Speaking two languages with different number naming systems: What implications for magnitude judgments in bilinguals at different stages of language acquisition?

Differences between languages in terms of number naming systems may lead to performance differences in number processing. The current study focused on differences concerning the order of decades and units in two-digit number words (i.e., unit-decade order in German but decade-unit order in French) and how they affect number magnitude judgments. Participants performed basic numerical tasks, namely two-digit number magnitude judgments, and we used the compatibility effect (Nuerk et al. in Cognition 82(1):B25–B33, 2001) as a hallmark of language influence on numbers. In the first part we aimed to understand the influence of language on compatibility effects in adults coming from German or French monolingual and German–French bilingual groups (Experiment 1). The second part examined how this language influence develops at different stages of language acquisition in individuals with increasing bilingual proficiency (Experiment 2). Language systematically influenced magnitude judgments such that: (a) The spoken language(s) modulated magnitude judgments presented as Arabic digits, and (b) bilinguals’ progressive language mastery impacted magnitude judgments presented as number words. Taken together, the current results suggest that the order of decades and units in verbal numbers may qualitatively influence magnitude judgments in bilinguals and monolinguals, providing new insights into how number processing can be influenced by language(s).     

The Undoing Effect of Positive Emotions

Positive emotions are hypothesized to undo the cardiovascular aftereffects of negative emotions. Study 1 tests this undoing effect. Participants (n = 170) experiencing anxiety-induced cardiovascular reactivity viewed a film that elicited (a) contentment, (b) amusement, (c) neutrality, or (d) sadness. Contentment-eliciting and amusing films produced faster cardiovascular recovery than neutral or sad films did. Participants in Study 2 (n = 185) viewed these same films following a neutral state. Results disconfirm the alternative explanation that the undoing effect reflects a simple replacement process. Findings are contextualized by Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (B. L. Fredrickson, 1998).     

Analog scale,magnitude estimation,and person trade‐off as measures of health utility: biases and their correction

Subjects judged the disutility of health conditions (e.g. blindness) using one of them (e.g. blindness+deafness) as a standard, using three elicitation methods: analog scale (AS, how bad is blindness compared to blindness+deafness?); magnitude estimation (ME, blindness+deafness is how many times as bad as blindness?); and person trade‐off (PTO, how many people cured of blindness is as good as 10 people cured of blindness+deafness?). ME disutilities of the less bad condition were smallest, and AS was highest. Interleaving PTO with ME made PTO more like ME. AS disutilities were inconsistent with direct judgments of differences between pairs of conditions. ME and PTO judgments were internally inconsistent: e.g. the disutility of one‐eye‐blindness relative to blindness+deafness was larger than predicted from comparison of each to blindness. Consistency training reduced inconsistency, increased agreement between AS and PTO, and transferred from one method to the other. The results support the use of consistency checks in utility elicitation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Divorce mediation: the impact of mediation on the psychological well‐being of children and parents

This study evaluated levels of psychological distress experienced by children (aged 4–16) and parents at the beginning of and one month after mediation for child‐related disputes. In contrast to previous research, this study employed both child‐ and parent‐reports of child outcome. Mediation was associated with reductions in child‐reported, though not parent‐reported, child psychological distress and with reductions in parent‐reports of their own psychological distress. The negotiation of successful agreements in mediation was not related to improved psychological well‐being of family members. The difficulties encountered (i.e. small numbers, low response rate) render the results tentative. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generalization of social skills to peer interactions in a child with language delays

Researchers in this study have attempted to determine whether integrating generalization promoting strategies into intervention procedures would enhance the generalization and maintenance of social skills to peer interactions in a preschoold child with language delays. This intervention took place in the natural environment of the day care facility where the child was enrolled. A multiple baseline across behaviors design addressed social response behavior, approach behavior, and play organizers. The intervention utilized a prompting and social reinforcement procedure with minimal adaptations of the onging classroom activities to systematically improve the target child's peer interactions. Several generalization promoting strategies were also used. Improvements in all three types of behavior and generalization of treatment effects across persons, settings, and time were observed. These results lend support for the value of integrating several generalization promoting strategies pre-experimentally into the intervention instead of relying on post hoc evaluation of intervention. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

(Emotion-centered) problem-solving therapy: An update

Problem-solving therapy (PST) is a psychosocial intervention, typically considered to be a member of the cognitive and behaviour therapies family, and is based on a biopsychosocial, diathesis-stress model of psychopathology. The overarching goal of this approach is to promote the successful adoption of adaptive problem-solving attitudes and the effective implementation of certain behaviours as a means of coping with life stressors in order to attenuate the negative effects of such events on physical and mental well-being. Over the past several decades, in addition to accumulating strong support for its efficacy as a clinical intervention, similar to many other forms of psychotherapy, PST has undergone various evolutionary changes. Developed primarily as a more cognitive-based approach, due to the large body of literature in the field of affective neuroscience that underscores the importance of the impact of affect on problem solving, PST has evolved into emotion-centered problem-solving therapy (EC-PST). This article provides for a brief excursion into the historical roots of PST and why it has evolved into EC-PST, as well as providing support for its characterisation as a transdiagnostic approach. In addition, several meta-analyses that underscore its efficacy are described, as well as the most recent clinical guidelines that comprise EC-PST.     

Predicting Substance Use Patterns Among Rural Adults: The Roles of Mothers,Fathers, and Parenthood

This study examined the role of parenthood and parental influences on substance use patterns for 710 stimulant users age 18–61 living in the rural Midwest and Mid‐south U.S. Longitudinal growth analyses showed that a maternal history of drug use was associated with increased baseline drug use severity, lesser declines in severity, and greater plateau of drug use severity over time. Parental conflict was associated with lesser declines in drug use severity, and drug use severity declined more steeply for participants who were themselves parents. Participants with two parents having a history of alcohol use had a greater baseline severity of alcohol use, with paternal history of drug use associated with lower baseline alcohol use severity. These findings demonstrate the importance of identifying parental influences in evaluating adult substance use, and point to the inclusion of parents in efforts to prevent and treat substance use disorders.     

Pink for Girls,Red for Boys,and Blue for Both Genders: Colour Preferences in Children and Adults

Colours carry social connotations like pink for girls and blue for boys. In a cross-sectional study, we investigated whether such early gender coding might be reflected in absolute colour preferences in children and adults of both genders. In two studies, participants selected their favourite (and least favourite, Study 2) colour from an unrestricted sample of colours. We tested 129 Swiss children (Study 1, 10–14 years-old, 68 boys) and 180 Swiss adults (Study 2, 17–48 years-old, 88 men). In children, we observed that girls chose pink/purple as their favourite hue more often than boys did, the most common favourite hue in girls and boys was blue, and boys chose red as their favourite more often than girls did. In adults, we observed that both genders almost never choose pink as their favourite, blue was a common favourite colour, and women were more likely to favour red than were men. In an additional study (n?=?183 Swiss participants, 47 men), we tested whether liking of pink, blue, and red was related to emotion associations with these colours. Pink was associated with positive emotions to the same extent as blue and red. Women further associated more positive emotions with pink than did men. We conclude that some commonalities (blue) and gender differences (pink and red) exist in absolute colour preferences. These differences, however, cannot be fully accounted by emotional associations. We speculate about these gendered colour preferences in relation to gender stereotypes and status differences between men and women.