Searching for the sequential line-up advantage: a distinctiveness explanation

Gronlund ( 2005 ) proposed that one factor leading to a sequential line-up advantage could be the greater likelihood of recollecting distinctive information about a perpetrator when using a sequential line-up. Since then questions have been raised about the robustness of the sequential advantage and the possible moderating role of line-up fairness and suspect position. We manipulated these factors as well as suspect/target distinctiveness in two experiments. A sequential advantage occurred only after encoding a distinctive target, both for biased line-ups (Experiment 1) and fair line-ups (Experiment 2). Remember-Know results were consistent with the greater use of a recall-to-reject strategy in target-absent sequential line-ups. This provided support for the first process-based explanation of the sequential line-up advantage. No consistent position effects were found, but this might be due to the line-up recognition paradigm used, in which each participant viewed a line-up for each of several targets. Theory-based explorations of eyewitness identification are necessary to continue to delineate the underpinnings of the sequential line-up advantage.     

Health and turnover of working mothers after childbirth via the work-family interface: an analysis across time

This study examined organizational levers that impact work-family experiences, participant health, and subsequent turnover. Using a sample of 179 women returning to full-time work 4 months after childbirth, we examined the associations of 3 job resources (job security, skill discretion, and schedule control) with work-to-family enrichment and the associations of 2 job demands (psychological requirements and nonstandard work schedules) with work-to-family conflict. Further, we considered subsequent impact of work-to-family conflict and enrichment on women's health (physical and mental health) 8 months after women returned to work and the impact of health on voluntary turnover 12 months after women returned to work. Having a nonstandard work schedule was directly and positively related to conflict, whereas schedule control buffered the effect of psychological requirements on conflict. Skill discretion and job security, both job resources, directly and positively related to enrichment. Work-to-family conflict was negatively related to both physical and mental health, but work-to-family enrichment positively predicted only physical health. Physical health and mental health both negatively influenced turnover. We discuss implications and opportunities for future research.     

The goal of consistency as a cause of information distortion

Why, during a decision between new alternatives, do people bias their evaluations of information to support a tentatively preferred option? The authors test the following 3 decision process goals as the potential drivers of such distortion of information: (a) to reduce the effort of evaluating new information, (b) to increase the separation between alternatives, and (c) to achieve consistency between old and new units of information. Two methods, the nonconscious priming of each goal and assessing the ambient activation levels of multiple goals, reveal that the goal of consistency drives information distortion. Results suggest the potential value of combining these methods in studying the dynamics of multiple, simultaneously active goals.     

Training clinical psychologists for rural and northern practice: Transforming challenge into opportunity

Abstract: The Rural and Northern Program (R&NP) of the University of Manitoba's Department of Clinical Health Psychology (DCHP) is a unique training and service delivery platform that was developed in response to the scarcity of psychological services in rural and northern areas of the province of Manitoba, Canada. Since 1996 rural and northern‐based psychologists, in conjunction with the faculty based in Winnipeg (Manitoba's largest city) have offered training to two interns and one postdoctoral resident (resident) yearly. The current article discusses the nature of the program, the regions of Manitoba that the program services, and recruitment and retention data. The authors conclude by offering suggestions for creating sustainable rural/northern psychological practice.     

Stability and change in personality traits from late adolescence to early adulthood: a longitudinal twin study

We conducted a longitudinal-biometric study examining stability and change in personality from ages 17 to 24 in a community sample of male and female twins. Using Tellegen's (in press) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), facets of Negative Emotionality (NEM) declined substantially at the mean and individual levels, whereas facets of Constraint (CON) increased over time. Furthermore, individuals in late adolescence who were lowest on NEM and highest on CON remained the most stable over time, whereas those exhibiting the inverse profile (higher NEM, lower CON) changed the most in a direction towards growth and maturity. Analyses of gender differences yielded greater mean-level increases over time for women as compared to men on facets of CON and greater mean-level increases for men than women on facets of Agentic Positive Emotionality (PEM). Biometric analyses revealed rank-order stability in personality to be largely genetic, with rank-order change mediated by both the nonshared environment (and error) as well as genes. Findings correspond with prior evidence of a normative trend toward growth and maturity in personality during emerging adulthood.     

