Computerized stroop test to assess selective attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Research shows abnormal function of the pre-frontal cortex in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This cortex is involved in the control of executive functions related to planning and execution of goal-oriented strategies, working memory, inhibitions, cognitive flexibility, and selective attention. Selective attention involves focus on the target stimulus, ignoring competing distractions. The Stroop Test (Stroop, 1935) is usually used to evaluate selective attention. This study investigated whether children with ADHD could exhibit modified performance in the Stroop Test. Using a computerized version of this test (Capovilla, Montiel, Macedo, & Charin, 2005), the study compared the reaction times (RTs) of 62 Brazilian children, between 8 and 12 years of age, 31 of whom were diagnosed with ADHD and sent to psychiatric clinics, and 31 without ADHD studying in regular schools. All children with ADHD satisfied the criteria of the DSM-IV-TR and were evaluated with the Conners Abbreviated Questionnaire (Goyette, Conners, & Ulrich, 1978), completed by parents and teachers. The results revealed that children with ADHD exhibit greater interference in RT than children without ADHD. This corroborated the hypothesis that children with ADHD exhibit a deficit in selective attention, consisting in augmented RTs, as measured by the Computerized Stroop Test.     

Relations and effects of transformational leadership: a comparative analysis with traditional leadership styles

This study has two main goals: (a) to compare the relationship between transformational leadership and other important leadership styles (i.e., democratic versus autocratic or relations- and task-oriented leadership) and (b) to compare the effects of transformational leadership and the other styles on some important organizational outcomes such as employees' satisfaction and performance. For this purpose, a sample of 147 participants, working in 35 various work-teams, was used. Results show high correlations between transformational leadership, relations-oriented, democratic, and task-oriented leadership. On the other hand, according to the literature, transformational leadership, especially high levels, significantly increases the percentage of variance accounted for by other leadership styles in relevant organizational outcome variables (subordinates' performance, satisfaction and extra effort).     

Objective age of acquisition norms for a set of 328 words in Spanish

Age of acquisition is one of the most important variables in picture naming. For this reason, a large number of findings concerning age-of-acquisition data have been published in recent years in a number of different languages. In this article, objective age-of-acquisition data in Spanish for 328 pictures were collected from a pool of 760 children, half of whom were boys and the other half girls. A total of 246 pictures were selected from the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) set, and 82 were new pictures. Like the results of other studies, we found that objective age of acquisition correlates less than rated age of acquisition with familiarity and frequency, which indicates that the objective measure is less contaminated by other variables than are rated estimates. A very high correlation was obtained between the norms from this study and those published in English, French, Icelandic, and Italian. These norms will be very useful to Spanish psycholinguists and clinicians. Related materials may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Web archive at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Volunteer Engagement: Does Engagement Predict the Degree of Satisfaction among New Volunteers and the Commitment of Those who have been Active Longer?

This study examines the concept of engagement in samples of volunteers from different non‐profit organisations. Study 1 analyzes the psychometric properties of the abbreviated version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) ( Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006a ). Two factorial structures are examined: one‐dimensional and three‐dimensional structures. Based on the Three‐Stage Model of Volunteers' Duration of Service ( Chacón, Vecina, & Dávila, 2007 ), Study 2 investigates the relationship between engagement, volunteer satisfaction, and intention to remain in a sample of new volunteers and the relationship between engagement, organisational commitment, and intention to remain in a sample of veteran volunteers. Moderated mediation analysis is provided using duration of service as a moderator in order to set a splitting point between new and veteran volunteers. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis suggest that the three‐factor model fits better to the data. Regarding the structural models, the first one shows that engagement is crucial to volunteer satisfaction during the first stage, while volunteer satisfaction is the key variable in explaining intention to continue. The second structural model shows that engagement reinforces the participant's commitment to the organisation, while organisational commitment predicts intention to continue. Both models demonstrate a notable decline when samples are changed.