@article{hess_popham_dennis_emery_2013, title={Information Content Moderates Positivity and Negativity Biases in Memory}, volume={28}, ISSN={["1939-1498"]}, DOI={10.1037/a0031440}, abstractNote={Two experiments examined the impact of encoding conditions and information content in memory for positive, neutral, and negative pictures. We examined the hypotheses that the positivity effect in memory (i.e., a bias in favor of positive or against negative information in later life) would be reduced when (a) pictures were viewed under structured as opposed to unstructured conditions, and (b) contained social as opposed to nonsocial content. Both experiments found that the positivity effect observed with nonsocial stimuli was absent with social stimuli. In addition, little evidence was obtained that encoding conditions affected the strength of the positivity effect. We argue that some types of social stimuli may engage different types of processing than nonsocial stimuli, perhaps encouraging self-referential processing that engages attention and supports memory. This processing may then conflict with the goal-driven, top-down processing that is hypothesized to drive the positivity effect. Thus, our results identify further boundary conditions associated with the positivity effect in memory, arguing that stimulus factors as well as situational goals may affect its occurrence. Further research awaits to determine if this effect is specific to all social stimuli or specific subsets.}, number={3}, journal={PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING}, author={Hess, Thomas M. and Popham, Lauren E. and Dennis, Paul A. and Emery, Lisa}, year={2013}, month={Sep}, pages={853–863} }
 @article{dennis_halberstadt_2013, title={Is believing seeing? The role of emotion-related beliefs in selective attention to affective cues}, volume={27}, ISSN={["1464-0600"]}, DOI={10.1080/02699931.2012.680578}, abstractNote={Attentional disengagement from negative affective information and engagement toward positive affective information appears to reflect an avoidant coping mechanism, one that may be associated with the belief that negative emotions are dangerous or undesirable (BNED). To test this hypothesis, we conducted two studies using a dot-probe task measuring attentional preference among college undergraduates. In the first study, BNED was associated with an attentional preference for positive facial cues over negative facial cues, evident after 1000 ms of exposure. In the second study, we included three exposure-time conditions; BNED appeared to be associated with an early disengagement from negative facial cues between 500 and 750 ms post-exposure and a subsequent orientation toward positive facial cues between 750 and 1000 ms post-exposure. We discuss these results in relation to avoidant coping and the relationship between anxiety and attention to affective cues.}, number={1}, journal={COGNITION & EMOTION}, author={Dennis, Paul A. and Halberstadt, Amy G.}, year={2013}, month={Jan}, pages={3–20} }
 @article{halberstadt_dennis_hess_2011, title={The Influence of Family Expressiveness, Individuals' Own Emotionality, and Self-Expressiveness on Perceptions of Others' Facial Expressions}, volume={35}, ISSN={["0191-5886"]}, DOI={10.1007/s10919-010-0099-5}, number={1}, journal={JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR}, author={Halberstadt, Amy G. and Dennis, Paul A. and Hess, Ursula}, year={2011}, month={Mar}, pages={35–50} }