Neural and behavioral correlates of emotion recognition in children and adults.

Event-related potentials (ERPs), accuracy scores, and reaction times were used to examine the recognition of emotional expressions. Adults and 7-year-old children saw upright and inverted chromatic slides of the facial expressions of happiness, fear, surprise, and anger, and were asked to press a button for either "happy" or "angry" faces. A positive-going waveform (P300) was apparent at parietal scalp (Pz) and at left and right temporal scalp. Although the behavioral data were similar for both children and adults (e.g., both had more difficulty recognizing angry expressions than happy ones, and angry expressions were more difficult to recognize upside-down than were happy faces), the ERPs indicated that children responded differently than adults did to happy and angry expressions. Adults showed greater P300 amplitude to happy faces, while children showed greater P300 amplitude to angry faces. In addition, for adults, but not children, there were greater P300 amplitude responses at right vs. left temporal scalp.     

The effect of object alignment on the representation of depth in young children's drawings.

Light and Humphreys (1981, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 31, 521-530) provided evidence that young children's drawings, despite infrequently showing view-specific occlusion, do systematically reflect spatial relations within an array. The present research tested the hypothesis that young children's preferences for canonical "best views" interact with array-faithful tendencies to increase early uses of occlusion. Forty-three children between 4 and 7 years of age drew arrays like Light and Humphreys' end-to-end alignments, with end-on views of objects in depth, and arrays aligned side-to-side, with canonical side-views of objects in depth. Significantly fewer single-object, view-specific occlusions were produced for end-to-end than for side-to-side alignments. Nevertheless, the former reveal that more children are able to use the vertical dimension to depict multiple objects in depth. Other comparisons suggest an interaction in multiple-object depictions of canonicality with spatial dimension and graphic complexity.     

Some perceptual and cognitive factors in mirror tracing: their limits.

Three mirror tracing experiments were conducted to investigate the connection between perception and motor behavior. In the first experiment, some subjects traced a hex-maze, other subjects traced a hex-maze after observing a model trace, others traced a hex-maze after reading instructions on mirror images, and others traced a hex-maze after having observed a model and heard the instructions. There were no significant differences between the groups' error scores, but their time scores differed significantly, although not always in the predicted direction. In Experiment 2, the subjects were to trace selected letters of the alphabet. Error scores for the second experiment did not differ much from those for the first experiment. In Experiment 3, the experimenter gave each subject commands for the correct directions of movement, using the subject's body as a frame-of-reference. There was little improvement in motor performance. These results suggest that the visual information presented in the mirror captured the subjects' attention and blocked their motor tracing program.     

Retraining Displaced Workers: Factors Affecting Success in Training Programs

In this study 21 displaced workers were interviewed regarding factors affecting their participation in training programs funded by the Job Training Partnership Act. Differences between program participants and nonparticipants, differences among program participants, and differences among nonparticipants were identified.     

The Career Exploration Inventory: Expanding Options for the Unemployed

The Career Exploration Inventory, an innovative interest inventory that measures work and leisure interests throughout the life span, can be used by employment counselors to assist their clients in the exploration of the interaction of work and leisure interests.     

Effects of Response Set on the Infrequent Response Index of the Strong Interest Inventory

Associations of two different response sets on the Infrequent Response Index of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) were examined. In one, participants responded to each item randomly; in the other, participants deliberately misrepresented their responses. The finding of scores higher than those proposed in the SII manual for the Infrequent Response Index suggests an alternative interpretation of this critical index.     

Career Aspirations of Pregnant Teens

This study examined the career aspirations of pregnant teens enrolled in a program designed to minimize their chances of dropping out of high school. The teens completed a demographic data form that included questions on their career aspirations. The data were coded by Holland type using the Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes. Trends were discussed in light of the future labor market and critical need for career counseling for this at-risk population.     

Hiring Practices for Human Resource Professionals: Implications for Counseling and Curriculum Development

Employers of human resource professionals described their hiring practices. This information is especially useful for counselors and for developing curricula for nonbusiness majors interested in human resource careers.     

Moderated regression analysis and Likert scales: too coarse for comfort.

One of the most commonly accepted models of relationships among three variables in applied industrial and organizational psychology is the simple moderator effect. However, many authors have expressed concern over the general lack of empirical support for interaction effects reported in the literature. We demonstrate in the current sample that use of a continuous, dependent-response scale instead of a discrete, Likert-type scale, causes moderated regression analysis effect sizes to increase an average of 93%. We suggest that use of relatively coarse Likert scales to measure fine dependent responses causes information loss that, although varying widely across subjects, greatly reduces the probability of detecting true interaction effects. Specific recommendations for alternate research strategies are made.     

Information Load: A Test of an Inverted-U Hypothesis with Hourly and Salaried Employees

We surveyed 714 hourly and 516 salaried employees of a midwestern telephone company to test the effects of information load on work-related outcomes. Using curvilinear regression analyses, we found support for our hypothesis that employees are less satisfied with outcomes as the load of information deviates positively or negatively from some level. We also predicted, and found, that this quadratic function was more prevalent in the hourly group than in the salaried group. Implications, future research directions, and limitations of the present study are discussed.