Validation of Catalan version of BRIEF-P

The BRIEF-P is one of the most used instruments to measure Executive Function (EF). This report is aimed at showing the psychometric properties of the Catalan version of it. To do this, a random cluster sampling was carried out in Osona (Catalonia), recruiting 417 teachers and 408 parents of children aged 3 to 6 years. As with the original instrument, results show that reliability is excellent and that girls have a better EF than boys in the following areas: Working Memory, Plan/Organize, and Inhibit. Since in some areas Catalonia's preschool children show EF values slightly better than those of the reference sample, a new scale for using it in this population is provided.     

Social factors in the development of early executive functioning: a closer look at the caregiving environment

This study investigated prospective links between quality of the early caregiving environment and children's subsequent executive functioning (EF). Sixty-two families were met on five occasions, allowing for assessment of maternal interactive behavior, paternal interactive behavior, and child attachment security between 1 and 2 years of age, and child EF at 2 and 3 years. The results suggested that composite scores of parental behavior and child attachment were related to child performance on EF tasks entailing strong working memory and cognitive flexibility components (conflict-EF). In particular, child attachment security was related to conflict-EF performance at 3 years above and beyond what was explained by a combination of all other social antecedents of child EF identified thus far: child verbal ability and prior EF, family SES, and parenting behavior. Attachment security may thus play a meaningful role in young children's development of executive control.     

Same‐ and Other‐Sex Victimization: Are the Risk Factors Similar?

Risk factors for same‐ and other‐sex victimization were examined in a longitudinal data set involving 9‐ to 14‐year‐old students. The findings regarding same‐sex victimization supported the view that bullies select personally and interpersonally vulnerable targets in order to maximize their gains in status while minimizing loss of affection within their same‐sex peer group. Although low self‐esteem was a joint predictor of same‐ and other‐sex victimization, rejection and lack of friends among other‐sex peers failed to predict victimization by other‐sex bullies, and being perceived as popular among other‐sex peers increased the risk. Although the findings suggests that interpersonal risk factors for other‐sex victimization differ from those found for same‐sex victimization, they do not provide strong support for heterosexual interest being the basis for other‐sex target selection, as suggested by some previous literature. As about half of the study participants were involved in the KiVa antibullying program, we had the possibility to examine whether the program effects were similar for same‐ and other‐sex victimization. It turned out that in middle schools the program decreased only same‐sex victimization, whereas in elementary school the decrease was observed regardless of the sex composition of bully–victim dyads. Aggr. Behav. 38:442‐455, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Longitudinal associations of cognitive ability,personality traits and school grades with antisocial behaviour

This study investigated the role of adolescents' cognitive ability, personality traits and school success in predicting later criminal behaviour. Cognitive ability, the five‐factor model personality traits and the school grades of a large sample of Estonian schoolboys (N = 1919) were measured between 2001 and 2005. In 2009, judicial databases were searched to identify participants who had been convicted of misdemeanours or criminal offences. Consistent with previous findings, having a judicial record was associated with lower cognitive ability, grade point average, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and higher neuroticism. In multivariate path models, however, the contributions of cognitive ability and conscientiousness were accounted for by school grades and the effect of neuroticism was also accounted for by other variables, leaving grade point average and agreeableness the only independent predictors of judicial record status. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are Conservatives Less Likely to be Prosocial Than Liberals? From Games to Ideology,Political Preferences and Voting

Do political preferences reflect individual differences in interpersonal orientations? Are conservatives less other‐regarding than liberals? On the basis of past theorising, we hypothesised that, relative to individuals with prosocial orientations, those with individualistic and competitive orientations should be more likely to endorse conservative political preferences and vote for conservative parties. This hypothesis was supported in three independent studies conducted in Italy (Studies 1 and 2) and the Netherlands (Study 3). Consistent with hypotheses, a cross‐sectional study revealed that individualists and competitors endorsed stronger conservative political preferences than did prosocials; moreover, this effect was independent of the association between need for structure and conservative political preferences (Study 1). The predicted association of social value orientation and voting was observed in both a four‐week (Study 2) and an eight‐month (Study 3) longitudinal study. Taken together, the findings provide novel support for the claim that interpersonal orientations, as measured with experimental games rooted in game theory, are important to understanding differences in ideology at the societal level. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The universality of warmth and competence: A response to brands as intentional agents

