Effect of noise distractibility on the spans of apprehension of hyperactive boys

Denton and McIntyre (1978), using a forced-choice letterrecognition procedure, demonstrated increasing reductions in the spans of apprehension of hyperactive as compared to normal boys when a signal letter was embedded within an increasing number of noise letters. In the present study, the effect of variations in the amount of physical signal-noise similarity and noise redundancy upon the spans of apprehension of hyperactive and normal boys was compared to determine whether noise letters act as more potent distractors for the hyperactive boys. Results indicated the spans of both groups were effected equivalently by variations in signal-noise similarity and noise redundancy. No evidence for a distractibility explanation was obtained.     

A North American perspective on the psychological maltreatment of children

Psychological maltreatment may be the most common form of abuse suffered by North American children within the family environment. However, little effort has been directed towards eliminating and preventing it. The present article emphasizes the importance of thoroughly understanding the phenomenon so that effective intervention strategies can be developed. North American research studies of child maltreatment are reviewed and discussed with particular emphasis placed upon the manifestations of psychological maltreatment, the scope and the consequences of the problem, and the identification of associated risk factors. The paper identifies several areas for improvement before successful interventions can be conceptualized.     

The functions of phonology in the acquisition of reading: Lexical and sentence processing

It has been claimed (V. Coltheart, Laxon, Rickard, & Elton, 1988) that learners as well as skilled readers use phonology for multiple functions in reading-for-meaning tasks. This claim was examined using lexical decision and sentence evaluation tasks. It was found in the first experiment that the type of instruction learners had received determined whether there was prelexical use of phonology in responding to items out of sentence context. Type of instruction had no effect when the items were in context. In the second experiment, performances on a homophone sentence evaluation task and a homophone semantic decision task, which excluded sentence processing, were examined. The results suggest that phonology served the function of access to lexical meanings in addition to any function in postlexical sentence processing. The obtained relationships between relative frequencies of the presented and unpresented homophone mates and item accuracy on these tasks were inconsistent with exclusive use of “direct access” but consistent with access of lexical meanings via phonology and application of a “spelling-check” procedure when multiple homophonic meanings are activated.     

GENERALIZED IMITATION AND RESPONSE-CLASS FORMATION IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

An experimental analysis of imitation was conducted to examine the influence of response topography on generalization of imitation across three response types. Four children with autism were presented with both reinforced training trials and nonreinforced probe trials of models from vocal, toy-play, and pantomime response types. The probe trials were used to examine generalization within each response type. A multiple baseline design was used to analyze percentage of matching and nonmatching responses to models across response types. This study, the first to analyze imitative response classes in children with autism, showed that imitation generalized from reinforced training models to nonreinforced probe models within a response type, but it did not generalize across response types. Thus, functional response classes determined by topographical boundaries were exhibited within generalized imitation.     

Gendered virtual environments of STEM fields: a cultural-ecological analysis of predominantly white and historically black institutions

Although many studies have examined gender and racial discrepancies in STEM participation, few have considered variation in the gendered construction of STEM across racial spaces. We applied a cultural psychological perspective to investigate whether variation in conceptions of gender identity across African American and European American settings resonates with variation in gendered constructions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains across predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). We further examined implications of engagement with virtual STEM departments across these school categories. In Study 1, independent coders rated website images as less masculine, and evaluated website climates more favorably, for physics and biology departments at HBCUs relative to PWIs. In Studies 2 and 3, we used these website images as stimuli in within- and between-subjects experiments. Participants gave more positive ratings for sense of belonging and perceived climate in response to images from physics departments at HBCUs than at PWIs; women rated physics departments at PWIs as higher in masculinity than those at HBCUs. We replicated these patterns in Study 3, and also found that lower sense of belonging due to exposure to images from PWI physics departments predicted less interest in pursuing STEM fields among women only. We discuss implications of our findings for understanding and addressing gender discrepancies in STEM participation.

     

Moral Appraisal for Everyone: Neurodiversity,Epistemic Limitations,and Responding to the Right Reasons

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - De Re Significance accounts of moral appraisal consider an agent’s responsiveness to a particular kind of reason, normative moral reasons de re, to be of...     

What’s Religion Got to Do with It? Exploring College Students’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge and Awareness of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Relation to Their Gender and Religiosity

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiosity and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge and awareness of campus SRH services among college students on a racially and ethnically diverse college campus. The sample included 996 undergraduate students at a large public university in California. For women, there was a consistent pattern across religious affiliations of more frequent attenders reporting lower SRH knowledge than less frequent attenders. These findings suggest that higher rates of religious attendance among Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical women pose a risk for lower SRH knowledge. The results suggest the need for SRH outreach and educational materials targeting men in general, who had lower levels of SRH knowledge and awareness of SRH services overall, and taking religiosity into account, particularly with regard to women.     

Probing Representations of Gymnastics Movements: A Visual Priming Study

In this study, we designed a visual short‐term priming paradigm to investigate the mechanisms underlying the priming of movements and to probe movement representations in motor experts and matched controls. We employed static visual stimuli that implied or not human whole‐body movements, that is, gymnastics movements and static positions. Twelve elite female gymnasts and twelve matched controls performed a speeded two‐choice response time task. The participants were presented with congruent and incongruent prime‐target pairs and had to decide whether the target stimulus represented a gymnastics movement or a static position. First, a visual priming effect was observed in the two groups. Second, a stimulus–response rote association could not easily account for our results. Novel primes never presented as targets could also prime the targets. Third, by manipulating three levels of prime‐target relations in moving congruent pairs, we demonstrated that the more similar prime‐target pairs, the greater the facilitation in target. Lastly, gymnastics motor expertise impacted on priming effects.     

Alexithymia, Cumulative Feedback, and Differential Response Patterns on the Iowa Gambling Task

ABSTRACT Although the role of emotional processing is central to contemporary models of risky decision making, to date the role of trait emotional understanding has not been explored experimentally in this context. The current experiment ( N =326) explores the role of alexithymia with respect to performance on the standard Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and a version where cumulative financial feedback is obscured. Standard learning on the IGT was observed for those low in alexithymia. Those high in alexithymia learned to avoid disadvantageous decks over the first half of the task. However, over the later trials they showed a change in performance, shifting from advantageous to disadvantageous and back to advantageous decks again (termed an "explore-learn-change-return" strategy). It is argued that this is due to an inability to fully consolidate earlier learning and reduced sensitivity to losses. The absence of cumulative feedback independently resulted in reduced performance.