Regulation of memory accuracy with multiple answers: the plurality option

We report two experiments that investigated the regulation of memory accuracy with a new regulatory mechanism: the plurality option. This mechanism is closely related to the grain-size option but involves control over the number of alternatives contained in an answer rather than the quantitative boundaries of a single answer. Participants were presented with a slideshow depicting a robbery (Experiment 1) or a murder (Experiment 2), and their memory was tested with five-alternative multiple-choice questions. For each question, participants were asked to generate two answers: a single answer consisting of one alternative and a plural answer consisting of the single answer and two other alternatives. Each answer was rated for confidence (Experiment 1) or for the likelihood of being correct (Experiment 2), and one of the answers was selected for reporting. Results showed that participants used the plurality option to regulate accuracy, selecting single answers when their accuracy and confidence were high, but opting for plural answers when they were low. Although accuracy was higher for selected plural than for selected single answers, the opposite pattern was evident for confidence or likelihood ratings. This dissociation between confidence and accuracy for selected answers was the result of marked overconfidence in single answers coupled with underconfidence in plural answers. We hypothesize that these results can be attributed to overly dichotomous metacognitive beliefs about personal knowledge states that cause subjective confidence to be extreme.     

Psychometric analysis of the Catalan version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) in a community sample

The aim of this study was to adapt to Catalan the parents' and children's global report forms of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ), using a community sample of 364 children between 10 and 15 years old and their families. Sociodemographic information (from parents) and the presence of externalizing problems (from parents and teachers) were collected. The results suggest a 3-factor structure corresponding to the scales of Positive Parenting Practices (PPP), Inconsistent and Negative Discipline (IND) and Poor Monitoring/Supervision (PMS). The internal consistency is acceptable in all the scales, except for the IND in the children's format. The scales also present good convergent and discriminant validity, and the relations with the external variable studied pointed in the expected direction: inefficient parenting practices are related to the presence of more behavior problems in children. To sum up, the Catalan version of the parents' and children's global report forms of the APQ are considered suitable for use in the area of children's and adolescents' behavior problems.     

Development and validation of a questionnaire about the main variables affecting the individual investor's behavior in the Stock Exchange

Development and validation of a questionnaire about the main variables affecting the individual investor's behavior in the Stock Exchange. There is a considerable lack of information about the methodology usually used in most of the studies about individual investor's behavior. The studies reviewed do not show the method used in the selection of the items or the psychometric properties of the questionnaires. Because of the importance of investment in the Stock Exchange nowadays, it seems relevant to obtain a reliable instrument to understand individual investor's behavior in the Stock Exchange. Therefore, the goal of the present work is to validate a questionnaire about the main variables involved in individual investors' behavior in the Stock Exchange. Based on previous studies, we elaborated a questionnaire using the Delphi methodology with a group of experts. The internal consistency (Cronbach alpha=.934) and validity evidence of the questionnaire show that it may be an effective instrument and can be applied with some assurance.     

Psychometric properties of an instrument for assessing cyber-sex addiction

Psychometric properties of an instrument for assessing cyber-sex addiction. Cyber-sex addiction is a ?new pathology? whose prevalence has grown rapidly in recent years. Therefore, it is important to have validated assessment instruments. The aim of this study was the adaptation and validation of the Internet Sex Screening Test (ISST) for its use in a Spanish population. The instrument was administered to 1239 Spanish college students. The results yielded five components that account for 47.5% of the variance. Internal consistency was .88 and temporal stability was .84. Moreover, the instrument had adequate convergent and discriminant validity and was related to other behaviors such as the use of pornography, internet addiction, number of hours online and sexual frequency. Therefore, this tool is proposed as an appropriate measure to assess cyber-sex addiction.     

