The modulating influence of category size on the classification of exception patterns

Generalization gradients to exception patterns and the category prototype were investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants first learned categories of large size that contained a single exception pattern, followed by a transfer test containing new instances that had a manipulated similarity relationship to the exception or a nonexception training pattern as well as distortions of the prototype. The results demonstrated transfer gradients tracked the prototype category rather than the feedback category of the exception category. In Experiment 2, transfer performance was investigated for categories varying in size (5, 10, 20), partially crossed with the number of exception patterns (1, 2, 4). Here, the generalization gradients tracked the feedback category of the training instance when category size was small but tracked the prototype category when category size was large. The benefits of increased category size still emerged, even with proportionality of exception patterns held constant. These, and other outcomes, were consistent with a mixed model of classification, in which exemplar influences were dominant with small-sized categories and/or high error rates, and prototype influences were dominant with larger sized categories.     

Do Parents’ Adverse Childhood Experiences Influence Treatment Responses to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy? An exploratory Study with a Child Welfare Sample

This exploratory study of 23 parent–child dyads receiving child welfare services examined the association between the number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) parents reported and their children’s externalizing behaviors. We also assessed whether the effects of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) on externalizing behaviors varied by parents’ ACE histories. Results indicated that parents’ ACE scores were associated with child externalizing symptoms at baseline, but not at a second postbaseline assessment. Although all parents reported reductions in child externalizing behavior from baseline to postbaseline, only reductions reported by parents with four or more ACEs were statistically significant. Implications for implementing PCIT with trauma-exposed families are discussed.     

Group structure and entitativity in group fitness: considering groupness at within- and between-group levels

Objective: How can we distinguish between a collection of individuals exercising alongside one another from group that is exercising ‘together’? This question is central to research on the extent that individuals perceive their fitness settings to entail core features of groups. To advance understanding of the nature of groupness and its implications in exercise, the current study (a) evaluated a brief measure of groupness and (b) examined the extent that groupness predicted perceptions of exertion and affect.

Design: Participants included 633 exercisers (M_age?=?33.92, SD?=?11.05, 74% female) who completed surveys after group fitness classes (k?=?34).

Main outcome measures: Groupness, affect, exertion, and group cohesion.

Results: Exploratory structural equation modelling provided support for a two-factor solution reflecting entitativity and group structure as subdimensions of groupness. The groupness factors were differentially associated with theoretically relevant aspects of classes (e.g. synchronised movement), the individual (e.g. number of members interacted with), as well as group cohesion. Groupness also predicted perceived exertion and affect.

Conclusion: Our research provides support for a brief measure of groupness, advances theory related to how individuals perceive exercise groups, and provides evidence regarding how broader experiences during exercise may relate to exercisers’ perceptions of groupness.     

Expanding the criterion domain? A quantitative review of the OCB literature

The authors investigate the construct validity of the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)-task performance distinction by providing a quantitative review of the OCB literature. The authors extend previous meta-analytic reviews of the OCB literature by (a) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to investigate the dimensionality of OCB, (b) using CFA to examine the distinction between OCB and task performance, and (c) examining the relationship between a latent OCB factor and task performance and attitudinal variables. Results support a single factor model of OCB that is distinct from, albeit strongly related to, task performance. In addition, results show that OCB consistently relates more strongly to attitudes than does task performance and shares a modest amount of variance with attitudinal correlates beyond task performance.     

Learning is impaired by activated intentions

Two experiments examined the task interference that sometimes accrues from having an intention. In standard prospective memory tasks, latency is often slower to an ongoing task performed concurrently with having an intention than it is when no intention is given. If the locus of this slowing resulted from different attentional allocation policies in the two cases, we predicted that the process of learning a word list would be impaired if participants had an intention rather than if they did not. Four different event-based prospective memory tasks were used in Experiment 1 to demonstrate that worse free recall of a word list resulted when studied with a concurrent intention than with a control condition that had no intention. In that experiment, linking an intention to a distal context that was to occur after learning did not impair free recall. Two time-based tasks were used in Experiment 2 to demonstrate that possessing a time-based prospective memory also hinders learning, unless the intention is linked to a future context that is expected to occur after the study session. In the latter case, no impairment was obtained.     

