Humility attenuates negative attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members

Humility is marked by the regulation of selfish impulses for the sake of others, including holding a modest view of one’s beliefs (and their relative strengths and weaknesses). In three studies, we evaluated the extent to which humility attenuates negative attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors toward religious out-group members. In Study 1 (N = 159), humility regarding religious beliefs was associated with positive attitudes toward religiously different individuals. In Study 2 (N = 149), relational and intellectual humility were associated with less aggressive behavioral intentions in a hypothetical situation in which their cherished beliefs were criticized. In Study 3 (N = 62), participants implicitly primed with humility administered significantly less hot sauce (a behavioral measure of aggression) to a religious out-group member who criticized their cherished views relative to participants in the neutral prime condition. We highlight the importance of humility in promoting positive attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members.     

Socio-communicative deficits in young children with Williams syndrome: performance on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule.

In this investigation, the socio-communicative skills of 29 children with Williams syndrome aged 2 (1/2) to 5 (1/2) years were examined using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Module 1. Most of the participants showed socio-communicative difficulties. Approximately half of the participants were classified by the ADOS algorithm as "autism spectrum." Three participants were classified "autism." Difficulties with pointing, gestures, giving, showing, and eye contact were present for more than half of the participants, with many also showing difficulties with initiation and response to joint attention and with integration of gaze with other behaviors. Expressive and receptive language abilities of the children with Williams syndrome classified "autism spectrum" were weaker than for children classified nonspectrum, but expressive and receptive language level did not account for the socio-communicative difficulties. Implications for our understanding of the socio-communicative abilities of young children with Williams syndrome and diagnostic practices regarding dual diagnosis are discussed.     

Discounting of monetary and directly consumable rewards

We compared temporal and probability discounting of a nonconsumable reward (money) and three directly consumable rewards (candy, soda, and beer). When rewards were delayed, monetary rewards were discounted less steeply than directly consumable rewards, all three of which were discounted at equivalent rates. When rewards were probabilistic, however, there was no difference between the discounting of monetary and directly consumable rewards. It has been reported that substance abusers discount delayed drug rewards more steeply than delayed money, but this difference may reflect special characteristics of drugs or drug abusers, or it may reflect a general property of consumable rewards. The present findings suggest that abused substances (like beer) share the properties of other directly consumable rewards, whereas delayed monetary rewards are special because they are fungible, generalized (conditioned) reinforcers.     

In the shadow of the boss's boss: effects of supervisors' upward exchange relationships on employees

Dyadic relationships in an organizational hierarchy are often nested within one another. For instance, the relationship between a supervisor and an employee is nested within the relationship between that supervisor and his or her boss. In that context, the authors propose that the supervisor's relationship with his or her boss (leader-leader exchange) moderates the effects of the supervisor's relationship with the employee (leader-member exchange). Specifically, the authors argue that leader-member exchange has a stronger positive effect on employees' attitudes toward the organization and its customers when leader-leader exchange is higher. Cross-level analysis of data from 581 frontline nurses and 29 supervisors in a midwestern hospital supports this contention. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The role of auditory memory traces in attention to frequency

Three cued signal detection experiments demonstrated a role for auditory memory traces in frequency selectivity. The extent to which the cue predicted the signal frequency affected the size of the advantage for signals at the cue frequency over those at distant frequencies when the cue-signal gap was 10 sec but not when it was 1 sec. Detection of occasional signals presented at uncued frequencies was enhanced when they matched the frequency of cues from recent trials. With "relative" cues, which were usually followed by signals at the musical fifth above the cue frequency, performance on occasional signals at the cue frequency was enhanced relative to other unexpected frequencies. These results suggest that, regardless of the listener's expectations and intentions, the detectability of a signal is enhanced if its frequency matches an existing memory trace. One form of voluntary attention to frequency may involve maintaining traces that would otherwise slowly decay.     

Log-Multiplicative Association Models as Item Response Models

Log-multiplicative association (LMA) models, which are special cases of log-linear models, have interpretations in terms of latent continuous variables. Two theoretical derivations of LMA models based on item response theory (IRT) arguments are presented. First, we show that Anderson and colleagues (Anderson &; Vermunt, 2000; Anderson &; Böckenholt, 2000; Anderson, 2002), who derived LMA models from statistical graphical models, made the equivalent assumptions as Holland (1990) when deriving models for the manifest probabilities of response patterns based on an IRT approach. We also present a second derivation of LMA models where item response functions are specified as functions of rest-scores. These various connections provide insights into the behavior of LMA models as item response models and point out philosophical issues with the use of LMA models as item response models. We show that even for short tests, LMA and standard IRT models yield very similar to nearly identical results when data arise from standard IRT models. Log-multiplicative association models can be used as item response models and do not require numerical integration for estimation.     

