The impact of pressured information management on boys' and girls' psychological functioning

This study involving 463 adolescents examined the impact of pressured information management with mothers on boys' and girls' subsequent psychological functioning. This novel concept of pressured information management involved both pressured secrecy and disclosure and was defined as the degree to which adolescents feel they have no choice but to engage in these strategies. While pressured secrecy was especially aversive for girls, yielding associations with both depression and anxiety, it was related to stress only in boys. Pressured disclosure was less detrimental, and in fact, had a positive influence on girls' anxiety over time. Alternate models for these effects were considered but not supported by the data. Together, these findings highlight the importance of considering teens' reasons for engaging in different information management strategies and suggest adolescents who feel they have no choice but to keep secrets or disclose information to mothers may experience psychological consequences that are gender-specific.     

The effects of bilingualism on toddlers' executive functioning

Bilingual children have been shown to outperform monolingual children on tasks measuring executive functioning skills. This advantage is usually attributed to bilinguals’ extensive practice in exercising selective attention and cognitive flexibility during language use because both languages are active when one of them is being used. We examined whether this advantage is observed in 24-month-olds who have had much less experience in language production. A battery of executive functioning tasks and the cognitive scale of the Bayley test were administered to 63 monolingual and bilingual children. Native bilingual children performed significantly better than monolingual children on the Stroop task, with no difference between groups on the other tasks, confirming the specificity of bilingual effects to conflict tasks reported in older children. These results demonstrate that bilingual advantages in executive control emerge at an age not previously shown.     

The impact of demographics and nutritional status on cognitive functioning in an Iranian adults sample

This study investigated the impact of demographic variables and nutritional status on adult cognitive functioning using structural equation modeling. Demographic variables that were considered were height, weight and gender, whilst nutritional status was measured on the Nutrition Assessment Inventory (NAI). Cognitive functions, such as executive cognitive functions, cognitive flexibility, cognitive ability and cognitive vulnerability were measured using the Amsterdam Executive Function Inventory (AEFI), the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS), the Cognitive Ability Questionnaire (CAQ), and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Form A-Revised (DAS-A-R) respectively. Findings indicated that ethnicity and weight variables contribute to 8.8% of the nutritional status variations observed. A SEM analysis showed that nutritional status has an impact on 13% on the measured cognitive abilities of adults. The effects of “healthy nutrition”, “use of complementary nutritients”, “coping with high fat foods”, and “high fat food assumption” subscales of the nutrition scale were found to play a role in cognitive ability. This study shows a fitted SEM for the predictive roles of ethnicity, weight and nutritional status on the cognitive ability in adults.     

The impact of smart driving aids on driving performance and driver distraction

In-vehicle information systems (IVIS) have been shown to increase driver workload and cause distraction, both of which are causal factors for accidents. This simulator study evaluates the impact that two prototype ergonomic designs for a smart driving aid have on workload, distraction and driving performance. Scenario complexity was also manipulated as an independent variable. Results showed that real-time delivery of smart driving information did not increase driver workload or adversely affect driver distraction, while also having the positive effect of decreasing mean driving speed in both the simple and complex driving scenarios. Subjective workload was shown to increase with task difficulty, as well as revealing important differences between the two interface designs. The findings are relevant to the development and implementation of smart driving interface designs in the future.     

Effects of psychological defense on processing of neutral stimuli indicated by event-related potentials (ERPs)

The Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) is claimed to identify personnel with a high risk for accidents. A new explanation for why the DMT seems to predict performance when survival depends on split second decisions is proposed. Sixteen right-handed, adult male students were tested with the DMT and with an ERP paradigm (two sine wave tones, presented binaurally). Each subject was tested with a one-stimulus paradigm, and a passive and an active oddball paradigm. Under the passive oddball condition, High defensive subjects differed from Low, having significantly smaller N2 amplitudes (low immediate perception), and significantly larger P3 amplitudes (rely on later associative mechanisms). High defensive subjects seem to have less ability to perceive the environment correctly immediately. This slowness may be fatal when life depends on split second decisions. The fundamental neurophysiological difference may also be the basis for the very complex cognitive and perceptual mechanisms involved in psychological defense mechanisms.     

