Further evidence for systematic reliability differences between explicit and implicit memory tests

Meier and Perrig (2000) as well as Buchner and Wippich (2000) have shown that simple dissociations between explicit and implicit memory measures need not reflect functional dissociations of hypothetical underlying memory systems. Instead, such dissociations may also result from the fact that some widely used implicit memory measures are simply less reliable than the explicit measures with which they have been compared. We extend this argument in two ways. First, we show that illusion-based memory measures such as the priming measures derived from fame andpreference judgement tasks are also subject to the reliability problem. Second, we show that yes-no and two-alternative forced-choice paradigms should, and in fact do, yield virtually identical results as far as the reliability of the memory tests is concerned.     

Further evidence of interference between lipreading and auditory recency

In both free and backward recall, it is shown that auditory but not visual recency is greatly disrupted when subjects have to lipread, rather than read, a series of numbers in a distractor task interpolated between list presentation and recall. This selective interference effect extends the generality of a finding reported by Spoehr and Corin (1978) and adds to an accumulating body of evidence that seems inconsistent with acoustic or echoic memory interpretations of the enhanced recency recall typically observed in comparing auditory with visual presentation. Alternative interpretations are briefly considered.     

Further evidence on the relationship between goal setting and expectancy theories

This investigation sought to clarify the relationship between goal setting and expectancy theories. Toward this end, (a) previous theoretical and empirical efforts at integrating these two theories are reviewed, (b) issues of causal ordering, measurement, and the meanings of those measures are examined, and (c) the results of an empirical study using a sample of 344 college students and an academic task are presented. Results illustrate how different operationalizations of expectancy and attractiveness ratings result in the measurement of different constructs and influence the significance and direction of empirical findings. For almost all operationalizations, however, significant relationships were evident between expectancy theory constructs and goal choice, goal commitment, and performance. Causal analyses using cross-lag correlations were inconclusive, but mediation and path analyses provided some evidence that goals mediate the effects of expectancy theory constructs on performance.     

The role of adolescent peer affiliations in the continuity between childhood behavioral adjustment and juvenile offending

This research reports on a structural equation model analysis of the relationships between childhood behavioral adjustment, adolescent peer affiliations, and adolescent offending using data gathered during the course of a 16-year longitudinal study of a birth cohort of New Zealand children. The model developed contained parameters that estimated (a) the continuities between early behavior and later offending, (b) the associations between early behavior and adolescent peer affiliations, and (c) the potentially reciprocal relationship between adolescent peer affiliations and adolescent offending behaviors. This analysis suggested that, when due allowance was made for reporting error, there was evidence of relatively strong continuity (r= .50) between early behavior and later offending. The model estimates suggested that these continuities arose from both direct continuities in behavior over time and from the effects of adolescent peer affiliations in reinforcing and sustaining earlier behavioral tendencies. The implications of the analysis for the understanding of the role of adolescent peer affiliations in behavioral continuities and discontinuities are discussed. These research has been funded by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the National Child Health Research Foundation, and the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation.     

Further evidence for mixed emotions

Emotion theorists have long debated whether valence, which ranges from pleasant to unpleasant states, is an irreducible aspect of the experience of emotion or whether positivity and negativity are separable in experience. If valence is irreducible, it follows that people cannot feel happy and sad at the same time. Conversely, if positivity and negativity are separable, people may be able to experience such mixed emotions. The authors tested several alternative interpretations for prior evidence that happiness and sadness can co-occur in bittersweet situations (i.e., those containing both pleasant and unpleasant aspects). One possibility is that subjects who reported mixed emotions merely vacillated between happiness and sadness. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 1-3 by asking subjects to complete online continuous measures of happiness and sadness. Subjects reported more simultaneously mixed emotions during a bittersweet film clip than during a control clip. Another possibility is that subjects in earlier studies reported mixed emotions only because they were explicitly asked whether they felt happy and sad. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 4-6 with open-ended measures of emotion. Subjects were more likely to report mixed emotions after the bittersweet clip than the control clip. Both patterns occurred even when subjects were told that they were not expected to report mixed emotions (Studies 2 and 5) and among subjects who did not previously believe that people could simultaneously feel happy and sad (Studies 3 and 6). These results provide further evidence that positivity and negativity are separable in experience.     

Linkages between childhood executive functioning and adolescent social functioning and psychopathology in girls with ADHD

We followed an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of preadolescent girls with ADHD (n = 140) and matched comparison girls (n = 88) over a period of 5 years, from middle childhood through early/midadolescence, with the aim of determining whether childhood levels of executive function (EF) would predict adolescent multi-informant outcomes of social functioning and psychopathology, including comorbidity between externalizing and internalizing symptomatology. Predictors were well-established measures of planning, response inhibition, and working memory, along with a control measure of fine motor control. Independent of ADHD versus comparison group status, (a) childhood planning and response inhibition predicted adolescent social functioning and (b) childhood planning predicted comorbid internalizing/externalizing disorders in adolescence. Subgroup status (ADHD-Combined, ADHD-Inattentive, and comparison) moderated the relationship between childhood planning and adolescent internalizing/externalizing comorbidity, with the combined type revealing particularly strong associations between baseline planning and adolescent comorbidity. Mediation analyses indicated that adolescent social functioning mediated the prediction from childhood EF to comorbidity at follow-up; in turn, in the girls with ADHD, adolescent comorbidity mediated the prediction from childhood EF to social functioning at follow-up. We conclude that childhood interventions should target EF impairments in addition to behavioral symptoms.     

