Cognitive Heuristics and AIDS Risk Assessment Among Physicians1

Physicians (N= 331) reported perceived risk of HIV exposure, worry about on-the-job HIV exposure, and experience with patients who test seropositive for the HIV. In addition, the use of the availability heuristic was examined by responses to questions about talking and reading about AIDS, and the use of the simulation heuristic was examined by responses to questions about imagining oneself being exposed to HIV on the job. Simulation of the HIV-exposure experience related significantly to perceived risk (p < .001), even after variance attributable to actual experience and use of the availability heuristic was taken into account. Availability of AIDS information related marginally to perceived risk after variance attributable to actual experience and use of the simulation heuristic was taken into account. Simulation related strongly with worry about on-the-job exposure (p < .001), and availability was not significantly related to worry after variance associated with simulation and experience with AIDS was removed. Implications of these results for physician training are discussed.     

Development of a short form of the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI)

The Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) is widely used in research and practical settings and has particular application to the assessment and treatment of test anxiety in student populations. However, there are a number of instances in which a short version of the TAI would be more appropriate, especially when time constraints preclude the use of the full form. Similar short forms have been developed for other measures such as the State scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; T. M. Marteau & H. Bekker, 1992). The authors of the present study aimed to develop a short form of the TAI. The TAI was completed by 333 undergraduate psychology students. Item-remainder correlations were used to compare short forms with varying numbers of items. Internal consistency and concurrent and construct validity were assessed in hypothetical and actual examination conditions. A 5-item short form produced optimal reliability and validity, and a balance of items from the Worry and Emotionality subscales of the TAI. Further research is needed to replicate these results, but the 5-item short form of the TAI shows promise, particularly for contexts in which time demands preclude the use of longer versions.     

Anomalous Evidence,Confidence Change,and Theory Change

A novel experimental paradigm that measured theory change and confidence in participants' theories was used in three experiments to test the effects of anomalous evidence. Experiment 1 varied the amount of anomalous evidence to see if “dose size” made incremental changes in confidence toward theory change. Experiment 2 varied whether anomalous evidence was convergent (of multiple types) or replicating (similar finding repeated). Experiment 3 varied whether participants were provided with an alternative theory that explained the anomalous evidence. All experiments showed that participants' confidence changes were commensurate with the amount of anomalous evidence presented, and that larger decreases in confidence predicted theory changes. Convergent evidence and the presentation of an alternative theory led to larger confidence change. Convergent evidence also caused more theory changes. Even when people do not change theories, factors pertinent to the evidence and alternative theories decrease their confidence in their current theory and move them incrementally closer to theory change.     

Positive Contact with Feminist Women as a Predictor of Feminist Solidarity,Gender Privilege Awareness,and Public and Domestic Support for Gender Equality in Straight Men

Men can play an important role in supporting gender equality. In the present research, we draw on Intergroup Contact Theory to examine positive intergroup contact with feminist women as one factor that can encourage men to support gender equality. In one cross-sectional study (N?=?170) and one half-longitudinal panel study (N?=?240), we found that straight men who reported more positive contact with feminist women also reported greater feminist solidarity. Cross-sectional results indicated that straight men’s solidarity with feminists, in turn, predicted more support for gender equality in public and domestic spheres and greater awareness of their gender privilege. The longitudinal results also supported the association between solidarity with feminists and gender privilege awareness, but not public and domestic support for gender equality. Decades of research has shown that positive intergroup contact can change attitudes. Our research suggests that, when it comes to gender equality, positive contact with feminist women may also encourage men to identify with feminists and raise their gender consciousness.

     

Acute Intellectual Effects of Pediatric Head Trauma

The current study compared Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) performances of 30 children who sustained head injury with the performance of orthopedic controls matched on gender, age, race, and parental education and occupational attainment. Children were followed during initial hospitalization, trauma severity variables were recorded, and duration of posttraumatic amnesia (PTA) was determined by serial testing of mental status. The WISC-III was administered immediately following resolution of amnesia. Although the majority of patients sustained mild injuries, children with head injuries obtained significantly lower IQ and factor scores than nonneurologically injured children. Consistent with past research, performance-based scores including Performance IQ, Perceptual Organization, and Processing Speed were more sensitive to head trauma than their verbal counterparts. Standardized measurement of PTA appeared to be a better predictor of IQ status following injury than Glasgow Coma Scale score on admission or length of unconsciousness.     

Testing the limits of testing effects using completion tests

Recent work on testing effects has shown that retrieval practice can facilitate memory even for complex prose materials (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006a, 2006b). In three experiments the current study explores the effectiveness of retrieval practice on fill-in-the-blank (FITB) tests requiring the recall of specific words or phrases from a text. Final tests included both repeated items that were directly taken from initial tests, and related items. In Experiment 1, with a 2-day delay between initial and final tests, FITB testing benefited performance only on repeated items. In Experiment 2 a 7-day delay between testing sessions led to more robust effects on repeated items. However, once again no benefits were seen for related items. In Experiment 3 the scope of retrieval was varied by comparing FITB tests to paragraph recall tests requiring retrieval of all sentences following a topic sentence. Only the more open-ended recall practice demonstrated improvements in transfer to novel questions. The results suggest that scope or type of processing required during retrieval practice is likely a critical factor in whether testing will have specific or robust benefits.     

