Visual distinctivenesscan enhance recency effects

Experimental efforts to meliorate the modality effect have included attempts to make the visual stimulus more distinctive. McDowd and Madigan (1991) failed to find an enhanced recency effect in serial recall when the last item was made more distinct in terms of its color. In an attempt to extend this finding, three experiments were conducted in which visual distinctiveness was manipulated in a different manner, by combining the dimensions of physical size and coloration (i.e., whether the stimuli were solid or outlined in relief). Contrary to previous findings, recency was enhanced when the size and coloration of the last item differed from the other items in the list, regardless of whether the “distinctive” item was larger or smaller than the remaining items. The findings are considered in light of other research that has failed to obtain a similar enhanced recency effect, and their implications for current theories of the modality effect are discussed.     

Bilingual computerized speech-recognition screening for clinical depression: Evaluating a cellular telephone prototype

This exploratory field study evaluated a bilingual computerized speech-recognition cellular telephone prototype of the Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression scale (CES-D). Thirty Spanish and 22 English speakers completed both computer-telephone and face-to-face CES-D methods and an oral depression checklist in counterbalanced order. Both language groups reported high positive ratings for the computer-telephone method, with the English sample preferring the computer-telephone over the face-to-face method. In both samples, the computer-telephone method yielded high internal consistency estimates, strong alternate form reliabilities, and similar high correlations to the depression checklist. Both groups reported significantly elevated scores with the computer-telephone method, but total score variances for both methods did not differ. Computer-telephone limitations included occasional misrecognitions and template training constraints.     

Coping Effectiveness: A Path Analysis of Self-Efficacy,Control, Coping,and Performance in Sport Competitions1

We examined a model of coping effectiveness based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) stress and coping theory and Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory. Female athletes (n= 178) aged 16 to 28 were studied over two rounds of a sport event. Path analysis (LISREL VI) revealed that higher levels of self-efficacy and control appraisals were associated with better performance. As expected, performance and performance satisfaction in Round 1 influenced appraisals and coping during the second performance. In addition, control appraisal was associated with disengagement coping, and both engagement and disengagement coping were related to performance and performance satisfaction. Self-efficacy mediated the performance/control relationship for Round 1, but not the performance satisfaction relationship.     

Do Solo Arrangements Lead to Attributions of Tokenism? Perceptions of Selection Criteria and Task Assignments to Race and Gender Solos1

In 2 studies, African American and White participants judged the likelihood that solos in work groups were selected for membership in a work group on the basis of either affirmative action or ability. Following this, they were asked to imagine themselves as managers of the group and to assign tasks to each of the employees. Judgments of the overall work groups were also obtained. As expected, the extent to which observers attributed the presence of the solo to affirmative action and assigned tasks was dependent on the gender and race of the solo and, importantly, the gender and race of the majority of group members. These findings have practical utility in that they point to the continuing importance of context effects in impression formation and task assignments.     

The Role of Declarative and Procedural Knowledge in Capital Murder Sentencing1

This paper identifies rational orderliness and moral appropriateness as 2 norms that the United States Constitution requires for sentencing in capital murder trials. The courts convey these norms directly to jurors through jury instructions in the penalty phase of capital murder trials. To follow the instructions, jurors require accurate declarative knowledge (rules of law) and procedural knowledge (processes required to execute the rules) of state and federal sentencing law. Undergraduate mock jurors showed low accuracy for both types of knowledge after reviewing and listening to pattern jury instructions. Participants failed to offset aggravating factors with mitigating circumstances as the Missouri Approved Jury Instructions direct. The less knowledge that participants mastered about mitigation, the more certain they were of invoking the death penalty.     

Effects of sequence length and structure on implicit serial learning

Some data suggest that, as in explicit serial learning, longer sequences are more difficult to learn implicitly. These findings have been used to support the inference that implicit learning is capacity-limited. However, investigations of the effect of sequence length on implicit learning have confounded sequence structure with sequence length. These factors were manipulated independently in 3 experiments using a serial reaction time task. The results showed that sequence structure, not sequence length, largely determines the extent of sequence learning.     

Functional analysis and treatment of problem behavior related to mands for rearrangement

This study is a systematic replication of a functional analysis (FA) of the relation between mands and problem behavior. We extended treatment approaches for this problem behavior function, and describe the treatment of problem behavior related to mands for rearrangement demonstrated by a 12‐year‐old girl with autism spectrum disorder and Smith‐Magenis syndrome. The mands consisted of requests for others to change their body positioning or proximity, or rearrange items back to their original position. An FA confirmed the relation between problem behavior and mand compliance, and functional communication training with extinction decreased problem behavior and increased functional communication responses. Problem behavior remained low as gradually longer nonreinforcement periods were introduced using a multiple schedule.     

Clinical and functional correlates of processing speed in pediatric Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

It is well established that processing speed is negatively impacted in children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Unfortunately, exactly how processing speed vulnerabilities manifest in daily functioning has not been well established. To support clinical care of youth with ADHD, it is important to better understand the functional consequences and relevant outcomes associated with processing speed deficits. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to identify the association between processing speed and clinical or functional correlates among children or adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. A total of 409 abstracts were screened, of which, 60 full-text articles were identified as potentially relevant, and 8 of these studies met inclusion criteria. Domains evaluated across these studies included reading skills, mathematics skills, written expression, anxiety, self-appraisals of competence, and adaptive functioning. Six studies reported an association between processing speed and reading skills, allowing for meta-analysis. Processing speed difficulties among youth with ADHD appear strongly associated with several clinical and functional correlates including weaker academic skills, poorer adaptive skills, increased self-reported anxiety, and overestimates of social competence. Meta-analytic results for studies reporting the association between processing speed and reading skills indicate a medium overall weighted mean effect size (r = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.28 –0.39) with minimal heterogeneity (I² = 0.17). Clinical implications of these findings, limitations in the current knowledge base, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Multiple schedules,off‐baseline reinforcement shifts,and resistance to extinction

Resistance to extinction in a target multiple‐schedule component varies inversely with the rate of reinforcement arranged in an alternative component during baseline. The present experiment asked whether changing the reinforcer rate in an alternative component would impact extinction of target component responding if those changes occurred in an off‐baseline phase during which the target component was never experienced. Pigeons' key pecking was studied in three types of conditions, and each condition consisted of three phases. In Phase 1, pecking produced food in the target and alternative components of a multiple schedule according to variable‐interval 60‐s schedules. In Phase 2, the alternative‐component stimulus was presented alone in a single schedule. Pecking during this phase produced the same reinforcer rate as in baseline in the Control condition, a higher rate of food (variable‐interval 15 s) in the High‐Rate condition, or was extinguished in the Extinction condition. Extinction of target‐ and alternative‐component key pecking then was assessed in a multiple schedule during the final phase of each condition. Resistance to extinction of target‐component key pecking was the same between the Control and High‐Rate conditions but lower in the Extinction condition. These findings are discussed in terms of discrimination and generalization processes.