Models of Educational Career With and Without IQ Measurements

Path models of educational careers do not usually contain information about phenotypical intelligence levels. This may lead to an overestimation of direct environmental effects such as the educational level of the parents on the education attained by the children. This phenomenon was investigated on the basis of data describing educational level, occupational status, and intelligence measurements of 2,847 father-son pairs. The IQ was determined during testing for military service by means of a shortened version of Raven's Progressive Matrices Test. The results were twofold. When the son's IQ was included in the model describing his educational career, environmental effects due to the influence of the father were reduced. Adding the father's IQ to the model, however, did not affect the path coefficients of the variables that were predicted to be relevant for the son's education.     

Drinking without thinking: an implicit measure of alcohol motivation predicts failure to control alcohol use

Addiction is characterized by dyscontrol - substance use despite intentions to restrain. Using a sample of at-risk drinkers, the present study examined whether an implicit measure of alcohol motivation (the Implicit Association Test [IAT]; Greenwald, A.G., McGhee, D.E., & Schwartz, J.L.K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480) would predict dyscontrol of alcohol use. Participants completed an IAT and, to elicit motivation to restrain alcohol use, were instructed that greater consumption in a taste test would impair performance on a later task for which they could win a prize. All participants viewed aversive slides and then completed a thought-listing task. Participants either exerted self-control by suppressing negative affect and thoughts regarding the slides or did not exert self-control. Post-manipulation, the groups did not differ in mood, urge to drink or motivation to restrain consumption. During the subsequent taste test, participants whose self-control resources were depleted consumed more alcohol than did those in the control group. Additionally, the IAT, but not an explicit measure of alcohol motivation, more strongly predicted alcohol use when self-control resources were depleted. The results indicate that the IAT may have utility in predicting dyscontrolled alcohol use.     

Recognition memory and intelligence

The assumption that individual differences in recognition memory are associated with individual differences in intelligence was explored by administering intelligence tests and tests of immediate visual recognition memory to a sample of 52 5-year-old children expected to vary widely from one another in intelligence. Each child was given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Form L) and two tests of immediate recognition memory: one test for 27 abstract patterns and one test for 27 unfamiliar cartoon faces. The mean PPVT-IQ for the sample was in the average range at 98.1. Interindividual variability in IQ proved to be high as reflected in the group SD of 22.6, with scores ranging from 40 to 136. The recognition tasks proved to be of moderate difficulty. Individual differences in memory for patterns were highly related to memory for faces (r = .76), indicating that the overall recognition test was reliable. The most important result of the present study was the strong association between recognition memory performance and PPVT-IQ of .70. The relation between recognition memory and IQ could not be accounted for by the inclusion of a few very low IQ children, since the association remained high at .61 when children with IQs below 75 were omitted from analysis. In short, the present results indicate that immediate recognition memory is highly associated with intelligence.     

The role of cognitive abilities in children's inferences about social atypicality and peer exclusion and inclusion in intergroup contexts

Children aged 6–7 years judged a loyal and a partially disloyal member of a school in terms of how typical they are within the school group and their likely acceptance by peers from the same school and a different school. Second‐order mental‐state understanding (SOMSU) predicted whether children thought atypical members would be included differently in the two groups. Counterfactual reasoning ability, multiple classification ability, and working memory ability did not predict children's judgements of group members. Moreover, as predicted by the developmental subjective group dynamics model, only children with higher levels of SOMSU and who discerned differences in the typicality of normative and deviant ingroup members inferred that peers would differently include atypical individuals from the same and different groups.     

A domain‐specific risk‐attitude scale: measuring risk perceptions and risk behaviors

We present a psychometric scale that assesses risk taking in five content domains: financial decisions (separately for investing versus gambling), health/safety, recreational, ethical, and social decisions. Respondents rate the likelihood that they would engage in domain‐specific risky activities (Part I). An optional Part II assesses respondents' perceptions of the magnitude of the risks and expected benefits of the activities judged in Part I. The scale's construct validity and consistency is evaluated for a sample of American undergraduate students. As expected, respondents' degree of risk taking was highly domain‐specific, i.e. not consistently risk‐averse or consistently risk‐seeking across all content domains. Women appeared to be more risk‐averse in all domains except social risk. A regression of risk taking (likelihood of engaging in the risky activity) on expected benefits and perceived risks suggests that gender and content domain differences in apparent risk taking are associated with differences in the perception of the activities' benefits and risk, rather than with differences in attitude towards perceived risk. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An assessment of the fakeability of self-report and implicit personality measures

Researchers are focusing on developing implicit measures of personality to address concerns related to the faking of self-report measures. The present study examined the validity and fakeability of Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures of personality self-concept in a repeated-measures design (N = 33). People’s predictions about how they represented themselves on the measures were also assessed. Results indicated that participants were able fake self-report measures when instructed to do so and that they could accurately predict how they represented themselves on these measures. Participants were also able to fake an IAT measure of Extraversion, but were unable to fake an IAT measure of Conscientiousness or predict how they represented themselves on either IAT measure.     

