Symbols of pride or prejudice? Examining the impact of Native American sports mascots on stereotype application

For over 50 years, a debate has existed over the use of Native American sports mascots; however, few empirical studies on the topic exist. The present study examined if supraliminal exposure to Native American mascots results in the application of negative stereotypes toward Native American people. Results indicated that the effect of Native American mascots was moderated by people’s racial attitudes toward Native people. When exposed to Native mascots, people with a prejudiced attitude rated a Native American individual more stereotypically aggressive than those with a non-prejudiced attitude. However, this pattern did not occur when people were exposed to White mascots or neutral images. Furthermore, this pattern was not evident when people evaluated a non-Native individual. This overall pattern of results indicates that Native American mascots selectively facilitate the application of negative stereotypes, resulting in harmful evaluations of Native American people.     

Working memory and the vividness of imagery

The working memory framework was used to investigate the factors determining the phenomenological vividness of images. Participants rated the vividness of visual or auditory images under control conditions or while performing tasks that differentially disrupted the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop subsystems of working memory. In Experiments 1, 2, and 6, participants imaged recently presented novel visual patterns and sequences of tones; ratings of vividness showed the predicted interaction between stimulus modality and concurrent task. The images in experiments 3, 4, 5, and 6 were based on long-term memory (LTM). They also showed an image modality by task interaction, with a clear effect of LTM variables (meaningfulness, activity, bizarreness, and stimulus familiarity), implicating both working memory and LTM in the experience of vividness.     

Looking for the disorder in conduct disorder

Besides their well-known externalizing behavior, children with conduct disorder (CD) often have additional impairments outside the criteria for the CD diagnosis. In a 5-year study of 984 treated children (ages 5-17 years), those with CD had an average of 2.2 primary diagnoses. Children with CD showed the worst problem and impairment scores in comparison with 11 common diagnoses. Compared with other treated children, children with CD achieved worse scores on 14 of 15 syndromes, including internalizing problems such as withdrawal and major depression. The average child with CD had larger relapse scores in the 1.5- to 3-year period after admission to treatment. This pattern, pervasive at intake and chronic in course, resembles a global disability more than a circumscribed problem managed with a narrow range of treatments specific to it.     

Transdiagnostic Associations Among Parental Causal Locus Attributions,Child Behavior and Psychosocial Treatment Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review - Parents’ interpretations of the cause of their children’s behavior, i.e., parental attributions, are linked to parenting behavior and child...     

Qualitative analysis of feedback on functional imagery training: A novel motivational intervention for type 2 diabetes

Objective: Effective motivational support is needed in chronic disease management. This study was undertaken to improve a novel type 2 diabetes motivational intervention, (functional imagery training, FIT) based on participant feedback and results from a self-management randomised controlled trial.

Design: Qualitative inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews.

Main outcome measures: Open-ended questions on participant experiences of the FIT intervention content, process, most/least helpful features, suggestions for improvement and general feedback.

Results: Eight themes emerged. Participants thought FIT promoted autonomy and self-awareness. They found the intervention interesting and helpful in keeping their health on track through accountability provided by regular phone calls. However, boredom with repetitive use of imagery, feeling inadequately equipped to manage unhealthy cravings, and difficulty with the time commitment was reported by some. Supplementary written material was recommended.

Conclusion: Several well-received features of FIT overlapped with those from traditional motivational interviewing. FIT sessions should ensure content is regularly adapted to new health-enhancing goals. After self-management behaviour becomes habitual, imagery practice could be restricted to challenging contexts. Provision of a written rationale and use of mindfulness for cravings is recommended. With these improvements, the impact of FIT on diabetic control may be substantially enhanced.     

Attention Problems and Restlessness as Transdiagnostic Markers of Severity and Treatment Response in Youth with Internalizing Problems

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Transdiagnostic models of psychopathology suggest that disorders may share common features that could influence their severity. Attention problems...     

Bright Cars and Outsiders: Evidence of Asymmetric Estimates in Vehicular Speeds

Using an improved analysis, this paper provides new evidence regarding the influence of vehicle attributes on the estimation of vehicular speed by an observer. An analysis of speeding records indicates that brightly colored vehicles systematically receive citations for relatively lower speeds. Findings also indicate that trucks were cited for significantly higher speeds than were cars. The findings clarify earlier conflicts in the literature as to whether vehicular characteristics give an impression of higher speed. As an additional topic of investigation, evidence is provided that outsiders, those not living in the jurisdiction, received citations for significantly lower speeds.     

Stuttering treatment control using P300 event-related potentials

Positron emission tomography studies during speech have indicated a failure to show the normal activation of auditory cortical areas in stuttering individuals. In the present study, P300 event-related potentials were used to investigate possible effects of behavioral treatment on the pattern of signal amplitude and latency between waves. In order to compare variations in P300 measurements, a control group paired by age and gender to the group of stutterers, was included in the study. Findings suggest that the group of stutterers presented a significant decrease in stuttering severity after the fluency treatment program. Regarding P300 measurements, stutterers and their controls presented results within normal limits in all testing situations and no significant statistical variations between pre and post treatment testing. When comparing individual results between the testing situations, stutterers presented a higher average decrease in wave latency for the right ear following treatment. The results are discussed in light of previous P300 event-related potentials and functional imaging studies with stuttering adults.Educational objectives: The reader will learn about and be able to describe the: (1) use of P300 event-related potentials in the study of stuttering; (2) differences between stuttering and non-stuttering adults; and (3) effects of behavioral fluency treatment on cerebral activity in stuttering speakers.     

Environmental Visual Distraction during Retrieval Affects the Quality,Not the Quantity,of Eyewitness Recall

Eyewitnesses instructed to close their eyes during retrieval remember more correct, and fewer incorrect, visual and auditory details. These effects are assumed to arise because eye‐closure reduces distraction from the retrieval environment, and so increased environmental distraction should have the reverse effects. To test this idea, 48 participants witnessed a video clip before verbally answering questions about visual and auditory details in the presence of irrelevant visual distraction varying in amount and predictability. More distraction led to fewer correct and more incorrect visual and auditory details being recalled, but the predictability of the distraction had no effect. These findings suggest that environmental distraction impacts upon memory quality rather than quantity, a pattern that may be hard for interviewers to detect. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.