Assessment of children's receptive vocabulary using event-related brain potentials: Development of a clinically valid test

The combined verbal and motor impairments characteristic of children with disorders such as Cerebral Palsy (CP) frequently compromise the accuracy of standard psychometric assessments. What is needed is a test to measure language that does not require verbal or motor responses. This study was designed to determine whether single-word receptive vocabulary could be assessed in young children without CP, using an ERP-compatible test based on Form M of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R). Fifteen 10-year-old children with normal levels of psychometric intelligence participated. Ninety pictures were selected from the PPVT-R (Form M), representing three levels of single-word receptive vocabulary (Preschool, Child-Adolescent, Adult). Each picture was presented twice (pseudo-random), once paired with a spoken word that was semantically congruent with the picture and once paired with a semantically incongruent word. The children's N400 was significantly larger to incongruent than to congruent pairs, but only when the vocabulary was within their repertoire. The results are discussed in terms of electrophysiologic correlates of acquired language and the clinical use of this ERP test as an adjunct to assessing patients with moderate to severe communication and/or motor impairments (e.g., cerebral palsy, autism, head injury).     

THE INTERFERENCE OF SOME ANAPHORIC EXPRESSIONS ON READING COMPREHENSION

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interference of certain anaphoric expressions (pronouns) on eighth grade students’ reading comprehension. The subjects (n=103) were administered cloze .tests of anaphoric comprehension in which either 0%, 33%, 66% or 100% of the pronouns were replaced by appropriate referents. Analysis of covariance was utilized to analyze the resulting data, using passage form as the independent variable, and SRA reading achievement scores as the covariate. The null hypothesis was rejected, which stated there would not be significant differences among subjects’ cloze scores on reading the four different forms of the passages. The results suggest that use of anaphoric expressions in some instances will interfere with the reading comprehension of eighth graders. Practical and theoretical implications of the results are discussed     

Outcome expectations and work design characteristics in post-retirement work planning

Today, a growing number of individuals decide to work beyond normal retirement age (Eurofound, 2012). Research has revealed influencing factors for post-retirement work at the individual, job and organizational, family, and socioeconomic levels. However, not much is known about post-retirement work planning and its antecedents. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of outcome expectations regarding post-retirement work and two work design characteristics (i.e., physical demands and social support at work) on post-retirement work planning by applying the framework of social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Data from 1065 employees of a German logistics company were used in this study. Results provide support for SCCT to be a suitable theoretical framework for understanding post-retirement career planning and thereby expand the application of SCCT to a new field. Furthermore, multilevel analysis revealed that physical demands were negatively related to the intention to continue to work for the pre-retirement employer after retirement entry, whereas social support at work strengthened the relationship between outcome expectations and same-employer-post-retirement work intention. Organizations who want their retired employees to continue to work in retirement should develop interventions to strengthen post-retirement work outcome expectations. An increase in social support at work as well as a reduction in physical demands may also contribute to increased participation in continued work with the same employer in retirement.     

The neural bases of the constructive nature of autobiographical memories studied with a self-paced fMRI design

In Conway and Pleydell-Pearce's model (2000), autobiographical memories are viewed as transitory mental representations, more often generated in an effortful way. An important claim of the model concerns the dynamic process that evolves over time, from the left prefrontal areas to posterior regions, to retrieve specific memories. The present work aims at investigating, using fMRI, the temporal distribution of effortful autobiographical memory construction. In addition, a self-paced design was implemented to elucidate the question of the timing window required to evoke recollections. The results showed a large pattern of brain regions, which included the two major poles of activation predicted by Conway and Pleydell-Pearce's model. Likewise, we were able to detect the earlier implication of the left dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex, by comparison with posterior structures, which seemed to confirm its involvement in the effortful retrieval process. Finally, the self-paced procedure allowed us to refine the timing window necessary to construct past events.     

