Are you insulting me? Exposure to alcohol primes increases aggression following ambiguous provocation

Considerable research has shown that alcohol consumption can increase aggression and produce extremes in other social behaviors. Although most theories posit that such effects are caused by pharmacological impairment of cognitive processes, recent research indicates that exposure to alcohol-related constructs, in the absence of consumption, can produce similar effects. Here we tested the hypothesis that alcohol priming is most likely to affect aggression in the context of ambiguous provocation. Experiment 1 showed that exposure to alcohol primes increased aggressive retaliation but only when an initial provocation was ambiguous; unambiguous provocation elicited highly aggressive responses regardless of prime exposure. Experiment 2 showed that alcohol prime exposure effects are relatively short-lived and that perceptions of the provocateur’s hostility mediated effects of prime exposure on aggression. These findings suggest modification and extension of existing models of alcohol-induced aggressio

The gatekeeper: individual differences are key in the chain from perception to behaviour

A basic assumption in mainstream social cognition is that the path from perception to behaviour is often automatic and direct, as supported for example by several experimental studies showing that priming can lead directly to a congruent behaviour without any need of conscious awareness of the process. However, we argue that the priming of a goal or an object activates individual differences in automatic evaluations at the associative level that in turn are the key predictors of action (gatekeeper model). A study (n = 90) on the American stereotype is presented to support the model. The results show that individual differences of the American stereotype as assessed with the IAT predicts a relevant action (essay evaluation) but only under condition of priming. Broader implications for predictive validity of implicit measures are also discussed

Evidence of the validity and accuracy of the Brazilian social attitude of students scale towards politics

Objetivou-se apresentar as evidências de validade e confiabilidade de uma escala brasileira para medir atitudes políticas de estudantes brasileiros de nível superior ante seus comportamentos políticos. O estudo teve uma amostra de abrangência nacional (N = 445), com estudantes brasileiros oriundos de distintos estados. Os resultados indicaram uma estrutura empírica sustentável (teste de Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin - KMO = 0,81), com indicadores psicométricos considerados adequados à mensuração das atitudes políticas. Três fatores empíricos foram identificados: grau de conhecimento sobre política (15 itens, cargas fatoriais entre 0,31 e 0,82, alfa = 0,82, eigenvalue = 5,07 e variância explicada = 18,78 %), afetos relativos à política (7 itens, cargas fatoriais entre 0,41 e 0,58, alfa = 0,72, eigenvalue = 3,17 e variância explicada = 11,73 %) e intenções de comportamento político (2 itens, cargas fatoriais entre 0,70 e 0,72, alfa = 0,80, eigenvalue = 1,8 e variância explicada = 6,8 %). Conclui-se que os resultados fortalecem a estrutura fatorial original da escala e mostram sua utilidade para a identificação de atitudes sociais ante comportamentos políticos.El objetivo de la presente investigación fue presentar las pruebas de confiabilidad y validez de una escala brasileña para medir las actitudes políticas de los estudiantes universitarios brasileños ante su comportamiento político. El estudio contó con una muestra nacional (N = 445) de estudiantes brasileños de diferentes Estados. Los resultados indicaron una estructura empírica sustentable (KMO = .81), con indicadores psicométricos que se consideran adecuados para la medición de las actitudes políticas. Específicamente, se identificaron tres factores empíricos: nivel de conocimiento sobre la política (15 ítems, cargas factoriales entre .31 y .82, alfa = .82, eigenvalue = 5.07 y varianza explicada = 18.78 %), sentimientos acerca de la política (7 ítems, factoriales de .41 y .58, alfa = .72, eigenvalue = 3.17 y varianza explicada = 11.73 °/o) e intenciones del comportamiento político (2 ítems, factoriales de .70 y .72, alfa = .80, eigenvalue = 1.8 y varianza explicada = 6.8 %). Se llegó a la conclusión de que los resultados apoyan la estructura factorial original de la escala y muestran su utilidad en la identificación de las actitudes sociales ante la conducta política.The objective of this study was to present the validity and reliability evidences of a Brazilian scale to measure the political attitudes of Brazilian higher education students regarding their political behavior. The study had a nationwide sample (N = 445), with Brazilian students from different states. The results indicated a sustainable empirical structure (KMO = 0.81), with psychometric indicators considered adequate to the measurement of political attitudes. Three empirical factors were identified: degree of political knowledge (15 items, factorial loads between 0.31 and 0.82, alpha = 0.82, eigenvalue = 5.07 and explained variance = 18.78%), feelings about politics (7 items, factorial loads between 0.41 and 0.58, alpha = 0.72, eigenvalue = 3.17 and explained variance = 11.73%) and intentions of political behavior (2 items, factorial loads between 0, 70 and 0.72, alpha = 0.80, eigenvalue = 1.8 and explained variance = 6.8%). It is concluded that the results strengthen the original factorial structure of the scale and show its utility for the identification of social attitudes regarding political behaviors

Behavioral Priming: It's All in the Mind, but Whose Mind?

