Lexical processing in children and adults during word copying

Copying text may seem trivial, but the task itself is psychologically complex. It involves a series of sequential visual and cognitive processes, which must be co-ordinated; these include visual encoding, mental representation and written production. To investigate the time course of word processing during copying, we recorded eye movements of adults and children as they hand-copied isolated words presented on a classroom board. Longer and lower frequency words extended adults' encoding durations, suggesting whole word encoding. Only children's short word encoding was extended by lower frequency. Though children spent more time encoding long words compared to short words, gaze durations for long words were extended similarly for high- and low-frequency words. This suggested that for long words children used partial word representations and encoded multiple sublexical units rather than single whole words. Piecemeal word representation underpinned copying longer words in children, but reliance on partial word representations was not shown in adult readers.     

Assessment of Historical Analysis and Argumentation (AHAA): A New Measure of Document-Based Historical Thinking

Abstract

A troubling gap exists between the current state of history assessment and the knowledge and skills deemed essential for students to thrive in the 21st century. We propose a new assessment of historical thinking that represents a promising alignment with extant cognitive research, as well as with the practices that undergird the discipline. In this article, we discuss the design of the Assessment of Historical Analysis and Argumentation (AHAA), as well as the accompanying scoring rubric, and report findings from our administration of multiple forms of the exam with secondary students (N?=?618). Evidence indicates that the exam captured student historical thinking about documents and that the items prompted students to construct a cognitive representation of intertextual reasoning. Given the dearth of assessments that capture student historical thinking about documents and their understanding of content, we believe the AHAA has the potential to be an important instructional resource.     

Pushing Up on the Glass Ceiling of Female Muscularity: Women’s Bodybuilding as Edgework

Women bodybuilders exemplify gendered deviance and risk a social stigma on top of the physical risk of partaking in this demanding sport. In the current study, we utilize Stephen Lyng’s (1990, 2005) theoretical concept of “edgework” to understand what motivates women bodybuilders to engage in this high-risk behavior. Our qualitative analysis of 29 women bodybuilders' responses to open-ended survey questions reveals that the three components of edgework (activity, skill, and sensation) are evident in their training and dietary regimens. Overall, this study offers an important theoretical contribution to the study of women’s bodybuilding while also extending Lyng’s edgework model to this understudied phenomenon.     

Self‐Favoring Bias for Physical Activity in Middle‐Aged and Older Adults1

A self‐favoring bias for physical activity (PA) was examined in a community‐based sample of middle‐aged and older adults (N= 3,211). Participants' actual level of PA relative to peers was compared with their perceived PA relative to peers. It was estimated that 38% were realistic, 46% self‐favoring, and 16% other‐favoring in their perceptions. Among participants whose actual PA level was similar to peers, increasing age was associated with a self‐favoring bias. Among less and more physically active participants, however, age was not associated with this bias. Better self‐rated health and being male were also associated with a self‐favoring bias. These results suggest that a self‐favoring bias for PA exists in a significant proportion of middle‐aged and older adults, and it is more pronounced with increasing age, among those with better self‐rated health, and among men.     

Parents’ Reports of Children’s Internalizing Symptoms: Associations with Parents’ Mental Health Symptoms and Substance Use Disorder

This brief report examined the unique associations between parents’ ratings of child internalizing symptoms and their own depression and anxiety in families with parental substance use disorder (SUD). Further, we examined whether parental SUD (father only, mother only, both parents) was related to discrepancy in mothers’ and fathers’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms. Participants were 97 triads (fathers, mothers) in which one or both parents met criteria for SUD. Polynomial regression analyses were conducted to examine whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ own symptoms of depression and anxiety while controlling for child gender, child age, and SUD diagnoses. Controlling for fathers’ symptoms and other covariates, mothers experiencing more depression and anxiety symptoms reported more symptoms of child internalizing symptoms than did fathers. Mothers’ and fathers’ SUD was associated with higher anxiety symptoms among mothers after controlling for other variables. A second set of polynomial regressions examined whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ SUD diagnoses while controlling for child gender and child age. After controlling for mothers’ symptoms and other covariates, parents’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms were not significantly associated with either parent’s SUD or parental SUD interactions (i.e., both parents have SUD diagnoses). Taken together, mothers’ ratings of children’s internalizing symptoms may be accounted for, in part, by her reports of depression and anxiety symptoms.     

Doing Theodicy: An Empirical Study of a Women's Prayer Group

The study of a weekly women's prayer group in a small northern English town discusses how participants resolve tensions which may arise from unanswered prayer. The most important mechanism in that process is the informal ‘chatting’ which precedes the period of formal prayer. The author concludes that women actively conduct a ‘ritual of theodicy’ to rescue their worldview from chaos. The participants maintain that they are directed by God's wisdom, not by their own actions.     

Cultural intersections: a qualitative inquiry into the experience of Asian Indian-White interracial couples

The purpose of this study was to examine the "lived experience" of Asian Indian (AI)-White couples in interracial marriages. Ten highly educated AI-White professional couples were individually interviewed about their subjective experience of being in an interracial marriage, the challenges and strengths of this marriage, and the potential role of culture in their marriages. Data were analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research methodology. Results indicated that the couples' marital experiences were influenced by a complex intersection of ecosystemic factors with significant psychological impacts. These findings highlight shortcomings in drawing simplistic conclusions regarding the success or failure of an interracial marriage and have important implications for theory, research, and clinical practice.