Assessing Dimensions of Pathological Narcissism: Psychometric Properties of the Short Form of the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory in a Sample of Italian University Students

To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian translation of the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory–Short Form (FFNI–SF), 1,063 Italian university students were administered the scale, along with the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) and the Measure of Disordered Personality Functioning (MDPF). In general, the FFNI–SF scales showed good internal consistency (median α = .76; median interitem r = .44) and structural analyses suggested a 3-component model of FFNI–SF scales that was similar to that reported by Sherman et al. (2015). FFNI–SF second-order scales yielded meaningful convergent and discriminant correlations with PNI second-order grandiose and vulnerable dimensions. Finally, FFNI–SF second-order scales correlated in expected ways with 2 dimensions of personality dysfunction.     

Measures of Ethnicity‐Related Stress: Psychometric Properties,Ethnic Group Differences,and Associations With Well‐Being1

This study introduces new measures of ethnicity‐related stress and a newly adapted measure of ethnic identity. Ethnicity‐related stressors assessed in this study were perceived discrimination, stereotype confirmation concern, and own‐group conformity pressure. Ethnic identity refers to the subjective sense of ethnic group membership and, following Luhtanen and Crocker (1992), was assessed as public regard, identity centrality, and private feelings. Data for 333 undergraduates from diverse ethnic groups indicated that the measures are psychometrically sound. Ethnic group differences for mean scores demonstrated the measures’ known‐groups validity. Cross‐sectional analyses indicated that ethnicity‐related stress and identity constructs captured by the instruments are related to measures of psychological and physical well‐being. The new measures may be useful in the investigation of psychological aspects of ethnicity and their adaptive consequences.     

Investing in Children, Families, and Communities: Challenges foran Interdivisional Public Policy Collaboration

An interdivisional collaboration to foster the development of strengths-based policies for children, youth, families, and communities is described. The initiative includes (1) producing a book that integrates scholarly research and policy; (2) developing materials for policymakers to use, including a policy-oriented summary of the book; (3) enhancing the capacities of the divisions to communicate with and influence policymakers; and (4) taking action steps to influence policymakers. During the process of developing these products, a number of tensions emerged between the academically-based and policy-based authors of the book, many of which centered around how the information should be presented and, in particular, how to formulate and present policy recommendations. Tensions fell into four general categories: understanding the appropriate scope for recommendations, using the right language, understanding the kind of information that is needed, and understanding the bottom line. The author concludes by urging psychologists to become adept at understanding and participating in the public policymaking process.     

Strategy transitions during cognitive skill learning in younger and older adults: Effects of interitem confusability

Groups of young and old adults were trained for four sessions on a set of 24 alphabet-arithmetic problems. Problem sets were either highly confusable or highly distinct. Power-function and mixture-model fits to the means and standard deviations of the acquisition data, resolved at the participant problem level, were compared. "Shallow" power functions signaled that a problem was computed throughout training; "humped" mixture functions signaled a shift from slow computed solutions to fast retrieved solutions. Not surprisingly, shifts to retrieval occurred later for confusable problems, but there were also fewer shifts in that condition. Failures to shift, even after extended practice, suggest that retrieving problem solutions is an elective strategy, and not an automatic concomitant of skill training. Participants can be viewed as choosing between strategies that trade off benefits in speed against costs in accuracy. Older adults showed few retrieval solutions in either condition, perhaps because of their emphasis on accuracy.     

Task switching: on the origin of response congruency effects

When people frequently alternate between simple cognitive tasks, performance on stimuli which are assigned the same response in both tasks is typically faster and more accurate than on stimuli which require different responses for both tasks, thus indicating stimulus processing according to the stimulus-response (S-R) rules of the currently irrelevant task. It is currently under debate whether such response congruency effects are mediated by the activation of an abstract representation of the irrelevant task in working memory or by "direct" associations between specific stimuli and responses. We contrasted these views by manipulating concurrent memory load (Experiment 1) and the frequency of specific S-R associations (Experiment 2). While between-task response congruency effects were not affected by the amount of concurrent memory load, they were much stronger for stimuli that were processed frequently in the context of a competitor task. These findings are consistent with the idea that a large portion of the congruency effects stems from direct S-R associations and they do not support a sole mediation by task-set activation in working memory.     

The role of visuo-spatial working memory in map learning: new findings from a map drawing paradigm

Recently, increasing attention has been devoted to the study of the role of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in environmental learning and spatial navigation. The present research was aimed at investigating the role of VSWM in map learning using a map drawing paradigm. In the first study, a dual task methodology was used. Results showed that map drawing was selectively impaired by a spatial tapping task that was executed during the map learning phase, hence supporting the hypothesis that VSWM plays an essential role in learning from maps. In the second study, using a correlational methodology, it was shown that performance in simultaneous VSWM tasks, but not in sequential VSWM tasks, predicted map drawing skills. These skills “in turn” correlated with map learning abilities. Finally, in the third study, we replicated the results of the second study, by using a different map. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to find evidence that the simultaneous aspects of VSWM play a fundamental role in learning from maps.     

Probabilistic retroactive interference: the role of accessibility bias in interference effects

Probabilistic retroactive interference (RI) refers to the interfering effects of intermixing presentations of an earlier studied response (A-B) with presentations of a competing response (A-D). As an example, for a 2/3 condition, a cue word was presented with its earlier studied response twice and its competing response once during the interference phase. Performance on direct and indirect tests of memory for earlier studied responses was combined to reveal dissociations between effects on recollection and accessibility bias. Manipulating probabilistic RI influenced accessibility bias but left recollection unchanged. Effects of probabilistic RI were compared with effects of traditional, nonprobabilistic RI. The authors contrast their dual-process model with traditional accounts of RI and discuss the importance of distinguishing between recollection and accessibility bias for understanding interference effects.