Performance predictions affect attentional processes of event-based prospective memory

To investigate whether making performance predictions affects prospective memory (PM) processing, we asked one group of participants to predict their performance in a PM task embedded in an ongoing task and compared their performance with a control group that made no predictions. A third group gave not only PM predictions but also ongoing-task predictions. Exclusive PM predictions resulted in slower ongoing-task responding both in a nonfocal (Experiment 1) and in a focal (Experiment 2) PM task. Only in the nonfocal task was the additional slowing accompanied by improved PM performance. Even in the nonfocal task, however, was the correlation between ongoing-task speed and PM performance reduced after predictions, suggesting that the slowing was not completely functional for PM. Prediction-induced changes could be avoided by asking participants to additionally predict their performance in the ongoing task. In sum, the present findings substantiate a role of metamemory for attention-allocation strategies of PM.     

Metaphonological abilities of adult illiterates: New evidence of heterogeneity

Abstract

Adult illiterate and literate subjects with at most second-grade education, from the same poor settlement in Brazil, were tested on rhyme judgement, initial syllabic vowel deletion and initial consonant deletion. Corrective feedback was provided continuously throughout the tests. The literate subjects were proficient on all three tasks. Illiterates achieved non-negligible performance on vowel deletion and rhyme judgement, but performed poorly on consonant deletion. These results bring additional support to the notion that metaphonological competence involves separate components which obey different developmental mechanisms.     

A Comparison of the TAT,CAT and CAT-H among Second Grade Girls

The TAT, CAT and CAT-H were administered to second grade girls and compared in terms of psychological usefulness on four dependent measures. The dependent measures were (a) Transcendence Index, (b) Word Count, (c) Response Organization and (d) Response Creativity. The results indicated that the CAT and CAT-H were more useful instruments for this age group.     

Work–family interface from a life and career stage perspective: The role of demands and resources

Work–family conflict and enrichment are experiences that occur daily and have substantial consequences for employees, their families, and the organizations that employ them. The aim of the current review is to make a link between life and career stage, work and family conditions, and the work–family interface. The basic proposition is that life stages partly determine career development, and consequently the specific working conditions (job demands and job resources) and family conditions (family demands and family resources) that individuals are exposed to. As a result, the specific demands and resources in the work and family domains determine to what extent individuals experience that work and family are conflicting or enriching life domains. In this review we suggest that individuals in early adulthood will experience high inter‐role conflict and low facilitation due to high demands and low resources in both life domains, while individuals in late adulthood will experience the opposite pattern; that is, low conflict and high facilitation due to low demands and high resources in both domains. Individuals in middle adulthood will experience high work–family conflict but also high family–work facilitation due to the presence of high job demands and resources in both life domains. Integrating life and career stage perspectives and the experience of work–family interface is of notable practical utility because it provides a mechanism to make more informed decisions about the relative need for and corresponding benefits of work–family programs.     

What aspects of face processing are impaired in developmental prosopagnosia?

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a severe impairment in identifying faces that is present from early in life and that occurs despite no apparent brain damage and intact visual and intellectual function. Here, we investigated what aspects of face processing are impaired/spared in developmental prosopagnosia by examining a relatively large group of individuals with DP (n = 8) using an extensive battery of well-established tasks. The tasks included measures of sensitivity to global motion and to global form, detection that a stimulus is a face, determination of its sex, holistic face processing, processing of face identity based on features, contour, and the spacing of features, and judgments of attractiveness. The DP cases showed normal sensitivity to global motion and global form and performed normally on our tests of face detection and holistic processing. On the other tasks, many DP cases were impaired but there was no systematic pattern. At least half showed deficits in processing of facial identity based on either the outer contour or spacing of the internal features, and/or on judgments of attractiveness. Three of the eight were impaired in processing facial identify based on the shape of internal features. The results show that DP is a heterogeneous condition and that impairment in recognizing faces cannot be predicted by poor performance on any one measure of face processing.     

Testing the Biobehavioral Family Model in pediatric asthma: pathways of effect

This study uses a laboratory-based multiinformant, multimethod approach to test the hypothesis that a negative family emotional climate (NFEC) contributes to asthma disease severity by way of child depressive symptoms, and that parent-child relational insecurity mediates the effect. Children with asthma (n = 199; aged 7-17; 55% male) reported parental conflict, parent-child relational security, and depressive symptoms. Parent(s) reported demographics, asthma history, and symptoms. Asthma diagnosis was confirmed by clinical evaluation and pulmonary function tests, with disease severity rated by an asthma clinician according to NHLBI guidelines. Family interactions were evoked using the Family Process Assessment Protocol, and rated using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. Path analysis indicated a good fit of data to the hypothesized model (chi2[1] = .11, p =.74, NFI = .99, RMSEA = .00). Observed NFEC predicted child depression (beta = .19, p < .01), which predicted asthma disease severity beta = .23, p < .01). Relational security inversely predicted depressive symptoms (p = -.40, p < .001), and was not a mediator as predicted, but rather an independent contributor. The findings are consistent with the Biobehavioral Family Model, which suggests a psychobiologic influence of specific family relational processes on asthma disease severity by way of child depressive symptoms.     

Review of Family Relational Stress and Pediatric Asthma: The Value of Biopsychosocial Systemic Models

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children. Despite dramatic advances in pharmacological treatments, asthma remains a leading public health problem, especially in socially disadvantaged minority populations. Some experts believe that this health gap is due to the failure to address the impact of stress on the disease. Asthma is a complex disease that is influenced by multilevel factors, but the nature of these factors and their interrelations are not well understood. This paper aims to integrate social, psychological, and biological literatures on relations between family/parental stress and pediatric asthma, and to illustrate the utility of multilevel systemic models for guiding treatment and stimulating future research. We used electronic database searches and conducted an integrated analysis of selected epidemiological, longitudinal, and empirical studies. Evidence is substantial for the effects of family/parental stress on asthma mediated by both disease management and psychobiological stress pathways. However, integrative models containing specific pathways are scarce. We present two multilevel models, with supporting data, as potential prototypes for other such models. We conclude that these multilevel systems models may be of substantial heuristic value in organizing investigations of, and clinical approaches to, the complex social–biological aspects of family stress in pediatric asthma. However, additional systemic models are needed, and the models presented herein could serve as prototypes for model development.