Executive functions and ADHD in adults: evidence for selective effects on ADHD symptom domains

Dual-process models of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suggest that both executive functioning and regulatory functions (e.g., processing speed) are involved and that executive function weaknesses may be associated specifically with symptoms of inattention-disorganization but not hyperactivity-impulsivity. Adults aged 18-37 (105 with ADHD, 90 controls) completed a neuropsychological battery. The ADHD group had weaker performance than did the control group (p<.01) on both executive and speed measures. Symptoms of inattention-disorganization were uniquely related to executive functioning with hyperactivity-impulsivity controlled. Inattention was associated with slower response speed, and hyperactivity-impulsivity with faster output speed. Results were not accounted for by IQ, age, gender, education level, or comorbid disorders. Findings are discussed in terms of developmental and dual-process models of ADHD leading into adulthood.     

Relations between child temperament and adolescent negative urgency in a high-risk sample

Negative urgency, rash action during negative mood states, is a strong predictor of risky behavior. However, its developmental antecedents remain largely unstudied. The current study tested whether childhood temperament served as a developmental antecedent to adolescent negative urgency. Participants (N = 239) were from a longitudinal study oversampled for a family history of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Negative emotionality (anger and sadness reactivity) and effortful control were measured in childhood (5–8) and negative urgency in adolescence (13–18). Childhood anger reactivity was uniquely related to later negative urgency above and beyond sadness reactivity. Effortful control was not related to later negative urgency; however, a latent variable capturing the shared variance between childhood effortful control and anger reactivity was related to later negative urgency.     

Further comments on the evidence for post-retinal storage

A critical re-examination of the perceptual reports given in the experiments described by Haber and Nathanson reveals confirma-tion of the essential elements of the phenomena previously reported by Parks. Specifically, it is argued that a moving stimulus viewed through a narrow stationary opening gives rise to percepts containing more stimulus information than is, in fact, available to the eye at any instant.     

Further evidence for expectation-based illusory correlations

Subjects were presented with 36 opinion statements ostensibly made by residents of two towns (one large, one small) confronted with the building of a new nuclear power station in the vicinity. There were an equal number of pro- and anti-nuclear opinions for both towns (nine for each combination) so that there was no relationship between attitudes and town. The probabilistic belief that small towns would contain a higher proportion of antinuclear residents, was predicted to produce an ‘illusory correlation’ confirming the belief. This was strongly supported. Findings were discussed in terms of the literatures on illusory correlation, stereotyping and attitudes.     

Family origins of adolescent self-criticism and its continuity into adulthood

We used a prospective longitudinal design to examine the relation between parenting experiences at age 5 and level of self-criticism at age 12 and the stability of self-criticism from age 12 to age 31 in 156 subjects. The results showed that mothers' reports of parenting behaviors that reflect restrictiveness and rejection were related to the development of self-criticism, particularly when received from the same-sex parent. Partial correlational analyses revealed that the parenting-self-criticism relations remained significant when the mother's report of the child's early temperament was statistically controlled. The results also showed that for women, self-criticism was very stable from early adolescence to young adulthood. By contrast, there was no relation between self-criticism at ages 12 and 31 for men; however, there was a strong relation for men between age 12 self-criticism and inhibited aggressive impulses at age 31.     

Perceptual interactions between primes,masks, and targets: Further evidence for object updating

The negative compatibility effect (NCE) is the finding that, under certain conditions, responses to targets are faster when preceded by incompatible primes than when preceded by compatible primes and this effect now appears to be caused, at least in part, by facilitation resulting from perceptual interactions between the prime, mask, and target when task-relevant masks are used (Lleras & Enns, 2004, 2005, 2006). The current experiment reports a new methodology that allows us to systematically explore the ways in which these perceptual effects influence reaction times and error rates. The data indicate that mask–target overlap, mask–prime overlap, and having a task-relevant prime all affect performance in experiments examining the NCE. In addition, our data provide additional support that object-based updating contributes to the NCE when perceptual interactions between stimuli are likely.     

The revised version of the screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders (scared-r): Further evidence for its reliability and validity

Abstract The revised version of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED-R) is a self-report questionnaire that intends to measure symptoms of childhood anxiety disorders as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The current article presents three studies which examined in more detail the reliability and validity of the SCARED-R. Study 1 (N=101) demonstrated that the SCARED-R possesses satisfactory test-retest stability. Study 2 (N=71) shows that the child-parent agreement of the SCARED-R is rather low. Study 3 (N=88) provides support for the concurrent validity of the SCARED-R. More specifically, SCARED-R scores were correlated in a meaningful way with scores on the Children's Anxiety Scale, a questionnaire that also measures DSM-defined childhood anxiety symptoms.