A Bootstrapping Model of Frequency and Context Effects in Word Learning

Prior research has shown that people can learn many nouns (i.e., word–object mappings) from a short series of ambiguous situations containing multiple words and objects. For successful cross‐situational learning, people must approximately track which words and referents co‐occur most frequently. This study investigates the effects of allowing some word‐referent pairs to appear more frequently than others, as is true in real‐world learning environments. Surprisingly, high‐frequency pairs are not always learned better, but can also boost learning of other pairs. Using a recent associative model (Kachergis, Yu, & Shiffrin, 2012), we explain how mixing pairs of different frequencies can bootstrap late learning of the low‐frequency pairs based on early learning of higher frequency pairs. We also manipulate contextual diversity, the number of pairs a given pair appears with across training, since it is naturalistically confounded with frequency. The associative model has competing familiarity and uncertainty biases, and their interaction is able to capture the individual and combined effects of frequency and contextual diversity on human learning. Two other recent word‐learning models do not account for the behavioral findings.     

Specialization of the motor system in infancy: from broad tuning to selectively specialized purposeful actions

In executing purposeful actions, adults select sufficient and necessary limbs. But infants often move goal‐irrelevant limbs, suggesting a developmental process of motor specialization. Two experiments with 9‐ and 12‐month‐olds revealed gradual decreases in extraneous movements in non‐acting limbs during unimanual actions. In Experiment 1, 9‐month‐olds produced more extraneous movements in the non‐acting hand/arm and feet/legs than 12‐month‐olds. In Experiment 2, analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of infants’ movements revealed developmental declines in the spatiotemporal coupling of movements between acting and non‐acting arms. We also showed that the degree of specialization in infants’ unimanual actions is associated with individual differences in motor experience and visual attention, indicating the experience‐dependent and broad functional nature of these developmental changes. Our study provides important new insights into motor development: as in cognitive domains, motor behaviours are initially broadly tuned to their goal, becoming progressively specialized during the first year of life.     

Single-gender group psychotherapy: A “women's group” for adolescent inpatients

This paper describes an attempt at forming and conducting a unique single-gender psychotherapy group with severely disturbed female adolescents on a long-term, psychotherapeutically oriented co-ed inpatient unit. The focus of this group was assisting the female patients in negotiating the tasks and conflicts specific to their gender and developmental stage. The therapeutic approach and the role of female coleaders are described, emphasizing particular modifications made to meet the needs of this group. Clinical examples are offered to high-light salient group themes of identity formation and separation and individuation. Finally, group therapeutic factors specifically enhanced by single gender membership are discussed and observations regarding the group/milieu interface are explored.     

Further validity and normative data for the Malouff and Schutte belief scale

The present study provides further validity and normative data for the Malouff and Schutte (1986) Belief Scale. Belief Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Neuroticism Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory scores of a sample of 197 adults were correlated, and evidence for both construct and discriminant validities and support for the RET model were obtained. The Belief Scale appears to be a promising instrument for clinical research and the assessment of irrational beliefs.Ricks Warren, Ph.D. is the Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic, Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Associate Clinical Professor at the Oregon Graduate School of Professional Psychology, Pacific University. George D. Zgourides, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Pacific University of Forest Grove, Oregon and an associate therapist at the Anxiety Disorders Clinic of Lake Oswego, Oregon.     

Testing an integrated model of the work–family interface in Chinese employees: A longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to examine an integrated model of the work–family interface (WFI) linking work–family demands (workload and family conflict), resources (supervisory support and family support) and role satisfaction in a Chinese context. The four‐factor structure of WFI comprises direction of influence (work to family vs family to work) and types of effect (work–family conflict vs work–family enrichment). A longitudinal design was used to collect data from 409 Chinese employees at three time points, separating measures of antecedents (T1), WFI (T2) and outcomes (T3) in time. The results based on structural equation modelling (SEM) reveal that: (1) the direction and types of effect were two underlying dimensions of the WFI, supporting the four‐factor structure; (2) demands were more strongly related to conflict, while resources were more strongly related to enrichment; (3) work–family conflict and enrichment were related to role satisfaction, regardless of the direction of influence.     

Fitting direct covariance structures by the MSTRUCT modeling language of the CALIS procedure

This paper demonstrates the usefulness and flexibility of the general structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to fitting direct covariance patterns or structures (as opposed to fitting implied covariance structures from functional relationships among variables). In particular, the MSTRUCT modelling language (or syntax) of the CALIS procedure (SAS/STAT version 9.22 or later: SAS Institute, 2010) is used to illustrate the SEM approach. The MSTRUCT modelling language supports a direct covariance pattern specification of each covariance element. It also supports the input of additional independent and dependent parameters. Model tests, fit statistics, estimates, and their standard errors are then produced under the general SEM framework. By using numerical and computational examples, the following tests of basic covariance patterns are illustrated: sphericity, compound symmetry, and multiple‐group covariance patterns. Specification and testing of two complex correlation structures, the circumplex pattern and the composite direct product models with or without composite errors and scales, are also illustrated by the MSTRUCT syntax. It is concluded that the SEM approach offers a general and flexible modelling of direct covariance and correlation patterns. In conjunction with the use of SAS macros, the MSTRUCT syntax provides an easy‐to‐use interface for specifying and fitting complex covariance and correlation structures, even when the number of variables or parameters becomes large.     

Longitudinal trajectories of bicultural identity integration in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents: Links with mental health and family functioning

This study examined, in a sample of recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami and Los Angeles, the extent to which bicultural identity integration (BII; involving the ability to synthesise one's heritage and receiving cultural streams and to identify as a member of both cultures) is best understood as a developmental construct that changes over time or as an individual‐difference construct that is largely stable over time. We were also interested in the extent to which these trajectories predicted mental health and family functioning. Recent‐immigrant 9th graders (N = 302) were assessed 6 times from 9th to 12th grade. Latent class growth analyses using the first 5 timepoints identified 2 trajectory classes—one with lower BII scores over time and another with higher BII scores over time. Higher heritage and US identity at baseline predicted membership in the higher BII class. At the 6th study timepoint, lower BII adolescents reported significantly poorer self‐esteem, optimism, prosocial behaviour and family relationships compared with their higher BII counterparts. These findings are discussed in terms of further research on the over‐time trajectory of biculturalism, and on the need to develop interventions to promote BII as a way of facilitating well‐being and positive family functioning.     

Iraq, American Empire, And The War On Terrorism

Abstract: The U.S. government is trying to secure continuing American military and economic supremacy on a global scale over the long term. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq is part of this imperial project, which is now being pursued under the mantle of the war on terrorism. This essay examines these developments in the context of U.S. military spending and foreign policy since the end of the cold war, and it argues that there is reason to be concerned about the continuing viability of democratic government in the United States.