A Relational Frame and Artificial Neural Network Approach to Computer-Interactive Mathematics

The Psychological Record - Fifteen participants unfamiliar with mathematical operations relative to reflections and vertical and horizontal shifts were exposed to an introductory lecture regarding...     

Strategies for learning proper names: expanding retrieval practice,meaning and imagery

Name learning strategies including retrieval practice, semantic associations and imagery were compared in laboratory‐based and real‐life experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 studied expanding retrieval practice and a semantic association strategy as memory improvement techniques for learning proper names. Participants either retrieved or restudied names on the same, expanding schedule. After a short, filled interval, cued recall of names was about 250% better following retrieval than restudy and 200% better with than without semantic associations. Together, the techniques improved recall by 300–400%. In Experiment 3, retrieval practice was compared with an imagery mnemonic for name learning under real‐life social conditions: Participants sought to learn the names of people they met at a party. Retrieval practice produced 50% higher recall after 24–72 hours but the imagery mnemonic was no more effective than non‐directed instructions to learn names. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cultures of teaching in childhood: Formal schooling and Maya sibling teaching at home

Culture can be thought of a set of shared practices, beliefs, and values that are transmitted across generations through language [Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press]. Teaching is one way that culture is transmitted, but forms of teaching vary across cultures and across activity settings within cultures. This article explores the impact of culture on styles of teaching in a place where more than one cultural model of teaching is found: the Zinacantec Maya of Chiapas, Mexico. Zinacantecs have an indigenous model of teaching that applies to the learning of informal tasks, such as making tortillas and weaving. When children go to school, the indigenous model interacts with the model found at school, and this mixed model is transferred back home to sibling interactions. Videotaped ethnographic observations and quantitative discourse analyses reveal cultural patterns in the development of children's teaching.     

Person perception in the heat of conflict: Negative trait attributions affect procedural preferences and account for situational and cultural differences

Disputes by their nature involve contentious behavior. If one attributes such behavior to underlying personality traits, these attributions can be quite damning. The current research investigated negative trait attributions and their impact on dispute resolution decisions. We hypothesized that judging one's opponent to be low in agreeableness and high in emotionality (e.g. stubborn and volatile) shifts one's preference towards more formal procedures – formal in the sense that a third party judge controls the process and outcome. Drawing on the attribution literature, we hypothesized that two antecedents of these judgments (and consequent preferences) are the perceiver's level of prior information and the perceiver's cultural proclivity to explaining behavior in terms of personal dispositions. Results of an experiment measuring reactions to a hypothetical dispute found that prior information and culture (USA vs Hong Kong) increased trait attributions and preferences for formal procedures. Additionally, expectancy measures showed interaction effects suggesting that disputants dynamically construct expectancies in light of their personality impressions.     

Associations between depression, distress tolerance, delay discounting, and alcohol-related problems in European American and African American college students

Although levels of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems are high in college students, there is significant variability in the number and type of problems experienced, even among students who drink heavily. African American students drink less and experience fewer alcohol-related problems than European American students, but are still at risk, and little research has investigated the potentially unique patterns and predictors of problems among these students. Depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting have been implicated in adult substance abuse and may be important predictors of alcohol problem severity among college students. We examined the relationship between these variables and alcohol-related problems among African American and European American students (N = 206; 53% female; 68% European American; 28% African American) who reported recent heavy drinking. In regression models that controlled for drinking level, depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting were associated with alcohol problems among African American students, but only depression was associated with alcohol problems among European American students. These results suggest that negative affect is a key risk factor for alcohol problems among college student drinkers. For African American students, the inability to tolerate negative emotions and to organize their behavior around future outcomes may also be especially relevant risk factors.     

Religion and the decision to donate organs: Exploring the potential role of religious leaders

The two‐step flow model of communication (Katz, 1957 ) suggests opinion leaders obtain critical information from the mass media and, in turn, communicate this information to interpersonal contacts such as friends, family and co‐workers. It is suggested that religious leaders (RLs) may serve as opinion leaders on the topic of organ donation by debunking donation myths, promoting donation during worship services, or communicating the benefit of donation to families faced with the opportunity to participate in living or cadaveric donation. The current study examined the personal knowledge, experiences, and willingness to communicate about organ donation in a sample of RLs (N = 59) in Rochester, New York. Structured interviews were conducted in summer and fall of 2009 with a random sample of RLs. Results indicate a disparity between RLs' expressed personal support for donation and their engagement in donor registration. Approximately one‐quarter of RLs have spoken about donation during a religious service and many indicate their knowledge is not sufficient to discuss organ donation in detail. Results elaborate on how RLs may be trained to serve as opinion leaders in the promotion of organ donation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rumination partially mediates the associations between perceived ethnic discrimination, emotional distress, and aggression

Research suggests that perceived ethnic discrimination is associated with poor psychological and physiological health. Rumination, or perseverative thoughts about negative experiences, may constitute a maladaptive coping strategy that mediates the associations between perceived discrimination, emotional distress, and aggression. Our sample consisted of 170 ethnic minority and 134 White American participants. For ethnic minority participants, we found a pattern of correlations consistent with rumination partially mediating a causal link between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms, hostility, anger, and aggression. In White participants, by contrast, the significant associations between perceived discrimination and these indices of emotional and behavioral distress were not statistically mediated by rumination. We discuss possible theoretical and clinical implications of these results.     

Forecasting good or bad behaviour: A non‐transparent test of contrastive responses to cultural cues

Bicultural individuals vary in the degree to which their two cultural identities are integrated – Bicultural Identity Integration (BII). Among Asian‐Americans, for example, some experience their Asian and American sides as integrated (high BII) whereas others experience the two as divided (low BII). Past research on social judgement found that individual differences in BII affect the way biculturals respond to cultural cues or norms in their situation. Asian‐Americans with low BII tend to contrast to the cultural norm (e.g. they exhibit typically American judgements when in Asian cultural situations) rather than assimilate to them, a response observed more among high BII individuals (e.g., they exhibit typically Asian judgements when in Asian cultural situations). Research has interpreted the contrastive response as reflecting implicit identity motives, yet past studies used measures that make cultural differences salient. Conscious awareness of the experimental hypothesis could elicit contrastive responses. The present research assessed forecasts of others' behaviour in which cultural group differences are less obvious: Asians, compared to Westerners, forecast more positive behaviours from others. In three experiments with Asian‐Americans, we found the contrastive response by low BII individuals persisted. They made more positive forecasts after exposure to American versus Asian cultural cues. This suggests that the moderating role of BII on responses to cultural cues is not a matter of demand characteristics or limited to stereotypical cultural differences. Implications for bicultural identity, implicit processes, and organizational behaviour are discussed.