioning injection of MTEP had no effects (Experiment 4). Although post-conditioning injection of the NMDA receptor partial agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) alone facilitated consolidation of conditioned fear (Experiment 6), it was not able to rescue the acquisition deficit caused by MTEP (Experiment 5). Taken together, these findings indicate a crucial role for mGlu5 signaling in acquisition and NMDA receptor signaling in consolidation of conditioned fear.

Differential effects of removing the glucose or saccharin components of a glucose-saccharin mixture in a successive negative contrast paradigm.

PubMed

Mitchell, Colin P; Flaherty, Charles F

2005-03-31

When rats experience an unexpected decrease in reward value, e.g., from 32% sucrose to 4% sucrose, consummatory behavior abruptly decreases to a level below control subjects that only experience the lesser reward, a phenomenon known as Successive Negative Contrast (SNC). In food deprived rats experiencing downshifts in sucrose concentration, SNC dissipates in 3-4 days, as consummatory behavior in shifted rats recovers to the level of unshifted controls. In Experiment 1 food deprived rats that were given 5 min daily access to a 2% glucose-0.15% saccharin mixture, and subsequently shifted to 2% glucose alone, displayed a dramatic SNC effect relative to rats that only received 2% glucose. This SNC effect was primarily manifested as a decrease in the number of consummatory bursts initiated. Interestingly, intake failed to recover to control levels during eight daily postshift sessions. However, in Experiment 2 subjects that were shifted from the same glucose-saccharin mixture to 0.15% saccharin alone failed to show SNC rather, intake fell to the level of control animals which only received 0.15% saccharin. The data from Experiment 1, in conjunction with previous studies utilizing non-deprived rats, quinine adulteration, or shifts from sucrose to saccharin, show that reductions in taste value can produce contrast effects, but suggest that a threshold caloric value is necessary for recovery. The data from Experiment 2 may suggest that saccharin and glucose do not contribute equally to the enhanced palatability of the mixture.

Experience of agency and sense of responsibility.

PubMed

Moretto, Giovanna; Walsh, Eamonn; Haggard, Patrick

2011-12-01

The experience of agency refers to the feeling that we control our own actions, and through them the outside world. In many contexts, sense of agency has strong implications for moral responsibility. For example, a sense of agency may allow people to choose between right and wrong actions, either immediately, or on subsequent occasions through learning about the moral consequences of their actions. In this study we investigate the relation between the experience of operant action, and responsibility for action outcomes using the intentional binding effect (Haggard, Clark, & Kalogeras, 2002) as an implicit, quantitative measure related to sense of agency. We studied the time at which people perceived simple manual actions and their effects, when these actions were embedded in scenarios where their actions had unpredictable consequences that could be either moral or merely economic. We found an enhanced binding of effects back towards the actions that caused them, implying an enhanced sense of agency, in moral compared to non-moral contexts. We also found stronger binding for effects with severely negative, compared to moderately negative, values. A tight temporal association between action and effect may be a low-level phenomenal marker of the sense of responsibility. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Experimental observation of negative effective gravity in water waves.

PubMed

Hu, Xinhua; Yang, Jiong; Zi, Jian; Chan, C T; Ho, Kai-Ming

2013-01-01

The gravity of Earth is responsible for the formation of water waves and usually difficult to change. Although negative effective gravity was recently predicted theoretically in water waves, it has not yet been observed in experiments and remains a mathematical curiosity which is difficult to understand. Here we experimentally demonstrate that close to the resonant frequency of purposely-designed resonating units, negative effective gravity can occur for water waves passing through an array of resonators composing of bottom-mounted split tubes, resulting in the prohibition of water wave propagation. It is found that when negative gravity occurs, the averaged displacement of water surface in a unit cell of the array has a phase difference of π to that along the boundary of the unit cell, consistent with theoretical predictions. Our results provide a mechanism to block water waves and may find applications in wave energy conversion and coastal protection.

Experimental Observation of Negative Effective Gravity in Water Waves

PubMed Central

Hu, Xinhua; Yang, Jiong; Zi, Jian; Chan, C. T.; Ho, Kai-Ming

2013-01-01

The gravity of Earth is responsible for the formation of water waves and usually difficult to change. Although negative effective gravity was recently predicted theoretically in water waves, it has not yet been observed in experiments and remains a mathematical curiosity which is difficult to understand. Here we experimentally demonstrate that close to the resonant frequency of purposely-designed resonating units, negative effective gravity can occur for water waves passing through an array of resonators composing of bottom-mounted split tubes, resulting in the prohibition of water wave propagation. It is found that when negative gravity occurs, the averaged displacement of water surface in a unit cell of the array has a phase difference of π to that along the boundary of the unit cell, consistent with theoretical predictions. Our results provide a mechanism to block water waves and may find applications in wave energy conversion and coastal protection. PMID:23715132

Assessing the interrelatedness of multiple types of adverse childhood experiences and odds for poor health in South Carolina adults.

PubMed

Crouch, Elizabeth; Strompolis, Melissa; Bennett, Kevin J; Morse, Melanie; Radcliff, Elizabeth

2017-03-01

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked to negative health outcomes in adulthood, but little research has been done on the effect of ACEs on the health and well-being of adults in South Carolina (SC). This study analyzed a sample of 9744 respondents who participated in the 2014 South Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to examine the relationship among childhood experiences of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as witnessing household violence, on mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood among SC residents. Twenty-two percent of survey respondents reported poor general health (22.1%), and a smaller proportion reported high frequent mental distress in the past month (13.1%). Each category of childhood experiences was associated with an increase in the risk of poor general health. Individuals reporting three or more types of experiences were more likely to report poor health (aOR 2.89; 95% CI 2.86-2.92) than adults without such experiences. Respondents reporting three or more types of childhood adverse experiences were more likely to report frequent mental distress (aOR 3.29; 95% CI 3.26-3.33) compared to adults who did not report three or more types of adversity. Findings from the SC BRFSS highlight a connection between ACEs and negative health outcomes later in life. Given that results of this study also demonstrated that increased exposure to ACEs was associated with greater odds of negative health in adulthood, preventing adverse events such as experiencing abuse or witnessing domestic violence in childhood will have significant effects on later adult health. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

When green is positive and red is negative: Aging and the influence of color on emotional memories.

PubMed

Mammarella, Nicola; Di Domenico, Alberto; Palumbo, Rocco; Fairfield, Beth

2016-12-01

Numerous studies have reported age-related differences in memory for emotional information. One explanation places emphasis on an emotion processing preference in older adults that reflects their socioemotional self-relevant goals. Here, we evaluate the degree to which this preference in memory may be modulated by color. In 2 experiments, younger and older adults were asked to study a series of affective words (Experiment 1) or affective pictures (Experiment 2) and then presented with an immediate yes/no memory recognition task. In particular, words and pictures were colored according to the following valence-color associations: positive-green, negative-red, and neutral-blue. Each study condition included both congruent (e.g., positive-green) and incongruent associations (e.g., positive-red). For both experiments, participants showed an advantage for congruent associations compared with other types of valence-color pairings that emphasized a robust joint effect of color and affective valence in memory. More specifically, older adults' memory was sensitive to positive-green stimuli only. We discussed results in line with mechanisms underlying positivity effects in memory and the effect of color on emotional memory encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

ERP dynamics underlying successful directed forgetting of neutral but not negative pictures

PubMed Central

Hauswald, Anne; Schulz, Hannah; Iordanov, Todor

2011-01-01

Subjective experience suggests that negatively arousing memories are harder to control than neutral ones. Here, we investigate this issue in an item-cued directed forgetting experiment. Electroencephalogram event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded as participants viewed un-arousing neutral and highly arousing negative photographs, each followed by a cue to remember or forget it. Directed forgetting, that is reduced recognition of ‘to-be-forgotten’ items, occurred for neutral but not negative pictures. ERPs revealed three underlying effects: first, during picture viewing a late parietal positive potential (LPP) was more pronounced for negative than for neutral pictures. Second, ‘remember’ cues were associated with larger LPPs than ‘forget’ cues. Third, an enhanced frontal positivity appeared for ‘forget’ cues. This frontal positivity was generated in right dorso-lateral prefrontal regions following neutral pictures and in medial frontal cortex following negative pictures. LPP magnitude when viewing negative pictures was correlated with reduced directed forgetting, whereas both the enhanced frontal positivity for forget cues and the larger parietal positivity for remember cues predicted more directed forgetting. This study indicates that both processes of selective rehearsal (parietal positivities) and frontally controlled inhibition contribute to successful directed forgetting. However, due to their deeper incidental processing, highly arousing negative pictures are exempt from directed forgetting. PMID:20601423

Differential effects of weight bias experiences and internalization on exercise among women with overweight and obesity.

PubMed

Pearl, Rebecca L; Puhl, Rebecca M; Dovidio, John F

2015-12-01

This study investigated the effects of experiences with weight stigma and weight bias internalization on exercise. An online sample of 177 women with overweight and obesity (M(age) = 35.48 years, M(BMI) = 32.81) completed questionnaires assessing exercise behavior, self-efficacy, and motivation; experiences of weight stigmatization; weight bias internalization; and weight-stigmatizing attitudes toward others. Weight stigma experiences positively correlated with exercise behavior, but weight bias internalization was negatively associated with all exercise variables. Weight bias internalization was a partial mediator between weight stigma experiences and exercise behavior. The distinct effects of experiencing versus internalizing weight bias carry implications for clinical practice and public health. © The Author(s) 2014.

Social closeness and feedback modulate susceptibility to the framing effect

PubMed Central

Sip, Kamila E.; Smith, David V.; Porcelli, Anthony J.; Kar, Kohitij; Delgado, Mauricio R.

2014-01-01

Although, we often seek social feedback from others to help us make decisions, little is known about how social feedback affects decisions under risk, particularly from a close peer. We conducted two experiments using an established framing task to probe how decision making is modulated by social feedback valence (positive, negative) and the level of closeness with feedback provider (friend, confederate). Participants faced mathematically equivalent decisions framed as either an opportunity to keep (gain frame) or lose (loss frame) part of an initial endowment. Periodically, participants were provided with positive (e.g., “Nice!”) or negative (e.g., “Lame!”) feedback about their choices. Such feedback was provided by either a confederate (Experiment 1), or a gender-matched close friend (Experiment 2). As expected, the framing effect was observed in both experiments. Critically, an individual’s susceptibility to the framing effect was modulated by the valence of the social feedback, but only when the feedback provider was a close friend. This effect was reflected in the activation patterns of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, regions involved in complex decision making. Taken together, these results highlight social closeness as an important factor in understanding the impact of social feedback on neural mechanisms of decision making. PMID:25074501

Experiential avoidance as a generalized psychological vulnerability: comparisons with coping and emotion regulation strategies.

PubMed

Kashdan, Todd B; Barrios, Velma; Forsyth, John P; Steger, Michael F

2006-09-01

Extending previous work, we conducted two studies concerning the toxic influences of experiential avoidance (EA) as a core mechanism in the development and maintenance of psychological distress, and disruption of pleasant, engaging, and spontaneous activity. Of particular interest was whether EA accounted for relationships between coping and emotion regulation strategies on anxiety-related pathology (Study 1) and psychological distress and hedonic functioning over the course of a 21-day monitoring period (Study 2). In Study 1, EA mediated the effects of maladaptive coping, emotional responses styles, and uncontrollability on anxiety-related distress (e.g., anxiety sensitivity, trait anxiety, suffocation fears, and body sensation fears). In Study 2, EA completely mediated the effects of two emotion regulation strategies (i.e., suppression and reappraisal) on daily negative and positive experiences and was associated with diminished daily positive affective experiences and healthy life appraisals, diminished frequency of positive events and more frequent negative life events, and greater negative affective experiences. The present data show that cognitive reappraisal, a primary process of traditional cognitive-behavior therapy, was much less predictive of the quality of psychological experiences and events in everyday life compared with EA. Further consideration of experiential avoidance as a generalized diathesis and toxic process will be useful in improving our understanding of the etiology, phenomenology, and treatment of anxiety conditions, general human suffering, and disruptions in hedonic capacity.

The Effect of Attitude toward the Elderly on Behavior toward an Older Adult.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinnott, Jan D.; And Others

Many people hold negative attitudes toward older adults, and these attitudes often are associated with negative behavior toward the old. To explore the behavioral correlates of attitudes toward the elderly, 105 male and female college students, with a mean age of 24.5 years, participated in a two-phase experiment. During phase one, all subjects…

Factors related to a negative birth experience - A mixed methods study.

PubMed

Henriksen, Lena; Grimsrud, Elisabeth; Schei, Berit; Lukasse, Mirjam

2017-08-01

this study aimed to explore factors associated with a negative childbirth experience including descriptions from women themselves. we performed a mixed methods study based on data from the Norwegian cohort of the Bidens study, including a total of 1352 multiparous women. Quantitative information was analysed in addition to thematic analysis of 103 free-text comments provided by women with a prior negative childbirth experience. the total prevalence of a negative birth experience was 21.1%. A negative experience was associated with fear of birth (AOR: 5.00 95% CI 3.40-7.23) and a history of abuse (AOR 1.34 95% CI 1.01-1.79) in multivariate analysis. Women who indicated they were para 2 were less likely or report a negative childbirth (AOR 0.66 95% CI 0.46-0.94). Three major themes were identified: 'complications for mother, child or both', 'not being seen or heard'; and 'experience of pain and loss of control'. The majority of respondents reported experiences of unexpected and dramatic complications during childbirth. Further, several of the respondents felt a lack of support, that they had not been treated with respect or included in decisions regarding their birth. A minority described pain and loss of control as the main reason for their negative birth experience. comments by the women show that they were unprepared for complications and inadequate care during birth. The feeling of not being seen or heard during childbirth contributed to a negative experience. Midwives can use the information gained from this study to prevent negative birth experiences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Participant experiences from chronic administration of a multivitamin versus placebo on subjective health and wellbeing: a double-blind qualitative analysis of a randomised controlled trial

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background While many randomised controlled trials have been conducted on multivitamins, to our knowledge no qualitative research exploring the subjective experience of taking a multivitamin during a clinical trial has been reported. Methods Semi-structured and open-ended written questions were incorporated into a 16-week double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel groups trial of once-daily multivitamin administration. At the final study visit (week 16), three open-ended questions were posed to elucidate any positive, negative or unusual experiences from taking either the multivitamin or matched placebo. Qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken by researchers who were blind as to treatment condition of participants, and triangulation (independent analysis from three researchers) was employed to ensure methodological rigour. Participant’s experiences were categorised as “positive” or “negative” and a Chi Square analysis was then applied to each of the experiential themes, to compare experiences between the multivitamin and placebo groups, (subdividing the groups by gender). Usual experiences were categorised and discussed separately. Results Of the 182 participants enrolled, 116 completed the study and qualitative data were available from 114 participants. Thematic analysis revealed significant effects in favour of the multivitamin over placebo for participants experiencing increased energy levels (p=.022) and enhanced mood (p=.027). The beneficial effect on energy levels was particularly evident among female participants. A trend was found for participants reporting better sleep in the multivitamin over placebo. The multivitamin and placebo groups did not significantly differ in perceived positive or negative effects in areas relating to other aspects of mental function or physical health. No significant negative effects were revealed, although there was a non-significant trend for more people in the multivitamin group having minor digestive complaints. Conclusion This represents the first documented qualitative investigation of participants’ experience of chronic administration of a multivitamin. Results uncovered a range of subjective beneficial effects that are consistent with quantitative data from previously published randomised controlled trials examining the effects of multivitamins and B vitamin complexes on mood and well-being. Trial registration Prior to commencement this trial was registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ( http://www.anzctr.org.au) ACTRN12611000092998 PMID:23241329

Negativity Bias in Media Multitasking: The Effects of Negative Social Media Messages on Attention to Television News Broadcasts.

PubMed

Kätsyri, Jari; Kinnunen, Teemu; Kusumoto, Kenta; Oittinen, Pirkko; Ravaja, Niklas

2016-01-01

Television viewers' attention is increasingly more often divided between television and "second screens", for example when viewing television broadcasts and following their related social media discussion on a tablet computer. The attentional costs of such multitasking may vary depending on the ebb and flow of the social media channel, such as its emotional contents. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that negative social media messages would draw more attention than similar positive messages. Specifically, news broadcasts were presented in isolation and with simultaneous positive or negative Twitter messages on a tablet to 38 participants in a controlled experiment. Recognition memory, gaze tracking, cardiac responses, and self-reports were used as attentional indices. The presence of any tweets on the tablet decreased attention to the news broadcasts. As expected, negative tweets drew longer viewing times and elicited more attention to themselves than positive tweets. Negative tweets did not, however, decrease attention to the news broadcasts. Taken together, the present results demonstrate a negativity bias exists for social media messages in media multitasking; however, this effect does not amplify the overall detrimental effects of media multitasking.

Negativity Bias in Media Multitasking: The Effects of Negative Social Media Messages on Attention to Television News Broadcasts

PubMed Central

Kätsyri, Jari; Kinnunen, Teemu; Kusumoto, Kenta; Oittinen, Pirkko; Ravaja, Niklas

2016-01-01

Television viewers’ attention is increasingly more often divided between television and “second screens”, for example when viewing television broadcasts and following their related social media discussion on a tablet computer. The attentional costs of such multitasking may vary depending on the ebb and flow of the social media channel, such as its emotional contents. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that negative social media messages would draw more attention than similar positive messages. Specifically, news broadcasts were presented in isolation and with simultaneous positive or negative Twitter messages on a tablet to 38 participants in a controlled experiment. Recognition memory, gaze tracking, cardiac responses, and self-reports were used as attentional indices. The presence of any tweets on the tablet decreased attention to the news broadcasts. As expected, negative tweets drew longer viewing times and elicited more attention to themselves than positive tweets. Negative tweets did not, however, decrease attention to the news broadcasts. Taken together, the present results demonstrate a negativity bias exists for social media messages in media multitasking; however, this effect does not amplify the overall detrimental effects of media multitasking. PMID:27144385

How does a vacation from work affect employee health and well-being?

PubMed

de Bloom, Jessica; Geurts, Sabine A E; Sonnentag, Sabine; Taris, Toon; de Weerth, Carolina; Kompier, Michiel A J

2011-12-01

Health and well-being (H&W) improve during vacation. However, it is unclear whether this general development applies to all employees, while also little is known about the underlying processes causing such an improvement. Our research questions were: (1) Does every worker experience a positive effect of vacation on H&W? and (2) Can vacation activities and experiences explain changes in H&W during vacation? In a 7-week longitudinal field study, 96 workers reported their H&W 2 weeks before, during, 1 week, 2 and 4 weeks after a winter sports vacation on 6 indicators (health status, mood, fatigue, tension, energy level and satisfaction). Sixty percent of the sample experienced substantial improvement of H&W during and after vacation. Yet, a small group experienced no (23%) or a negative effect of vacation (17%). Spending limited time on passive activities, pleasure derived from vacation activities, and the absence of negative incidents during vacation explained 38% of the variance in the vacation effect. Although vacation has a positive, longer lasting effect for many, it is not invariably positive for all employees. Choosing especially pleasant vacation activities and avoiding negative incidents as well as passive activities during active vacations apparently contributes to the positive effect of vacation on H&W.

Mental Contrasting of a Negative Future with a Positive Reality Regulates State Anxiety

PubMed Central

Brodersen, Gunnar; Oettingen, Gabriele

2017-01-01

Mental contrasting of a desired future with impeding reality is a self-regulatory strategy fostering goal pursuit. However, there is little research on mental contrasting of a negative future with a positive reality. We conducted two experiments, each with four experimental conditions, investigating the effects of mental contrasting a negative future with a positive reality on state anxiety: participants who mentally contrasted a negative future regarding a bacterial epidemic (Study 1, N = 199) or an idiosyncratic negative event (Study 2, N = 206) showed less state anxiety than participants who imagined the negative future only or who reverse contrasted; participants who mentally elaborated on the positive reality also showed less state anxiety. Our findings suggest that mental contrasting of a negative future helps people reduce disproportional anxiety regarding a negative future. PMID:28979223

New graduate nurses' experiences of bullying and burnout in hospital settings.

PubMed

Laschinger, Heather K Spence; Grau, Ashley L; Finegan, Joan; Wilk, Piotr

2010-12-01

This paper is a report of a study conducted to test a model linking new graduate nurses' perceptions of structural empowerment to their experiences of workplace bullying and burnout in Canadian hospital work settings using Kanter's work empowerment theory. There are numerous anecdotal reports of bullying of new graduates in healthcare settings, which is linked to serious health effects and negative organizational effects. We tested the model using data from the first wave of a 2009 longitudinal study of 415 newly graduated nurses (<3 years of experience) in acute care hospitals across Ontario, Canada. Variables were measured using the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire, Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised and Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey. The final model fit statistics revealed a reasonably adequate fit (χ² = 14·9, d.f. = 37, IFI = 0·98, CFI = 0·98, RMSEA = 0·09). Structural empowerment was statistically significantly and negatively related to workplace bullying exposure (β = -0·37), which in turn, was statistically significantly related to all three components of burnout (Emotional exhaustion: β = 0·41, Cynicism: β = 0·28, EFFICACY: β = -0·17). Emotional exhaustion had a direct effect on cynicism (β = 0·51), which in turn, had a direct effect on efficacy (β = -0·34). Conclusion.  The results suggest that new graduate nurses' exposure to bullying may be less when their work environments provide access to empowering work structures, and that these conditions promote nurses' health and wellbeing. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

A randomized trial of a cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis intervention on positive and negative affect during breast cancer radiotherapy.

PubMed

Schnur, Julie B; David, Daniel; Kangas, Maria; Green, Sheryl; Bovbjerg, Dana H; Montgomery, Guy H

2009-04-01

Breast cancer radiotherapy can be an emotionally difficult experience. Despite this, few studies have examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions to reduce negative affect, and none to date have explicitly examined interventions to improve positive affect among breast cancer radiotherapy patients. The present study examined the effectiveness of a multimodal psychotherapeutic approach, combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis (CBTH), to reduce negative affect and increase positive affect in 40 women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either CBTH or standard care. Participants completed weekly self-report measures of positive and negative affect. Repeated and univariate analyses of variance revealed that the CBTH approach reduced levels of negative affect [F(1, 38)=13.49; p=.0007, omega(2)=.56], and increased levels of positive affect [F(1, 38)=9.67; p=.0035, omega(2)=.48], during the course of radiotherapy. Additionally, relative to the control group, the CBTH group demonstrated significantly more intense positive affect [F(1, 38)=7.09; p=.0113, d=.71] and significantly less intense negative affect [F(1, 38)=10.30; p=.0027, d=.90] during radiotherapy. The CBTH group also had a significantly higher frequency of days where positive affect was greater than negative affect (85% of days assessed for the CBTH group versus 43% of the Control group) [F(1, 38)=18.16; p=.0001, d=1.16]. Therefore, the CBTH intervention has the potential to improve the affective experience of women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy.

Radiation Effects In Satellite Cables

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-04-01

reverse current across the gap through the ionized air trapped in the gap . This reverse current opposes the effect of the photo-driven current and reduces ...using the measured gap of 30 pm) has the right sign (negative) for both cables and is very close in magnitude for one but is low by about a factor of 2.5...experiments of Reference 32. Therefore, the effect of a 100 volt field in reducing transport of photoelectrons across the gap in the experiment should

The causal effect of education on HIV stigma in Uganda: Evidence from a natural experiment.