Direction Orientation in Children

Abstract

The mental and physical life of school children. By Peter Sandiford. London, Longmans, Green &; Co., 1913. 346 p.

The demonstration schools record, number two; edited by J. J. Findlay. Manchester, University Press, 1913. 283 p.

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Foods and household management; a textbook of the household arts. By Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley. N. Y., Macmillan, 1914. 401 p.

The Montessori method and the American school. By Florence Elizabeth Ward. N. Y., Macmillan, 1913. 243 p.

Advanced English grammar. By William T. Harris. Yonkers-on-Hudson, world Book Co., 1912. 511 p.

Hygiene for girls; individual and community. By Florence Harvey Richards. Boston, D. C. Heath &; Co., 1913. 257 p.

Young boys and boarding school; the functions, organisation and administration of the sub-preparatory boarding-school for boys. By Horace Holden. Boston, Richard G. Badger, 1913. 197 p.

Psychologie der Sprachpädagogik; Versuche zu einer Darstellung der Prinsipien des fremdsprachlichen Unterrichts auf Grund der psychologischen Natur der Sprache. Von. Chr. B. Flagstad. Leipzig, B. G. Teubner, 1913. 370 p.

Principles of education. By T. Raymont. London, Longmans, Green, 1913. 381 p.

Young folks handbook. Philadelphia, American Institute of Child Life, 1913. 215 p.

Intensive studies in American literature. By Alma Blount. New York, Macmillan, 1914. 331 p.

Chinese womanhood. By Lucinda Pearl Boggs. Cincinnati, Jennings &; Graham, 1913. 129 p.

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Elements of debating. By Leverett S. Lyon. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1913. 136 p.

Paedologisch Jaarboek, volume 8. Edited by M. C. Schuyten. Paris, Librairie C. Reinwald, 1913.

A cyclopedia of education. Volume 5. Edited by Paul Monroe. N. Y., Macmillan, 1913. 892 p.

Die Erkennung des Schwachsinns beim Kinde. Von Emil Villiger. Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann, 1913. 90 p.

The French verb; its forms and tense uses. By William A. Nitze and Ernest H. Wilkins. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1914. 40 p. (With French verb blanks.)

Trans-Atlantic historical solidarity. Lectures delivered before the University of Oxford in Easter and Trinity terms, 1013. By Charles Francis Adams. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1913. 184 p.

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Concrete investigation of the material of English spelling; with conclusions bearing on the problem of teaching spelling. By W. Franklin Jones. Vermillion, S. D., University of South Dakota. 27 p.

Panama canal; what it is and what it means. By John Barrett. Washington, D. C., Pan American Union, 1913. 120 p.

The Pan American Union; peace, friendship, commerce. By John Barrett, 1911. 253 p.

Table talk in the home. By the Literary staff of the institute. Monograph of the American Institute of Child Life. Philadelphia, 1913. 16 p.

Calendar of childhood and youth. Prepared by William Byron Forbush and the educational staff of the American Institute of Child Life. Philadelphia, American Institute of Child Life, 1913. 59 p.     

EMPATHY AND THE EVOLUTION OF COMPASSION: FROM DEEP HISTORY TO INFUSED VIRTUE

This article poses a challenge to contemporary theories in psychology that portray empathy as a negative force in the moral life. Instead, drawing on alternative psychological and philosophical literature, especially Martha Nussbaum, I argue that empathy is related to the virtue of compassion and therefore crucial for moral action. Evidence for evolutionary anthropological accounts of compassion in early hominins provides additional arguments for its positive value in deep human history. I discuss this work alongside Thomistic notions of practical wisdom, compassion, misericordia, and the importance of reason in the moral life. The tension between “bottom up” accounts of empathy and that according to a theological interpretation of “infused” virtues also needs to be addressed. From a secular perspective, infused virtue is a projection of the ideal moral life, but from a theological perspective, it is a way of understanding how human capacities through the action of grace can reach beyond what seem to be the limits of psychological moral identity.     

New rule use drives the relation between working memory capacity and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices

The correlation between individual differences in working memory capacity and performance on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) is well documented yet poorly understood. The present work proposes a new explanation: that the need to use a new combination of rules on RAPM problems drives the relation between performance and working memory capacity scores. Evidence for this account is supported by an item-based analysis of performance during standard administration of the RAPM and an experiment that manipulates the need to use new rule combinations across 2 subsets of RAPM items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).