In three experiments we explored the relation between normal variation in depressed mood and memory in college students. Subjects read and subsequently recalled stories whose protagonists experienced good, bad, and neutral events. Contrary to predictions arising independently from capacity theory and from schema theory, the recall of depressed and nondepressed subjects did not differ in either overall level or in affective content. The results are not easily handled by a conceptualization of depression, tied to schema theory, which proposes that negative cognitions are important for the initiation and maintenance of depression. The general usefulness of induction procedures in research on the depressive syndrome is discussed.
Background Nonpharmacologic strategies to manage dementia-related behavioral symptoms depend upon caregiver implementation. Caregivers may vary in readiness to use strategies. We examined characteristics associated with readiness, extent readiness changed during intervention, and predictors of change in readiness. Methods Data from a randomized trial involving 119 caregivers in a nonpharmacologic intervention for managing behavioral symptoms. Baseline measures included caregiver, patient, and treatment-related factors. At initial (2 weeks from baseline) and final (16-weeks) intervention sessions, interventionists rated caregiver readiness as pre-action (precontemplation=1; contemplation=2; preparation=3) or action (=4). Ordinal logistic regression identified baseline characteristics associated with initial readiness. Mc Nemar-Bowker test of symmetry described change in readiness; binary logistic regression identified baseline predictors of change in readiness (initial-to-final session). One-way MANOVA identified treatment factors (dose/intensity, number of strategies used, perceived benefits, therapeutic engagement) associated with change in readiness. Results At initial intervention session, 67.2% (N=80) of caregivers were in pre-action, 32.8% (N=39) in action. Initial high readiness was associated with better caregiver mood, less financial difficulty, lower patient cognition and more behavioral symptoms. By final session, 72% (N=79) were in action, 28% (N=31) in pre-action; caregivers with less financial difficulty improved in readiness (B =−.70, p=.017); those in action were more therapeutically engaged (F (2,107)=3.61, p=.030) and perceived greater intervention benefits (F (2, 88)=6.06, p=.003). Conclusion Whereas patient and caregiver-related factors were associated with initial readiness, financial stability, therapeutic engagement and perceived benefits enhanced probability of change. Understanding caregiver readiness and factors associated with its change may be important considerations in nonpharmacologic interventions.
The reported experiment tested the suggestion that encoding of temporal order is automatic. Specifically, two of Hasher and Zacks's (1979) automaticity criteria were examined: (1) that the amount and appropriateness of practice received would not affect acquisition of temporal information, and (2) that reliable individual differences would not be found on a test of memory for temporal order. Contrary to expectations, neither of these criteria was confirmed: Retention of temporal order increased with practice at three (or four) successive lists. And, reliable individual differences were indicated by the findings that subjects' relative performance levels remained stable across lists, and that groups with higher average academic ability outperformed those with lower ability. Similar results were obtained for a free-recall task (in which case they were expected
The media remains a powerful presence in U.S. culture. It gives people news of world and local events, it entertains, and it may even function as a companion to children. Because it functions as a window to the outside world, what appears across its landscape actually may become people's reality. Thus, the potential for distorting their view of that world is high if the picture provided is unrepresentative of actual events. For example, the prevalence of violent acts on television has been linked to increased aggression and escalating impressions of a dangerous world, and the overrepresentation of youth and beauty may be a causal factor of eating disorders. In this article, we explore the possibility that the media may also serve as a powerful creator of the very public opinions it seeks to reflect in its news. Subtle nonverbal cues of newscasters have been shown to influence voting behavior, and the media's overrepresentation of the proportion of blacks in povert may decrease whites' support of welfare. By portraying a world in which people's opinions are based on their ethnic or demographic group membership, the media may also subtly but powerfully create the very opinions they seek to reflect.
In the five experiments reported here we attempted to demonstrate an effect on item memorability of the amount of effort expended during the encoding process. The encoding task in two experiments was anagram solving; here, solution difficulty was varied. In the third experiment, subjects were required to judge whether a word fit meaningfully into a sentence frame, arid the ease of making this decision was manipulated. The final two experiments involved picture naming under time pressure; pictures were displayed either with no labels (easy condition) or, as in the picture-word version of the Stroop task, with superimposed interfering labels (hard condition). In none of the experiments did our manipulations of difficulty/ effortfumess of encoding influence item retention. These findings raise questions about the robustness of the effort phenomenon.The relation between amount of cognitive effort expended during encoding and the subsequent memorability of inputs has received considerable attention of late. A frequently reported finding is that the more effort required by an orienting or cover task, the greater is the incidental retention of the items encountered during the cover task (e.g., Jacoby, Craik,
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