Effects of wakeful resting versus social media usage after learning on the retention of new memories

Communication and information sharing via social media platforms is a common and popular activity. The majority of existing studies indicate that social media usage has detrimental effects on learning and memory. However, it is an open question as to whether social media usage affects memory even after learning. To test this, healthy young adults learned and immediately recalled a vocabulary list. Subsequent to recall, participants either wakefully rested for 8 min or used social media for 8 min. A delayed recall test took place after the wakeful resting condition and the social media condition and again after 1 day. Our results showed that social media usage, compared with wakeful resting, had detrimental effects on memory performance over both retention intervals. We assume that social media usage interfered with memory consolidation of learned vocabularies and suggest that learners opt for wakeful resting over social media usage as a learning-break activity.     

A dual-route perspective on eye movements of dyslexic readers

This study assessed eye movement abnormalities of adolescent dyslexic readers and interpreted the findings by linking the dual-route model of single word reading with the E-Z Reader model of eye movement control during silent sentence reading. A dysfunction of the lexical route was assumed to account for a reduced number of words which received only a single fixation or which were skipped and for the increased number of words with multiple fixations and a marked effect of word length on gaze duration. This pattern was interpreted as a frequent failure of orthographic whole-word recognition (based on orthographic lexicon entries) and on reliance on serial sublexical processing instead. Inefficiency of the lexical route was inferred from prolonged gaze durations for singly fixated words. These findings were related to the E-Z Reader model of eye movement control. Slow activation of word phonology accounted for the low skipping rate of dyslexic readers. Frequent reliance on sublexical decoding was inferred from a tendency to fixate word beginnings and from short forward saccades. Overall, the linkage of the dual-route model of single word reading and a model of eye movement control led to a useful framework for understanding eye movement abnormalities of dyslexic readers.     

Validierungskorrelate der inhaltsanalytisch erfaßten Leistungsmotivation guter und schwacher Schüler des dritten Schuljahres

Ohne ZusammenfassungHerrn Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Metzger zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet.     

Measuring current achievement motivation with the QCM: Short form development and investigation of measurement invariance

This article explores the measurement properties of the Questionnaire on Current Motivation (QCM; Rheinberg, Vollmeyer, & Burns, 2001), which measures four factors of current achievement motivation (anxiety, challenge, interest, and probability of success) in the context of taking an abstract reasoning test. Two studies were conducted. In study 1, the measurement model of the QCM was tested, and a short form consisting of 12 of the original 18 QCM items was derived. Data were obtained from N = 350 students completing the QCM in anticipation of working on a test of Latin Square Tasks. In study 2, the measurement properties of the short form were replicated with data from a sample of N = 509 students. Measurement invariance with respect to gender was investigated using multigroup CFA models. The results showed that the assumptions of equal numbers of factors, factor loadings, and residual variances could be confirmed, but evidence for full intercept invariance was not obtained. There were significant differences in the latent means for anxiety and probability of success between female and male test takers, but none of these two factors had an influence on actual test performance, which was instead significantly predicted by interest in the task.     

Likelihood-Based Clustering of Meta-Analytic SROC Curves

Meta-analysis of diagnostic studies experience the common problem that different studies might not be comparable since they have been using a different cut-off value for the continuous or ordered categorical diagnostic test value defining different regions for which the diagnostic test is defined to be positive. Hence specificities and sensitivities arising from different studies might vary just because the underlying cut-off value had been different. To cope with the cut-off value problem interest is usually directed towards the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve which consists of pairs of sensitivities and false-positive rates (1-specificity). In the context of meta-analysis one pair represents one study and the associated diagram is called an SROC curve where the S stands for “summary”. In meta-analysis of diagnostic studies emphasis has traditionally been placed on modelling this SROC curve with the intention of providing a summary measure of the diagnostic accuracy by means of an estimate of the summary ROC curve. Here, we focus instead on finding sub-groups or components in the data representing different diagnostic accuracies. The paper will consider modelling SROC curves with the Lehmann family which is characterised by one parameter only. Each single study can be represented by a specific value of that parameter. Hence we focus on the distribution of these parameter estimates and suggest modelling a potential heterogeneous or cluster structure by a mixture of specifically parameterised normal densities. We point out that this mixture is completely nonparametric and the associated mixture likelihood is well-defined and globally bounded. We use the theory and algorithms of nonparametric mixture likelihood estimation to identify a potential cluster structure in the diagnostic accuracies of the collection of studies to be analysed. Several meta-analytic applications on diagnostic studies, including AUDIT and AUDIT-C for detection of unhealthy alcohol use, the mini-mental state examination for cognitive disorders, as well as diagnostic accuracy inspection data on metal fatigue of aircraft spare parts, are discussed to illustrate the methodology.     

