The role of attentional and motivational factors in stereotyping

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DX199544 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The effects of an elderly stereotype prime on reaching and grasping actions

It has been shown that prior exposure to words associated with an elderly stereotype slows down the rate at which participants walk to an elevator upon leaving the laboratory (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996). Yet neuropsychological evidence suggests that simple motor actions should not be influenced by such a prime. We investigated the effects of an elderly prime on a different type of simple action: a reaching and grasping task. This task was chosen because particular emphasis can be placed on where the effects of an elderly stereotype prime lie within the overall action sequence. The results showed that relative duration of the gaps in between ballistic actions increased compared with the relative duration of the actions themselves, slowing down part of the action sequence. This work therefore effectively reconciles apparently conflicting accounts of how a stereotype prime can affect action

A d.c. magnetic metamaterial

Electromagnetic metamaterials are a class of materials that have been artificially structured on a subwavelength scale. They are currently the focus of a great deal of interest because they allow access to previously unrealizable properties such as a negative refractive index. Most metamaterial designs have so far been based on resonant elements, such as split rings, and research has concentrated on microwave frequencies and above. Here, we present the first experimental realization of a non-resonant metamaterial designed to operate at zero frequency. Our samples are based on a recently proposed template for an anisotropic magnetic metamaterial consisting of an array of superconducting plates. Magnetometry experiments show a strong, adjustable diamagnetic response when a field is applied perpendicular to the plates. We have calculated the corresponding effective permeability, which agrees well with theoretical predictions. Applications for this metamaterial may include non-intrusive screening of weak d.c. magnetic fields