Are the times changing? An analysis of gender differences in sexual graffiti

This study examined the assumption that the gender gap has narrowed over time in the writing of sexual graffiti from male and female bathrooms of five colleges and universities in 1972 and 1984. In both studies, female graffiti, in relation to male graffiti, made fewer sexual references. In addition, female graffiti were more socially acceptable in regard to langauge and content. Overall, these results suggest that the decade of the 1970s may have had little or no impact on the pattern of gender differences in the sexual content and social acceptability of wall writings.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, August 26, 1985.     

Investigation of a social-interactional model of depression with mildly depressed males and females

Recent research has explored social-interactional factors in the etiology and maintenance of depression. The current investigation further explored the social-interactional model using face-to-face interactions between depressed and nondepressed individuals, as well as the applicability of this model to observed differences in male and female depression. Forty depressed and 40 nondepressed subjects interacted with same or opposite-sex partners. The 20-minute interactions were videotaped and scored with a behavioral coding system. Subjects completed questionnaires concerning perceptions of their partners and the interaction. Results indicated that depressed and non-depressed subjects behaved similarly during the interactions. However, depression was associated with a number of socially unskilled behaviors. Depression in males was related to additional skills deficits not observed for females. While male and female self-report of depression did not differ, males consistently reported greater negative affect. Partner impressions differed based upon sex of partner, and not his or her level of depression. The robustness of the social-interactional model and methodological considerations for future research with this model are discussed.This article is based on the first author's master's thesis conducted under the supervision of the second author who is now at Catholic University. Portions of this research were presented at the 32nd annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association.The authors wish to thank George A. Clum and Thomas H. Ollendick for serving as committee members; Teresa K. Meade for her invaluable help in data collection; and Katie Bechtel, Ruth Townsley, and Mike Cobler for their assistance in scoring and coding data. Thanks also to an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Duration of negative practice and the reduction of leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult

This study evaluated the relative efficacy of long (1 minute) and short (15 seconds) durations of negative practice for reducing self-stimulatory leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult. In individual social skill training classes, long negative practice and short negative practice were administered concurrently in an alternating treatments design. Generalization of treatment effects outside of training sessions was assessed during the client's lunch period. The results revealed that both durations of negative practice were equally effective in reducing leg pounding during training sessions. However, the effects of training did not generalize to settings in which the practice contingency was not enforced. Pounding was more frequent and negative practice somewhat less effective during periods of high social stimulation.     

Visual attention to own- versus other-race faces: Perspectives from learning mechanisms and task demands

Multiple factors have been proposed to contribute to the other-race effect in face recognition, including perceptual expertise and social-cognitive accounts. Here, we propose to understand the effect and its contributing factors from the perspectives of learning mechanisms that involve joint learning of visual attention strategies and internal representations for faces, which can be modulated by quality of contact with other-race individuals including emotional and motivational factors. Computational simulations of this process will enhance our understanding of interactions among factors and help resolve inconsistent results in the literature. In particular, since learning is driven by task demands, visual attention effects observed in different face-processing tasks, such as passive viewing or recognition, are likely to be task specific (although may be associated) and should be examined and compared separately. When examining visual attention strategies, the use of more data-driven and comprehensive eye movement measures, taking both spatial–temporal pattern and consistency of eye movements into account, can lead to novel discoveries in other-race face processing. The proposed framework and analysis methods may be applied to other tasks of real-life significance such as face emotion recognition, further enhancing our understanding of the relationship between learning and visual cognition.     

The relationship between numerical mapping abilities,maths achievement and socioeconomic status in 4- and 5-year-old children

Background

Early numeracy skills are associated with academic and life-long outcomes. Children from low-income backgrounds typically have poorer maths outcomes, and their learning can already be disadvantaged before they begin formal schooling. Understanding the relationship between the skills that support the acquisition of early maths skills could scaffold maths learning and improve life chances.

Aims

The present study aimed to examine how the ability of children from different SES backgrounds to map between symbolic (Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (dot arrays) at two difficulty ratios related to their math performance.

Sample

Participants were 398 children in their first year of formal schooling (Mean age = 60 months), and 75% were from low SES backgrounds.

Method

The children completed symbolic to non-symbolic and non-symbolic to symbolic mapping tasks at two difficulty ratios (1:2; 2:3) plus standardized maths tasks.

Results

The results showed that all the children performed better for symbolic to non-symbolic mapping and when the ratio was 1:2. Mapping task performance was significantly related to maths task achievement, but low-SES children showed significantly lower performance on all tasks.

Conclusion

The results suggest that mapping tasks could be a useful way to identify children at risk of low maths attainment.     

Dimensional salience as a function of educational attainment and method of discrimination training

The effects of three methods of selective-attention training with 4-sided forms on the salience of an invagination physical dimension in discrimination judgments with a stimulus domain of 12-sided forms were examined for 6-year-old Ss of low and high educational attainment. The results demonstrated that training procedures involving perceptual demonstration or manipulation increase the invagination dimension salience in the 12-sided stimulus domain more than a verbal training procedure for low educational attainment Ss. Implications for the psychophysical study of relatedness of stimulus domains are discussed.