A dual-task investigation of young stutterers and nonstutterers

Twenty right-handed grade-school stutterers and nonstutterers matched for sex, handedness, and age were the subjects of this neuromotor investigation. They were required to tap a button as rapidly as possible in a single-task control condition, in three increasingly demanding dual-task conditions in which finger-tapping and speech occured concurrently, and in a dual-task condition in which the subjects finger-tapped and vocalized the sound of a siren. The conditions were randomized, and hand order was counterbalanced. The overall tapping rate of the nonstutterers was statistically faster than that of the stutterers for both the right and left hand. Relative to the single-task silent control condition, the tapping rates of both groups decreased as the dual-task speech conditions became more demanding. However, the tapping rate of the nonstutterers was significantly faster across the speech conditions. Neither the group by hand, group by condition, or group by hand by condition interaction was statistically significant. The stutterers responded like the nonstutterers, though more slowly, providing support for the current contentions that the neuromotor system of stutterers is less robust than that of nonstutterers and more affected by the demands of speech production.     

Sleep problems,anxiety and cognitive style in school‐aged children

The associations between sleep problems, anxiety, anxiety sensitivity and attributional style were examined in self‐report data from 79 children aged 8–11 years. Total anxiety score was associated with different types of sleep problems (bedtime resistance, sleep anxiety and nightmares). Conversely, total sleep problem score was associated with different sub‐scales of anxiety (from r(78) = 0.15, p = NS to r(79) = 0.47, p < 0.01). Symptoms of anxiety correlated significantly with anxiety sensitivity, but not with attributional style. After controlling for other symptoms of anxiety, school phobias (Beta = 0.26, p < 0.05), the mental incapacitation concerns scale of anxiety sensitivity (Beta = 0.26, p < 0.05), and attributional style (Beta = −0.31, p < 0.01, R² = 0.45) predicted sleep problems. These results suggest that anxiety is associated with a range of sleep problems, and that sleep problems are associated with different types of anxiety. Furthermore, certain cognitive styles are associated with both anxiety and sleep problems and may be good candidates for further research into the association between sleep problems and anxiety in children. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stress and dietary practices in adolescents.

Baseline data from the Health and Behavior in Teenagers Study (HABITS) were used to investigate associations between stress and dietary practices in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 4,320 schoolchildren (mean age = 11.83 years). Male (n = 2,578) and female (n = 1,742) pupils completed questionnaire measures of stress and 4 aspects of dietary practice (fatty food intake, fruit and vegetable intake, snacking, and breakfast consumption) and also provided demographic and anthropometric data. Multivariate analyses revealed that greater stress was associated with more fatty food intake, less fruit and vegetable intake, more snacking, and a reduced likelihood of daily breakfast consumption. These effects were independent of individual (gender, weight) and social (socioeconomic status, ethnicity) factors. Stress may contribute to long-term disease risk by steering the diet in a more unhealthy direction.     

Psychometric evaluation of the Negative Religious Coping (NRC) Scale of the Brief RCOPE in the Czech environment

ABSTRACT

The Negative Religious Coping (NRC) Subscale is a part of the Brief RCOPE Scale, but can also be used separatelly. It is a brief measure assessing negative religous coping. The aim of this study was to psychometrically evaluate the NRC in Czech conditions. The NRC was administered to 531 religious respondents (25.5?±?3.4 years, 43.5% male). Negative religious coping and religiosity, together with basic sociodemographic information, were measured. The non-parametric comparison of different sociodemographic groups showed no differences between genders and almost no differences among the age groups. Significantly lower NRC scores were obtained by widows/widowers. The Czech version of the NRC showed a coherent one-dimensional factor structure and high reliability, with Cronbach’s α?=?.84 (95% CI .83–.85) and McDonald’s ω_t?=?.90. Our findings indicate that the Czech version of the NRC scale may reliably assess religious coping. This instrument might be useful both for research and clinical praxis.     

Response-time dynamics: Evidence for linear and low-dimensional nonlinear structure in human choice sequences

Response time (RT) is a commonly used measure of cognitive performance, which is usually characterized as stochastic. However, useful information may be hidden in the apparently random fluctuations of RT. Dynamical systems analysis techniques allow an exploration of the alternative hypothesis that RT fluctuations are deterministic, albeit in a complex manner. We applied careful task construction and noise-reduction and surrogate series tests to show that RT series from a forced-pace serial response-time task have low-dimensional chaotic characteristics. In Experiment 1, 80% of subjects' filtered RT series had low dimensionality, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, spectra close to 1/ f , and stable attractor geometry across sessions. In Experiment 2, we showed that the size of the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) determined the number of subjects with low-dimensional chaotic series. A small ISI caused 100% of subjects to respond in the chaotic regime, whereas only 25% had a low-dimensional chaotic RT component when the ISI was large. We argue that demanding task requirements cause a reduction in the dimensionality of the dynamics, producing RT fluctuations that may reflect a response strategy for controlling RT.     

ENVISIONING ONESELF AS A LEADER: COMPARISONS OF WOMEN AND MEN IN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

In an examination of aspirations for leadership in the United States and Spain, male and female students envisioned themselves as a chief executive officer, vice president, or mid-level manager in an industry with a feminine image (clothing manufacturing) or a masculine image (auto manufacturing). Although men and women perceived these roles as equally positive, women perceived them as less possible and less facilitative of close relationships and gender relationships. Other gender effects included more positive perceptions of the roles by women in the feminine industry and by men in the masculine industry. Cross-nationally men perceived the roles as more positive than women did only in Spain, and U.S. students perceived the roles as more possible than Spanish students did.     

Achievement Arousal Inhibits Helping Behavior Only in Males

The experiment reported here tested the hypothesis that achievement arousal inhibits the helping behavior of males but not females. Subjects were given 20 minutes to work on a task while faced with an opportunity to help a graduate student by stapling questionnaires. Performance on the task was described in the high-achievement-arousal condition as assessing intelligence and leadership ability, and in the no-achievement-arousal condition as merely yielding research data on processing verbal information. Males proved significantly more likely to help in the no-achievement-arousal condition than in the high-arousal condition, whereas females'helping was not affected by achievement-arousal. Yet, consistent with other research on helping, the majority of both male and female subjects did not help at all.