A Japanese short form of the Swanson Cognitive Processing Test to measure working memory: reliability, validity, and differences in scores between primary school children of the United States and Japan

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a Japanese short form of the Swanson Cognitive Processing Test, which assesses capacity of working memory. Test-retest reliability was acceptable (r = .76). Concurrent validity was suggested through comparison of scores on the Reading Span Task (r = .55). Means on the Japanese short form were comparable with means for the 3 subtests for the older group and 2 subtests for the younger group. With the exception of the Auditory Digit Sequence, results suggested that both the Japanese short form and the initial Swanson Cognitive Processing Test measured comparably the working memory in the two samples of children.     

Community Social Organization, Parents, and Peers as Mediators of Perceived Neighborhood Block Characteristics on Delinquent and Prosocial Activities

Research on contextual and neighborhood effects has grown exponentially over the past decade as researchers have reacknowledged that community matters. Although empirical findings have consistently documented the significant influence of neighborhood context, the field is just beginning to investigate the varied and multiple pathways through which this influence is transmitted. The current study found support for both a direct and indirect influence of perceived neighborhood structural characteristics (i.e., neighborhood stability, income), measured at the block level, on neighborhood and youth outcomes. Directly, perceived neighborhood advantage led to significantly lower neighborhood rates of official delinquency and higher rates of prosocial activity. Indirectly, perceived neighborhood advantage significantly impacted outcomes by influencing more proximal constructs such as community social organization, informal social control, parenting practices, and affiliation with delinquent peers. Different pathways were significant across neighborhood and youth outcomes, yet perceived neighborhood advantage, in particular neighborhood stability, consistently exerted substantial effects, highlighting the need for more comprehensive and multilevel prevention efforts.     

Specific phobia: a disorder of fear conditioning and extinction

Specific phobia is the most prevalent of the anxiety disorders. Although there have been relatively few studies of its psychobiology and pharmacotherapy, there is a rich laboratory of literature on fear conditioning and extinction and a clear evolutionary perspective. Advances in the cognitive-affective neuroscience of fear processing may ultimately lead to new approaches to the clinical management of phobias.     

Longitudinal Intellectual Assessment of Children With HIV Infection

The objective of this paper was to describe the intellectual development of 39 children with HIV infection. The children received serial evaluations over a 10-year period. Thirty-nine children were assessed with age-appropriate intellectual measures at regular intervals as part of their treatment in the HIV Program of a children's hospital. Children showed an 24-point drop in mean Bayley Mental scores over the first 2 years of life. McCarthy scores remained in the low average range from ages 3–5 years. IQ scores were stable by age 6 in the low average range, and unchanged through age 12. Significant changes in memory, vocabulary, and performance subtests were noted. Children with HIV infection demonstrated a significant decline in mental functioning over the first 2 years of life, fell into the low average range by age 3, and remained in the low average range, with subtle changes in some areas.     

Genetic factors in neuromuscular pain

Recent evidence suggests that fibromyalgia, a chronic widespread pain condition and related syndromes (chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.) may share heritable pathophysiologic features. We review the recent literature on genetic and familial factors found to participate in the pathogenesis of these syndromes, specifically fibromyalgia, including evidence suggesting that serotonin- and dopamine-related genes may play a role in the pathogenesis of these illnesses. The importance of environmental factors triggering these conditions in predisposed individuals is also discussed.     

An exploration of the attitudinal and perceptual dimensions of body image among male and female adolescents from six Latin American cities

Using survey methodology, this exploratory study examined the attitudinal and perceptual dimensions of body image among 1,272 eighth- and ninth-grade males and females from higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds in Buenos Aires, Argentina (n = 195), Guatemala City, Guatemala (n = 212), Havana, Cuba (n = 213), Lima, Peru (n = 218), Panama City, Panama (n = 195), and Santiago, Chile (n = 239). The two dimensions of body image were assessed by showing the participants nine male and nine female silhouettes depicting body sizes ranging from extremely thin (#1) to extremely obese (#9). Approximately 50% of the male and female adolescents chose silhouette #3 as best depicting the attractive male body. Silhouette #2 was chosen by 45% of the females as best depicting feminine attractiveness, while 45% of the males chose silhouette #3. When identifying the silhouette that best depicted the healthy male body, 26% of the participants chose silhouette #2, 41% chose #3, and 19% chose #4. Silhouette #2 was selected by 33% of the adolescents as best depicting the healthy female body, 38% chose #3, and 14% chose #4. In all cities, the effect of body mass index (BMI) on body satisfaction was highly significant (p < 0.001). Almost 40% of the middle weight adolescents indicated a preference to be thinner, even though 72% of the males and 84% of the females in this subgroup already perceived themselves as thin. Similarly, 89% of the heavier weight participants indicated a preference to be thinner, even though only 10% of the males and 2% of the females in this subgroup perceived themselves as heavy. In five of the six cities, a significantly higher (p < 0.05) percentage of females than males desired to be thinner, the exception being Havana, where the distribution of desired change in body size was almost identical for males and females. Findings suggest a need for culturally sensitive, age- and gender-specific preventive interventions focusing on the importance of achieving a healthy weight during adolescence to promote body size acceptance among adolescents who are at a healthy weight.     

Two studies examining the negative effect of self-efficacy on performance

Although hundreds of studies have found a positive relationship between self-efficacy and performance, several studies have found a negative relationship when the analysis is done across time (repeated measures) rather than across individuals. W. T. Powers (1991) predicted this negative relationship based on perceptual control theory. Here, 2 studies are presented to (a) confirm the causal role of self-efficacy and (b) substantiate the explanation. In Study 1, self-efficacy was manipulated for 43 of 87 undergraduates on an analytic game. The manipulation was negatively related to performance on the next trial. In Study 2, 104 undergraduates played the analytic game and reported self-efficacy between each game and confidence in the degree to which they had assessed previous feedback. As expected, self-efficacy led to overconfidence and hence increased the likelihood of committing logic errors during the game.     

Adaptationism--how to carry out an exaptationist program

Adaptationism is a research strategy that seeks to identify adaptations and the specific selective forces that drove their evolution in past environments. Since the mid-1970s, paleontologist Stephen J. Gould and geneticist Richard Lewontin have been critical of adaptationism, especially as applied toward understanding human behavior and cognition. Perhaps the most prominent criticism they made was that adaptationist explanations were analogous to Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories (outlandish explanations for questions such as how the elephant got its trunk). Since storytelling (through the generation of hypotheses and the making of inferences) is an inherent part of science, the criticism refers to the acceptance of stories without sufficient empirical evidence. In particular, Gould, Lewontin, and their colleagues argue that adaptationists often use inappropriate evidentiary standards for identifying adaptations and their functions, and that they often fail to consider alternative hypotheses to adaptation. Playing prominently in both of these criticisms are the concepts of constraint, spandrel, and exaptation. In this article we discuss the standards of evidence that could be used to identify adaptations and when and how they may be appropriately used. Moreover, building an empirical case that certain features of a trait are best explained by exaptation, spandrel, or constraint requires demonstrating that the trait's features cannot be better accounted for by adaptationist hypotheses. Thus, we argue that the testing of alternatives requires the consideration, testing, and systematic rejection of adaptationist hypotheses. Where possible, we illustrate our points with examples taken from human behavior and cognition.