What are theories for? Concept use throughout the continuum of dinosaur expertise

Although it is now well established that object concepts are situated within broader systems of theoretical knowledge, it is less clear how theories influence the use of object concepts at various points throughout the continuum of expertise. Two studies were conducted to investigate the impact of specific theories (concerning dinosaurs) and overarching framework theories (of biology) on children's and adults' performance on categorization tasks involving familiar and less familiar concepts. Although expertise increased the quantity of deep feature knowledge possessed by children and increased their understanding of biologically adaptive relations among features, few aspects of children's performance generalized beyond highly familiar dinosaurs. Children's specific theories related to dinosaurs were empirically constrained and relatively dissociated from other types of biological knowledge. The interaction of specific concept knowledge with broader framework theories of biology throughout the continuum of expertise is considered.     

Reanalysis and perspective in the heat--aggression debate

B. J. Bushman, M. C. Wang, and C. A. Anderson argued that a reanalysis of E. G. Cohn and J. Rotton's Minneapolis data shows no inverted-U curvilinear relationship between temperature and aggression. Although B. J. Bushman et al.'s claim of no general inverted-U trend in the data might well be supported statistically, more careful examination of the subset of the data most likely to include the hottest temperatures in the study may offer at least some support for the inverted-U relationship. Aggregating data to describe a general trend minimizes the influence of outliers that may reflect alternative relationships, and such alternatives may be important practically and theoretically.     

Parenting Competency Across Pregnancy and Postpartum Among Urban Minority Women

Taking a life-course perspective, we explored the sense of parenting efficacy during the pregnancy-postpartum transition among a group under-represented in much of adult developmental research, minority women. Our intent was to describe the women's report of parenting competency in a major life transition occurring within the context of an impoverished urban environment. We also explored associations with depression, social support, and life events. One hundred and eighty-two African-American and Hispanic mothers at community health centers in low-income urban areas completed measures early in the third trimester and again at 3 months postpartum. Across time, the levels of reported parental efficacy and satisfaction increased while depressive symptoms decreased. Negative life events and levels of depressive symptomatology differentially influenced women's experience of parenting satisfaction and efficacy feelings before and after their babies were born.     

"I want to read stuff on boys": white,Latina, and black girls reading seventeen magazine and encountering adolescence

This study is based on interviews with four focus groups consisting of fourteen white, Latina, and black girls, ages 13 to 16 years, from diverse backgrounds. The objectives of the study are to gain insight into what forum girls use to learn about the adolescent experience and to examine teenage girls' views of their sexuality and femininity. The girls' discussion of their lives and perceptions of the teen magazine Seventeen reveal a displacement of female sexuality. The magazine's message to teenage girls of gaining self-worth through emphasized femininity seems to resonate with these girls regardless of class and race. We conclude that responsible adults need to challenge the distorted media images of adolescent development and teenage girls' sexuality.     

Children's face recognition memory: more evidence for the cross-race effect

It is well established that own-race faces are recognized more accurately than cross-race faces. However, there are mixed results regarding the developmental consistency of the cross-race effect White and Black kindergarten children, 3rd graders, and young adults viewed a Black and a White target individual. One day later, recognition memory for each target was tested with a 6-person lineup. The interaction of race of participant by race of target face on Ag scores was significant, demonstrating an overall cross-race effect. The 2nd-order interaction with age did not approach significance; for each age group, own-race identification was more accurate than cross-race identification. The age consistency of the cross-race effect in light of the significant main effect of age suggests quantitative but not qualitative differences in face memory processing at various ages. For children, as well as adults, own-race faces are recognized more accurately than cross-race faces.     

Effectiveness of training in organizations: a meta-analysis of design and evaluation features

The authors used meta-analytic procedures to examine the relationship between specified training design and evaluation features and the effectiveness of training in organizations. Results of the meta-analysis revealed training effectiveness sample-weighted mean ds of 0.60 (k = 15, N = 936) for reaction criteria, 0.63 (k = 234, N = 15,014) for learning criteria, 0.62 (k = 122, N = 15,627) for behavioral criteria, and 0.62 (k = 26, N = 1,748) for results criteria. These results suggest a medium to large effect size for organizational training. In addition, the training method used, the skill or task characteristic trained, and the choice of evaluation criteria were related to the effectiveness of training programs. Limitations of the study along with suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder

Exposure with response prevention and cognitive behavior therapy are widely recognized as effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Unfortunately, many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder--particularly those living in rural areas--do not have access to therapists providing these treatments. Accordingly, we investigated the efficacy of telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Two open trials are reported, for a total of 33 people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (without major depression). The first trial consisted of 12 weeks on a waiting list followed by 12 weeks of treatment (delayed treatment). The second trial consisted of 12 weeks of immediate treatment. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms did not change during the waiting period. Symptoms declined from pre- to post-treatment, with gains maintained at 12-week follow-up. For the pooled sample our pre-to-post-treatment effect size was as large or larger than those obtained in other studies of reduced contact treatment, and similar to those of face-to-face exposure with response prevention. Our proportion of treatment dropouts tended to be lower than those of other reduced contact interventions. The results suggest that telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy is effective and well-tolerated, at least for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder without major depression. It remains to be seen whether this treatment is safe and effective when comorbid major depression is present.     

Choice, contingency discrimination, and foraging theory

Four pigeons were trained on eight or nine pairs of independent concurrent variable-interval schedules. The range of reinforcement ratios included extreme ratios (up to 532 to 1). Large samples of stable performance were gathered. Contrary to the findings of Davison and Jones (1995), the generalized matching law described choice more accurately than a contingency-discriminability model. Taking small samples (5 to 10 sessions) and applying a more liberal stability criterion used by Davison and Jones only increased the unsystematic variance in the data and in estimates of generalized-matching-law sensitivity. Because changing to dependent scheduling and inserting a changeover delay had no systematic effect, the deviations from generalized matching reported by Davison and Jones probably arose from imperfectly discriminated stimuli. Analysis of visits revealed that visits to the nonpreferred alternative were brief and approximately constant. When choice between the preferred (rich) and nonpreferred (lean) alternatives, regardless of position, was analyzed according to the generalized matching law, sensitivities approximated 1.0, with bias in favor of the lean alternative. This bias, which arose from an excessive frequency of visits to the lean alternative, explains undermatching as the result of fitting one line to a choice relation that consists of two displaced lines, both with a slope of 1.0. The pattern of deviation from the generalized matching line confirmed this account. The findings suggest an alternative analysis of choice that focuses on probability of visiting the lean alternative as the dependent variable. This probability was directly proportional to ratio of reinforcement. Matching, undermatching, and overmatching may all be explained by a view of concurrent performance based on foraging theory, in which responding occurs primarily at the rich alternative and is occasionally interrupted by brief visits to the lean alternative.     

Multipotentiality,Giftedness, and Career Choice: A Review

The giftedness and career-choice literatures have traditionally spoken in different terms about the same phenomenon, multipotentiality. Multipotentialed individuals have numerous and diverse abilities and interests. Appropriate interventions are necessary to help them cope successfully with the abundance of career choices available to them. This review links the giftedness and career-choice literatures through a discussion of the concept of multipotentiality and explores ensuing practical implications and challenges to the overall idea.