Capable Guardians in the Digital Environment: The Role of Digital Literacy in Reducing Phishing Victimization

In this study, we use Routine Activities Theory to explore the role of digital literacy, a measure of guardianship, in the receipt of and response to phishing. Data for the study come from a nationally representative survey conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons. The analysis results in two conclusions. First, respondents with higher levels of digital literacy report receiving phishing e-mails more often, but report responding to them less. Second, the social position of a respondent matters, but largely for the receipt of phishing. These findings indicate that digital literacy significantly effects the receipt of and response to phishing.     

Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Program on School Children's Self-Reported Well-Being: A Pilot Study Comparing Effects With An Emotional Literacy Program

This pilot study aimed to test the well-being effects of a locally developed mindfulness-based program tailored for New Zealand elementary school children in comparison with an active control condition. It was hypothesized that significantly greater well-being change scores would be observed for the mindfulness group. Students (n = 106) between 9 and 11 years old were allocated by their classroom to either the 8-week mindfulness-based program or an 8-week emotional literacy program. Self-reported well-being and mindfulness measures were collected at baseline and upon program completion. Measures were administered at 12 weeks postprogram to the mindfulness group only. One-way analyses of covariance were used for the main analyses, with corresponding baseline scores entered as covariates. Both programs led to significant increases in well-being outcomes, but significantly greater changes were observed for the mindfulness group (general well-being covariate-adjusted change scores were 4.49 [SE = 0.64] for the mindfulness-based program vs. 2.63 [SE = 0.63] for the emotional literacy program). Mindfulness scores significantly increased for the mindfulness group only. There was evidence of student acceptability of the mindfulness-based program and some indication of sustainability of effects at 12 weeks. The study adds to previous research that highlights beneficial well-being effects of mindfulness-based interventions in the classroom. Further research should evaluate potential long-term effects and delivery training.     

Noah Porter's problem and the origins of American psychology

The twin problems facing nineteenth-century American "mental and moral philosophy" of the nature of psychological language and the constraints that religious beliefs placed on possibilities of innovation in a "scientific Psychology" are both highly visible in the work of Noah Porter, who was unable to resolve them. They are also more covertly identifiable in the works of James McCosh and others in this school. It is suggested that the transition to the "New Psychology" of the 1880s and 1890s needs to be rethought in light of this in three respects: (a) ironically, it entailed repressing insights into the psychological language problem, (b) the legacy of the religious factor profoundly affected U.S. Psychology and played a less unambiguously negative role in its fortunes than customarily portrayed, and (c) the transition was itself a more complex and protracted process than is portrayed in traditional "revolutionary" accounts.     

Identification of own-race and other-race faces: Implications for the representation of race in face space

Own-race faces are recognized more easily than faces of a different, unfamiliar race. According to the multidimensional space (MDS) framework, the poor discriminability of other-race faces is due to their being more densely clustered in face space than own-race faces. Multidimensional scaling analyses of similarity ratings (Caucasian participants, n = 22) showed that other-race (Chinese) faces are more densely clustered in face space. We applied a formal model to test whether the spatial location of face stimuli could account for identification accuracy of another group of Caucasian participants (n = 30). As expected, own-race (Caucasian) faces were identified more accurately (higher hit rate, lower false alarms, and higher A) than other-race faces, which were more densely clustered than ownrace faces. A quantitative model successfully predicted identification performance from the spatial locations of the stimuli. The results are discussed in relation to the standard MDS account of race effects and also an alternative “race-feature” hypothesis.     

Construct validity of the MMPI-2 College Maladjustment (Mt) Scale

The construct validity of the MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2) College Maladjustment (Mt) Scale was examined using 376 student clients at a university psychological clinic. A principal components analysis and correlations of Mt scale scores with clients' and therapists' ratings of symptoms and functioning showed that the Mt scale identifies the presence of maladjustment as defined in terms of depressive and anxious symptoms. There is no evidence to show that the scale is specific to college students or that it is sensitive to severe psychological disturbance. The Mt scale does not inform the clinician as to why a person is distressed. In addition, there is no evidence from this study to suggest the superiority of the Mt scale over other MMPI-2 maladjustment measures. Therapists should use the entire MMPI-2 profile, not just the Mt scale, to gain the most comprehensive and specific understanding of clients.     

