Source Monitoring and Executive Function in 2.5- to 3-Year-Olds

Hala, Brown, McKay, and San Juan (2013) found that children as young as 2.5 years of age demonstrated high levels of accuracy when asked to recall whether they or the experimenter had carried out a particular action. In the research reported here, we examined the relation of early-emerging source monitoring to executive function abilities. Participants were children aged 2.5- to 3-years old. For the source-monitoring procedure, we used the Hala et al. (2013) task in which children and the experimenter took turns placing a total of 20 items on a model farm (encoding phase). For the source memory test, children were asked who had placed each item (retrieval phase). Executive function measures included assessments of working memory, delay-inhibitory control, and conflict-inhibitory control. The main finding was that inhibitory control measures were significantly related to performance on the source-monitoring task. This relation held for the conflict-inhibitory control measures even when controlling for age and vocabulary. The findings of this research suggest that even at the early age of 2.5 years, development of executive control is linked to the emergence of source-monitoring ability.     

Comparing OECD PISA Reading in English to Other Languages: Identifying Potential Sources of Non-Invariance

The use of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) across nations, cultures, and languages has been criticized. The key criticisms point to the linguistic and cultural biases potentially underlying the design of reading comprehension tests, raising doubts about the legitimacy of comparisons across economies. Our research focused on the type and magnitude of invariance or non-invariance in the PISA Reading Comprehension test by language, culture, and economic development relative to performance of the Australian English-speaking reference group used to develop the tests. Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis based on means and covariance structure (MACS) modeling was used to establish a d_MACS effect size index for each economy for the degree of non-invariance. Only three wealthy, English-speaking countries had scalar invariance with Australia. Moderate or large effects were observed in just 31% of the comparisons. PISA index of economic, social and cultural status had a moderate inverse correlation with dMACS suggesting that socioeconomic resourcing of education played a significant role in measurement invariance, while educational practice and language factors seemed to play a further small role in non-invariance. Alternative approaches to reporting PISA results consistent with non-invariance are suggested.     

The Role of Family Support in Interparental Conflict and Adolescent Academic Achievement

Family support was examined as a mediator of the relation between interparental conflict and adolescent academic achievement. Results indicated that two dimensions of family support, family cohesion and parent–school involvement, mediated the relation between interparental conflict and academic achievement. The results further suggested that family support was more likely to function as a mediator for girls than for boys. Lastly, in the presence of a mediating effect, a direct path remained between interparental conflict and grade point average.     

Social demand characteristics in children's and adults' eyewitness memory and suggestibility: the effect of different interviewers on free recall and recognition

Shortly after viewing a video of a theft, 5‐ and 7‐year‐old children and adults were interviewed with free recall and either misleading or unbiased‐leading questions. After a 2‐day delay, participants were interviewed with free recall and recognition questions administered by either the same or a different interviewer. Results from day 1 replicate previous findings with levels of recall and resistance to suggestibility increasing with age. Counter to predictions, correct recognition performance on day 2 was greater for some participants interviewed by the same as opposed to a different interviewer, and incorrect recognition was greater for all groups of participants for those interviewed by a different as opposed to the same interviewer. Results are discussed in terms of the role of context dependence on memory performance. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing the mental health needs of female and male incarcerated juvenile delinquents

The present study was undertaken to survey the prevalence of mental disorder in juvenile justice facilities and to compare the mental health needs for females and males. Girls displayed significantly more mental health needs than boys. The estimated prevalence of mental disorder for boys was 27%, compared with 84% for girls. The difference is highly significant and is discussed in terms of service system issues in juvenile justice that affect males and females differently. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reliability and Validity of the Dyadic Observed Communication Scale (DOCS)

We evaluated the reliability and validity of the Dyadic Observed Communication Scale (DOCS) coding scheme, which was developed to capture a range of communication components between parents and adolescents. Adolescents and their caregivers were recruited from mental health facilities for participation in a large, multi-site family-based HIV prevention intervention study. Seventy-one dyads were randomly selected from the larger study sample and coded using the DOCS at baseline. Preliminary validity and reliability of the DOCS was examined using various methods, such as comparing results to self-report measures and examining interrater reliability. Results suggest that the DOCS is a reliable and valid measure of observed communication among parent-adolescent dyads that captures both verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors that are typical intervention targets. The DOCS is a viable coding scheme for use by researchers and clinicians examining parent-adolescent communication. Coders can be trained to reliably capture individual and dyadic components of communication for parents and adolescents and this complex information can be obtained relatively quickly.     

Do older individuals have difficulty processing motion or excluding noise? Implications for safe driving

This study aimed to determine if difficulties extracting signal from noise explained poorer coherent motion thresholds in older individuals, particularly women. In four experimental conditions the contrast of the signal and noise dots used in a random dot kinematogram was manipulated. Coherence thresholds were highest when the signal dots were of a lower contrast than the noise dots and lowest when the signal dots were of a higher contrast than the noise dots. In all conditions the older group had higher coherence thresholds than the younger group, and women had higher thresholds than men. Significant correlations were found between coherence thresholds and self-reported driving difficulties in conditions in which the signal dots had to be extracted from noise only. The results indicate that older individuals have difficulties extracting signal from noise in cluttered visual environments. The implications for safe driving are discussed.