The role of mental rotation and age in spatial perspective‐taking tasks: when age does not impair perspective‐taking performance

The relationship between self‐evaluation of sense of direction, mental rotation, and performance in map learning and pointing tasks has been investigated in a life‐span perspective. Study 1 compared younger and older people in the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) and on the Sense of Direction and Spatial Representation (SDSR) Scale. Older people achieved higher scores on the SDSR Scale, but a lower performance in MRT compared with younger participants. In Study 2, groups of younger and older adults, one of each, were matched in the MRT, and pointing tasks in aligned and counter‐aligned perspectives were administered. Our results showed that, when so matched, older participants performed better than the younger counterparts in perspective‐taking tasks, but their performance was worse in map learning. Aligned pointing was performed better than the counter‐aligned task in both age groups, showing an alignment effect. Furthermore the performance in the counter‐aligned pointing was significantly correlated with MRT scores. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationship Characteristics and Risk of HIV Infection: Rusbult's Investment Model and Sexual Risk Behavior of Gay Men in Steady Relationships1

This study examined the effects of relationship characteristics, as measured by Rusbult's (1980) investment model, on safer‐sex behavior between steady gay male partners. Analyses showed that low satisfaction with the relationship was associated with more risky unprotected anal intercourse (UAI). High commitment to the relationship was associated with more practice of negotiated safety (i.e., having safe UAI after both partners have tested negative for HIV and have reached sexual safety agreements). High relationship investment was associated with more risky UAI (borderline significant). We conclude that using relationship satisfaction, commitment, and investment as co‐determinants of sexual risk behavior could prove useful in the development of new HIV‐prevention strategies for gay men in relationships.     

Social information processing skills link executive functions to aggression in adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disability

Executive Functions (EFs) have been associated with aggression in children and adolescents. EFs as higher-order cognitive abilities are assumed to affect cognitive functions such as Social Information Processing (SIP). We explored SIP skills as a mediating mechanism linking EFs to aggression in adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disability (MBID with IQ from 50–84), a high risk group for aggressive behaviors and EF impairments. A total of 153 adolescents (M_age = 15.24, SD = 1.35; 54% male) with MBID participated. Focused attention, behavioral inhibition, and working memory were tested with multiple neurocognitive tasks to define latent EF constructs. Participants responded to a video-based SIP task. A latent construct for aggression was defined by caretaker, teacher, and adolescent self-reports of aggression (Child Behavior Check List, Teacher Report Form, and Youth Self Report). Structural equation modeling was performed to test mediation. Results were consistent with mediation of the relation between focused attention and aggression by SIP, namely via hostile interpretations and self-efficacy for aggression. Behavioral inhibition was linked to aggression, but this relation was not mediated by SIP. The relation between working memory and aggression was mediated by SIP, namely via hostile interpretations, aggressive response generation and via self-efficacy for aggressive responses. Bearing the cross-sectional design in mind, support was found for SIP skills as a mechanism linking EFs, in particular focused attention and working memory, to aggression, providing a viable explanation for the high vulnerability of adolescents with MBID for aggression.     

Evaluation and training of Executive Functions in genocide survivors. The case of Yazidi children

Executive Functions (EFs) development is critically affected by stress and trauma, as well as the socioeconomic context in which children grow up (Welsh, Nix, Blair, Bierman, & Nelson, 2010, Journal of Educational Psychology, 102 , 43–53). Research in this field is surprisingly lacking in relation to war contexts. This study represents a first attempt at addressing this topic by evaluating EFs in Yazidi children. The Yazidi community is an ethnic and religious minority living in Iraq. From August 2014 onwards, the Yazidi community has been the target of several atrocities perpetrated by ISIS and described as genocide by the international community at large. The University of Trieste, thanks to a program financed by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, developed a study aimed at (a) evaluating hot and cool EFs in children living in a war context and (b) developing a specific training method to enhance hot and cool EFs in Yazidi children of preschool age (N = 53). Data related to this group of children were compared with a sample of typically developing Italian children randomly assigned to either an EFs training group (N = 55) or a passive control group (N = 51). Results indicate different baselines in EFs in Yazidi and Italian samples and a significant effect of the program on both trained groups, especially in tasks measuring hot EFs. Data are discussed in terms of hot and cool EFs in children growing in adverse environments, as well as the evaluation of educational and developmental opportunities to prevent children who survived genocide from becoming a ‘lost generation’. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/7t_08TbxR_8 .     

Evaluation on types of invariance in studying extreme response bias with an IRTree approach

In recent years, item response tree (IRTree) approaches have received increasing attention in the response style literature for their ability to partial out response style latent variables as well as associated item parameters. When an IRTree approach is adopted to measure extreme response styles, directional and content invariance could be assumed at the latent variable and item parameter levels. In this study, we propose to evaluate the empirical validity of these invariance assumptions by employing a general IRTree model with relaxed invariance assumptions. This would allow us to examine extreme response biases, beyond extreme response styles. With three empirical applications of the proposed evaluation, we find that relaxing some of the invariance assumptions improves the model fit, which suggests that not all assumed invariances are empirically supported. Specifically, at the latent variable level, we find reasonable evidence for directional invariance but mixed evidence for content invariance, although we also find that estimated correlations between content-specific extreme response latent variables are high, hinting at the potential presence of a general extreme response tendency. At the item parameter level, we find no directional or content invariance for thresholds and no content invariance for slopes. We discuss how the variant item parameter estimates obtained from a general IRTree model can offer useful insight to help us understand response bias related to extreme responding measured within the IRTree framework.     

Effortful Control and Interpersonal Behavior in Daily Life

The Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) was used to examine effortful control (EC) as a moderator of daily interpersonal behavior. Participants (N = 240) were nonclinical young adults who completed a 7-day event-contingent experience sampling study of interpersonal perception and affect. Multilevel linear models indicated that EC moderated within-person covariation of interpersonal warmth and affect activation; high EC individuals reported greater momentary warm behaviors when perceiving others as affectively activated. EC also amplified between-person covariation of interpersonal warmth between self and others; high EC individuals generally responded to perceptions of another's warmth with a greater degree of warm behavior. Varying levels of EC predict responses to interpersonal perceptions and affect in daily life, suggesting an important dimension for interpersonal functioning.