Effects of Mothers' Overestimations and Underestimations of Their Children's Intellectual Ability: A Reanalysis of Hunt and Paraskevopoulos

Hunt and Paraskevopoulos reported (1980a) that mothers' tendency to overestimate their children's performances on intelligence-test items had a strongly negative correlation with children's intellectual ability, whereas their tendency to underestimate had a negligible correlation. Those findings were misleading side effects of the method used to measure mothers' tendencies to overestimate and underestimate. Appropriate alternative measures are suggested in the present article, and results that would have been obtained with them are approximated. According to this reanalysis, mothers' tendencies to both overestimate and underestimate have modest but significant negative correlations with children's intellectual ability. Mothers' tendency to make accurate estimations has a moderately strong positive correlation with children's intellectual ability.     

Maternal Influences on Anal or Compulsive Character in Children

Abstract

Hunter, W. S. Human Behavior. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1928. Pp. X + 355. $2.00 Reviewed by Herbert Woodrow

Pavlov, I. P. Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes. (Trans. by W. H. Gantt and G. Volborth.) New York: International Publ., 1928. Pp. 414. $6.50. Reviewed by C. J. Warden

Copeland, E. B. Natural Conduct: Principles of Practical Ethics. Stanford University: Stanford Univ. Press, 1928. Pp. vii+262. $3.50. Reviewed by Raymond R. Willoughby

Hull, C. L. Aptitude Testing. Yonkers-on-Hudson: World Book, 1928. Pp. iv + 535. $2.68. Reviewed by L. M. Harden     

Faculty in Faith-Based Institutions: Participation in Decision-Making and Its Impact on Job Satisfaction

This study examined full-time faculty in Christian, faith-based colleges and universities and investigated the type of impact their participation in the decision-making process had on job satisfaction. Previous studies have examined relationships among faculty at state universities and community colleges, yet little research has been examined in the area of full-time faculty at faith-based universities. This study sampled 145 full-time faculties at faith-based universities and examined the demographic variables of gender, age, years of teaching experience, degree, rank and salary groups, and participation. Regression analysis indicated that there were no significant relationships, while t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no significant differences. Discussion of the findings focused on possible reasons these findings differ from those in studies investigating public colleges and universities.     

The tasks of self-managing hepatitis C: The significance of disclosure

The narratives of those with hepatitis C were viewed through the lens of Corbin and Strauss’ [Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (1988). Unending work and care: Managing chronic illness at home. The Jossey-Bass health series and The Jossey-Bass social and behavioral science series. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.] self-management model for chronic illness, using qualitative methodology. Fifteen Australian hepatitis C positive interviewees described the challenges and turning points in adjusting to their diagnosis. The data were analysed using open- and closed-coding methods. Support was found for a self-management model encompassing medical, emotional and life role facets for those adjusting to life with hepatitis C. Unique challenges emerged beyond those described by Corbin and Strauss (1988 Corbin, J and Strauss, A. 1988. Unending work and care: Managing chronic illness at home, The Jossey-Bass health series and The Jossey-Bass social and behavioral science series San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  [Google Scholar]), namely that disclosure impacted both positively and negatively on the tasks of self-management. It was concluded that self-management may be compromised by disclosure, particularly distress derived from hepatitis C-related stigma. The self-management tasks described contribute to broadening clinicians’ understanding of the challenges faced by those living with hepatitis C.     

Remembering is in the details: Effects of test-list context on memory for an event

We examined how recognition judgements for a set of event details are influenced by the relative difficulty of the other details included on the test. Participants viewed a crime event and then assigned remember/know judgements to details on a recognition test. In Experiment 1, details of medium difficulty were more likely to be classified as remembered when mixed with hard details rather than easy details. Similarly, in Experiment 2, medium details presented in blocked format were more likely to be classified as remembered when preceded by a block of hard details rather than a block of easy details. The test-list context thus appears to influence how participants define remembering. In Experiment 3, informing participants of the relative difficulty of the upcoming block of details eliminated the blocking effect. Implications for accounts of remember/know judgements and for conducting memory interviews are discussed.     

Recall of word lists is enhanced with increased spreading activation

ABSTRACT

Some evidence exists supporting a relationship between spreading activation in semantic/lexical memory networks and episodic memory. However, the results have been mixed and there have been no investigations examining whether a relationship exists between variability in spreading activation and episodic memory. Hence, we sought to investigate these potential relationships. Thirteen individuals were administered the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test–Revised (HVLT-R) and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT). The average word frequency of all the “F” words generated on the COWAT was used as a measure of spreading activation. Variability in spreading activation was assessed by calculating the variability of the word frequencies from the COWAT across time. The results confirmed our hypotheses, with significant negative correlations found between free recall on the HVLT-R and both the average word frequency and measures of variability in spreading activation.     

Response to commentary on the multimodal treatment study of ADHD (MTA): mining the meaning of the MTA

In the December 2000 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, we published a set of papers presenting secondary analyses of the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA), and R. A. Barkley (2000) provided a commentary. A critique of the design of the study (MTA Cooperative Group, 1999) was presented based on a theoretical perspective of a behavioral inhibition deficit that has been hypothesized as the core deficit of ADHD (R. A. Barkley, 1997). The commentary questioned the design and analysis of the MTA in terms of (1) the empirical criteria for selection of components of behavioral (Beh) intervention, (2) the effectiveness of the Beh intervention, (3) the methods for analyses at the group and individual level, (4) implications of the MTA findings for clinical practice, (5) the role of genetics in response to treatment, and (6) the lack of a nontreatment control group. In this response, we relate the content of the papers to the commentary, (1) by reviewing the selection criteria for the Beh treatment, as outlined by K. C. Wells, W. E. Pelham, et al. (2000), (2) by addressing the myth that the MTA Beh treatment was ineffective (Pelham, 1999), (3) by describing the use of analyses at the level of the individual participant, as presented by J. S. March et al. (2000) and W. E. Pelham et al. (2000) as well as elsewhere by J. M. Swanson et al. (2001) and C. K. Conners et al. (2001), (4) by relating some of the suggestions from the secondary analyses about clinically relevant factors such as comorbidity (as presented by J. S. March et al., 2000) and family and parental characteristics (as presented by B. Hoza et al., 2000, S. P. Hinshaw et al., 2000, and K. C. Wells, J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), (5) by discussing the statistical concept of heritability and the lack of a significant difference in the presence of ADHD symptoms in parents of the MTA families compared to parents in the classmate-control families (as presented by J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), and (6) by acknowledging that an ethically necessary weakness of the MTA design is that it did not include a no-treatment control group. We discuss the use of secondary analyses to suggest how, when, and for what subgroups effectiveness of the Beh treatment may have been manifested. Finally, we invite others to use the large and rich data set that will soon be available in the public domain, to perform secondary analyses to mine the meaning of the MTA and to evaluate theories of ADHD and response to treatments.     

Can test list context manipulations improve recognition accuracy in the DRM paradigm?

Only test-based manipulations can be used to help people distinguish accurate from false memories once events have been encoded. In two experiments we examined how the type of studied words (weak vs strong associates, or less vs more memorable associates) and nonstudied lure words (related vs unrelated lures) on the test list affect recognition accuracy in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. False recognition of critical lures decreased substantially in the related-lure context, but so did correct recognition of studied words. False recognition was little affected by the studied-word manipulations. In general, participants claimed to recognise critical lures as often as weak associates or less memorable studied words but less often than either strong associates or more memorable studied words. The test-list context affected how participants classified their recognition experiences but it did not systematically change their overall memory accuracy.