The perspective that behavior is often driven by unconscious determinants has become widespread in social psychology. Bargh, Chen, and Burrows' (1996) famous study, in which participants unwittingly exposed to the stereotype of age walked slower when exiting the laboratory, was instrumental in defining this perspective. Here, we present two experiments aimed at replicating the original study. Despite the use of automated timing methods and a larger sample, our first experiment failed to show priming. Our second experiment was aimed at manipulating the beliefs of the experimenters: Half were led to think that participants would walk slower when primed congruently, and the other half was led to expect the opposite. Strikingly, we obtained a walking speed effect, but only when experimenters believed participants would indeed walk slower. This suggests that both priming and experimenters' expectations are instrumental in explaining the walking speed effect. Further, debriefing was suggestive of awareness of the primes. We conclude that unconscious behavioral priming is real, while real, involves mechanisms different from those typically assumed to cause the effect

The roles of motivation and ability in controlling the consequences of stereotype suppression

Two experiments investigated the conditions under which previously suppressed stereotypes are applied in impression formation. In Experiment 1, the extent to which a previously suppressed racial stereotype influenced subsequent impressions depended on the race of the target who was subsequently encountered. Whereas impressions of race-unspecified targets were assimilated to the stereotype following its suppression, no such effects were observed when the target belonged to the racial group whose stereotype had been initially suppressed. These results demonstrate that when perceivers are motivated to avoid stereo-typing individuals, the influence of a stereotype that has been previously activated through suppression is minimized. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these processing goals effectively reduce the impact of suppression-activated stereotypes only when perceivers have sufficient capacity to enact the goals. These results suggest that both sufficient motivation and capacity are necessary to prevent heightened stereotyping following stereotype suppression

Assessing the automaticity of moral processing: Efficient coding of moral information during narrative comprehension

A long-standing theoretical debate concerns the involvement of principled reasoning versus relatively automatic intuitive-emotional processing in moral cognition. To address this, we investigated whether the mental models formed during story comprehension contain a moral dimension and whether this process is affected by cognitive load. A total of 72 participants read stories about fictional characters in a range of moral situations, such as a husband being tempted to commit adultery. Each story concluded with a “moral” or “immoral” target sentence. Consistent with a framework of efficient extraction of moral information, participants took significantly longer to read immoral than moral target sentences. Moreover, the magnitude of this effect was not compromised by cognitive load. Our findings provide evidence of efficient coding of moral dimensions during narrative comprehension and demonstrate that this process does not require cognitively intense forms of principled reasoning

Priming moral self-ambivalence heightens deliberative behaviour in self-ambivalent individuals

Background: Recent work on cognitive-behavioural models of obsessive-compulsive disorder has focused on the roles played by various aspects of self-perception. In particular, moral self-ambivalence has been found to be associated with obsessive-compulsive phenomena. Aims: In this study we used an experimental task to investigate whether artificially priming moral self-ambivalence would increase participants' deliberation on ethical problems, an index that might be analogous to obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Method: Non-clinical participants completed two online tasks designed to prime either moral self-ambivalence, general uncertainty, or neither. All participants then completed a task requiring them to consider solutions to moral dilemmas. We recorded the time participants took to respond to the dilemmas and the length of their responses; we then combined these variables to create a measure of deliberation. Results: Priming moral self-ambivalence led to increases in deliberation, but this was only significant among those participants who scored highly on a baseline measure of moral self-ambivalence. Priming general uncertainty had no significant effect upon deliberation. Conclusions: The results suggest that moral self-ambivalence may play a role in the maintenance of obsessive-compulsive behaviour. We propose that individuals who are morally self-ambivalent might respond to situations in which this ambivalence is made salient by exhibiting behaviour with obsessive-compulsive characteristics. These findings have implications for the incorporation of ideas about self-concept into theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Posture as Index for Approach-Avoidance Behavior

Approach and avoidance are two behavioral responses that make people tend to approach positive and avoid negative situations. This study examines whether postural behavior is influenced by the affective state of pictures. While standing on the Wii™ Balance Board, participants viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures (passively viewing phase). Then they had to move their body to the left or the right (lateral movement phase) to make the next picture appear. We recorded movements in the anterior-posterior direction to examine approach and avoidant behavior. During passively viewing, people approached pleasant pictures. They avoided unpleasant ones while they made a lateral movement. These findings provide support for the idea that we tend to approach positive and avoid negative situations

Characterization of a single-use stirred-tank bioreactor vessel for microcarrier-based adherent cell culture processes using experimental and computational fluid dynamics studies