Experienced disgust causes a negative interpretation bias: a causal role for disgust in anxious psychopathology

This paper reports the results of an experiment investigating the effect of induced disgust on interpretational bias using the homophone spelling task. Four groups of participants experienced a disgust, anxiety, happy or neutral mood induction and then completed the homophone spelling task which requires the participant to interpret ambiguous words presented through headphones. Both the disgust and anxiety groups interpreted significantly more threat/neutral homophones as threat than both the happy and neutral groups; the disgust group also interpreted significantly fewer positive/neutral homophones as positive than the happy group. These findings are consistent with the view that induced disgust causes a negative interpretational bias which is similar to that reported for anxiety. The results could not be interpreted in terms of the disgust induction concurrently raising levels of self-reported anxiety, but could be interpreted in terms of disgust maintaining existing levels of anxiety. The effect of disgust was to facilitate negative interpretations rather than emotional interpretations regardless of valence. These findings provide the basis for a causal role for disgust in anxious psychopathology. Because the effect is a non-specific emotion-congruent one, elevated disgust levels will result in a predisposition to interpret information in a threatening way across a broad range of anxious- and threat-relevant domains.     

Further evidence on the validity of the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales: addressing questions raised by Rogers, Sewell, Harrison, and Jordan and Nichols

The reviews by Rogers, Sewell, Harrison, and Jordan (2006/this issue), and by Nichols (2006/this issue) offer markedly contrasting appraisals of the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales introduced by Tellegen et al. (2003). The one common feature is that both reviews draw on the same atypical MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) data set for their empirical analyses, with results warranting critical scrutiny. Rogers et al.'s critique provides an evaluation of the RC Scales from the perspective of Jackson's (1970) method of test development. One significant issue in Rogers et al.'s review concerns social desirability, prompting us to clarify our own views on this topic. We also highlight and discuss problems associated with Rogers et al.'s use of the unrepresentative data set. Nichols's polemical critique neglects empirical and theoretical support for demoralization as a central construct and misconstrues as "construct drift" the purposeful process of developing the RC scales. Nichols's criticisms and proposals overlook requirements for assessing syndromes and for construct validation and even rudiments of scale development. Our reply incorporates evidence, including new findings, refuting his criticisms and confirming that demoralization is a pervasive MMPI dimension, that the RC Scales capture the major distinctive features of the original Clinical Scales, and that they generate correspondingly meaningful validity patterns.     

Potentiation, overshadowing, and blocking of spatial learning based on the shape of the environment

Rats were trained in Experiment 1 to find a submerged platform in 1 corner of either a rectangular or a kite-shaped pool. When the walls creating this corner were a different color than the opposite walls, then learning about the shape of the pool was potentiated in the kite but not in the rectangle. Experiments 2-4 revealed that learning about the rectangle can be overshadowed and blocked when information about the wall color indicates the location of the platform. The results mimic findings that have been obtained with Pavlovian conditioning, and they challenge the claim that learning about the shape of the environment takes places in a dedicated geometric module.     

Spatial learning based on the shape of the environment is influenced by properties of the objects forming the shape

In 3 experiments rats had to find a submerged platform that was located in a corner of a kite-shaped pool. The color of the walls creating this corner provided an additional cue for finding the platform in the shape + color condition but not the shape-only condition. During tests in a pool with walls of a uniform color but no platform, more time was spent in the corner where the platform was originally located after training in the shape + color than in the shape-only condition. The results challenge theories that assume either that learning about the shape of the environment takes place in a dedicated module or that cues compete for the control they acquire over behavior.     

Adolescents' energy cost in marching band

The primary purpose of this study was to examine adolescents' energy cost in a marching band. High school marching band participants (N=15) completed five 3-min. stages of treadmill marching, using a 57.2-cm stride length (typical standard of eight steps per five yards) as follows: without instruments at 75 m x min.(-1) and 132 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 1): without instruments at 91 m x min.(-1) and 160 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 2); carrying instruments at 75 m x min.(-1) and 132 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 3); carrying instruments at 91 m x min.(-1) and 160 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 4); and playing instruments at 75 m x min.(-1) and 132 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 5). Mean heart-rate response to an actual parade performance was similar to the mean Stage 5 treadmill heart rate (n=6). With regard to a high school marching band, these results suggest that energy demand for marching cadences approximates 4.5 and 6.0 metabolic equivalents for moderate and fast paces, respectively.