Social skills, psychological well-being, and the mediating role of perceived stress

Social skills were predicted to be associated with two indicators of psychological well-being: reduced symptoms of depression and life-satisfaction. Social skills were also predicted to be associated with a reduction in the experience of stress. This reduced stress experience was hypothesized to explain the social skills-well-being association. These predictions were tested in a sample of 500 university students who provided self-reports of social skills, well-being (depression and life satisfaction), and stress. Results supported the hypothesized relationship between social skills and greater well-being, as well as social skills and lower levels of perceived stress. The lower perceptions of stress that accompany higher levels of social skills mediated the association between social skills and depression as well as life satisfaction.     

Hippocampal and cerebellar single-unit activity during delay and trace eyeblink conditioning in the rat

In delay eyeblink conditioning, the CS overlaps with the US and only a brainstem-cerebellar circuit is necessary for learning. In trace eyeblink conditioning, the CS ends before the US is delivered and several forebrain structures, including the hippocampus, are required for learning, in addition to a brainstem-cerebellar circuit. The interstimulus interval (ISI) between CS onset and US onset is perhaps the most important factor in classical conditioning, but studies comparing delay and trace conditioning have typically not matched these procedures in this crucial factor, so it is often difficult to determine whether results are due to differences between delay and trace or to differences in ISI. In the current study, we employed a 580-ms CS-US interval for both delay and trace conditioning and compared hippocampal CA1 activity and cerebellar interpositus nucleus activity in order to determine whether a unique signature of trace conditioning exists in patterns of single-unit activity in either structure. Long-Evans rats were chronically implanted in either CA1 or interpositus with microwire electrodes and underwent either delay eyeblink conditioning, or trace eyeblink conditioning with a 300-ms trace period between CS offset and US onset. On trials with a CR in delay conditioning, CA1 pyramidal cells showed increases in activation (relative to a pre-CS baseline) during the CS-US period in sessions 1-4 that was attenuated by sessions 5-6. In contrast, on trials with a CR in trace conditioning, CA1 pyramidal cells did not show increases in activation during the CS-US period until sessions 5-6. In sessions 5-6, increases in activation were present only to the CS and not during the trace period. For rats with interpositus electrodes, activation of interpositus neurons on CR trials was present in all sessions in both delay and trace conditioning. However, activation was greater in trace compared to delay conditioning in the first half of the CS-US interval (during the trace CS) during early sessions of conditioning and, in later sessions of conditioning, activation was greater in the second half of the CS-US interval (during the trace interval). These results suggest that the pattern of hippocampal activation that differentiates trace from delay eyeblink conditioning is a slow buildup of activation to the CS, possibly representing encoding of CS duration or discrimination of the CS from the background context. Interpositus nucleus neurons show strong modeling of the eyeblink CR regardless of paradigm but show a changing pattern across conditioning that may be due to the necessary contributions of forebrain processing to trace conditioning.     

Identifying work preferences among supported workers with severe disabilities: efficiency and accuracy of a preference‐assessment protocol

Despite considerable research on assessing preferences among people with severe disabilities, relatively little investigatory attention has been directed to preferences in supported work situations. We evaluated a protocol for identifying work preferences among adults with severe disabilities in supported jobs. The protocol involved obtaining opinions of support staff regarding most and least preferred tasks of a supported worker, conducting a multi‐task preference assessment and then if necessary, a paired‐task assessment for workers for whom the former assessment did not reveal work preferences. For the 12 participating workers, the multi‐task assessment revealed preferences for 7 of the workers and subsequently, the paired‐task assessment revealed preferences for 4 of the 5 remaining workers. The former assessment required 40% less time than the latter. Staff opinion required much less time to obtain, but accurately identified preferences (based on validation through systematic assessment) only somewhat consistently. Results are discussed regarding guidelines for efficiently identifying supported work preferences, and future research areas are noted for developing more definitive guidelines. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Language and communicative development in Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder caused by a microdeletion of approximately 25 genes on chromosome 7q11.23, is associated with mild to moderate intellectual disability or learning difficulties. Most individuals with Williams syndrome evidence a cognitive profile including relative strengths in verbal short-term memory and language, and considerable weakness in visuospatial construction. The syndrome has often been argued to provide strong evidence for the independence of language from other aspects of cognition. We provide a brief history of early research on the language abilities of individuals with Williams syndrome and then review contemporary studies of language and cognition in Williams syndrome, beginning with a consideration of performance on standardized assessments. In the remainder of the article, we first consider early language acquisition, with a focus on speech production and perception, vocabulary acquisition, and communicative/pragmatic development and then consider the language abilities of school-age children and adolescents, focusing on semantics, grammar, and pragmatics. We argue that rather than being the paradigm case for the independence of language from cognition, Williams syndrome provides strong evidence of the interdependence of many aspects of language and cognition.