PubMed

Tsai, Alexander C; Venkataramani, Atheendar S

2015-10-01

HIV is highly stigmatized in sub-Saharan Africa. This is an important public health problem because HIV stigma has many adverse effects that threaten to undermine efforts to control the HIV epidemic. The implementation of a universal primary education policy in Uganda in 1997 provided us with a natural experiment to test the hypothesis that education is causally related to HIV stigma. For this analysis, we pooled publicly available, population-based data from the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey and the 2011 Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey. The primary outcomes of interest were negative attitudes toward persons with HIV, elicited using four questions about anticipated stigma and social distance. Standard least squares estimates suggested a statistically significant, negative association between years of schooling and HIV stigma (each P < 0.001, with t-statistics ranging from 4.9 to 14.7). We then used a natural experiment design, exploiting differences in birth cohort exposure to universal primary education as an instrumental variable. Participants who were <13 years old at the time of the policy change had 1.36 additional years of schooling compared to those who were ≥13 years old. Adjusting for linear age trends before and after the discontinuity, two-stage least squares estimates suggested no statistically significant causal effect of education on HIV stigma (P-values ranged from 0.21 to 0.69). Three of the four estimated regression coefficients were positive, and in all cases the lower confidence limits convincingly excluded the possibility of large negative effect sizes. These instrumental variables estimates have a causal interpretation and were not overturned by several robustness checks. We conclude that, for young adults in Uganda, additional years of education in the formal schooling system driven by a universal primary school intervention have not had a causal effect on reducing negative attitudes toward persons with HIV. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The causal effect of education on HIV stigma in Uganda: evidence from a natural experiment

PubMed Central

Tsai, Alexander C.; Venkataramani, Atheendar S.

2015-01-01

Rationale HIV is highly stigmatized in sub-Saharan Africa. This is an important public health problem because HIV stigma has many adverse effects that threaten to undermine efforts to control the HIV epidemic. Objective The implementation of a universal primary education policy in Uganda in 1997 provided us with a natural experiment to test the hypothesis that education is causally related to HIV stigma. Methods For this analysis, we pooled publicly available, population-based data from the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey and the 2011 Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey. The primary outcomes of interest were negative attitudes toward persons with HIV, elicited using four questions about anticipated stigma and social distance. Results Standard least squares estimates suggested a statistically significant, negative association between years of schooling and HIV stigma (each P<0.001, with t-statistics ranging from 4.9 to 14.7). We then used a natural experiment design, exploiting differences in birth cohort exposure to universal primary education as an instrumental variable. Participants who were <13 years old at the time of the policy change had 1.36 additional years of schooling compared to those who were ≥13 years old. Adjusting for linear age trends before and after the discontinuity, two-stage least squares estimates suggested no statistically significant causal effect of education on HIV stigma (P-values ranged from 0.21 to 0.69). Three of the four estimated regression coefficients were positive, and in all cases the lower confidence limits convincingly excluded the possibility of large negative effect sizes. These instrumental variables estimates have a causal interpretation and were not overturned by several robustness checks. Conclusion We conclude that, for young adults in Uganda, additional years of education in the formal schooling system driven by a universal primary school intervention have not had a causal effect on reducing negative attitudes toward persons with HIV. PMID:26282707

Valence and the development of immediate and long-term false memory illusions.

PubMed

Howe, Mark L; Candel, Ingrid; Otgaar, Henry; Malone, Catherine; Wimmer, Marina C

2010-01-01

Across five experiments we examined the role of valence in children's and adults' true and false memories. Using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm and either neutral or negative-emotional lists, both adults' (Experiment 1) and children's (Experiment 2) true recall and recognition was better for neutral than negative items, and although false recall was also higher for neutral items, false recognition was higher for negative items. The last three experiments examined adults' (Experiment 3) and children's (Experiments 4 and 5) 1-week long-term recognition of neutral and negative-emotional information. The results replicated the immediate recall and recognition findings from the first two experiments. More important, these experiments showed that although true recognition decreased over the 1-week interval, false recognition of neutral items remained unchanged whereas false recognition of negative-emotional items increased. These findings are discussed in terms of theories of emotion and memory as well as their forensic implications.

Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) use positive, but not negative, auditory cues to infer food location.

PubMed

Heimbauer, Lisa A; Antworth, Rebecca L; Owren, Michael J

2012-01-01

Nonhuman primates appear to capitalize more effectively on visual cues than corresponding auditory versions. For example, studies of inferential reasoning have shown that monkeys and apes readily respond to seeing that food is present ("positive" cuing) or absent ("negative" cuing). Performance is markedly less effective with auditory cues, with many subjects failing to use this input. Extending recent work, we tested eight captive tufted capuchins (Cebus apella) in locating food using positive and negative cues in visual and auditory domains. The monkeys chose between two opaque cups to receive food contained in one of them. Cup contents were either shown or shaken, providing location cues from both cups, positive cues only from the baited cup, or negative cues from the empty cup. As in previous work, subjects readily used both positive and negative visual cues to secure reward. However, auditory outcomes were both similar to and different from those of earlier studies. Specifically, all subjects came to exploit positive auditory cues, but none responded to negative versions. The animals were also clearly different in visual versus auditory performance. Results indicate that a significant proportion of capuchins may be able to use positive auditory cues, with experience and learning likely playing a critical role. These findings raise the possibility that experience may be significant in visually based performance in this task as well, and highlight that coming to grips with evident differences between visual versus auditory processing may be important for understanding primate cognition more generally.

Processing Distracting Non-face Emotional Images: No Evidence of an Age-Related Positivity Effect

PubMed Central

Madill, Mark; Murray, Janice E.

2017-01-01

Cognitive aging may be accompanied by increased prioritization of social and emotional goals that enhance positive experiences and emotional states. The socioemotional selectivity theory suggests this may be achieved by giving preference to positive information and avoiding or suppressing negative information. Although there is some evidence of a positivity bias in controlled attention tasks, it remains unclear whether a positivity bias extends to the processing of affective stimuli presented outside focused attention. In two experiments, we investigated age-related differences in the effects of to-be-ignored non-face affective images on target processing. In Experiment 1, 27 older (64–90 years) and 25 young adults (19–29 years) made speeded valence judgments about centrally presented positive or negative target images taken from the International Affective Picture System. To-be-ignored distractor images were presented above and below the target image and were either positive, negative, or neutral in valence. The distractors were considered task relevant because they shared emotional characteristics with the target stimuli. Both older and young adults responded slower to targets when distractor valence was incongruent with target valence relative to when distractors were neutral. Older adults responded faster to positive than to negative targets but did not show increased interference effects from positive distractors. In Experiment 2, affective distractors were task irrelevant as the target was a three-digit array and did not share emotional characteristics with the distractors. Twenty-six older (63–84 years) and 30 young adults (18–30 years) gave speeded responses on a digit disparity task while ignoring the affective distractors positioned in the periphery. Task performance in either age group was not influenced by the task-irrelevant affective images. In keeping with the socioemotional selectivity theory, these findings suggest that older adults preferentially process task-relevant positive non-face images but only when presented within the main focus of attention. PMID:28450848

Processing Distracting Non-face Emotional Images: No Evidence of an Age-Related Positivity Effect.

PubMed

Madill, Mark; Murray, Janice E

2017-01-01

Cognitive aging may be accompanied by increased prioritization of social and emotional goals that enhance positive experiences and emotional states. The socioemotional selectivity theory suggests this may be achieved by giving preference to positive information and avoiding or suppressing negative information. Although there is some evidence of a positivity bias in controlled attention tasks, it remains unclear whether a positivity bias extends to the processing of affective stimuli presented outside focused attention. In two experiments, we investigated age-related differences in the effects of to-be-ignored non-face affective images on target processing. In Experiment 1, 27 older (64-90 years) and 25 young adults (19-29 years) made speeded valence judgments about centrally presented positive or negative target images taken from the International Affective Picture System. To-be-ignored distractor images were presented above and below the target image and were either positive, negative, or neutral in valence. The distractors were considered task relevant because they shared emotional characteristics with the target stimuli. Both older and young adults responded slower to targets when distractor valence was incongruent with target valence relative to when distractors were neutral. Older adults responded faster to positive than to negative targets but did not show increased interference effects from positive distractors. In Experiment 2, affective distractors were task irrelevant as the target was a three-digit array and did not share emotional characteristics with the distractors. Twenty-six older (63-84 years) and 30 young adults (18-30 years) gave speeded responses on a digit disparity task while ignoring the affective distractors positioned in the periphery. Task performance in either age group was not influenced by the task-irrelevant affective images. In keeping with the socioemotional selectivity theory, these findings suggest that older adults preferentially process task-relevant positive non-face images but only when presented within the main focus of attention.

Discrimination and adjustment among Chinese American adolescents: family conflict and family cohesion as vulnerability and protective factors.

PubMed

Juang, Linda P; Alvarez, Alvin A

2010-12-01

We examined racial/ethnic discrimination experiences of Chinese American adolescents to determine how discrimination is linked to poor adjustment (i.e., loneliness, anxiety, and somatization) and how the context of the family can buffer or exacerbate these links. We collected survey data from 181 Chinese American adolescents and their parents in Northern California. We conducted hierarchical regression analyses to examine main effects and 2-way interactions of perceived discrimination with family conflict and family cohesion. Discrimination was related to poorer adjustment in terms of loneliness, anxiety, and somatization, but family conflict and cohesion modified these relations. Greater family conflict exacerbated the negative effects of discrimination, and greater family cohesion buffered the negative effects of discrimination. Our findings highlight the importance of identifying family-level moderators to help adolescents and their families handle experiences of discrimination.

The 'warm' side of coldness: Cold promotes interpersonal warmth in negative contexts.

PubMed

Wei, Wenqi; Ma, Jingjing; Wang, Lei

2015-12-01

The concrete experience of physical warmth has been demonstrated to promote interpersonal warmth. This well-documented link, however, tells only half of the story. In the current study, we thus examined whether physical coldness can also increase interpersonal warmth under certain circumstances. We conducted three experiments to demonstrate that the relationship between the experience of physical temperature and interpersonal outcomes is context dependent. Experiment 1 showed that participants touching cold (vs. warm) objects were more willing to forgive a peer's dishonest behaviour. Experiment 2 demonstrated the fully interactive effect of temperature and context on interpersonal warmth: Participants touching cold (vs. warm) objects were less likely to assist an individual who had provided them with good service (positive social context), but more likely to assist an individual who had provided them with poor service (negative social context). Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 2 using the likelihood to complain, a hostility-related indicator, as the dependent variable: In a pleasant queue (positive social context), participants touching cold objects were more likely to complain and those touching warm objects were less likely to complain compared with the control group. This pattern was reversed in an annoying queue (negative social context). © 2015 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.

Taboo words: the effect of emotion on memory for peripheral information.

PubMed

Guillet, Rebecca; Arndt, Jason

2009-09-01

In three experiments, we examined memory for peripheral information that occurred in the same context as emotion-inducing information. In the first two experiments, participants studied either a sentence (Experiment 1) or a pair of words (Experiments 2A-2C) containing a neutral peripheral word, as well as a neutral, negative-valence, or taboo word, to induce an emotional response. At retrieval, the participants were asked to recall the neutral peripheral word from a sentence fragment or emotion-inducing word cue. In Experiment 3, we presented word pairs at encoding and tested memory with associative recognition. In all three experiments, memory for peripheral words was enhanced when it was encoded in the presence of emotionally arousing taboo words but not when it was encoded in the presence of words that were only negative in valence. These data are consistent with priority-binding theory (MacKay et al., 2004) and inconsistent with the attention-narrowing hypothesis (Easterbrook, 1959), as well as with object-based binding theory (Mather, 2007).

Self-experimentations with psychedelics among mental health professionals: LSD in the former Czechoslovakia.

PubMed

Winkler, Petr; Csémy, Ladislav

2014-01-01

This article enquires into auto-experiments with psychedelics. It is focused on the experiences and current attitudes of mental health professionals who experimented with LSD in the era of legal research of this substance in the former Czechoslovakia. The objective of the follow-up study presented was to assess respondents' long-term views on their LSD experience(s). A secondary objective was to capture the attitude of the respondents toward the use of psychedelics within the mental health field. A total of 22 individuals participated in structured interviews. None of the respondents reported any long-term negative effect and all of them except two recorded enrichment in the sphere of self-awareness and/or understanding to those with mental disorder(s). Although there were controversies with regard to the ability of preventing possible negative consequences, respondents were supportive towards self-experiments with LSD in mental health sciences. This article is the first systematic examination of the self-experimentation with psychedelics that took place east of the Iron Curtain.

Measuring Reduction Methods for VR Sickness in Virtual Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magaki, Takurou; Vallance, Michael

2017-01-01

Recently, virtual reality (VR) technologies have developed remarkably. However, some users have negative symptoms during VR experiences or post-experiences. Consequently, alleviating VR sickness is a major challenge, but an effective reduction method has not yet been discovered. The purpose of this article is to compare and evaluate VR sickness in…

Preference Assessment for Dimensions of Reinforcement to Inform Token Economies Targeting Problem Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romani, Patrick W.; Alcorn, Aimee S.; Miller, Jonathan R.; Clark, Gwendolyn

2017-01-01

The purpose of the current two-experiment study was to examine the use of a preference assessment for dimensions of reinforcement to inform an effective token economy arrangement. Three participants diagnosed with developmental disabilities who engaged in negatively reinforced problem behavior participated in this study. During Experiment 1, a…

The Effects of Subthreshold Visual Cues on Flight Performance in the NUH-60FS Black Hawk Research Simulator

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-08-01

influenced your opinion of subthreshold priming/ subliminal messaging...17 10. After completing this experiment, do you have a positive or negative view of subthreshold priming/ subliminal ...0%) Table 9. Has participating in this experiment influenced your opinion of subthreshold priming/ subliminal messaging? Yes No Other

New Jersey Graduated Work Incentive Experiment. Summary Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathematica, Princeton, NJ.

The study is described as a carefully controlled field test of the effects on recipient families of eight different negative income tax or benefit formulas. The most striking finding was that observed changes in labor supply in response to the experimental payments were generally quite small. Chapter One, The Experiment: Background and Choices,…

Students' Positive and Negative Experiences in Hybrid and Online Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El Mansour, Bassou; Mupinga, Davison M.

2007-01-01

As higher education institutions struggle to meet the growing demand for education from non-traditional students, many are turning to hybrid and online courses. These courses, free up classroom space, allow faculty to reach a wider audience using technology; and are therefore cost effective. But, what learning experiences do these courses provide…

Working with the Young Child: Clinical Implications of Contemporary Developmental Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gold, Claudia M.

2017-01-01

The recognition that adverse childhood experiences have long-term negative effects parallels the explosion of evidence demonstrating how early experience gets into the body and brain. This knowledge, in turn, has significant implications for treatment of emotional and behavioral problems in early childhood. In this article, I offer a guide to…

Can Better Emotion Regulation Protect against Suicidality in Traumatized Homeless Youth?

PubMed

Barr, Nicholas; Fulginiti, Anthony; Rhoades, Harmony; Rice, Eric

2017-07-03

A substantial majority of homeless youth and young adults (HYA) experience abuse prior to and during homelessness. HYA also have high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidal behavior. This study investigated relationships between traumatic experiences, PTSD symptoms, substance use, and the protective effects of emotion regulation on outcome variables suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Data were drawn from a sample of 398 HYA interviewed at 3 drop-in centers in Los Angeles County. A bivariate logistic regression modeling strategy was employed to examine relationships among demographic characteristics and dependent and independent variables. Trauma prior to homelessness and trauma prior to and after homelessness were positively associated with suicidal ideation, whereas emotional awareness and control demonstrated negative associations. PTSD symptoms were positively associated with suicide attempts, whereas emotional awareness and control demonstrated negative associations. Better emotion regulation is associated with reduced odds of suicidal ideation and attempts in HYA and may protect against effects of traumatic experiences. Interventions targeting emotion regulation skills in HYA to reduce suicidality associated with traumatic experiences merit additional investigation.

Resurgence of instrumental behavior after an abstinence contingency.

PubMed

Bouton, Mark E; Schepers, Scott T

2014-06-01

In resurgence, an extinguished instrumental behavior (R1) recovers when a behavior that has replaced it (R2) is also extinguished. The phenomenon may be relevant to understanding relapse that can occur after the termination of "contingency management" treatments, in which an unwanted behavior (e.g., substance abuse) is reduced by reinforcing an alternative behavior. When reinforcement is discontinued, the unwanted behavior might resurge. However, unlike most resurgence experiments, contingency management treatments also introduce a negative contingency, in which reinforcers are not delivered unless the client has abstained from the unwanted behavior. In two experiments with rats, we therefore examined the effects of adding a negative "abstinence" contingency to the resurgence design. During response elimination, R2 was not reinforced unless R1 had not been emitted for a minimum period of time (45, 90, or 135 s). In both experiments, adding such a contingency to simple R1 extinction reduced, but did not eliminate, resurgence. In Experiment 2, we found the same effect in a yoked group that could earn reinforcers for R2 at the same points in time as the negative-contingency group, but without the requirement to abstain from R1. Thus, the negative contingency per se did not contribute to the reduction in resurgence. These results suggest that the contingency reduced resurgence by making reinforcers more difficult to earn and more widely spaced in time. This could have allowed the animal to learn that R1 was extinguished in the "context" of infrequent reinforcement-a context more like that of resurgence testing. The results are thus consistent with a contextual (renewal) account of resurgence. The method might provide a better model of relapse after termination of a contingency management treatment.

A flexible influence of affective feelings on creative and analytic performance.

PubMed

Huntsinger, Jeffrey R; Ray, Cara

2016-09-01

Considerable research shows that positive affect improves performance on creative tasks and negative affect improves performance on analytic tasks. The present research entertained the idea that affective feelings have flexible, rather than fixed, effects on cognitive performance. Consistent with the idea that positive and negative affect signal the value of accessible processing inclinations, the influence of affective feelings on performance on analytic or creative tasks was found to be flexibly responsive to the relative accessibility of different styles of processing (i.e., heuristic vs. systematic, global vs. local). When a global processing orientation was accessible happy participants generated more creative uses for a brick (Experiment 1), successfully solved more remote associates and insight problems (Experiment 2) and displayed broader categorization (Experiment 3) than those in sad moods. When a local processing orientation was accessible this pattern reversed. When a heuristic processing style was accessible happy participants were more likely to commit the conjunction fallacy (Experiment 3) and showed less pronounced anchoring effects (Experiment 4) than sad participants. When a systematic processing style was accessible this pattern reversed. Implications of these results for relevant affect-cognition models are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The facilitating effect of positive emotions during an emotional Stroop task.

PubMed

Liu, Xingyu; Yang, Yisheng; Jiang, Songxiu; Li, Jie

2018-05-08

Prior research has shown that negative emotions, even though task irrelevant, are capable of delaying a participant's response to the color in which a negative emotional word is presented, a phenomenon known as the 'emotional Stroop effect'. However, relatively little is known about whether positive emotions have a similar or an opposite effect. The current study sets out to confirm the facilitating effect of positive emotions on color naming, which is predicted by Barbara Fredrickson's 'broaden and build' theory. Our results indicate that positive emotions did facilitate such processing in both of the study's experiments. We also found a significant difference in early posterior negativity amplitudes between positive and neutral stimuli, which was related to the 'fast effect'. Overall, the study's findings suggest that positive emotions can be detected quickly and automatically, and that this kind of prioritizing facilitates the ongoing cognitive processing.

Women's and men's negative experience of child birth-A cross-sectional survey.

PubMed

Nystedt, Astrid; Hildingsson, Ingegerd

2018-04-01

A negative birth experience may influence both women and men and can limit their process of becoming a parent. This study aimed to analyze and describe women's and men's perceptions and experiences of childbirth. A cross-sectional study of women and their partners living in one Swedish county were recruited in mid pregnancy and followed up two months after birth. Women (n=928) and men (n=818) completed the same questionnaire that investigated new parents' birth experiences in relation to socio-demographic background and birth related variables. Women (6%) and men (3%) with a negative birth experiences, experienced longer labours and more often emergency caesarean section compared to women (94%) and men (97%) with a positive birth experience. The obstetric factors that contributed most strongly to a negative birth experience were emergency caesarean and was found in women (OR 4.7, 95% CI 2.0-10.8) and men (OR 4.5, Cl 95% 1.4-17.3). In addition, pain intensity and elective caesarean section were also associated with a negative birth experiences in women. Feelings during birth such as agreeing with the statement; 'It was a pain to give birth' were a strong contributing factor for both women and men. A negative birth experience is associated with obstetric factors such as emergency caesarean section and negative feelings. The content of negative feelings differed between women and men. It is important to take into account that their feelings differ in order to facilitate the processing of the negative birth experience for both partners. Copyright © 2017 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of high energy electrons on H⁻ production and destruction in a high current DC negative ion source for cyclotron.

PubMed

Onai, M; Etoh, H; Aoki, Y; Shibata, T; Mattei, S; Fujita, S; Hatayama, A; Lettry, J

2016-02-01

Recently, a filament driven multi-cusp negative ion source has been developed for proton cyclotrons in medical applications. In this study, numerical modeling of the filament arc-discharge source plasma has been done with kinetic modeling of electrons in the ion source plasmas by the multi-cusp arc-discharge code and zero dimensional rate equations for hydrogen molecules and negative ions. In this paper, main focus is placed on the effects of the arc-discharge power on the electron energy distribution function and the resultant H(-) production. The modelling results reasonably explains the dependence of the H(-) extraction current on the arc-discharge power in the experiments.

Social Networks in Later Life: Weighing Positive and Negative Effects on Health and Well-Being.

PubMed

Rook, Karen S

2015-02-01

Social networks provide a mix of positive and negative experiences. Network members can provide help in times of need and day-to-day companionship, but they can also behave in ways that are inconsiderate, hurtful, or intrusive. Researchers must grapple with these dualities in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of how social network ties affect health and well-being. This article provides an overview of research that has examined the health-related effects of positive and negative aspects of social network involvement. If focuses on later life, a time when risks for declining health and for the loss or disruption of social relationships increase.

An applied test of the social learning theory of deviance to college alcohol use.

PubMed

DeMartino, Cynthia H; Rice, Ronald E; Saltz, Robert

2015-04-01

Several hypotheses about influences on college drinking derived from the social learning theory of deviance were tested and confirmed. The effect of ethnicity on alcohol use was completely mediated by differential association and differential reinforcement, whereas the effect of biological sex on alcohol use was partially mediated. Higher net positive reinforcements to costs for alcohol use predicted increased general use, more underage use, and more frequent binge drinking. Two unexpected finding were the negative relationship between negative expectations and negative experiences, and the substantive difference between nondrinkers and general drinkers compared with illegal or binge drinkers. The discussion considers implications for future campaigns based on Akers's deterrence theory.

Developmental Differences across Middle Childhood in Memory and Suggestibility for Negative and Positive Events.

PubMed

Paz-Alonso, Pedro M; Goodman, Gail S

2016-01-01

In the present study, we investigated age differences in children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility for negative and positive events that children often experience during middle childhood. We first examined 216 ratings by children aged 8-12 years of the frequency and intensity of personal negative and positive experiences (Study 1). Based on those ratings, videotapes depicting the most frequent and intense negative (an accident) and positive (a family excursion) events were developed. A new sample of 227 children aged 8-12 years was tested for recognition memory of the videotapes using the three-stage post-event misinformation procedure (Study 2). Compared with 8- to 9-year-olds, 10- to 12-year-olds exhibited less memory malleability and less compliance with false information. Age improvements in recognition accuracy were also evident for children who watched the negative event, but not for those who watched the positive event. Compliance predicted misinformation effects, particularly in regard to peripheral details. Thus, using ecologically representative emotional events, age differences in suggestibility and memory accuracy emerged, especially for negative events.Theoretical and forensic implications concerning children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Remedial self-fulfilling prophecy: two field experiments to prevent Golem effects among disadvantaged women.

PubMed

Davidson, O B; Eden, D

2000-06-01

The Pygmalion effect is a self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising leader expectations boosts subordinate performance. Although attempts to produce Pygmalion effects have been successful repeatedly among men, attempts to produce Pygmalion effects with female leaders have yielded null results. Also, only 1 experiment has demonstrated the Golem effect (i.e., negative SFP in which low leader expectations impair subordinate performance). In 2 field experiments testing the SFP hypothesis among women leading disadvantaged women, experimental leaders were led to believe that their trainees had higher than usual potential. In reality, the trainees had been assigned randomly. Manipulation checks confirmed that the treatment raised leader expectations toward experimental trainees. Analysis of variance of performance detected the predicted SFP effects in both experiments. These were the first-ever experimental confirmations of SFP among women as leaders.

Pupil old/new effects reflect stimulus encoding and decoding in short-term memory.