Relation of birth weight, maternal intelligence and mother–child interactions to cognitive and play competence of Jamaican two-year old children

The present study assessed whether birth weight, maternal child rearing behaviors, and maternal intelligence combine in an additive or in a non-linear interactive fashion to influence cognitive performance in a sample of 24-month old full-term appropriate and low birth weight Jamaican children. Child cognitive performance was measured using the Griffiths Scale and a laboratory based assessment of the amount of time the child utilized different levels of play behavior. Mothers were videotaped while playing with their children under different instructional conditions and videotapes were coded for 8 maternal interaction patterns. Maternal verbal intelligence was assessed using the PPVT. Results supported the operation of both additive co-action as well as non-linear interactive processes. Birth weight, maternal behaviors toward her child and maternal intelligence predicted child cognitive performance. In addition, low birth weight infants were either less sensitive to facilitative aspects of maternal behaviors and/or more sensitive to maternal inhibitory behaviors than were appropriate birth weight infants. Further, child rearing behaviors of more intelligent mothers were a stronger influence on their child's cognitive performance than those of less intelligent mothers, even when there were no differences in the level of behaviors of more or less intelligent mothers.     

Social anxiety in older adults: phenomenology, prevalence, and measurement

Although phobias represent the most common anxiety disorders among the elderly, little is known about their social nature. The present study provides information about the prevalence, measurement, and phenomenology of social anxiety in older adults (n = 283) and compares results to those of younger adults (n = 318). Analyses revealed that social anxiety is less prevalent in old age than it is within younger cohorts and is associated with different symptomatology. The psychopathological profile of those who reach clinical levels of social anxiety is however similar, irrespective of age. Results regarding the psychometric properties of the SPAI when used for the elderly were promising, but the questionnaire appears to be difficult for some older adults to complete. Results are discussed in terms of explanations for age differences in social anxiety, initial psychometrics of the SPAI in an older adult sample, and suggestions for future research.     

The influence of Afrocentric facial features in criminal sentencing

Prior research has shown that within a racial category, people with more Afrocentric facial features are presumed more likely to have traits that are stereotypic of Black Americans compared with people with less Afrocentric features. The present study investigated whether this form of feature-based stereotyping might be observed in criminal-sentencing decisions. Analysis of a random sample of inmate records showed that Black and White inmates, given equivalent criminal histories, received roughly equivalent sentences. However, within each race, inmates with more Afrocentric features received harsher sentences than those with less Afrocentric features. These results are consistent with laboratory findings, and they suggest that although racial stereotyping as a function of racial category has been successfully removed from sentencing decisions, racial stereotyping based on the facial features of the offender is a form of bias that is largely overlooked.     

How similar are fluid cognition and general intelligence? A developmental neuroscience perspective on fluid cognition as an aspect of human cognitive ability

This target article considers the relation of fluid cognitive functioning to general intelligence. A neurobiological model differentiating working memory/executive function cognitive processes of the prefrontal cortex from aspects of psychometrically defined general intelligence is presented. Work examining the rise in mean intelligence-test performance between normative cohorts, the neuropsychology and neuroscience of cognitive function in typically and atypically developing human populations, and stress, brain development, and corticolimbic connectivity in human and nonhuman animal models is reviewed and found to provide evidence of mechanisms through which early experience affects the development of an aspect of cognition closely related to, but distinct from, general intelligence. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of emotion in fluid cognition and on research indicating fluid cognitive deficits associated with early hippocampal pathology and with dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress-response system. Findings are seen to be consistent with the idea of an independent fluid cognitive construct and to assist with the interpretation of findings from the study of early compensatory education for children facing psychosocial adversity and from behavior genetic research on intelligence. It is concluded that ongoing development of neurobiologically grounded measures of fluid cognitive skills appropriate for young children will play a key role in understanding early mental development and the adaptive success to which it is related, particularly for young children facing social and economic disadvantage. Specifically, in the evaluation of the efficacy of compensatory education efforts such as Head Start and the readiness for school of children from diverse backgrounds, it is important to distinguish fluid cognition from psychometrically defined general intelligence.