Facilitation of receptive and productive foreign vocabulary learning using the keyword method: the role of image quality

Ellis and Beaton (1993a) reported that the keyword method of learning enhanced memory of foreign vocabulary items when receptive learning was measured. However, for productive learning, rote repetition was superior to the keyword method. The first two experiments reported here show that, in comparison with rote repetition, both receptive and productive learning can be enhanced by the keyword method, provided that the quality of the keyword images is adequate. In a third experiment using a subset of words from Ellis and Beaton (1993a), the finding they reported, that for productive learning rote repetition was superior to the keyword method, was reversed. The quality of keyword images will vary from study to study and any generalisation regarding the efficacy of the keyword method must take this into account.     

Calendar and reverse calendar effects: time peaks in memory as a function of temporal cues

Prior research on autobiographical memory revealed that students typically report more memories from semester boundaries than from other times. Explanations for these calendar effects were examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, temporal cues were eliminated from the memory cueing task, and an opposite outcome obtained: a greater amount of memories per week in the middle of semesters than at the boundaries (a reverse calendar effect). Experiment 2 replicated and extended this finding by including conditions with temporal cues at different points in the instructions: pre-retrieval or post-retrieval. In the no-cue condition, the reverse calendar effect was replicated. The calendar effect was evident in both cue conditions, but to a greater degree in the pre-retrieval group. These findings contradict encoding explanations of the calendar effect and are best explained by a combination of anchoring bias and temporal landmarks.     

Modality-constrained statistical learning of tactile, visual, and auditory sequences

The authors investigated the extent to which touch, vision, and audition mediate the processing of statistical regularities within sequential input. Few researchers have conducted rigorous comparisons across sensory modalities; in particular, the sense of touch has been virtually ignored. The current data reveal not only commonalities but also modality constraints affecting statistical learning across the senses. To be specific, the authors found that the auditory modality displayed a quantitative learning advantage compared with vision and touch. In addition, they discovered qualitative learning biases among the senses: Primarily, audition afforded better learning for the final part of input sequences. These findings are discussed in terms of whether statistical learning is likely to consist of a single, unitary mechanism or multiple, modality-constrained ones.     

Externalizing psychopathology in adulthood: a dimensional-spectrum conceptualization and its implications for DSM-V

Mental disorders involving antisocial behavior and substance use are genetically linked and vary continuously. The authors present a review and integrative conceptualization of these observations in terms of a dimensional and hierarchically organized externalizing spectrum. As a foundation for this conceptualization, the authors introduce a quantitative, model-based approach to comparing categorical and continuous conceptions of psychopathology and apply this approach in an empirical study of patterns of comorbidity among externalizing disorders as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The authors present evidence that comorbidity among externalizing disorders is best modeled by an underlying normally distributed continuum of risk for multiple disorders within the externalizing spectrum. The authors conclude by discussing implications of the externalizing spectrum conceptualization for classification of disorders in the upcoming 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.     

The General Health Questionnaire and Eysenck's three-dimensional model of personality

A sample of 115 men and women between the ages of 20 and 60 completed the 30-item General Health Questionnaire together with the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data indicate psychological distress so assessed is correlated .43 (p <.001) with Neuroticism and -.26 (p <.01) with Introversion but is unrelated to Psychoticism scores.     

Evaluation of behavioral skills training for teaching abduction-prevention skills to young children

This study examined the effectiveness of individual behavioral skills training in conjunction with in situ training in teaching 13 preschool children abduction prevention skills. Children's performance was measured during baseline, training, and at 2-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups using in situ assessments in which abduction prevention skills were measured in naturalistic settings. Results revealed that all the children learned the skills and all the children available at the 2-week and 1-month follow-ups maintained the skills at criterion level. All but 3 children's criterion-level performances were maintained at the 3-month follow-up as well.     

Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play: an evaluation of in situ training

This study evaluated behavioral skills training with added in situ training for teaching safety skills to prevent gun play. Following baseline, each child received two sessions of behavioral skills training and one in situ training session. Additional in situ training sessions were conducted until the child exhibited the safety skills (don't touch the gun, get away, and tell an adult). All children acquired and maintained the safety skills at a 3-month follow-up. In addition, of the 7 children assessed in a dyad situation, all exhibited the correct skills in the presence of another child.     

Acoustic mechanisms of note-type perception in black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) calls

Acoustic communication in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) has been studied intensively, the "chick-a-dee" call being among the most well described. This call consists of 4 note types; chickadees perceive these notes as open-ended categories and do so in a continuous manner, with As more similar to Bs and Bs more similar to Cs. Acoustic features contributing to the note-type differentiation are unknown. Recent analyses suggested that certain acoustic features may play a role in note-type classification. Here, the authors tested black-capped chickadees in an operant-conditioning paradigm to determine which features were controlling note-type perception. The results suggest that the note pitch and the frequency modulation in the initial portion of the note control the perception of note types.     

Life history and social learning: megapode chicks fail to acquire feeding preferences from conspecifics

Australian brush-turkeys, Alectura lathami, are birds with an unusual life history: The young receive no parental care and first encounter conspecifics at an unpredictable age. Brush-turkey chicks that were 3-4 days old were presented with a robot model that appeared to feed from a distinctively colored dish. In control training trials, chicks saw a robot standing next to a different dish and scanning from side to side. Chicks expressed a strong tendency to feed from dishes of the type indicated by the pecking robot, but this effect proved ephemeral. Brush-turkeys hence appear to show no social learning under conditions that inculcate stable preferences in other galliforms such as chickens, suggesting that life history plays an important role in the evolution of learning.     

Worry and Pathological Worry in Patients with Psoriasis: Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Analyses of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in Four Samples of Patients

The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Penn state Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in patients with psoriasis. A series of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies were undertaken to assess the reliability, stability and validity of the measure. Patients with psoriasis from four samples (consecutive attendees, anxious patients, depressed patients, and 6-month follow-up of consecutive attendees) completed the PSWQ and measures assessing related constructs of anxiety and depression (HADS) and coping (COPE). The clinical severity of patients psoriasis was also assessed by dermatologists using the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). Exploratory factor analysis was undertaken and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to examine the clinical utility of the PSWQ cut-off score for normal and pathological worry. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that the PSWQ is essentially unidimensional in patients with psoriasis. Intraclass correlation demonstrated that, over a 6-month period, the reproducibility of the PSWQ total scale was good in patients with anxiety and moderate in patients with depression. ROC analysis suggested that the optimum cutoff differentiating pathological worry was > 60, which is commensurate with findings in adult mental health more generally. The PSWQ cutoff for pathological worry showed a lower specificity for depression than anxiety. The PSWQ is an appropriate measure of pathological worry in patients with psoriasis. The cutoff on the scale for pathological worry demonstrates appropriate conceptual overlap with subordinate distress categories of anxiety and depression.