A longitudinal study of bilingual and cognitive development(1)

This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of IQ data collected over a 5-year period (Grades K-4) on pupils enrolled in a French immersion program (anglophone pupils receiving all instruction in French except English language arts) and pupils in the regular English program. Although year-by-year results may fail to show IQ differences between the two groups, repeated measures analysis indicates that the immersion group has a higher IQ measure over the 5-year period. However, considering Grades 1–3 only, which involved the administration of the same test, the two groups do not score differentially with respect to either overall IQ measure or specific subtest scores (classification/categorization, analogies, following of verbal directions) when scores are adjusted for initial IQ (and age) differences, thus failing initially to support studies which show positive relationships between bilingualism and cognitive functioning. However, supportive of those studies is a further analysis on the data of immersion pupils classified as “high” French achievers vs. “low” French achievers. The high French achievers obtain significantly higher IQ measures and subtest scores (analogies and following of verbal directions) than the low French achievers, even when scores are adjusted for initial IQ and age differences. These findings are interpreted in the context of Cummins' (1976) “threshold” hypothesis relating to level of competence in the second language.     

Thoughts of Death and Suicide in Early Adolescence

The prevalence and persistence of thoughts of death and suicide during early adolescence were estimated in a community‐based cohort. A latent class approach was used to identify distinct subgroups based on endorsements to depression items administered repeatedly over 24 months. Two classes emerged, with 75% in a low ideation class across four assessments. Less than 2% persisted in the high ideation class over three or more assessments. African American and Asian American adolescents were more likely than European Americans to belong to the high ideation class. No members of the low ideation class endorsed “thought about killing myself,” while “thoughts of death and dying” was endorsed by members of both classes. Implications for interpreting meanings of death and suicide ideation in early adolescence are discussed.     

Carding for the Purchase of Alcohol: I'm Tougher Than Other Clerks Are1

The present research examined whether clerks believed themselves to be more likely to card customers than “other” clerks. Store clerks (N= 121) from 23 stores of a major grocery chain rated 4 person‐product profiles of hypothetical shoppers each representing distinctive lifestyle groups. Embedded within a series of items were key questions that asked how likely it was that they and other clerks would ask for identification from the shopper for the purchase of alcohol. Across all conditions, data revealed a significant positivity bias suggesting that the clerks felt that they were much better than other clerks at determining who should be asked for identification. The data are discussed in terms of their motivational implications for the false uniqueness bias.     

Some personality factors in reaction to aggressive stimuli

A word association test which included aggressive stimuli (weapon names) was given to college students. Those whose responses were relatively high or low in emotionality were asked to participate in a “study of stress reactions to electric shock” When the subject arrived at the laboratory, he and a partner were given tasks to perform The partner, a confederate of the experimenter, gave the subject an unfairly high number of shocks in judging the subject's performance The subject then judged the partner's work, using shock Half the subjects were in the apparently accidental presence of guns when given the chance to retaliate Among low-emotionality subjects, the presence of guns increased the number of shocks given the partner, as Berkowitz and LePage found High-emotionality subjects tended to give the partner longer shocks than low subjects, whether guns were present or not. In contrast to the low subjects, when guns were present, highs tended to give shocks of shorter duration and to report lowered anger, as if the aggressive stimuli had dampened the intensity of their reaction. The results as a whole indicate that the perceptual set for aggressive stimuli and the presence of such stimuli have an interactive effect on aggressive tendencies     

Need-Reinforcer Correspondence As a Predictor of Job Satisfaction

The “good fit” principle was applied to the prediction of job satisfaction, based on a proposition of the theory of work adjustment that satisfaction is a function of “correspondence” between individual needs and job reinforcers. Measures of needs, job reinforcers, and job satisfaction were administered to three groups of store employees. Five indices of need-reinforcer correspondence were calculated for each individual and applied as predictors of job satisfaction. For cashiers and sales clerks, correspondence measures correlated as high as .37 and .45, respectively, with job satisfaction; “hit rates” were as high as .68 and .73, respectively. Results for the checker-markers were not significant.     

