Protective role of educational level on episodic memory aging: An event-related potential study

The aim of the present experiment was to investigate whether educational level could modulate the effect of aging on episodic memory and on the electrophysiological correlates of retrieval success. Participants were divided into four groups based on age (young vs. older) and educational level (high vs. low), with 14 participants in each group. Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded while participants performed a word-stem cued-recall task. Age-related memory deficits were greater for the less educated individuals. Age differences in the ERP old/new effects were also modulated by the level of education. This study demonstrated that the effects of age on episodic memory and ERP correlates of retrieval success are smaller in participants with high educational levels than those with lower levels. These findings provide support for the reserve hypothesis and highlight the need to consider individual differences when studying cognitive and cerebral changes in aging.     

Pokémon: Exploring the Role of Gender

In Study 1 college students (47 men, 104 women) watched Pokémon cartoons, and afterward they rated one of four trainers (persons who train creatures called Pokémon) on 28 characteristics. James, the male “bad” trainer, was rated lowest of four trainers on “masculine” traits including strength, assertiveness, certainty, and being a leader. Jesse, the female “bad” trainer, was rated as sexiest and most aggressive. In Study 2 sixty-two elementary school children (28 girls, 34 boys) were individually interviewed. Fewer than 50% of the children could name a female Pokémon, and participants were more likely to choose a boy than a girl as a favorite trainer. Male Pokémon and trainers may be more central to the cartoon, and counter-stereotypical gender portrayals may be one way to portray a “bad” character even more negatively.     

Racial Stereotypes and Gender in Context: African Americans at Predominantly Black and Predominantly White Colleges

In this study, relationships among stereotype expectations, gender, and academic self-concept and performance of African American students in predominantly White and predominantly Black college contexts were examined. Stereotype expectations are students' perceptions of biased treatment and evaluation within their major classroom settings (SE). Findings indicated that students' majors were related to stereotype expectations, as well as to their academic competence. Our results also provide evidence of gender and institutional interactions in the relationships between stereotype expectations and academic outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the need to examine issues of race and gender in the academic experiences of African Americans, as well as how their specific school and classroom contexts may influence their experiences.     

Predicting Breast Self‐Examination: A Test of the Information‐Motivation‐Behavioral Skills Model1

The present research utilizes the information‐motivation‐behavioral skills (IMB) model (Fisher & Fisher, 1992, 2000) to predict breast self‐examination (BSE) and related behaviors in women. Results from a cross‐sectional survey study of 166 women found deficiencies in BSE‐related information, motivation, and behavioral skills, as well as insufficient rates of BSE‐related behaviors. Structural equation modeling indicated that IMB model variables account for significant variance in BSE and BSE‐related behaviors, and that the predicted relationships between the constructs of the 1MB model were supported. The present research extends the utility of the IMB model beyond preventive behaviors such as HIV prevention into the domain of detection behaviors such as BSE.     

Universal Self Consciousness mysticism and the physical completeness principle

Philosophers promoting a version ofUniversal Self Consciousness mysticism(including Wainwright, Alston, Hick, Wilber andForman) take it that their interpretations ofmysticism are consistent with currentscientific findings. However, their theorieshave been implicitly or explicitly against thecentral claim arising from science, namely, thephysical causal completeness principle. Thereis strong ground to accept physical causalcompleteness for human functioning, and theassessment of physical completeness isindependent of the phenomenology of UniversalSelf Consciousness mystical experience.Further, there is a positive account ofUniversal Self Consciousness mysticism thataccepts physical causal completeness. Such anaccount is preferable to the many accounts thatboth require its denial and yet give nobasically satisfactory evidence to ground thatdenial.     

Using the Performance Diagnostic Checklist–Human Services to identify an indicated intervention to decrease employee tardiness

We assessed and reduced the tardiness of 4 direct‐care staff employed at a school that provides educational services to children with autism. The Performance Diagnostic Checklist – Human Services was administered to participants and their supervisors to identify one or more indicated interventions. Relative to baseline, tardiness was lower during intervention. The most effective intervention included task clarification, a problem‐solving discussion, tokens exchangeable for back‐up reinforcers, and weekly graphic feedback. Moreover, participants reported that the intervention components, particularly praise and a token, had high acceptability.     

