The authors argue that nonword repetition priming in lexical decision is the net result of 2 opposing processes. First, repeating nonwords in the lexical decision task results in the storage of a memory trace containing the interpretation that the letter string is a nonword; retrieval of this trace leads to an increase in performance for repeated…

Experiments investigate hypothesis that vulnerable self-esteem internals and externals react more defensively to negative intellectual and personality feedback than congruent internals and externals. Suggested that consistently internal view of causation may increase stress in evaluative situations. Discusses implications for understanding…

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a mechanism that results in a performance disadvantage typically observed when targets are presented at a location once occupied by a cue. Although the time course of the phenomenon--from the cue to the target--has been well studied, the time course of the effect--from target to response--is unknown. In 2…

Cataphoric devices are described as spoken devices that enable forward reference. Spoken stress and the indefinite "this" were studied as cataphoric devices in 3 experiments involving 262 college students. Results demonstrate three ways in which concepts marked by cataphoric devices gain a privileged status in listeners' mental…

Explored English-learning infants' capacities to segment bisyllabic words from fluent speech in a series of 15 experiments. Findings suggest that English learners may rely heavily on stress cues when they begin to segment words from fluent speech, but within a few months, infants learn to integrate multiple sources of information about word…

Remembering the past and envisioning the future are at the core of one's sense of identity. Neuroimaging studies investigating the neural substrates underlying past and future episodic events have been growing in number. However, the experimental paradigms used to select and elicit episodic events vary greatly, leading to disparate results,…

A series of pilot experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of stress induced by load and interference on the acquisition and retention of a path finding skill, and to investigate the relationship between two path finding strategies--retention of strings of instructions and understanding of global relationships--as components of…

Lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) were used to determine the stage(s) of reaction time (RT) responsible for speed-accuracy trade-offs (SATs). Speeded decisions based on several types of information were examined in 3 experiments, involving, respectively, a line discrimination task, lexical decisions, and an Erikson flanker task. Three levels…

Interactive computerized modules have been linked to improved retention of material in clinical medicine. This study examined the effects of a new series of interactive learning modules for preclinical medical education, specifically in the areas of quiz performance, perceived difficulty of concepts, study time, and perceived stress level. We…

Emotionally charged experiences alter memory storage via the activation of hormonal systems. Previously, we have shown that compared with rats trained for a massed spatial learning task in the water maze in warm water (25 degrees C), animals that were trained in cold water (19 degrees C) performed better and showed higher levels of the stress…

Eight graduate students were used as experimenters in this study to assess the effects of experimentally induced experimenter outcome bias with respect to selected suprasegmental phenomena (pitch, stress, and terminal intonation) emitted by the experimenters during the instruction reading phase of a behavioral experiment. Experimenters were led to…

Affective and behavioural indicators of the effects of schooling, and of other interventions, might be more important than cognitive indicators, particularly in the long run and considering the urgent need for civil societies. Examples are provided of the statistical properties of affective and behavioural indicators, and of their current use in…

Recent scientific literature was searched to review procedures currently being used to study human reactions to work and environmental stress. An ecological context is followed, considering task variables, environmental conditions, individual variations in subjects, and physiological, psychophysical, psychological, and sociological responses. The…

Stress facilitates memory formation, but only when the stressor is closely linked to the learning context. These effects are, at least in part, mediated by corticosteroid hormones. Here we demonstrate that corticosterone rapidly facilitates synaptic potentiation in the mouse hippocampal CA1 area when high levels of the hormone and high-frequency…

The culture assimilator, a programed self-instructional approach to culture training, is described and a series of laboratory experiments and field studies validating the culture assimilator are reviewed. These studies show that the culture assimilator is an effective method of decreasing some of the stress experienced when one works with people…