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Laboratory Tasks (laboratory + task)
Selected AbstractsExperimentally manipulated change in children's proactive and reactive aggressive behaviorAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 3 2003Nancy C. Phillips Abstract The current study assessed the effectiveness of two behavior manipulations created to differentially lower aggressive responses in a laboratory task. It was hypothesized that the reactive anger manipulation would have the greatest effect for reactive aggressive behavior and the instrumental manipulation would significantly affect proactive aggressive behavior and slightly affect the reactive behavior. Fifty participants played pinball in competition for points against an unknown peer, whose responses were actually controlled by the experimenter. Participants could push a noise button, sending the peer an annoying noise; a tilt button, interfering with the opponent's game; or a no answer button, offering a pro-social alternative to aggression. After playing four rounds, participants were randomly assigned to either a reactive anger or a positive instrumental manipulation group; they then played pinball again for four rounds. Results indicate that the instrumental manipulation significantly lowered aggressive responses for both reactive and proactive behavior. The reactive manipulation effected aggressive responses only for use of the noise button and produced significantly lower levels of anger. Aggr. Behav. 29:215,227, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Virtual week and actual week: Age-related differences in prospective memoryAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2000Peter G. Rendell Several previous studies have shown that whereas young adults perform better than older adults on prospective memory (PM) tasks in the laboratory, this superiority is often reversed in real-life PM tasks. The present studies investigated this paradox by creating a laboratory task in the form of a board game (Virtual Week) that mimicked many features of daily living. It was hypothesized that older adults might use strategies derived from their more structured lives to outperform young adults on the board game. However, contrary to our prediction, it was found that younger adults were superior. In Experiment 2 we had participants perform very similar PM tasks in real life (Actual Week), and found that now the older adults were generally superior to their younger counterparts. Possible reasons are discussed for this striking age-related difference between laboratory-based and naturalistic PM tasks. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Stability of individual differences in cellular immune responses to two different laboratory tasksPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 6 2002Anna L. Marsland To explore the stability of immune reactivity across laboratory tasks, we correlated enumerative and functional lymphocyte responses to a speech task and a mental arithmetic task, delivered on the same occasion of testing in 31 healthy undergraduates. Both tasks were associated with an increase in peripheral CD8+ and CD56+ cell populations, and a decrease in proliferative response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and ratio of CD4:CD8 cells. Intertask correlations were significant for the magnitude of change in proliferative responses at two different concentrations of PHA, r= 0.76, p < .0001 and r= 0.46, p < .05, and in numbers of circulating CD56+ cells, r= 0.46, p < .005. Concomitant heart rate and systolic blood pressure responses also correlated significantly over the two experimental tasks (heart rate: r= 0.52 and systolic blood pressure: r= 0.58. ps < .0005). These data provide initial evidence that interindividual variability of some cellular immune responses is moderately reproducible across different stimulus conditions, providing further evidence that it may denote a stable individual difference. [source] Self in Context: Autonomy and Relatedness in Japanese and U.S. Mother,Preschooler DyadsCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2002Tracy A. Dennis Cultural differences and similarities in socialization during two contrasting laboratory tasks were examined in 30 Japanese mothers and their preschoolers, both temporarily residing in the United States, and 30 U.S. mothers and their preschoolers (age: M= 55.8 months, SD= 4.9). Mother and child actions, speech, emotion, and attention were coded from videotaped observations during a free play task and waiting task. Cross,cultural comparisons showed that U.S. mothers had more conversations that emphasized individual experiences, more often acted as playmates and used joint attention, maintained more physical distance, showed more positive emotions, and made more positive responses to child accomplishment. In contrast, Japanese mothers had more conversations that emphasized shared experiences, showed more divided attention, and maintained social role distinctions. Similar, but fewer cultural differences emerged for children. However, maternal and child characteristics also varied by task context. The results suggested an emphasis on autonomy in U.S. dyads and an emphasis on relatedness in Japanese dyads, but the interactions with task context revealed the coexistence of autonomy and relatedness. [source] |