Memory for item order and phonetic recoding in the beginning reader

A defect in immediate memory for item order is often attributed to poor beginning readers. We have supposed that this problem may be a manifestation of an underlying deficiency in the use of phonetic codes. Accordingly, we expected good and poor readers to differ in their ability to order stimuli that can be easily recoded as words and stored in phonetic form, but not in their ability to order nonlinguistic stimuli that do not lend themselves to phonetic recoding in short-term memory. The purpose of the present study was to test this hypothesis by examining the ability of good and poor readers to reconstruct the order of sets of briefly presented stimuli that varied in the extent to which they could be distinctively recoded into phonetic form: pictures of common objects versus nonrepresentational, “doodle” drawings. As expected, an interaction between reading ability and type of stimulus item was found, demonstrating the material-specific nature of poor readers' ordering difficulties. These findings support the hypothesis that a function of the phonetic representation is to aid in retention of order information, and that poor readers' ordering difficulties are related to their deficient use of phonetic codes.     

The Values of Chinese Students: At Home and Abroad

The Rokeach Value Survey was administered to two groups of Chinese students: Those residing in the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) and those who had emigrated to the United States (U.S.A.). Results indicated that the two groups have very different value hierarchies. The traditional stereotypes, which depict the Chinese as dependent and collectivistic in nature, in contrast to the independent and individualistic Americans, were not confirmed; instead the converse appeared. P.R.C. students assigned greater importance to individualistic values, whereas the U.S.A. group deemed collectivistic values more salient. The dimension of class as a meaningful variable was discussed as a tentative explanation of the results.     

Constructive thinking and coping with laboratory-induced stress.

In a laboratory stress test, poor constructive thinkers produced more negative affective and cognitive responses in all experimental periods and a greater increase in such responses in the stress period than did good constructive thinkers. The groups differed in physiological arousal in the recovery period but not in the stress period. Stressor-instigated negative thoughts and spontaneous negative thoughts produced different patterns of relations with variables measured in the laboratory and with symptoms reported in everyday life. Discriminating patterns of relations were found between measures of cognition and affect in the laboratory and self-reported emotional, physical, and behavioral symptoms in everyday life. The results help explain the relation between maladaptive automatic thinking, on the one hand, and elevated physiological arousal and emotional, physical, and behavioral symptoms, on the other.     

Mastery motivation in boys and girls: The role of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation

This research tested the hypothesis that the importance of adult approval and feedback for females relative to males would render girls of elementary school age more likely to develop an extrinsic orientation in comparison to boys. Using S. Harter's Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation [(1981), “A New Self-Report Scale of Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivational Orientation in the Classroom: Motivational and Informational Components,” Developmental Psychology Vol. 17, pp. 300–312], the data supported this hypothesis. Because of the assumed differential importance of controlling feedback from adults for females relative to males, a second study examined girls' and boys' preference for challenge as a function of adult controlling feedback and children's motivational orientation. The pattern of data supported the hypothesis that girls relative to boys show differential preferences for challenge, depending on the presence of type of adult feedback and motivational orientation in girls.     

Being known, intimate, and valued: global self-verification and dyadic adjustment in couples and roommates

We contend that close relationships provide adults with optimal opportunities for personal growth when relationship partners provide accurate, honest feedback. Accordingly, it was predicted that young adults would experience the relationship quality with relationship partners who evaluated them in a manner consistent their own self-evaluations. Three empirical tests of this self-verification hypothesis as applied to close dyads were conducted. In Study 1, young adults in dating relationships were most intimate with and somewhat more committed to partners when they perceived that partners evaluated them as they evaluated themselves. Self-verification effects were pronounced for those involved in more serious dating relationships. In Study 2, men reported the greatest esteem for same-sex roommates who evaluated them in a self-verifying manner. Results from Study 2 were replicated and extended to both male and female roommate dyads in Study 3. Further, self-verification effects were most pronounced for young adults with high emotional empathy. Results suggest that self-verification theory is useful for understanding dyadic adjustment across a variety of relational contexts in young adulthood. Implications of self-verification processes for adult personal development are outlined within an identity negotiation framework.     

Increasing social initiations in children with autism: effects of a tactile prompt

An ABAB design was used to assess the effects of a tactile prompting device (i.e., a vibrating pager) as a prompt for the social initiations of 3 children with autism during free-play activities with typically developing peers. Results indicated that the tactile prompt was effective in increasing verbal initiations for all 3 children, and responses to peers' initiations were higher for 2 participants when the tactile prompt was used. Efforts to reduce the frequency of prompts while still maintaining rates of initiations were partially successful for 1 participant.     

The medical student experience with disasters and disaster response

Medical students from New York City were integrally involved in the response by health professionals to aid the families of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. The present study was performed to investigate the emotional impact of this involvement on medical students from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. One hundred fifty-seven students responded to a mail survey that explored their personal and professional involvement in the disaster as well as their psychiatric symptoms in the week after the event and at the time of the survey (3.5 months after the event). Findings suggested a differential emotional impact on female students and on students involved in less supervised and more emotionally intense activities. However, involvement in the relief effort, per se, did not contribute to psychiatric symptomatology. It may have been associated with enhanced professional self-esteem among the students. These findings have implications for future planning of psychiatric response to disasters.