Creating partially deleted objects for perception research

Line drawings are commonly used in perception research. A basic strategy used in such research is to remove portions of the line drawings in order to determine what features of an object are important for recognition. However, it is important to monitor the amount of contour and type of information that are deleted when one is making partially deleted or fragmented objects. With the Image Fragmenting Program, researchers can use random or manual contour deletion strategies to create fragmented objects while controlling for the amount of contour removed from the images.     

Reexamining the vocabulary spurt

The authors asked whether there is evidence to support the existence of the vocabulary spurt, an increase in the rate of word learning that is thought to occur during the 2nd year of life. Using longitudinal data from 38 children, they modeled the rate of word learning with two functions, one with an inflection point (logistic), which would indicate a spurt, and one without an inflection point (quadratic). Comparing the fits of these two functions using likelihood ratios, they found that just 5 children had a better logistic fit, which indicated that these children underwent a spurt. The implications for theories of cognitive and language development are considered.     

Low self-esteem is related to aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency

The present research explored the controversial link between global self-esteem and externalizing problems such as aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency. In three studies, we found a robust relation between low self-esteem and externalizing problems. This relation held for measures of self-esteem and externalizing problems based on self-report, teachers' ratings, and parents' ratings, and for participants from different nationalities (United States and New Zealand) and age groups (adolescents and college students). Moreover, this relation held both cross-sectionally and longitudinally and after controlling for potential confounding variables such as supportive parenting, parent-child and peer relationships, achievement-test scores, socioeconomic status, and IQ. In addition, the effect of self-esteem on aggression was independent of narcissism, an important finding given recent claims that individuals who are narcissistic, not low in self-esteem, are aggressive. Discussion focuses on clarifying the relations among self-esteem, narcissism, and externalizing problems.     

The stability of vocational interests from early adolescence to middle adulthood: a quantitative review of longitudinal studies

The present meta-analysis examined the stability of vocational interests from early adolescence (age 12) to middle adulthood (age 40). Stability was represented by rank-order and profile correlations. Interest stability remained unchanged during much of adolescence and increased dramatically during the college years (age 18-21.9), where it remained for the next 2 decades. Analyses of potential moderators showed that retest time interval was negatively related to interest stability and that rank-order stability was less stable than profile stability. Although cohort standings did not moderate stability, interests of the 1940s birth cohort were less stable than those of other cohorts. Furthermore, interests reflecting hands-on physical activities and self-expressive/artistic activities were more stable than scientific, social, enterprising, and clerical interests. Vocational interests showed substantial continuity over time, as evidenced by their higher longitudinal stability when compared with rank-order stability of personality traits. The findings are discussed in the context of psychosocial development.     

Patterns of continuity: a dynamic model for conceptualizing the stability of individual differences in psychological constructs across the life course

In contemporary psychology there is debate over whether individual differences in psychological constructs are stable over extended periods of time. The authors argue that it is impossible to resolve such debates unless researchers focus on patterns of stability and the developmental mechanisms that may give rise to them. To facilitate this shift in emphasis, they describe a formal model that integrates 3 developmental processes: stochastic-contextual processes, person-environment transactions, and developmental constancies. The theoretical and mathematical analyses indicate that this model makes novel predictions about the way in which test-retest correlations are structured across a wide range of ages and test-retest intervals. The authors illustrate the utility of the model by comparing its predictions against meta-analytic data on Neuroticism. The discussion emphasizes the value of focusing on patterns of continuity, not only as phenomena to be explained but as data capable of clarifying the developmental processes underlying stability and change for a variety of psychological constructs.     

Gender differences in predictors of suicidal thoughts and attempts among homeless veterans that abuse substances

This study of 315 male and 310 female homeless military veterans in a V.A. inpatient program designed to treat substance abusers, many of whom also suffer psychiatric disorders, was designed to examine gender differences in factors associated with the odds of having suicidal thoughts, and of attempting suicide, in comparison to being nonsuicidal. A maximum likelihood estimation multinomial logistic regression showed childhood and current sexual and physical abuses, depression, fearfulness, relationship problems, limited social support, and low self-esteem was more strongly associated with suicidal thoughts and attempts for women than for men veterans. Extent of alcohol and other drug abuse, aggression, resilience, self-efficacy, combat exposure, combat-related PTSD, and work problems were more strongly associated with suicidal thoughts and attempts for men than for women. Implications of these findings for V.A. programs are discussed.     

Question asking and eye tracking during cognitive disequilibrium: Comprehending illustrated texts on devices when the devices break down

The PREG model of question asking assumes that questions emerge when there is cognitive disequilibrium, as in the case of contradictions, obstacles, and anomalies. Participants read illustrated texts about everyday devices (e.g., a cylinder lock) and then were placed in cognitive disequilibrium through a breakdown scenario (e.g., the key turns but the bolt does not move). The participants asked questions when given the breakdown scenario, and an eyetracker recorded their fixations. As was predicted, deep comprehenders asked better questions and fixated on device components that explained the malfunction. The eye fixations were examined before, during, and after the participants' questions in order to trace the occurrence and timing of convergence on faults, causal reasoning, and other cognitive processes.     

On the discovery of novel wordlike units from utterances: an artificial-language study with implications for native-language acquisition.

In 4 experiments, adults were familiarized with utterances from an artificial language. Short utterances occurred both in isolation and as part of a longer utterance, either at the edge or in the middle of the longer utterance. After familiarization, participants' recognition memory for fragments of the long utterance was tested. Recognition was greatest for the remainder of the longer utterance after extraction of the short utterance, but only when the short utterance was located at the edge of the long utterance. These results support the incremental distributional regularity optimization (INCDROP) model of speech segmentation and word discovery, which asserts that people segment utterances into familiar and new wordlike units in such a way as to minimize the burden of processing new units. INCDROP suggests that segmentation and word discovery during native-language acquisition may be driven by recognition of familiar units from the start, with no need for transient bootstrapping mechanisms.     

Time to Death and Cognitive Performance

We review a program of research that examines people's judgments about how they are seen by others. The research indicates that people tend to anchor on their own experience when making such judgments, with the result that their assessments are often egocentrically biased. Our review focuses on two biases in particular, the spotlight effect, or people's tendency to overestimate the extent to which their behavior and appearance are noticed and evaluated by others, and the illusion of transparency, or people's tendency to overestimate the extent to which their internal states "leak out" and are detectable by others.