The process of selective exposure: Why confirmatory information search weakens over time

The present research investigated whether the tendency to prefer decision-consistent to decision-inconsistent information after making a preliminary choice would vary during the sequential process of searching for additional pieces of decision-relevant information. Specifically, it was tested whether decision makers would be more confirmatory in their information evaluation and search at the commencement rather than end of an information search process. In fact, five studies revealed that participants exhibited stronger confirmatory tendencies in both information evaluation (Studies 2 and 5) and search (Studies 1, 3, and 4) immediately after making a preliminary decision compared to during the later stages of an information search process. With regard to the underlying mechanism, results further revealed that individuals appear to be more motivated to detect the best decision alternative at the beginning (as opposed to the end) of an information search process, which leads to increases in confirmatory information processing during these stages.     

Increasing adolescent mothers' knowledge of child development: an intervention program

This study focused upon an intervention program that allowed adolescent mothers to have major input in identifying knowledge they needed concerning their children's growth and their own parenting skills. Seventy-six females participated in the 4-month program. A pretest-posttest design was used to measure changes in self-esteem, knowledge of child development, and tendencies toward inappropriate interactions with children. Analysis of effectiveness of this program indicated that it had been effective. Results revealed significant differences between pre- and posttest measures of child development knowledge in the areas of infant and toddler development. Further analysis indicated a significant change in the subjects' child abuse potential at the end of the program. No significant difference could be found in measures of self-esteem between the beginning and end of the program. A 10-month follow-up study coordinated between two public agencies found that none of the adolescent parents who had completed the program had been reported for child abuse or neglect. The results support the importance of short-term intervention programs for adolescent parents.     

Spanish-Speaking Parent–Child Emotional Narratives and Children's Social Skills

We examined whether parents' content and style when discussing past positive and negative emotional experiences with their children were concurrently and predictively linked to prekindergarteners' social skills. Sixty-five low-income Spanish-speaking parent–child dyads discussed a past positive and negative emotional experience at the beginning of prekindergarten. Narratives were coded for parents' elaborative style and emotion resolution, cause, and attribution. Children's emotional and cognitive-processing words were also coded. Children's social problem-solving skills and prosocial behaviors were assessed at the beginning and at the end of prekindergarten. Concurrently, children's social problem-solving skills were related to parents' elaborative style when discussing positive emotional experiences and children's use of cognitive-processing words when discussing negative emotional experiences. Predictively, children whose parents offered resolutions when discussing negative emotional experiences at the beginning of prekindergarten had better social problem-solving skills at the end of prekindergarten. Parents who talked about causes or attributed emotions when discussing past emotional experiences did not necessarily have children with better social skills. Findings suggest that parents' scaffolding when discussing past positive and negative emotional experiences offers opportunities for prekindergarteners to develop social abilities crucial for school readiness.     

Randomized controlled trial of parental responsiveness intervention for toddlers at high risk for autism

This study tested the effects of a parent-mediated intervention on parental responsiveness with their toddlers at high risk for an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Participants included caregivers and their 66 toddlers at high risk for ASD. Caregivers were randomized to 12 sessions of an individualized parent education intervention aimed at improving parental responsiveness or to a monitoring control group involving 4 sessions of behavioral support. Parental responsiveness and child outcomes were measured at three time points: at beginning and end of the 3-month treatment and at 12-months post-study entry. Parental responsiveness improved significantly in the treatment group but not the control group. However, parental responsiveness was not fully maintained at follow up. There were no treatment effects on child outcomes of joint attention or language. Children in both groups made significant developmental gains in cognition and language skills over one year. These results support parental responsiveness as an important intervention target given its general association with child outcomes in the extant literature; however, additional supports are likely needed to fully maintain the treatment effect and to affect child outcomes.     

