Explorations of familiarity produced by words with specific combinations of letters

We explore familiarity-based recognition using a paradigm devised by Parkin et al. (2001). The task consists of the creation of two lists of words written with one of two different subsets of letters of the alphabet. We manipulated study time (50, 100, 200, 500 ms per word) of words with different letter probabilistic structure to those originally used by Parkin et al. Letter-based familiarity responding was robust and present even at rates producing otherwise chance performance. A second experiment and structural equation modelling led us to interpret the results from the point of view of a theory that takes into account the processing of similarities and differences (Hunt & MacDaniel, 1993). Finally, our data indicate that the experimental procedure devised by Parkin et al. is an excellent tool with which to study familiarity, once the structure of probabilities of individual letters is considered as the key factor in inducing the effect.     

Adolescents’ Faith Commitments as Correlates of Their Involvement in Christian Service

This study sought to determine the relationship between adolescents’ involvement in service to others and their commitment to religious values and Seventh-day Adventist beliefs. Canonical correlation indicated that adolescents’ involvement in service to others is significantly related to their commitment to religious values and beliefs. Results indicated that greater commitment to religious values and Seventh-day Adventist beliefs among adolescents attending Seventh-day Adventist schools is correlated with greater involvement in service to others.     

Involvement of the insular cortex in retention of conditioned taste aversion is not time dependent

In fear-associated learning paradigms, hippocampal lesions induce memory deficits of recent but not remote memories, while amygdala lesions produce retention deficits irrespective of the age of the memory. In conditioned taste aversion (CTA), non-hippocampal mediated learning paradigm, the insular vortex (IC) has shown to have a crucial role in consolidation and storage of CTA memory. Due to the functional and anatomical similarities to the hippocampus, a time dependent role of the IC in CTA retention cannot be ruled out. To test whether the IC shows a time dependent role in CTA memory retention, male Wistar rats were CTA trained on saccharin 0.1% (LiCl 0.15M, 2% b/w, 40 min after drinking) and lesioned with ibotenic acid (200-300 nL, 5mg/mL) unilaterally into the IC 1 week or bilaterally 1 or 6 weeks after CTA. CTA memory was completely disrupted in both bilateral lesion groups but unaffected in the unilateral lesioned group. The resulting preference was comparable to that of the bilaterally IC lesioned animals exposed to the taste for the first time, proving that in these animals a complete amnesic state was achieved. Bilaterally IC lesioned rats showed normal discrimination between preferred (sucrose 5%) and non-preferred (quinone) tastes. Our data indicates that the involvement of the IC in CTA is not time dependent and that CTA memories are stored in each hemisphere separately.     

Conceptual foundations and validation of the Pseudoscientific Belief Scale

In this study, we present the Pseudoscientific Belief Scale (PSEUDO; α = 0.90). The conceptual foundations of the scale include (a) a philosophically grounded and functional demarcation criterion between science and pseudoscience; (b) an analysis of the pseudoscientific status of science denialism, which is integrated into the scale; and (c) a bibliographic justification to back up the inclusion of each item. The validation process is carried out based on two studies. Study 1 (N = 3,416) uses both exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis: Conceptually congruent factors are not reported. Study 2 (N = 292) includes a total of 21 sociodemographic, personality, and cognitive independent variables, as well as the two thematic subscales of PSEUDO as dependent variables, in order to analyze the psychological profile of both sets of believers. Results show high similarity between both groups, confirming construct validity.     

Regular and irregular morphology and its relationship with agrammatism: evidence from two Spanish-Catalan bilinguals

We report the performance of two aphasic patients in a morphological transformation task. Both patients are Spanish-Catalan bilingual speakers who were diagnosed with agrammatic Broca's aphasia. In the morphological transformation task, the two patients were asked to produce regular and irregular verb forms. The patients showed poorer performance with irregular than regular morphological transformations in both of their languages. These results are at odds with the proposal that agrammatic speech is always or even preponderantly associated with poorer performance in processing regular versus irregular verb form. Instead, these results support the view that a major component of agrammatic production is a deficit in morphosyntactic processing, independently of whether this processing ultimately involves regular or irregular forms.     

