It's never too late for ‘us’ to meet ‘them’: Prior intergroup friendships moderate the impact of later intergroup friendships in educational settings

Background. In this paper, we focused on mixing in educational settings between members of Catholic and Protestant ethnoreligious groups in Northern Ireland. Aims. In Study 1, we examined whether opportunities for contact at home and at university were associated with greater actual out‐group friendships, and whether this friendship was associated with a reduction in prejudice. We also assessed whether the impact of out‐group friendships at university was moderated by experience of out‐group friendships outside university, such that the prejudice‐reducing effect of university friendships was stronger for those with fewer friendships at home. In Study 2, we assessed opportunities for contact and actual out‐group friendships at prior stages of the educational system and their relationship with prejudice. Sample(s). In both studies, our participants were students at universities in Northern Ireland (Study 1 N= 304 and Study 2 N= 157). Methods. We analysed the data using multiple regression and structural equation modelling. Results. First, opportunities for contact were positively associated with self‐reported out‐group friendships in all domains and stages of the educational system. Second, having more out‐group friends was associated with reduced prejudice. Finally, the relationship between out‐group friendships and current levels of prejudice was moderated by prior levels of out‐group friendships (at home in Study 1; and at secondary and primary school in Study 2). Conclusions. Contact, in the form of out‐group friendships, was more powerful when it was a novel feature in a person's life. We discuss these findings in terms of the impact of mixing in educational contexts, especially in Northern Ireland, and outline suggestions for future research.     

Long-term memory for performed and observed actions: Retrieval awareness and source monitoring

The self-performed task (SPT) paradigm was employed to investigate incidental memory for action events, focusing on states of awareness at retrieval (Remembering–Knowing) and source monitoring in performed and observed actions, at delays of 1 and 2 weeks. Recognition was better for performed than observed actions, but this effect was visible only after 1 week of retention. Conversely, observed actions were associated with better source memory at both delays. When the source was correctly identified, performed and observed actions were accompanied by equal proportions of Remember judgements. However, when source monitoring was incorrect, performed actions were more frequently associated with a feeling of re-experiencing the original event, thus suggesting an enactment-related recollective superiority, although secondary to the availability of reliable contextual information.     

Goal Orientation and Work Role Performance: Predicting Adaptive and Proactive Work Role Performance Through Self-Leadership Strategies

This article explores the relationship between goal orientation, self-leadership dimensions, and adaptive and proactive work role performances. The authors hypothesize that learning orientation, in contrast to performance orientation, positively predicts proactive and adaptive work role performances and that this relationship is mediated by self-leadership behavior-focused strategies. It is posited that self-leadership natural reward strategies and thought pattern strategies are expected to moderate this relationship. Workers (N = 108) from a software company participated in this study. As expected, learning orientation did predict adaptive and proactive work role performance. Moreover, in the relationship between learning orientation and proactive work role performance through self-leadership behavior-focused strategies, a moderated mediation effect was found for self-leadership natural reward and thought pattern strategies. In the end, the authors discuss the results and implications are discussed and future research directions are proposed.     

Modeling fMRI Data: Challenges and Opportunities

We offer an introduction to the five papers that make up this special section. These papers deal with a range of the methodological challenges that face researchers analyzing fMRI data—the spatial, multilevel, and longitudinal nature of the data, the sources of noise, and so on. The papers all provide analyses of data collected by a multi-site consortium, the Function Biomedical Informatics Research Network. Due to the sheer volume of data, univariate procedures are often applied, which leads to a multiple comparisons problem (since the data are necessarily multivariate). The papers in this section include interesting applications, such as a state-space model applied to these data, and conclude with a reflection on basic measurement problems in fMRI. All in all, they provide a good overview of the challenges that fMRI data present to the standard psychometric toolbox, but also to the opportunities they offer for new psychometric modeling.     

Self-defeating personality and memories of parents' child-rearing behavior: a replication

A recent study of correlations of self-defeating personality and memories of parents' child-rearing behaviour has been replicated on a larger sample. Non-clinical volunteers (145 women and 114 men) were administered Schill's Self-defeating Personality Scale and a short version of the EMBU-Egna Minnen Betr?ffande Uppfostran (own memories of parental education) scale. Replicating previous findings, memories of rejecting or nonsupportive parents were significantly correlated with scores for the Self-defeating Personality Scale for both women (rejecting mother, r = 24; supportive mother, r = -.29; rejecting father, r = .23; supportive father, r = -.36) and men (rejecting mother, r = 40; rejecting father, r = .41; supportive father, r = -.28). Memories of an overinvolved parent were significantly correlated with self-defeating personality scores only among men (mother: r = .41; father: r = .36) as in the original study.     

