Face to face versus Facebook: does exposure to social networking web sites augment or attenuate physiological arousal among the socially anxious?

The present study tested two competing hypotheses about the effect of Facebook exposure on the physiological arousal level of participants who then encountered the stimulus person in a face-to-face situation. Facebook exposure may attenuate later arousal by providing increased comfort and confidence, but it is also possible that Facebook exposure will augment arousal, particularly among the socially anxious. Participants completed a measure of social anxiety and were exposed to a stimulus person via Facebook, face to face, or both. Galvanic skin response was recorded during the exposures to the stimulus person. Results were consistent with the augmentation hypothesis: a prior exposure on Facebook will lead to increased arousal during a face-to-face encounter, particularly for those high in social anxiety.

Cueing confidence in eyewitness identifications: influence of biased lineup instructions and pre-identification memory feedback under varying lineup conditions.

Students watched a theft video, attempted an identification from a thief-present or thief-absent lineup under unbiased or biased instructions, and rated identification confidence. In Experiment 1, the participants received (bogus) positive, negative, or no pre-identification feedback about a recall test. Biased instructions and positive feedback increased confidence and ratings of eyewitnessing conditions. In Experiment 2, biased instructions increased confidence unless the thief was absent and lineup members were similar, where they decreased confidence. According to the cue-belief model, biased instructions send a positive accuracy cue regarding the most familiar-looking lineup member. If none stands out, instructions conflict with an inclination to reject the lineup. Feedback may create a belief about memory quality that is a cue regarding likely recognition accuracy.

Timing of eyewitness expert testimony, jurors' need for cognition, and case strength as determinants of trial verdicts.

In 2 experiments, college students read a murder-trial transcript that included or did not include court-appointed expert testimony about eyewitness memory. The testimony either preceded or followed the evidence, and the judge's final instructions reminded or did not remind jurors about the expert's testimony. Expert testimony decreased perceptions of guilt and eyewitness believability when it followed the evidence and preceded the judge's reminder. This effect occurred whether the prosecution case was moderately weak or moderately strong. Jurors' need for cognition (NC) was curvilinearly related to convictions in a strong case. Low and high NC jurors convicted less than did moderate NC jurors. Greater scrutiny by high NC jurors may make them more likely to consider evidence for the weaker side.

Assessing the health of adult daughter former caregivers for elders with Alzheimer's disease.

Past research is varied in assessing the effect of caregiving on health, particularly caregivers in the postcaregiving phase. The variation may be due, in part, to methodological issues, including the use of health measures not psychometrically tested. The study examines the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) health survey with 102 former caregivers whose family member was deceased for at least one year at the time of the study and had been identified as having Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder. The SF-36 measures eight dimensions of physical and mental health and has been tested on a variety of populations, though not with former daughter caregivers. Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the factorial validity of the SF-36 for this population, indicating it is a promising tool for understanding postcaregiver health.

Factor analysis of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire in a middle-aged community sample.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) in a large community sample. METHOD: This study is a cross-sectional survey design that utilized face-to-face interviews. Participants were recruited through their participation in the St. Louis Epidemiological Catchment Area study. Subjects (N = 753) were re-interviewed 11 years after their initial ECA interview, with the goal of detection of new cases of alcoholism. Of the 733 who completed the AEQ, 62% were women and 52% were married. Ages ranged from 29 to 62, with an avenge (SD) age of 43 (8.18). The racial breakdown of the sample was diverse, with 57% white, 38% black and 5% of another ethnicity. RESULTS: The AEQ is comprised of six factors that explain 47% of the variance in the AEQ. Five of the factors have strong internal consistency, ranging from 0.78 to 0.93. The sixth factor has an internal consistency of 0.51. CONCLUSIONS: Using a large community sample, the results reported herein replicate those of the original researchers.

The psychology of telling murder stories: do we think in scripts, exemplars, or prototypes?

According to the story model of Pennington and Hastie, jurors collect information at trial and modify it with general knowledge to create case stories. Schank and Ableson argue that human memory is organized to tell and understand stories. However, Finkel and Groscup questioned the use of manipulated, experimenter-constructed narratives to demonstrate the existence of multiple prototypical crime stories. We interviewed 76 jury eligible, death qualified citizens and asked them to imagine a first-degree murder scenario, describing the events that led to the killing. We coded the presence of dichotomous variables in the resulting stories and identified at least three shared story prototypes using cluster and profile analysis. We conclude that people do not store crime stories as simple prototypes and comment on the implications of this finding for legal decision-making.