Infants' joint attention skills predict toddlers' emerging mental state language

To assess predictive relations between joint attention skills, intention understanding, and mental state vocabulary, 88 children were tested with measures of comprehension of gaze and referential pointing, as well as the production of declarative gestures and the comprehension and production of imperative gestures, at the ages of 7-18 months. Infants' intention-based imitation skills were assessed at 12, 15, and 18 months. At the ages of 24 and 36 months, toddlers' internal state lexicon was evaluated by parents with a German adaptation of the Mental State Language Questionnaire (Olineck & Poulin-Dubois, 2005). Regression analyses revealed that 9-months-olds' comprehension of referential pointing contributed significantly to the prediction of intention-based imitation skills at 15 months, as well as to children's volition and cognition vocabularies at 24 and 36 months, respectively. Moreover, 12-month-olds' comprehension of an imperative motive was shown to selectively predict toddlers' use of volition terms at 24 months. Overall, these results provide empirical evidence for both general and specific developmental relations between preverbal communication skills and mental state language, thus implying developmental continuity within the social domain in the first 3 years of life.     

Lexical and sublexical knowledge influences the encoding,storage, and articulation of nonwords

Nonword repetition (NWR) has been used extensively in the study of child language. Although lexical and sublexical knowledge is known to influence NWR performance, there has been little examination of the NWR processes (e.g., encoding, storage, and articulation) that may be affected by lexical and sublexical knowledge. We administered two- and three-syllable spoken nonword recognition and nonword repetition tests on two independent groups of 31 children (mean age = 5 years 7 months). Spoken nonword recognition primarily involves encoding and storage, whereas NWR involves an additional articulation process. The influence of lexical and sublexical knowledge was determined by examining the number of lexical errors produced. There was clear involvement of long-term lexical and sublexical knowledge in both spoken nonword recognition and NWR. In spoken nonword recognition, twice as many errors involved selecting a foil that contained a lexical item (e.g., ‘yashukup’) as involved selecting a foil that contained only nonsense syllables (e.g., ‘yashunup’). In repetition, over 30% of errors changed a nonsense syllable to a lexical item. Our results show that long-term lexical and sublexical knowledge is pervasive in NWR. Any explanation of NWR performance must therefore consider the influence of lexical and sublexical knowledge throughout the whole repetition process, from the encoding to the articulation of nonwords.     

Prejudice in the pub: How alcohol and ideology loosen the tongue

This study (N = 124) tested the main and interactive effects of alcohol consumption, egalitarianism, and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in relation to prejudice suppression in the natural environment of a British Public House (pub). Employing a quasi-experimental between-subjects design, participants who had consumed alcohol were worse at suppressing their prejudice than participants with no alcohol consumption. Further, the more participants endorsed egalitarian values, the more they were able to suppress their prejudice. This tendency was resistant to the effects of alcohol. By contrast, the stronger participants held RWA beliefs, the less they were able to suppress their prejudice. In addition, this tendency was accentuated by alcohol consumption. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications.     

Performance bias: Why judgments of learning are not affected by learning

Past research has shown a performance bias: People expect their future performance level on a task to match their current performance level, even when there are good reasons to expect future performance to differ from current performance. One explanation of this bias is that judgments are controlled by what learners can observe, and while current performance is usually observable, changes in performance (i.e., learning or forgetting) are not. This explanation makes a prediction that we tested here: If learning becomes observable, it should begin to affect judgments. In three experiments, after practicing a skill, participants estimated how they performed in the past and how they expected to perform in the future. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants knew they had been improving, as shown by their responses, yet they did not predict that they would improve in the future. This finding was particularly striking because (a) they did improve in the future and (b) as Experiment 3 showed, they did hold the conscious belief that past improvement predicted future improvement. In short, when learning and performance are both observable, judgments of learning seem to be guided by performance and not learning.     

