The interaction of semantic memory with storage and retrieval processes

A procedure for separating storage from retrieval (R. Chechile & D. L. Meyer, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1976, 14, 430–437) lead to the conclusion that memory development involves changes in both storage and retrieval. Nevertheless, these changes resulted from the interaction of storage and retrieval mechanisms with the age-related elaboration of the semantic memory system. This study shows that the memory improvement with age, between kindergarten and second grade, vanished when the meaningfulness of the materials were equated. The most plausible interpretation of the results is the hardware invariance hypothesis. According to that hypothesis, the memory apparatus for information processing is constant across ages, but the hardware is used more effectively if there is a better-developed semantic memory system.     

Developmental changes in incidental memory as a function of processing level,congruity, and repetition

Second-, fifth-, and ninth-grade students (8, 11, and 14 years of age, respectively) answered acoustic and semantic questions about words which were either congruent or incongruent with the questions. Subsequently, students' free recall of the words was unexpectedly tested. For words presented once in the list, only orienting task and congruity main effects were found. For twice-presented words, grade level interacted with both variables in that older students' recall was better than younger students' only for semantically encoded, congruent words. This finding is consistant with the hypothesis that developmental increases in semantic knowledge enhance the potential for encoding elaboration, but is in apparent conflict with the results of M. F. Geis and D. M. Hall (Child Development, 1978, 49, 857–861) who found no such interaction for second- and fifth-grade children. The different age spans included in the two studies provides one resolution of the discrepancy in results. However, a second experiment tested the importance of a procedural difference between the two studies. M. F. Geis and D. M. Hall (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1976, 22, 58–66; 1978) presented the question after the stimulus word while we presented the question before the word. For ninth-grade students, the question after condition resulted in an attenuation of the recall difference between semantic and acoustic questions compared to the question before condition. It was argued that the pattern of developmental differences in incidental memory that is obtained may be related to which procedure is utilized.     

Disciplinary sanctioning of students with intellectual disabilities: revisiting the status liability hypothesis

We examined the impact of disability status on disciplinary sanctioning of a student committing a minor versus severe behavioral infraction. We used the status liability hypothesis as a framework. This hypothesis suggests that individuals with a higher personal status receive sanctioning differentially based on the severity of offense. Specifically, individuals of high status are predicted to be sanctioned less severely than persons with lower status given a minor offense. The hypothesis also predicts that individuals accorded high status will receive more punitive sanctioning when the act of deviance from social norms is perceived as severe. Pre-service teachers were randomly assigned to judge the behavior of a student with or without an intellectual disability committing a behavioral offense. A student with an intellectual disability was seen as influenced by dispositional factors, regardless of the offense, while a student without a disability who committed a minor offense was seen as influenced by situational factors. The behavior of a student with an intellectual disability was judged as less severe, and the student was 50% less likely to incur an in-school suspension. When a student with an intellectual disability was sanctioned, the length of suspension was equal to that of a student without a disability.

Onset of Illness and Developmental Factors in Social Anxiety Disorder: Preliminary Findings from a Retrospective Interview

Although many advances have been made in the treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), less is known about its onset and factors related to its course and severity. The current study aimed to investigate developmental factors (e.g., onset of illness, behavioral inhibition, socially traumatic experiences) that research has suggested are related to the course and severity of SAD in a sample of adults diagnosed with generalized SAD. Results showed behavioral inhibition to be the only consistent predictor of current severity. Results for age of onset were consistent with previous studies suggesting an early childhood and later adolescent pattern. In addition, an earlier age of onset negatively impacted improvement in cognitive behavior therapy for SAD, but no other developmental factors were related to treatment outcome. Future research using longitudinal designs and multiple informants is needed to confirm findings from retrospective reports.

Measured interests versus expressed interests as predictors of long-term occupational membership

This study compared the predictive accuracy of measured versus expressed interests over a 21-year period using as a criterion occupational membership at age 36. Subjects were 83 males whose measured and expressed interests were elicited at ages 15, 18, and 25. The Strong Vocational Interest Blank was used to determine measured interests while expressed interests were determined through a combination of questionnaires and interviews. C. McArthur's (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1954, 38, 346–353) method was employed to determine the predictive validity of subjects' measured interests. The predictive validity of expressed interests was determined by using A. Roe's (The psychology of occupations. New York: Wiley, 1956; Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1957, 4, 212–217) scheme for occupational classification to code occupational preferences and compare them to age 36 occupations. Results indicated that at each point in the study expressed interests were slightly better predictors of age 36 occupational membership than measured interests. Supplementary analyses revealed no relationship between the extent to which subjects' measured or expressed interests corresponded to age 36 occupations and either overall job or career satisfaction.     

