A previous study by Begg and Pavio found that subjects presented with concrete sentences were able to detect subsequent changes in meaning better than changes in wording. In contrast, with abstract sentences, wording changes were detected with greater facility than were changes in meaning. The present study assesses the effect of comprehension on…

Despite the central role of risk assessment in analyzing and making decisions about many environmental issues, most people are poorly equipped to understand key concepts about risk or apply them successfully. I present three class activities in which students develop a better appreciation for the magnitude of a one in a million increased risk of…

Five studies examined the effect of dysphoric mood on perceivers' subjective unitization of an observed other's ongoing behavior into discrete meaningful actions. Dysphoria generally reduced unitization rate (i.e., number of actions discriminated). Additional evidence indicates this reduction results from failure to initiate a higher (more…