Multiple microswitches for persons with multiple disabilities: a basic procedure to examine the persons' choice behavior

This study examined a basic choice-analysis procedure to clarify choice between two responses and related stimuli by five persons with multiple disabilities ages 17.1 to 50.2 yr. The procedure was based on reversing the links between responses and stimuli to assess whether the stimuli accounted for differences in response levels. When this was not the case, the procedure added extra stimuli for the less preferred response to judge whether such an increase would compensate for the apparent disadvantage of that response, e.g., its higher physical cost. Analysis showed that the choice of three of the five participants seemed motivated by the stimuli following the responses. The choice of the other two persons seemed related to a preference for one of the responses which was partially or largely modified when extra stimuli were added.     

Discriminative game-related statistics between basketball starters and nonstarters when related to team quality and game outcome

The aim of the present paper was to examine the differences in game-related statistics between basketball players who are selected for the starting five of the team (starters) and those who are not (nonstarters) when related to game outcome (winning and losing) and team quality (best teams, teams classified for the playoffs; and worst teams, teams who miss playoff classification). Archival data were gathered for all 2002-2003 regular season games from the Portuguese Professional League (N = 156). Discriminant analysis was used to identify the game-related statistics that differentiate between starters and nonstarters and interpreted by the examination of the structure coefficients (SC). When the best teams won the games, results described differences between starters and nonstarters with an emphasis on defensive rebounds (SC = .32), assists (SC = .32) and committed fouls (SC = -.68). When the worst teams won the games, results described differences between starters and nonstarters with an emphasis on 2-point field goals successful (SC = .47) and unsuccessful (SC = .48), defensive rebounds (SC =.39), successful free throws (SC =.32), and committed fouls (SC = -.55). An also important finding was that, in best teams, the nonstarters' performance was worse in the games that the team lost, whereas in worst teams, it was the starters' performance that was worse in the games that the team lost.     

Clinicians' ratings and self-reports of basic symptoms

A sample of 34 paranoid or undifferentiated schizophrenic outpatients were given the Rome Basic Disorders Scale, a self-rating questionnaire aimed to the assessment of basic symptoms, as defined by the Bonn Scale. These patients were then interviewed on the same 54 basic symptoms explored with the scale, by two independent clinicians blind to the outpatients' data. Self-ratings compared with clinicians' ratings by Student t for dependent samples yielded only one significant difference (p< .01) for the item measuring hypersensitivity to light. Present findings suggest that the Rome Basic Disorders Scale may be safely self-rated even by collaborative schizophrenic patients.     

A study on the role of the dorsal striatum and the nucleus accumbens in allocentric and egocentric spatial memory consolidation

There is now accumulating evidence that the striatal complex in its two major components, the dorsal striatum and the nucleus accumbens, contributes to spatial memory. However, the possibility that different striatal subregions might modulate specific aspects of spatial navigation has not been completely elucidated. Therefore, in this study, two different learning procedures were used to determine whether the two striatal components could be distinguished on the basis of their involvement in spatial learning using different frames of reference: allocentric and egocentric. The task used involved the detection of a spatial change in the configuration of four objects placed in an arena, after the mice had had the opportunity to experience the objects in a constant position for three previous sessions. In the first part of the study we investigated whether changes in the place where the animals were introduced into the arena during habituation and testing could induce a preferential use of an egocentric or an allocentric frame of reference. In the second part of the study we performed focal injections of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors' antagonist, AP-5, within the two subregions immediately after training. The results indicate that using the two behavioral procedures, the animals rely on an egocentric and an allocentric spatial frame of reference. Furthermore, they demonstrate that AP-5 (37.5, 75, and 150 ng/side) injections into the dorsal striatum selectively impaired consolidation of spatial information in the egocentric but not in the allocentric procedure. Intra-accumbens AP-5 administration, instead, impaired animals trained using both procedures.     

Grandparent-grandchild contact and attitudes toward older adults: moderator and mediator effects

Two studies tested the intergroup contact hypothesis in the context of the grandparent-grandchild relationship. The hypothesis suggests that contact with an out-group member has more influence on attitudes toward the out-group when group memberships are salient. In Study 1, the predicted link was found but only for grandparents with whom the grandchild had more frequent contact. The second study examined only the most frequent grandparent relationship and replicated the effect. This study also investigated the role of various mediators of the link between quality of contact and attitudes, as well as quality of contact and perceived out-group variability. Perspective taking, anxiety, and accommodation mediated the effects of contact on attitudes, whereas individuation and self-disclosure mediated the effects of contact on perceived out-group variability. Moderated mediational analysis indicated that the moderating effect of group salience occurs between quality of contact and the mediator, not between the mediator and attitudes.