PubMed

Brocher, Andreas; Graf, Tim

2016-12-01

We conducted five pupil old/new experiments to examine whether pupil old/new effects can be linked to familiarity and/or recollection processes of recognition memory. In Experiments 1-3, we elicited robust pupil old/new effects for legal words and pseudowords (Experiment 1), positive and negative words (Experiment 2), and low-frequency and high-frequency words (Experiment 3). Importantly, unlike for old/new effects in ERPs, we failed to find any effects of long-term memory representations on pupil old/new effects. In Experiment 4, using the words and pseudowords from Experiment 1, participants made lexical decisions instead of old/new decisions. Pupil old/new effects were restricted to legal words. Additionally requiring participants to make speeded responses (Experiment 5) led to a complete absence of old/new effects. Taken together, these data suggest that pupil old/new effects do not map onto familiarity and recollection processes of recognition memory. They rather seem to reflect strength of memory traces in short-term memory, with little influence of long-term memory representations. Crucially, weakening the memory trace through manipulations in the experimental task significantly reduces pupil/old new effects. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Sleep Efficiency Modulates Associations Between Family Stress and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms and Negative Affect.

PubMed

Chiang, Jessica J; Kim, Joanna J; Almeida, David M; Bower, Julienne E; Dahl, Ronald E; Irwin, Michael R; McCreath, Heather; Fuligni, Andrew J

2017-10-01

The goal of this study was to determine whether sleep moderates the associations between family-related stress and depressive symptoms and negative affect outcomes during adolescence. We combined traditional survey measures of stress and depressive symptoms with daily assessments of stress and negative affect to examine whether sleep differentially impacts the link between chronic and acute experiences of stress and affect. Participants were 316 adolescents from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Primary caregivers and adolescents reported on stressful family events during the past 12 and 3 months, respectively. Adolescents also reported on their daily experiences of family demands for 15 days and wore actigraph watches for the assessment of sleep during the first eight nights. Regression analyses revealed that more stressful family events were related to more depressive symptoms. This relation was stronger among adolescents with lower sleep efficiency. The same pattern emerged for the relation between daily family demands and negative affect aggregated across the 15 days. Daily-level analyses indicated that daily negative affect was related to daily family demands when sleep efficiency was higher than usual, but only among European American adolescents. These findings suggest that chronic experiences of lower sleep efficiency, but not sleep duration, may render adolescents more vulnerable to the negative effects of family stress on emotional adjustment. A more complex picture emerged for the role of prior night's sleep in the day-to-day variation in negative affect reactivity to family stress. Copyright © 2017 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Longitudinal Influence of Paternal Distress on Children’s Representations of Fathers, Family Cohesion, and Family Conflict

PubMed Central

Adamsons, Kari L.; Robinson, JoAnn L.; Sabatelli, Ronald M.

2014-01-01

A parent’s distress is known to color children’s experiences of their families. Studies, however, have rarely focused on the levels of distress experienced by fathers, and in particular, as they affect the emotional experiences of their children. We examine the impact that fathers’ experience of distress throughout their children’s early years has on children’s emerging narrative representations of father-child relationships and of family conflict and cohesion. In this longitudinal investigation, fathers of young children reported their distress on two occasions in relation to self, the marital relationship, and the family climate. Fathers also concurrently reported on their children’s temperament, specifically negative emotionality. Children responded to story stem beginnings about challenging situations in the family and their narratives were scored for dysregulated negative-disciplinary and positive parental behaviors of fathers, family conflict themes, and family harmony themes. It was hypothesized that children of more distressed fathers would represent greater dysregulated fathering and higher levels of family conflict, and lower levels of positive fathering and family harmony than children of less distressed fathers. Further, the study examined whether this effect was mediated through the fathers’ reports of their children’s negative emotionality. Results partially supported the hypothesized direct and indirect effects. Children’s narratives of negative-disciplinary fathering and family conflict were more common in boys when fathers reported greater distress, and temperament ratings fully mediated this effect. However, their narratives of positive fathering and family harmony were not significantly affected. That positive family features were preserved in children’s narratives even in the face of greater father distress suggests that families may be able to build resilience to internalized distress through these positive narrative features. PMID:25995610

Receiving instrumental support at work: when help is not welcome.

PubMed

Deelstra, Janna T; Peeters, Maria C W; Schaufeli, Wilmar B; Stroebe, Wolfgang; Zijlstra, Fred R H; van Doornen, Lorenz P

2003-04-01

Although the role of social support in promoting employees' health and well-being has been studied extensively, the evidence is inconsistent, sometimes even suggesting that social support might have negative effects. The authors examined some psychological processes that might explain such effects. On the basis of the threat-to-self-esteem model, the authors tested the hypothesis that receiving imposed support elicits negative reactions, which are moderated by someone's need for support. The authors distinguished 3 different reactions: (a) self-related, (b) interaction-related, and (c) physiological. The results of an experiment with 48 temporary administrative workers generally confirmed the hypothesis. Imposed support elicited negative reactions, except when there was an unsolvable problem, but even then the effect of imposed support was not positive but neutral.

Concreteness and context availability in lexical decision tasks.

PubMed

Levy-Drori, Shelly; Henik, Avishai

2006-01-01

Three experiments were carried out to elucidate the origins of the concreteness (C) effect in a lexical decision task. The first experiment was a replication of the work of Schwanenflugel et al. (1988) and Van Hell and De Groot (1998), who presented the context availability (CA) hypothesis. In this experiment CA seemed to be a dominant factor. Familiarity (FAM) was not incorporated in the ANOVA, but a regression analysis and negative correlation between C and FAM in the groups matched on CA showed that FAM could explain the disappearance of the C effect. Experiment 2 controlled FAM and revealed a C effect, although concrete and abstract words were matched on CA. Experiment 3 controlled C and FAM and revealed a CA effect. The current data emphasize the importance of controlling FAM and CA in examining the C effect in a lexical decision task and support a revised version of the dual-coding theory.

An In-Depth Qualitative Examination of the Ecstasy Experience: Results of a Focus Group with Ecstasy-Using College Students

PubMed Central

LEVY, KIRA B.; O'GRADY, KEVIN E.; WISH, ERIC D.; ARRIA, AMELIA M.

2010-01-01

This study examined ecstasy use in 30 college students who participated in one of four 60-minute focus groups with other participants who also had a history of ecstasy use. Ten topics emerged in the sessions: 1) pill ingredients, 2) mechanism of MDMA effects, 3) reasons for initiating ecstasy use, 4) risky behaviors and ecstasy use, 5) sexual activity and ecstasy, 6) positive effects from ecstasy use, 7) negative effects related to ecstasy use, 8) ecstasy and polysubstance use, 9) perceived risks of ecstasy use, and 10) motivational factors related to quitting ecstasy use. Most participants had a basic understanding of the contents of ecstasy pills, and the effects that ecstasy has on the brain and bodily functions. Participants reported positive effects on mood, social pressure, curiosity, availability, boredom, desire for an altered state of mind, desire to escape, self-medication, desire to have fun, and the ease of use of ecstasy in comparison to other drugs as reasons for initiating ecstasy use. They were divided regarding whether ecstasy increased the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors, including risky sexual behavior. Participants described their experiences of both the positive and negative effects (physical and psychological) that they attributed to their use of ecstasy. All participants were polysubstance users, consuming a number of other substances simultaneously and concurrently with ecstasy. The majority was unaware of specific types of problems ecstasy could potentially cause and discounted its potential harm. Participants varied in their motivation for quitting ecstasy use, including negative personal experiences while using ecstasy, health concerns, and addiction/tolerance. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed. PMID:16048826

Effects of Achievement Goals on Challenge Seeking and Feedback Processing: Behavioral and fMRI Evidence

PubMed Central

Lee, Woogul; Kim, Sung-il

2014-01-01

We conducted behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research to investigate the effects of two types of achievement goals—mastery goals and performance-approach goals— on challenge seeking and feedback processing. The results of the behavioral experiment indicated that mastery goals were associated with a tendency to seek challenge, both before and after experiencing difficulty during task performance, whereas performance-approach goals were related to a tendency to avoid challenge after encountering difficulty during task performance. The fMRI experiment uncovered a significant decrease in ventral striatal activity when participants received negative feedback for any task type and both forms of achievement goals. During the processing of negative feedback for the rule-finding task, performance-approach-oriented participants showed a substantial reduction in activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the frontopolar cortex, whereas mastery-oriented participants showed little change. These results suggest that performance-approach-oriented participants are less likely to either recruit control processes in response to negative feedback or focus on task-relevant information provided alongside the negative feedback. In contrast, mastery-oriented participants are more likely to modulate aversive valuations to negative feedback and focus on the constructive elements of feedback in order to attain their task goals. We conclude that performance-approach goals lead to a reluctant stance towards difficulty, while mastery goals encourage a proactive stance. PMID:25251396

Reduced sensitivity to neutral feedback versus negative feedback in subjects with mild depression: Evidence from event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Li, Peng; Song, Xinxin; Wang, Jing; Zhou, Xiaoran; Li, Jiayi; Lin, Fengtong; Hu, Zhonghua; Zhang, Xinxin; Cui, Hewei; Wang, Wenmiao; Li, Hong; Cong, Fengyu; Roberson, Debi

2015-11-01

Many previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have linked the feedback related negativity (FRN) component with medial frontal cortex processing and associated this component with depression. Few if any studies have investigated the processing of neutral feedback in mildly depressive subjects in the normal population. Two experiments compared brain responses to neutral feedback with behavioral performance in mildly depressed subjects who scored highly on the Beck Depression Inventory (high BDI) and a control group with lower BDI scores (low BDI). In the first study, the FRN component was recorded when neutral, negative or positive feedback was pseudo-randomly delivered to the two groups in a time estimation task. In the second study, real feedback was provided to the two groups in the same task in order to measure their actual accuracy of performance. The results of experiment one (Exp. 1) revealed that a larger FRN effect was elicited by neutral feedback than by negative feedback in the low BDI group, but no significant difference was found between neutral condition and negative condition in the High BDI group. The present findings demonstrated that depressive tendencies influence the processing of neutral feedback in medial frontal cortex. The FRN effect may work as a helpful index for investigating cognitive bias in depression in future studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Test Candidates' Attitudes and Their Relationship to Demographic and Experiential Variables: The Case of Overseas Trained Teachers in NSW, Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Jill C.; Riazi, A. Mehdi; Cross, Judith L.

2012-01-01

One measure of the impact of a high-stakes test is the attitudes that test takers hold towards it. It has been suggested that positive attitudes produce beneficial effects while real or anticipated negative experiences can result in the development of attitudes that erode confidence and potentially impact negatively on performance. This study…

Increased Perceptual and Conceptual Processing Difficulty Makes the Immeasurable Measurable: Negative Priming in the Absence of Probe Distractors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frings, Christian; Spence, Charles

2011-01-01

Negative priming (NP) refers to the finding that people's responses to probe targets previously presented as prime distractors are usually slower and more error prone than to unrepeated stimuli. In a typical NP experiment, each probe target is accompanied by a distractor. It is an accepted, albeit puzzling, finding that the NP effect depends on…

Emotion Talk in Mother-Child Conversations of the Shared Past: The Effects of Culture, Gender, and Event Valence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fivush, Robyn; Wang, Qi

2005-01-01

We examined how mother-child emotional reminiscing is affected by culture, gender, and the valence of the event. Thirty-one Euro-American and 30 Chinese middle-class mothers and their 3-year-old children discussed 1 highly positive and 1 highly negative experience. Mothers and children in both cultures used a greater variety of negative emotion…

Negative refraction angular characterization in one-dimensional photonic crystals.

PubMed

Lugo, Jesus Eduardo; Doti, Rafael; Faubert, Jocelyn

2011-04-06

Photonic crystals are artificial structures that have periodic dielectric components with different refractive indices. Under certain conditions, they abnormally refract the light, a phenomenon called negative refraction. Here we experimentally characterize negative refraction in a one dimensional photonic crystal structure; near the low frequency edge of the fourth photonic bandgap. We compare the experimental results with current theory and a theory based on the group velocity developed here. We also analytically derived the negative refraction correctness condition that gives the angular region where negative refraction occurs. By using standard photonic techniques we experimentally determined the relationship between incidence and negative refraction angles and found the negative refraction range by applying the correctness condition. In order to compare both theories with experimental results an output refraction correction was utilized. The correction uses Snell's law and an effective refractive index based on two effective dielectric constants. We found good agreement between experiment and both theories in the negative refraction zone. Since both theories and the experimental observations agreed well in the negative refraction region, we can use both negative refraction theories plus the output correction to predict negative refraction angles. This can be very useful from a practical point of view for space filtering applications such as a photonic demultiplexer or for sensing applications.

Negative Refraction Angular Characterization in One-Dimensional Photonic Crystals

PubMed Central

Lugo, Jesus Eduardo; Doti, Rafael; Faubert, Jocelyn

2011-01-01

Background Photonic crystals are artificial structures that have periodic dielectric components with different refractive indices. Under certain conditions, they abnormally refract the light, a phenomenon called negative refraction. Here we experimentally characterize negative refraction in a one dimensional photonic crystal structure; near the low frequency edge of the fourth photonic bandgap. We compare the experimental results with current theory and a theory based on the group velocity developed here. We also analytically derived the negative refraction correctness condition that gives the angular region where negative refraction occurs. Methodology/Principal Findings By using standard photonic techniques we experimentally determined the relationship between incidence and negative refraction angles and found the negative refraction range by applying the correctness condition. In order to compare both theories with experimental results an output refraction correction was utilized. The correction uses Snell's law and an effective refractive index based on two effective dielectric constants. We found good agreement between experiment and both theories in the negative refraction zone. Conclusions/Significance Since both theories and the experimental observations agreed well in the negative refraction region, we can use both negative refraction theories plus the output correction to predict negative refraction angles. This can be very useful from a practical point of view for space filtering applications such as a photonic demultiplexer or for sensing applications. PMID:21494332

Escalate shamefully, de-escalate angrily or gratefully: the influence of discrete emotions on escalation of commitment.

PubMed

Dang, Junhua; Xiao, Shanshan; Liljedahl, Sophie

2014-08-01

Decision makers often tend to escalate their commitment when faced with a dilemma of whether to continue a losing course of action. Researchers recently began to investigate the influence of discrete emotions on this decision tendency. However, this work has mainly focused on negative emotions and rarely considered positive emotions, to say nothing of comparing the effects of both of them simultaneously. The current study addresses this need by presenting the results of three experiments that examined the effects of four emotions of both positive and negative valences in escalation situations. Experiment 1 investigated the relationships of three trait emotions (hope, shame, and anger) and escalation of commitment. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the effects of three induced emotions (anger, shame, and gratitude) on escalation of commitment in a student sample and an employee sample, respectively. The results revealed that the effects of discrete emotions in escalation situations are mainly due to their associated differences on the appraisal dimension of responsibility that is related to escalation situations rather than their valence. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Cued Speech Transliteration: Effects of Speaking Rate and Lag Time on Production Accuracy

PubMed Central

Tessler, Morgan P.

2016-01-01

Many deaf and hard-of-hearing children rely on interpreters to access classroom communication. Although the exact level of access provided by interpreters in these settings is unknown, it is likely to depend heavily on interpreter accuracy (portion of message correctly produced by the interpreter) and the factors that govern interpreter accuracy. In this study, the accuracy of 12 Cued Speech (CS) transliterators with varying degrees of experience was examined at three different speaking rates (slow, normal, fast). Accuracy was measured with a high-resolution, objective metric in order to facilitate quantitative analyses of the effect of each factor on accuracy. Results showed that speaking rate had a large negative effect on accuracy, caused primarily by an increase in omitted cues, whereas the effect of lag time on accuracy, also negative, was quite small and explained just 3% of the variance. Increased experience level was generally associated with increased accuracy; however, high levels of experience did not guarantee high levels of accuracy. Finally, the overall accuracy of the 12 transliterators, 54% on average across all three factors, was low enough to raise serious concerns about the quality of CS transliteration services that (at least some) children receive in educational settings. PMID:27221370

Young People's Experiences of Viewing the Fitspiration Social Media Trend: Qualitative Study.

PubMed

Easton, Stephanie; Morton, Katherine; Tappy, Zara; Francis, Daniella; Dennison, Laura

2018-06-18

Social media use has become ubiquitous in the lives of many people, especially young adults. A popular recent trend emerging on social media is that of posting and following 'Fitspirational' content - material that purports to motivate and showcase healthy lifestyle habits, particularly relating to exercise and diet. There is very limited existing literature on how engaging with this type of content influences people's psychological and physical heath. Initial studies have focused on concerns over potential negative effects on psychological wellbeing including body image, self-esteem and eating disorders. We aimed to address a gap in the literature for exploratory research on this topic from the perspective of users. We used a qualitative approach to explore how people experience viewing Fitspiration on social media including why and how they engage with this material and how they perceive that it affects their thoughts, emotions, behaviour and health. We recruited 20 young adults (14 females, 6 males, aged 18-25) who self-declared themselves to be Fitspiration followers to participate in either focus groups or individual interviews. We asked detailed, open-ended questions about their motivations for following Fitspiration, experiences of viewing this content and its perceived impact. We used inductive thematic analysis to derive themes that represented common and salient features of the data set. Four main themes were developed: 1) A tool with the potential to support healthy living, 2) Unrealistic, untrustworthy content, 3) Negative effects on emotional wellbeing, and 4) Vulnerability and protective factors. Following Fitspirational posts on social media can provide young people with knowledge and motivation that may support healthy lifestyle behaviours. However, a range of harms also appeared to arise from Fitspiration viewing ranging from minor annoyances and frustrations to more meaningful negative effects on psychological & physical health. These negative effects seemed to persist despite individuals acknowledging that the material can be unrealistic, and believing that they are personally equipped to minimise harms to themselves. This study suggests that Fitspiration on social media can be attractive and compelling for young people but appears to bring about negative as well as positive effects. Future research should aim to confirm the scale and intensity of positive and negative effects and investigate ways of harnessing desirable outcomes and minimising undesirable outcomes. ©Stephanie Easton, Katherine Morton, Zara Tappy, Daniella Francis, Laura Dennison. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 18.06.2018.

Difficulties in emotion regulation mediate negative and positive affects and craving in alcoholic patients.

PubMed

Khosravani, Vahid; Sharifi Bastan, Farangis; Ghorbani, Fatemeh; Kamali, Zoleikha

2017-08-01

The aim of this study was to assess the mediating effects of difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) on the relations of negative and positive affects to craving in alcoholic patients. 205 treatment-seeking alcoholic outpatients were included. DER, positive and negative affects as well as craving were evaluated by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Positive/Negative Affect Scales, and the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) respectively. Clinical factors including depression and severity of alcohol dependence were investigated by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) respectively. Results revealed that both increased negative affect and decreased positive affect indirectly influenced craving through limited access to emotion regulation strategies. It was concluded that limited access to emotion regulation strategies may be important in predicting craving for alcoholics who experience both increased negative affect and decreased positive affect. This suggests that treatment and prevention efforts focused on increasing positive affect, decreasing negative affect and teaching effective regulation strategies may be critical in reducing craving in alcoholic patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Over-the-Counter Relief From Pains and Pleasures Alike: Acetaminophen Blunts Evaluation Sensitivity to Both Negative and Positive Stimuli

PubMed Central

Durso, Geoffrey R. O.; Luttrell, Andrew; Way, Baldwin M.

2015-01-01

Acetaminophen, an effective and popular over-the-counter pain reliever (e.g., the active ingredient in Tylenol), has recently been shown to blunt individuals’ reactivity to a range of negative stimuli in addition to physical pain. Because accumulating research has shown that individuals’ reactivity to both negative and positive stimuli can be influenced by a single factor (an idea known as differential susceptibility), we conducted two experiments testing whether acetaminophen blunted individuals’ evaluations of and emotional reactions to both negative and positive images from the International Affective Picture System. Participants who took acetaminophen evaluated unpleasant stimuli less negatively and pleasant stimuli less positively, compared with participants who took a placebo. Participants in the acetaminophen condition also rated both negative and positive stimuli as less emotionally arousing than did participants in the placebo condition (Studies 1 and 2), whereas nonevaluative ratings (extent of color saturation in each image; Study 2) were not affected by drug condition. These findings suggest that acetaminophen has a general blunting effect on individuals’ evaluative and emotional processing, irrespective of negative or positive valence. PMID:25862546

I like the old stuff better than the new stuff? Subjective experiences of new psychoactive substances.

PubMed

Matthews, Allison; Sutherland, Rachel; Peacock, Amy; Van Buskirk, Joe; Whittaker, Elizabeth; Burns, Lucinda; Bruno, Raimondo

2017-02-01

Over the past decade, monitoring systems have identified the rapid emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS). While the use of many NPS is minimal and transitory, little is known about which products have potential for capturing the attention of significant proportions of the drug consuming market. The aim of this study was to explore self-reported experiences of three commonly used NPS classes within the Australian context (synthetic cathinones, hallucinogenic phenethylamines and hallucinogenic tryptamines) relative to traditional illicit drug counterparts. Frequent psychostimulant consumers interviewed for the Australian Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) (n=1208) provided subjective ratings of the pleasurable and negative (acute and longer-term) effects of substances used in the last six months on the last occasion of use, and the likelihood of future use. Stimulant-type NPS (e.g., mephedrone, methylone) were rated less favourably than ecstasy and cocaine in terms of pleasurable effects and likelihood of future use. DMT (a hallucinogenic tryptamine) showed a similar profile to LSD in terms of pleasurable effects and the likelihood of future use, but negative effects (acute and comedown) were rated lower. Hallucinogenic phenethylamines (e.g., 2C-B) showed a similar negative profile to LSD, but were rated as less pleasurable and less likely to be used again. The potential for expanded use of stimulant-type NPS may be lower compared to commonly used stimulants such as ecstasy and cocaine. In contrast, the potential of DMT may be higher relative to LSD given the comparative absence of negative effects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Context, Contrast, and Tone of Voice in Auditory Sarcasm Perception.

PubMed

Voyer, Daniel; Thibodeau, Sophie-Hélène; Delong, Breanna J

2016-02-01

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the interplay between context and tone of voice in the perception of sarcasm. These experiments emphasized the role of contrast effects in sarcasm perception exclusively by means of auditory stimuli whereas most past research has relied on written material. In all experiments, a positive or negative computer-generated context spoken in a flat emotional tone was followed by a literally positive statement spoken in a sincere or sarcastic tone of voice. Participants indicated for each statement whether the intonation was sincere or sarcastic. In Experiment 1, a congruent context/tone of voice pairing (negative/sarcastic, positive/sincere) produced fast response times and proportions of sarcastic responses in the direction predicted by the tone of voice. Incongruent pairings produced mid-range proportions and slower response times. Experiment 2 introduced ambiguous contexts to determine whether a lower context/statements contrast would affect the proportion of sarcastic responses and response time. Results showed the expected findings for proportions (values between those obtained for congruent and incongruent pairings in the direction predicted by the tone of voice). However, response time failed to produce the predicted pattern, suggesting potential issues with the choice of stimuli. Experiments 3 and 4 extended the results of Experiments 1 and 2, respectively, to auditory stimuli based on written vignettes used in neuropsychological assessment. Results were exactly as predicted by contrast effects in both experiments. Taken together, the findings suggest that both context and tone influence how sarcasm is perceived while supporting the importance of contrast effects in sarcasm perception.

Using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) to Define Different Domains of Negative Symptoms

PubMed Central

Khan, Anzalee; Keefe, Richard S. E.