Joint Effects of Corporate Positions and Prospects on Perceptions of Business Ethics Among Japanese Students: A Reflection of Collectivistic Cultures1

This study was designed to account for inconsistencies between past research indicating that executives in general are more ethically oriented than employees. The reality in Japan's society is that it has been mostly top executives who violate business ethics. Japanese students (N = 201) assumed that they were “executives” or “employees” in a manufacturing company, and their company had “high” or “low” financial prospects. The high‐prospect executives were most ethically oriented, while the low‐prospect executives were least ethically oriented. Ethical orientation did not change across the two prospect conditions for the employees. The findings are interpreted in terms of ethical dissonance created by dual pressures from acceptance of Western global ethical standards and strength of indigenous collectivistic ethical standards.     

Impact of learning orientation on African American children's attitudes toward high-achieving peers

This study examined Ogbu's widely accepted thesis that African American students reject high academic achievement because they perceive its limited utility in a world where their upward mobility is constrained by racial discrimination. Boykin's psychosocial integrity model contends that Black students value high achievement but that discrepancies between their formative cultural experiences and those imposed in school lead them to reject the modes of achievement available in classrooms. Ninety Black children completed a measure of attitudes toward students who achieve via mainstream or African American cultural values. Participants rejected the mainstream achievers and embraced the African American cultural achievers. Moreover, they expected their teachers to embrace the mainstream achievers and reject those who achieved through high-verve behavior. Results suggest that Boykin's thesis is a needed refinement to Ogbu's ideas. They indicate that Black children may reject not high achievement but some of the mainstream cultural values and behaviors on which success in mainstream classrooms is made contingent.     

Cross-Racial/Ethnic Eyewitness Identification: A Field Study1

Using a method similar to that of Brigham, Maass, Snyder, and Spaudling (1982), 86 adult convenience store clerks were asked to identify 3 confederate/customers, one Anglo-American, one black-American, and one Mexican-American who had visited their stores 2 hours earlier. Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test showed that clerks were superior at identifying customers of their own racial or ethnic group, Z= 2.84, p < .002. For clerks who made an identification, the correlation between the recognition accuracy and confidence in their identification was not significant, r_pbis (56)= .05. The results of this field study paralleled those found in most laboratory experiments of cross-racial/ethnic identification and demonstrated that Mexican-Americans are subject to the own/other groups identification accuracy phenomenon as well.     

Decreased latent inhibition is associated with increased creative achievement in high-functioning individuals

Reductions in latent inhibition (LI), the capacity to screen from conscious awareness stimuli previously experienced as irrelevant, have been generally associated with the tendency towards psychosis. However, "failure" to screen out previously irrelevant stimuli might also hypothetically contribute to original thinking, particularly in combination with high IQ. Meta-analysis of two studies, conducted on youthful high-IQ samples. demonstrated that high lifetime creative achievers had significantly lower LI scores than low creative achievers (r(effect size) = .31, p = .0003, one-tailed). Eminent creative achievers (participants under 21 years who reported unusually high scores in a single domain of creative achievement) were 7 times more likely to have low rather than high LI scores, chi2 (1, N = 25) = 10.69, phi = .47. p = .003.     

High and Low Reading Comprehension Achievers' Strategic Behaviors and Their Relation to Performance in a Reading Comprehension Situation

This study aimed at investigating the actual strategic behaviors of high and low achievers in reading comprehension and their relation with respective performance. The participants were 45 individually examined third graders, 20 high and 25 low reading comprehension achievers. Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational aspects of the participants' strategic behaviors during text comprehension was directly recorded by two observers by means of a structured observation form. The results revealed a relatively different profile of strategic behaviors between high and low achievers. Students' strategic behaviors during dealing with text comprehension were strongly related to respective performance for both groups.     

