Biomedical subjects

Ronald S Friedman

Publications and source records attributed to Ronald S Friedman.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Effects of motivational cues on perceptual asymmetry: implications for creativity and analytical problem solving.

In 4 experiments, participants were led to focus on either the prospect of positive outcomes (approach anticipation) or the prospect of negative outcomes (avoidance anticipation) and were subsequently administered behavioral measures of relative hemispheric activation. It was found that approach, relative to avoidance-related anticipatory states, produced greater relative right (diminished relative left) hemispheric activation. Experiment 3 additionally demonstrated that this pattern of activation was reversed when approach and avoidance states were not merely anticipatory but were also emotionally arousing. Finally, Experiment 4 replicated earlier findings demonstrating an influence of approach and avoidance anticipatory states on creativity and analytical problem solving (R. S. Friedman & J. Forster, 2001, 2003) and provided evidence that such effects are mediated by differences in relative hemispheric activation.

Affect↗

PubMed2005

Automatic effects of alcohol cues on sexual attraction.

AIMS: The present study tested whether suboptimal priming (which may be defined as 'under viewing conditions rendering conscious identification highly improbable') with alcohol-related stimuli would activate existing expectancies about alcohol's effects on sexual desire. It was predicted that alcohol cues, relative to non-alcohol cues, would activate expectancies of alcohol's aphrodisiac properties. We hypothesized that for men, stronger expectancies in this regard would predict an increased tendency to judge women as sexually attractive following the alcohol primes. DESIGN: Two experimental studies manipulated cue (alcohol versus control) and rating dimension (attractiveness versus intelligence). Self-reported alcohol expectancies of sexual desire were assessed approximately 1 month prior to the study. Study 2 assessed additional expectancy content domains. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Study 1 comprised 82 undergraduate males and study 2 78 undergraduate males. Studies were conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, USA. INTERVENTIONS: In both experiments, male participants were suboptimally primed with either alcohol-related or control words. Following this priming, they were presented with a series of photographs of young women and asked to either rate their attractiveness or their intelligence. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: In both studies, a three-way interaction between cue, rating dimension and alcohol expectancies was found. Within the attractiveness rating condition a two-way interaction was found, indicating that in this condition, stronger expectancies that alcohol increases sexual desire predicted higher attractiveness ratings after suboptimal exposure to alcohol primes. No effects emerged in the intelligence rating condition. Discussion centers on implications for sexual risk-taking as well as a range of other non-consumptive behaviors.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Reexploring the connection between terror management theory and dissonance theory.

Building upon suggestive earlier findings, the present study sought to test more informatively the notion that reminders of mortality can intensify efforts at dissonance reduction. Toward this end, an induced-compliance experiment was conducted in which participants were given high versus low choice to write a counterattitudinal statement regarding a boring topic under conditions of either mortality salience (MS) or uncertainty salience (control). It was predicted that although dissonance reduction (via attitude change) would be provoked in the control group, MS would significantly exacerbate this effect. These predictions were borne out empirically. The findings, obtained using the historically preeminent paradigm for assessing dissonance reduction, provide firm support for the notion that MS amplifies concerns with cognitive consistency.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2004

Temporal construal effects on abstract and concrete thinking: consequences for insight and creative cognition.

Six studies investigate whether and how distant future time perspective facilitates abstract thinking and impedes concrete thinking by altering the level at which mental representations are construed. In Experiments 1-3, participants who envisioned their lives and imagined themselves engaging in a task 1 year later as opposed to the next day subsequently performed better on a series of insight tasks. In Experiments 4 and 5 a distal perspective was found to improve creative generation of abstract solutions. Moreover, Experiment 5 demonstrated a similar effect with temporal distance manipulated indirectly, by making participants imagine their lives in general a year from now versus tomorrow prior to performance. In Experiment 6, distant time perspective undermined rather than enhanced analytical problem solving.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Conical intersections and bound molecular states embedded in the continuum.

Nuclear dynamics on coupled potential surfaces can lead to bound states embedded in the continuum. For one type of conical intersection situation, an explicit proof is presented that such states exist. Non-Born-Oppenheimer effects are responsible for the binding of these states. Once the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is introduced, these states at best become resonances which decay via potential tunneling. The tunneling is completely suppressed by the coupling between the electronic states. A numerical example is given.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Leading us not unto temptation: momentary allurements elicit overriding goal activation.

The present research explored the nature of automatic associations formed between short-term motives (temptations) and the overriding goals with which they interfere. Five experimental studies, encompassing several self-regulatory domains, found that temptations tend to activate such higher priority goals, whereas the latter tend to inhibit the temptations. These activation patterns occurred outside of participants' conscious awareness and did not appear to tax their mental resources. Moreover, they varied as a function of subjective goal importance and were more pronounced for successful versus unsuccessful self-regulators in a given domain. Finally, priming by temptation stimuli was found not only to influence the activation of overriding goals but also to affect goal-congruent behavioral choices.

Choice Behavior↗