Assessing Biobehavioural Self‐Regulation and Coregulation in Early Childhood: The Parent‐Child Challenge Task

Researchers have argued for more dynamic and contextually relevant measures of regulatory processes in interpersonal interactions. In response, we introduce and examine the effectiveness of a new task, the Parent–Child Challenge Task, designed to assess the self‐regulation and coregulation of affect, goal‐directed behaviour, and physiology in parents and their preschoolers in response to an experimental perturbation. Concurrent and predictive validity was examined via relations with children's externalizing behaviours. Mothers used only their words to guide their 3‐year‐old children to complete increasingly difficult puzzles in order to win a prize (N = 96). A challenge condition was initiated midway through the task with a newly introduced time limit. The challenge produced decreases in parental teaching and dyadic behavioural variability and increases in child negative affect and dyadic affective variability, measured by dynamic systems‐based methods. Children rated lower on externalizing showed respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) suppression in response to challenge, whereas those rated higher on externalizing showed RSA augmentation. Additionally, select task changes in affect, behaviour, and physiology predicted teacher‐rated externalizing behaviours four months later. Findings indicate that the Parent–Child Challenge Task was effective in producing regulatory changes and suggest its utility in assessing biobehavioural self‐regulation and coregulation in parents and their preschoolers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Eating disorder diagnostic scale: additional evidence of reliability and validity

The authors conducted 4 studies investigating the reliability and validity of the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (HDDS; E. Stice, C. F. Telch, & S. L. Rizvi, 2000), a brief self-report measure for diagnosing anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Study 1 found that the HDDS showed criterion validity with interview-based diagnoses, convergent validity with risk factors for eating pathology, and internal consistency. Studies 2 and 3 found that the EDDS was sufficiently sensitive to detect the effects of eating disorder prevention programs. Regarding predictive validity, Studies 3 and 4 found that the EDDS predicted response to a prevention program and future onset of eating pathology and depression. Results provide additional evidence of the reliability and validity of this scale and suggest it may be useful in clinical and research applications.     

Motivation and affect in REM sleep and the mentation reporting process

Although the emotional and motivational characteristics of dreaming have figured prominently in folk and psychoanalytic conceptions of dream production, emotions have rarely been systematically studied, and motivation, never. Because emotions during sleep lack the somatic components of waking emotions, and they change as the sleeper awakens, their properties are difficult to assess. Recent evidence of limbic system activation during REM sleep suggests a basis in brain architecture for the interaction of motivational and cognitive properties in dreaming. Motivational and emotional content in REM and NREM laboratory mentation reports from 25 participants were compared. Motivational and emotional content was significantly greater in REM than NREM sleep, even after controlling for the greater word count of REM reports.     

Susceptibility to memory distortion: how do we decide it has occurred?

When given suggestive information, some people can be led to believe that they had experiences that they did not actually have. For example, they may come to believe falsely that they got sick eating particular foods as children, and as a result of that belief they may avoid the foods. But how do we know that someone has developed a false belief or memory in this research? The criteria we choose when classifying whether someone has fallen for the suggestion are somewhat arbitrary. We reanalyze our prior data, using different criteria for deciding that a person fell for the suggestion (called a "believer") or did not (called a "non-believer"). Changing criteria obviously affects the percentage of people who are called susceptible and could conceivably affect the conclusions reached about that group. Comparisons between false memories and true memories could differ, too, depending on how memories are defined.     

Depression, self-esteem, and anger in emerging adulthood: seven-year trajectories

This study used a school-based community sample (N=920) to examine trajectories of depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and expressed anger in the critical years of emerging adulthood (ages 18-25). Using data from 5 waves, the authors discovered that multilevel models indicated that, on average, depressive symptoms and expressed anger declined, whereas self-esteem increased. Between-persons predictors of variability in trajectories included gender (gender gaps in depressive symptoms and self-esteem narrowed), parents' education, and conflict with parents (depressive symptoms and expressed anger improved fastest in participants with highly educated parents and in those with higher conflict). Across time, increases in social support and marriage were associated with increased psychological well-being, whereas longer periods of unemployment were connected with higher depression and lower self-esteem. Emerging adulthood is a time of improving psychological well-being, but individual trajectories depend on specific individual and family characteristics as well as role changes.     