结构方程在心理学研究中的应用

近年来,在教育、社会及心理学等研究领域,结构方程模型(SEM,Structural Equation Modeling)已成为重要的多变量分析方法,并日益受到广大研究者的重视。本文旨在对SEM作简要概述,并讨论其在心理学研究中的应用,以及在应用过程中应该遵循的标准和需要注意的一些问题。     

The role of color information on object recognition: a review and meta-analysis

In this study, we systematically review the scientific literature on the effect of color on object recognition. Thirty-five independent experiments, comprising 1535 participants, were included in a meta-analysis. We found a moderate effect of color on object recognition (d = 0.28). Specific effects of moderator variables were analyzed and we found that color diagnosticity is the factor with the greatest moderator effect on the influence of color in object recognition; studies using color diagnostic objects showed a significant color effect (d = 0.43), whereas a marginal color effect was found in studies that used non-color diagnostic objects (d = 0.18). The present study did not permit the drawing of specific conclusions about the moderator effect of the object recognition task; while the meta-analytic review showed that color information improves object recognition mainly in studies using naming tasks (d = 0.36), the literature review revealed a large body of evidence showing positive effects of color information on object recognition in studies using a large variety of visual recognition tasks. We also found that color is important for the ability to recognize artifacts and natural objects, to recognize objects presented as types (line-drawings) or as tokens (photographs), and to recognize objects that are presented without surface details, such as texture or shadow. Taken together, the results of the meta-analysis strongly support the contention that color plays a role in object recognition. This suggests that the role of color should be taken into account in models of visual object recognition.     

The holocaust of first nation people: Residual effects on parenting and treatment implications

The residential school experience was devastating for many First Nation (Indian) people. The lingering effects of this era have been far reaching and remain painfully evident throughout Native communities. One of the more obvious areas directly affected has been parenting. This paper discusses current parenting difficulties of Native clients who were formerly in residential schools. A connection is made between the abuse experienced by these individuals and their parental struggles. Along with addressing various sociopolitical issues, a number of clinical interventions designed to promote the healing process of these victims and their families are provided and discussed.     

盆底结构MRI研究进展及思考

盆底结构精细复杂,传统的解剖学以尸检为依据,现代影像学则提供了活体观察功能形态的有效方法.盆底结构核磁共振成像研究的新进展,体现了医学技术创新的稳健性、后发性、综合性,其发展取决于现代科学技术的进步.因此影像医学工作者作为医学科技主体,只有具备综合型知识结构,才能更好地进行医学技术创新.     

The facilitative effect of positive stimuli on 3-year-olds’ flexible rule use

This study examined the effect of emotional stimuli on 3- to 4-year old children's flexible rule use, as measured by the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). In Experiment 1, children in two countries (Canada and China) were given 2 versions of the DCCS. The Standard version required children to sort red and blue boats and rabbits first by shape and then by color (or vice versa); the Emotional Faces version required children to sort happy and sad male and female faces first by emotion and then by gender (or vice versa). Children performed significantly better on the Emotional Faces version, and performance on the 2 versions was related. Order in which dimensions were presented had no effect. Experiment 2 examined which aspects of the emotional faces were responsible for the facilitation of children's performance. Performance on the Standard version was compared to performance on three contextual faces versions, in which children were shown happy, sad, or neutral faces and required to sort them by age (child versus adult) and then by gender (or vice versa). Facilitation was only seen in the context of happy faces. Results are consistent with the suggestion that positive stimuli promote cognitive flexibility, perhaps by increasing dopamine levels in prefrontal cortex.     

The comparative effectiveness of two modes of observer training on the Staff-Resident Interaction Chronograph

The comparative effectiveness of two time-limited modes of training observers to code activity on the Staff-Resident Interaction Chronograph (SRIC) in residential treatment programs for mentally disabled adults was evaluated. The susceptibility of training procedures for consensual observer drift was also examined, as was the predictability of SRIC mastery from trainee characteristics. Two equated groups of undergraduate student trainees (N=15 each) participated in full-time training for 27 days, followed by two weeks of criterion testing in vivo and on videotapes. One group received training by experience personnel using procedures known to be effective (original method). The other group received training via a previously untested set of written and videotaped procedures that do not rely on experienced personnel (package method). Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance found both methods to be equally effective in the degree of mastery achieved by trainees, without evidence of observer drift. No meaningful predictions of coding mastery were found, but conceptual mastery was predictable from individual characteristics. Differences were obtained for both groups between in vivo versus videotaped criterion tests. The results document procedures that are both efficient and resistant to invalidity for complex observational methodology as well as feasible for standardizing assessment of staff functioning across residential settings.This article is based on a thesis submitted to the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree in psychology by the first author under direction of the second author. The third and fourth authors also participated as supervisors. Appreciation is extended to other members of the thesis committee, Fred Kanfer, W. Robert Nay, Julian Rappaport, and James Wardrop, for their comments and recommendations. This study was partially supported by Public Health Service Grants MH-25464 and MH-14257 from the National Institute of Mental Health, and by grants from The Joyce Foundation and the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.