Emotion regulation of fear and disgust: differential effects of reappraisal and suppression

Although excessive fear has been central to traditional conceptualisations of the anxiety disorders, recent research suggests that disgust may also play a role in the development of some anxiety disorders. While dysregulation of emotion may confer risk for the development of anxiety disorders, it remains unclear if there are differences in the extent to which fear and disgust can be effectively regulated. To fill this important gap in the literature, unselected participants (N?=?95) experienced fear or disgust via video exposure, and they were instructed to employ either reappraisal or suppression to regulate their emotional experience while viewing the videos. For those exposed to fear-relevant content, change in emotional distress did not significantly differ between those that suppressed and those that reappraised. However, significantly less emotional distress was observed for those that reappraised compared to those that suppressed when exposed to disgust-relevant content. Although physiological arousal varied over time as a function of the emotional content of the videos, it did not vary as a function of emotion regulation strategy employed. These findings suggest that reappraisal may be especially effective in regulating verbal distress when exposed to disgusting cues in the environment. The implications of these findings for the treatment of anxiety disorders that are characterised by excessive disgust reactions will be discussed.     

Distinguishing between attributional and mnemonic sources of familiarity: The case of positive emotion bias

Does familiarity arise from direct access to memory representations (a mnemonic account) or from inferences and diagnostic cues (an attributional account)? These theoretically distinct explanations can be difficult to distinguish in practice, as is shown by thepositivity effect, the increase in feelings of familiarity that accompanies positive emotion. Experiment 1 manipulated mnemonic and attributional sources of positivity via word valence and physical expressions of emotion, respectively. Both sources influenced the tendency to call itemsold, but receiver-operating characteristic analysis revealed a change in accuracy only with the mnemonic source. To further contrast the mnemonic and attributional accounts, Experiment 2 varied the ratio of positive to neutral words. A higher proportion of positive words exaggerated the pattern of increasedold judgments and decreased accuracy for positive words, relative to neutral ones, consistent with the mnemonic account but inconsistent with the attributional account.     

What keeps people in mentoring relationships when bad things happen? A field study from the protégé's perspective

This study examines the association between negative mentoring experiences and protégé intentions to leave the mentoring relationship. The role of perceived mentoring alternatives and fear of mentor retaliation was also examined as moderators of the relationship between negative mentoring experiences and intentions to leave. Results indicate that several types of negative mentoring experiences predict intentions to leave the mentoring relationship. In addition, three moderation effects were found. The results are discussed in terms of enhancing our understanding of mentoring relationships in the workplace.     

The Integration of a Family Systems Approach for Understanding Youth Obesity,Physical Activity,and Dietary Programs

Rates of overweight in youth have reached epidemic proportions and are associated with adverse health outcomes. Family-based programs have been widely used to treat overweight in youth. However, few programs incorporate a theoretical framework for studying a family systems approach in relation to youth health behavior change. Therefore, this review provides a family systems theory framework for evaluating family-level variables in weight loss, physical activity, and dietary approaches in youth. Studies were reviewed and effect sizes were calculated for interventions that manipulated the family system, including components that targeted parenting styles, parenting skills, or family functioning, or which had novel approaches for including the family. Twenty-one weight loss interventions were identified, and 25 interventions related to physical activity and/or diet were identified. Overall, family-based treatment programs that incorporated training for authoritative parenting styles, parenting skills, or child management, and family functioning had positive effects on youth weight loss. Programs to improve physical activity and dietary behaviors that targeted the family system also demonstrated improvements in youth health behaviors; however, direct effects of parent-targeted programming is not clear. Both treatment and prevention programs would benefit from evaluating family functioning and parenting styles as possible mediators of intervention outcomes. Recommendations are provided to guide the development of future family-based obesity prevention and treatment programs for youth.     

Predicting the evolution of counseling psychology in the United States: results from a Delphi poll of academic training directors

What might the field of counseling psychology in the United States of America look like 10 years from now? In a Delphi Poll, an expert panel, consisting of 28 training directors from APA-accredited counseling psychology programs, made predictions regarding the future of counseling psychology 10 years from now in relation to three domains (core features, research and training, and professional training) and 32 specific areas within those domains. The strongest core feature of counseling psychology was viewed as a continuing commitment to issues of diversity (M = 4.64, SD = .63); the research and training theme predicted to attract the most attention in the next 10 years was a commitment to evidence-based practice (M = 4.71, SD = 1.20); and the professional training theme predicted to gain the greatest focus was attention to professional competence (M = 4.43, SD = .65). Results were compared with a previous Delphi Poll conducted in 2001, and recommendations are outlined for future research designed to contribute to the ongoing development of the field of counseling psychology.