Characterizing the musical phenotype in individuals with Williams Syndrome.

Williams Syndrome (WS), a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder, is characterized by peaks and valleys in mental function: substantial impairments in cognitive domains such as reasoning, arithmetic ability, and spatial cognition, alongside relatively preserved skills in social domains, face processing, language, and music. We report the results of a comprehensive survey on musical behaviors and background administered to the largest sample of individuals with WS to date (n = 118, mean age = 20.4), and compare the results to those obtained from a control group of typically developing normal individuals (n = 118, mean age = 20.9) and two groups of individuals with other neurodevelopmental genetic disorders, Autism (n = 30, mean age = 18.2) and Down Syndrome (n = 40, mean age = 17.2). Individuals with WS were found to be rated higher in musical accomplishment, engagement, and interest than either of the comparison groups, and equivalent on most measures to the control group. Compared to all other groups including the controls, the WS individuals displayed greater emotional responses to music, manifested interest in music at an earlier age, and spent more hours per week listening to music. In addition, the effects of music listening (whether positive or negative) tended to last longer in the WS group. A factor analysis extracted seven principal components that characterize the musical phenotype in our sample, and discriminant function analysis of those factors was able to successfully predict group membership for the majority of cases. We discuss the neurobiological implications of these findings.     

Interaction of Recruiter and Applicant Gender in Resume Evaluation: A Field Study

In the present study, we examined the effect of recruiter and applicant gender on recruiters' evaluations of applicants' qualifications as reported on actual applicant resumes. Forty recruiters evaluated applicant resumes that were randomly allocated to them. In total, 388 recruiter evaluations of applicant resumes comprised the sample. Results indicate that recruiter and applicant gender interacted to predict recruiters' perceptions of applicants' qualifications. Male recruiters' perceptions of applicants' work experiences did not differ depending on applicant gender. However, female recruiters perceived male applicants' resumes to report more work experiences than resumes of female applicants. Furthermore, male recruiters perceived female applicants as having more extracurricular interests than male applicants. Female recruiters rated both male and female applicants as having about the same amount of extracurricular activity information on their resumes. Gender role theory provides a possible explanation for the study's findings.     

Structural Validation of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale

Despite the prolific use of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), there have been no prior studies using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to compare competing HDRS latent structures. The current study undertakes this task, examining CFAs on 397 older adults on the most stable latent models previously posited and a new rationally derived model by Cole and Motivala. CFAs were evaluated in their original first-order structure and in hierarchically related counterparts. All hierarchical models performed significantly better than their first-order counterparts. Moreover, the hierarchical Cole and Motivala model was significantly better on all comparative criteria than any of the other models. However, none of the tested models obtained sufficient fit with the data suggesting psychometric, scoring, or content limitations of the scale.     

Racial Identity and Gender as Moderators of the Relationship Between Body Image and Self-esteem for African Americans

This study explored whether multiple dimensions of racial identity and gender moderated the relationship between body dissatisfaction and self-esteem for African American men and women (N?=?425) using an intersectional approach. Centrality (strength of identification with racial group), private regard (positive feelings about racial group), public regard (positive feelings others have about racial group), and gender moderated the relationship between body dissatisfaction and self-esteem for a sample of men (n?=?109) and women (n?=?316) college students from three regions of the United States. Body dissatisfaction was related to lower self-esteem only for those African Americans for whom race was less central to their identities. High private regard and low body dissatisfaction were synergistically associated with higher self-esteem. Similarly, low public regard and high body dissatisfaction were synergistically related to lower self-esteem. There was a positive main effect for assimilation ideology (emphasis on similarities between African Americans and Western society) on self-esteem; however it was not a significant moderator. The relationship between body dissatisfaction and self-esteem was stronger for women than for men. This study extends our knowledge of the ways in which racial attitudes and gender shape how African Americans experience their bodies and are related to self-esteem.     

Structure and measurement of depression in youths: applying item response theory to clinical data

Our goals in this article were to use item response theory (IRT) to assess the relation of depressive symptoms to the underlying dimension of depression and to demonstrate how IRT-based measurement strategies can yield more reliable data about depression severity than conventional symptom counts. Participants were 3,403 children and adolescents from 12 contributing clinical and nonclinical samples; all participants had received the Kiddie Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children. Results revealed that some symptoms reflected higher levels of depression and were more discriminating than others. Furthermore, use of IRT-based information about symptom severity and discriminability in the measurement of depression severity was shown to reduce measurement error and increase measurement fidelity.     