Patterns and temporal changes in peer affiliation among aggressive and nonaggressive children participating in a summer school program

Examined the behavior and affiliation patterns of 118 highly, moderately, and nonaggressive 7-year-old children over the course of a 6-week summer school program. During free play, participants did not selectively associate on the basis of behavioral similarity, but initial mutual friendship choices did show a preference for similarly behaved peers. Nonreciprocated friendships at the beginning and end of the program and mutual friendships at the end revealed a preference of all children to be-friend nonaggressive peers. Moderately aggressive children increased their number of mutual friendships and their association with nonaggressive peers during free play, whereas highly aggressive children lost mutual friends. The aggressiveness of a child's playmates predicted the likelihood of that child behaving inappropriately during free play. Results suggest that selective affiliation may be the result of peer rejection rather than an active process of seeking similarly aggressive peers.     

Opening Comments

Child placement policies and practices are always based on ideas as to what kind of society we want to be. We want to keep a balance between the needs of the child and those of the parents—divorced, biological, foster, or adoptive. We seek new legal frameworks to allow for different kinds of placements with varying degrees of access, openness, and privacy. The goal is to find relationship arrangements that will do justice to all the individuals involved. The job of shaping and testing new arrangements, determining their limits, may take decades. We will learn who are the parents actually ready to raise a child in joint custody or to foster or adopt a child while maintaining access to the biological parents. We will learn what forms of access are likely to enhance or jeopardize the relationships and growth of the participants. We will discover patterns that encourage or discourage parents in undertaking new forms of placement and ways for professionals to relate to these families. We may find that the issue of the “compulsive” identity search is less critical than the difficulties involved in establishing intrafamilial boundaries and developing optimal conditions for raising children. The art of anticipating agency-induced “latrogenic errors” will become indispensable. It will be used for developing fair ground rules for those involved in the experience of child placement. This will improve an imperfect world by restoring two concepts—that the rights of the individual can be protected without neglecting the needs of others and that contractual arrangements and interpersonal commitments cannot only be revised but also honored. These concepts have rapidly weakened since Freud. On the basis of his theories the psychology of the family and the community shifted dramatically to that of the individual's internal plight. The culmination of that powerful trend was seen among mental health professionals who focused exclusively on the phenomenology of the foster child's or adoptee's identity search, fantasies, and anxieties, and only incidentally on the concerns of the adoptive, foster, and biological parents. The professionals were aware of the dynamic patterns of coalitions and splits set up between an agency's representative and the sets of parents involved, but for them these interactions were merely the background in a drama of intrapsychic forces struggling for resolution. The tendency has been to look inside people's heads and to consider the agency's involvement and the organizing power of the interpersonal arrangement as secondary influences in the making of problems. This tendency—by no means only a lamentable and myopic error of the past—may be yielding. Whether disguised as interactional theory, as family-oriented perceptions, or as awareness of context, consideration for the needs of others is coming back. More adoptees and foster children are concerned that their successful search may prove to be less than welcome to unconsenting biological parents. More professionals are concerned with preventing a particular outlook, whether it be the doctrinaire position of the courts or agencies thirty years ago or the self-actualizing drive of the adoptee or foster child today, from asserting itself at the expense of others. Practitioners look for a new ethic and for informed viewpoints to make wiser decisions when dealing with child placement. The following section offers three such viewpoints. The first paper favors the continuity of biological or previous family ties across a variety of child placement settings and views the identity search as more than an inner event, as a nonpathological social quest and an integrative experience. The second paper attributes the “compulsive” identity search to “psychological stress within the adoptive family” and “distortion in the vitally important area of adoptive education”; it stresses the importance of safeguarding the contractual foundations of adoption. The third paper emphasizes the need to develop empirical data on the impact on birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees of the movement to unseal adoption records; it describes a study of the attitudes of birth parents who relinquished children in the past. The strengths of each presentation are limited by the problems imposed by self-selected samples, but the papers afford the reader the opportunity of looking at the child-placement experience from different perspectives.     

