Effects of pedestrian prompts on motorist yielding at crosswalks

Pedestrian safety is a serious concern at busy intersections and pedestrian campuses across the nation. Although crosswalks and signs inform pedestrians where to cross, there is no standard protocol for pedestrians to signal drivers that they wish to use the crosswalks, except to stand in or at the crosswalk. We examined the effects of two pedestrian prompts, a raised hand and extended arm, on motorist yielding at uncontrolled crosswalks. The two prompts were effective at increasing yielding.     

Evaluation of fixed momentary dro schedules under signaled and unsignaled arrangements

Fixed momentary schedules of differential reinforcement of other behavior (FM DRO) generally have been ineffective as treatment for problem behavior. Because most early research on FM DRO included presentation of a signal at the end of the DRO interval, it is unclear whether the limited effects of FM DRO were due to (a) the momentary response requirement of the schedule per se or (b) discrimination of the contingency made more salient by the signal. To separate these two potential influences, we compared the effects of signaled versus unsignaled FM DRO with 4 individuals with developmental disabilities whose problem behavior was maintained by social-positive reinforcement. During signaled FM DRO, the experimenter presented a visual stimulus 3 s prior to the end of the DRO interval and delivered reinforcement contingent on the absence of problem behavior at the second the interval elapsed. Unsignaled DRO was identical except that interval termination was not signaled. Results indicated that signaled FM DRO was effective in decreasing 2 subjects' problem behavior, whereas an unsignaled schedule was required for the remaining 2 subjects. These results suggest that the response requirement per se of FM DRO may not be problematic if it is not easily discriminated.     

Assessment and treatment of foot-shoe fetish displayed by a man with autism

Results of a functional analysis indicated that a man diagnosed with autism engaged in bizarre sexual behavior in the presence of women wearing sandals. Several treatments proved to be ineffective or impractical. By contrast, a response-interruption/time-out procedure quickly eliminated the problem behavior in multiple settings.     

Exploring the general motor ability construct

Malaysian students ages 12 to 15 years (N = 330; 165 girls, 165 boys) took the Australian Institute of Sport Talent Identification Test (AIST) and the Balance and Movement Coordination Test (BMC), developed specifically to identify sport talent in Malaysian adolescents. To investigate evidence for general aptitude ("g") in motor ability, a higher-order factor analysis was applied to the motor skills subtests from the AIST and BMC. First-order principal components analysis indicated that scores for the adolescent boys and girls could be described by similar sets of specific motor abilities. In particular, sets of skills identified as Movement Coordination and Postural Control were found, with Balancing Ability also emerging. For the girls, a factor labeled Static Balance was indicated. However, for the boys a more general balance ability labeled Kinesthetic Integration was found, along with an ability labeled Explosive Power. These first-order analyses accounted for 45% to 60% of the variance in the scores on the motor skills tests for the boys and girls, respectively. Separate second-order factor analyses for the boys and girls extracted a single higher-order factor, which was consistent with the existence of a motoric "g".     

A domain-specific validation of the core self-evaluations scale

Core self-evaluations have been recently proposed as indicating positive self-concept and as being predictive of various forms of subjective wellbeing. In an effort to further validate the Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES), structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed in three independent samples of university students to examine the extent to which scores on the Core Self-Evaluations Scale predicted two measures of university satisfaction. Good fit was found for models that also controlled for status in college, student major, class satisfaction, life satisfaction, college grade point average, and overall grade fairness. Statistically significant relationships corrected for attenuation by SEM between scores on the Core Self-Evaluations Scale and university satisfaction range from .24 to .37.     

Relational regulation theory: a new approach to explain the link between perceived social support and mental health

Perceived support is consistently linked to good mental health, which is typically explained as resulting from objectively supportive actions that buffer stress. Yet this explanation has difficulty accounting for the often-observed main effects between support and mental health. Relational regulation theory (RRT) hypothesizes that main effects occur when people regulate their affect, thought, and action through ordinary yet affectively consequential conversations and shared activities, rather than through conversations about how to cope with stress. This regulation is primarily relational in that the types of people and social interactions that regulate recipients are mostly a matter of personal taste. RRT operationally defines relationships quantitatively, permitting the clean distinction between relationships and recipient personality. RRT makes a number of new predictions about social support, including new approaches to intervention.     