2017-01-01

Background: Reduced emotional experience and expression are two domains of negative symptoms. The authors assessed these two domains of negative symptoms using previously developed Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) factors. Using an existing dataset, the authors predicted three different elements of everyday functioning (social, vocational, and everyday activities) with these two factors, as well as with performance on measures of functional capacity. Methods: A large (n=630) sample of people with schizophrenia was used as the data source of this study. Using regression analyses, the authors predicted the three different aspects of everyday functioning, first with just the two Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale factors and then with a global negative symptom factor. Finally, we added neurocognitive performance and functional capacity as predictors. Results: The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale reduced emotional experience factor accounted for 21 percent of the variance in everyday social functioning, while reduced emotional expression accounted for no variance. The total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale negative symptom factor accounted for less variance (19%) than the reduced experience factor alone. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale expression factor accounted for, at most, one percent of the variance in any of the functional outcomes, with or without the addition of other predictors. Implications: Reduced emotional experience measured with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, often referred to as “avolition and anhedonia,” specifically predicted impairments in social outcomes. Further, reduced experience predicted social impairments better than emotional expression or the total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale negative symptom factor. In this cross-sectional study, reduced emotional experience was specifically related with social outcomes, accounting for essentially no variance in work or everyday activities, and being the sole meaningful predictor of impairment in social outcomes. PMID:29410933

Using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) to Define Different Domains of Negative Symptoms: Prediction of Everyday Functioning by Impairments in Emotional Expression and Emotional Experience.

PubMed

Harvey, Philip D; Khan, Anzalee; Keefe, Richard S E

2017-12-01

Background: Reduced emotional experience and expression are two domains of negative symptoms. The authors assessed these two domains of negative symptoms using previously developed Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) factors. Using an existing dataset, the authors predicted three different elements of everyday functioning (social, vocational, and everyday activities) with these two factors, as well as with performance on measures of functional capacity. Methods: A large (n=630) sample of people with schizophrenia was used as the data source of this study. Using regression analyses, the authors predicted the three different aspects of everyday functioning, first with just the two Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale factors and then with a global negative symptom factor. Finally, we added neurocognitive performance and functional capacity as predictors. Results: The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale reduced emotional experience factor accounted for 21 percent of the variance in everyday social functioning, while reduced emotional expression accounted for no variance. The total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale negative symptom factor accounted for less variance (19%) than the reduced experience factor alone. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale expression factor accounted for, at most, one percent of the variance in any of the functional outcomes, with or without the addition of other predictors. Implications: Reduced emotional experience measured with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, often referred to as "avolition and anhedonia," specifically predicted impairments in social outcomes. Further, reduced experience predicted social impairments better than emotional expression or the total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale negative symptom factor. In this cross-sectional study, reduced emotional experience was specifically related with social outcomes, accounting for essentially no variance in work or everyday activities, and being the sole meaningful predictor of impairment in social outcomes.

The emotional startle effect is disrupted by a concurrent working memory task.

PubMed

King, Rosemary; Schaefer, Alexandre

2011-02-01

Working memory (WM) processes are often thought to play an important role in the cognitive regulation of negative emotions. However, little is known about how they influence emotional processing. We report two experiments that tested whether a concurrent working memory task could modulate the emotional startle eyeblink effect, a well-known index of emotional processing. In both experiments, emotionally negative and neutral pictures were viewed in two conditions: a "cognitive load" (CL) condition, in which participants had to actively maintain information in working memory (WM) while viewing the pictures, and a control "no load" (NL) condition. Picture-viewing instructions were identical across CL and NL. In both experiments, results showed a significant reduction of the emotional modulation of the startle eyeblink reflex in the CL condition compared to the NL condition. These findings suggest that a concurrent WM task disrupts emotional processing even when participants are directing visual focus on emotionally relevant information. Copyright © 2010 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Reversing expectations during discourse comprehension

PubMed Central

Xiang, Ming; Kuperberg, Gina

2014-01-01

In two ERP experiments, we asked whether comprehenders used the concessive connective, even so, to predict upcoming events. Participants read coherent and incoherent scenarios, with and without even so, e.g. “Elizabeth had a history exam on Monday. She took the test and aced/failed it. (Even so), she went home and celebrated wildly.”, as they rated coherence (Experiment 1) or simply answered intermittent comprehension questions (Experiment 2). The semantic function of even so was used to reverse real-world knowledge predictions, leading to an attenuated N400 to coherent versus incoherent target words (“celebrated”). Moreover, its pragmatic communicative function enhanced predictive processing, leading to more N400 attenuation to coherent targets in scenarios with than without even so. This benefit however, did not come for free: the detection of failed event predictions triggered a later posterior positivity and/or an anterior negativity effect, and costs of maintaining alternative likelihood relations manifest as a sustained negativity effect on sentence-final words. PMID:25914891

Psychotic-like experiences with cannabis use predict cannabis cessation and desire to quit: a cannabis discontinuation hypothesis.

PubMed

Sami, Musa; Notley, Caitlin; Kouimtsidis, Christos; Lynskey, Michael; Bhattacharyya, Sagnik

2018-03-23

Evidence suggests that cannabis-induced psychotic-like experiences may be a marker of psychosis proneness. The effect of such experiences on cannabis use has not systematically been examined. We undertook a mixed-methods online survey of 1231 cannabis users (including 926 continued users) using the Cannabis Experiences Questionnaire. We examined the effect of psychotic-like and pleasurable experiences on cessation of cannabis and intention to quit. Socio-demographic variables, cannabis use parameters and substance misuse history were included as covariates. Free-text data explored subjective reasons for changes in use. Cessation of cannabis use was associated with greater psychotic-like experiences [p < 0.001, Exp(B) 1.262, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.179-1.351], whilst continued cannabis users were more likely to report pleasurable experiences [p < 0.001, Exp(B) 0.717, 95% CI 0.662-0.776]. Intention to quit cannabis in continued users was associated with greater psychotic-like experiences [p < 0.003, Exp(B) 1.131, 95% CI 1.044-1.225], whilst intention to not quit was significantly associated with increased pleasurable experiences [p < 0.015, Exp(B) 0.892, 95% CI 0.814-0.978]. Whereas former users clearly ascribed cessation to negative experiences, continued users who expressed intention to quit less readily ascribed the intention to negative experiences. Elucidation of psychotic-like experiences may form the basis of a therapeutic intervention for those who wish to quit. Cessation in those with cannabis-induced psychotomimetic experiences may offset the risk for the development of a psychotic disorder, in this higher risk group.

6th Yahya Cohen Lecture: visual experience during cataract surgery.

PubMed

Au Eong, K G

2002-09-01

The visual sensations many patients experience during cataract surgery under local anaesthesia have received little attention until recently. This paper reviews the recent studies on this phenomenon, discusses its clinical significance and suggests novel approaches to reduce its negative impact on the surgery. Literature review. Many patients who have cataract surgery under retrobulbar, peribulbar or topical anaesthesia experience a variety of visual sensations in their operated eye during surgery. These visual sensations include perception of light, movements, flashes, one or more colours, surgical instruments, the surgeon's hand/fingers, the surgeon and changes in light brightness. Some patients experience transient no light perception, even if the operation is performed under topical anaesthesia. The clinical significance of this phenomenon lies in the fact that approximately 7.1% to 15.4% of patients find their visual experience frightening. This fear and anxiety may cause some patients to become uncooperative during surgery and trigger a sympathetic surge, causing such undesirable effects as hypertension, tachycardia, ischaemic strain on the heart, hyperventilation and acute panic attack. Several approaches to reduce the negative impact of patients' visual experience are suggested, including appropriate preoperative counselling and reducing the ability of patients to see during surgery. The findings that some patients find their intraoperative visual experience distressing have a major impact on the way ophthalmologists manage their cataract patients. To reduce its negative impact, surgeons should consider incorporating appropriate preoperative counselling on potential intraoperative visual experience when obtaining informed consent for surgery.

The Impact of Sexual Abuse, Family Violence/Conflict, Spirituality, and Religion on Anger and Depressed Mood Among Adolescents.

PubMed

Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig; Asgeirsdottir, Bryndis Bjork; Ullman, Sarah E; Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora

2017-10-01

Stressful life experiences, such as sexual abuse and family violence/conflict, relate to an increased risk of mental health problems. Religion and spirituality may prevent this negative impact, but religion and spirituality are lower among survivors of stressful life experiences. To explore this effect, we examined the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and family violence/conflict on anger and depressed mood. Survey data were collected from a large population-based sample of Icelandic adolescents ( N = 7,365) on their stressful life experiences, religion, spirituality, and mental health. Survivors of stressful life experiences (sexual abuse or family violence/conflict) were significantly lower on religion and spirituality than others. A hierarchical linear regression showed that stressful life experiences contributed uniquely to higher levels of anger and depressed mood. Spirituality was associated with decreased anger and depressed mood. The religion of parents and peers was also associated with decreased anger. Religious participation, on the contrary, did not have a relationship with mental health outcomes. In addition, the negative association between spirituality and anger was stronger among survivors of sexual abuse than nonabused individuals. These results confirm previous research, indicating that survivors of stressful life experiences may experience less religion and spirituality. The results also extend existing knowledge by showing that spirituality may be even more beneficial among sexual abuse survivors, as a protective factor against anger. These findings can help in the minimization of the negative mental health impact of stressful life experiences.

The dark side of the sublime: Distinguishing a threat-based variant of awe.

PubMed

Gordon, Amie M; Stellar, Jennifer E; Anderson, Craig L; McNeil, Galen D; Loew, Daniel; Keltner, Dacher

2017-08-01

Theoretical conceptualizations of awe suggest this emotion can be more positive or negative depending on specific appraisal processes. However, the emergent scientific study of awe rarely emphasizes its negative side, classifying it instead as a positive emotion. In the present research we tested whether there is a more negative variant of awe that arises in response to vast, complex stimuli that are threatening (e.g., tornadoes, terrorist attack, wrathful god). We discovered people do experience this type of awe with regularity (Studies 1 & 4) and that it differs from other variants of awe in terms of its underlying appraisals, subjective experience, physiological correlates, and consequences for well-being. Specifically, threat-based awe experiences were appraised as lower in self-control and certainty and higher in situational control than other awe experiences, and were characterized by greater feelings of fear (Studies 2a & 2b). Threat-based awe was associated with physiological indicators of increased sympathetic autonomic arousal, whereas positive awe was associated with indicators of increased parasympathetic arousal (Study 3). Positive awe experiences in daily life (Study 4) and in the lab (Study 5) led to greater momentary well-being (compared with no awe experience), whereas threat-based awe experiences did not. This effect was partially mediated by increased feelings of powerlessness during threat-based awe experiences. Together, these findings highlight a darker side of awe. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Violence as Mediating Variable in Mental Health Disparities Associated to Sexual Orientation Among Mexican Youths.

PubMed

Mendoza-Pérez, Juan Carlos; Ortiz-Hernández, Luis

2018-01-05

In this study, we explored the role of sex as an effect-modifying variable in the association between sexual orientation and mental health in Mexican youth. In addition, we tested if violent experiences in the family and the school and attitudes toward homosexuality could act as mediating variables in such association. Data from three representative surveys performed in 2007, 2009, and 2013 among Mexican high school students were analyzed. Two dimensions of sexual orientation were evaluated: romantic partnership and sexual behavior. The outcomes were negative and positive mood, suicidal ideation and intent, self-concept, and self-esteem. There were differences by gender because in males, there were more disparities in mental health associated with sexual orientation (suicidal ideation and attempt, negative and positive mood, negative self-concept, and family-related self-esteem) than in females (suicidal ideation and negative mood). Experiences of school violence were mediators in the relationship between sexual orientation and most health outcomes in males.

ERP effects of spatial attention and display search with unilateral and bilateral stimulus displays.

PubMed

Lange, J J; Wijers, A A; Mulder, L J; Mulder, G

1999-07-01

Two experiments were performed in which the effects of selective spatial attention on the ERPs elicited by unilateral and bilateral stimulus arrays were compared. In Experiment 1, subjects received a series of grating patterns. In the unilateral condition these gratings were presented one at a time, randomly to the right or left of fixation. In the bilateral condition, gratings were presented in pairs, one to each side of fixation. In the unilateral condition standard ERP effects of visual spatial attention were observed. However, in the bilateral condition we failed to observe an attention related posterior contralateral positivity (overlapping the P1 and N1 components, latency interval about 100-250 ms), as reported in several previous studies. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether attention related ERP lateralizations are affected by the task requirement to search among multiple objects in the visual field. We employed a task paradigm identical to that used by Luck et al. (Luck, S.J., Heinze, H.J., Mangun, G.R., Hillyard, S.A., 1990. Visual event-related potentials index focused attention within bilateral stimulus arrays. II. Functional dissociation of P1 and N1 components. Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol. 75, 528-542). Four letters were presented to a visual hemifield, simultaneously to both the attended and unattended hemifields in the bilateral conditions, and to one hemifield only in the unilateral conditions. In a focused attention condition, subjects searched for a target letter at a fixed position, whereas they searched for the target letter among all four letters in the divided attention condition (as in the experiment of Luck et al., 1990). In the bilateral focused attention condition, only the contralateral P1 was enhanced. In the bilateral divided attention condition a prolonged posterior positivity was observed over the hemisphere contralateral to the attended hemifield, comparable to the results of Luck et al. (1990). A comparison of the ERPs elicited in the focused and divided attention conditions revealed a prolonged 'search related negativity'. We discuss possible interactions between this negativity and attention related lateralizations. The display search negativity consisted of two phases, one phase comprised a midline occipital negativity, developing first over the ipsilateral scalp, while the second phase involved two symmetrical occipitotemporal negativities, strongly resembling the N1 in their topography. The display search effect could be modelled with a dipole in a medial occipital (possibly striate) region and two symmetrical dipoles in occipitotemporal brain areas. We hypothesize that this effect reflects a process of rechecking the decaying information of iconic memory in the occipitotemporal object recognition pathway.

"Experience Isn't Everything": How Emotion Affects the Relationship Between Experience and Cue Utilization.

PubMed

Crane, Monique Frances; Brouwers, Sue; Wiggins, Mark William; Loveday, Thomas; Forrest, Kirsty; Tan, Suyin Giselle Marianne; Cyna, Allan Michael

2018-04-01

This research examined whether negative and positive arousal emotions modify the relationship between experience level and cue utilization among anesthetists. The capacity of a practitioner to form precise associations between clusters of features (e.g., symptoms) and events (e.g., diagnosis) and then act on them is known as cue utilization. A common assumption is that practice experience allows opportunities for cue acquisition and cue utilization. However, this relationship is often not borne out in research findings. This study investigates the role of emotional state in this relationship. An online tool (EXPERTise 2.0) was used to assess practitioner cue utilization for tasks relevant to anesthesia. The experience of positive and negative arousal emotions in the previous three days was measured, and emotion clusters were generated. Experience was measured as the composite of practice years and hours of practice experience. The moderating role of emotion on the relationship between experience and cue utilization was examined. Data on 125 anesthetists (36% female) were included in the analysis. The predicted interaction between arousal emotions and the experience level emerged. In particular, post hoc analyses revealed that anxiety-related emotions facilitated the likelihood of high cue utilization in less experienced practitioners. The findings suggest a role for emotions in cue use and suggest a functional role for normal range anxiety emotions in a simulated work-relevant task. This research illustrates the importance of understanding the potentially functional effects common negative arousal emotions may have on clinical performance, particularly for those with less experience.

Age Differences in Descriptions of Emotional Experiences in Oneself and Others

PubMed Central

Löckenhoff, Corinna E.; Costa, Paul T.; Lane, Richard D.

2018-01-01

We analyzed language use to examine age differences in people’s representations of their own emotions as compared with those of others. Participants (N = 365, aged 18–85 years, M = 42.8, SD = 19.2) read hypothetical emotion-eliciting scenarios and described how they themselves and the social partners involved in the scenarios would feel. Compared with those of younger adults, older adults’ descriptions involved a higher frequency of positive and a lower frequency of negative emotions. Older adults were also more likely to describe a co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions, but less likely to describe the simultaneous experience of multiple negative emotions. Age effects showed similar patterns for participants’ descriptions of their own emotions as compared with those of others. We discuss the implications for theoretical accounts of emotional aging. PMID:18441270

Active Reading Procedures for Moderating the Effects of Poor Highlighting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gier, Vicki S.; Herring, Daniel; Hudnell, Jason; Montoya, Jodi; Kreiner, David S.

2010-01-01

We investigated two active reading techniques intended to eliminate the negative effect on reading comprehension of preexisting, inappropriate highlighting. College students read passages in three highlighting conditions: no highlighting, appropriate highlighting, and inappropriate highlighting. In Experiment 1, 30 students read the passages while…

Achievement Motivation Training's Effects on Psychosocial Self-Perceptions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Larry G.

1983-01-01

A study identified the psychosocial needs of low-literate adults by using an instrument based on Erikson's ego-stage development model. It also tested the effectiveness of Achievement Motivation Training in counterbalancing the negative impact of school experiences on students' psychosocial development. (Author/SK)

The developmental effects of media-ideal internalization and self-objectification processes on adolescents' negative body-feelings, dietary restraint, and binge eating.

PubMed

Dakanalis, Antonios; Carrà, Giuseppe; Calogero, Rachel; Fida, Roberta; Clerici, Massimo; Zanetti, Maria Assunta; Riva, Giuseppe

2015-08-01

Despite accumulated experimental evidence of the negative effects of exposure to media-idealized images, the degree to which body image, and eating related disturbances are caused by media portrayals of gendered beauty ideals remains controversial. On the basis of the most up-to-date meta-analysis of experimental studies indicating that media-idealized images have the most harmful and substantial impact on vulnerable individuals regardless of gender (i.e., "internalizers" and "self-objectifiers"), the current longitudinal study examined the direct and mediated links posited in objectification theory among media-ideal internalization, self-objectification, shame and anxiety surrounding the body and appearance, dietary restraint, and binge eating. Data collected from 685 adolescents aged between 14 and 15 at baseline (47 % males), who were interviewed and completed standardized measures annually over a 3-year period, were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach. Results indicated that media-ideal internalization predicted later thinking and scrutinizing of one's body from an external observer's standpoint (or self-objectification), which then predicted later negative emotional experiences related to one's body and appearance. In turn, these negative emotional experiences predicted subsequent dietary restraint and binge eating, and each of these core features of eating disorders influenced each other. Differences in the strength of these associations across gender were not observed, and all indirect effects were significant. The study provides valuable information about how the cultural values embodied by gendered beauty ideals negatively influence adolescents' feelings, thoughts and behaviors regarding their own body, and on the complex processes involved in disordered eating. Practical implications are discussed.

Parents' experience of unintended childbearing: A qualitative study of factors that mitigate or exacerbate effects.

PubMed

Kavanaugh, Megan L; Kost, Kathryn; Frohwirth, Lori; Maddow-Zimet, Isaac; Gor, Vivian

2017-02-01

Births resulting from an unintended pregnancy affect individuals differentially, and some may experience more negative consequences than others. In this study, we sought to describe the mechanisms through which the severity of effects may be mitigated or exacerbated. We conducted in-depth interviews with 35 women and 30 men, all with a youngest child born resulting from an unintended pregnancy, in two urban sites in the United States. Respondents described both negative and positive effects of the child's birth in the areas of school; work and finances; partner relationships; personal health and outlook on life trajectories. Mechanisms through which unintended pregnancies mitigated or exacerbated certain effects fell at the individual (e.g. lifestyle modification), interpersonal (e.g. partner support) and structural (e.g. workplace flexibility) levels. These qualitative findings deepen understanding of the impact of unintended childbearing on the lives of women, men and families. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotion regulation and decision making under risk and uncertainty.

PubMed

Heilman, Renata M; Crişan, Liviu G; Houser, Daniel; Miclea, Mircea; Miu, Andrei C

2010-04-01

It is well established that emotion plays a key role in human social and economic decision making. The recent literature on emotion regulation (ER), however, highlights that humans typically make efforts to control emotion experiences. This leaves open the possibility that decision effects previously attributed to acute emotion may be a consequence of acute ER strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. In Study 1, we manipulated ER of laboratory-induced fear and disgust, and found that the cognitive reappraisal of these negative emotions promotes risky decisions (reduces risk aversion) in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and is associated with increased performance in the prehunch/hunch period of the Iowa Gambling Task. In Study 2, we found that naturally occurring negative emotions also increase risk aversion in Balloon Analogue Risk Task, but the incidental use of cognitive reappraisal of emotions impedes this effect. We offer evidence that the increased effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal in reducing the experience of emotions underlies its beneficial effects on decision making. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Self-Verification Strivings in Children Holding Negative Self-Views: The Mitigating Effects of a Preceding Success Experience

PubMed Central

Thomaes, Sander; Kamphuis, Jan Henk; de Castro, Bram Orobio; Telch, Michael J.

2010-01-01

Research among adults has consistently shown that people holding negative self-views prefer negative over positive feedback. The present study tested the hypothesis that this preference is less robust among pre-adolescents, such that it will be mitigated by a preceding positive event. Pre-adolescents (n = 75) holding positive or negative global self-esteem were randomized to a favorable or unfavorable peer evaluation outcome. Next, preferences for positive versus negative feedback were assessed using an unobtrusive behavioral viewing time measure. As expected, results showed that after being faced with the success outcome children holding negative self-views were as likely as their peers holding positive self-views to display a significant preference for positive feedback. In contrast, children holding negative self-views displayed a stronger preference for negative feedback after being faced with the unfavorable outcome that matched their pre-existing self-views. PMID:21151482

Self-Verification Strivings in Children Holding Negative Self-Views: The Mitigating Effects of a Preceding Success Experience.

PubMed

Reijntjes, Albert; Thomaes, Sander; Kamphuis, Jan Henk; de Castro, Bram Orobio; Telch, Michael J

2010-12-01

Research among adults has consistently shown that people holding negative self-views prefer negative over positive feedback. The present study tested the hypothesis that this preference is less robust among pre-adolescents, such that it will be mitigated by a preceding positive event. Pre-adolescents (n = 75) holding positive or negative global self-esteem were randomized to a favorable or unfavorable peer evaluation outcome. Next, preferences for positive versus negative feedback were assessed using an unobtrusive behavioral viewing time measure. As expected, results showed that after being faced with the success outcome children holding negative self-views were as likely as their peers holding positive self-views to display a significant preference for positive feedback. In contrast, children holding negative self-views displayed a stronger preference for negative feedback after being faced with the unfavorable outcome that matched their pre-existing self-views.

The effect of cognitive reappraisal on long-term emotional experience and emotional memory.

PubMed

Ahn, Hyeon Min; Kim, Shin Ah; Hwang, In Jae; Jeong, Ji Woon; Kim, Hyun Taek; Hamann, Stephan; Kim, Sang Hee

2015-03-01

One's ability to properly regulate emotion is critical to psychological and physical well-being. Among various strategies to regulate emotion, cognitive reappraisal has been shown to modulate both emotional experience and emotional memory. However, most studies of reappraisal have focused on reappraisal of negative situations, with reappraisal of positive emotion receiving considerably less attention. In addition, the effects of reappraisal on emotional reactions to stimuli are typically only assessed either immediately or after a short delay, and it remains unclear whether reappraisal effects persist over longer time periods. We investigated the effect of cognitive reappraisal on emotional reactions and long-term episodic memory for positive and negative stimuli. Men and women viewed emotionally negative, positive, and neutral pictures while they were instructed to either increase, decrease, or maintain the initial emotional reactions elicited by the pictures. Subjective ratings of emotional valence and arousal were assessed during the regulation task and again after 1 week. Memory for the pictures was assessed with free recall. Results indicated that pictures accompanied by instructions to increase emotion were better recalled than pictures reappraised to decrease emotion. Modulation of emotional arousal elicited by stimuli persisted over a week, but this effect was observed only for men. These findings suggest that cognitive reappraisal can have long-lasting effects on emotional reactions to stimuli. However, the sex differences observed for the effects of reappraisal on emotional reactions highlight the importance of considering individual differences in the effects of regulation. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Leisure and depression in midlife: a Taiwanese national survey of middle-aged adults.

PubMed

Luo Lu

2011-01-01

We aimed to explore middle-aged people's leisure experiences and their associations with depression in a national representative sample of Taiwanese people (N = 1143, aged 45-65). We found that: (1) being female and low family income were demographic risk factors of depressive symptoms; (2) poor physical health and disability were positively related to depressive symptoms; (3) social support was negatively related to depressive symptoms; and (4) having controlled for effects of demographics, physical health and social support, positive leisure experiences were negatively related to depressive symptoms. The benefits of leisure pursuits for successful midlife transition and prospective ageing were discussed.