Renewed interest in microcarrier-based processes for the large-scale culture of adherent cells for vaccine and cell therapy applications drives the need for effective, high-throughput, single-use, process development tools that can be translated successfully into industrial-scale systems. The automated ambr250® platform is one such technology, operating at a volume between 100 – 250mL and which is both high-throughput and single-use. The ambr250 has demonstrated significant success for suspension-based mammalian cell culture applications. However, no studies have been reported investigating microcarrier-based processes for the culture of adherent cells. With any cell culture process, the fluid dynamics characteristics of the bioreactor must be sufficiently well understood to enable successful scale-up to larger scale bioreactors. With microcarriers, there is an additional challenge as the fluid dynamics must take into account the presence of the particulate solid phase. A critical aspect for cell cultivation on microcarriers is the minimum agitator speed required to achieve complete microcarrier suspension, NJS. Under these conditions, the surface area of the attached cells is available for transfer of nutrients (including oxygen) to the cells and metabolites from them, whilst higher speeds hardly increase these transport processes and may lead to damaging fluid dynamic stresses being generated1. This suspension condition can be studied experimentally if equipment is specially modified to make easy visual observation of the two-phase flow in the bioreactor which during actual culture is very difficult. Therefore, it is extremely beneficial to both measure NJS and then to compare the measured values with predictions based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in order to validate the latter. Once validated, CFD modelling is a very useful tool for analysing flow patterns, mixing time, mean and local specific energy dissipation rates and other parameters important for scale up in order to optimise the overall bioreactor geometry. In addition to the above fluid dynamic aspects, cell culture studies was also performed in parallel to analyse the cell growth at and around the minimum speed for microcarrrier suspension, NJS and the results were compared to the culture performance in well-characterised traditional spinner flask bioreactors2.The CFD and experimental results with the single-use ambr250 bioreactor will be discussed in detail along with their scale-up implications. References 1. Nienow, A. W., Coopman, K., Heathman, T. R. J., Rafiq, Q. A. and C. J. Hewitt (2016). “Bioreactor Engineering Fundamentals for Stem Cell Manufacturing”. In: “Stem Cell Manufacturing”, (Eds. J.M.S. Cabral, C.L. de Silva, L. G. Chase and M. M. Diogo), Elsevier Science, Cambridge, USA; Chapter 3, pp 43 – 76. 2. Rafiq, Q. A., Brosnan, K. M., Coopman, K., Nienow, A. W. and Hewitt, C.J. (2013) Culture of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Microcarriers in a 5 L Stirred-Tank Bioreactor. (with Q. A. Rafiq, K. M. Brosnan, K

Characterization of a single-use stirred-tank bioreactor vessel for microcarrier-based adherent cell culture processes using experimental and computational fluid dynamics studies

Renewed interest in microcarrier-based processes for the large-scale culture of adherent cells for vaccine and cell therapy applications drives the need for effective, high-throughput, single-use, process development tools that can be translated successfully into industrial-scale systems. The automated ambr250® platform is one such technology, operating at a volume between 100 – 250mL and which is both high-throughput and single-use. The ambr250 has demonstrated significant success for suspension-based mammalian cell culture applications. However, no studies have been reported investigating microcarrier-based processes for the culture of adherent cells. With any cell culture process, the fluid dynamics characteristics of the bioreactor must be sufficiently well understood to enable successful scale-up to larger scale bioreactors. With microcarriers, there is an additional challenge as the fluid dynamics must take into account the presence of the particulate solid phase. A critical aspect for cell cultivation on microcarriers is the minimum agitator speed required to achieve complete microcarrier suspension, NJS. Under these conditions, the surface area of the attached cells is available for transfer of nutrients (including oxygen) to the cells and metabolites from them, whilst higher speeds hardly increase these transport processes and may lead to damaging fluid dynamic stresses being generated1. This suspension condition can be studied experimentally if equipment is specially modified to make easy visual observation of the two-phase flow in the bioreactor which during actual culture is very difficult. Therefore, it is extremely beneficial to both measure NJS and then to compare the measured values with predictions based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in order to validate the latter. Once validated, CFD modelling is a very useful tool for analysing flow patterns, mixing time, mean and local specific energy dissipation rates and other parameters important for scale up in order to optimise the overall bioreactor geometry. In addition to the above fluid dynamic aspects, cell culture studies was also performed in parallel to analyse the cell growth at and around the minimum speed for microcarrrier suspension, NJS and the results were compared to the culture performance in well-characterised traditional spinner flask bioreactors2.The CFD and experimental results with the single-use ambr250 bioreactor will be discussed in detail along with their scale-up implications. References 1. Nienow, A. W., Coopman, K., Heathman, T. R. J., Rafiq, Q. A. and C. J. Hewitt (2016). “Bioreactor Engineering Fundamentals for Stem Cell Manufacturing”. In: “Stem Cell Manufacturing”, (Eds. J.M.S. Cabral, C.L. de Silva, L. G. Chase and M. M. Diogo), Elsevier Science, Cambridge, USA; Chapter 3, pp 43 – 76. 2. Rafiq, Q. A., Brosnan, K. M., Coopman, K., Nienow, A. W. and Hewitt, C.J. (2013) Culture of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Microcarriers in a 5 L Stirred-Tank Bioreactor. (with Q. A. Rafiq, K. M. Brosnan, K