Level of Aspiration of High and Low Achievers on A Problem-Solving Task

Level of aspiration on a problem-solving task was hypothesized to (a) depend on achievement on a previous problem-solving task, (b) be higher in males than in females, and (c) be related to long-term educational aspirations. College students (28 males and 31 females) were divided into high achievers and low achievers based on their performance on Problem Set A. High achievers made higher estimates for their performance on Problem Set B than low achievers. Males made higher estimates and performed better on Problem Set B than females. However, estimates were not related to students’ long-term educational aspirations. The low achievers improved significantly more than the high achievers lost on Problem Set B. The low achievers also set a positive goal discrepancy whereas the high achievers did not.

     

Cooperative Learning Groups at the College Level: Differential Effects on High, Average, and Low Exam Performers

A repeated-measures mixed-design was used in examining the effects of cooperative learning study teams on exam performance for 378 undergraduate students enrolled in one of 10 large sections of an introductory educational psychology course over a two-semester period. Students were assigned to 5-member cooperative groups based on previous exam achievement (low, average, high). Bonuses (20% of exam score) were offered to groups who improved their mean exam performance to a pre-established criterion in the cooperative-group phase. Results yielded an overall effect size of 0.42 for cooperative study versus individual study. Students who had obtained low and average scores on the preceding exam improved significantly during cooperative study, but the previously high achievers decreased somewhat.     

目标显著性和任务重要性对数学学业不良生和学优生前瞻记忆和前瞻干扰效应的影响

有问卷调查表明,个体的学业成绩特别是数学成绩与前瞻记忆表现有一定的相关,学业不良生报告更多的前瞻记忆失败。也有实验研究显示,学业不良生在很多情况下前瞻记忆表现劣于学优生。但是,影响学业不良生前瞻记忆表现的因素却并不是很明确。本研究从目标显著性和任务重要性这两个可以着手于改善前瞻记忆的主要因素入手,考察其对数学学业不良生和学优生事件性前瞻记忆和前瞻干扰效应的影响,以期为提高学业不良生的前瞻记忆表现提供实证依据。 采用2学业成就（学业不良生、学优生）×2前瞻记忆任务重要性（强调重要、不强调）×2目标显著性（显著、不显著）混合实验设计,目标显著性为被试内变量,其他两个因素为被试间变量,在双任务实验范式（前瞻记忆任务镶嵌于进行中任务）中,考察三个因素对前瞻记忆正确率和反应时的影响。此外,被试还需完成基线条件,在基线条件下被试只有进行中任务,没有前瞻记忆任务,通过实验条件和基线条件的正确率和反应时差异,考察前瞻记忆任务对进行中任务的干扰效应,推测前瞻记忆的加工机制。结果表明,学业不良生在所有前瞻记忆任务表现均劣于学优生;目标显著性与前瞻记忆任务重要性对前瞻记忆正确率有显著的交互作用,强调任务重要性使目标不显著条件下的前瞻记忆正确率提高,对显著条件的前瞻记忆正确率没有影响。强调任务重要性使所有实验条件的前瞻记忆反应时下降,目标显著使所有实验条件的前瞻记忆正确率提高。所有实验条件进行中任务正确率低于基线条件,反应时也慢于基线条件,表明执行前瞻记忆任务对进行中任务产生了干扰,学业不良生和学优生在本实验条件下对前瞻记忆任务均采用监控的加工方式。结果说明,学业不良生前瞻记忆成绩较差,可以通过设置显著的目标提高其前瞻记忆成绩,当目标显著时无需强调其重要性,若无法设置显著的目标,则通过强调任务重要性提高前瞻记忆表现。     

Le rapport au savoir chez des lycéens à haut potentiel. Approche comparative avec des lycéens tout-venant

Do gifted teenagers (IQ ≥130) harbor a different attitude toward learning as compared to their mainstream peers? Can the attitudes toward learning held by these adolescents improve or hinder their academic performance? Eighty-four gifted high school students and 84 mainstream high school students between the ages of 13 and 18 years were asked to draw up “an assessment of knowledge” (Charlot, B., Bautier, E., Rochex, J.Y., 1992. École et savoir dans les banlieues… et ailleurs. Colin, Paris.). The collected textual data was submitted to both a quantitative and a lexicometric analysis (Alceste software). The gifted students revealed themselves as being more reflexive and “scholarly” relation to knowledge (op. cit.) than their mainstream peers. High achievers attach more value to academic knowledge and have greater confidence in their ability to learn.     