Maternal anxiety and depression and development of prematurely born infants in the first year of life

The purpose of this study was: (a) to assess and to compare anxiety and depression symptoms in mothers of preterm neonates during hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, after discharge, and at the end of the infants' first year of life; and (b) to assess the child's development at 12 months of chronological corrected age (CCA). Thirty-six mothers, with no psychiatric antecedents assessed with the SCID-NP, were evaluated by STAI and BDI. The infants were assessed with Bayley-II Scales. There was a significant decrease in clinical symptoms of state-anxiety in mothers (p = .008), comparing the period during hospitalization and after discharge of the infants. Clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression were observed in 20% of the mothers at the end of the infants' first year of age. The majority of the infants exhibited normal development on Bayley-II at 12 months CCA; however, 25% of the infants displayed cognitive problems and 40% motor problems. The mothers' anxiety and depression symptoms decreased at the end of the first year of life of the pre-term infants and the children showed predominately normal development at this phase.     

Maternal concepts and expectations regarding a preterm infant

The objective of the present study was: (a) to identify the concerns, verbally expressed, of 50 mothers regarding their preterm infants (PT) and then compare their verbal expression with those of 25 mothers of full-term infants (FT); and (b) to correlate the mothers' verbal expressions with maternal and infant variables. The following instruments were used to compose and characterize the sample: Structure Clinical Interview for DSM III-R Non-Patient (SCID/NP), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and medical charts. Results showed that there was no difference between groups in term of mothers' expectations and conceptualizations; both groups exhibited predominantly positive expectations and concepts. In comparison with FT mothers, PT mothers verbally expressed more feelings and reactions predominantly negative or conflicting in relation to infant birth. Higher levels of maternal anxiety and depression in the PT Group were correlated with more verbal expressions about negative or conflicting emotions. In addition, lower birth weight, higher neonatal risk and longer length of stay in intensive care nursery of the infants were related with more negative or conflicting concepts by the mothers.     

A Spanish adaptation of the Parental Stress Scale

As a specific measure to assess levels of parental stress is lacking in Spain, the aim of this study was to develop the Spanish version of the Parental Stress Scale (PSS). After translating it from English into Spanish using the forward-backward translation method, it was administered to a sample of 211 first-time parents (105 males and 106 females). A factor analysis was carried out to assess its dimensionality. After refining the scale, we obtained a two-factor solution that accounted for 33.5% of the variance, with the factors Stressors and Parenting Rewards. No gender differences were found either in the scale or in the dimensions. Criterion-related validity was tested by means of correlations with anxiety and depressive symptoms and, with regard to internal consistency, adequate alpha coefficients were obtained for both factors.     

Thinking extreme social violence: The model of the literary plague

The author uses literary plagues as a model for thinking psychoanalytically about the basic anxieties activated among perpetrators of sanctioned massacres. The model of the plague allows abstracting an underlying primitive psychological organization characterized by syncretism and a powerful anxiety of de-differentiation and confusion, leading characteristically to imitative behavior within the in-group as well as to the disavowal of the out-group members similarities to oneself, i.e. the disavowal of the other's humanity. Recognizing the historical and social foundations of discrimination and genocide, the author analyzes the interaction between group and individual processes that allow ordinary people to join daily acts of immoral violence. She dramatizes the model of the plague through a psychoanalytic reading of three literary plagues: Thebes' plague according to Sophocles, Camus's chronicle of the plague in Oran, and Saramago's meditation on the plague of white blindness.     

The Elusive Nature of Executive Functions: A Review of our Current Understanding

Executive functions include abilities of goal formation, planning, carrying out goal-directed plans, and effective performance. This article aims at reviewing some of the current knowledge surrounding executive functioning and presenting the contrasting views regarding this concept. The neural substrates of the executive system are examined as well as the evolution of executive functioning, from development to decline. There is clear evidence of the vulnerability of executive functions to the effects of age over lifespan. The first executive function to emerge in children is the ability to inhibit overlearned behavior and the last to appear is verbal fluency. Inhibition of irrelevant information seems to decline earlier than set shifting and verbal fluency during senescence. The sequential progression and decline of these functions has been paralleled with the anatomical changes of the frontal lobe and its connections with other brain areas. Generalization of the results presented here are limited due to methodological differences across studies. Analysis of these differences is presented and suggestions for future research are offered.