Changes in achievement goals and competence perceptions across the college semester

We investigated the relationship between changes in perceptions of competence and changes in achievement goals across a college semester for students enrolled in an introductory psychology course. Two types of competence perceptions were examined: self-efficacy for learning and normative perceived ability. Changes in normative perceived ability were predicted to relate to changes in performance goals, but not mastery goals. Because mastery goals rely on self-referent standards to evaluate ability, we predicted changes in self-efficacy for learning would relate to changes in mastery goals. We also expected changes in self-efficacy for learning to relate to changes in performance goals because learning can lead to the demonstration of superior competence. The predictions were supported for mastery and performance-approach goals, but not for performance-avoidance goals. Very little change in performance-avoidance goals was observed. Scores on the first course exam also predicted change in performance-approach goals, with this effect partially mediated by competence perceptions.     

A family assessment based on the Social Relations Model

One purpose of family assessment is to formulate hypotheses that can guide clinical interventions. Family assessment is based on models about family functioning. In this paper the Social Relations Model ( Kenny and La Voie, 1984 ; SRM) is presented as such a model about family dynamics. Moreover, SRM provides statistical tools to underpin empirical hypotheses about family functioning. An SRM family assessment of a family with a child in child psychiatric care exemplifies the possibilities and limitations of this SRM approach to family assessment. The subject of the family assessment is family members' sense of influence in their family relationships.     

Comorbidity between SCARED anxiety factors and depressive symptomatology in 8- to 12-year-old children

The aim of this study was to examine the comorbidity between the SCARED anxiety factors and depressive symptoms in 8-12-year-old children. Participants were 792 girls and 715 boys, who completed: the 41-ítem version of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorder (SCARED), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and a Socio-demographic questionnaire. Of the sample, 47% showed anxiety symptoms and 11.5% showed depressive symptoms. Heterotypic comorbidity was 82% in children at risk of depression and 20% in children at risk of anxiety. Homotypic Comorbidity between anxiety factors was 87%. Homotypic comorbidity and heterotypic comorbidity were high; their early detection will prevent the continuity of an anxious disorder and the development of depression.     

Conscious thought beats deliberation without attention in diagnostic decision-making: at least when you are an expert

Contrary to what common sense makes us believe, deliberation without attention has recently been suggested to produce better decisions in complex situations than deliberation with attention. Based on differences between cognitive processes of experts and novices, we hypothesized that experts make in fact better decisions after consciously thinking about complex problems whereas novices may benefit from deliberation-without-attention. These hypotheses were confirmed in a study among doctors and medical students. They diagnosed complex and routine problems under three conditions, an immediate-decision condition and two delayed conditions: conscious thought and deliberation-without-attention. Doctors did better with conscious deliberation when problems were complex, whereas reasoning mode did not matter in simple problems. In contrast, deliberation-without-attention improved novices’ decisions, but only in simple problems. Experts benefit from consciously thinking about complex problems; for novices thinking does not help in those cases.     

On interference effects in concurrent perception and action

Recent studies have reported repulsion effects between the perception of visual motion and the concurrent production of hand movements. Two models, based on the notions of common coding and internal forward modeling, have been proposed to account for these phenomena. They predict that the size of the effects in perception and action should be monotonically related and vary with the amount of similarity between what is produced and perceived. These predictions were tested in four experiments in which participants were asked to make hand movements in certain directions while simultaneously encoding the direction of an independent stimulus motion. As expected, perceived directions were repelled by produced directions, and produced directions were repelled by perceived directions. However, contrary to the models, the size of the effects in perception and action did not covary, nor did they depend (as predicted) on the amount of perception–action similarity. We propose that such interactions are mediated by the activation of categorical representations.     

The effectiveness of family-based cognitive-behavior grief therapy to prevent complicated grief in relatives of suicide victims: the mediating role of suicide ideation

Grief interventions are more effective for high risk individuals. The presence of suicide ideation following suicide bereavement was examined to determine whether it indicates a high risk status. Using data from a randomized controlled trial (n = 122) on the effectiveness of cognitive-behavior therapy, the effect of suicide ideation on the effectiveness of grief therapy on the bereavement outcome at 13 months post loss was examined. Results show that suicide ideators more often have a history of mental disorder and suicidal behavior than non-ideators, and suicide ideation indicates a high risk for adverse bereavement outcome. Grief therapy likely reduces the risk of maladaptive grief reactions among suicide ideators. Therefore, suicide ideators may benefit from grief therapy following a loss through suicide.     

Defining Deduction,Induction, and Validity

In this paper I focus on two contrasting concepts of deduction and induction that have appeared in introductory (formal) logic texts over the past 75 years or so. According to the one, deductive and inductive arguments are defined solely by reference to what arguers claim about the relation between the premises and the conclusions. According to the other, they are defined solely by reference to that relation itself. Arguing that these definitions have defects that are due to their simplicity, I develop definitions that remove these defects by assigning a combination of roles to both arguers’ claims concerning the premises/conclusion relation and the relation itself. Along the way I also present and briefly defend definitions of both deductive and inductive validity that are significantly different from the norm.     

Argumentative Bluff in Eristic Discussion: An Analysis and Evaluation

How does the analysis and evaluation of argumentation depend on the dialogue type in which the argumentation has been put forward? This paper focuses on argumentative bluff in eristic discussion. Argumentation cannot be presented without conveying the pretence that it is dialectically reasonable, as well as, at least to some degree, rhetorically effective. Within eristic discussion it can be profitable to engage in bluff with respect to such claims. However, it will be argued that such bluffing is dialectically inadmissible, even within an eristic discussion.     

Gradual remapping results in early retinotopic and late spatiotopic inhibition of return

Here we report that immediately following the execution of an eye movement, oculomotor inhibition of return resides in retinotopic (eye-centered) coordinates. At longer postsaccadic intervals, inhibition resides in spatiotopic (world-centered) coordinates. These results are explained in terms of perisaccadic remapping. In the interval surrounding an eye movement, information is remapped within retinotopic maps to compensate for the retinal displacement. Because remapping is not an instantaneous process, a fast, but gradual, transfer of inhibition of return from retinotopic to spatiotopic coordinates can be observed in the postsaccadic interval. The observation that visual stability is preserved in inhibition of return is consistent with its function as a "foraging facilitator," which requires locations to be inhibited across multiple eye movements. The current results support the idea that the visual system is retinotopically organized and that the appearance of a spatiotopic organization is due to remapping of visual information to compensate for eye movements.     

Context-dependent Dynamic Processes in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Differentiating Common and Unique Effects of <Emphasis Type="Italic">State Regulation Deficits</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Delay Aversion</Emphasis>

The ability to specify differential predictions is a mark of a scientific models’ value. State regulation deficits (SRD) and delay aversion (DAv) have both been hypothesized as context-dependent dynamic dysfunctions in ADHD. However, to date there has been no systematic comparison of their common and unique elements. Here we review these hypotheses—and describe the core and secondary manifestations of the two constructs and review evidence in support of them. Second, we focus on what are seen as the hallmark indicators of the two deficits—preference of small immediate over large delayed rewards for DAv and the slow event rate effect for SRD. We describe the overlap between these two manifestations and then explore how experimental manipulations and the analysis of neuropsychological and physiological mediators of effects can allow us to differentiate these two patterns of neuropsychological dysfunction on the basis of specific predictions. Finally, we highlight the implications of neuropsychological heterogeneity for the practical implementation of tests of DAv and SRD.