Troubles du comportement et adolescence. Problématiques d'accès aux soins et modalités de réponses nouvelles

The psychopathology of adolescence requires particular adaptation of treatments. This article presents the specific organization of psychiatric treatment for adolescents developed in a mental ward. It works in collaboration with paediatric services, school medicine, community homes for adolescents, parents and attending physicians. Going towards adolescents signalled by those partners, we make easier the access to treatment, the “out of walls reception”. Reciprocal therapeutic commitment, worked with the adolescent, allows him to access to a variety of special cares: consultations, therapeutic groups, hospitalisation, “indirect treatments”. Results from three years allows us to stress the relevance of such a specific organization namely for tricky clinical situations.     

Regulatory mode and willingness to increase retirement savings contributions

This study examined how two self‐regulatory modes, locomotion and assessment, relate to the willingness to increase retirement savings. Locomotion is concerned with making things happen (“just do it”). Assessment is concerned with critical evaluation (“do the right thing”). We hypothesized that individuals who score high (vs. low) in locomotion, but not those who score high (vs. low) in assessment, would be more willing to increase their savings for retirement. In addition, because high (vs. low) assessment can lead to doing the right thing in terms of seeking to maximize economic returns, we hypothesized that combining high locomotion with high assessment would especially motivate willingness to increase retirement savings. We found support for both hypotheses from a survey of university employees.     

Cultural expression and black students' attitudes toward high achievers

The authors of the present study have extended research by D. Marryshow that investigated African American students' attitudes toward 4 high achievers who differed in their approach to high achievement. D. Marryshow (1992) assessed students' social attitudes and perceptions of 4 high achievers with culturally distinct achievement orientations. In the present research, the authors assessed students' academic attitudes and perceptions of the same 4 high achievers. In addition, the present study includes Black children's predictions of their parents' and peers' attitudes toward these high achieving students. The results generally supported the authors' hypothesis that African American children would report a preference for students who achieve via attitudes and behaviors congruent with African American cultural values. The children also predicted that their parents and their Black peers would prefer these same African American culturally oriented high achievers. The findings suggest that Black children who prefer African American cultural modes of achievement may find themselves at odds with classroom demands geared toward learning in the mainstream cultural mode and thus may be at increased risk of academic failure.     

Earthquake Preparedness: Predictors in a Community Survey1

We measured the relationship between earthquake concern and preparation in a community with high seismic risk. Five samples of approximately 800 people were interviewed by telephone about their earthquake concern, but this study focuses on the last two samples in which respondents reported their preparatory behaviors. The findings were consistent in showing greater likelihood of concern for those who had experienced an earthquake, were female, younger, and non-Anglo and a greater likelihood of preparation for those who had more concern, were married, and had lived longer at their present address. In a nonrecursive causal model, no evidence was found for a reciprocal effect of preparation on concern. These results were discussed in terms of health belief models including the self-efficacy and “stages of change” perspectives. Implications were drawn for interventions to increase preparation in ready-to-change groups and compensate for the resistance of those less willing or able to prepare.     

Sexual Orientation and Developmental Challenges Experienced by Gay and Lesbian Youths

Youths with a homosexual orientation face different developmental challenges during adolescence than those faced by heterosexual youths or individuals who recognize their homosexual orientation later in life. We discuss the impact of “coming out,” or defining a homosexual orientation, on the development and identity formation of youths who come out during adolescence. The process of coming out is presented as entailing four broad dimensions: recognizing oneself as lesbian or gay; exploring one's sexual orientation through the gay and lesbian community; disclosing one's sexual orientation to others; and becoming more comfortable with one's sexual orientation. Some of the major challenges faced by these youths are described, and future directions for research efforts are discussed.