No abstract

It generally is accepted that religiosity is associated with increased optimism and decreased pessimism. However, the empirical link between religiosity and optimistic and pessimistic expectancy outcomes remains underexamined. This study explored the association between early and current organizational religiosity, subjective religiosity and spirituality, positive and negative perceived relationship with God, and dispositional optimism and pessimism among a sample of African Americans (N = 307). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that age, subjective spirituality, and a positive relationship with God were positive, independent predictors of optimism. Education, combined household income, and subjective spirituality negatively predicted pessimism. Negative relationship with God was a positive predictor of pessimism. Subjective religiosity and early and current organizational religious involvement did not predict optimism or pessimism. The significance of these findings is discussed.

Three experiments were conducted to study motor programs used by expert singers to produce short tonal melodies. Each experiment involved a response-priming procedure in which singers prepared to sing a primary melody but on 50% of trials had to switch and sing a different (secondary) melody instead. In Experiment 1, secondary melodies in the same key as the primary melody were easier to produce than secondary melodies in a different key. Experiment 2 showed that it was the initial note rather than key per se that affected production of secondary melodies. In Experiment 3, secondary melodies involving exact transpositions were easier to sing than secondary melodies with a different contour than the primary melody. Also, switches between the keys of C and G were easier than those between C and E. Taken together, these results suggest that the initial note of a melody may be the most important element in the motor program, that key is represented in a hierarchical form, and that melodic contour is represented as a series of exact semitone offsets.

No abstract

No abstract