Extensive measurement with incomparability

Standard theories of extensive measurement assume that the objects to be measured form a complete order with respect to the relevant property. In this paper, representation and uniqueness theorems are presented for a theory that departs radically from this completeness assumption. It is first shown that any quasi-order on a countable set can be represented by vectors of real numbers. If such an order is supplemented by a concatenation operator, yielding a relational structure that satisfies a set of axioms similar to the standard axioms for an extensive structure, we obtain a scale possessing the crucial properties of a ratio scale. Incomparability is thus compatible with extensive measurement. The paper ends with a brief discussion on some possible applications and developments of this result.     

Premarital Education: An Assessment of Program Efficacy*

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a premarital educational program, with the secondary goal of determining if the structure (conjoint versus group) and the participants’ gender influenced program effectiveness. Data were collected from 29 heterosexual couples. Couples were placed in one of three conditions: (1) premarital education in a group format, (2) premarital education as an individual couple, or (3) the comparison group (no premarital education). The goal of the 8-week intervention was to improve couples’ readiness and preparation for marriage as measured by the PREP-M. The findings suggested that the educational program achieved its stated goal. *The authors would like to acknowledge Aaron Mathney, Dr. Joe Turner, Dr. Kathy Rettig, Sarah DeJean, and Dena Wyum for their assistance with this project.     

Effect of accent and dialect on employability

This study was designed to determine how ethnicity, the amount of perceived accent or dialect, and comprehensibility affect a speaker's employability. Sixty human resource specialists judged 3 female potential applicants. The applicants represented speakers of Spanish‐influenced English, Asian‐influenced English, and African American Vernacular English. When the speaker's perceived accent or dialect was minimal, perceived ethnicity did not affect employability. However, all speakers with maximally perceived accents or dialects were given a lower employability rating. Thus, speakers with a maximally perceived accent or dialect should consider accent or dialectal modification if their comprehensibility or prospective employability is compromised.     

No representation without awareness in the lateral occipital cortex

Recent research has shown that four small dots presented in the vicinity of, but not adjacent to, a target stimulus can banish that stimulus from conscious awareness. It is thought that the mental representation of the masked stimulus is "erased" by the trailing quartet of dots. Using functional magnetic resonance adaptation, we show that there is no persisting neural representation of the successfully masked stimulus in lateral occipital cortex, a region that has been implicated in the processing of object structure. This finding rules out the alternative interpretation that a lingering neural representation is merely rendered inaccessible to consciousness, as is the fate, for example, of monocular information under conditions of binocular rivalry.     

Attitudes Toward Fragile X Mutation Carrier Testing from Women Identified in a General Population Survey

Fragile X syndrome is primarily due to a CGG repeat expansion found in the FMR1 X-linked gene. In a previous study, we conducted focus groups with women to assess their attitudes towards fragile X carrier screening. In this follow-up study, we conducted in-depth interviews of general population reproductive-age women who were identified as carriers. We explored their attitudes toward testing for carrier status of the fragile X mutation. These women underwent screening primarily to participate in a research project rather than in search of a diagnosis for specific symptoms. As such, these women were wholly unprepared for positive carrier results. Their responses about their results and carrier screening, in many cases, were being worked out over the course of the interview itself. The most salient finding of this work is the apparent lack of relevance of carrier status to these women. Many expressed that although the information could be relevant in the future, it is not relevant at this stage of their lives in terms of family planning (either with respect to having unaffected offspring or to premature ovarian failure) and personal relationships. Although issues of abortion seemed prominent in the focus groups, we found that carrier status did not have an apparent effect on women’s attitudes about termination. We hypothesize this may be related to the fact that women had not processed their new carrier status and had not related it to previously-formed personal opinions. The findings of this work have significant implications for genetic counseling and population screening. Genetic counselors should be mindful that general population women may not recognize the immediate importance of their carrier status even when literature is provided and discussed prior to providing a sample. As part of comprehensive genetic counseling, counselors should identify the reproductive life stage of the woman receiving the new information and help her identify when this information would be more meaningful in her life. Counselors can assist in setting up a personalized road map with specific types of services that will be more applicable to the woman as her carrier status becomes more relevant.