The Problem of Temporal Order in Stimulation and Perception

A nonrandom socioeconomically homogeneous convenience sample of 150 young adolescent mothers, 260 older adolescent mothers, and 242 older mothers was analyzed according to their standing on key determinants of parenting. The results of a discriminant analysis showed that the young teen mothers differed from the older mothers in terms of knowledge of child development, punitive attitudes toward childrearing, and level of depression. Accuracy of classification was improved with the discriminant function for younger and older mothers, but decreased by 20% for older adolescents.     

Pre-Entry Expectations,Attitudes, and Intentions to Join Predict Military Tenure

The objective of this study was to examine pre-entry expectations, attitudes, and intentions as predictors of tenure among military members. Data from nationally representative (U.S.) samples of youth on attitudes toward military service, expectations about the effect of joining the military on quality of life, and intentions to join the military were linked to tenure among those who later joined the military as adults. Results from survival analyses indicate that those who initially had no desire to join the military and did not expect military service to have positive effects on their quality of life, but ultimately joined the military nonetheless, tended to have shorter military careers. Explanations for these findings are offered along with implications for military staffing.     

Sex Roles and the Desirability of Job Rewards,Expectations and Aspirations of Male versus Female Salespeople

Abstract

There have been numerous studies of the impact of sex-role stereotyping upon the preferences for job rewards and the difference between men and women. This study tests for such differences in a career field where men and women compete equally—commissioned residential real estate sales. Several new hypotheses were tested to include not only differences in desirability for job rewards, but also the expectancy of success in achieving them. There was little evidence of any differences between men and women in this career field resulting from a sex-role impact.     

Cue competition effects in the planarian

The learning abilities of planarian worms (Dugesia tigrina) were assessed by using a number of Pavlovian conditioning paradigms. Experiment 1 showed that planaria were susceptible to basic conditioning in that they readily developed a conditioned response to a change in ambient luminance when it was consistently paired with an electric shock over a number of trials. In Experiment 2, the change in luminance was presented in a compound with a vibration stimulus during conditioning. Subsequent tests revealed poor conditioning of the elements compared with control groups in which the animals were conditioned in the presence of the elements alone, an instance of overshadowing. In Experiment 3, pre-training of one of the elements before compound conditioning resulted in blocking of learning about the other element. These results add to other studies that have reported cue competition effects in animal species belonging to different phyla (chordate, mollusk, arthropod), suggesting that learning in these phyla could be ruled by similar principles. The results are discussed adopting an evolutionary-comparative approach.     

Going the distance: Extra-symbolic contributions to the symbolic control of spatial attention

Over the past 30 years, researchers have used symbolic cues such as spatial words and arrows to direct observers' attention to the location of target objects that appear at a single, fixed distance in simple visual environments; however, they have done so by using symbolic cues that provide only partial—directional—information about the spatial location of target objects. Thus, it remains unclear whether observers can only shift their attention broadly in the cued direction in response to these cues or whether they can shift their attention to the specific location of the target by combining an expectation about direction (derived from apprehension of the directional cue) with an expectation about distance (derived from some extra-symbolic cue). The results of two experiments showed that observers do shift their attention to relatively coarse spatial locations by combining expectancies about direction and distance, and that the extent to which observers do so is modulated by the presence of visible markers and the expected distance of the target. These findings are important because they provide the first evidence that extra-symbolic information about distance contributes to the symbolic control of spatial attention.     

Case Report: Direct Access Genetic Testing and A False-Positive Result For Long QT Syndrome

We report the case of a woman who pursued direct access genetic testing and then presented with concerns regarding a positive test result for Long-QT syndrome. Although the result ultimately proved to be a false positive, this case illustrates that costs associated with follow-up of direct access genetic testing results can be non-trivial for both the patient and for health care systems. Here we raise policy questions regarding the appropriate distribution of these costs. We also discuss the possibility that, when confronted by a direct access genetic test result that reports high risk for one or more actionable diseases, a family physician might feel compelled to act out of a desire to avoid liability, even when information regarding the accuracy and validity of the testing were not easily accessible. This case outlines lessons that can easily be translated into clinical practice, not only by genetic counselors, but also by family physicians, medical specialists and members of the public.     

The Implications of Using Group-Based Offenses versus Non-Group-Based Offenses in Peer Deviance Scales

A key distinction from Warr’s research is “groupy” (deviant acts commonly committed with peers) versus “non-groupy” (acts that are likely committed alone) deviance. Drawing on Warr’s important (and underutilized) distinction, this study’s goal is to determine whether measures of perceptual groupy peer deviance more accurately reflect a peer’s true deviance than perceptions of nongroupy peer deviance. Using dyadic data, results demonstrate that perceptions of a peer’s non-groupy deviance are largely inaccurate but perceptions of a peer’s groupy deviance are quite accurate. Despite this discrepancy, groupy and non-groupy perceptual measures function similarly in multivariate models and consistently outperform peer self-reports.