Sex Differences in Visual Recognition Memory: Support for a Sex-Related Difference in Attention in Adults and Children

The selectivity hypothesis of Meyers-Levy (1989) proposes that cognitive sex differences reflect underlying differences in information processing between males and females. Males are considered to be more likely to organize information in a self-related manner, whereas females are more likely to adopt a comprehensive approach to information processing. We tested this hypothesis in children (10–15 years) and adults using recognition memory tasks. Tests were devised which employed male-oriented objects, female oriented objects, or random objects. In both the child and adult samples, females performed significantly better than males on tests using random and female-oriented objects. Males performed at the level of females only when tested for recognition of male-oriented objects. These results demonstrate that this sex difference is present prior to puberty and support the concept of sex differences in information processing.     

The meaning of bad news in HIV disease: Counselling about dreaded issues revisited

HIV disease is a slow, progressive immunological disorder. As there is neither a cure nor a vaccine, morbidity and mortality arising from HIV infection will continue to challenge health care providers, including those who counsel these patients. Psychological preparation for ‘bad news’ and support for those whose health is deteriorating is an important task in HIV counselling. This paper describes what may be considered bad news for people living with HIV, how to prepare them for unwelcome changes in their medical condition and how to give bad news, should the need arise.     

Perinatal indicators of sudden infant death syndrome: A study of 34 Rhode Island Cases

Pre- and perinatal characteristics of 34 victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) were compared with those controls matched for sex, race, birthdate, and hospital. Data were collected retrospectively from hospital records. Factors which reliably differentiated the SIDS group from controls included low birth-weight, short second stage of labor, fewer years of maternal schooling, and maternal anemia during pregnancy. The constellation of findings was interpreted as reflecting the interaction of physiological predispositions and environmental “setting conditions”, culminating in sudden and unexpected death. The efficacy of a previously established SIDS risk scale was assessed for these cases. Some issues concerning prediction of outcome from perinatal variables are discussed.     

Signaled Delay of Reinforcement: Effects of Postconditioning Manipulation of Context Associative Strength on Instrumental Performance

Two experiments examined the influence of postconditioning treatments of contextual cues on instrumental responding acquired with a signaled delay of reinforcement schedule. In Experiment 1, mere exposure to the conditioning context after instrumental training resulted in an attenuated response rate during an extinction test. In the second experiment, responding was decreased by exposure to the contextual cues or sessions in which signaled noncontingent reinforcements occurred. The greatest response decrement, however, occurred following unsignaled noncontingent food presentations. The results are discussed with respect to the different roles of contextual cues on operant responding.     

The influence of job familiarity and impression management on self-report measure scale scores and response latencies

Two studies were conducted to examine the effects of job familiarity and impression management on response latencies and scale scores for measures of personality and situational judgment. In a laboratory study using university students and a field study using U.S. Border Patrol Agent applicants, impression management was generally associated with faster personality item responses when job familiarity was high and with slower responses when job familiarity was low. Both impression management and job familiarity were associated with personality item responses that were more likely to lead to a job offer. The field study revealed a similar pattern of results for situational judgment scale response latencies, although only impression management was associated with item responses that were more likely to lead to a job offer. The implications for using response latencies to detect impression management on self-report measures are discussed.     

Support for hybrid models of the age of acquisition of English nouns

Age of acquisition (AoA) is a psycholinguistic construct that refers to the chronological age at which a given word is acquired. Contemporary theories of AoA have focused on lexical acquisition with respect to either the developing phonological or semantic systems. One way of testing the relative dominance of phonological or semantic contributions is through open-source psycholinguistic databases, whereby AoA may be correlated with other variables (e.g., morphology, semantics, phonology). We report two multiple regression analyses conducted on a corpus of English nouns with, respectively, subjective and objective AoA measures as the dependent variables and a combination of 10 predictors, including 2 semantic, 4 phonological, 2 morphological, and 2 lexical. This multivariate combination of predictors accounted for significant proportions of the variance of AoA in both analyses. We argue that this evidence supports hybrid models of language development that integrate multiple levels of processing—from sound to meaning.     

Cultural Differences in Newcomer Feedback Seeking: A Comparison of the United States and Hong Kong

Les travaux sur la recherche de feedback de la part des nouveaux arrivants peuvent s’appuyer sur des présupposés qui ne sont pas universellement valides, à savoir que les nouveaux arrivants font preuve d’auto‐affirmation, qu’ils jugent leur patron accessible (faible distance hiérarchique) et qu’ils doivent faire preuve d’initiative pour obtenir l’information dont il ont besoin, ce qui relève d’un processus de socialisation individuelle et informelle. Dans cette étude sur les nouveax arrivants, les Americains signalèrent plus de demandes de feedback que les gens de Hong Kong. Cette divergence est à rapporter aux différences culturelles dans l’auto‐affirmation et la distance hiérarchique. Ces résultats suggèrent que certains des présupposés implicites concernant la recherche de feedback de la part des nouveaux arrivants peuvent voir leur validité remise en cause en debors des Etats‐Unis. En particulier, les nouveaux arrivants vivant dans des sociétés communautariste et à grande distance hiérarchique sont moins susceptibles de faire appel à la rétroaction centrée sur le supérieur pour réduire l’incertitude et gérer leur efficacité professionnelle. Research on newcomer feedback seeking may be based on assumptions that are not universally valid: that newcomers are self‐assertive, that they perceive their boss as approachable (low power distance), and that they need to be proactive to obtain the information that they need (informal, individual socialisation process). In this study, individuals from the United States reported more newcomer feedback inquiry than individuals from Hong Kong. This difference was related to cultural differences in self‐assertiveness and power distance. These results suggest that some of the implicit assumptions about newcomer feedback seeking may be less valid outside of the US. In particular, newcomers within low‐individualism and high power distance societies may be less likely to rely on supervisor‐focused feedback inquiry for reducing uncertainty and managing their performance.