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We investigated effects of emotional states on the ability to make intuitive judgments about the semantic coherence of word triads. Participants were presented word triads, consisting of three clue words that either were weakly associated with a common fourth concept (coherent triads) or had no common associate (incoherent triads). In Experiment 1, participants in a neutral mood discriminated coherent and incoherent triads reliably better than chance level even if they did not consciously retrieve the solution word. In Experiment 2, the induction of a positive mood reliably improved intuitive coherence judgments, whereas participants in a negative mood performed at chance level. We conclude that positive mood potentiates spread of activation to weak or remote associates in memory, thereby improving intuitive coherence judgments. By contrast, negative mood appears to restrict spread of activation to close associates and dominant word meanings, thus impairing intuitive coherence judgments.

A review is given of the occurrence of poxviruses in different bird species. The ® rst publications appeared in Europe around 1850. At that time, pox as a de® nite disease entity was diagnosed on the basis of clinical signs, while later the detection of Bollinger's inclusion bodies (1877) allowed an aetiological diagnosis by microscopically visible viral aggregates. Virus isolation in embryonated chicken eggs and direct electron microscopy gained importance as diagnostic tools in the 1950s. Also brie¯y described are avipoxvirus taxonomy, virus characteristics, clinical signs, modes of prevention and diagnostic procedures.Of the approximately 9000 bird species, about 232 species in 23 orders have been reported to have acquired a natural poxvirus infection. However, it is likely that many more birds are susceptible to avipoxviruses.

Intuition is the ability to judge stimulus properties on the basis of information that is activated in memory but not consciously retrieved. We investigated one central feature of intuitive judgmentsnamely, their speed. Participants judged whether or not three clue words were coherent in the sense that they were weakly associated with a common fourth concept. To restrict the time available for conscious deliberation of possible solution words, participants had to synchronize their judgments with a response signal appearing at different lags after the clue words. In two experiments, participants discriminated coherent and incoherent triads reliably better than chance, even when they did not consciously retrieve the solution word and the lag between clue words and response signal was as short as 1.5 sec. Results indicate that intuitive judgments can indeed be made very fast and without extended conscious deliberation. Possible mechanisms underlying intuitive judgments are discussed.

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