The role of task difficulty and affect activation level in the use of affect as information

The current research examined task difficulty and affect activation level as factors that determine the relevance of affect as information in a performance context. Participants viewed a series of pictures designed to elicit an affective state that was high or low in activation and positive or negative in valence. They completed an easy or difficult anagram task and then rated their satisfaction with their performance. Analyses revealed that low activation affect was used as information for judging one's performance on the difficult task and high activation affect was used as information for judging one's performance on the easy task. In these cases, the valence of participants' affect influenced their judgments about their performance, such that positive affect resulted in greater satisfaction. These findings suggest that affective states with activation levels that match one's typical level of energy after a particular task are seen as more relevant for judging one's performance

Priming and social desirability of self-reported religiosity and alcohol consumption.

This research evaluated response biases of religiosity and alcohol consumption. Religiosity was assessed before or after questions regarding alcohol consumption. Participants who indicated religiosity first reported fewer drinks and drinking less frequently. Priming religion may result in underreporting drinking and these effects are not simply the result of socially desirability

Priming and social desirability of self-reported religiosity and alcohol consumption.

This research evaluated response biases of religiosity and alcohol consumption. Religiosity was assessed before or after questions regarding alcohol consumption. Participants who indicated religiosity first reported fewer drinks and drinking less frequently. Priming religion may result in underreporting drinking and these effects are not simply the result of socially desirability

Social-norms interventions for light and nondrinking students

Social-norms approaches to alcohol prevention are based on consistent findings that most students overestimate the prevalence of drinking among their peers. Most interventions have been developed for heavy-drinking students, and the applicability of social-norms approaches among abstaining or light-drinking students has yet to be evaluated. The present research aimed to evaluate the impact of two types of online social-norms interventions developed for abstaining or light-drinking students. Identification with other students was evaluated as a moderator. Participants included 423 freshmen and sophomore college students who reported never or rarely drinking at screening. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) personalized-norms feedback, (b) social-norms marketing ads, or (c) attention control. Data were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models. Results provided some support for both interventions but were stronger for social-norms marketing ads, particularly among participants who identified more closely with other students

Clonally expanded memory CD8+ T cells accumulate in atherosclerotic plaques and are pro-atherogenic in aged mice

Aging is a strong risk factor for atherosclerosis and induces accumulation of memory CD8+ T cells, yet the role of aging on CD8+ T cells during atherogenesis is unclear. Here we found that depletion of CD8+ T cells attenuated atherogenesis in aged, but not young mice. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of splenic CD8+ T cells, which contain a high proportion of memory T cells, from aged wild-type, but not young wild-type donors, significantly enhanced atherosclerosis in Cd8-/- recipient mice. Thus, we characterized T cells in healthy and atherosclerotic young and aged mice by single-cell RNA-sequencing. We found that with aging effector memory, central memory, and granzyme K+ effector memory CD8+ T cells accumulate and are clonally expanded within atherosclerotic plaques and aging altered transcriptomic profiles related to CD8+ T cell activation, migration, cytotoxicity, and exhaustion. Overall, our study identifies memory CD8+ T cells as potential therapeutic targets for reducing atherosclerosis in older adults