Instructional Set Moderates the Effect of GRE on Faculty Appraisals of Applicant Competence: A Vignette Study With Implications for Holistic Review.

While there is movement to create more equitable and holistic admission review processes, faculty continue to place strong emphasis on a single piece of information when making admissions decisions: standardized test scores. This study used an experimental design to test whether instructions provided to faculty prior to assessing doctoral applicants could support holistic review by reducing the weight of the general record examination (GRE) in faculty appraisals of competence and merit for graduate study. Tenured and/or tenure-track faculty (N=271) were randomly assigned to one of three instructional conditions: Control (no instruction), "Diamond in the Rough," and "Weed Out." In addition, faculty participants were randomly assigned to read one of two vignettes of a prospective first-generation student who either received high or average GRE scores. Faculty then rated the applicant's competence using a three-item survey. As expected, faculty who read the vignette describing the candidate with the high GRE rated him as more competent than faculty who read the average GRE vignette. In addition, being instructed to seek out diamonds in the rough buffered the effect of the GRE score on competence. Faculty were also asked to indicate whether they would need additional information to make an admissions decision. They were more likely to ask about grades and research skills than about psychosocial factors that might contextualize the candidate's performance and perceived competence. The results of this study have implications for creating more equitable doctoral admissions processes that center equity, diversity, and inclusion in decision making.

How Do I Help My Partner in Pain? Partners' Helping Behaviors Are Linked to Lower Pain and Greater Perceived Validation During an Experimental Pain Task.

BACKGROUND: Observers' responses to people with illness are important predictors of quality of life, yet findings are mixed regarding the types of responses that affect illness-related suffering. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine whether perspective taking positively affects observers' responses to their romantic partner experiencing experimentally induced pain and whether responses based in Self-Determination Theory and communication models of illness are related to perceived validation and pain outcomes. METHODS: Undergraduate romantic couples (N = 122) completed baseline questionnaires; then one partner was randomly assigned to complete the cold pressor task, whereas the other partner observed. Couples were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a perspective-taking group in which observers were privately instructed to take the perspective of the pain participant or a control group. Afterward, both partners completed surveys, and pain participants completed a video recall task in which they recalled partner behaviors that were coded by trained raters using a theoretically derived manual. RESULTS: Pain participants in the perspective-taking group identified significantly less invalidating communication from their partners, fewer behaviors that thwarted their competence, and more behaviors that supported their autonomy. Across groups, pain participants who received more normalizing communication that supported their competence felt more validated by their partners, had lower pain intensity, and exhibited greater pain tolerance, whereas those who received more invalidation showed worse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study suggest that attention to different types of partner behaviors is essential when developing behavioral medicine treatments for pain and illness.

Integrative Priming of Compositional and Locative Relations.

Integrative priming refers to the facilitated recognition of a target word (bench) as a real word following a prime (park). Prior integrative priming studies have used a wide variety of integrative relations including temporal (summer rain), topical (travel book), locative (forest river), and compositional (peach pie) relations. Yet differences in the types of integrative relations may yield differences in the underlying explanatory processes of integrative priming. In this study, we compared the magnitude, time course, and three theoretically based correlates of integrative priming for compositional (stone table) and locative (patio table) pairs in a lexical decision task across four stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs; 50, 300, 800, and 1,600 ms). Based on the Complementary Role Activation theory, integrative ratings (the extent to which the prime and target can be combined into a meaningful phrase) were predicted to facilitate target RTs. Based on the Embodied Conceptual Combination (ECCo) theory, the local co-occurrence of the prime and target, and the ability to perceptually simulate (visually experience) the prime-target pair were tested as predictors. In comparison to unrelated pairs (nose table), target RTs were faster for the compositional and locative pairs, though did not differ between these relations. In support of the Complementary Role Activation theory, integrative ratings predicted target RTs above and beyond our control variables. In support of the ECCo theory, co-occurrence emerged as an early predictor of target RTs, and visual experience ratings was a reliable predictor at the 300 ms SOA, though only for the compositional relations.

Pain Anxiety and Its Association With Pain Congruence Trajectories During the Cold Pressor Task.

Incongruence of pain severity ratings among people experiencing pain and their observers has been linked to psychological distress. Previous studies have measured pain rating congruence through static self-report, involving a single rating of pain; however, this method does not capture changes in ratings over time. The present study examined the extent to which partners were congruent on multiple ratings of a participants' pain severity during the cold pressor task. Furthermore, 2 components of pain anxiety-pain catastrophizing and perceived threat-were examined as predictors of pain congruence. Undergraduate couples in a romantic relationship (N = 127 dyads) participated in this study. Both partners completed measures of pain catastrophizing and perceived threat before randomization to their cold pressor participant or observer roles. Participants and observers rated the participant's pain in writing several times over the course of the task. On average, observers rated participants' pain as less severe than participants' rated their own pain. In addition, congruence between partners increased over time because of observers' ratings becoming more similar to participant's ratings. Finally, pain catastrophizing and perceived threat independently and jointly influenced the degree to which partners similarly rated the participant's pain. PERSPECTIVE: This article presents a novel application of the cold pressor task to show that pain rating congruence among romantic partners changes over time. These findings indicate that pain congruence is not static and is subject to pain anxiety in both partners.