Heuristics and biases in diagnostic reasoning: II. Congruence,information, and certainty

Six experiments were carried out to examine possible heuristics and biases in the evaluation of yes-or-no questions for the purpose of hypothesis testing. In some experiments, the prior probability of the hypotheses and the conditional probabilities of the answers given each hypothesis were elicited from the subjects; in other experiments, they were provided. We found the following biases (systematic departures from a normative model), and interviews and justifications suggested that each was the result of a corresponding heuristic: Congruence bias. Subjects overvalued questions that have a high probability of a positive result given the most likely hypothesis. This bias was apparently reduced when alternative hypotheses or probabilities of negative results are explicitly stated. Information bias. Subjects evaluated questions as worth asking even when there is no answer that can change the hypothesis that will be accepted as a basis for action. Certainty bias. Subjects overvalued questions that have the potential to establish, or rule out, one or more hypotheses with 100% probability. These heuristics are explained in terms of the idea that people fail to consider certain arguments against the use of questions that seem initially worth asking, specifically, that a question may not distinguish likely hypotheses or that no answer can change the hypothesis accepted as a basis for action.     

Parent and Teacher Ratings on the IOWA Conners Rating Scale

The IOWA Conners Rating Scale is a widely used brief measure of inattentive-impulsive-overactive (IO) and oppositional-defiant (OD) behavior in children. This study examined the psychometric properties of this measure when completed by mothers and teachers. Results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a three-factor solution, conforming to current DSM-IV formulations of the disruptive behavior disorders, provided a better fit to the observed data than the currently used two-factor model, in which no distinction is made between inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive behaviors. Both new and currently used scale scores had good internal consistency and test–retest reliability and showed that boys’ scores were significantly higher than girls’ scores. Results held for both mother and teacher ratings. Clinical cutoff scores were proposed and performed reasonably well to screen for ADHD and ODD. Results support the IOWA Conners as a screening measure for the disruptive behavior disorders or as a tool for monitoring treatment response.

A procedural criterion for final derivability in inconsistency-adaptive logics

This paper concerns a (prospective) goal directed proof procedure for the propositional fragment of the inconsistency-adaptive logic ACLuN1. At the propositional level, the procedure forms an algorithm for final derivability. If extended to the predicative level, it provides a criterion for final derivability. This is essential in view of the absence of a positive test. The procedure may be generalized to all flat adaptive logics.     

Archimedean qualitative probabilities

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a probability measure agreeing with a weak order on an algebra of events are given. In the case of a countable algebra they consist of an extension of Kraft, Pratt, and Seidenberg's (1959. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 38, 780–786) additivity condition through the requirement of an Archimedean property. In the case of a σ-algebra and a σ-additive agreeing probability, Villegas' (1964. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 35, 1787–1796) monotone continuity condition, which becomes necessary, is merely added to them.     

Stuttering attitudes among Turkish family generations and neighbors from representative samples

PurposeAttitudes toward stuttering, measured by the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S), are compared among (a) two different representative samples; (b) family generations (children, parents, and either grandparents or uncles and aunts) and neighbors; (c) children, parents, grandparents/adult relatives, and neighbors of the same family/neighbor units vs. individuals from different family/neighbor units; and (d) attitudes from one Turkish city with an international database archive.MethodsFollowing a school-based, three-stage, cluster probability sampling scheme, two sets of children, parents, grandparents/adult relatives, and neighbors (50 each) in Eski?ehir, Turkey (PROB1 and PROB2) completed Turkish translations of the POSHA-S. The POSHA-S measures attitudes toward stuttering within the context of other attributes, such as obesity and mental illness.ResultsBoth replicates of the sampling procedure yielded strikingly similar attitudes for stuttering between children, parents, grandparents/adult relatives, and neighbors in PROB1 vs. PROB2, and between all pair-wise comparisons within PROB1 and PROB2. By contrast, attitudes toward obesity and mental illness were dissimilar. Correlations were small to moderate among attitudes of the same family/neighbor units but were essentially nonexistent between different family/neighbor units. Attitudes toward stuttering in Eski?ehir were estimated to be less positive than attitudes from a wide range of samples around the world, although exceptions occurred.ConclusionsA school-based probability sampling procedure yielded consistent findings that are likely different from results from convenience samples. Families appear to be an important influence in determining public attitudes toward stuttering and other human attributes.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (i) identify similarities and differences among attitudes toward stuttering across generations; (ii) identify similarities and differences among attitudes toward stuttering in Turkey vs. other places in the world; (iii) describe a school-based probability sampling scheme; (iv) describe advantages of using a standard instrument to measure public attitudes toward stuttering.     

