Young children overimitate in third-party contexts

The exhibition of actions that are causally unnecessary to the outcomes with which they are associated is a core feature of human cultural behavior. To enter into the world(s) of their cultural in-group, children must learn to assimilate such unnecessary actions into their own behavioral repertoire. Past research has established the habitual tendency of children to adopt the redundant actions of adults demonstrated directly to them. Here we document how young children will do so even when such actions are modeled to a third person regardless of whether children are presented with the test apparatus by the demonstrating, and assumedly expert, adult or by the observing, and assumedly naive, adult (Experiment 1), whether or not children had opportunity to discover how the apparatus works prior to modeling (Experiment 1), and whether or not children's attention was drawn to the demonstration while they were otherwise occupied (Experiment 2). These results emphasize human children's readiness to acquire behavior that is in keeping with what others do, regardless of the apparent efficiency of the actions employed, and in so doing to participate in cultural learning.     

Personality and political orientation: Meta-analysis and test of a Threat-Constraint Model

We synthesized and meta-analyzed 73 studies (N = 71,895) examining the associations between Big-Five personality and single-item self-placement measures of political orientation. Openness to Experience (r = −.18) and Conscientiousness (r = .10) were significantly but weakly correlated with political conservatism. The weak Openness-political orientation link was moderated by systemic threat and uncertainty (indexed by nation-wide homicide and unemployment). We propose a Threat-Constraint Model explaining this previously undetected Person × Situation interaction. The model shows that there was a moderately-sized negative correlation between Openness and political conservatism when systemic threat was low (r = −.422) but that this association was negligible at only moderate levels of threat (r = −.066). These findings highlight the economic and societal constraints of personality-political ideology associations.     

Trait anxiety and perceptual load as determinants of emotion processing in a fear conditioning paradigm

The impact of trait anxiety and perceptual load on selective attention was examined in a fear conditioning paradigm. A fear-conditioned angry face (CS+), an unconditioned angry face (CS-), or an unconditioned face with a neutral or happy expression were used in distractor interference and attentional probe tasks. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants classified centrally presented letters under two conditions of perceptual load. When perceptual load was high, distractors had no effect on selective attention, even with aversive conditioning. However, when perceptual load was low, strong response interference effects for CS+ face distractors were found for low trait-anxious participants. Across both experiments, this enhanced distractor interference reversed to strong facilitation effects for those reporting high trait anxiety. Thus, high trait-anxious participants were faster, rather than slower, when ignoring CS+ distractors. Using an attentional probe task in Experiment 3, it was found that fear conditioning resulted in strong attentional avoidance in a high trait-anxious group, which contrasted with enhanced vigilance in a low trait-anxious group. These results demonstrate that the impact of fear conditioning on attention is modulated by individual variation in trait anxiety when perceptual load is low. Fear conditioning elicits an avoidance of threat-relevant stimuli in high trait-anxious participants.     

On the nature and function of scoring protocols used in exercise motivation research: An empirical study of the behavioral regulation in exercise questionnaire

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine the effects of different scoring protocols used with instruments designed to assess motivation in line with Organismic Integration Theory (OIT; Deci & Ryan, 2002).DesignThis study used non-probability based sampling within a cross-sectional (survey) design.MethodsParticipants across four samples (N's ranged from 236 to 1200) completed either (a) the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ), (b) the BREQ-2, or (c) the BREQ-2R in conjunction with a self-report assessment of physical activity behavior.ResultsParticipants endorsed more self-determined than controlled motives for physical activity. Identified regulation was the dominant correlate of more frequent physical activity behavior. The link between external regulation and physical activity was consistently weak. Multiple regression analyses revealed identified regulation was the strongest predictor of physical activity compared with other motives. Regression models using omnibus scoring protocols accounted for less variance in physical activity behavior in contrast to an item-aggregation scoring protocol.ConclusionsIdentified regulation may be a key source of physical activity motivation in adults. The scoring protocol used with OIT-based instruments represents an important consideration for advancing physical activity research.     

Sentence Context and Word Recognition in Children with Average Reading Ability and with a Specific Reading Disability

The inhibitory and facilitatory effects of context on word recognition were investigated in 24 8-to 10-year-old children with a specific reading disability in comparison with a group of 24 children matched for reading ability and a group of 24 children matched for chronological age. To avoid confounding the effects of reading level with those of word difficulty, target words of equivalent relative familiarity for each participant were presented in congruous, neutral, and incongruous sentence contexts. In agreement with previous studies, there was clear evidence of both general inhibitory and facilitatory effects. In contrast to previous findings, however, reading level did not have a major impact on the inhibition of word recognition in incongruous contexts compared with neutral contexts, although it may have led to greater facilitation in congruous contexts compared with neutral contexts. Although further research is required, these results suggest that if reading-age appropriate materials are selected, less skilled readers and those with a reading disability may not be as influenced by context as has been claimed previously.     

Pediatric do-not-attempt-resuscitation orders and public schools: a national assessment of policies and laws

Some children living with life-shortening medical conditions may wish to attend school without the threat of having resuscitation attempted in the event of cardiopulmonary arrest on the school premises. Despite recent attention to in-school do-not-attempt-resuscitation (DNAR) orders, no assessment of state laws or school policies has yet been made. We therefore sought to survey a national sample of prominent school districts and situate their policies in the context of relevant state laws. Most (80%) school districts sampled did not have policies, regulations, or protocols for dealing with student DNARs. A similar majority (76%) either would not honor student DNARs or were uncertain about whether they could. Frequent contradictions between school policies and state laws also exist. Consequently, children living with life-shortening conditions who have DNARs may not have these orders honored if cardiopulmonary arrest were to occur on school premises. Coordinated efforts are needed to harmonize school district, state, and federal approaches in order to support children and families' right to have important medical decisions honored.     

Reliability and validity of the revised experiences in close relationships (ECR-R) self-report measure of adult romantic attachment

Three studies examine the psychometric properties (i.e., the test-retest reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity) of Fraley, Waller, and Brennan's Revised Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR-R) self-report measure of romantic attachment anxiety (model of self) and avoidance (model of others). Longitudinal analyses suggest that the ECR-R provided highly stable indicators of latent attachment during a 3-week period (85% shared variance). Hierarchical linear modeling analyses further validated the ECR-R, suggesting that it explained between 30% to 40% of the between-person variation in social interaction diary ratings of attachment-related emotions experienced during interactions with a romantic partner and only 5% to 15% of that in interactions with family and friends. Guidelines are offered regarding the conditions where highly reliable and precise measures of romantic attachment, such as the ECR-R, are deemed necessary and where shorter, albeit slightly less reliable measures, such as Bartholomew and Horowitz's Relationship Questionnaire, may also be viable.     

Acquired distinctiveness and equivalence in human discrimination learning: Evidence for an attentional process

In a first stage of training, participants learned to associate four visual cues (two different colors and two different shapes) with verbal labels. For Group S, one label was applied to both colors and another to both shapes; for Group D, one label was applied to one color and one shape, and the other label to the other cues. When subsequently required to learn a task in which a given motor response was required to one of the colors and one of the shapes, and a different response to the other color and the other shape, Group D learned more readily than Group S. The task was designed so that the associations formed during the first stage of training could not generate differential transfer to the second stage. The results are consistent, however, with the proposal that training in which similar cues are followed by different outcomes will engage a learning process that boosts the attention paid to features that distinguish these cues.