Teacher–child interactions: relations with children's self‐concept in second grade

This study examined whether teacher–child interactions characterized by teacher involvement, structure, and autonomy support at the beginning of second grade predicted children's global, academic, social, and behavioural self‐concept at the end of second grade. The study was conducted in 30 second grade classrooms with 570 children and their teachers. Data included teacher reports of teacher–child interactions and child reports of self‐concept. Results showed that, when controlling for the initial level of self‐concept, children's social self‐concept was predicted by teacher involvement, structure, and autonomy support. In addition, teacher autonomy support predicted high academic self‐concept. Finally, these teacher–child interaction characteristics did not contribute to the behavioural and global self‐concept. The results were similar for boys and girls. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

End-of-semester syndrome: How situational regulatory fit affects test performance over an academic semester

Psychology researchers often avoid running participants from subject pools at the end of the semester because they are "unmotivated". We suggest that the end of the semester induces a situational prevention focus (i.e., sensitive to losses) unlike the beginning of the semester, which may induce a situational promotion focus (i.e., sensitive to gains). In two experiments, we presented participants with math problems at the beginning or end of an academic semester. End-of-semester participants performed better minimizing losses as compared to maximizing gains, while the opposite was true for beginning-of-semester participants.     

Renting to Owning: An Exploration of the Theory of Planned Behavior in the Homeownership Domain

Psychology researchers often avoid running participants from subject pools at the end of the semester because they are “unmotivated.” We suggest that the end of the semester induces a situational prevention focus (i.e., sensitive to losses) unlike the beginning of the semester, which may induce a situational promotion focus (i.e., sensitive to gains). In two experiments, we presented participants with math problems at the beginning or end of an academic semester. End-of-semester participants performed better minimizing losses as compared to maximizing gains, whereas the opposite was true for beginning-of-semester participants.     

识图方式与地图难度对定向运动员识图决策绩效与视觉搜索特征的影响

目的：研究旨在探究定向运动员在识别定向运动地图时的决策绩效与视觉搜索特征。方法：研究采用组内设计,操控地图难度（简单和复杂）和运动员识图方式（精确识图和概略识图）对高水平定向运动员进行实验研究。结果：（1）随着地图难度的加大,定向运动员识图准确性下降,概略识图反应时增加。（2）识图时,简单地图比复杂地图注视频率和眼跳距离更大,注视次数更少;概略识图比精确识图注视次数更多、注视频率更高、眼跳距离更大;概略识图时,简单地图条件下运动员从起点开始正向搜索,复杂地图条件下从终点开始逆向搜索,注视区域面积大且分散;精确识图时,无论是简单地图还是复杂地图,所有运动员均首先搜索检查点说明表和终点,注视区域面积小且集中。结论：地图难度制约着定向运动员的识图决策绩效。定向运动员识图的视觉搜索特征受识图方式与地图难度影响,表现出不同的视觉搜索策略。     

Children's aggressive behaviour and teacher–child conflict in kindergarten: Is teacher perceived control over child behaviour a mediating variable/

Background Research repeatedly showed young children's aggressive behaviour to predict relationship difficulties with the teacher. Aims To examine a possible mediating variable in this process and in the stability of relationship difficulties across the school year, namely teacher perceived control over child behaviour. Sample The sample consisted of 139 Belgian kindergartners and their teachers. Method Data were collected throughout kindergarten at three measurement occasions: children's aggressive behaviour was measured by means of a peer nomination procedure during the first trimester, teacher perceived control over child behaviour was assessed by means of a teacher questionnaire during the second trimester, and teacher–child conflict was measured by means of a teacher questionnaire during the first and third trimesters. Correlations among all study variables were calculated and different models were estimated and compared by means of structural equation modelling. Results Teacher perceived control completely mediated the relationship between aggressive behaviour and teacher–child conflict (after controlling for the concurrent association between aggressive behaviour and conflict, and the stability of conflict). In addition, teacher perceived control accounted for part of the stability in conflict across the school year. Conclusions Teacher perceived control over child behaviour has been found to act as a mediating mechanism between child aggressive behaviour and teacher–child conflict at the beginning of kindergarten and teacher–child conflict at the end of the year.     