Countermeasures to Mitigate the Negative Impact of Sensory Deprivation and Social Isolation in Long-Duration Space Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bachman, Katharine Ridgeway OBrien; Otto, Christian; Leveton, Lauren

2012-01-01

Long-duration space flight presents several challenges to the behavioral health of crew members. The environment that they are likely to experience will be isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) and, as such, crew members will experience extreme sensory deprivation and social isolation. The current paper briefly notes the behavioral, cognitive, and affective consequences of psychological stress induced by ICE environments and proposes nine countermeasures aimed at mitigating the negative effects of sensory deprivation and social isolation. Implementation of countermeasures aims to maintain successful crew performance and psychological well-being in a long-duration space flight mission.

Force, Torque and Stiffness: Interactions in Perceptual Discrimination

PubMed Central

Wu, Bing; Klatzky, Roberta L.; Hollis, Ralph L.

2011-01-01

Three experiments investigated whether force and torque cues interact in haptic discrimination of force, torque and stiffness, and if so, how. The statistical relation between force and torque was manipulated across four experimental conditions: Either one type of cue varied while the other was constant, or both varied so as to be positively correlated, negatively correlated, or uncorrelated. Experiment 1 showed that the subjects’ ability to discriminate force was improved by positively correlated torque but impaired with uncorrelated torque, as compared to the constant torque condition. Corresponding effects were found in Experiment 2 for the influence of force on torque discrimination. These findings indicate that force and torque are integrated in perception, rather than being processed as separate dimensions. A further experiment demonstrated facilitation of stiffness discrimination by correlated force and torque, whether the correlation was positive or negative. The findings suggest new means of augmenting haptic feedback to facilitate perception of the properties of soft objects. PMID:21359137

Electrified emotions: Modulatory effects of transcranial direct stimulation on negative emotional reactions to social exclusion.

PubMed

Riva, Paolo; Romero Lauro, Leonor J; Vergallito, Alessandra; DeWall, C Nathan; Bushman, Brad J

2015-01-01

Social exclusion, ostracism, and rejection can be emotionally painful because they thwart the need to belong. Building on studies suggesting that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) is associated with regulation of negative emotions, the present experiment tests the hypothesis that decreasing the cortical excitability of the rVLPFC may increase negative emotional reactions to social exclusion. Specifically, we applied cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the rVLPFC and predicted an increment of negative emotional reactions to social exclusion. In Study 1, participants were either socially excluded or included, while cathodal tDCS or sham stimulation was applied over the rVLPFC. Cathodal stimulation of rVLPFC boosted the typical negative emotional reaction caused by social exclusion. No effects emerged from participants in the inclusion condition. To test the specificity of tDCS effects over rVLPFC, in Study 2, participants were socially excluded and received cathodal tDCS or sham stimulation over a control region (i.e., the right posterior parietal cortex). No effects of tDCS stimulation were found. Our results showed that the rVLPFC is specifically involved in emotion regulation and suggest that cathodal stimulation can increase negative emotional responses to social exclusion.

Direct Observations of Parenting and Real-time Negative Affect among Adolescent Smokers and Non-Smokers

PubMed Central

Richmond, Melanie J.; Mermelstein, Robin J.; Wakschlag, Lauren S.

2012-01-01

Objective This longitudinal study examined how observations of parental general communication style and control with their adolescents predicted changes in negative affect over time for adolescent smokers and non-smokers. Method Participants were 9th and 10th grade adolescents (N = 111; 56.8% female) who had all experimented with cigarettes and were thus at risk for continued smoking and escalation; 36% of these adolescents (n = 40) had smoked in the past month at baseline and were considered smokers in the present analyses. Adolescents participated separately with mothers and fathers in observed parent-adolescent problem-solving discussions to assess parenting at baseline. Adolescent negative affect was assessed at baseline, 6- and 24-months via ecological momentary assessment. Results Among both smoking and non-smoking adolescents, escalating negative affect significantly increased risk for future smoking. Higher quality maternal and paternal communication predicted a decline in negative affect over 1.5 years for adolescent smokers but was not related to negative affect for non-smokers. Controlling maternal, but not paternal, parenting predicted escalation in negative affect for all adolescents. Conclusions Findings suggest that reducing negative affect among experimenting youth can reduce risk for smoking escalation. Therefore, family-based prevention efforts for adolescent smoking escalation might consider parental general communication style and control as intervention targets. However, adolescent smoking status and parent gender may moderate these effects. PMID:23153193

Direct observations of parenting and real-time negative affect among adolescent smokers and nonsmokers.

PubMed

Richmond, Melanie J; Mermelstein, Robin J; Wakschlag, Lauren S

2013-01-01

This longitudinal study examined how observations of parental general communication style and control with their adolescents predicted changes in negative affect over time for adolescent smokers and nonsmokers. Participants were 9th- and 10th-grade adolescents (N = 111; 56.8% female) who had all experimented with cigarettes and were thus at risk for continued smoking and escalation; 36% of these adolescents (n = 40) had smoked in the past month at baseline and were considered smokers in the present analyses. Adolescents participated separately with mothers and fathers in observed parent-adolescent problem-solving discussions to assess parenting at baseline. Adolescent negative affect was assessed at baseline, 6 months, and 24 months via ecological momentary assessment. Among both smoking and nonsmoking adolescents, escalating negative affect significantly increased risk for future smoking. Higher quality maternal and paternal communication predicted a decline in negative affect over 1.5 years for adolescent smokers but was not related to negative affect for nonsmokers. Controlling maternal, but not paternal, parenting predicted escalation in negative affect for all adolescents. Findings suggest that reducing negative affect among experimenting youth can reduce risk for smoking escalation. Therefore, family-based prevention efforts for adolescent smoking escalation might consider parental general communication style and control as intervention targets. However, adolescent smoking status and parent gender may moderate these effects.

The "Negative" Credit Card Effect: Credit Cards as Spending-Limiting Stimuli in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lie, Celia; Hunt, Maree; Peters, Heather L.; Veliu, Bahrie; Harper, David

2010-01-01

The "credit card effect" describes a finding where greater value is given to consumer items if credit card logos are present. One explanation for the effect is that credit cards elicit spending behavior through associative learning. If this is true, social, economic and historical contexts should alter this effect. In Experiment 1, Year…

Partners’ Long-term Appraisal of Their Caregiving Experience, Marital Satisfaction, Sexual Satisfaction, and Quality of Life 2 Years After Prostate Cancer Treatment

PubMed Central

Harden, Janet K.; Sanda, Martin G.; Wei, John T.; Yarandi, Hossein; Hembroff, Larry; Hardy, Jill; Northouse, Laurel L.

2013-01-01

Background Partners of men treated for prostate cancer report more emotional distress associated with a diagnosis of prostate cancer than the men report; the duration of distress for partners is seldom examined. Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term effects of prostate cancer treatment on partners’ appraisal of their caregiving experience, marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and quality of life (QOL) and factors related to these variables. Methods This exploratory study evaluated QOL among spouses of prostate cancer survivors at 24 months after treatment. Partners completed a battery of self-report questionnaires in a computer-assisted telephone interview. Results The sample consisted of 121 partners with average age of 60 years. There was a significant relationship between partners’ perceptions of bother about the man’s treatment outcomes and negative appraisal of their caregiving experience and poorer QOL. Younger partners who had a more negative appraisal of caregiving also had significantly worse QOL. Conclusions Men’s treatment outcomes continued to bother the partner and resulted in more negative appraisal and lower QOL 2 years after initial prostate cancer treatment. Younger partners may be at greater risk of poorer QOL outcomes especially if they have a more negative view of their caregiving experience. Implications for Practice Findings support prior research indicating that prostate cancer affects not only the person diagnosed with the disease but also his partner. Partners may benefit from tailored interventions designed to decrease negative appraisal and improve symptom management and QOL during the survivorship period. PMID:22728952

The association of daily hassles and uplifts with family and life satisfaction: does cultural orientation make a difference?

PubMed

Lavee, Yoav; Ben-Ari, Adital

2008-03-01

The study examined similarities and differences between people having individualist and collectivist cultural orientations in terms of what they perceive as stressful and uplifting experiences in their daily lives, and the relation between daily experiences and family and life satisfaction. Data were collected from two representative community samples (697 Jews and 303 Arabs). Each sample was grouped into individualist and collectivist cultural orientations. The two cultural orientation groups differed with respect to the appraisal of positive and negative daily experiences. A structural equation modeling (SEM) multi-group analysis indicated a similar factor structure for hassles and uplifts in both groups. However, the two groups differed in the effects of positive and negative daily occurrences on family and life satisfaction.

Experiences with severe maternal morbidity: a qualitative study on the perception of women.

PubMed

Silva, Daniela Vitti Ribeiro da; Silveira, Maria de Fátima de Araújo; Gomes-Sponholz, Flávia Azevedo

2016-01-01

to know and analyze the experiences of women who developed an episode of Severe Maternal Morbidity. this is a qualitative study, in which we interviewed 16 women admitted to a tertiary level hospital, as a result of this morbid state. We used content analysis in data processing. two categories were identified: "Understanding maternal morbidity as a negative presence" and "Moving ahead: on constant alert". The interviewees mentioned negative aspects, such as treatment difficulties and hospitalization, feelings of fear, concern for the fetus, frustration with the idealized pregnancy, trauma; and positive aspects, such as learning and the expression of the divine will in the experience of illness. effective care during the prenatal period, delivery and postpartum period should provide adequate support for the prevention and assistance in Severe Maternal Morbidity.

Mindlessly Polite: A Conceptual Replication of the Emotional Seesaw Effect on Compliance and Information Processing

PubMed Central

Kaczmarek, Magdalena C.; Steffens, Melanie C.

2017-01-01

Recent studies demonstrated that the sequential induction of contrasting negative and positive emotions can be used as a social influence technique. The original field experiments found that whenever a sudden change in the emotional dynamic occurs – from negative to positive or vice versa – an increase in compliant behavior and an impairment in cognitive functioning can be observed. The goal of the present experiments was a conceptual replication and extension of the results in a more controlled and counterbalanced fashion. To this aim a novel emotion induction technique was created using an outcome related expectancy violation to induce and change emotions. In a first experiment, the influence of contrasting emotions (vs. only one emotion) on compliance, message processing and information recall was assessed among 80 undergraduate students. We were able to show that a positive, then negative experience, and vice versa, led to losses in processing efficacy, not only leaving individuals momentarily vulnerable to social influence attempts, but also impairing information recall. We replicated this pattern of findings in a second experiment (N = 41). The implications of this innovative induction technique and its findings for theory and future research on the emerging field on contrasting emotions as social-influence techniques are discussed. PMID:28270788

Mindlessly Polite: A Conceptual Replication of the Emotional Seesaw Effect on Compliance and Information Processing.

PubMed

Kaczmarek, Magdalena C; Steffens, Melanie C

2017-01-01

Recent studies demonstrated that the sequential induction of contrasting negative and positive emotions can be used as a social influence technique. The original field experiments found that whenever a sudden change in the emotional dynamic occurs - from negative to positive or vice versa - an increase in compliant behavior and an impairment in cognitive functioning can be observed. The goal of the present experiments was a conceptual replication and extension of the results in a more controlled and counterbalanced fashion. To this aim a novel emotion induction technique was created using an outcome related expectancy violation to induce and change emotions. In a first experiment, the influence of contrasting emotions (vs. only one emotion) on compliance, message processing and information recall was assessed among 80 undergraduate students. We were able to show that a positive, then negative experience, and vice versa, led to losses in processing efficacy, not only leaving individuals momentarily vulnerable to social influence attempts, but also impairing information recall. We replicated this pattern of findings in a second experiment ( N = 41). The implications of this innovative induction technique and its findings for theory and future research on the emerging field on contrasting emotions as social-influence techniques are discussed.

Past racial discrimination exacerbates the acute effects of racial discrimination on negative affect, perceived control, and alcohol-risk cognitions among Black young adults

PubMed Central

Stock, Michelle L.; Peterson, Laurel M.; Molloy, Brianne; Lambert, Sharon F.

2017-01-01

Racial discrimination is associated with alcohol use and risky sex cognitions and behaviors, which are risk factors for negative health outcomes, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The current study investigated the causal impact of racial discrimination on alcohol and sexual-risk cognitions while exploring potential mediators that might help explain this relation: negative affect, perceived control, and meaningful existence. We also examined if past discrimination impacts the strength of (moderates) these effects. Participants were 287 Black/African American young adults aged 18 to 25. They were randomly assigned to be excluded or included by White peers via the game Cyberball. Racial exclusion (vs. inclusion) predicted greater: perceived racial discrimination, negative affect, alcohol use willingness, and reduced perceived control and meaningful existence. Furthermore, excluded participants who experienced more past racial discrimination reported the lowest perceived control, and greatest negative affect and alcohol-risk cognitions. The findings suggest that past racial discrimination exacerbates the harmful health effects of immediate experiences of discrimination. PMID:27646550

Biological Experiments in Microgravity Conditions Using Magnetic Micro- and Nano-Particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nechitailo, Galina S.; Kuznetsov, Anatoli; Kuznetsov, Oleg

2016-07-01

Gravity affects all living organisms on Earth, and plays a role in multiple processes in them. In microgravity conditions (e.g., on board of a spacecraft) many of these processes are disturbed, e.g., spatial orientation is lost, mass and heat exchange is distorted, many adaptive mechanisms no longer function, etc. Negation of these adverse effects by creation of pseudo-gravity to by centrifugation is complicated, expensive and unpractical. We propose to use naturally occurring magnetic heterogeneity of all living cells and high gradient magnetic fields as an alternative approach to negating the adverse effects of microgravity on living systems. In non-uniform magnetic field, magnetically heterogeneous objects experience a system of ponderomotive forces. For a weak magnetic particle, the net ponderomotive magnetic force: Fm = Δχ•V•grad(H2/2), where Δχ is the difference of susceptibilities of the particle and the surrounding media, V is the volume of the particle, grad(H2/2) is the dynamic factor of the magnetic field. We studied magnetic heterogeneity of plant gravity receptor cells, prepared and conducted experiments on board of the space station "Mir" on providing a gravity-like stimulus for flax seedlings using high gradient magnetic field ("Magnetogravistat" experiment). Later, a more sophisticated version of this experiment was flown on STS-107. These experiments provided new data on the mechanisms of plant gravity reception and created a method for substituting gravity for a living organism by a force of a different physical nature, to negate the adverse effects of microgravity. Since the ponderomotive force is proportional to the dynamic factor of the field grad(H2/2), the stronger the field, and the faster it changes over distance, the higher is the dynamic factor and the stronger the ponderomotive force. Therefore, in the small vicinity of a small ferromagnetic particle (preferably metallic micro or nano-particles), the forces are very significant even for weak magnetic objects, and can have significant effects on multiple processes in living cells/organisms. It was reported, that such high gradient magnetic fields can affect cell differentiation and cell proliferation processes in ground-based experiments. To prevent oxidation of ultradisperse ferromagnetic particles in aqueous media, it is beneficial to coat their surface with carbon. Suitable protected metallic micro- and nano-particles can be produced by a variety of techniques (CVD, plasmachemistry, joint grinding, etc.). Ferro-carbon particles produced by plasmachemical technique have high sorption capacities for various organic and inorganic compounds (as well as for various cell metabolites), can be formed in rather stable aqueous suspensions, and be controlled (e.g., sedimented) by a magnetic field. This makes these particles a very interesting research tool. In our opinion, biological experiments with ferro-carbon nano-structured particles in microgravity will generate important scientific data and will allow creating new methods of negating the adverse effects of microgravity on living systems.

Strategies to Reduce the Negative Effects of Spoken Explanatory Text on Integrated Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Anne-Marie; Marcus, Nadine; Ayres, Paul

2017-01-01

Two experiments involving 125 grade-10 students learning about commerce investigated strategies to overcome the transient information effect caused by explanatory spoken text. The transient information effect occurs when learning is reduced as a result of information disappearing before the learner has time to adequately process it, or link it…

Banning traditional birth attendants from conducting deliveries: experiences and effects of the ban in a rural district of Kazungula in Zambia.

PubMed

Cheelo, Chilala; Nzala, Selestine; Zulu, Joseph M

2016-10-21

In 2010 the government of the republic of Zambia stopped training traditional birth attendants and forbade them from conducting home deliveries as they were viewed as contributing to maternal mortality. This study explored positive and negative maternal health related experiences and effects of the ban in a rural district of Kazungula. This was a phenomenological study and data were collected through focus group discussions as well as in-depth interviews with trained traditional birth attendants (tTBAs) and key informant interviews with six female traditional leaders that were selected one from each of the six zones. All 22 trained tTBAs from three clinic catchment areas were included in the study. Content analysis was used to analyse the data after coding it using NVIVO 8 software. Home deliveries have continued despite the community and tTBAs being aware of the ban. The ban has had both negative and positive effects on the community. Positive effects include early detection and management of pregnancy complications, enhanced HIV/AIDS prevention and better management of post-natal conditions, reduced criticisms of tTBAs from the community in case of birth complications, and quick response at health facilities in case of an emergency. Negatives effects of the ban include increased work load on the part of health workers, high cost for lodging at health facilities and traveling to health facilities, as well as tTBAs feeling neglected, loss of respect and recognition by the community. Countries should design their approach to banning tTBAs differently depending on contextual factors. Further, it is important to consider adopting a step wise approach when implementing the ban as the process of banning tTBAs may trigger several negative effects.

Task Experience as a Boundary Condition for the Negative Effects of Irrelevant Information on Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rop, Gertjan; van Wermeskerken, Margot; de Nooijer, Jacqueline A.; Verkoeijen, Peter P. J. L.; van Gog, Tamara

2018-01-01

Research on multimedia learning has shown that learning is hampered when a multimedia message includes extraneous information that is not relevant for the task, because processing the extraneous information uses up scarce attention and working memory resources. However, eye-tracking research suggests that task experience might be a boundary…

Group Project Work and Student-centered Active Learning: Two Different Experiences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Livingstone, David; Lynch, Kenneth

2000-01-01

Compared experiences with group-based student projects in a Geographical Information Systems degree taught by one faculty member and in geography degree modules taught by another. Concludes that care must be taken in the design and execution of these projects to avoid problems that might reinforce myths about negative effects of team-based…

Following the Wrong Footsteps: Fixation Effects of Pictorial Examples in a Design Problem-Solving Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chrysikou, Evangelia G.; Weisberg, Robert W.

2005-01-01

Two experiments examined possible negative transfer in nonexperts from the use of pictorial examples in a laboratory design problem-solving situation. In Experiment 1, 89 participants were instructed to "think aloud" and were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) control (standard instructions), (b) fixation (inclusion of a problematic…

Sexual Harassment. A Preliminary Analysis of Its Effects on Hong Kong Chinese Women in the Workplace and Academia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Darius K. S.; Tang, Catherine So-Kum; Chan, Wai

1999-01-01

Investigated the impact of sexual harassment on women in the workplace and college in Hong Kong. Questionnaires assessed sexual harassment experiences, perceived prevalence of sexual harassment at work, job or study satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Personal experience with sexual harassment negatively associated with job and study…

Developing Resilience in Children Who Are in Public Care: The Educational Psychology Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dent, Renuka Jeyarajah; Cameron, R. J. Sean

2003-01-01

Significant adults who support and teach children are only too aware of the effects of adverse experiences on intellectual, social and personal development. Less easily predicted, however, is a small number of young people who, despite many negative experiences, seem to make a considerable success of their lives. In this paper, the intriguing…

Menstruation across time: menarche, menstrual attitudes, experiences, and behaviors.

PubMed

McPherson, Marianne E; Korfine, Lauren

2004-01-01

This study explored the relationship between early and current menstrual experiences. The primary hypothesis was that women who reported positive menarcheal experiences (including menstrual education and menarche) would tend to report positive current menstrual attitudes, experiences, and/or behaviors, and vice versa for women who reported negative menarcheal experiences. In this survey-based study, college-aged women (n = 327) were screened by completing a questionnaire concerning their menarcheal experiences. Women who had extremely negative ("negative group," n = 46) or extremely positive ("positive group," n = 38) early menstrual experiences returned to complete questionnaires concerning current menstrual attitudes, experiences, and behaviors. Early and current menstrual experiences were most strongly associated in the domain of menstrual attitudes. Women in the negative group reported more negative menstrual attitudes than did women in the positive group. There were additional associations between early menstrual experiences and measures of body image and health behaviors. Positive group participants reported more positive body image and better general health behaviors. Results suggest that early menstrual experiences may be related to menstrual experiences later in life. This study invites further investigation of the psychology of menstruation and suggests connecting menstruation with other women's health issues.

Experiences of participation in occupations of women on long-term sick leave.

PubMed

Johansson, Christina; Isaksson, Gunilla

2011-12-01

The majority of individuals on long-term sick leave experience negative effects in their lives associated with limitations on their participation, decreased income, and feelings of guilt. The aim was to describe the experiences that women on long-term sick leave have of participation in occupation. Unstructured interviews were used for the data collection, which involved eight women; a grounded theory approach was used. The results showed that the women's long-term sick leave changed their roles, daily habits, and routines, and their participation in occupations was negatively influenced. Their occupational performance also diminished, thereby having a negative influence on their social relationships. However, over time they came to find different strategies that contributed to a feeling of occupational competence and thence they started to rebuild their occupational identity. Through this began the process of occupational adaptation, which resulted in an increased experience of participating in occupation. As a conclusion, it should be noted that occupational therapy interventions should be directed at women on long-term sick leave at an early stage in the rehabilitation process to address the adaptation of their roles, habits, routines, and social environment.

Impact of Sexual Coercion on Romantic Experiences of Adolescents and Young Adults

PubMed Central

Furman, Wyndol

2014-01-01

Little is known about the effect of sexual coercion on romantic relationship quality and dating experiences. The current study aimed to address this dearth in the literature and test the hypothesis that sexual coercion has a negative impact on victims’ subsequent romantic experiences. Using a sample of 94 youth (44 males and 50 females), the current study addressed the impact of sexual coercion on romantic relationship quality and dating experiences. Tracking youth for 8.5 years (M age at Wave 1 = 15.10 years, SD = .49), the current study used piecewise growth curve modeling to account for shifts in the intercept and slope of romantic experiences following sexual coercion. Negative interactions immediately increased following coercion and continued to have an accelerated rate of growth (i.e., a slope change). Jealousy in romantic relationships increased in slope. Serious dating decelerated following the coercive incident. Results were largely consistent across gender and severity of the coercive incident. Contrary to hypotheses, relational support, relationship satisfaction, and casual dating did not significantly change following sexual coercion. Consistent with hypotheses, sexual coercion had a negative impact on romantic experiences. These findings have clinical implications for both prevention and intervention around sexual violence. In addition, the consistency of findings across gender and severity suggests that increased focus should be directed toward both male sexual coercion and less severe sexual coercion. PMID:24519107

What messages can foster safer sex among young women? Experimental evidence concerning the role of emotions and moral norms.

PubMed

Matera, Camilla; Nerini, Amanda; Baroni, Duccio; Stefanile, Cristina

2018-07-01

Through a 2 × 2 × 2 quasi experimental design (N = 254), this research investigated if a social campaign eliciting positive emotions and activating moral norms might enhance condom negotiation skills, intended and estimated condom among young women with or without past sexual experience with casual partners. Emotions had a main effect on one of the six condom negotiation strategies we considered; for most of the other variables an interaction effect with moral norms and/or past behaviour emerged. Concerning estimated condom use, positive emotions worked better than negative ones when moral norms were salient. With respect to negotiations skills, positive rather than negative emotions seemed more effective for women with past causal sexual experience. In women without this kind of experience, positive emotions seemed to work better when moral norms were salient. Moral norms had a main effect on negotiation self-efficacy, but not in the predicted direction: when moral norms were more salient women were found to be less confident about their negotiation ability. These results suggest that a message which makes moral norms salient should at the same time elicit positive emotions in order to be effective; moreover, messages should be carefully tailored according to women's past behaviour.

Emotional arousal impairs association-memory: Roles of amygdala and hippocampus.

