The purpose of this study was to examine the sexual content found in music lyrics of different genres and their relationship to specific sexual cognitions. The study included 902 participants, both male and female, belonging to various ethnic backgrounds, ages 18 and up. It was hypothesized that listening to music containing frequent sexual lyrics will have an affect on men and women’s sexual cognitive beliefs. Results indicated that there was a relationship between frequency of sexually explicit lyrics and views on sexual cognitions. The breakdown by genre shows a more detailed relationship between the lyrics and sexual cognitions. Overall, the results supported the notion that frequent exposure to sexually explicit lyrics has a significant relationship to sexual cognitions.

The idea that free will may be an illusion has been a source of great concern. It has led to suggestions that it may be wise to avoid public discussion of this topic lest it lead to a general moral decay. This concern has seemingly been supported by research demonstrating that individuals, when primed with the notion they lack free will, tend to cheat more and prefer less retributive punishment. The current research suggests that these effects can be moderated by the introduction of a second prime. In experiment one, participants believed they were being tested on note-taking and the subsequent recall of the content of two articles when, in fact, the dependent measure was actually the degree to which, after being primed with the articles, they cheated on a math task. It was hypothesized that the cheating effect noted in prior research would be moderated by the introduction of a second prime – one that extends the concept of self beyond our dualistic intuitions. In a second experiment, it was hypothesized that this prime would also moderate the reported reduction of preference toward retributivist punishment. In each experiment, the results trended in the direction hypothesized but in neither case were they statistically significant. The difficulties surrounding methodology and reproducibility in this type of research is discussed and suggestions for improvements in experiment design are offered.

Cerebrovascular burden (CVB) is a significant factor among the aging population. Age-related cognitive decline is an important social and economic issue, and understanding the mechanisms has clinical implications, both in selecting potential therapies and in choosing specific modifiers for their evaluation. In summary, past work suggests that high CVB is one source of variance in neurovascular functioning among older adults. High CVB and associated brain-changes have been identified as causes of age-related changes and it may be that high CVB is a correlate of age-related changes in sleep quality. The primary hypothesis to be tested is that cerebrovascular burden measured using an index variable reflecting blood pressure, resting heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation, will predict subjective sleep quality in a sample of adults over age 70. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. A sample of 8 dementia-free, community dwelling participants over the age of 70 completed the study. Though individual cerebrovascular risk factors (blood pressure, resting heart rate) had moderate but non-significant correlations with sleep quality, only the CVB index variable significantly related (1-tailed) to sleep quality. Findings support the hypothesized relationship. Future research should seek to replicate these findings with a larger sample, and to identify mechanisms by which this relationship may function.

Through the years, the Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm has demonstrated to be a useful method of observing false memories from semantically related word lists. The present study was conducted fully online and measured memory performance dependent on categorization of words by using groups, as well as dragging words across the page as a form of interaction. In a 2 (Categorized, Non-Categorized) x 2 (Interactive, Non-Interactive) between-subject factorial experiment, 56 undergraduate students were shown 18 different lists of 15 associative words to be studied, one list at a time. Participants were given a free recall test immediately after studying each individual list. Participants also performed a recognition test after having studied and recalled all 18 lists, which consisted of 216 items; half of the words were presented throughout the studied lists, and the other half consisted of the 18 critical lure words as well as several other distractor items from a subset of word lists. It was hypothesized that participants in both the categorization and interaction condition would show the highest levels of accurate memory recall and recognition compared to those who were simply given a list to review. Findings did not support this hypothesis indicating no clear differences between participants who categorized (or not) or interacted with the lists (or not). High probabilities were found for words ranked as highly falsely recalled and low probabilities were found for those ranked towards the bottom, much like the findings in Stadler et al., (1999).

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