A follow-up developmental study of hypothesis behavior among mentally retarded and nonretarded children

To clarify the roles of IQ and mental age (MA) in hypothesis behavior, MA-matched subjects at three levels of IQ (70, 100, and 130) and three levels of MA ($\text{5}\text{1}\text{2}\text{, 7}\text{1}\text{2}\text{,}\text{and}\text{9}\text{1}\text{2}\text{years}$) received blank-trial discrimination learning problems using procedures designed to discourage position-oriented responding. With position responding discouraged, earlier findings were contradicted in that no hypothesis measure showed a main effect of IQ. This suggest that previously reported IQ group differences in hypothesis behavior may not reflect cognitive deficits inherently linked to low IQ, but instead may reflect the influence of specific methodological factors. The finding and interpretation are consistent with Zigler's (American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1969, 73, 536–556) “developmental” theory of retardation and inconsistent with the general “difference” position. In additional findings, the predictions that subjects at all three MA levels would use hypotheses, and that retarded children from special-education classes would use hypotheses more often than retarded children “mainstreamed” in classes for the nonretarded were confirmed.     

A high implicit affiliation motive does not always make you happy: A corresponding explicit motive and corresponding behavior are further needed

Satisfaction of the implicit affiliation motive is known to be positively related to emotional well-being, whereas the frustration of the implicit affiliation motive leads to impairment of well-being. In the present research we specified two conditions that are responsible for the satisfaction and frustration of the implicit motive. Referring to research on the congruence of implicit and explicit motives, we assumed that a corresponding explicit affiliation motive leads to satisfaction of the implicit motive. Corresponding affiliation behavior constitutes the second condition. Three studies confirmed the hypothesis that both conditions must be fulfilled in order to positively connect the implicit affiliation motive to emotional well-being. Participants with high implicit and explicit affiliation motives and who additionally showed a large amount of affiliation behavior reported the lowest negative affectivity and the highest life satisfaction compared to participants who lacked one of the conditions.

Linking Informant Discrepancies to Observed Variations in Young Children’s Disruptive Behavior

Prior work has not tested the basic theoretical notion that informant discrepancies in reports of children’s behavior exist, in part, because different informants observe children’s behavior in different settings. We examined patterns of observed preschool disruptive behavior across varying social contexts in the laboratory and whether they related to parent-teacher rating discrepancies of disruptive behavior in a sample of 327 preschoolers. Observed disruptive behavior was assessed with a lab-based developmentally sensitive diagnostic observation paradigm that assesses disruptive behavior across three interactions with the child with parent and examiner. Latent class analysis identified four patterns of disruptive behavior: (a) low across parent and examiner contexts, (b) high with parent only, (c) high with examiner only, and (d) high with parent and examiner. Observed disruptive behavior specific to the parent and examiner contexts were uniquely related to parent-identified and teacher-identified disruptive behavior, respectively. Further, observed disruptive behavior across both parent and examiner contexts was associated with disruptive behavior as identified by both informants. Links between observed behavior and informant discrepancies were not explained by child impairment or observed problematic parenting. Findings provide the first laboratory-based support for the Attribution Bias Context Model (De Los Reyes and Kazdin Psychological Bulletin 131:483–509, 2005), which posits that informant discrepancies are indicative of cross-contextual variability in children’s behavior and informants’ perspectives on this behavior. These findings have important implications for clinical assessment, treatment outcomes, and developmental psychopathology research.

Worry in Adults and Children: Developmental Differences in the Importance of Probability and Cost Judgments

This study investigated developmental differences in the relationship of probability and cost estimates to worrying. Adults, younger children (M age = 8.67 years) and older children (M age = 11.06 years) rated the extent to which they worry about a list of negative social and physical outcomes and provided subjective probability and cost estimates for the same outcomes. Adults reported worrying more about social outcomes and rated them as less ‘bad’ (or costly) but more likely to occur than physical outcomes. Unlike adults, children in both age groups reported worrying more about physical outcomes. However, similar to adults, they also rated social outcomes as less ‘bad’ but more likely to occur than physical outcomes. Regression analyses showed that probability ratings were the best predictors of worry in adults, both probability and cost ratings equally predicted worry in older children, but only cost ratings predicted worry in younger children.