PubMed

Madan, Christopher R; Fujiwara, Esther; Caplan, Jeremy B; Sommer, Tobias

2017-08-01

Emotional arousal is well-known to enhance memory for individual items or events, whereas it can impair association memory. The neural mechanism of this association memory impairment by emotion is not known: In response to emotionally arousing information, amygdala activity may interfere with hippocampal associative encoding (e.g., via prefrontal cortex). Alternatively, emotional information may be harder to unitize, resulting in reduced availability of extra-hippocampal medial temporal lobe support for emotional than neutral associations. To test these opposing hypotheses, we compared neural processes underlying successful and unsuccessful encoding of emotional and neutral associations. Participants intentionally studied pairs of neutral and negative pictures (Experiments 1-3). We found reduced association-memory for negative pictures in all experiments, accompanied by item-memory increases in Experiment 2. High-resolution fMRI (Experiment 3) indicated that reductions in associative encoding of emotional information are localizable to an area in ventral-lateral amygdala, driven by attentional/salience effects in the central amygdala. Hippocampal activity was similar during both pair types, but a left hippocampal cluster related to successful encoding was observed only for negative pairs. Extra-hippocampal associative memory processes (e.g., unitization) were more effective for neutral than emotional materials. Our findings suggest that reduced emotional association memory is accompanied by increases in activity and functional coupling within the amygdala. This did not disrupt hippocampal association-memory processes, which indeed were critical for successful emotional association memory formation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Forgotten family members: the importance of siblings in early psychosis.

PubMed

Bowman, Siann; Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario; Wade, Darryl; McGorry, Patrick; Howie, Linsey

2014-08-01

This paper reviews the evidence on the significance of sibling inclusion in family interventions and support during early psychosis. This narrative review presents the current research related to the importance of family work during early psychosis, the needs and developmental significance of siblings during adolescence and early adulthood, the protective effects of sibling relationships, and the characteristics of early psychosis relevant to the sibling experience. It will also review the evidence of the sibling experience in chronic physical illness and disability, as well as long-term psychotic illness. Despite the evidence that working with families is important during early psychosis, siblings have been largely ignored. Siblings are an important reciprocal relationship of long duration. They play an important role in development during adolescence and early adulthood. These relationships may be an underutilized protective factor due to their inherent benefits and social support. Developmental theories imply that early psychosis could negatively impact the sibling relationship and their quality of life, effecting personality development and health outcomes. The evidence shows that adolescent physical illness or disability has a significantly negative impact on the sibling's quality of life and increases the risk for the onset of mental health issues. Long-term psychotic illness also results in negative experiences for siblings. Current evidence shows that siblings in early psychosis experience psychological distress and changes in functional performance. Further research using standard measures is required to understand the impact early psychosis has on the sibling relationship and their quality of life. © 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Negative measurement sensitivity values of planar capacitive imaging probes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Xiaokang; Chen, Guoming; Li, Wei; Hutchins, David

2014-02-01

The measurement sensitivity distribution of planar capacitive imaging (CI) probes describes how effectively each region in the sensing area is contributing to the measured charge signal on the sensing electrode. It can be used to determine the imaging ability of a CI probe. It is found in previous work that, there are regions in the sensing area where the change of the charge output and the change of targeting physical parameter are of opposite trends. This opposite correlation implies that the measurement sensitivity values in such regions are negative. In this work, the cause of negative sensitivity is discussed. Experiments are also designed and performed so as to verify the existence of negative sensitivity and study the factors that may affect the negative sensitivity distributions.

The impact of negative childbirth experience on future reproductive decisions: A quantitative systematic review.

PubMed

Shorey, Shefaly; Yang, Yen Yen; Ang, Emily

2018-06-01

The aim of this study was to systematically retrieve, critique and synthesize available evidence regarding the association between negative childbirth experiences and future reproductive decisions. A child's birth is often a joyous event; however, there is a proportion of women who undergo negative childbirth experiences that have long-term implications on their reproductive decisions. A systematic review of quantitative studies was undertaken using Joanna Briggs Institute's methods. A search was carried out in CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science from January 1996 - July 2016. Studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were assessed by two independent reviewers using the Joanna Briggs Institute's Critical Appraisal Tools. Data were extracted under subheadings adapted from the institute's data extraction forms. Twelve studies, which examined either one or more influences of negative childbirth experiences, were identified. The included studies were either cohort or cross-sectional designs. Five studies observed positive associations between prior negative childbirth experiences and decisions to not have another child, three studies found positive associations between negative childbirth experiences and decisions to delay a subsequent birth and six studies concluded positive associations between negative childbirth experiences and maternal requests for caesarean section in subsequent pregnancies. To receive a holistic understanding on negative childbirth experiences, a suitable definition and validated measuring tools should be used to understand this phenomenon. Future studies or reviews should include a qualitative component and/or the exploration of specific factors such as cultural and regional differences that influence childbirth experiences. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Negative mood reverses devaluation of goal-directed drug-seeking favouring an incentive learning account of drug dependence.

PubMed

Hogarth, Lee; He, Zhimin; Chase, Henry W; Wills, Andy J; Troisi, Joseph; Leventhal, Adam M; Mathew, Amanda R; Hitsman, Brian

2015-09-01

Two theories explain how negative mood primes smoking behaviour. The stimulus-response (S-R) account argues that in the negative mood state, smoking is experienced as more reinforcing, establishing a direct (automatic) association between the negative mood state and smoking behaviour. By contrast, the incentive learning account argues that in the negative mood state smoking is expected to be more reinforcing, which integrates with instrumental knowledge of the response required to produce that outcome. One differential prediction is that whereas the incentive learning account anticipates that negative mood induction could augment a novel tobacco-seeking response in an extinction test, the S-R account could not explain this effect because the extinction test prevents S-R learning by omitting experience of the reinforcer. To test this, overnight-deprived daily smokers (n = 44) acquired two instrumental responses for tobacco and chocolate points, respectively, before smoking to satiety. Half then received negative mood induction to raise the expected value of tobacco, opposing satiety, whilst the remainder received positive mood induction. Finally, a choice between tobacco and chocolate was measured in extinction to test whether negative mood could augment tobacco choice, opposing satiety, in the absence of direct experience of tobacco reinforcement. Negative mood induction not only abolished the devaluation of tobacco choice, but participants with a significant increase in negative mood increased their tobacco choice in extinction, despite satiety. These findings suggest that negative mood augments drug-seeking by raising the expected value of the drug through incentive learning, rather than through automatic S-R control.

'As many options as there are, there are just not enough for me': contraceptive use and barriers to access among Australian women.

PubMed

Dixon, Suzanne C; Herbert, Danielle L; Loxton, Deborah; Lucke, Jayne C

2014-10-01

A comprehensive life course perspective of women's experiences in obtaining and using contraception in Australia is lacking. This paper explores free-text comments about contraception provided by women born between 1973 and 1978 who participated in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). The ALSWH is a national population-based cohort study involving over 40,000 women from three age groups, who are surveyed every three years. An initial search identified 1600 comments from 690 women across five surveys from 1996 (when they were aged 18-23 years) to 2009 (31-36 years). The analysis included 305 comments from 289 participants. Factors relating to experiences of barriers to access and optimal contraceptive use were identified and explored using thematic analysis. Five themes recurred across the five surveys as women aged: (i) side effects affecting physical and mental health; (ii) lack of information about contraception; (iii) negative experiences with health services; (iv) contraceptive failure; and (v) difficulty with accessing contraception. Side effects of hormonal contraception and concerns about contraceptive failure influence women's mental and physical health. Many barriers to effective contraception persist throughout women's reproductive lives. Further research is needed into reducing barriers and minimising negative experiences, to ensure optimal contraceptive access for Australian women.

Early-life experience affects honey bee aggression and resilience to immune challenge

PubMed Central

Rittschof, Clare C.; Coombs, Chelsey B.; Frazier, Maryann; Grozinger, Christina M.; Robinson, Gene E.

2015-01-01

Early-life social experiences cause lasting changes in behavior and health for a variety of animals including humans, but it is not well understood how social information ‘‘gets under the skin’’ resulting in these effects. Adult honey bees (Apis mellifera) exhibit socially coordinated collective nest defense, providing a model for social modulation of aggressive behavior. Here we report for the first time that a honey bee’s early-life social environment has lasting effects on individual aggression: bees that experienced high-aggression environments during pre-adult stages showed increased aggression when they reached adulthood relative to siblings that experienced low-aggression environments, even though all bees were kept in a common environment during adulthood. Unlike other animals including humans however, high-aggression honey bees were more, rather than less, resilient to immune challenge, assessed as neonicotinoid pesticide susceptibility. Moreover, aggression was negatively correlated with ectoparasitic mite presence. In honey bees, early-life social experience has broad effects, but increased aggression is decoupled from negative health outcomes. Because honey bees and humans share aspects of their physiological response to aggressive social encounters, our findings represent a step towards identifying ways to improve individual resiliency. Pre-adult social experience may be crucial to the health of the ecologically threatened honey bee. PMID:26493190

Marriage and the parenting alliance: longitudinal prediction of change in parenting perceptions and behaviors.

PubMed

Floyd, F J; Gilliom, L A; Costigan, C L

1998-10-01

The study evaluates how marriage and the parenting alliance affect parenting experiences over time. Couples (N = 79) with school-age children who have mental retardation completed self-report and observational measures of marriage, the parenting alliance, and parenting attitudes and behaviors at 2 periods, 18-24 months apart. Longitudinal structural equation modeling demonstrated significant effects of marital quality on changes over time in self-reports of perceived parenting competence for both the mothers and the fathers, and in observed negative mother-child interactions. Also, in all cases, the parenting alliance mediated the effects of marriage on parenting experiences. There was little evidence of reciprocal causation in which parenting variables predicted change in the quality of marriage and the parenting alliance. Interactions involving child age suggested that teenagers as opposed to younger children were more reactive to negative features of their parents' marital functioning and parenting alliance. Implications are discussed regarding stable but negative marital functioning and regarding possible differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting in the context of marital distress.

Predictors of a negative labour and birth experience based on a national survey of Canadian women.

PubMed

Smarandache, Andrei; Kim, Theresa H M; Bohr, Yvonne; Tamim, Hala

2016-05-18

A negative birth experience has been shown to have a significant impact on the well-being and future choices of mothers. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of, and identify the risk factors associated with a negative birth experience for women in Canada. The study was based on secondary data analysis of the Maternity Experiences Survey (MES), a Canadian population database administered to 6,421 Canadian women in 2006. The examined outcome - negative birth experience - was derived from mothers' self-report of overall labour and birth experience. Independent variables were maternal demographics, health characteristics, pregnancy-related characteristics, and birth characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the significant predictors of negative birth experience. Adjusted Odds Ratios (AOR) and 95 % Confidence Intervals (CI) are reported. Negative birth experience was reported among 9.3 % of women. The main significant predictors of a negative birth experience included older age (AOR 2.29, 95 % CI, 1.03-5.07), violence experienced in the past two years (AOR, 1.62, 95 % CI, 1.21-2.18), poor self-perceived health (adjusted OR, 1.95, 95 % CI, 1.36-2.80), prenatal classes attended (adjusted OR, 1.36, 95 % CI, 1.06-1.76), unintended pregnancy (adjusted OR, 1.30, 95 % CI, 1.03-1.63), caesarean birth (AOR, 1.65, 95 % CI, 1.32-2.06), and neonate admission to intensive care (AOR, 1.40, 95 % CI, 1.08-1.82). Significant predictors of a negative labour and birth experience were identified through this study, a first in the Canadian context. These findings suggest future research directions and provide a basis for the design and evaluation of maternal health policy and prevention programs.

Is Statewide Deinstitutionalization of Children's Services a Forward or Backward Social Movement?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, George

Reviewed is the movement toward deinstitutionalization of handicapped children in terms of the sources of pressures toward deinstitutionalization, alternatives, effects of institutional experience on children, and possible consequences of the movement. Pressures discussed are those deriving from the assumed negative effects of institutionalization…

English, Spanish and Ethno-Racial Receptivity in a New Destination: A Case Study of Dominican Immigrants in Reading, PA

PubMed Central

Oropesa, R.S.

2015-01-01

Scant information is available on experiences with language among immigrant populations in new destinations. This study provides a multi-dimensional portrait of the linguistic incorporation of Dominican immigrants in the “majority-minority” city of Reading, Pennsylvania. The results show that daily life for most largely occurs in a Spanish-language milieu, but English proficiency and use in social networks is primarily a function of exposure to the United States. This is consistent with the standard narrative of assimilation models. At the same time, negative experiences with the use of both English and Spanish suggest that the linguistic context of reception is inhospitable for a substantial share of this population. Negative experiences with English are particularly likely to be mentioned by those with dark skin and greater cumulative exposure. Lastly, language plays an important role in experiences with ethno-racial enmity more broadly. Nonetheless, the persistent effect of skin tone indicates that such experiences are not reducible to language per se. PMID:26004453

Context and Time Matter: Effects of Emotion and Motivation on Episodic Memory Overtime

PubMed Central

Sun, Qing; Gu, Simeng

2018-01-01

Previous studies have shown that compared with neutral cues, stimuli with positive and negative/stressful contexts or reward and punishment cues are remembered better. However, it is unclear whether the enhanced effect differs in emotion or motivation dimensions and the passage of time. We addressed these issues by manipulating different contextual cues for neutral words at different time intervals. In experiment 1, subjects were asked to learn words with picture contexts in positive, negative/stressful, and neutral valences and were tested by old/new word recognition and contextual judgment 10 min, 1 day, and 1 week later. In experiment 2, the reward and punishment motivations were manipulated by monetary cues during learning. Word recognition and contextual judgment were assessed 10 min, 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month after the study. Compared with negative and punishment conditions, the words in positive and reward contexts were recognized better at shorter intervals, which was associated with recollection process. In contrast, the words in negative and punishment contexts were recognized better at longer intervals, which was mainly associated with familiarity process. These results clarified how different dimensions of emotional and motivational contexts influence memory at short and long intervals and highlighted the role of contextual features in memory formation and consolidation. PMID:29849564

Context and Time Matter: Effects of Emotion and Motivation on Episodic Memory Overtime.

PubMed

Sun, Qing; Gu, Simeng; Yang, Jiongjiong

2018-01-01

Previous studies have shown that compared with neutral cues, stimuli with positive and negative/stressful contexts or reward and punishment cues are remembered better. However, it is unclear whether the enhanced effect differs in emotion or motivation dimensions and the passage of time. We addressed these issues by manipulating different contextual cues for neutral words at different time intervals. In experiment 1, subjects were asked to learn words with picture contexts in positive, negative/stressful, and neutral valences and were tested by old/new word recognition and contextual judgment 10 min, 1 day, and 1 week later. In experiment 2, the reward and punishment motivations were manipulated by monetary cues during learning. Word recognition and contextual judgment were assessed 10 min, 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month after the study. Compared with negative and punishment conditions, the words in positive and reward contexts were recognized better at shorter intervals, which was associated with recollection process. In contrast, the words in negative and punishment contexts were recognized better at longer intervals, which was mainly associated with familiarity process. These results clarified how different dimensions of emotional and motivational contexts influence memory at short and long intervals and highlighted the role of contextual features in memory formation and consolidation.

Doubly negative isotropic elastic metamaterial for sub-wavelength focusing: Design and realization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oh, Joo Hwan; Seung, Hong Min; Kim, Yoon Young

2017-12-01

In spite of much progress in elastic metamaterials, tuning the effective density and stiffness to desired values ranging from negatives to large positives is still difficult. In particular, simultaneous realization of double negativity and isotropy, critical in sub-wavelength focusing, is very challenging since anisotropy is usually unavoidable in resonance-based metamaterials. The main difficulty is that there is no established systematic design method for simultaneous achieving of double negativity and isotropy. Thus, we propose a unique elastic metamaterial unit cell with which simultaneous realization can be achieved by an explicit step-by-step approach. The unit cell of the proposed metamaterial can be accurately modeled as an equivalent mass-spring system so that the effective properties can be easily controlled with the design parameters. The actual realization was carried out by acquiring the desired properties in sequential steps which is in detail. The specific application for this study is on sub-wavelength focusing, which will be demonstrated by waves from a single point source focused on a region smaller than half the wavelength. Actual experiments were performed on an aluminum plate where the designed metamaterial flat lens was imbedded. The results acquired through simulations and experiments suggest potential applications of the proposed metamaterial and the systematic design approach in advanced acoustic surgery or non-destructive testing.

Can the meaning of multiple words be integrated unconsciously?

PubMed

van Gaal, Simon; Naccache, Lionel; Meuwese, Julia D I; van Loon, Anouk M; Leighton, Alexandra H; Cohen, Laurent; Dehaene, Stanislas

2014-05-05

What are the limits of unconscious language processing? Can language circuits process simple grammatical constructions unconsciously and integrate the meaning of several unseen words? Using behavioural priming and electroencephalography (EEG), we studied a specific rule-based linguistic operation traditionally thought to require conscious cognitive control: the negation of valence. In a masked priming paradigm, two masked words were successively (Experiment 1) or simultaneously presented (Experiment 2), a modifier ('not'/'very') and an adjective (e.g. 'good'/'bad'), followed by a visible target noun (e.g. 'peace'/'murder'). Subjects indicated whether the target noun had a positive or negative valence. The combination of these three words could either be contextually consistent (e.g. 'very bad - murder') or inconsistent (e.g. 'not bad - murder'). EEG recordings revealed that grammatical negations could unfold partly unconsciously, as reflected in similar occipito-parietal N400 effects for conscious and unconscious three-word sequences forming inconsistent combinations. However, only conscious word sequences elicited P600 effects, later in time. Overall, these results suggest that multiple unconscious words can be rapidly integrated and that an unconscious negation can automatically 'flip the sign' of an unconscious adjective. These findings not only extend the limits of subliminal combinatorial language processes, but also highlight how consciousness modulates the grammatical integration of multiple words.

Why two heads apart are better than two heads together: multiple mechanisms underlie the collaborative inhibition effect in memory.

PubMed

Barber, Sarah J; Harris, Celia B; Rajaram, Suparna

2015-03-01

Although a group of people working together remembers more than any one individual, they recall less than their predicted potential. This finding is known as collaborative inhibition and is generally thought to arise due to retrieval disruption. However, there is growing evidence that is inconsistent with the retrieval disruption account, suggesting that additional mechanisms also contribute to collaborative inhibition. In the current studies, we examined 2 alternate mechanisms: retrieval inhibition and retrieval blocking. To identify the contributions of retrieval disruption, retrieval inhibition, and retrieval blocking, we tested how collaborative recall of entirely unshared information influences subsequent individual recall and individual recognition memory. If collaborative inhibition is due solely to retrieval disruption, then there should be a release from the negative effects of collaboration on subsequent individual recall and recognition tests. If it is due to retrieval inhibition, then the negative effects of collaboration should persist on both individual recall and recognition memory tests. Finally, if it is due to retrieval blocking, then the impairment should persist on subsequent individual free recall, but not recognition, tests. Novel to the current study, results suggest that retrieval inhibition plays a role in the collaborative inhibition effect. The negative effects of collaboration persisted on a subsequent, always-individual, free-recall test (Experiment 1) and also on a subsequent, always-individual, recognition test (Experiment 2). However, consistent with the retrieval disruption account, this deficit was attenuated (Experiment 1). Together, these results suggest that, in addition to retrieval disruption, multiple mechanisms play a role in collaborative inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The interactive effects of negative symptoms and social role functioning on suicide ideation in individuals with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Jahn, Danielle R; Bennett, Melanie E; Park, Stephanie G; Gur, Raquel E; Horan, William P; Kring, Ann M; Blanchard, Jack J

2016-02-01

Findings regarding the protective effect of social role functioning on suicide ideation in individuals with schizophrenia have been mixed. One reason for such inconsistencies in the literature may be that individuals with prominent negative symptoms of schizophrenia may not experience a desire for social closeness, and therefore social role functioning may not influence suicide risk in these individuals. The aim of this study was to examine the moderating effects of self-reported desire for social closeness and interviewer-rated negative symptoms on the relationship between social role functioning and suicide ideation. Our sample consisted of 162 individuals who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders; all participants completed self-report questionnaires and clinician-administered interviews, and moderation hypotheses were tested with a non-parametric procedure. The results indicated that motivation and pleasure-related negative symptoms moderated the relationship between social role functioning and suicide ideation; self-reported desire for social closeness and negative symptoms related to expression did not have such a moderating effect. Specifically, better social role functioning was associated with less suicide ideation only in those individuals who had low motivation and pleasure-related negative symptoms; no significant relationship was observed between social role functioning and suicide ideation among those with elevated motivation and pleasure-related negative symptoms. These findings suggest that assessing for negative symptoms and social role functioning may inform suicide risk assessments in individuals with schizophrenia, and improving social role functioning may reduce suicide ideation among those with few motivation and pleasure-related negative symptoms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The roles of negative affect and goal adjustment capacities in breast cancer survivors: Associations with physical activity and diurnal cortisol secretion.

PubMed

Castonguay, Andree L; Wrosch, Carsten; Sabiston, Catherine M

2017-04-01

This study examined whether within-person changes of breast cancer survivors' high-arousal negative affect (e.g., feeling scared, upset, anxious, or guilty) could predict high levels of diurnal cortisol secretion and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). In addition, goal adjustment capacities (goal disengagement and goal reengagement) were expected to buffer the effect of negative affect on cortisol and to increase its effect on MVPA. High-arousal negative affect, self-reported MVPA, area-under-the-curve of diurnal cortisol secretion, and goal adjustment capacities were assessed in a longitudinal sample of 145 female breast cancer survivors. Based on hierarchical linear modeling, breast cancer survivors reported increased levels of both MVPA and cortisol secretion if they experienced higher (as compared with lower) levels of high-arousal negative affect than their personal average. Furthermore, within-person negative affect was associated with: (a) higher MVPA among participants with high (but not low) goal reengagement capacities; and (b) elevated cortisol secretion among participants with low (but not high) goal reengagement capacities. High-arousal negative affect may exert differing functions among breast cancer survivors in that it can trigger adaptive health behaviors, yet simultaneously elevate diurnal cortisol secretion. In addition, being able to engage in new goals may be a necessary condition for breast cancer survivors to experience the beneficial behavioral effects of high-arousal negative affect, and it may prevent the adverse effect of negative affect on enhanced cortisol output. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Is video gaming, or video game addiction, associated with depression, academic achievement, heavy episodic drinking, or conduct problems?

PubMed

Brunborg, Geir Scott; Mentzoni, Rune Aune; Frøyland, Lars Roar

2014-03-01

While the relationships between video game use and negative consequences are debated, the relationships between video game addiction and negative consequences are fairly well established. However, previous studies suffer from methodological weaknesses that may have caused biased results. There is need for further investigation that benefits from the use of methods that avoid omitted variable bias. Two wave panel data was used from two surveys of 1,928 Norwegian adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. The surveys included measures of video game use, video game addiction, depression, heavy episodic drinking, academic achievement, and conduct problems. The data was analyzed using first-differencing, a regression method that is unbiased by time invariant individual factors. Video game addiction was related to depression, lower academic achievement, and conduct problems, but time spent on video games was not related to any of the studied negative outcomes. The findings were in line with a growing number of studies that have failed to find relationships between time spent on video games and negative outcomes. The current study is also consistent with previous studies in that video game addiction was related to other negative outcomes, but it made the added contribution that the relationships are unbiased by time invariant individual effects. However, future research should aim at establishing the temporal order of the supposed causal effects. Spending time playing video games does not involve negative consequences, but adolescents who experience problems related to video games are likely to also experience problems in other facets of life.

Is video gaming, or video game addiction, associated with depression, academic achievement, heavy episodic drinking, or conduct problems?