Global and Situational Relationship Satisfaction Moderate the Effect of Threat on Pain in Couples.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that greater global and situational relationship satisfaction would reduce the negative impact of threatening information on acute pain. DESIGN: An experimental design was used to manipulate threat and elicit acute pain via a cold pressor task. SETTING: The study was completed in a research laboratory at a large urban university in the Midwestern USA. SUBJECTS: Participants were 134 couples, in which at least one individual was an undergraduate student. METHODS: After administration of a global relationship satisfaction measure, couples were randomly assigned to either receive high or low threatening information about the painful task. Following the threat manipulation, couples discussed the upcoming task and rated their satisfaction with the interaction (i.e., situational relationship satisfaction). The designated pain participant then completed the painful task alone. RESULTS: The threat manipulation altered couples' perceived threat of pain. Situational relationship satisfaction moderated the effect of threat on pain trajectories such that situational relationship satisfaction predicted less pain intensity at an earlier point in the task for the low threat condition than the high threat condition. Greater global relationship satisfaction predicted greater likelihood of task completion among those in the low threat condition, whereas it was unrelated to task completion in the high threat condition. Greater global relationship satisfaction also predicted lower pain intensity throughout the task. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that the interpersonal context is independently related to acute pain and may also alter the effect of threatening information on acute pain.

A Perspective-Taking Manipulation Leads to Greater Empathy and Less Pain During the Cold Pressor Task.

UNLABELLED: The objectives of this study were to demonstrate that empathy and validation could be increased in an observing partner who received a brief perspective-taking manipulation, resulting in less pain severity and greater pain tolerance in their partner, who experienced experimental pain. In addition, we examined the correlations between perceived empathy/validation and behavioral ratings of validation and invalidation. In 126 pain-free romantic couples, 1 partner was randomly assigned to complete the cold pressor task while the other observed. The couples were randomly assigned to a) a perspective-taking group in which observing partners were privately instructed to take the perspective of the pain participant; or b) a control group in which observing partners received only a description of the task. Compared with the control group, pain participants in the perspective-taking group reported that observing partners had been more validating during the task and they also reported significantly lower pain severity. In addition, pain participants' reports of their partners' validation and observing partners' self-reported empathic feelings were significantly related to lower pain severity over time. The results provide support that perspective taking may induce empathic feelings, in addition to perceptions of validation, which in turn promotes emotion regulation during pain. PERSPECTIVE: The experimental evidence in this study suggests that empathic feelings can be induced in significant others with simple instructions, and this manipulation leads to less pain in their partners undergoing a painful task. The results suggest that perspective taking, empathy, and validation should be further investigated as pain intervention targets.

A motivational therapeutic assessment improves pain, mood, and relationship satisfaction in couples with chronic pain.

UNLABELLED: The current study tested whether a therapeutic assessment improved pain and well-being in couples facing chronic pain. Couples (N = 47) in which 1 spouse had chronic pain completed surveys about pain, mood, marital satisfaction, and empathy, followed by an interview and an assessment session to which they were randomly assigned: a tailored assessment of their marriage and pain coping that incorporated motivational interviewing strategies, or a control condition that included education about the gate control theory of pain. Multilevel modeling revealed that couples in the motivational assessment group experienced significant decreases in pain severity and negative mood, and increases in marital satisfaction and positive mood from baseline to postassessment, relative to the education control group. All participants experienced increases in empathy toward their partner except for spouses in the control group, who experienced declines in spousal empathy. The motivational assessment and control groups did not experience differential change in any of the variables at 1-month follow-up. Moderators of improvement were also explored, including age, race, gender, education, pain duration, spouse pain status, and marriage duration. The results provide preliminary evidence for the short-term benefits of a brief motivational assessment to improve psychosocial functioning in both patients and spouses. PERSPECTIVE: This article presents preliminary evidence in support of a brief therapeutic psychosocial assessment for couples with chronic pain. Assessments such as this may potentially help patients and their spouses feel more optimistic about pain treatment and increase the likelihood of entering treatment.

Danger and usefulness are detected early in auditory lexical processing: evidence from electroencephalography.

Visual emotionally charged stimuli have been shown to elicit early electrophysiological responses (e.g., Ihssen, Heim, & Keil, 2007; Schupp, Junghöfer, Weike, & Hamm, 2003; Stolarova, Keil, & Moratti, 2006). We presented isolated words to listeners, and observed, using generalized additive modeling, oscillations in the upper part of the delta range, the theta range (Bastiaansen & Hagoort, 2003), and the lower part of the alpha range related to degree of (rated) danger and usefulness (Wurm, 2007) starting around 150 ms and continuing to 350 ms post stimulus onset. A negative deflection in the oscillations tied to danger around 250-300 ms fits well with a similar negativity observed in the same time interval for visual emotion processing. Frequency and competitor effects emerged or reached maximal amplitude later, around or following the uniqueness point. The early effect of danger, long before the words' uniqueness points, is interpreted as evidence for the dual pathway theory of LeDoux (1996).