Conflicting processes in the extinction of conditioned taste aversion: behavioral and molecular aspects of latency,apparent stagnation,and spontaneous recovery

The study of experimental extinction and of the spontaneous recovery of the extinguished memory could cast light on neurobiological mechanisms by which internal representations compete to control behavior. In this work, we use a combination of behavioral and molecular methods to dissect subprocesses of experimental extinction of conditioned taste aversion (CTA). Extinction of CTA becomes apparent only 90 min after the extinction trial. This latency is insensitive to muscarinic and β-adrenergic modulation and to protein synthesis inhibition in the insular cortex (IC). Immediately afterwards, however, the extinguishing trace becomes sensitive to β-adrenergic blockade and protein synthesis inhibition. The subsequent kinetics and magnitude of extinction depend on whether a spaced or massed extinction protocol is used. A massed protocol is highly effective in the short run, but results in apparent stagnation of extinction in the long-run, which conceals fast spontaneous recovery of the preextinguished trace. This recovery can be truncated by a β-adrenergic agonist or a cAMP analog in the insular cortex, suggesting that spontaneous overtaking of the behavioral control by the original association is regulated at least in part by β-adrenergic input, probably operating via the cAMP cascade, long after the offset of the conditioned stimulus. Hence, the performance of the subject in experimental extinction is the sum total of multiple, sometimes conflicting, time-dependent processes.     

Academic buoyancy,academic motivation,and academic achievement among filipino high school students

Academic buoyancy refers to students’ capability of dealing with day-to-day obstacles in the school contexts. Previous studies have demonstrated that academic buoyancy is linked to optimal outcomes. However, limited research has been conducted to explore why academic buoyancy can predict positive academic functioning. This research examined the association of academic buoyancy with academic motivational dimensions and achievement among 393 Filipino high school students. The indirect effects of academic buoyancy on achievement via the intermediate variable - academic motivational orientations were explored. Findings showed that academic buoyancy was associated with higher levels of academic achievement as well as controlled and autonomous motivational orientations. Academic buoyancy had indirect effects on achievement via autonomous motivation. This means that intrinsic motivation serves as a potential mechanism through which academic buoyancy may be associated with perceived academic achievement. Findings of this research emphasize the academic benefits of cultivating students’ capability to deal with daily academic hassles.

     

Detecting Differential Item Functioning Using Multiple-Group Cognitive Diagnosis Models

This study proposes a multiple-group cognitive diagnosis model to account for the fact that students in different groups may use distinct attributes or use the same attributes but in different manners (e.g., conjunctive, disjunctive, and compensatory) to solve problems. Based on the proposed model, this study systematically investigates the performance of the likelihood ratio (LR) test and Wald test in detecting differential item functioning (DIF). A forward anchor item search procedure was also proposed to identify a set of anchor items with invariant item parameters across groups. Results showed that the LR and Wald tests with the forward anchor item search algorithm produced better calibrated Type I error rates than the ordinary LR and Wald tests, especially when items were of low quality. A set of real data were also analyzed to illustrate the use of these DIF detection procedures.     

Psychological capital bolsters motivation,engagement, and achievement: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies

Psychological capital (PsyCap) has been widely investigated in the organizational context. However, limited attention has been given to the role of PsyCap in the academic setting. The primary objective of this study was to examine how PsyCap is associated with academic motivation, engagement, and achievement using both cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) approaches. Study 1 revealed that PsyCap was associated with higher autonomous motivation and controlled motivation even after controlling for relevant demographic variables. PsyCap was also associated with lower levels of amotivation. Study 2 showed that PsyCap was both a concurrent and prospective predictor of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, academic engagement, and academic achievement even after controlling for their respective autoregressors and other relevant covariates. Mediational analyses indicated that the effects of T1 PsyCap on T2 achievement and T2 engagement were mediated by T2 autonomous motivation. The theoretical and practical implications are elucidated.     

Perseverance Counts but Consistency Does Not! Validating the Short Grit Scale in a Collectivist Setting

The present research aims to validate the Short Grit Scale (Duckworth et al. Journal of Personality Assessment 91:166–174, 2009) among a sample of university (n?=?220) and high school students (n?=?606) from a collectivist culture (i.e., the Philippines) using both within-network and between-network approaches to construct validation. Our results revealed interesting cross-cultural differences in grit. First, grit was comprised of two distinct dimensions rather than as a hierarchical construct. Only the perseverance of effort dimension loaded onto the higher-order grit factor. Second, perseverance of effort was more salient in predicting key psychological outcomes (i.e., academic engagement and subjective well-being) compared to consistency of interests. This suggests that in collectivist cultures, the perseverance of effort dimension of grit is more relevant compared to the consistency of interest. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.