The Paired Hands Test: A Technique for Measuring Friendliness

An adaptation of Wagner's Hand Test, using two hands per photograph, has provided a quickly administered, objectively scorable, projective technique for measuring spontaneous feelings toward other people along the friendliness-hostility dimension. Data supporting the reliability and validity of this technique as a sensitive instrument for its intended purpose are presented.     

Extreme thinking in clinically depressed adolescents: Results from the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS)

The purpose of this report is to examine relations between extreme thinking, as measured by the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, and the maintenance of gains among adolescents who participated in the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). We examine extreme thinking among 327 adolescents (mean age = 14.56, 57% female, 75% White) who received cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), fluoxetine (FLX), or a combination of CBT and FLX (COMB). Among those who met remission status on the Children’s Depression Rating Scale - Revised (CDRS-R ≤ 28; 56 at week 12, 79 at week 18) extreme thinking did not predict failure to maintain remission. This is in contrast to findings with depressed adults. Treatment influenced level of extreme thinking, and this appeared to be driven by greater endorsement of positively valenced beliefs as opposed to a decrease in negatively valenced beliefs. Developmental or investigation characteristics may account for the discrepancy in findings.     

Working memory for patterned sequences of auditory objects in a songbird

The capacity to remember sequences is critical to many behaviors, such as navigation and communication. Adult humans readily recall the serial order of auditory items, and this ability is commonly understood to support, in part, the speech processing for language comprehension. Theories of short-term serial recall posit either use of absolute (hierarchically structured) or relative (associatively structured) position information. To date, neither of these classes of theories has been tested in a comparative auditory model. European starlings, a species of songbird, use temporally structured acoustic signals to communicate, and thus have the potential to serve as a model system for auditory working memory. Here, we explore the strategies that starlings use to detect the serial order of ecologically valid acoustic communication signals and the limits on their capacities to do so. Using a two-alternative choice operant procedure, we demonstrate that starlings can attend to the serial ordering of at least four song elements (motifs) and can use this information to classify differently ordered sequences of motifs. Removing absolute position cues from sequences while leaving relative position cues intact, causes recognition to fail. We then show that starlings can, however, recognize motif-sequences using only relative position cues, but only under rigid circumstances. The data are consistent with a strong learning bias against relative position information, and suggest that recognition of structured vocal signals in this species is inherently hierarchical.     

Differential Relations between Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting Practices and Child Externalizing Behavior

We examined differences in mothers’ and fathers’ parenting practices in relation to child externalizing behavior. Data were collected from a community sample of 135 cohabiting couples with a child aged 6–12. The couples were recruited through undergraduate and graduate students. Both parents were required to complete a series of questionnaires assessing demographic, parental, and child variables. Results indicated that after controlling for parental depression and marital conflict, all parenting variables were significantly related to child externalizing behavior; however, parent and/or child sex moderated these relations. Specifically, parental involvement was only significant for fathers and sons, positive parenting was only significant for mothers and sons, poor monitoring/supervision was only significant for girls, and only mothers’ inconsistent discipline was related to externalizing behavior. These results offer practical information regarding identification of children at risk for behavioral problems, as well as potential targets for prevention and intervention.     

Effects of small monetary incentives on return rates of a health survey to adults in rural areas

This study assessed differences in response rates to a mailed health survey by adults in two neighboring rural midwestern counties with differential incentives, of dollar 2.00 and dollar 5.00. Potential respondents in each county were randomly selected from a commercial database of residents' addresses. County "F" respondents (n = 541) which were 57% female and 95% Euro-American having a mean age of 47.3 yr. (SD= 16.9), received the dollar 5 incentive. County "H" respondents (n= 514) were 63% female, 95% Euro-American, had a mean age of 49.0 yr. (SD= 14.7), and received a S2 incentive. The response rates were 71% using the dollar 2 incentive and 73% using the dollar 5 incentive. These were not significantly different by chi-square test. The more cost-effective incentive for increasing the response rate of adults in this rural midwestern sample was to code the envelopes and use a dollar 2.00 rather than dollar 5.00 incentive, a cost per returned survey of dollar 5.24 versus dollar 9.13, respectively. The findings support Dillman's principle of diminishing returns as the size of the incentive goes up.     

Parking Manoeuvres Differ among Drivers with Narrower and Wider Field of View in the Presence of a Spatial Reference

Parking manoeuvring was studied in a driving simulator. Younger and older participants were classified according to the extent of their visual and attentional fields of view. The manoeuvres were made either in the presence of a spatial reference on the adjacent pavement (a pedestrian or a parking meter) or with no reference. It was found that the length of manoeuvres varied only among younger drivers depending on the type of spatial reference and the extent of their visual and attentional fields. The participants with wider fields took advantage of the presence of a pedestrian or a parking meter, whereas those with a narrower field of view did not. Furthermore, the individuals with a narrower field of view were disturbed by the presence of a pedestrian on the pavement. This study provides new information to consider in relation to the safety of manoeuvring among drivers with different visual and attentional capacities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.