Coaching Approach Behavior and Leading by Modeling: Rationale,Principles, and a Session-by-Session Description of the CALM Program for Early Childhood Anxiety

Whereas the cognitive-behavioral treatment of childhood anxiety has been well-researched and empirically supported over the last 20 years, interventions for anxiety in young children (ages 7 and below) have garnered little attention. Because young children generally lack the required developmental skills to effectively engage in cognitive-behavioral treatment, a simple downward extension of treatments used for older children is inappropriate. The CALM program (Coaching Approach behavior and Leading by Modeling) was developed as a developmentally compatible intervention to treat anxiety disorders in young children ages 3 to 7. The CALM program is an adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and an extension of Pincus, Eyberg, and Choate's (2000) adaptation of PCIT for young children with separation anxiety disorder. It is a parent-focused treatment that teaches parents skills to effectively reinforce their children's brave behavior and coaches the use of these skills during in-session parent-child interactions. The treatment emphasizes live, bug-in-the-ear coaching of parents during in vivo exposure sessions. This article describes the CALM program in detail.     

The effect of infant-like characteristics on empathic concern for adults in need

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that empathic concern for adults in need is enhanced by the degree of target infant-like characteristics. Participants reported feeling more empathic concern for an adult target with a more infant-like face than for an adult with a more adult-like face in a Spanish sample (Experiment 1) and in an American sample (Experiment 2). A similar effect was found when participants were presented with either an adult with a more infant-like voice or an adult with a more adult-like voice in a second American sample (Experiment 3). Additional analyses suggest that the infant-like characteristic effect on empathic concern is not mediated by observer perceptions of target attractiveness, target age or youthfulness, target vulnerability, or observer similarity to the target. These results support the proposition that infant-like cues enhance empathic concern in human observers and that the phenomenon generalizes across stimulus modality, gender, and nationality.

Harming is more intentional than helping because it is more probable: the underlying influence of probability on the Knobe effect

Knobe [2003. Intentional action and side effects in ordinary language. Analysis, 63, 190–194] demonstrated that people’s intentionality judgments in side effects depend on the outcome of the side-effect, indicating that people’s judgments of intentionality of action depend on not only the intention of the actor but also on the result of the action. However, on the basis of findings in judgment and decision making, the current study proposes another hypothesis to Knobe’s (2003) results: the participants’ intentionality judgments are related to not only the outcomes themselves but also the probabilities of outcomes predicted from the action. To test this hypothesis, the present study employed an identical experimental procedure to Knobe (2003), except that it required not only intentionality but also probability judgments for outcomes that resulted from the actions of a company president. The results replicated the findings of Knobe (2003) and showed a relationship between probability and intentionality judgment.     

Variables in Psychology: A Critique of Quantitative Psychology

Mind is hidden from direct observation; it can be studied only by observing behavior. Variables encode information about behaviors. There is no one-to-one correspondence between behaviors and mental events underlying the behaviors, however. In order to understand mind it would be necessary to understand exactly what information is represented in variables. This aim cannot be reached after variables are already encoded. Therefore, statistical data analysis can be very misleading in studies aimed at understanding mind that underlies behavior. In this article different kinds of information that can be represented in variables are described. It is shown how informational ambiguity of variables leads to problems of theoretically meaningful interpretation of the results of statistical data analysis procedures in terms of hidden mental processes. Reasons are provided why presence of dependence between variables does not imply causal relationship between events represented by variables and absence of dependence between variables cannot rule out the causal dependence of events represented by variables. It is concluded that variable-psychology has a very limited range of application for the development of a theory of mind—psychology.

Vagueness, Conditionals and Probability

This paper explores the interaction of well-motivated (if controversial) principles governing the probability conditionals, with accounts of what it is for a sentence to be indefinite. The conclusion can be played in a variety of ways. It could be regarded as a new reason to be suspicious of the intuitive data about the probability of conditionals; or, holding fixed the data, it could be used to give traction on the philosophical analysis of a contentious notion—indefiniteness. The paper outlines the various options, and shows that ‘rejectionist’ theories of indefiniteness are incompatible with the results. Rejectionist theories include popular accounts such as supervaluationism, non-classical truth-value gap theories, and accounts of indeterminacy that centre on rejecting the law of excluded middle. An appendix compares the results obtained here with the ‘impossibility’ results descending from Lewis (1976).

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Congruence Between Implicit and Explicit Motives and Emotional Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Activity Inhibition

The current research tested the hypothesis that activity inhibition–conceptualized as the degree of restraint an individual exercises over emotional and motivational impulses–moderates the association between congruence of implicit and explicit motives and emotional well-being. Congruence of implicit and explicit motives was expected to be related to a more positive well-being among individuals low in activity inhibition, but not among individuals high in activity inhibition. Two cross-sectional studies (Study 1: N=72; Study 2: N=147) were conducted to test this hypothesis. Both studies found the predicted pattern of results for achievement motivation, demonstrating that congruence of implicit and explicit achievement motivation was related to a more positive mood only for participants low in activity inhibition. There was no evidence of congruence effects for affiliation motivation.