Influence of Domain Knowledge on Monitoring Performance Across the Life Span

Two studies were conducted to investigate effects of domain knowledge on metacognitive monitoring across the life span in materials of different complexity. Participants from 4 age groups (3rd-grade children, adolescents, younger and older adults) were compared using an expert–novice paradigm. In Study 1, soccer experts’ and novices’ ease-of-learning judgments (EOLs), judgments of learning (JOLs), and confidence judgments (CJs) were contrasted when memorizing soccer-related word pairs. In Study 2, monitoring judgments (i.e., a rating of global comprehension, JOLs, and CJs) were collected in regards to a soccer-related narrative. The results of both approaches showed that experts’ better memory performance obtained in both studies was not always accompanied by advantages in monitoring performance. In Study 1, experts of all ages outperformed novices in monitoring accuracy. In Study 2, no benefits of expertise on monitoring were found; in children, novices even surpassed experts in monitoring quality. In both studies, the most consistent influence of previous domain knowledge on monitoring performance concerned more optimistic judgments of experts compared with novices, regardless of stimuli and recall format. In sum, our results document a twofold effect of expertise on monitoring. Although domain-specific knowledge enhances monitoring performance in some situations, more optimistic estimates, presumably due to the application of a familiarity heuristic, typically reduce experts’ monitoring accuracy.     

Marital Stress, Psychological Distress, and Healthful Dietary Behavior: A Longitudinal Analysis

This longitudinal study examined the role of marital and psychological distress on healthful dietary change. A theoretical model is proposed that specified barriers to healthful dietary behavior as mediating the effect of depressive symptoms, role disagreement, inequity, and education on dietary change over time. Subjects were 97 married couples interviewed in their homes at 2 separate times. Selection in the first wave was by random area sampling based on population concentration. The findings provide evidence of the negative influence of interpersonal and intrapsychic distress on positive dietary change. For wives, marital and psychological distress and the barriers to dietary change were important factors in actual changes in dietary behavior. For both husbands and wives, higher barriers were associated with lesser positive dietary change.     

Suicide prevention in the psychiatric hospital

It is currently impossible to distinguish between patients with depression who will make a suicide attempt and those who will not. Prevention, therefore, must be based on the assumption that any patient with more than mild symptoms of depression is at risk of suicide, and can only be effective if it is applicable to all patients with moderate to severe depression. A treatment strategy that differentiated between regressive and progressive therapeutic measures was developed for patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Regressive, as opposed to progressive, treatment meant that the patient was temporarily relieved of virtually all responsibilities for self and others. Progressive measures were strictly avoided for all patients with symptoms of depression, regardless of the primary diagnosis. This strategy was tested on 5,149 inpatients and day patients over a period of 6.25 years and compared with 6,891 patients over the 15.75 years prior to this period. The suicide rate was 97 (per 100,000 admissions) compared with 319 in the previous period. The treatment method appears to be able to reduce the suicide rate. Although this result was achieved with hospital patients, it suggests that a regressive treatment method could be promising if developed for outpatient treatment as well.     

Dental anxiety,oral health‐related quality of life,and general well‐being: A self‐determination theory perspective

The aim of this study was to test a structural equation model (SEM) with the following hypotheses: (1) patients’ perceptions of oral health care professionals’ (i.e., dentists and dental hygienists) controlling interpersonal styles would positively predict patients’ dental anxiety through their basic psychological need frustration in treatment; (2) in turn, high dental anxiety would positively predict dysregulation of dental anxiety, which through a feedback loop contributes to perception of oral health care professionals’ controlling styles; and, (3) in addition, both dental anxiety and dysregulation of dental anxiety would predict poor Oral Health‐Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) and subsequently poor general well‐being. A cross‐sectional study was conducted among 322 students at the University of Oslo. Participants responded to a survey with validated questionnaires. All variables in the model tested were acceptably normally distributed. The SEM did fit the data well and all hypotheses were supported. A bootstrapping procedure indicated that all indirect links in the model were supported. Analysis indicated that common method variance (CMV) did not seriously distort the results in this setting. Although the majority of oral health care professionals are perceived as being noncontrolling by their patients (51%), the proportion perceived as moderately (38%) or highly (11%) controlling represent a challenge for oral health care education and practice. It would be useful for oral health care professionals to be trained in avoiding a controlling treatment style.     