Decreasing complexity of affective space in older adults lower on cognitive control: affective effects in a nonaffective task and with nonaffective stimuli.

Many theoretical accounts predict that as people age, they rely increasingly on affect. At least one account (Dynamic Integration Theory) makes the additional prediction that an accompanying effect of aging is a narrowing of affective space. These predictions were tested in the context of the relatively automatic low-level cognitive process of lexical access (auditory word recognition). Experiment 1 used emotion words and Experiment 2 used nonemotion words. Both experiments provided support for both predictions. Compared to younger adults (ns = 36 and 56), older adults (ns = 36 and 54) showed larger but less complex effects of dimensions of affective connotation. In addition, older adults with more cognitive resources showed a data pattern like that of younger adults, while those with fewer resources did not. Affective effects emerge even in nonaffective contexts. The tight link between affect and cognition is discussed.

A comparison of stimulus ratings made online and in person: gender and method effects.

In Experiment 1, separate samples rated nouns on danger, using either an online survey or the same survey in person. In Experiment 2, a single sample rated words on familiarity, using both methods. Women's in-person and online ratings correlated significantly better than men's. In-person ratings correlated significantly better with existing norms in 4 of 8 instances. There were significant effects of condition on mean ratings and completion times. Ratings from participants who withdrew from the experiment correlated significantly less well with existing norms than did ratings from those who completed the whole experiment, in 12 of 16 instances. Analysis of existing data showed that a different statistical conclusion is reached depending on whether in-person or online ratings are used. Furthermore, the categorization of 17.9% (Experiment 1) and 5.3% (Experiment 2) of the items as high or low depends on which ratings are used. Ratings gathered in person and online cannot be freely substituted.

Semantic effects in naming perceptual identification but not in delayed naming: implications for models and tasks.

Previous research has demonstrated that the subjective danger and usefulness of words affect lexical decision times. Usually, an interaction is found: Increasing danger predicts faster reaction times (RTs) for words low on usefulness, but increasing danger predicts slower RTs for words high on usefulness. The authors show the same interaction with immediate auditory naming. The interaction disappeared with a delayed auditory naming control experiment, suggesting that it has a perceptual basis. In an attempt to separate input (signal to ear) from output (brain to muscle) processes in word recognition, the authors ran 2 auditory perceptual identification experiments. The interaction was again significant, but performance was best for words high on both danger and usefulness. This suggests that initial demonstrations of the interaction were reflecting an output approach/withdraw response conflict induced by stimuli that are both dangerous and useful. The interaction cannot be characterized as a tradeoff of speed versus accuracy.

Danger and usefulness: an alternative framework for understanding rapid evaluation effects in perception?

Previous studies have shown effects of rated danger and usefulness on lexical access. All of them have used stimuli selected for connotations of danger and/or usefulness. Stimuli for the present lexical decision study were all of the nouns, verbs, and adjectives from the Balota et al. (2002) English Lexicon Project (subject to constraints relating to experimental control; none had anything to do with danger or usefulness). The interaction between danger and usefulness ratings previously demonstrated (Wurm & Vakoch, 2000; Wurm, Vakoch, Seaman, & Buchanan, 2004; Wurm, Whitman, Seaman, Hill, & Ulstad, 2007) was found for nouns, even when age of acquisition was controlled. It was also found for verbs and adjectives. The interaction is believed to reflect competing pressures to (1) avoid dangerous objects/events and (2) approach valuable resources. It may be a manifestation of the rapid evaluation effects pervasive in the literature. Post hoc analyses showed that danger and usefulness explain as much variance as valence and arousal, or evaluation, potency, and activity.

Recognition of spoken words: semantic effects in lexical access.

Until recently most models of word recognition have assumed that semantic auditory naming effects come into play only after the identification of the word in question. What little evidence exists for early semantic effects in word recognition lexical decision has relied primarily on priming manipulations using the lexical decision task, and has used visual stimulus presentation. The current study uses semantics auditory stimulus presentation and multiple experimental tasks, and does not use priming. Response latencies for 100 common nouns were found to speech perception depend on perceptual dimensions identified by Osgood (1969): Evaluation, Potency, and Activity. In addition, the two-way interactions between these word recognition dimensions were significant. All effects were above and beyond the effects of concreteness, word length, frequency, onset phoneme characteristics, stress, and neighborhood density. Results are discussed against evidence from several areas of research suggesting a role of behaviorally important information in perception.

Performance in auditory and visual emotional stroop tasks: a comparison of older and younger adults.

Research has shown age-related declines in the cognitive ability to inhibit irrelevant information. Thirty-six younger adults (mean age = 22 years) and 36 older adults (mean age = 74 years) performed 2 versions of an emotional Stroop task. In one, they made lexical decisions to emotion words spoken in 1 of several tones of voice. Latencies were longer for test words spoken in an incongruent tone of voice, but only for older adults. In another, words were displayed on a computer screen in a colored font, and participants quickly named the font color. Latencies were longer for test words high on arousal, but only for older adults. Results are discussed in terms of inhibitory cognitive processes, attention, and theories of emotional development.