Level I and level II abilities in Asian,white, and black children

All the Asian-American, white, and black children in grades 2 through 6 in a California school district were given a battery of tests including measures of IQ, scholastic achievement, and short-term memory. Factor analysis of the tests yielded two main factors identified as Level I (memory) and Level II (general intelligence) in Jensen's system. The three ethnic groups were compared with one another on uncorrelated Level I and Level II factor scores. At every grade level, bivariate means of the three groups occupy distinctly different quadrants in the factor space. Asians and whites differ on Level I (A < W) but not on Level II. Asians and blacks differ on Level II (A > B) but not on Level I. Whites and blacks differ (W > B) on both Levels I and II, but the white-black difference on Level I is less than one fourth as large as the white-black difference on Level II. A similar pattern of group differences is found for scores on tests of memory and nonverbal IQ. Scholastic achievement shows much smaller correlations with the Level I than with the Level II factor.     

The assessment of empathy in early childhood

In much of the literature on empathy in young children, researchers have assessed empathy with the FASTE (Feshbach and Roe Affective Situations Test for Empathy). Consequently, much of the literature on early affective responsiveness and the role of empathy in prosocial development is dependent on the validity of the FASTE. However, examination of the literature on gender differences in young children's empathy has suggested a methodological flaw in picture/story techniques such as the FASTE; children's responses to these instruments appear to vary as a function of the interaction of sex of experimenter with sex of subject. In the present study, we empirically examined the effects of sex of experimenter on children's responses to the FASTE. Eighty preschool children were randomly assigned by sex to four male and four female experimenters and were administered the FASTE. Children scored higher when interviewed by a same-sex experimenter, especially if only the stories that the children comprehended (the happy/sad episodes, not the anger or fear episodes) were examined. The implications of the findings for interpreting the literature on children's empathy (especially gender differences in empathy) are discussed.     

HUMAN FIGURE DRAWINGS BY NORMAL AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN: DRAW-A-PERSON TEST

N ielsen , H elle H. Human figure drawings by normal and physically handicapped children. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1961, 2 , 129–138.—Cerebral palsied children (spastic hemiplegia and paraplegia) were compared with normal children on nineteen formal variables of Draw-a-Person Test. Contrary to prediction, no differences were found between the experimental and matched control group, but one variable (Extremities lacking) was scored more frequently on hemiplegic than on paraplegic children. A comparison of the two groups showed that a significantly larger number of spastic drawings than normal drawings had a Goodenough IQ that was more than 10 points lower than their Binet IQ. A clinical psychologist, with much experience of figure drawings, sorted the drawings better than chance, only informed about age and IQ of the subject.     

Chronic learning problems and maturation

An analysis of test scores of a longitudinal sample of normal children, who placed in the lowest quartile of the class on the California Achievement Test and children in the highest quartile yielded significant differences on three perceptual-motor tests and on Piaget's preoperational and precausal tests at Kindergarten level. Although matched for IQ in Kindergarten, significant IQ differences appeared in Grade 1 and continued to increase over 5 yr., as those on other tests. Cattell's Early School Personality Questionnaire indicated that low achievers were significantly less mature and more tense and anxious than high achievers from Grades 1 through 5. Maturational lag is hypothesized for retardation of learning.     

Cognitive and emotional empathy in typically developing children: The influence of age,gender, and intelligence

In the current study, the influence of age, gender and IQ on cognitive and emotional empathy in school-aged children and adolescents was examined adopting two behavioural paradigms: participants were shown film clips with different scenes of social interaction to which they were asked to respond. Thus, 134 children aged seven to 17 years (mean age = 138.4 months, sd = 31.66 months) were tested for emotion recognition, perspective taking and emotional empathy. Age strongly influenced components of cognitive empathy and explained 33.5% to 39.1% of the variance. Gender and IQ also were significant predictors, yet only explained 3% to 5%, respectively 8% to 9% of the variance. In contrast, neither age, gender nor IQ were related to emotional empathy. Results suggest developmental maturation of cognitive, but not emotional empathy throughout childhood and adolescence. To explain variability in emotional empathy, additional biological and psychosocial factors need to be studied.     