Moral injury,coherence, and spiritual repair

In the PTSD literature, moral injury represents dissonance between a person’s beliefs about how they and the world should function, and the trauma event(s) they experienced. Given the association of moral injury with the assumptive world, it is not surprising the concept is closely intertwined with spiritual concerns. This paper reports on a spiritually integrated group intervention designed to help veterans with PTSD in the process of moral and spiritual repair. Qualitative findings are shared from interviews conducted with 18 participants who completed the intervention. Themes are centred around participants’ overall response to their experience in the group; where they are at regarding feelings such as guilt, shame, anger, trust, sense of betrayal, and desire for forgiveness; changes in religious/spiritual beliefs and practices and the experience of moral injury; and if they now find meaning in the trauma. The findings support the need for additional treatment options that address the moral and spiritual aspects of trauma.     

Spanish consumers' perceptions of US apparel speciality retailers' products and services

Apparel speciality retailers' success in international markets is contingent upon their knowledge of culturally‐defined values, norms and behaviour that influence consumer decision making and impact acceptance of products and services. An integrated theoretical framework of retail internationalisation guided this investigation of the viability of the Spanish market for US retailers. This study examined consumers' store patronage and apparel purchase behaviour, acceptance of US apparel brands, perceptions of retailers' products and services, and perceptions of the impact of foreign retailers on local communities. Data were collected from 375 consumers in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. The influence of retailer characteristics on consumers' store patronage varied by age and income. Product characteristics that influenced apparel purchases varied by gender, income and age, while acceptance of US brands differed by gender and age. The perceptions of Spanish, European and US retailers differed regarding quality, fashionability, product assortment, extent and quality of customer service, convenience of location, payment options, national brands and store layout. Consumers' acceptance of US apparel brands was a function of age, household income, apparel product country of manufacture and price. Perceptions of US retailers were a function of household income, selected apparel characteristics and consumer acceptance of US apparel brands. Differences among perceptions of the impact of retail development were found by city. The findings provide insights into the opportunities and challenges for US apparel speciality retailers as they contemplate entry into the Spanish market. The affinity for US apparel among young Spanish consumers, particularly males, suggests optimism regarding opportunities in this market. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Multi-Center Dilemma Project: an investigation on the role of cognitive conflicts in health

The Multi-Center Dilemma Project is a collaborative research endeavour aimed at determining the role of dilemmas--a kind of cognitive conflict, detected by using an adaptation of Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique--in a variety of clinical conditions. Implicative dilemmas appear in one third of the non-clinical group (n = 321) and in about half of the clinical group (n = 286), the latter having a proportion of dilemmas that doubles that of the non-clinical sample. Within the clinical group, we studied 87 subjects, after completing a psychotherapy process, and found that therapy helps to dissolve those dilemmas. We also studied, independently, a group of subjects diagnosed with social phobia (n = 13) and a group diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (n = 13) in comparison to non-clinical groups. In both health related problems, dilemmas seem to be quite relevant. Altogether, these studies, though preliminary (and with a small group size in some cases), yield a promising perspective to the unexplored area of the role of cognitive conflicts as an issue to consider when trying to understand some clinical conditions, as well as a focus to be dealt with in psychotherapy when dilemmas are identified.     

Social learning of optimal responding and producer-scrounger strategies in flocks of pigeons

Social learning of optimal responding and producer-scrounger strategies in flocks of pigeons. This experiment evaluated the effect of varying the effort required in order to access food upon the acquisition of a novel response, and upon utilizing producer-scrounger strategies, in flocks of pigeons exposed to an expert conspecific. Flocks of na?ve observers were exposed to a pigeon trained to open the seals on food deposits. The colors of the seals were correlated with differing required efforts. Later, the trained pigeon was removed while the color-effort correlation was maintained. The results showed that the observers acquired the response of opening the seals and that they executed it discriminatingly, responding in a greater proportion to the color that signaled the least required effort. They also assumed the roles of both producers and scroungers, which varied as a function of the composition of the group. The data obtained are congruent with prior findings regarding social learning, and also with the concepts proposed by the optimal foraging theory.