PubMed Central

Brunborg, Geir Scott; Mentzoni, Rune Aune; Frøyland, Lars Roar

2014-01-01

Background and aims: While the relationships between video game use and negative consequences are debated, the relationships between video game addiction and negative consequences are fairly well established. However, previous studies suffer from methodological weaknesses that may have caused biased results. There is need for further investigation that benefits from the use of methods that avoid omitted variable bias. Methods: Two wave panel data was used from two surveys of 1,928 Norwegian adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. The surveys included measures of video game use, video game addiction, depression, heavy episodic drinking, academic achievement, and conduct problems. The data was analyzed using first-differencing, a regression method that is unbiased by time invariant individual factors. Results: Video game addiction was related to depression, lower academic achievement, and conduct problems, but time spent on video games was not related to any of the studied negative outcomes. Discussion: The findings were in line with a growing number of studies that have failed to find relationships between time spent on video games and negative outcomes. The current study is also consistent with previous studies in that video game addiction was related to other negative outcomes, but it made the added contribution that the relationships are unbiased by time invariant individual effects. However, future research should aim at establishing the temporal order of the supposed causal effects. Conclusions: Spending time playing video games does not involve negative consequences, but adolescents who experience problems related to video games are likely to also experience problems in other facets of life. PMID:25215212

Proposed application of lower body negative pressure to cardiology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, E. V.; Debusk, R. F.; Popp, R. L.

1975-01-01

Potential medical applications are presented of lower body negative pressure to the evaluation and treatment of cardiac patients. The essential features of an LBNP unit and the basic cardiovascular physiology of lower body negative pressure (LBNP) testing are described. Some of the results of previous spaceflight experiences and bedrest studies are summarized. The deconditioning effects of weightlessness experienced by orbiting astronauts are compared with the effects of bedrest restrictions prescribed for convalescing cardiac patients. The potential of LBNP for evaluating both pharmacological and physical activity regimens was examined, particularly in relation to post-myocardial infarction and coronary artery bypass patients. Applications of LBNP to the cardiac catheterization laboratory and the out-patient follow-up of cardiac patients are proposed.

Priming effects under correct change detection and change blindness.

PubMed

Caudek, Corrado; Domini, Fulvio

2013-03-01

In three experiments, we investigated the priming effects induced by an image change on a successive animate/inanimate decision task. We studied both perceptual (Experiments 1 and 2) and conceptual (Experiment 3) priming effects, under correct change detection and change blindness (CB). Under correct change detection, we found larger positive priming effects on congruent trials for probes representing animate entities than for probes representing artifactual objects. Under CB, we found performance impairment relative to a "no-change" baseline condition. This inhibition effect induced by CB was modulated by the semantic congruency between the changed item and the probe in the case of probe images, but not for probe words. We discuss our results in the context of the literature on the negative priming effect. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Experiences and career intentions of combat-deployed UK military personnel.

PubMed

Morris-Butler, R; Jones, N; Greenberg, N; Campion, B; Wessely, S

2018-05-17

Most studies of the psychological impact of military deployment focus on the negative and traumatic aspects. Less is known about the full range of deployment experiences nor how these may impact on career intentions. To examine subjective operational experiences and career intentions in deployed UK military personnel using data gathered toward the end of an operational deployment. Data were gathered during deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. A self-report survey collected data on sociodemographic, operational and military factors. Respondents provided their strength of agreement or disagreement with six potentially positive deployment experiences and their endorsement or rejection of six possible career intentions. Two mental health measures assessed symptoms of common mental disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Responses were 681 in Iran 2009 (100% response rate); 1421 in Afghanistan in 2010 (100%), 1362 in 2011 (96%) and 860 in 2015 (91%). Five of the potentially positive outcomes were endorsed by >50% of the sample: confidence about remaining healthy after returning home, pride in accomplishments, increased confidence in abilities, improved unit cohesion and experiencing a positive life effect. Ninety per cent of respondents planned to continue in service after returning home. Fewer positive deployment experiences, poorer mental health, lesser unit cohesion and more negative impressions of leadership were significantly associated with intention to leave service. Contrary to the popular belief that UK military personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan experience negative outcomes, this paper shows that deployment can be a positive experience for a substantial majority of deployed personnel.

Memory for Medication Side Effects in Younger and Older Adults: The Role of Subjective and Objective Importance

PubMed Central

Friedman, Michael C.; McGillivray, Shannon; Murayama, Kou; Castel, Alan D.

2014-01-01

Older adults often experience memory impairments, but can sometimes use selective processing and schematic support to remember important information. The current experiments investigate to what degree younger and healthy older adults remember medication side effects that were subjectively or objectively important to remember. Participants studied a list of common side effects, and rated how negative these effects were if they were to experience them, and were then given a free recall test. In Experiment 1, the severity of the side effects ranged from mild (e.g., itching) to severe (e.g., stroke), and in Experiment 2, certain side effects were indicated as critical to remember (i.e., “contact your doctor if you experience this”). There were no age differences in terms of free recall of the side effects, and older adults remembered more severe side effects relative to mild effects. However, older adults were less likely to recognize critical side effects on a later recognition test, relative to younger adults. The findings suggest that older adults can selectively remember medication side effects, but have difficulty identifying familiar but potentially critical side effects, and this has implications for monitoring medication use in older age. PMID:25331278

Resident Perceptions of the Impact of Work Hour Limitations

PubMed Central

Beck, David C.; Stewart, Anita L.; Garbutt, Jane M.

2007-01-01

BACKGROUND Mandatory work hour limitations for residents began in July 2003. There has been little evaluation of the impact of the new limitations on Internal Medicine residency training. OBJECTIVE To assess Internal Medicine residents’ perceptions of the impact of work hour limitations on clinical experiences, patient care, resident education, and well-being, and their compliance with the limitations. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS Cross-sectional survey administered to Internal Medicine residents at 1 large U.S. teaching hospital. MEASUREMENTS Resident perceptions using 5-point Likert scales, and self-reported compliance. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify underlying domains and develop scales. RESULTS The survey response rate was 85%. Five domains were identified by factor analysis: 1) clinical experience, 2) patient care and safety, 3) communication, 4) satisfaction with training, and 5) work–rest balance. Residents perceived work hour limitations to have a negative impact on clinical experience (mean scale score 1.84, 1 = negative, 5 = positive), patient care and safety (2.64), and communication domains (1.98). Effects on satisfaction (3.12) and work–rest balance domains (2.95) were more positive. Senior residents perceived more negative effects of work hour limitations than interns. Compliance was difficult; 94% interns and 70% residents reported violating work hour limits. Patient care and teaching duties were the main reasons for work hour violations. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that the current work hour limitations may be having unintended negative consequences on residency training. Ongoing monitoring to evaluate the impact of program changes as a result of work hour regulation is crucial to improving residency training. PMID:17468888

Using negative emotions to trace the experience of borderline personality pathology: Interconnected relationships revealed in an experience sampling study

PubMed Central

Law, Mary Kate; Fleeson, William; Arnold, Elizabeth Mayfield; Furr, R. Michael

2015-01-01

While emotional difficulties are highly implicated in borderline personality disorder (BPD), the dynamic relationships between emotions and BPD symptoms that occur in everyday life are unknown. The current paper examined the function of negative emotions as they relate to BPD symptoms in real time. Experience sampling methodology with 281 participants measured negative emotions and borderline symptoms, expressed as a spectrum of experiences, five times daily for two weeks. Overall, having a BDP diagnosis was associated with experiencing more negative emotions. Multilevel modeling supported positive concurrent relationships between negative emotions and BPD symptoms. Lagged models showed that even after three hours negative emotions and several symptoms continued to influence each other. Therefore, results indicated that negative emotions and BPD symptoms are intricately related; some evidenced long-lasting relationships. This research supports emotion-symptom contingencies within BPD and provides insight regarding the reactivity and functionality of negative emotions in borderline pathology. PMID:25710731

Using Negative Emotions to Trace the Experience of Borderline Personality Pathology: Interconnected Relationships Revealed in an Experience Sampling Study.

PubMed

Law, Mary Kate; Fleeson, William; Arnold, Elizabeth Mayfield; Furr, R Michael

2016-02-01

While emotional difficulties are highly implicated in borderline personality disorder (BPD), the dynamic relationships between emotions and BPD symptoms that occur in everyday life are unknown. The current paper examined the function of negative emotions as they relate to BPD symptoms in real time. Experience sampling methodology with 281 participants measured negative emotions and borderline symptoms, expressed as a spectrum of experiences, five times daily for two weeks. Overall, having a BDP diagnosis was associated with experiencing more negative emotions. Multilevel modeling supported positive concurrent relationships between negative emotions and BPD symptoms. Lagged models showed that even after 3 hours negative emotions and several symptoms continued to influence each other. Therefore, results indicated that negative emotions and BPD symptoms are intricately related; some evidenced long-lasting relationships. This research supports emotion-symptom contingencies within BPD and provides insight regarding the reactivity and functionality of negative emotions in borderline pathology.

Role-modeling and medical error disclosure: a national survey of trainees.

PubMed

Martinez, William; Hickson, Gerald B; Miller, Bonnie M; Doukas, David J; Buckley, John D; Song, John; Sehgal, Niraj L; Deitz, Jennifer; Braddock, Clarence H; Lehmann, Lisa Soleymani

2014-03-01

To measure trainees' exposure to negative and positive role-modeling for responding to medical errors and to examine the association between that exposure and trainees' attitudes and behaviors regarding error disclosure. Between May 2011 and June 2012, 435 residents at two large academic medical centers and 1,187 medical students from seven U.S. medical schools received anonymous, electronic questionnaires. The questionnaire asked respondents about (1) experiences with errors, (2) training for responding to errors, (3) behaviors related to error disclosure, (4) exposure to role-modeling for responding to errors, and (5) attitudes regarding disclosure. Using multivariate regression, the authors analyzed whether frequency of exposure to negative and positive role-modeling independently predicted two primary outcomes: (1) attitudes regarding disclosure and (2) nontransparent behavior in response to a harmful error. The response rate was 55% (884/1,622). Training on how to respond to errors had the largest independent, positive effect on attitudes (standardized effect estimate, 0.32, P < .001); negative role-modeling had the largest independent, negative effect (standardized effect estimate, -0.26, P < .001). Positive role-modeling had a positive effect on attitudes (standardized effect estimate, 0.26, P < .001). Exposure to negative role-modeling was independently associated with an increased likelihood of trainees' nontransparent behavior in response to an error (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.15-1.64; P < .001). Exposure to role-modeling predicts trainees' attitudes and behavior regarding the disclosure of harmful errors. Negative role models may be a significant impediment to disclosure among trainees.

The Interaction between Childhood Bullying and the FKBP5 Gene on Psychotic-Like Experiences and Stress Reactivity in Real Life

PubMed Central

Rosa, Araceli; Ballespí, Sergi; de Castro-Catala, Marta; Peña, Elionora; Kwapil, Thomas R.; Barrantes-Vidal, Neus

2016-01-01

Aim The present study employed Experience Sampling Methodology to examine whether the interaction between childhood bullying and FKBP5 variability (i) is associated with the expression of psychotic-like experiences, paranoia, and negative affect, and (ii) moderates psychotic-like, paranoid, and affective reactivity to different forms of momentary stress (situational and social) in daily life. Methods A total of 206 nonclinical young adults were interviewed for bullying with the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse and were prompted randomly eight times daily for one week to complete assessments of their current experiences, affect, and stress appraisals. Participants were genotyped for three FKBP5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs3800373, rs9296158, and rs1360780) that have been linked to hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity. Multilevel analyses were conducted to examine the effect of the interaction between childhood bullying and the FKBP5 haplotype derived from these three SNPs. Results The interaction between bullying and the FKBP5 haplotype was associated with positive, but not negative, psychotic-like experiences, paranoia, and negative affect. The bullying x FKBP5 interaction also moderated the association of a social stress appraisal (specifically, being alone because people do not want to be with you) with psychotic-like experiences and negative affect in daily life. Simple slopes analyses indicated that, in all cases, the associations were significantly increased by exposure to bullying in participants with the risk haplotype, but not for those with the non-risk haplotype. Discussion The present study provides the first evidence of the interplay between childhood bullying and FKBP5 variability in the real-world expression of psychosis proneness and social stress reactivity. The findings underscore the importance of investigating how gene-environment interactions are involved in mechanistic pathways to the extended psychosis phenotype and lend further support to the increasing relevance given to socially defeating appraisals in the experience of reality distortion. PMID:27389186

The effect of the geomagnetic field on negative voltage spheres in the ionospheric plasma: Fluid simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, T.-Z.; Schunk, R. W.

1994-07-01

Experiments involving the interaction of spherical conducting objects biases with hight voltages in the Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) environment have been conducted and designed. In these experiments, both positive and negative voltages have been applied to the spheres. Previously, there have been theoretical and numerical studies of positive voltage spheres in plasmas with and without magnetic fields. There also have been studies of negative voltage objects in unmagnetized plasmas. Here, we used a fluid model to study the plasma response to a negative voltage sphere immersed in a magnetized plasma. Our main purpose was to investigate the role of the magnetic field during the early-time interaction between the negative voltage sphere and the ambient plasma in the LEO environment. In this study, different applied voltages, magnetic field strengths, and rise-times of the applied voltages were considered. It was found that with the strength of the geomagnetic field the ions are basically not affected by the magnetic field on the time scale of hundreds of plasma periods considered in this study. The ion density distribution around the sphere and the collected ion flux by the sphere are basically the same as in the case without the magnetic field. The electron motion is strongly affected by the magnetic field. One effect is to change the nature of the electron over-shoot oscillation from regular to somewhat turbulent. Although the electrons move along the magnetic field much more easily than across the magnetic field, some redirection effect causes the electron density to distribute as if the magnetic field effect is minimal. The sheath struture and the electric field around the sphere tend to be spherical. A finite rise-time of the applied voltage reduces the oscillatory activities and delays the ion acceleration. However, the effect of the rise-time depends on both the duration of the rise-time and the ion plasma period.

Defusing the Messages That Rob Our Students of Their Intelligence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawry, John

1998-01-01

Describes several instances in which parental comments early in life had long lasting effects on student achievement and self-concept. Discusses the power of (frequently unconscious) "negative imprints," and suggests ways in which teachers and coaches can overcome the effects of early experiences and promote student success. (SV)

Positive and Negative Recency Effects in Retirement Savings Decisions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rieskamp, Jorg

2006-01-01

Retirement savings decisions can be influenced by the fund composition of the retirement savings plan. In 2 experiments, strong composition effects were observed, with a larger percentage of resources being invested in stock funds when more stock than bond funds were offered. Although participants changed their allocations repeatedly, the…

Landscape corridors can increase invasion by an exotic species and reduce diversity of native species

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Although corridors have become commonplace in conservation to mitigate negative effects of habitat fragmentation, concerns persist that they may facilitate spread of invasive species. In a large-scale experiment, we measured effects of corridors on invasive fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, and on comm...

Five-year change in morale is associated with negative life events in very old age.

PubMed

Näsman, Marina; Niklasson, Johan; Saarela, Jan; Nygård, Mikael; Olofsson, Birgitta; Conradsson, Mia; Lövheim, Hugo; Gustafson, Yngve; Nyqvist, Fredrica

2017-10-27

The objectives were to study changes in morale in individuals 85 years and older, and to assess the effect of negative life events on morale over a five-year follow-up period. The present study is based on longitudinal data from the Umeå85+/GERDA-study, including individuals 85 years and older at baseline (n = 204). Morale was measured with the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS). Negative life events were assessed using an index including 13 negative life events occurring during the follow-up period. Linear regression was used for the multivariate analyses. The majority of the sample (69.1%) had no significant changes in morale during the five-year follow-up. However, the accumulation of negative life events was significantly associated with a greater decrease in PGCMS. A higher baseline PGCMS score did not attenuate the adverse effect negative life events had on morale. Morale seemed to be mainly stable in a five-year follow-up of very old people. It seems, nonetheless, that individuals are affected by negative life events, regardless of level of morale. Preventing negative life events and supporting individuals who experience multiple negative life events could have important implications for the care of very old people.

Asymmetric effects of positive and negative affect on decision making.

PubMed

Cahir, Caitriona; Thomas, Kevin

2010-02-01

Although affect is a fundamental element of decision making, there are different theoretical accounts and conflicting empirical evidence of its influence. This experiment was done to begin a more coherent account of the influence of affect by using standardised images to induce affect and a betting task to measure decision making. Eighty-five participants were assigned to a positive, a negative, or a neutral affect condition before making decisions on two hypothetical horse races. Analysis indicated that those in the positive and negative conditions made lower-risk decisions than those in the neutral condition; however, this did not differ between the races, suggesting that task familiarity did not moderate the influence of affect. Contrary to previous research, these results indicate that positive and negative affect do not necessarily exert symmetrical effects on decision making. Implications for the major accounts of the influence of affect on decision making are discussed in relation to the findings.

PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING: THE MEDIATING AND MODERATING ROLE OF SENSE OF CONTROL*

PubMed Central

Jang, Yuri; Chiriboga, David A.; Small, Brent J.

2010-01-01

Being discriminated against is an unpleasant and stressful experience, and its connection to reduced psychological well-being is well-documented. The present study hypothesized that a sense of control would serve as both mediator and moderator in the dynamics of perceived discrimination and psychological well-being. In addition, variations by age, gender, and race in the effects of perceived discrimination were explored. Data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) survey (N = 1,554; age range = 45 to 74) provided supportive evidence for the hypotheses. The relationships between perceived discrimination and positive and negative affect were reduced when sense of control was controlled, demonstrating the role of sense of control as a mediator. The moderating role of sense of control was also supported, but only in the analysis for negative affect: the combination of a discriminatory experience and low sense of control markedly increased negative affect. In addition, age and gender variations were observed: the negative impact of perceived discrimination on psychological well-being was more pronounced among younger adults and females compared to their counterparts. The findings elucidated the mechanisms by which perceived discrimination manifested its psychological outcomes, and suggest ways to reduce adverse consequences associated with discriminatory experiences. PMID:18459602

An examination of nervios among Mexican seasonal farm workers.

PubMed

England, Margaret; Mysyk, Avis; Gallegos, Juan Arturo Avila

2007-09-01

The purpose of this exploratory descriptive study was to examine a process model of the nervios experience of 30 Mexican seasonal farm workers. Focused interviews were conducted in Spanish to determine the workers' perspectives on their experiences of nervios while residing in rural, southwest Ontario. Data for analysis originated from variables created to represent key themes that had emerged from open coding of the interviews. Simultaneous entry, multiple regression analyses revealed that provocation, control salience, and cognitive sensory motor distress directly explained 67.2% of the variation in worker expressions of negative affectivity. The combination fear, feeling trapped, and giving in mediated the relationship of provocation, control salience and cognitive sensory motor distress to expressions of negative affectivity (R(2) = 88.1%). Control salience and its dampening effect on other elements of the nervios experience, however, appeared to be key to whether subjects experienced negative reactions to being provoked or distressed. This evidence points to nervios being a powerful, holistic idiom of distress with at least six variables contributing to its affective negativity. This information is important to our understanding of how nervios unfolds and for accurate specification of a nervios model for clinical practice and research. It also sets the stage for improved therapeutic alliances with nervios sufferers, and social action to reduce factors that provoke nervios.

Benefits of positive relationship experiences for avoidantly attached individuals.

PubMed

Stanton, Sarah C E; Campbell, Lorne; Pink, Jennifer C

2017-10-01

Attachment avoidance is characterized by discomfort with closeness and a reluctance to develop intimacy with romantic partners, which contribute to heightened general negativity and lower satisfaction and self-disclosure in and out of their relationships. Recent research, however, has begun to uncover circumstances in which romantic partners and positive relationships buffer more avoidantly attached individuals against deleterious individual and relationship outcomes. Across 3 studies, using a multimethod approach encompassing both experimental and dyadic longitudinal diary methods, we investigated the effects of positive, intimacy-related relationship experiences on more avoidant persons' positive and negative affect, relationship quality, self-disclosure, and attachment security immediately and over time. Results revealed that more avoidant individuals exhibit a reduction of general negative affect in particular (Studies 1-2) and report greater relationship quality (Studies 2-3) in response to positive relationship experiences, and, following intimacy-promoting activities with their partner, engage in greater self-disclosure over time and demonstrate decreased attachment avoidance 1 month later (Study 3). These findings identify novel circumstances in which more avoidant persons' negative expectations of relationships may be countered, and suggest that relatively simple techniques can have potentially important short- and long-term implications for more avoidant individuals and their relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived discrimination and psychological well-being: the mediating and moderating role of sense of control.

PubMed

Jang, Yuri; Chiriboga, David A; Small, Brent J

2008-01-01

Being discriminated against is an unpleasant and stressful experience, and its connection to reduced psychological well-being is well-documented. The present study hypothesized that a sense of control would serve as both mediator and moderator in the dynamics of perceived discrimination and psychological well-being. In addition, variations by age, gender, and race in the effects of perceived discrimination were explored. Data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) survey (N=1554; age range = 45 to 74) provided supportive evidence for the hypotheses. The relationships between perceived discrimination and positive and negative affect were reduced when sense of control was controlled, demonstrating the role of sense of control as a mediator. The moderating role of sense of control was also supported, but only in the analysis for negative affect: the combination of a discriminatory experience and low sense of control markedly increased negative affect. In addition, age and gender variations were observed: the negative impact of perceived discrimination on psychological well-being was more pronounced among younger adults and females compared to their counterparts. The findings elucidated the mechanisms by which perceived discrimination manifested its psychological outcomes, and suggest ways to reduce adverse consequences associated with discriminatory experiences.

Self-reported experience of bullying of students who stutter: relations with life satisfaction, life orientation, and self-esteem.

PubMed

Blood, Gordon W; Blood, Ingrid M; Tramontana, G Michael; Sylvia, Anna J; Boyle, Michael P; Motzko, Gina R

2011-10-01

Self-reported self-esteem, life orientation, satisfaction with life, and bullying were examined in relation to victimization experiences among 54 students who stuttered and 54 students who did not stutter. Those who stuttered reported greater, i.e., clinically significant, victimization (44.4%) than students who did not stutter (9.2%). Significant differences were found between means for self-esteem and life orientation, with students who stuttered reporting lower self-esteem and less optimistic life orientation than those who did not stutter. In both groups of students, high victimization scores had statistically significant negative correlations with optimistic life orientation, high self-esteem, and high satisfaction with life scores. Given the increased likelihood of students who stuttered being bullied, the negative relation of adjustment variables and bullying, and the potentially negative long-term effects of bullying, increased vigilance and early intervention are discussed.

Anger, frustration, boredom and the Department of Motor Vehicles: Can negative emotions impede organ donor registration?

PubMed

Siegel, Jason T; Tan, Cara N; Rosenberg, Benjamin D; Navarro, Mario A; Thomson, Andrew L; Lyrintzis, Elena A; Alvaro, Eusebio M; Jones, Natalie D

2016-03-01

The IIFF Model (Information, Immediate and Complete Registration Mechanism, Focused Engagement, Favorable Activation) offers a checklist of considerations for interventions seeking to influence organ donor registration behavior. One aspect of the model, favorable activation, recommends considering the emotional and motivational state of a potential donor registrant. Given that most donor registrations occur at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), we considered whether emotions experienced while at the DMV could influence registration rates. The current research effort investigated the emotions people experience while visiting the DMV, explored whether these emotions are associated with donor registration intentions, and experimentally assessed whether DMV experiences influence donor registration. Three studies were conducted through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. In Study 1, we randomly assigned participants to either recall a prior DMV experience or to a comparison condition. Emotions associated with the recalled experiences were the dependent variable. Study 2 assessed the correlations between nine different emotions and donor registration intentions. Study 3 randomly assigned participants to recall a prior frustrating DMV experience or to a comparison condition. Intention to register to donate was the dependent variable. Study 1 found that recalling a prior DMV experience was associated with more negative and less positive emotions than the comparison condition. Study 2 found that increased levels of negative emotion could be problematic, as negative emotions were associated with decreased donor intentions. Study 3 found that recalling a frustrating DMV experience resulted in significantly lower intentions to register as an organ donor (vs. a control condition). Although not all DMV experiences are negative, these data indicated a relationship between the DMV and negative emotions; an association between negative emotions and lower donor registration intentions; and, a causal relationship between negative DMV experiences and decreased registration intentions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consequences of gynecological cancer in patients and their partners from the sexual and psychological perspective

PubMed Central

Woźniak, Katarzyna; Iżycka, Natalia

2016-01-01

The diagnosis of gynecological cancer and the following consequences of the treatment radically change the lives of cancer patients and their partners. Women experience negative consequences in terms of sexual, psychological and social functioning. Surgical treatment may result in a decrease in sexual pleasure and pain during intercourse. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can cause a loss of libido and negatively affect the capacity to experience pleasure or orgasm. Treatment-related changes may include the occurrence of body image disorders, decreased quality of life as well as depressive and anxiety disorders among patients. Furthermore, a negative influence on the relationship between the affected women and their partners, as well as an adverse effect on the social activity, can be observed. Cancer is not an individual experience. It also affects partners of the sick women in terms of psychological and sexual functioning. This article depicts possible problems encountered by cancer patients and their partners from the psychological and sexual perspective. The emphasis is put on understanding sexuality not only in the context of sexual performance, but also in a wider perspective. PMID:27582686

The role of social support in the psychological well-being of African American girls who experience dating violence victimization.