Conceptual level and therapeutic responsiveness among counselor trainees

This study examined the relationship between conceptual level (CL) and therapeutic responsiveness (TR) among counselor trainees. It was hypothesized that trainees with high CL’s would be more able to formulate clinical impressions, be aware of their affective states, and make more effective verbal explorations to challenging and provocative client statements than their low CL counterparts. Additionally, it was hypothesized that empathy (EU) could be predicted from TR. Sixty-nine trainees from two master’s level counseling programs were assessed for CL (using the “This I Believe” Test) and for TR (using the Therapeutic Response Measure), and empathy (using the Emphathic Understanding Scale). Consistent with the literature the high CL participants functioned better as counselors on the TR task, although contrary to prediction, neither the high nor the low CL groups functioned well on this task. Significant differences between high CL and low CL’s were found for: awareness of affect p<.05; ability to respond effectively p<.01, and for overall TR, p<.001. Findings support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between CL and TR, and that TR is a predictor of empathic responding p<.05.     

Paralinguistic processing in children with callosal agenesis: emergence of neurolinguistic deficits

Recent research revealed impaired processing of both nonliteral meaning and affective prosody in adults with agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) and normal intelligence. Since normal children have incomplete myelination of the corpus callosum, it was hypothesized that paralanguage deficits in children with ACC would be less apparent relative to their peers. The Familiar and Novel Language Comprehension Test (FANL-C) and Prosody Test were given to 18 children with ACC and normal intelligence and 17 controls matched for age (7-13 years), education, and IQ (83-122). When controlling for age, children with ACC were significantly poorer in comprehension of the precise meaning of both literal and nonliteral items on the FANL-C. Adults with ACC had previously been shown to have difficulty only on nonliteral items. The effect size for nonliteral comprehension in children with ACC was smaller than that seen in adults. There was only a trend for the child ACC group to perform worse on the recognition of affective prosody. Thus, while deficits in paralinguistic processing were apparent, children with ACC were not as clearly different from age peers as adults, and were equally deficient at comprehending literal and nonliteral expressions. The differences in results between adults and children with ACC are thought to reflect incomplete callosal development in normal children, and the importance of the corpus callosum in the early stages of the development of the ability to process literal language.     

内隐与外显倾向性道德敏感的关系及其预测源分析

以228名大学生为被试, 采用内隐联想测验(IAT)、倾向性道德敏感问卷(MDSQ)以及其它有关量表考察其内隐与外显倾向性道德敏感的关系及其预测变量。结果表明:男生比女生表现出在倾向性道德敏感上更高的内隐效应, 而女生则在外显倾向性道德敏感的移情内疚、移情烦扰等因子上得分高于男生, 在惩罚倾向因子上低于男生;大学生被试的外显、内隐倾向性道德敏感没有显著相关;自我监控、道德态度强度均能在不同程度上预测内隐与外显倾向性道德敏感的关系, 自我监控的预测作用相对较高。     

Age-related trends of stroop-like interference in animal size tests in 5- to 12-year-old children and young adults

Few studies have examined the development of Prepotent Response Inhibition (Nigg's interference control) from childhood to adulthood. This cross-sectional study examined differences in Prepotent Response Inhibition among children of 5 age groups: twenty 5- to 6-year-olds, twenty-one 7- to 8-year-olds, twenty-two 9- to 10-year-olds, eighteen 11- to 12-year-olds, and 24 young adults (18- to 24-year-olds). Participants were administered two Stroop-like tasks: the Real Animal Size Test described in 2009 by Catale and Meulemans, which requires that participants decide the real size of animals (big vs. small) displayed in a mismatching pictorial size; and the Pictorial Animal Size Test (an original test), which requires that participants report the pictorial size of the animals. Results showed clear differences between the tests. The Pictorial Animal Size Test elicited robust interference whereas the Real Animal Size Test elicited no interference. The Pictorial Animal Size Test also revealed the development of Prepotent Response Inhibition in children of 5–12 years and between children and young adults. These results were discussed with respect to differences in strengths of processing. The Pictorial Animal Size Test can be a useful tool for assessment of Prepotent Response Inhibition in children older than 5 years of age.     