Is the Market Moral? Protestant Assessments of Market Society

Is the market moral? Do different Protestant traditions have competing views of “market society”? Despite the increasing diffusion of market logics in American society, scholars of religion have little empirical data on these questions. Employing discourse analysis of market-related topics in two prominent Christian periodicals over a twenty-year period, this paper compares evangelical and mainline Protestant evaluations of markets. We find that neither group views markets as redeeming, self-regulating, or value neutral, and both groups argue that markets require constraints. Evangelicals prioritize moral constraints on markets, while mainline Protestants prioritize governmental and democratic constraints. The degree of difference between the groups varies considerably by topic, however, depending on the degree of potential state intervention. We close by discussing our findings in light of recent debates over the relationship between religious conservatism and economic conservatism. We find that economic conservatism among evangelicals is driven at least as much by a commitment to collective voluntarism as by atomized individualism or free market ideology.     

Advancing Our Knowledge of ADHD in Latino Children: Psychometric and Cultural Properties of Spanish-Versions of Parental/Family Functioning Measures

The lack of available Spanish versions of assessment measures contributes to insufficient research and underutilization of mental health services for Latino children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Thus, the goal of the current study was to examine the psychometric and cultural properties of several Spanish versions of parental/family functioning measures commonly used in comprehensive ADHD assessments (i.e., the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, and Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale). Participants included 68 Spanish-speaking, Latino parents in Southeast Wisconsin. In general, the Spanish translations of the measures demonstrated good reliability and validity. Furthermore, the psychometrically-sound measures were significantly related to acculturation as predicted, suggesting that the scales are not only psychometrically valid, but also culturally valid for use with Spanish-speaking, Latino families.     

Contextual Influences on Participation in Community Organizing: A Multilevel Longitudinal Study

This article reports results from a study of contextual influences on participation among people involved in congregation-based community organizing. Data are drawn from 11,538 individual participants in 115 congregations taking part in one of five local organizing initiatives in different cities over a five-year period. Analyses used 3-level longitudinal models with binary indicators of participation/non-participation in group meetings each successive year as the criterion. Time-varying predictors at level-1 included prior participation in group meetings as a control, the types of group meetings that participants attended, the number of face-to-face meetings held between each participant and organizing staff of the local organizing initiatives, and a measure of the involvement of participants' affiliation networks. At level-2, demographic information was collected for a subset of participants (N = 461) and was included in a separate model. Neighborhood compositional characteristics were examined at level-3, including median income, economic heterogeneity, and residential stability. Study results found that characteristics of organizational settings (i.e., types of group meetings attended and frequency of face-to-face contact) predicted future participation in group meetings but that individual and neighborhood-level demographic characteristics were generally not predictive of future participation in community organizing activities.     

The influence of adaptation and inhibition on the effects of onset asynchrony on auditory grouping

Onset asynchrony is an important cue for auditory scene analysis. For example, a harmonic of a vowel that begins before the other components contributes less to the perceived phonetic quality. This effect was thought primarily to involve high-level grouping processes, because the contribution can be partly restored by accompanying the leading portion of the harmonic (precursor) with a synchronous captor tone an octave higher, and hence too remote to influence adaptation of the auditory-nerve response to that harmonic. However, recent work suggests that this restoration effect arises instead from inhibitory interactions relatively early in central auditory processing. The experiments reported here have reevaluated the role of adaptation in grouping by onset asynchrony and explored further the inhibitory account of the restoration effect. Varying the frequency of the precursor in the range ± 10% relative to the vowel harmonic (Experiment 1), or introducing a silent interval from 0 to 320 ms between the precursor and the vowel (Experiment 2), both produce effects on vowel quality consistent with those predicted from peripheral adaptation or recovery from it. However, there were some listeners for whom even the smallest gap largely eliminated the effect of the precursor. Consistent with the inhibitory account of the restoration effect, a contralateral pure tone whose frequency is close to that of the precursor is highly effective at restoring the contribution of the asynchronous harmonic (Experiment 3). When the frequencies match, lateralization cues arising from binaural fusion of the precursor and contralateral tone may also contribute to this restoration.