Perceptual Learning of Intonation Contour Categories in Adults and 9‐ to 11‐Year‐Old Children: Adults Are More Narrow‐Minded

We report on rapid perceptual learning of intonation contour categories in adults and 9‐ to 11‐year‐old children. Intonation contours are temporally extended patterns, whose perception requires temporal integration and therefore poses significant working memory challenges. Both children and adults form relatively abstract representations of intonation contours: Previously encountered and novel exemplars are categorized together equally often, as long as distance from the prototype is controlled. However, age‐related differences in categorization performance also exist. Given the same experience, adults form narrower categories than children. In addition, adults pay more attention to the end of the contour, while children appear to pay equal attention to the beginning and the end. The age range we examine appears to capture the tail‐end of the developmental trajectory for learning intonation contour categories: There is a continuous effect of age on category breadth within the child group, but the oldest children (older than 10;3) are adult‐like.     

Choice of end-state comfort is dependent upon the time spent at the beginning-state and the precision requirement of the end-state

Choice of posture while grasping an object typically depends upon several factors including the time spent in that posture, what postures were held prior to choosing that posture, and the precision required by the posture. The purpose of this study was to test choice of end-state thumb-up posture based on time spent at the beginning-state and the precision requirement of the end-state. To determine choice of thumb-up based on time or precision, we varied how long a subject had to hold the beginning state before moving an object to an end location. We made end-state precision either small or large and eliminated the precision needed to stand the object up at the end of the movement. A choice between “comfort” at the beginning or precision at the end-state would be demanded by the conditions with long beginning-state hold times and high precision demands. We aimed to determine which aspect of movement was of greater importance to individuals, overall “comfort” or precision. When the requirement was to hold the initial grasp longer, and the end-target was large, we predicted that we would see more thumb-up postures adopted at the beginning state. When the final placement was small and the initial posture was not constrained, we predicted we would see thumb-up postures adopted at the end state. On average, we found that, as beginning-state grasp time increased, more individuals chose beginning-state thumb-up postures. Perhaps, not surprisingly, we found distinct individual differences within our sample. Some individuals seemed to choose beginning-state thumb-up postures nearly 100% of the time, while other individuals chose end-state thumb-up postures nearly 100% of the time. Both the time spent in a posture and its precision requirements influenced planning, but not necessarily in a systematic way.     

The influence of time constraints on posture choices during an end-state comfort task

People adopt comfortable postures for the end states of motor actions (end-state comfort; Rosenbaum & Jorgensen, 1992). The choice to end comfortably often elicits adoption of uncomfortable beginning states, demonstrating that a sequence of movement is planned in advance of movement onset. Many factors influence the choice of comfortable end-state postures including the greater precision and speed afforded by postures at joint angle mid-ranges (Short & Cauraugh, 1999). To date, there has been little evaluation of the hypothesis that postures are chosen based on minimizing the time spent in uncomfortable postures. The aim of this experiment was to examine how the relative time required to hold beginning and end-state postures influenced the choice of posture. Participants moved a two-toned wooden dowel from one location to another with the requirement to grasp the object and place a specified color down. Participants completed four conditions where no postures were held, only one posture was held, or both postures were held. We predicted more thumb-up postures for positions held longer regardless of whether these postures were at the end or beginning state. Results verified that the constraint of holding the initial posture led to decreased end-state comfort supporting the hypothesis that estimation of time spent in postures is an important constraint in planning. We also note marked individual differences in posture choices, particularly when the object was moved to the left.     

The Long-Term Effectiveness of the Family Check-up on Peer Preference: Parent-Child Interaction and Child Effortful Control as Sequential Mediators

We examined the longitudinal effects of the Family Check-Up (FCU) intervention beginning in toddlerhood on children’s peer preference at school-age. Specifically, a sequential mediational model was proposed in which the FCU was hypothesized to promote peer preference (i.e., higher acceptance and lower rejection by peers) in middle childhood through its positive effects on parent-child interaction and child effortful control in early childhood. Participants were 731 low-income families (49 % female). Qualities of parent-child interaction were observed during structured activities at 2 to 5 years, child effortful control was assessed using behavioral tasks at 5 years, and peer acceptance and rejection were rated by teachers at 7.5 to 10.5 years. Results indicated that the FCU indirectly predicted peer preference by sequentially improving parent-child interaction and child effortful control. The findings are discussed with respect to implications for understanding mechanisms by which early parenting-focused programs may enhance child functioning across time and context.     