A Population Study of Victimization, Relationships, and Well-Being in Middle Childhood

The paper presents a population-based study on the association of victimization and peer and adult relationships with children’s life satisfaction, self-esteem, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The study extends previous research by examining 2-, 3-, and 4-way higher-order interaction effects (moderation hypotheses) of adults and peer relationships, victimization, and gender on positive and negative aspects of children’s well-being. The study draws from a representative population-level sample of 2,792 4th graders (M _age = 9.70 years; 48.2 % girls). Data were obtained via student self-report survey on the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI). Given the nested data (children within classrooms), we employed multi-level regression analyses. Positive relationships with adults and peers were most strongly associated with life satisfaction and self-esteem, whereas victimization was most strongly associated with depressive symptoms and anxiety. No significant 2- or 3-way interactions were identified. The 4-way interaction of gender, adult connectedness, peer connectedness, and victimization was significant for three outcomes; that is, victimization was particularly strongly associated with low life satisfaction, low self-esteem, and high depressive symptoms for girls with low self-reports of peer and adult connectedness. The findings have implications for promoting children’s well-being in school and community contexts, corroborating interventions that foster relationship-building skills and simultaneously reduce victimization.     

Stereotype threat: When minority members underperform

This chapter provides a brief overview of research on stereotype threat, and considers whether this phenomenon is specific to minority groups (defined as low status groups), or whether similar deficits may also be observed in groups that generally enjoy a high status in society but that are negatively stereotyped in a specific domain. We then review a number of individual difference variables that moderate stereotype threat and that may explain why some people are highly vulnerable to stereotype activation while others appear to resist its influence. Next, we consider what processes drive stereotype threat, including anxiety, intrusive thoughts, shift towards caution, expectancy, and disengagement. In the subsequent section we compare the stereotype threat model with other theories dealing with the link between stereotypes and performance, in particular self-fulfilling prophecy and the expectancy value model. The final sections of the chapter concern areas of application in which stereotype threat may account for performance gaps between social groups, and how to prevent it.     

Mental Health among Youth in South Australia: A Survey of Flourishing,Languishing, Struggling,and Floundering

The Complete State Model of Mental Health was used to describe the prevalence of flourishing, languishing, struggling, and floundering in life in a sample of young South Australians (n = 3,913; 13–17 years, 52% female). Categorisation was based on the relative proportion of mental health and mental illness symptoms reported on standardised measures and the association of these categories to health‐risk behaviour. Variability in categories and health‐risk behaviour due to gender or region was investigated. Results indicated that a disturbingly small proportion of adolescents (<50%) were flourishing in life, that poorer states of mental health were associated with increased health‐risk behaviour, and that the propensity to engage in health‐risk behaviour did vary by gender and region. The current study extends the platform from which positively focused mental health strategies can be tailored and launched to meet the mental health needs of adolescents.     

Introduction: A Festschrift in Honor of Earl A. Alluisi

A battery of 10 traditional paper-and-pencil aptitude tests and a battery of 25 cognitive-components-based tests were administered to 298 men and women to investigate the common sources of variance in those batteries. Earlier confirmatory factor analyses showed each battery to have a hierarchical structure, each with a single higher order factor. The higher order factor in the paper-and-pencil battery had previously been identified as general cognitive ability, or g. The higher order factor from the cognitive-components battery had been identified as working memory. The intercorrelation of the higher order factors from the two batteries was .994, indicating that both measured g. The proportion of common variance because of g was greater in the cognitive-components battery than in the paper-and-pencil battery. The correlations between each factor based on cognitive components and g averaged .946. Despite theoretical foundations and arguments, cognitive components tests appear to measure much the same thing as traditional paper-and-pencil tests.     

Revisiting effects of contextual strength on the subordinate bias effect: Evidence from eye movements

In this study, we examined two issues regarding the role of context in ambiguity resolution: whether access to the contextually appropriate meaning is exhaustive or selective, and whether the contextually inappropriate meaning is inhibited. Participants read texts in which a biased ambiguous word was encountered twice while their eye movements were measured. The context preceding the first encounter varied in the extent to which the subordinate meaning was supported; the context preceding the second encounter always supported the dominant meaning. The findings suggest that lexical access is exhaustive but can be influenced by context, and that the subsequent accessibility of the contextually inappropriate meaning is unaffected by previous selection processes. The results were interpreted in terms of the assumptions of the reordered-access model and activation mechanisms that operate during reading.