Considerable effort has been devoted towards the understanding of the ways in which people interact with brands. However, little attention has been paid to the personal differences that may impact these interactions. The framework for brands as intentional agents by Kervyn, Fiske, and Malone (this issue) is the groundbreaking application of almost three decades of research on warmth and competence as predictors of interpersonal stereotypes to the realm of brands. Our paper argues that demographic differences impact interactions with brands and offer additional explanatory power to the framework. Findings support conclusions of Kervyn et al., but they also suggest the importance of age, education, and income on warmth and competence evaluations.     

An injection olfactometer for humans and a new method for the measurement of the shape of the olfactory pulse

An injection olfactometer for human psychophysical experiments is described. The olfactometer is capable of presenting, either mono- or birhinally, single odorants and binary mixtures. The pulse form of the olfactory stimulus at the exit of the olfactometer approaches a rectangular form, which makes the olfactometer well suited for olfactory reaction time measurements. Since stimulation periods are independent of the subject’s inhalation, time-intensity measurements over prolonged periods of time are possible as well. In the second part of this paper, a new technique is described for the measurement of the stimulus pulse form at the exit of the olfactometer.     

The structure of goal contents across 15 cultures

The authors investigated the structure of goal contents in a group of 1,854 undergraduates from 15 cultures around the world. Results suggested that the 11 types of goals the authors assessed were consistently organized in a circumplex fashion across the 15 cultures. The circumplex was well described by positioning 2 primary dimensions underlying the goals: intrinsic (e.g., self-acceptance, affiliation) versus extrinsic (e.g., financial success, image) and self-transcendent (e.g., spirituality) versus physical (e.g., hedonism). The circumplex model of goal contents was also quite similar in both wealthier and poorer nations, although there were some slight cross-cultural variations. The relevance of these results for several theories of motivation and personality are discussed.     

Perspective-taking judgments among young adults, middle-aged, and elderly people

Perspective-taking judgments among young adults, middle-aged, and elderly people were examined. In 1 condition, participants were instructed to judge the likelihood of acceptance of a painkiller as a function of 3 cues: severity of the condition, potential side effects, and level of trust in the health care provider. In the other condition, participants were instructed to judge the likelihood of purchasing pieces of clothing. Judgments were given from 2 viewpoints: the viewpoint of another person known to place no importance on one of the 3 cues, and the viewpoint of another person known to place very great importance on this cue. The hypotheses were that elderly people would not, to the same extent as young adults, be likely to discount the impact of the "no-importance" cue, and to magnify the impact of the "very important" cue. In both judgment situations, the results support these hypotheses.     

External validation of the computerized, group administrable adaptation of the “operation span task”

One of the most widely used tasks for measuring working memory capacity is the operation span task (OSPAN; Turner & Engle, 1989). This task has almost always been applied individually, and stimuli presentation is controlled by the experimenter. Recently, De Neys, d'Ydewalle, Schaeken, and Vos (2002) improved the administration procedure by designing an automated, group-administrable version of the task (GOSPAN). They found GOSPAN to be reliable, and they also provided evidence on its validity (a significant positive correlation between GOSPAN and OSPAN scores). However, an external test of GOSPAN validity is still lacking. In this work, we present such a validation for the automated version, when the task is administered both individually (Experiment 1) and to groups (Experiment 2). There are abundant previous data on the relation between working memory capacity and reading comprehension. In this work, this relation is studied using an automated OSPAN version to measure working memory capacity. Given that our results are similar to those found using the original OSPAN, our data support the external validity of the automated version of the task. We also tested the reliability of the task and found high internal consistency in both experiments.