Classroom Interactions,Dyadic Teacher–Child Relationships,and Self–Regulation in Socially Disadvantaged Young Children

This study examined the quality of the classroom climate and dyadic teacher–child relationships as predictors of self–regulation in a sample of socially disadvantaged preschool children (N?=?206; 52 % boys). Children’s self–regulation was observed in preschool at the beginning and at the end of the school year. At the middle of the preschool year, classroom observations of interactions were conducted by trained observers and teachers rated the quality of dyadic teacher–child relationships. Results from multilevel analyses revealed that teacher–child closeness predicted improvements in observed self–regulation skills. Children showed larger gains in self–regulation when they experienced closer teacher–child relationships. Moreover, a moderating effect between classroom instructional quality and observed self–regulation was found such that children with low initial self–regulation skills benefit the most from classrooms with higher classroom quality. Findings have implications for understanding the role of classroom social processes on the development of self–regulation.     

Perceived parental behaviours and motivational processes among adolescent athletes in intensive training centres: A profile approach

Parental behaviours influence athletes’ psychological functioning in different ways. To date, research has typically explored parental behaviours one by one, and few papers have simultaneously considered sets of parental behaviours. The objectives of this study were to: (a) identify parental behaviours using a person-centred approach and differentiating mother’s and father’s behaviours; (b) explore the changes of parental behaviour profiles across the season; and (c) examine the prospective impact of parental behaviour profiles at the beginning of the season on athlete scores of motivation, satisfaction, and frustration of basic psychological needs at the end of the season. A longitudinal two-wave measurement design (beginning and end of a season) was used in the study. A sample of 226 French athletes completed self-reported questionnaires: (a) at the beginning and end of the season to measure the behaviours of their parents; and (b) at the end of the season to assess their motivation, satisfaction, and frustration of basic psychological needs. Latent profile transition analysis revealed three parental behaviour profiles: (a) moderate parental involvement; (b) moderate to high parental involvement; and (c) moderate mother’s involvement and low father’s involvement. The profiles were based on associated patterns of four mother’s and father’s behaviours: (a) directive behaviours; (b) active involvement; (c) praise and understanding; and (d) pressure. The three parental behaviour profiles remained stable across the season (i.e., inter- and intra-individual stability). Athletes who reported the moderate parental involvement profile at the beginning of the season had lower scores of controlled motivation and frustration of autonomy as well as higher scores of satisfaction of competence and relatedness at the end of the season than their counterparts from the two other profiles. This study contributes to enriching the complex picture of parental involvement in the sport to help sport organisations identify parents at risk of impeding their child’s development.     

Raters who pursue different goals give different ratings

J. N. Cleveland and K. R. Murphy (1992) suggested that phenomena such as rater errors and interrater disagreements could be understood in terms of differences in the goals pursued by various raters. We measured 19 rating goals of students at the beginning of a semester, grouped them into scales, and correlated these with teacher evaluations collected at the end of the semester. We found significant multiple correlations, both within classes and in an analysis of the pooled sample (adjusting for instructor mean differences, incremental R2 =.08). Measures of rating goals obtained after raters had observed a significant proportion of ratee performance accounted for variance (incremental R2 =.07) not accounted for by measures of goals obtained at the beginning of the semester.     

A year’s memories: The calendar effect in autobiographical recall

When asked to recall autobiographical events from the past year, students tend to recall more incidents from the beginning and the end of school terms than from other periods. We investigated thiscalendar effect in Experiment 1 by comparing free recall at schools with different academic calendars. The event distributions tracked the individual calendars, helping to eliminate the possibility that the calendar effect is due to seasonal, nonschool factors, such as holidays. In Experiments 2–4, we checked explanations based on the ideas that events at term boundaries are more important or distinctive than others, that events are incorrectly dated too near the boundaries, and that boundaries serve as implicit cues for recall. These experiments revealed no evidence that importance or errors in dating could explain the effect. Manipulating cues, however, did change the size of the effect, implicating retrieval from very long-term memory as the effect’s source. We suggest that when people have to search episodic memory, they consider their own calendar rhythms (such as a student’s academic schedule) and let the temporal structure of their personal context guide their search.