The Power of Voice to Convey Emotion in Multimedia Instructional Messages

This study examines an aspect of the role of emotion in multimedia learning, i.e., whether participants can recognize the instructor’s positive or negative emotion based on hearing short clips involving only the instructor’s voice just as well as also seeing an embodied onscreen agent. Participants viewed 16 short video clips from a statistics lecture in which an animated instructor, conveying a happy, content, frustrated, or bored emotion, stands next to a slide as she lectures (agent present) or uses only her voice (agent absent). For each clip, participants rated the instructor on five-point scales for how happy, content, frustrated, and bored the instructor seemed. First, for happy, content, and bored instructors, participants were just as accurate in rating emotional tone based on voice only as with voice plus onscreen agent. This supports the voice hypothesis, which posits that voice is a powerful source of social-emotional information. Second, participants rated happy and content instructors higher on happy and content scales and rated frustrated and bored instructors higher on frustrated and bored scales. This supports the positivity hypothesis, which posits that people are particularly sensitive to the positive or negative tone of multimedia instructional messages.

Interfibril hydrogen bonding improves the strain-rate response of natural armour

Fish scales are laminated composites that consist of plies of unidirectional collagen fibrils with twisted-plywood stacking arrangement. Owing to their composition, the toughness of scales is dependent on the intermolecular bonding within and between the collagen fibrils. Adjusting the extent of this bonding with an appropriate stimulus has implications for the design of next-generation bioinspired flexible armours. In this investigation, scales were exposed to environments of water or a polar solvent (i.e. ethanol) to influence the extent of intermolecular bonding, and their mechanical behaviour was evaluated in uniaxial tension and transverse puncture. Results showed that the resistance to failure of the scales increased with loading rate in both tension and puncture and that the polar solvent treatment increased both the strength and toughness through interpeptide bonding; the largest increase occurred in the puncture resistance of scales from the tail region (a factor of nearly 7×). The increase in strength and damage tolerance with stronger intermolecular bonding is uncommon for structural materials and is a unique characteristic of the low mineral content. Scales from regions of the body with higher mineral content underwent less strengthening, which is most likely the result of interference posed by the mineral crystals to intermolecular bonding. Overall, the results showed that flexible bioinspired composite materials for puncture resistance should enrol constituents and complementary processing that capitalize on interfibril bonds.

Assessing ADHD Through the Multi-Informant Approach: The Contribution of the Conners’ 3 Scales

Objective: Symptoms of ADHD need to be present in at least two different settings to suggest a diagnosis, so multi-informant assessment approaches are usually adopted. The Conners’ Rating Scales offer three versions, completed by parents (Conners 3-P), teachers (Conners 3-T), and youth (Conners 3-SR). Nonetheless, there is a lack of studies examining the psychometric properties of the Parent and Teacher versions and the relation between each version of the Conners 3 scales. Method: The present work examined the psychometric properties of the Parent and Teacher scales in terms of the structural validity and reliability of their Content scales in an Italian sample. Moreover, to support the need to administer all Conners 3 scales together and to exclude their potential redundancy, cross-informant agreement between parents, teachers, and children was assessed. Results: Results supported the Conners 3 scales as reliable and valid tools to assess ADHD and provided evidence for their non-redundancy. Conclusion: The non-redundancy of the Conners 3 may promote clinicians to adopt a multi-informant perspective

Evaluating the Structure of Psychopathic Personality Traits: A Meta-Analysis of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory

Which core traits exemplify psychopathic personality disorder is a hotly debated question withinpsychology, particularly regarding the role of ostensibly adaptive traits such as stress immunity, social potency, and fearlessness. Much of the research on the inter-relationships among putatively adaptive and more maladaptive traits of psychopathy has focused on the factor structure of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) and its revision, the Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Revised (PPI-R). These instruments include content scales that have coalesced to form 2 higher-order factors in some (but not all) prior studies: Fearless Dominance and Self-Centered Impulsivity. Given the inconsistencies in prior research, we performed a meta- analytic factor analysis of the 8 content scales from these instruments (total N > 18,000) and found general support for these 2 dimensions in community samples. The structure among offender samples (e.g., prisoners, forensic patients) supported a three-factor model in which the Fearlessness content scale uniquely loaded onto Self-centered Impulsivity (rather than Fearless Dominance). There were also indications that the Stress Immunity content scale had different relations to the other PPI scales in offender versus community samples. We discuss the theoretical and diagnostic implications of these differing factor structures for the field of psychopathy research.

PROFIL CONTENT SCALES MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY-2 (MMPI-2) ADAPTASI INDONESIA PADA MAHASISWA SEMESTER 5 TA 2012/2013 FAKULTAS KEDOKTERAN UNIVERSITAS SAM RATULANGI MANADO

Stress factors derived from academic and non-academic aspects can cause mental disorders in medical students. Mental disorders can lead to the impairment of student cognitive development and learning, as well as impact on the performance or functionality as a doctor later. This study aimed to determine the mental status profile of the fifth semester students of the Faculty of Medicine University of Sam Ratulangi, Manado, by using the content scales of MMPI-2 mental health tests. This was a descriptive study using a cross-sectional design. A hundred students who were randomly selected had to fill in the MMPI-2 questionnaires. A univariate analysis was conducted to analyze the data by using the SPSS version 20. The results showed that of the total respondents the majority (56%) were 20 years old; females were 53%; from outside of North Sulawesi were those from tribes (66%), and regions (56%). The siblings (2 brothers) represented 38% while the second born 37%. Most parents worked as civil servants: 46% fathers, 49% mothers. All content scales showed a high profile with the greatest percentages on scales SOD (32%) and WRK (30%). Based on the high score of content scales, the most prominent content component scales were SOD₁ (84.4%) and TRT₁ (62.5%). Conclusion: The profile of mental disorders among the fifth semester students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sam Ratulangi Manado, was generally low. Keywords: Content Scales, students, MMPI-2. Abstrak: Faktor-faktor stres yang berasal dari aspek akademik maupun non-akademik dapat menimbulkan gangguan mental pada mahasiswa kedokteran, yang berakibat lanjut berupa gangguan perkembangan kognitif dan belajar yang berdampak pada prestasi sekaligus fungsionalitas mereka sebagai dokter nanti. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui profil status mental mahasiswa semester 5 FK Universitas Sam Ratuilangi Manado berdasarkan content scales pada tes kesehatan mental MMPI-2. Penelitian ini bersifat deskriptif dengan cross-sectional design. Kuesioner MMPI-2 dibagikan pada 100 sampel mahasiswa yang dipilih secara acak. Analisis univariat dilakukan menggunakan program SPSS 20. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan sebagian besar responden berusia 20 tahun (56%), jenis kelamin perempuan (53%), berasal dari suku dan daerah di luar Sulawesi Utara (66% dan 56%), 2 bersaudara dan anak ke-2 dalam keluarga (38% dan 37%), dengan pekerjaan orang tua terbanyak PNS (46% dan 49%). Semua content scales menunjukkan profil tinggi dengan presentase yang terbesar pada skala SOD (32%) dan WRK (30%). Berdasarkan skor tinggi content scales, content component scales yang paling menonjol ialah SOD₁ (84,4%) dan TRT₁ (62,5%). Simpulan: Profil gangguan mental pada mahasiswa semester 5 Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Sam Ratulangi Manado secara umum rendah. Kata kunci: content scales, mahasiswa, MMPI-2.