Gender differences in geographical knowledge

In five experiments involving more than 1800 undergraduate students, males more accurately located places on maps of the United States or its various regions than did females. These gender differences could not be attributed to education, travel history, desire to travel, or in the amount of incidental exposure to several potential sources of geographic information in everyday life. Males performed more accurately than females on measures of egocentric and allocentric spatial orientation, but performance on these tasks was only weakly predictive of accuracy on tests of geographical knowledge. Since males and females learned the locations of places on an unfamiliar map at similar rates, regardless of whether such learning occurred under intentional or incidental instructions, gender differences in geographical knowledge cannot be attributed to differences in capacity to learn place locations on maps. An attentional hypothesis is proposed to account for the more accurate performance of males on tests of geographical knowledge.     

Diurnal variation in the Positive Affects

We examined the circadian rhythm of two basic dimensions of mood—Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA). Subjects were 196 college students in two studies who completed a mood rating form approximately seven times a day for 1 week. Significant diurnal variation was found to exist in overall Positive Affect, and in four component content areas, but not in Negative Affect. Specifically, all components of PA rose sharply from early morning until noon, remained relatively constant until 9 p.m., and then fell rapidly. The rise and fall of PA were quite robust across subjects, but the apparently static level of PA from noon to 9 p.m. was shown to result from averaging across marked individual differences in the time of peak PA. Various potential sources of these individual differences—“morningness-eveningness,” introversion-extraversion, and neuroticism/dysphoria—were investigated. Neither of the personality variables accounted for the significant variation in diurnal mood patterning, but clearly defined morning and evening types did show different patterns. Possible links between the mood pattern obtained and biologically based circadian rhythms, which have been postulated to be dysregulated in depression and mania, are discussed.     

Evaluating socioeconomic status bias in the WISC-R

The use of intelligence tests in making special education placement decisions for children has come under repeated scrutiny in recent years. Arguments for and against the use of IQs have centered around the issue of test bias. In California a permanent moratorium on the use of intelligence tests in placing minority group children into classes for the educable retarded has been handed down by the court. One defense proposed by advocates of mental testing has been that the tests are biased against socially and economically disadvantaged groups irrespective of race. According to Clarizio (1978), if a test predicts equally well for two groups it can not legitimately be described as biased. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the test bias of the Verbal IQ as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised in relation to predictions of academic achievement in two different socioeconomic status groups. The results indicated that Verbal IQs are not biased with respect to socioeconomic status. Derived regression equations are presented along with an analysis to inspect the statistical power of the original tests.     

A multidimensional assessment of parent-identified behavior problem toddlers

Sixty-eight 2-and 3-year-olds (46 parent-referred, 22 controls) participating in an identification, assessment, and follow-up study of hyperactivity and related behavior problems were evaluated on parent-report, observational, and cognitive measures. Referred youngsters were described by both parents as more active, inattentive, difficult to discipline, and aggressive with peers than were controls. Mothers of referred children also reported a more difficult infancy period. Laboratory assessments confirmed parental reports of current problems. Referred children shifted activities more during free play, were more active and inattentive during structured tasks, and made more impulsive responses on a delay task than did controls. Discriminant function analysis indicated that parental ratings of activity paired with laboratory measures of sustained attention and impulsivity correctly classified 88% of the sample. These data suggest that the core symptoms of hyperactivity can be identified in very young children, although their prognostic significance remains to be determined.This research was supported by Grant No. R01 MH 32735 from the National Institute of Mental Health to the first author. Thanks are due to the parents and children who participated so enthusiastically in this study. The dedication of Patricia Cluss is gratefully acknowledged. Mady Fingeret, Frank McKee, Jenny Palermo, Susan Riley, Elizabeth Schaughency, Sheree Thomas, and Russell Walters are also thanked for their help in data collection.     

The effects of dynamic assessment procedures on Raven Matrices performance,visual search behavior,test anxiety and test orientation

The effects of dynamic testing procedures on Raven Coloured Matrices performance, visual scanning procedures, test anxiety, and orientation to the test situation were assessed. The subjects were 72 third-grade children. The results supported the hypotheses of the study showing that (1) dynamic assessment procedures involving either verbalization or elaborated feedback lead to higher levels of Raven Matrices performance; that (2) dynamic assessment modifies visual search behaviors; and that (3) dynamic assessment reduces test anxiety and negative orientation to the testing situation. The results are interpreted as offering construct validation to the assessment approaches used.     

Common phoneme and overall similarity relations among spoken syllables: Their use by children and adults

This paper contrasts two kinds of relations among spoken syllables. One relation is based on a single common phoneme; the second is based on overall similarity of whole syllables. On the basis of recent studies with multidimensional visual stimuli, we hypothesized that preliterate children respond primarily to overall similarity relations among syllables, whereas literate adults respond primarily to common phoneme relations. These hypotheses were tested in two experiments using spoken syllables. Experiment 1 investigated the classification of syllables by preliterate children (mean age: 4 years 4 months) and college students. Experiment 2 studied the memory confusions among syllables by children (mean age: 4 years 8 months) and college students. The results of both experiments suggest that overall similarity relations are primary for preliterate children, while common phoneme relations are primary for adults. Moreover, children's limited use of common phoneme relations is not confined to tasks that require explicit judgments about language. Implications for the learning of reading are discussed.The work reported here formed a portion of the first author's doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Pennsylvania. It was supported by Grant MH29453 to J. Baron and a Biomedical support grant through Indiana University to R. Treiman. We thank the children and teachers of the University of Pennsylvania Children's Center for their cooperation. Jonathan Baron, David Pisoni, Francis Ganong, Lila Gleitman, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Burton Rosner, Linda Smith, and Amanda Walley gave valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper.     

Secondary school curriculum and career behavior in young adults

As part of a larger longitudinal study of the effects of secondary school characteristics on career behavior in young adulthood, this paper presents findings obtained from 1007 males and females who graduated from high school in academic or vocational curricula 6 or 8 years ago. Criterion behavior included the completion of career development tasks in the exploration and establishment life stages as measured by the Adult Form of the Career Development Inventory, certainty about immediate occupational plans, and satisfaction with occupational goals and progress toward meeting them. Significant differences were found in the pattern of career development by curriculum but not by sex, in certainty by curriculum and sex, and in satisfaction by neither curriculum nor sex. The implications for a stage theory of career development are discussed.     

Factor analysis by instrumental variables methods

Three alternative estimation procedures for factor analysis based on the instrumental variables method are presented. These procedures are justified by the method of least squares. Formulas for asymptotic standard errors of factor loadings are derived. The procedures are empirically compared to the method of maximum likelihood. The conclusion, based on the data used in this study, is that two of the procedures seem to work well.