The modulation of reward priority by top-down knowledge

Reward-associated features capture attention automatically and continue to do so even when the reward contingencies are removed. This profile has led to the hypothesis that rewards belong to a separate class of attentional biases that is neither typically top-down nor bottom-up. The goal of these experiments was to understand the degree to which top-down knowledge can modulate value-driven attentional capture within (a) the timecourse of a single trial and (b) when the reward contingencies change explicitly over trials. The results suggested that top-down knowledge does not affect the size of value-driven attentional capture within a single trial. There were clear top-down modulations in the magnitude of value-driven capture when reward contingencies explicitly changed, but the original reward associations continued to have a persistent bias on attention. These results contribute to a growing body of evidence that reward associations bias attention through mechanisms separate from other top-down and bottom-up attentional biases.     

Links between family gender socialization experiences in childhood and gendered occupational attainment in young adulthood

Gendered occupational segregation remains prevalent across the world. Although research has examined factors contributing to the low number of women in male-typed occupations – namely science, technology, engineering, and math – little longitudinal research has examined the role of childhood experiences in both young women's and men's later gendered occupational attainment. This study addressed this gap in the literature by examining family gender socialization experiences in middle childhood – namely parents' attitudes and work and family life – as contributors to the gender typicality of occupational attainment in young adulthood. Using data collected from mothers, fathers, and children over approximately 15 years, the results revealed that the associations between childhood socialization experiences (~ 10 years old) and occupational attainment (~ 26 years old) depended on the sex of the child. For sons but not daughters, mothers' more traditional attitudes toward women's roles predicted attaining more gender-typed occupations. In addition, spending more time with fathers in childhood predicted daughters attaining less and sons acquiring more gender-typed occupations in young adulthood. Overall, evidence supports the idea that childhood socialization experiences help to shape individuals' career attainment and thus contribute to gender segregation in the labor market.     

An interpersonal perspective on depression: the role of marital adjustment, conflict communication, attributions, and attachment within a clinical sample

Previous studies have focused on the difficulties in psychosocial functioning in depressed persons, underscoring the distress experienced by both spouses. We selected conflict communication, attribution, and attachment as important domains of depression in the context of marital adjustment, and we analyzed two hypotheses in one single study. First, we analyzed whether a clinical sample of couples with a depressed patient would differ significantly from a control group on these variables. Second, we explored to what degree these variables mediate/moderate the relationship between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment. The perspectives of both spouses were taken into account, as well as gender differences. In total, 69 clinical and 69 control couples were recruited, and a series of multivariate analyses of variance and regression analyses were conducted to test both hypotheses. Results indicated that both patients and their partners reported less marital adjustment associated with more negative perceptions on conflict communication, causal attributions, and insecure attachment. In addition, conflict communication and causal attributions were significant mediators of the association between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment for both depressed men and women, and causal attributions also moderated this link. Ambivalent attachment was a significant mediator only for the female identified patients. Several sex differences and clinical implications are discussed.     

“Sleeper effects” in development: Fact or artifact?

The evolution of the concept of “sleeper effects” is traced from the work of J. Kagan and H. A. Moss (Birth to Maturity. New York: Wiley, 1962) to the present time. The phenomenon was originally inferred, without cross-validation, in the domain of personality, from correlations with early events which were stronger late in development than earlier. More recently it has been extended to account for long-term attainment differences associated with the presence or absence of preschool intervention. It seems possible that the original evidence may have capitalized upon chance fluctuations of few among many correlations. What is more certain, however, is that as currently used the term is imprecise, usually unjustified, and irrelevant to the supposed later effects of brief early intervention.