Symptoms of Psychological Distress Among Mothers and their Adult Offspring: A Longitudinal Examination

We examined the association between maternal psychological distress during offspring’s early development and offspring’s later distress in adulthood, as well as the influence of maternal characteristics at offspring’s birth and offspring’s characteristics in adulthood on distress. Data were obtained from the British Cohort Study, a longitudinal study of children born in a one-week period in 1970. Children were followed up multiple times from birth through to age 30. Results indicate that greater symptoms of maternal psychological distress during offspring’s early childhood are associated with greater symptoms of distress in adult offspring. A large component of this association is indirect, occurring through mother’s distress in later childhood and offspring’s problem behavior during adolescence. Findings that the association between maternal and offspring’s distress is more indirect than direct support arguments that early maternal distress has long-term consequences for offspring.     

Prevalence and reporting of near-point binocular convergence and acuity vision deficits in potential research participants

Visual abilities at near-point distances of 200 self-reported normal vision college students were assessed. Results show that normal visual functioning with no deficits is the exception. The most common visual deficits observed involved binocular lateral posture and fusion convergence deficits. Binocular and monocular acuity deficits also had high prevalence rates, although not as prevalent as the binocular convergence deficits. In addition, 1,340 articles published in four major journals from the years 1997-2004 were examined to ascertain the extent to which authors report the visual capabilities of their participants. Reporting of research participant visual abilities by authors using visual stimuli in experiments appears to be lacking. The results are discussed in terms of the potential impact that visual deficits may have on results obtained in experiments in which visual stimuli are used and the importance of reporting the visual assessment tests and procedures used to assess the visual abilities of potential participants.     

Gender-linked Differences in the Toys, Television Shows, Computer Games, and Outdoor Activities of 5- to 13-year-old Children

This study was designed to compare how 5- to 13-year-old children's leisure activity preferences differ with age and gender. Responses from 60 boys and 60 girls about their favorite toys, television shows, computer games, and outdoor activities were compared across leisure categories. The results showed that gender was a significant factor. Overall, boys spent more time in these leisure activities than girls did. They spent the most time engaged in sports, watching television, and playing computer games, whereas girls spent the most time watching television. Results from a gender index for all activities indicated that boys' leisure preferences became slightly more masculine with age. For girls, preferences for television shows became more feminine with age, but preferences for toys, computer games, and sports became less feminine. These self-chosen preferences may provide differential opportunities for the development of visual-spatial skills, achievement, initiative, self-regulation, and social skills.     

Personality and team performance: a meta‐analysis

Using a meta‐analytical procedure, the relationship between team composition in terms of the Big‐Five personality traits (trait elevation and variability) and team performance were researched. The number of teams upon which analyses were performed ranged from 106 to 527. For the total sample, significant effects were found for elevation in agreeableness (ρ = 0.24) and conscientiousness (ρ = 0.20), and for variability in agreeableness (ρ = ?0.12) and conscientiousness (ρ = ?0.24). Moderation by type of team was tested for professional teams versus student teams. Moderation results for agreeableness and conscientiousness were in line with the total sample results. However, student and professional teams differed in effects for emotional stability and openness to experience. Based on these results, suggestions for future team composition research are presented. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When stereotypes disadvantage boys: Strength of stereotypes in mathematics and language arts and their relations with grades

There is growing concern about boys' lagging performance in school, not only in language arts, where the gap is particularly pronounced, but also in mathematics. Stereotypes associating one gender with language arts or with mathematics are likely to contribute to these gaps. Such stereotypes can translate into explicit beliefs such as the extent to which students are aware of societal stereotypes or the extent to which they personally believe stereotypes to be true, but also indirectly into performance following a stereotype threat manipulation. However, few studies have considered these multiple stereotype expressions in both mathematics and language arts to examine their importance in predicting boys' and girls' actual grades in school. To fill this gap, two complementary studies examined high school boys' and girls' awareness and endorsement of stereotypes about both language arts (n = 299) and mathematics (n = 243), as well as whether stereotype threat impaired boys' performance on a spelling test. Although the effect of stereotype threat was not significant overall, our results showed that students were aware of and endorsed strong stereotypes advantaging girls in language arts. In mathematics, students endorsed counter-traditional stereotypes slightly advantaging girls. Our results also showed that these multiple expressions of stereotypes related to students' grades. In doing so, our work provides insights regarding possible targets for interventions to reduce gender gaps disadvantaging boys in school.     

Opposing effects of age and reading ability on pseudoword priming

Repetition priming refers to the facilitation of stimulus processing due to prior processing of the same or similar stimulus, and is one of the most primitive ways in which experience and practice can affect performance. Previous studies have produced contradictory results regarding the stability of repetition priming across development. Drawing on models of word priming that suggest decreased priming with increased reading ability, the present experiment investigated the possibility that null effects of age in priming are due to opposing effects of age and reading ability on priming magnitude. Forty-eight participants between 7 and 22 years old read aloud primed and unprimed pseudowords, after completing a reading ability assessment. In line with predictions, the magnitude of priming for pseudowords increased with increased age when reading ability was controlled, and decreased with increased reading ability when age was controlled. Moreover, neither the age nor ability effect was significant when tested without the other. Results were not influenced by explicit memory for primed pseudowords. Thus, the present experiment provides evidence for developmental increases in word priming, as well as a potential explanation for the lack of developmental effects in previous studies.     

Passion for Driving and Aggressive Driving Behavior: A Look at Their Relationship

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the relationship between passion for driving and aggressive driving behavior in 3 studies. Study 1 examined the association between passion and aggressive driving behavior in a sample of undergraduate students. Results showed that an obsessive passion for driving was associated with aggressive driving behavior, while harmonious passion was not. Study 2 replicated these results with an ecologically valid sample of community‐dwelling drivers. Finally, Study 3 replicated the results obtained in Studies 1 and 2 in a laboratory setting using a driving simulator under controlled frustrating driving situations with judges' assessment of aggressive driving behavior. Study 3 also showed that the emotion of anger mediated the obsessive‐passion/aggressive‐driving‐behavior relationship.     

Spatial navigation: Cognitive variables involved in route retracing among an elderly population

The cognitive processes involved in route retracing are not well known. This study aims to highlight them in an elderly population in which contradictory results have been obtained, certain studies showing specific difficulties for route retracing, others not. Thirty-nine elderly subjects performed a route-learning task (forward-backward) in a garden, then completed spatial knowledge tasks and standardised cognitive tests. Results show four factors that were predictive of route retracing performance: route repetition, the pointing task, and two standardised cognitive tests, one assessing spatial working memory, and another global cognitive efficiency. According to these results, route retracing involves route and survey knowledge (i.e., egocentric and allocentric strategy), and the integration of forward-backward perspectives is underpinned by the spatial working memory. Moreover, the subjects did not make more errors in route retracing than in the route repetition task, suggesting that a real environment could compensate for a failing allocentric strategy.