Number sense or working memory? The effect of two computer-based trainings on mathematical skills in elementary school

Research on the improvement of elementary school mathematics has shown that computer-based training of number sense (e.g., processing magnitudes or locating numbers on the number line) can lead to substantial achievement gains in arithmetic skills. Recent studies, however, have highlighted that training domain-general cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory [WM]) may also improve mathematical achievement. This study addressed the question of whether a training of domain-specific number sense skills or domain-general WM abilities is more appropriate for improving mathematical abilities in elementary school. Fifty-nine children (M_age = 9 years, 32 girls and 27 boys) received either a computer-based, adaptive training of number sense (n = 20), WM skills (n = 19), or served as a control group (n = 20). The training duration was 20 min per day for 15 days. Before and after training, we measured mathematical ability using a curriculum-based math test, as well as spatial WM. For both training groups, we observed substantial increases in the math posttest compared to the control group (d = .54 for number sense skills training, d = .57 for WM training, respectively). Whereas the number sense group showed significant gains in arithmetical skills, the WM training group exhibited marginally significant gains in word problem solving. However, no training group showed significant posttest gains on the spatial WM task. Results indicate that a short training of either domain-specific or domain-general skills may result in reliable short-term training gains in math performance, although no stable training effects were found in the spatial WM task.     

Relationships between restrictive mother-child interactions and anxiety of the child

Abstract

The “two-process model” postulates that there are specific associations between patterns of parental child-rearing styles and the development of the child's anxiety and coping dispositions. Besides parameters of parental feedback to the child, this model considers support and restriction to be the central dimensions of child-rearing behavior. The present study aims at assessing behavioral indicators for restriction. For this purpose, the working and intervention behavior of 47 mothers and their ten- to 13-year-old children was observed and registered during a 15-minute period of common problem-solving (putting together a difficult puzzle-like cube). In order to register processes of problem-oriented cooperation between mother and child, transitional probabilities between defined state and event classes were analyzed. Based on the theoretical definition of the child-rearing style “restrictio”, hypotheses concerning the significance of variable transitional probabilities are formulated and tested regarding their correspondence with anxiety-related characteristics of the child.     

Negative perfectionism increases the risk of fatigue following a period of stress

Abstract

There is a considerable amount of research concerning (he relationship between psychological variables and the postoperative outcome of surgery. However, little attention has been paid to the potential influence of psychological factors on infra-operative variables, most notably on anaesthetic requirement. The present study investigates the influence of surgery-related trail and slate anxiety as well as of dispositional and surgery-related actual coping on several indicators of intra- and postoperative adjustment. In addition, a possible mediating effect of stress-induced analgesia on the relationships between anxiety, coping, and intraoperative anaesthetic requirements was evaluated. Sixty-one patients undergoing elective lumbar iniclcotomy completed questionnaires regarding anxiety and coping variables one day before surgery. Intraoperative adjustment was assessed by measuring EEG-controlled anaesthetic requirements for induction and maintenance of anaesthesia, β-endorphin plasma concentration was collected preoperatively in the induction room. Postoperative outcome was assessed on the third day after surgery by questionnaires regarding pain experience, physical condition and emotional state. For preoperative anxiety as well as vigilant coping behaviour, there were opposite relationships with subjective measures of adjustment (e.g. self-reported postoperative pain experience), on the one side, and objective measures on the other (e.g., intraoperative anaesthetic requirement). Stress-induced analgesia was found for the subgroup of high-anxious patients. The results indicate that psychological programmes aimed at facilitating patients' perioperative adjustment should consider the different effects of anxiety and coping on subjective and objective measures.     

Mobbing at work and the development of post-traumatic stress disorders

Abstract

Psychosocial research on mobbing is currently being carried out in a number of countries, mainly in Europe. Mobbing is defined as an extreme social stressor at workplaces. In this article, its serious mental and psychosomatic health consequences are demonstrated and discussed. A factor analysis of symptom statistics collected through answers from a study representative of the entire Swedish workforce showed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as the plausible diagnosis. In addition, 64 patients subjected to mobbing at their work places are diagnosed with the co-operation of a rehabilitation clinic specializing in the treatment of chrome PTSD. The statistical analysis of these 64 diagnoses shows a severe degree of PTSD, with mental effects fully comparable with PTSD from war or prison camp experiences.