Age-related differences in interhemispheric visuomotor integration measured by the redundant target effect

Presentation of bilateral redundant visual stimuli produces faster reaction times (RT) than presentation of a single unilateral stimulus; an effect known as the redundant target effect (RTE; Miller, 1982), and is a means of testing interhemispheric visuomotor integration (Ouimet, 2009). RTEs that exceed expectations, based on Miller's race model of inequality (RMI), are referred to as "enhanced RTEs" and imply neural coactivation. Paradoxically, enhanced RTEs are observed in cases of corpus callosum disruption. The Hemispheric Coactivation Hypothesis accounts for this paradox by positing that bihemispheric processing occurs to both unilateral and bilateral stimuli in the normal brain, but occurs only with bilateral stimuli in the disconnected brain. Neuroimaging has revealed decreases in the microstructural integrity of the corpus callosum with age (Ota et al., 2006), but research investigating the bilateral RTE in healthy older individuals is lacking. The present study investigated the bilateral RTE in healthy younger and healthy older adults using simple RT and choice RT tasks. Our prediction that older individuals would show significantly larger RTEs than younger individuals was found to be true for both tasks. Tests of the RMI produced little evidence for coactivation. The crossed-uncrossed difference, generally used as a means of testing visuomotor interhemispheric transfer, was also investigated, but no age effects were found. The observation of greater RTE in age is congruent with the Hemispheric Coactivation hypothesis (Miller, 2004) in which callosal disconnection is associated with increased RTE.     

Negative triangles: simple geometric shapes convey emotional valence

It has been suggested that downward pointing triangles convey negative valence, perhaps because they mimic an underlying primitive feature present in negative facial expressions (Larson, Aronoff, and Stearns, 2007). Here, we test this proposition using a flanker interference paradigm in which participants indicated the valence of a central face target, presented between two adjacent distracters. Experiment 1 showed that, compared with face flankers, downward pointing triangles had little influence on responses to face targets. However, in Experiment 2, when attentional competition was increased between target and flankers, downward pointing triangles slowed responses to positively valenced face targets, and speeded them to negatively valenced targets, consistent with valence-based flanker compatibility effects. These findings provide converging evidence that simple geometric shapes may convey emotional valence.     

Book notes

Mana: Revue de Sociologie et d'Anthropologie Caen: Department of Sociology, University of Caen, Esplanade de la Paix, 1400 Caen, France. 242 pp, 81 FF (in France, inch postage)

Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain Roger Ballard, ed., 1994 London: Hurst & Co. 296 pp., £9.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85065–092–6

Religions et sécurité international Jean‐François Mayer, 1995 Bern: Office Central de la Défense Series: Études relatives à la politique de sécurité, No. 2/1995 143 pp.

Essential Teachings His Holiness the Dalai Lama London: Souvenir Press, 1995 152 pp., £9.99 (hb) ISBN 0–285–63273–6

Voices of Islam John Bowker, 1995 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 188 pp., £8.95 ISBN 1–85168–095–0

A Short History of the Bahá'i Faith Peter Smith, 1996 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 168 pp., £5.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85168–070–5

A Short History of Islam William Montgomery Watt, 1996 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 156 pp., £5.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85168–109–4

Dictionary of the Middle East Dilip Hiro, 1996 Basingstoke: Macmillan 367 pp., £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–333–65926–0

The Hebrew Bible Dan Cohn‐Sherbok, 1996 London: Cassell 257 pp., £55.00 (hb), £13.99 (pb) ISBN 0–304–33702–1 (hb), 0–304–33703‐X (pb)

The Puzzle of God Peter Vardy, 1995 London: Fount/Harper Collins 240 pp., £7.99 ISBN 0–00–627965–1     

Student responses to a reflexive course evaluation

Simple surveys are the predominant tool for course evaluations in most universities, but their validity has been questioned. They have been criticized for being a ritual way of complying with administrative regulations rather than a way of improving educational quality. Moreover, there is often a focus on student satisfaction, where the complexity of learning processes and the development of learner identities are lost. As an alternative approach, a qualitative course evaluation was tested that consisted of a single question: What could have been done in this course in order to better support your learning? Twenty-one second-year psychology students completed the evaluation at the end of a course. They provided rich answers describing learning activities and communication, and they described both teachers and students as agents. Going beyond merely reporting possible improvements, the students saw their learning processes in a context of academic demands and social mechanisms. It is argued that qualitative course evaluations can provide information about students’ understanding of their own learning that is difficult to uncover in a traditional survey. It is concluded that qualitative course evaluations would support the development of a student learner identity and help create a role for students as co-producers of knowledge.