Relation availability was not confounded with familiarity or plausibility in Gagné and Shoben (1997): Comment on Wisniewski and Murphy (2005)

C. L. Gagné and E. Shoben (1997) proposed that the conceptual system contains information about how concepts are used to modify other concepts and that this relational information influences the ease with which concepts combine. Recently, E. J. Wisniewski and G. L. Murphy suggested that C. L. Gagné and E. Shoben's measure of relation availability was confounded with familiarity and plausibility and that the participants could simply retrieve the stored meanings of the phrases because the phrases were not novel. In this article, the authors demonstrate that E. J. Wisniewski and G. L. Murphy's plausibility and familiarity judgments are dependent variables that (a) are themselves responsive to changes in relation availability, (b) modifier relation availability predicts response time even when the influence of phrase familiarity and plausibility is controlled, and (c) the materials consisted of mainly novel phrases.     

Demonstrations of spatiotemporal integration and what they tell us about the visual system

Five sets of displays are presented on the journal website to be viewed in conjunction with the text. We concentrate on the factors that give rise to the integration and disruption of the direction of apparent motion in two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. In the first set of displays we examine what factors contribute to the integration and disruption of apparent motion in the Ramachandran/Anstis clustered bistable quartets. In the second set we examine what factors give rise to the perception of the direction of motion in rotating two-dimensional wheels and dots. In the third and fourth sets we examine how the depth cues of shading and disparity contribute to the perception of apparent motion of opaque displays, and to the perception of rotating unoccluded displays, respectively. In the fifth set we examine how the depth cue of motion parallax influences the perception of apparent motion. Throughout, we make inferences about the roles which various parallel pathways and cortical areas play in the perceptions produced by the displays shown.     

A paradoxical effect of presession attention on stereotypy: antecedent attention as an establishing, not an abolishing, operation

Previous studies have shown that presession attention for problem behavior can serve as an abolishing operation when attention functions as a positive reinforcer. In the current study, we show that the stereotypy of a child with severe disabilities was undifferentiated during standard analogue functional analysis conditions. However, when noncontingent presession attention was provided, stereotypy occurred for social attention as a positive reinforcer, suggesting that the antecedent manipulation functioned as an establishing operation.     

Overcoming the self-promotion dilemma: interpersonal attraction and extra help as a consequence of who sings one's praises

Prior research has shown that positive information presented by a third party shields people from the negative consequences of being perceived as self-promoting. But in many contexts, those third parties are intermediaries with a financial interest in the person being promoted rather than neutral parties. In three experimental studies, the authors demonstrate that even when intermediaries are not neutral, they can be helpful for overcoming the self-promotion dilemma--the need to assert one's competence but not be harmed by the fact that people who self-promote are viewed negatively. The authors find that hiring an agent to sing one's praises results in more favorable perceptions of the client, which contributes, in turn, to a greater willingness to offer that person assistance. It is also shown that even when the intermediary is physically present and seen to be complicit with the client, the positive effects of having someone else speak on one's behalf persist.     

The development of executive functioning and theory of mind. A comparison of Chinese and U.S. preschoolers

Preschoolers' theory-of-mind development follows a similar age trajectory across many cultures. To determine whether these similarities are related to similar underlying ontogenetic processes, we examined whether the relation between theory of mind and executive function commonly found among U.S. preschoolers is also present among Chinese preschoolers. Preschoolers from Beijing, China (N= 109), were administered theory-of-mind and executive-functioning tasks, and their performance was compared with that of a previously studied sample of U.S. preschoolers (N= 107). The Chinese preschoolers outperformed their U.S. counterparts on all measures of executive functioning, but were not similarly advanced in theory-of-mind reasoning. Nonetheless, individual differences in executive functioning predicted theory of mind for children in both cultures. Thus, the relation between executive functioning and theory of mind is robust across two disparate cultures. These findings shed light on why executive functioning is important for theory-of-mind development.     

