Questionnaire of executive function for dancers: an ecological approach

There is a current debate about the ecological validity of executive function (EF) tests. Consistent with the verisimilitude approach, this research proposes the ballet executive scale (BES), a self-rating questionnaire that assimilates idiosyncratic executive behaviors of classical dance community. The BES was administrated to 149 adolescents, students of the Cuban Ballet School. Results present a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .80 and a split-half Spearman-Brown coefficient r (SB) = .81. An exploratory factor analysis describes a bifactorial pattern of EF dimensions, with a self-regulation component, which explains more than 40% of variance, and a Developmental component, which accounts for more than 20% of variance. The questionnaire's total scores fit linear regression models with two external criteria of academic records, confirming concurrent validity. These findings support the hypothesis that the internalization of specific contextual cultural meanings has a mediating influence in the development of EF.     

Assessment of a sexual coercion prevention program for adolescents

This study's focus is to evaluate a sexual coercion prevention program in adolescents. Using a before-and-after design with both a treatment group (n = 93) and a control group (n = 76), an intervention of seven sessions was completed. Said sessions included such content as conceptualizing sexual freedom, sexual coercion and voluntary consent, analyzing different sexual coercion tactics and the contexts in which they occur, empathy toward the victim, and developing abilities to avoid risky situations. Other risk factors for coercive behavior and sexual victimization are explored as well, such as alcohol use, sexist attitudes and inadequate communication, among others. The intervention's results include a decrease in stereotypical beliefs about the opposite sex and increased empathy toward victims of sexual coercion. These changes were maintained with the passage of time. Also, in the treatment group, a more acute decline was observed in the proportion of young people engaging in sexually coercive behaviors, This article emphasizes the importance, necessity and efficacy of such interventions, and discusses and analyzes possible improvements to the program for its future implementation.     

Infant color preference for red is not selectively context specific

It has been proposed that human infants, like nonhuman primates, respond favorably to red in hospitable contexts, yet unfavorably in hostile contexts (Maier, Barchfeld, Elliot, & Pekrun, 2009). Here, we replicate and extend the study (Maier et al., 2009) whose findings have been used to support this hypothesis. As in Maier et al., 1-year-old infants were shown a photograph of a happy or angry face before pairs of colors were presented, yet in the current study, the set of stimuli crucially included two colors that are typically preferred by infants (red and blue). The percentage of times that infants looked first at the colors was analyzed for the two emotional "contexts." Following the happy face, infants looked first at red and blue equally, but significantly more than green. Following the angry face, the pattern of looking preference was the same as following the happy face, but the variation across the three colors was reduced. Contrary to Maier et al.'s hypothesis, there was no evidence that infants are selectively averse to red in angry contexts: following the angry face, "preference" for both red and blue was reduced, but was not significantly below chance. We therefore suggest an alternative account to Maier et al.'s evolutionary hypothesis, which argues that an angry face merely removes infant color preference, potentially due to the perceptual characteristics of the angry face disrupting infants' encoding of color. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Recent changes in sex-role ideology among divorced men and women: Some possible causes and implications

Data from two Virginia Slims Surveys of American Women (1974 and 1979) are analyzed to test the hypotheses that sex-role value differences between men and women are greater in the divorced population than among married adults and that those differences have increased in recent years. The hypotheses are generally supported, and implications are drawn for the explanation of remarriage probabilities of divorced men and women. The explanation of the growing gender gap among the divorced is linked to recent changes in the position of women in the general economic structure.Revised version of a paper presented at the 1983 annual meetings of the Southwestern Social Science Association, Houston, Texas.     

Recognition of Facial Expression in Diverging Socioeconomic Levels

Cerebral organization has been seen to vary in different social or ethnic groups; also, sociocultural retardation is a serious obstacle to development in poorer countries. The ability of the right hemisphere to recognize facial emotions in a tachistoscopic task was tested in university and low-socioeconomic-level subjects. All were male and right-handed. The university students recognized facial emotions projected to their left field-right hemisphere significantly better than with their right field-left hemisphere; the low-socioeconomic-level subjects showed no differences in hemispheric performance. The explanation of laterality as a function of social class may be of importance in dealing with sociocultural retardation.     

Tracking unique objects

Is content addressable in the representation that subserves performance in multiple-object-tracking (MOT) experiments? We devised an MOT variant that featured unique, nameable objects (cartoon animals) as stimuli. There were two possible response modes: standard, in which observers were asked to report the locations of all target items, and specific, in which observers had to report the location of a particular object (e.g., "Where is the zebra?"). A measure of capacity derived from accuracy allowed for comparisons of the results between conditions. We found that capacity in the specific condition (1.4 to 2.6 items across several experiments) was always reliably lower than capacity in the standard condition (2.3 to 3.4 items). Observers could locate specific objects, indicating a content-addressable representation. However, capacity differences between conditions, as well as differing responses to the experimental manipulations, suggest that there may be two separate systems involved in tracking, one carrying only positional information, and one carrying identity information as well.     

Psychometric properties of the d2 selective attention test in a sample of premature and born-at-term babies

The psychometric properties of the d2 Selective Attention Test are analyzed in two samples of premature ( n = 63) and born-at-term ( n = 78) children. The reliability coefficients (internal consistency) reached values of around .90. Principal components analysis revealed a three-factor structure, which accounts for 58% of the variance, and thus coincides with the number of factors presented in the manual of the Spanish adaptation of the test but not with their composition. Results suggest that the d2 test has adequate psychometric properties both for the global sample and for each sub-sample.     

Contextual-specificity of short-delay extinction in humans: renewal of fear-potentiated startle in a virtual environment

A recent fear-potentiated startle study in rodents suggested that extinction was not context dependent when extinction was conducted after a short delay following acquisition, suggesting that extinction can lead to erasure of fear learning in some circumstances. The main objective of this study was to attempt to replicate these findings in humans by examining the context specificity of short-delay extinction in an ABA renewal procedure using virtual reality environments. A second objective was to examine whether renewal, if any, would be influenced by context conditioning. Subjects underwent differential aversive conditioning in virtual context A, which was immediately followed by extinction in virtual context B. Extinction was followed by tests of renewal in context A and B, with the order counterbalanced across subjects. Results showed that extinction was context dependent. Evidence for renewal was established using fear-potentiated startle as well as skin conductance and fear ratings. In addition, although contextual anxiety was greater in the acquisition context than in the extinction context during renewal, as assessed with startle, context conditioning did not influence the renewal effect. These data do not support the view that extinction conducted shortly after acquisition is context independent. Hence, they do not provide evidence that extinction can lead to erasure of a fear memory established via Pavlovian conditioning.