Fluency Training in Phoneme Blending: A Preliminary Study of Generalized Effects

We examined the generalized effects of training children to fluently blend phonemes of words containing target vowel teams on their reading of trained and untrained words in lists and passages. Three second-grade students participated. A subset of words containing each of 3 target vowel teams (aw, oi, and au) was trained in lists, and generalization was assessed to untrained words in lists, trained and untrained words in target passages, and novel words in generalization passages. A multiple probe design across vowel teams revealed generalized increases in oral reading accuracy for target words presented in both lists and passages for all 3 students on 2 vowel teams and for 1 student on all 3 vowel teams. Generalized increases in oral reading fluency in both lists and passages were found for all 3 students on the vowel team that was trained to a fluency criterion, with two students showing increases prior to training on the other two vowel teams. Implications of these results for building fluency in prerequisite phonemic awareness skills as an intervention for promoting generalized oral reading fluency are discussed.     

Dreaming

The aim is to discover a principle governing the formation of the dream. Now dreaming has an analogy with consciousness in that it is a seeming-consciousness. Meanwhile consciousness exhibits a tripartite structure consisting of (A) understanding oneself to be situated in a world endowed with given properties, (B) the mental processes responsible for the state, and (C) the concrete perceptual encounter of awareness with the world. The dream analogues of these three elements are investigated in the hope of discovering the source of the kinship between dream and consciousness. The dream world (A) proves to be a logically impossible world, limited by nothing more than sheer narratability. The internal world (B) of the dreamer is notable for the limitlessness of the scope allotted to the imagination (exactly taking over the offices of rational function), together with the presence of two important phenomena encountered in waking consciousness: a measure of interiority, and the positing of a world. Finally (C), the dream further replicates consciousness in so far as we seem in dreaming concretely to experience our physical surrounds in the form of perceptual imagining. These properties play their part in enabling the dream to be a seeming-consciousness. At the same time they are such as to necessitate its not being consciousness. It is proposed that in the light of these properties, and those composing the state of consciousness, the dream simply is the imagining of consciousness.     

The Effect of Attentional Control and Heart-Period Variability on Negative Affect and Trait Anxiety

In this study, the author examines the effect of attentional control and heart-period variability on measures of negative affect and trait anxiety in undergraduate students. Baseline heart rate was recorded from 119 participants within a laboratory setting. Spectral analysis was used on the heart-rate data to isolate the parasympathetic contribution to the cardiac pattern. Participants completed measures of negative affect, attentional control, and trait anxiety following the recording of heart rate. Regression analysis indicated that high negative affect, low attentional control, and reduced parasympathetic tone were significant predictors of high trait anxiety. Subsequent regression analysis pointed toward the interaction of attentional control and parasympathetic tone in influencing self-rated measures of negative affect. Results highlight the importance of attentional control and parasympathetic tone as regulatory mechanisms related to self-rated estimates of negative affect and trait anxiety.     

Knowledge About Hand Shaping and Knowledge About Objects

Our two experiments investigated associations between cognitive representations of objects and hand-shape categories. Hand configurations were partitioned according to prehensility and the size of the contacting surface, resulting in the classes: pinch, poke, palm, and clench. Experiment 1 elicited object names in response to configuration-name cues, provided ratings of the relevance of each configuration to a set of objects, and probed for the functions determining such relevance. Cueing with a configuration class elicited an associated object category with substantial intersubject agreement, and vice versa. Both the object categories and the functions associated with the four hand-configuration classes differed substantially, although the same object could be associated to some extent with multiple configurations, given variations in function. Experiment 2 elicited the names of hand-configuration classes in response to unfamiliar forms, which varied systematically in depth and the size of the projecting picture-plane surface. The modal response, response time, and degree of intersubject agreement were directly related to these variables. These structural variables, however, did not adequately predict shaping responses to real objects, as ascertained from Experiment 1. The results have implications for cognitive representation of motor categories and hand shaping in response to objects.     

