Dynamic interplay of depression,perfectionism and self-regulation on procrastination

This study aimed at investigating the intercorrelation among affective, cognitive and behavioural components on procrastination. A total of 402 undergraduate students (115 males, 286 females, 1 not indicated) participated in the study. Students completed the General Procrastination Scale, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and Self-regulation Inventory. A constructed hypothesised model was tested by utilising path analysis. Overall, the analysis indicated that the model sufficiently explained the data. The findings showed the multicorrelation among the variables, ranging from 14 to 58. Squared multiple correlation coefficients (R²) of procrastination revealed that endogenous and mediator variables explained 33% of the total variance in procrastination. The results demonstrated the importance of affect, cognition and behaviour on problematic delay referred to as procrastination.     

‘This Is the Person You Selected’: Eyewitnesses' Blindness for Their Own Facial Recognition Decisions

The aim of the current research was to identify conditions under which choice blindness in facial recognition decisions occurs. In five experiments, participants watched four mock‐crime videos and made choices that were either evaluative (Experiment 1) or absolute in nature (Experiments 2a–c and 3). When participants were subsequently asked to motivate their choice, they were sometimes presented with choices they had not made. For evaluative decisions, concurrent (27%) and retrospective blindness rates (21%) were relatively low compared with previous studies. For absolute decisions, choice‐blindness rates varied, depending on when exposure to the manipulated outcome took place (immediate: concurrent 32–35%, retrospective 0–6% [Experiments 2a–c]; 48 hours' delay: concurrent 68%, retrospective 39% [Experiment 3]). We argue that blindness for facial recognition decisions is more likely for evaluative decisions and for longer intervals between decision and manipulation and also for conditions of increased task complexity, which we interpret in terms of ambiguity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Defining reward value by cross-modal scaling

Researchers in comparative psychology often use different food rewards in their studies, with food values defined by a pre-experimental preference test. While this technique rank orders food values, it provides limited information about value differences because preferences may reflect not only value differences, but also the degree to which one good may “substitute” for another (e.g., one food may substitute well for another food, but neither substitutes well for water). We propose scaling the value of food pairs by a third food that is less substitutable for either food offered in preference tests (cross-modal scaling). Here, Cebus monkeys chose between four pairwise alternatives: fruits A versus B; cereal amount X versus fruit A and cereal amount Y versus fruit B where X and Y were adjusted to produce indifference between each cereal amount and each fruit; and cereal amounts X versus Y. When choice was between perfect substitutes (different cereal amounts), preferences were nearly absolute; so too when choice was between close substitutes (fruits); however, when choice was between fruits and cereal amounts, preferences were more modest and less likely due to substitutability. These results suggest that scaling between-good value differences in terms of a third, less-substitutable good may be better than simple preference tests in defining between-good value differences.     

Interpretation of human pointing by African elephants: generalisation and rationality

Factors influencing the abilities of different animals to use cooperative social cues from humans are still unclear, in spite of long-standing interest in the topic. One of the few species that have been found successful at using human pointing is the African elephant (Loxodonta africana); despite few opportunities for learning about pointing, elephants follow a pointing gesture in an object-choice task, even when the pointing signal and experimenter’s body position are in conflict, and when the gesture itself is visually subtle. Here, we show that the success of captive African elephants at using human pointing is not restricted to situations where the pointing signal is sustained until the time of choice: elephants followed human pointing even when the pointing gesture was withdrawn before they had responded to it. Furthermore, elephants rapidly generalised their response to a type of social cue they were unlikely to have seen before: pointing with the foot. However, unlike young children, they showed no sign of evaluating the ‘rationality’ of this novel pointing gesture according to its visual context: that is, whether the experimenter’s hands were occupied or not.     

The Role of Students’ Attitudes and Test-Taking Motivation on the Validity of College Institutional Accountability Tests: A Path Analytic Model

Given worldwide prevalence of low-stakes testing for monitoring educational quality and students’ progress through school (e.g., Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, Program for International Student Assessment), interpretability of resulting test scores is of global concern. The nonconsequential nature of low-stakes tests can undermine students’ test-taking motivation, artificially deflating performance and thus jeopardizing validity of test-based inferences, whether they pertain to programs, institutions, or nations (Eklöf, 2007, 2010; Stanat & Lüdtke, 2013; Wise & DeMars, 2005). Moreover, students in countries such as the United States, where academic progress over the course of K–12 (kindergarten through Grade 12) is systematically assessed, are likely to develop antagonistic attitudes toward low-stakes testing by the time they enter college. The relationship between such attitudes, test-taking motivation, and performance on a low-stakes university accountability test was modeled via path analysis. Results indicated the effects of attitudes were indirect (via test-taking motivation) and minimal, suggesting the influence of attitudes on test performance is negligible, further supporting the validity of inferences made from such low-stakes tests. Implications for international assessment are discussed.     

Psychological Support for Children with Diabetes: Are the Guidelines Being Met?

The significant role of psychosocial factors in the management of type 1 diabetes in youth has been well documented. The International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) therefore published the Clinical Practice Consensus Guidelines for psychological care of young patients. However, it is unclear if and how these guidelines are being implemented. A questionnaire was created to assess implementation of the guidelines and directed to physicians through the ISPAD listserve via a web-based survey. One hundred fifty-five participants from 47 countries completed the survey. Ninety-six percent of respondents reported that they work in a team with other professionals, and 95 % of teams discuss psychological difficulties associated with diabetes management. Seventy-two percent of respondents reported having “easy access” to a mental health specialist (MHS). In 56 % of practice settings, the MHS is considered to be part of the team; 43 % participate in routine clinic visits and 26 % see all patients. Seventy percent screen for psychological problems and 57 % assess family functioning. Psychosocial or behavioral interventions addressing psychosocial and regimen adherence difficulties are offered by 79 % of teams. Psychological care is available for many children with diabetes worldwide. Yet, nearly 30 % of teams do not have access to a MHS. More training in the recognition of psychosocial problems and counseling skills is warranted. More advocacy is needed to increase availability and utilization of psychological services in routine diabetes care.     

Maternal guilt

The recent emphasis on humans as cooperative breeders invites new research on human family dynamics. In this paper we look at maternal guilt as a consequence of conditional maternal investment. Solicited texts written by Finnish mothers with under school-aged children in 2007 (n = 63) described maternal emotions perceived as difficult and forbidden. Content analysis of guilt-inducing situations showed that guilt arose from diverging interest and negotiations between the mother and child (i.e., classic parent- offspring conflict). Also cultural expectations of extensive and perpetual high-quality maternal investment or the "motherhood myth" induced guilt in mothers. We argue that guilt plays an important role in maternal-investment regulation. Maternal guilt is predicted to vary with social and cultural context but also to show universal characteristics due to parent-offspring conflict and allomaternal manipulation. Results are preliminary and intended to stimulate research into the mechanisms, gender differences and cultural variations of guilt and other social emotions in human parenting.     

Co-occurring anxiety influences patterns of brain activity in depression

Brain activation associated with anhedonic depression and co-occurring anxious arousal and anxious apprehension was measured by fMRI during performance of an emotion word Stroop task. Consistent with EEG findings, depression was associated with rightward frontal lateralization in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), but only when anxious arousal was elevated and anxious apprehension was low. Activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was also reduced for depression under the same conditions. In contrast, depression was associated with more activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (dorsal ACC and rostral ACC) and the bilateral amygdala. Results imply that depression, particularly when accompanied by anxious arousal, may result in a failure to implement top-down processing by appropriate brain regions (left DLPFC, right IFG) due to increased activation in regions associated with responding to emotionally salient information (right DLPFC, amygdala).