Factor structure and internal consistency of the Spanish version of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of Parenting Stress Index-Short Form. After translating the instrument from English into Spanish using the forward-backward translation method, it was administered to a sample of 129 mothers of children aged between 10 and 39 months olds. The exploratory factor analysis identified two factors: Childrearing Stress and Personal Distress, which accounted for 48.77% of the variance. The internal consistency of these factors was high (Childrearing Stress: .90 and Personal Distress: .87). Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Efficacy of the keyword mnemonic method in adults

Two experiments were used to assess the efficacy of the keyword mnemonic method in adults. In Experiment 1, immediate and delayed recall (at a one-day interval) were assessed by comparing the results obtained by a group of adults using the keyword mnemonic method in contrast to a group using the repetition method. The mean age of the sample under study was 59.35 years. Subjects were required to learn a list of 16 words translated from Latin into Spanish. Participants who used keyword mnemonics that had been devised by other experimental participants of the same characteristics, obtained significantly higher immediate and delayed recall scores than participants in the repetition method. In Experiment 2, other participants had to learn a list of 24 Latin words translated into Spanish by using the keyword mnemonic method reinforced with pictures. Immediate and delayed recall were significantly greater in the keyword mnemonic method group than in the repetition method group.     

Perception of the teaching-learning process and academic achievement in diverse instructional contexts of Higher Education

In Higher Education, performance and Teaching-Learning (T-L) contexts are highly current concerns. Based on the DEDEPRO model, interdependence can be established between instructional contexts and levels of performance as they relate to the T-L process. Partitipants were 2020 pupils from two Spanish universities. Measurements of both variables were used in a quasi-experimental and correlational design. The univariate and causal analyses showed the effect of context on the T-L process and on performance; thus, the interdependent relationships between the latter and perception of the T-L process. Partial interaction effects also appeared, as well as a causal model of academic performance. Results are discussed and implications for the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) are analyzed.     

Older children's misunderstanding of uncertain belief after passing the false belief test

A four-location belief task was designed to examine children's understanding of another's uncertain belief after passing a false belief (FB) task. In Experiment 1, after passing the FB task, participants were asked what a puppet would do after he failed to find his toy at the falsely believed location. Most 4-year-olds and half of 6-year-olds children who passed the FB test showed difficulty in handling uncertain belief; answering that the puppet would then look for his toy at the current (moved-to) location. Eight-year-old children and adults all recognized that the puppet would look for the toy everywhere, or at random. In Experiment 2, 4- and 6-year-olds were presented two other search tasks; it was shown that preschoolers could use search strategies to solve a similar search problem when FB was not involved. This new aspect of post-FB understanding can be interpreted in terms of limited understanding of uncertainty in a less-knowledgeable individual and of limited ability to infer the consequences of belief-disconfirmation.     

Science–Practice Gap in e‐Recruitment

We conducted a content analysis of online job application forms used by companies listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange (i.e., Bolsa de Madrid). We collected data from 76 companies in 2005 and then again for 66 of these companies in 2009. We coded the type of information required on the application forms based on 24 categories related to potential illegal discrimination and personnel selection social context issues (i.e., fairness, intrusiveness, and privacy). Results indicated that the relative frequency of the 24 information categories has remained stable from 2005 to 2009. Moreover, averaging 2005 and 2009 results, a large percentage of companies require information that can be used for illegal discrimination and can be perceived as unfair, intrusive, and invasive of applicants' privacy such as age or date of birth (87%), nationality (61%), marital status (48%), place of birth (57%), passport number (47%), a photograph (23%), and number of children (11%). Our results document a science–practice gap in e‐recruitment because scholarly research suggests that requesting these types of information leads to negative applicant reactions ranging from negative perceptions and emotions to actually initiating legal action against the recruiting firm. Our results also point to e‐recruitment as an area that could be targeted as a good collaboration topic between scientists and practitioners because the resulting research has the potential to make important contributions toward bridging the science–practice gap.     

Subject relative clauses are not universally easier to process: Evidence from Basque

Studies from many languages consistently report that subject relative clauses (SR) are easier to process than object relatives (OR). However, Hsiao and Gibson (2003) report an OR preference for Chinese, a finding that has been contested. Here we report faster OR versus SR processing in Basque, an ergative, head-final language with pre-nominal relative clauses. A self-paced reading task was used in Experiments 1 and 2, while ERPs were recorded in Experiment 3. We used relative clauses that were ambiguous between an object or subject-gap interpretation and disambiguated later in the sentence. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that SR took longer to read than OR in the critical disambiguating region. In addition, Experiment 3 showed that SR produced larger amplitudes than OR in the P600 window immediately after reading the critical disambiguating word. Our results suggest that SR are not universally easier to process. They cast doubts on universal hypotheses and suggest that processing complexity may depend on language-specific aspects of grammar.     

The Effects of Source Credibility in the Presence or Absence of Prior Attitudes: Implications for the Design of Persuasive Communication Campaigns

Most theories of persuasion predict that limited ability and motivation to think about communications should increase the impact of source credibility on persuasion. Furthermore, this effect is assumed to occur, regardless of whether or not the recipients have prior attitudes. In this study, the effects of source credibility, ability, and motivation (knowledge, message repetition, relevance) on persuasion were examined meta-analytically across both attitude formation and change conditions. Findings revealed that the Source Credibility × Ability/Motivation interaction emerged only when participants lacked prior attitudes and were unable to form a new attitude based on the message content. In such settings, the effects of source credibility decayed rapidly. The implications of these findings for applied communication campaigns are discussed.     

Repression and Coping Styles in Asthmatic Patients

The objectives of this study were to (a) determine prevalence of the dispositional repressive coping style as well as other situational coping styles in a sample of asthmatic patients and (b) to analyze the capacity of these styles to predict subsequent morbidity (emergency room visits or hospitalizations due to asthma) during a 12-month follow-up. A sample of 75 adult asthmatic patients was selected and information about sociodemographics, asthma severity, and patient’s perception of illness severity was collected. Repressive coping style was defined by a combination of scores obtained on the Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Coping styles were assessed with the dispositional version of the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory. Eighteen patients (24%) were classified as repressors. Repressor asthmatics obtained scores significantly lower on Emotion-Focused Coping compared to non-repressors (F _(1,72) = 5.15, p = .026). Patients who perceived their asthma as severe reported to use Emotion-Focused Coping more than those who judged it as mild or moderate (F _(2,71) = 4.83, p = .011). A higher use of Denial (an Emotion-Focused strategy of coping) explained 8% of variance of the frequency of emergency room visits during the 12-month follow-up. The prevalence of repressive coping style in the asthmatic population is similar to that registered in other populations of chronic patients, and it is also associated with the tendency to report a lower use of strategies traditionally considered as maladaptive. The use of Emotion-Focused Coping strategies seems to be related to a worse perception of the physical status, and among this group of strategies, Denial also could favor a poor clinical course in bronchial asthma.