What the experimenter’s prime tells the observer’s brain

The presentation of a stimulus below the threshold of conscious awareness can exert an influence on the processing of a subsequent target. One such consequence of briefly presented “primes” is seen in the negative compatibility effect. The response time (RT) to determine the left—right orientation of an arrow (i.e., the target) is relatively slow if a prime is also an arrow whose direction corresponds to that of the target. When the direction of the arrow is opposite that of the prime, RTs are relatively fast. In four experiments, we examined whether the prime shifts attention from the location of the subsequent target and whether this attention shift influences target processing. Results showed that the prime does indeed move attention. The consequence of this attention movement is that the representation of direction is affected. Specifically, RTs to process an arrow are shorter if the arrow’s direction is compatible with the last shift of attention. Furthermore, this interference occurs at a conceptual level concerning the representation of left and right rather than at the motor planning level. We argue that a shift in attention brought about by the prime can create a negative compatibility-like effect.     

Perceptual grouping and distance estimates in typical and atypical development: comparing performance across perception, drawing and construction tasks

Perceptual grouping is a pre-attentive process which serves to group local elements into global wholes, based on shared properties. One effect of perceptual grouping is to distort the ability to estimate the distance between two elements. In this study, biases in distance estimates, caused by four types of perceptual grouping, were measured across three tasks, a perception, a drawing and a construction task in both typical development (TD: Experiment 1) and in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS: Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, perceptual grouping distorted distance estimates across all three tasks. Interestingly, the effect of grouping by luminance was in the opposite direction to the effects of the remaining grouping types. We relate this to differences in the ability to inhibit perceptual grouping effects on distance estimates. Additive distorting influences were also observed in the drawing and the construction task, which are explained in terms of the points of reference employed in each task. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the above distortion effects are also observed in WS. Given the known deficit in the ability to use perceptual grouping in WS, this suggests a dissociation between the pre-attentive influence of and the attentive deployment of perceptual grouping in WS. The typical distortion in relation to drawing and construction points towards the presence of some typical location coding strategies in WS. The performance of the WS group differed from the TD participants on two counts. First, the pattern of overall distance estimates (averaged across interior and exterior distances) across the four perceptual grouping types, differed between groups. Second, the distorting influence of perceptual grouping was strongest for grouping by shape similarity in WS, which contrasts to a strength in grouping by proximity observed in the TD participants.     

Developmental changes in depressive cognitions: a longitudinal evaluation of the Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children

As part of a longitudinal study, the Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children (CTI-C; N. J. Kaslow, K. D. Stark, B. Printz, R. Livingston, & S. L. Tsai, 1992) as well as other measures of cognitive style and depressive symptoms were administered annually to 3 cohorts of children starting in Grades 2, 4, and 6. Developmentally based analyses revealed 4 things: (a) The factor structure of the CTI-C changed over the course of middle childhood and then stabilized in early adolescence; (b) the CTI-C correlated significantly with measures of depression, self-perceived competence, self-worth, perceived controllability, and perceived contingency, but not with measures of attributional style; (c) 1-year stability correlations increased substantially from Grade 2 to Grade 8; and (d) the CTI-C did not generally predict self-reported depressive symptoms 1 year later. Implications emerge regarding developmental changes in the structure of children's depressive cognitions.     

Attentional and automatic processes in line tracing: is tracing obligatory?

When comparing two target elements placed on the same convoluted curve, response times are dependent on the distance between the targets along the curve, despite being separated by a constant Euclidean distance. The present study assessed whether such line tracing is obligatory across the whole of the line even when the task demands do not require it, or whether it is an optional strategy that can be disregarded when the circumstances favor a different method of attentional deployment. Three experiments were conducted to assess whether attention can select only a portion of a curve to trace when it is strategically sensible to do so. The results suggest that attention can indeed jump over portions of a line that are irrelevant to task performance before tracing has begun. However, the final experiment suggests that line tracing may continue beyond the task-relevant portion of the line. We conclude that line tracing is a strategy whose initial deployment can be influenced by top-down factors, rather than an obligatory response triggered by the stimuli-although, once engaged, line tracing may be hard to stop.