Assessing Self-Critical Perfectionism in Clinical Depression

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) is a multidimensional measure of narcissistic pathology. This study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the PNI in a sample of Chinese university students in Hong Kong. Eight hundred and thirty-one students completed an online battery of questionnaires assessing narcissistic pathology, self-esteem, unstable sense of self, and maladaptive self-defense strategies. Results replicated the 7 first-order factors and the 2 second-order factors of the PNI. Each of the 7 first-order factors and the 2 second-order factors had good internal consistency. Preliminary findings also supported the concurrent validity of the PNI. The PNI appeared to be a valid measure of narcissistic pathology among Chinese. Findings of this study suggest that the core pathology of pathological narcissism might involve an inflated sense of self-importance that is not substantiated by actual achievement, and bearing this unsubstantiated sense of self-importance renders narcissists highly susceptible to self-deflation when their narcissistic needs are not met.     

Well-being and Coping of Student Veterans Readjusting into Academia: A Pilot Survey

This study explored student veterans coping with transitions to postsecondary education. An instrument using a Tailored Survey Design and an Adult Transitioning Framework was developed to collect coping responses of 13 veterans with deployment experience transitioning to postsecondary education. Results indicated 38% reported difficulty managing finances, 93% utilized military training to manage stressors, and 38% sought environmental supports provided by the university. Findings suggest previous military experiences can be incorporated into occupations supporting individual coping skill development for the transition to postsecondary education. Further research is needed to understand barriers and facilitators of student veteran engagement in university resources.     

Deviant Heroes: Nonconformists as Agents of Justice and Social Change

Sociologists usually define deviance as a fluid construct, relative to given social circumstances, and something that is neither negative nor positive in and of itself. Despite the rejection of absolutist approaches, the vast majority of texts and studies concerning deviant behavior implicitly or explicitly present deviance as either a morally bad or morally neutral behavior. Such literatures wrongly conflate deviant behavior with villainous actions. We argue that some of the most important deviants have been at the leading forefront of positive social change and the creation of a more just, fair, and humane society. Deviant heroes are those individuals who violate unjust norms and laws, facing the repercussions of social control, while simultaneously effecting positive social change. This article considers the theoretical role of the deviant hero within classical and contemporary sociological traditions and identifies new directions for social research.     

Gender differences in implicit and explicit personality traits

This article investigates gender differences in implicit and explicit measures of the Big Five traits of personality. In a high-powered study (N = 14,348), we replicated previous research showing that women report higher levels of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Neuroticism. For implicit measures, gender differences were much smaller for all, and opposite in sign for Extraversion. Somewhat higher levels of implicit Neuroticism and Agreeableness were observed in women, and somewhat higher levels of implicit Extraversion and Openness were observed in men. There was no gender difference in implicit Conscientiousness. A possible explanation is that explicit self-concepts partly reflect social norms and self-expectations about gender roles, while implicit self-concepts may mostly reflect self-related experiences.     

No evidence of racial discrimination in criminal justice processing: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

One of the most consistent findings in the criminological literature is that African American males are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated at rates that far exceed those of any other racial or ethnic group. This racial disparity is frequently interpreted as evidence that the criminal justice system is racist and biased against African American males. Much of the existing literature purportedly supporting this interpretation, however, fails to estimate properly specified statistical models that control for a range of individual-level factors. The current study was designed to address this shortcoming by analyzing a sample of African American and White males drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Analysis of these data revealed that African American males are significantly more likely to be arrested and incarcerated when compared to White males. This racial disparity, however, was completely accounted for after including covariates for self-reported lifetime violence and IQ. Implications of this study are discussed and avenues for future research are offered.     

An Integral Perspective On The Political Economy Of “Big Change”

The integral age demands a new economic vision. This has to emphasize exchange as a processes not the exchange of things. It must address humanity's unique compulsion to learn using collaborative learning networks. These are what energize the self-organizing global change now accelerating the emergence of new global economic institutions and processes. This new vision requires political economy (i.e., economics integrated with its sociopolitical context).