PubMed

Salazar, Laura F; Wingood, Gina M; DiClemente, Ralph J; Lang, Delia L; Harrington, Kathy

2004-04-01

The goals of this study were to test the relationship between dating violence victimization (i.e., verbal, emotional, and physical abuse) and psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptomatology, self-esteem, and body image) among 522 African American girls, and to determine whether social support acted as a buffer of negative effects (moderator) or as an intervening factor (mediator) in the relationship between dating violence victimization and psychological well-being. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that dating violence victimization was associated with negative psychological outcomes. Although social support did not moderate this relationship, it served as a mediator of the relationship between dating violence victimization and psychological well-being. Dating violence programs for African American girls should consider how to incorporate family, church, and other networks in the community to foster support, and allow adolescent girls to discuss their abusive experiences in a nonblaming environment. If programs are able to buoy girls who experience dating violence, then they may be able to ameliorate the associated negative psychological sequelae.

How safe are adolescents at Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings? A prospective investigation with outpatient youth.

PubMed

Kelly, John F; Dow, Sarah J; Yeterian, Julie D; Myers, Mark

2011-06-01

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) have proven to be cost-effective recovery resources for adults and also appear helpful for youth. However, anecdotal concerns about adolescents' safety at meetings have dampened enthusiasm regarding youth participation. Unfortunately, little information exists to evaluate such concerns. Outpatients (N = 127; 24% female) were assessed at intake and at 3, 6, and 12 months regarding perceived safety at AA/NA, experience of negative incidents, and reasons for nonattendance/discontinuation. By 12-month follow-up, 57.5% reported some AA/NA attendance with a combined lifetime exposure of 5,340 meetings. Of these, 21.9% reported at least one negative experience, which was more common among NA than AA attendees. Overall, youth reported feeling very safe at meetings, and ratings did not differ by age or gender. Reasons for discontinuation or nonattendance were unrelated to safety or negative incidents. Weighing risks against documented benefits, these preliminary findings suggest that referral to AA/NA should not be discouraged, but, similar to adults, youth experiences at meetings should be monitored. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Functional connectivity in task-negative network of the Deaf: effects of sign language experience

PubMed Central

Talavage, Thomas M.; Wilbur, Ronnie B.

2014-01-01

Prior studies investigating cortical processing in Deaf signers suggest that life-long experience with sign language and/or auditory deprivation may alter the brain’s anatomical structure and the function of brain regions typically recruited for auditory processing (Emmorey et al., 2010; Pénicaud et al., 2013 inter alia). We report the first investigation of the task-negative network in Deaf signers and its functional connectivity—the temporal correlations among spatially remote neurophysiological events. We show that Deaf signers manifest increased functional connectivity between posterior cingulate/precuneus and left medial temporal gyrus (MTG), but also inferior parietal lobe and medial temporal gyrus in the right hemisphere- areas that have been found to show functional recruitment specifically during sign language processing. These findings suggest that the organization of the brain at the level of inter-network connectivity is likely affected by experience with processing visual language, although sensory deprivation could be another source of the difference. We hypothesize that connectivity alterations in the task negative network reflect predictive/automatized processing of the visual signal. PMID:25024915

Effects of using structured templates for recalling chemistry experiments.

PubMed

Willoughby, Cerys; Logothetis, Thomas A; Frey, Jeremy G

2016-01-01

The way that we recall information is dependent upon both the knowledge in our memories and the conditions under which we recall the information. Electronic Laboratory Notebooks can provide a structured interface for the capture of experiment records through the use of forms and templates. These templates can be useful by providing cues to help researchers to remember to record particular aspects of their experiment, but they may also constrain the information that is recorded by encouraging them to record only what is asked for. It is therefore unknown whether using structured templates for capturing experiment records will have positive or negative effects on the quality and usefulness of the records for assessment and future use. In this paper we report on the results of a set of studies investigating the effects of different template designs on the recording of experiments by undergraduate students and academic researchers. The results indicate that using structured templates to write up experiments does make a significant difference to the information that is recalled and recorded. These differences have both positive and negative effects, with templates prompting the capture of specific information that is otherwise forgotten, but also apparently losing some of the personal elements of the experiment experience such as observations and explanations. Other unexpected effects were seen with templates that can change the information that is captured, but also interfere with the way an experiment is conducted. Our results showed that using structured templates can improve the completeness of the experiment context information captured but can also cause a loss of personal elements of the experiment experience when compared with allowing the researcher to structure their own record. The results suggest that interfaces for recording information about chemistry experiments, whether paper-based questionnaires or templates in Electronic Laboratory Notebooks, can be an effective way to improve the quality of experiment write-ups, but that care needs to be taken to ensure that the correct cues are provided.Graphical abstractScientists have traditionally recorded their research in paper notebooks, a format that provides great flexibility for capturing information. In contrast, Electronic Laboratory Notebooks frequently make use of forms or structured templates for capturing experiment records. Structured templates can provide cues that can improve record quality by increasing the amount of information captured and encouraging consistency. However, using the wrong cues can lead to a loss of personal elements of the experiment experience and frustrate users. This image shows two participants from one of our studies recording their experiment using a computer-based template.

Interactions with soil biota shift from negative to positive when a tree species is moved outside its native range.

PubMed

Gundale, Michael J; Kardol, Paul; Nilsson, Marie-Charlotte; Nilsson, Urban; Lucas, Richard W; Wardle, David A

2014-04-01

Studies evaluating plant-soil biota interactions in both native and introduced plant ranges are rare, and thus far have lacked robust experimental designs to account for several potential confounding factors. Here, we investigated the effects of soil biota on growth of Pinus contorta, which has been introduced from Canada to Sweden. Using Swedish and Canadian soils, we conducted two glasshouse experiments. The first experiment utilized unsterilized soil from each country, with a full-factorial cross of soil origin, tree provenance, and fertilizer addition. The second experiment utilized gamma-irradiated sterile soil from each country, with a full-factorial cross of soil origin, soil biota inoculation treatments, tree provenance, and fertilizer addition. The first experiment showed higher seedling growth on Swedish soil relative to Canadian soil. The second experiment showed this effect was due to differences in soil biotic communities between the two countries, and occurred independently of all other experimental factors. Our results provide strong evidence that plant interactions with soil biota can shift from negative to positive following introduction to a new region, and are relevant for understanding the success of some exotic forest plantations, and invasive and range-expanding native species. © 2014 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2014 New Phytologist Trust.

The relationship between subjective perception and the psychological effects of patients in spatial isolation.

PubMed

Ibert, Fabienne; Eckstein, Monika; Günther, Frank; Mutters, Nico T

2017-01-01

Background: Spatial isolation is a common infection control measure, but negative psychological effects are often neglected. We investigated which factors influence the perception of single room isolated patients. Methods: In the present correlative cross-sectional study, 32 isolated patients have been interviewed within three departments of the Heidelberg University Hospital, one of Germany's largest hospitals. The following questionnaires were used: 10-Item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and a self-developed questionnaire to evaluate the individual experience of isolation. Data were analysed using correlation and regression analysis. Results: A significant positive correlation was found between the isolation period and anxiety (r=.42, p<.05). Interestingly, a significant positive correlation was demonstrated between the duration of contact to nursing staff and negative daydreaming (r=.89, p<.01). The activity watching television was associated with higher levels of anxiety (r=.38, p<.05). Surfing the internet had a positive relationship with thinking about beautiful things (r=.41, p<.05). Conclusions: Our study results have implications how to improve the psychological situation of patients during spatial isolation. Contact between nursing staff and patients is crucial, since this contact significantly associated with negative daydreaming, probably due to increased neediness of emotional and physical care in some patients. The duration of the isolation has an influence on the experience of anxiety. Activities to cope with the isolation, however, not always have positive effects on the well-being of the patient.

The Effects of Mood, Cognitive Style, and Cognitive Ability on Implicit Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pretz, Jean E.; Totz, Kathryn Sentman; Kaufman, Scott Barry

2010-01-01

In an experiment with 109 undergraduates, we examined the effect of mood, cognitive style, and cognitive ability on implicit learning in the Artificial Grammar (AG) and Serial Reaction Time (SRT) tasks. Negative mood facilitated AG learning, but had no significant effect on SRT learning. Rational cognitive style predicted greater learning on both…

Negation in Context: A Functional Approach to Suppression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giora, Rachel; Fein, Ofer; Aschkenazi, Keren; Alkabets-Zlozover, Inbar

2007-01-01

Three experiments show that, contrary to the current view, comprehenders do not unconditionally deactivate information marked by negation. Instead, they discard negated information when it is functionally motivated. In Experiment 1, comprehenders discarded negated concepts when cued by a topic shift to dampen recently processed information.…

How parents' negative experiences at immunization visits affect child immunization status in a community in New York City.

PubMed

Stockwell, Melissa S; Irigoyen, Matilde; Martinez, Raquel Andres; Findley, Sally

2011-01-01

Little is known about how families' experiences with immunization visits within the medical home may affect children's immunization status. We assessed the association between families' negative immunization experiences within the medical home and underimmunization. We surveyed parents (n = 392) of children aged 2-36 months about immunization experiences at community health centers, hospital-based clinics, private practices, and community-based organizations in New York City. We used Chi-square tests and odds ratios (ORs) to assess the relationship between medical home elements and parental immunization experience ratings. We used multivariable analysis to determine the association between negative experiences during immunization visits and underimmunization, controlling for insurance, maternal education, and receipt of benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. The majority of children were of Latino race/ethnicity and had Medicaid and a medical home. One-sixth (16.9%) of families reported a previous negative immunization experience, primarily related to the child's reaction, waiting time, and attitudes of medical and office staff. Parents' negative immunization experiences were associated with the absence of four components of the medical home: continuity of care, family-centered care, compassionate care, and comprehensive care. In addition, children in families who reported a negative experience were more likely to have been underimmunized (adjusted OR = 2.00; 95% confidence interval 1.12, 3.58). In a community in New York City, underimmunization of young children was associated with negative immunization experiences. Strategies to improve family experiences with immunization visits within the medical home (particularly around support for the family), medical and ancillary staff attitudes, and reduced waiting time may lead to improved immunization delivery.

Differences in Experiences With Care Between Homeless and Nonhomeless Patients in Veterans Affairs Facilities With Tailored and Nontailored Primary Care Teams.

PubMed

Jones, Audrey L; Hausmann, Leslie R M; Kertesz, Stefan; Suo, Ying; Cashy, John P; Mor, Maria K; Schaefer, James H; Gundlapalli, Adi V; Gordon, Adam J

2018-05-12

Homeless patients describe poor experiences with primary care. In 2012, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented homeless-tailored primary care teams (Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team, HPACTs) that could improve the primary care experience for homeless patients. To assess differences in primary care experiences between homeless and nonhomeless Veterans receiving care in VHA facilities that had HPACTs available (HPACT facilities) and in VHA facilities lacking HPACTs (non-HPACT facilities). We used multivariable multinomial regressions to estimate homeless versus nonhomeless patient differences in primary care experiences (categorized as negative/moderate/positive) reported on a national VHA survey. We compared the homeless versus nonhomeless risk differences (RDs) in reporting negative or positive experiences in 25 HPACT facilities versus 485 non-HPACT facilities. Survey respondents from non-HPACT facilities (homeless: n=10,148; nonhomeless: n=309,779) and HPACT facilities (homeless: n=2022; nonhomeless: n=20,941). Negative and positive experiences with access, communication, office staff, provider rating, comprehensiveness, coordination, shared decision-making, and self-management support. In non-HPACT facilities, homeless patients reported more negative and fewer positive experiences than nonhomeless patients. However, these patterns of homeless versus nonhomeless differences were reversed in HPACT facilities for the domains of communication (positive experience RDs in non-HPACT versus HPACT facilities=-2.0 and 2.0, respectively); comprehensiveness (negative RDs=2.1 and -2.3), shared decision-making (negative RDs=1.2 and -1.8), and self-management support (negative RDs=0.1 and -4.5; positive RDs=0.5 and 8.0). VHA facilities with HPACT programs appear to offer a better primary care experience for homeless versus nonhomeless Veterans, reversing the pattern of relatively poor primary care experiences often associated with homelessness.

Dirty Money: The Role of Moral History in Economic Judgments.

PubMed

Tasimi, Arber; Gelman, Susan A

2017-04-01

Although traditional economic models posit that money is fungible, psychological research abounds with examples that deviate from this assumption. Across eight experiments, we provide evidence that people construe physical currency as carrying traces of its moral history. In Experiments 1 and 2, people report being less likely to want money with negative moral history (i.e., stolen money). Experiments 3-5 provide evidence against an alternative account that people's judgments merely reflect beliefs about the consequences of accepting stolen money rather than moral sensitivity. Experiment 6 examines whether an aversion to stolen money may reflect contamination concerns, and Experiment 7 indicates that people report they would donate stolen money, thereby counteracting its negative history with a positive act. Finally, Experiment 8 demonstrates that, even in their recall of actual events, people report a reduced tendency to accept tainted money. Altogether, these findings suggest a robust tendency to evaluate money based on its moral history, even though it is designed to participate in exchanges that effectively erase its origins. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

A Heavy Heart: The Association between Weight and Emotional Words.

PubMed

Zhao, Xueru; He, Xianyou; Zhang, Wei

2016-01-01

People often express emotion in language using weight (e.g., a heavy heart, light-hearted, light humor, or heavy-handed), but the question remains whether these expressions of emotion are rooted in the body. Six experiments used a priming paradigm to explore the metaphoric relation between weight perception and emotional words. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated the influence of weight perception on judgments of emotional words and the influence of emotional words on judgments of weight, respectively. A significant difference between the consistent condition (e.g., lightness corresponds to positive words and heaviness corresponds to negative words) and the inconsistent condition (e.g., lightness corresponds to negative words and heaviness corresponds to positive words) was found in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2. Experiments 3, 4, and 5 were conducted to exclude potential confounds. Experiment 6 was a repeated-measures study that was conducted to verify the weight-emotion effect. The study confirmed that weight perception affected judgments of emotional words. The results contribute to the growing literature on conceptual metaphor theory and embodied cognition theory.

Health Status during College Students' Transition to Adulthood: Health Behaviors, Negative Experiences, and the Mediating Effects of Personal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenzig, Melissa

2013-01-01

University attendance includes various activities and experiences that can have a unique impact on psychosocial development and adult health behaviors, and can influence life course outcomes such as short- and long-term health and quality of life. College attendance and health are cyclical and reinforcing factors. Healthier students do better…

A closer look at the hedonics of everyday meaning and satisfaction.

PubMed

Tov, William; Lee, Huey Woon

2016-10-01

Contrasts between eudaimonic well-being and hedonic well-being often compare meaning and happiness. Less work has examined the extent to which meaning and satisfaction can be distinguished. Across 5 diary studies (N = 923) and a large cross-sectional survey (N = 1,471), we examined the affective profile of meaning and satisfaction in everyday life. Using response surface methodology, both judgments were modeled as a joint function of positive (PA) and negative (NA) affect. Affective discrepancy (preponderance of PA over NA) was more strongly associated with satisfaction than meaning. In general, meaning correlated less with affect than satisfaction, but the 2 judgments differ more in their correlation with NA than PA. This implies that people are sometimes able to derive meaning (but not necessarily satisfaction) from negative experiences. We content-coded the events reported by participants for goal directedness, social interactions, and their potential future impact. Interpersonal conflicts and impactful negative events were associated with less satisfaction and meaning at zero-order. However, after controlling for affect and satisfaction, these negative experiences were associated with greater meaning. This effect may reflect additional cognitive processes that enhance meaning but not satisfaction. In all studies, we also observed a positivity dominance effect: At subjectively equivalent levels, PA is weighted more than NA in judgments of meaning and satisfaction. There was no evidence of negativity bias. Results were replicated across different measures and cultural groups (Singapore and the United States). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Differential Hedonic Experience and Behavioral Activation in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

PubMed Central

Tso, Ivy F.; Grove, Tyler B.; Taylor, Stephan F.

2014-01-01

The Kraepelinian distinction between schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BP) emphasizes affective and volitional impairment in the former, but data directly comparing the two disorders for hedonic experience are scarce. This study examined whether hedonic experience and behavioral activation may be useful phenotypes distinguishing SZ and BP. Participants were 39 SZ and 24 BP patients without current mood episode matched for demographics and negative affect, along with 36 healthy controls (HC). They completed the Chapman Physical and Social Anhedonia Scales, Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), and Behavioral Activation Scale (BAS). SZ and BP showed equally elevated levels of self-report negative affect and trait anhedonia compared to HC. However, SZ reported significantly lower pleasure experience (TEPS) and behavioral activation (BAS) than BP, who did not differ from HC. SZ and BP showed differential patterns of relationships between the hedonic experience and behavioral activation measures. Overall, the results suggest that reduced hedonic experience and behavioral activation may be effective phenotypes distinguishing SZ from BP even when affective symptoms are minimal. However, hedonic experience differences between SZ and BP are sensitive to measurement strategy, calling for further research on the nature of anhedonia and its relation to motivation in these disorders. PMID:24999173

Potential negative effects of perspective-taking efforts in the context of close relationships: increased bias and reduced satisfaction.

PubMed

Vorauer, Jacquie D; Sucharyna, Tamara A

2013-01-01

Three experiments demonstrated that trying to appreciate a close other's unique point of view (imagine-other perspective taking) increases the extent to which individuals overestimate their own transparency to the close other, that is, how many of their values, preferences, traits, and feelings are readily apparent to him or her. Trying to be objective and pay careful attention to cues from a close other, which inhibits perspective taking, instead had the opposite effect. Mediation analyses suggested that increased focus on the self as an object of evaluation contributed to the positive effect of imagine-other perspective taking on perceived transparency, and decreased focus on the self as an object of evaluation contributed to the negative effect of trying to be objective on these judgments. These effects on perceived transparency had important implications for relationship well-being: Enhanced perceived transparency of negative feelings prompted by imagine-other perspective taking during a back-and-forth exchange with a romantic partner led to systematic discrepancies between individuals' own and their partner's experience of the exchange and reduced relationship satisfaction; trying to be objective instead reduced perceived transparency and thereby increased satisfaction. Notably, initial closeness with another person enhanced rather than tempered the egocentric effects of perspective taking. Taken together, these results suggest that positive motivations to nurture a close relationship and be sensitive to a loved one might sometimes be better channeled toward paying closer attention to his or her behavior than toward perspective taking.

Divided attention interferes with fulfilling activity-based intentions.

PubMed

Brewer, Gene A; Ball, B Hunter; Knight, Justin B; Dewitt, Michael R; Marsh, Richard L

2011-09-01

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of divided attention on activity-based prospective memory. After establishing a goal to fulfill an intention upon completion of an ongoing activity, successful completion of the intention generally suffered when attention was being devoted to an additional task (Experiment 1). Forming an implementation intention at encoding ameliorated the negative effects of divided attention (Experiment 2). The results from the present experiments demonstrate that activity-based prospective memory is susceptible to distraction and that implementing encoding strategies that enhance prospective memory performance can reduce this interference. The current work raises interesting questions about the similarities and differences between event- and activity-based prospective memories. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Motivated reconstruction: The effect of brand commitment on false memories.

PubMed

Montgomery, Nicole Votolato; Rajagopal, Priyali

2018-06-01

Across 5 studies, we examine the effect of prior brand commitment on the creation of false memories about product experience after reading online product reviews. We find that brand commitment and the valence of reviews to which consumers are exposed, interact to affect the incidence of false memories. Thus, highly committed consumers are more susceptible to the creation of false experience memories on exposure to positive versus negative reviews, whereas low commitment consumers exhibit similar levels of false memories in response to both positive and negative reviews. Further, these differences across brand commitment are attenuated when respondents are primed with an accuracy motivation, suggesting that the biasing effects of commitment are likely because of the motivation to defend the committed brand. Finally, we find that differences in false memories subsequently lead to differences in intentions to spread word-of-mouth (e.g., recommend the product to friends), suggesting that the consequences of false product experience memories can be significant for marketers and consumers. Our findings contribute to the literatures in false memory and marketing by documenting a motivated bias in false memories because of brand commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of Motivational Goals on the Causal Realism of Counterfactual Thoughts.

PubMed

Kokkinaki, Flora; Sevdalis, Nick

2015-01-01

Counterfactual thinking refers to mental comparisons of reality with imagined alternatives of it. The "functional view" of counterfactual thinking suggests that upward counterfactuals (which improve on reality) serve a preparative function and downward counterfactuals (which worsen reality) serve an affective function. This view presumes that people generate counterfactuals that focus on cause(s) that have actually produced the negative outcomes. The two experiments reported here demonstrate that people spontaneously manipulate the causal content of their counterfactuals, depending on their motivational goals. Specifically, it was found that when people aim to feel better about a poor decision they generate less realistic (upward) counterfactuals, experience less negative affect and tend to attribute the outcome to less controllable causes than when they aim to learn from their experience. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Indications for Emergency Intervention, Mode of Delivery, and the Childbirth Experience.

PubMed

Handelzalts, Jonathan E; Waldman Peyser, Avigail; Krissi, Haim; Levy, Sigal; Wiznitzer, Arnon; Peled, Yoav

2017-01-01

Although the impact of emergency procedures on the childbirth experience has been studied extensively, a possible association of childbirth experience with indications for emergency interventions has not been reported. To compare the impacts on childbirth experience of 'planned' delivery (elective cesarean section and vaginal delivery) versus 'unplanned' delivery (vacuum extraction or emergency cesarean section); the intervention itself (vacuum extraction versus emergency cesarean section); and indications for intervention (arrest of labor versus risk to the mother or fetus). A total of 469 women, up to 72 hours post-partum, in the maternity ward of one tertiary health care institute completed the Subjective Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (score: 0-4, a higher score indicated a more negative experience) and a Personal Information Questionnaire. Intra-partum information was retrieved from the medical records. One-way analysis of variance and two-way analysis of variance, followed by analysis of covariance, to test the unique contribution of variables, were used to examine differences between groups in outcome. Tukey's Post-Hoc analysis was used when appropriate. Planned delivery, either vaginal or elective cesarean section, was associated with a more positive experience than unplanned delivery, either vacuum or emergency cesarean section (mean respective Subjective Childbirth Experience scores: 1.58 and 1.49 vs. 2.02 and 2.07, P <0.01). The difference in mean Subjective Childbirth Experience scores following elective cesarean section and vaginal delivery was not significant; nor was the difference following vacuum extraction and emergency cesarean section. Interventions due to immediate risk to mother or fetus resulted in a more positive birth experience than interventions due to arrest of labor (Subjective Childbirth Experience: 1.9 vs. 2.2, P <0.01). Compared to planned interventions, unplanned interventions were shown to be associated with a more negative maternal childbirth experience. However, the indication for unplanned intervention appears to have a greater effect than the nature of the intervention on the birth experience. Women who underwent emergency interventions due to delay of birth (arrest of labor) perceived their birth experience more negatively than those who underwent interventions due to risk for the mother or fetus, regardless of the nature of the intervention (vacuum or emergency cesarean section). The results indicate the importance of follow-up after unexpected emergency interventions, especially following arrest of labor, as negative birth experience may have repercussions in a woman's psychosocial life and well-being.