Groups perform better than the best individuals on letters-to-numbers problems: effects of group size

Individuals and groups of 2, 3, 4, or 5 people solved 2 letters-to-numbers problems that required participants, on each trial, to identify the coding of 10 letters to 10 numbers by proposing an equation in letters, receiving the answer in letters, proposing a hypothesis, and receiving feedback on the correctness of the hypothesis. Groups of 3, 4, and 5 people proposed more complex equations and had fewer trials to solution than the best of an equivalent number of individuals. Groups of 3, 4, and 5 people had fewer trials to solution than 2-person groups but did not differ from each other. These results suggest that 3-person groups are necessary and sufficient to perform better than the best individuals on highly intellective problems.     

Contributions to the history of psychology: CXVII. Who's who in American psychology: a citation study of introductory psychology textbooks

The author indexes of 15 introductory psychology textbooks were surveyed to identify the authorities cited most frequently. The five names cited most often in descending order were Freud, Bandura, Skinner, Piaget, and James. Differences from earlier comparable citation studies are discussed.     

Re-exposure to studied items at test does not influence false recognition

In two experiments, we investigated whether re-exposure to previously studied items at test affects false recognition in the DRM paradigm. Furthermore, we examined whether exposure to the critical lure at test influences memory for subsequently presented study items. In Experiment 1, immediately following each studied DRM list, participants were given a recognition test. The tests were constructed such that the number of studied items preceding the critical lure varied from zero to five. Neither false recognition for critical lures nor accurate memory for studied items was affected by this manipulation. In Experiment 2, we replicated this pattern of results under speeded conditions at test. Both experiments confirm that exposure to previously studied items at test does not affect true or false recognition in the DRM paradigm. This pattern strongly suggests that retrieval processes do not influence false recognition in the DRM paradigm.     

Grasping movement plans

Despite the great amount of research that has been done regarding the time it takes to move the hand to targets of varying distances and widths, it is unclear whether target distance and width are both represented in movement plans prior to movement initiation. We addressed this question by studying performance in an object manipulation task. Our participants reached out and took hold of a familiar object (a bathroom plunger) to move it to wide or narrow targets of varying heights. Grasp heights on the plunger were additively affected by target height and target width, suggesting that both factors were taken into account by participants prior to moving the plunger from its initial position. Another factor we manipulated was the width of the base from which the plunger was lifted on its way to its next position. This factor also affected grasp heights, but no more so than target widths. The latter result contradicts the view that movement starts are planned in more detail than movement ends, as might be expected from the fact that movement starts come sooner. Together, our results suggest that forthcoming movements are planned in considerable detail. A surprising methodological implication of this study is that recording how people prepare to move can reveal as much—or in some cases more—about what they have planned than can recording their subsequent movements.     

Who Are the Next Generation of Genetic Counselors? A Survey of Students

Genetic counseling students were surveyed about their backgrounds, application process to genetic counseling programs, and career motivations and plans. Program directors from 27 accredited programs were asked to distribute 362 surveys to students. Fifty-two survey items assess demographics; sources of support for pursuing a genetic counseling career (information about genetic counseling, encouragement/discouragement from others); career motivations (reasons for applying and for becoming a genetic counselor); and career certainty. Two hundred and thirty-five usable surveys were returned (64.9% usable return rate). Most respondents were Caucasian females (mean age = 25.4 years). About 13% identified as ethnic minorities, and about one-third reported family histories of a genetic condition(s). Most respondents learned about the field in classes, and most were strongly encouraged by family and friends to pursue genetic counseling. Reasons rated as most important for becoming a genetic counselor included helping others and intellectual stimulation. Recruitment, training, and research recommendations are given.