Using the implicit association test to measure age differences in implicit social cognitions

Two studies investigated the use of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) to study age differences in implicit social cognitions. Study I collected IAT (implicit) and explicit (self-report) measures of age attitudes, age identity, and self-esteem from young, young-old, and old-old participants. Study 2 collected IAT and explicit measures of attitudes toward flowers versus insects from young and old participants. Results show that the IAT provided theoretically meaningful insights into age differences in social cognitions that the explicit measures did not, supporting the value of the IAT in aging research. Results also illustrate that age-related slowing must be considered in analysis and interpretation of IAT measures.     

Facial reactions reveal that slim is good but fat is not bad: Implicit and explicit measures of body‐size bias

Facial electromyography (EMG) was used to gauge emotional responding towards images of slim and overweight individuals, and findings were compared with data from a series of alternative measures including two implicit attitudinal procedures, the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and the Implicit Association Test (IAT), and explicit measures of anti‐fat prejudice and discriminatory behavior. Images of slim individuals elicited EMG responses consistent with more positive affect. Data from both the IRAP and IAT indicated higher levels of bias than were revealed on the explicit measures, and the IRAP also corroborated the EMG pattern by indicating responses consistent with pro‐slim rather than anti‐fat bias. The IRAP was moderately correlated with both EMG and the IAT and was the only measure to predict behavioral intentions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parents Think Their Sons Are Brighter Than Their Daughters: Sex Differences in Parental Self-Estimations and Estimations of Their Children's Multiple Intelligences

In this study, 156 participants, predominantly White British adults (M age = 44.3 years) rated themselves on overall IQ and on H. Gardner's (1983) 7 intelligence subtypes. Parents (n = 120) also estimated the intelligence of their children. Men's self-estimates were significantly higher than women's (110.15 vs. 104.84). Participants thought their verbal, mathematical, and spatial intelligence scores were the best indicators of their own overall intelligence. Parents estimated that their sons had significantly higher IQs than their daughters (115.21 vs. 107.49). Self-estimates and estimates of children's multiple intelligences were higher for men and sons, significantly so for logical-mathematical and spatial intelligence. Parents rated 2nd-born daughters as having significantly higher verbal and musical intelligence than their male counterparts. Higher parental IQ self-estimates corresponded with higher IQ estimates for children. Results for 1st-born children were clearest and showed the most significant differences. The findings are interpreted in terms of sociocultural and familial influences and the possibility of actual sex differences in particular abilities.     

IQ and social class

A brief overview is given of the nature-nurture debate elicited on the basis of Arthur Jensen's article concerning group differences in IQ test results published in 1969.Sandra Scarr-Salapatek found that the contribution of genetic variance in IQ test results tended to be larger in a more stimulating environment and proportionately smaller in a disadvantaged environment. This finding has been tested on data from a Swedish twin study. A comparison of within-pair similarity for MZ and DZ twins with varying social background has been made. Genetic variance seems to account for a greater proportion of the variance in IQ test scores in social group I and II compared to social group III. This is in accordance with the conclusions drawn by Scarr-Salapatek and thus tend to support the above-mentioned hypothesis. It therefore seems as though the potentially restricting effects of working class conditions for the development of the kind of abilities measured by conventional IQ tests would tend to reduce the degree to which genetic differences are expressed. More stimulating environmental opportunities, on the other hand, tend to allow a greater range of such differences in the middle and higher social classes.     

Preschoolers' response to maternal sadness: Relationships with maternal depression and emotional availability

Previous research has documented that children of depressed mothers are at risk for a variety of emotional/behavioral problems and impairments in mother-child interaction. Depressed mothers have been characterized as withdrawn and unavailable. The present study examined behavior of preschool children of depressed and nondepressed mothers in response to their mothers' feigned sadness. The study assessed maternal depression and maternal emotional availability to determine how these related to preschoolers' expression of empathy. Sixty-two mothers and their 3 1/2-year-olds participated in the study. Mother-child interaction was coded from four tasks: free play, eating a snack, problem solving, and sadness simulation. Children of depressed mothers were not less empathic than children of nondepressed mothers. However, the mother's mood on day of testing related to child response. Maternal emotional availability interacted with the credibility/intensity of her simulation of sadness to predict child empathy.