Anxiety symptomatology: the association with distress tolerance and anxiety sensitivity

Research focused on psychological risk factors for anxiety psychopathology has led to better conceptualization of these conditions as well as pointed toward preventative interventions. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been well-established as an anxiety risk factor, while distress tolerance (DT) is a related construct that has received little empirical exploration within the anxiety psychopathology literature. The current investigation sought to extend the existing literature by examining both DT and the relationship between DT and AS across a number of anxiety symptom dimensions, including panic, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive anxiety. Participants (N = 418) completed a number of measures that assessed DT, AS, anxiety symptomatology, and negative affect. Findings indicated that DT was uniquely associated with panic, obsessive compulsive, general worry, and social anxiety symptoms, but that DT and AS were not synergistically associated with each of these symptom dimensions. These findings indicate that an inability to tolerate emotional distress is associated with an increased vulnerability to experience certain anxiety symptoms.     

A comparison of statistical selection strategies for univariate and bivariate log‐linear models

In this study, eight statistical selection strategies were evaluated for selecting the parameterizations of log‐linear models used to model the distributions of psychometric tests. The selection strategies included significance tests based on four chi‐squared statistics (likelihood ratio, Pearson, Freeman–Tukey, and Cressie–Read) and four additional strategies (Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), consistent Akaike information criterion (CAIC), and a measure attributed to Goodman). The strategies were evaluated in simulations for different log‐linear models of univariate and bivariate test‐score distributions and two sample sizes. Results showed that all eight selection strategies were most accurate for the largest sample size considered. For univariate distributions, the AIC selection strategy was especially accurate for selecting the correct parameterization of a complex log‐linear model and the likelihood ratio chi‐squared selection strategy was the most accurate strategy for selecting the correct parameterization of a relatively simple log‐linear model. For bivariate distributions, the likelihood ratio chi‐squared, Freeman–Tukey chi‐squared, BIC, and CAIC selection strategies had similarly high selection accuracies.     

Parental Influence on Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: I. Relationships Between Parent Behaviors and Child Peer Status

We examined associations between children’s peer relationships and (a) their parents’ social competence as well as (b) their parents’ behaviors during the children’s peer interactions. Participants were families of 124 children ages 6–10 (68% male), 62 with ADHD and 62 age- and sex-matched comparison youth. Children’s peer relationships were assessed via parent and teacher report, and sociometric nominations in a lab-based playgroup. Parental characteristics were assessed via parent self-report and observations of behavior during their child’s playgroup. After statistical control of relevant covariates, parents of children with ADHD reported poorer social skills of their own, arranged fewer playdates for their children, and displayed more criticism during their child’s peer interaction than did parents of comparison youth. Parents’ socialization with other parents and facilitation of the child’s peer interactions predicted their children having good peer relationships as reported by teachers and peers, whereas parental corrective feedback to the child and praise predicted poor peer relationships. Parents’ ratings of their child’s social skills were positively associated with ratings of their own social skills, but negatively associated with criticism and facilitation of the child’s peer interactions. Relationships between parental behaviors and peer relationships were stronger for youth with ADHD than for comparison youth. The relevance of findings to interventions is discussed.     

Physical discipline,escalation, and child abuse potential: psychometric evidence for the Analog Parenting Task

Data from three studies provide new evidence to support the validity of the Analog Parenting Task (APT) as an instrument to assess risk for harsh, physically aggressive parenting. In this series of studies, there was a strong association between APT scores of expected use and escalation of discipline strategies and self‐reported disciplinary attitudes. APT scores were also associated with physical abuse potential as assessed by both a well‐established measure of child abuse potential (Child Abuse Potential Inventory) and another instrument designed specifically for use in pre‐parent populations (e.g., Adult–Adolescent Parenting Inventory‐2). This study provides new psychometric evidence to support the use of the APT to assess harsh parenting. Additionally, these data highlight the connection between acceptance and use of physical disciplinary strategies, propensity for disciplinary escalation, and risk for abuse perpetration. The findings are discussed in the context of Milner's Social Information Processing model [Milner, 2003] of abuse, which suggests that parental selection of disciplinary responding and the monitoring of disciplinary responding are key events in the disciplinary process. The APT may prove a useful adjunct to more commonly used self‐report measures to allow for multimethod assessment of risk for punitive parenting. Aggr. Behav. 36:251–260, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.