A longitudinal study of gender-related cognition and behaviour

Gender schema theory proposes that children's acquisition of gender labels and gender stereotypes informs gender-congruent behaviour. Most previous studies have been cross-sectional and do not address the temporal relationship between knowledge and behaviour. We report the results of a longitudinal study of gender knowledge and sex-typed behaviour across three domains in children tested at 24 and 36 months (N = 56). Although both knowledge and sex-typed behaviour increased significantly between 2 and 3 years, there was no systematic pattern of cross-lagged correlations between the two, although some concurrent relationships were present at 24 months. Future longitudinal work might profitably focus on younger children using reliable preverbal measures of gender knowledge and employing a shorter lag between measurement times.     

Immediate spatial distortions of pointing movements induced by visual landmarks

We tested the influence of two horizontally aligned visual landmarks on pointing movements to memorized targets, to investigate whether the visuomotor system can make use of an egocentric representation unaffected by visual context. The endpoints of pointing movements were systematically distorted toward the nearest visual landmark, indicating that spatial representations included both target and nontarget information. These distortions were not due to the presence of the landmarks during the movement but, rather, to their presence in the encoding phase. Qualitatively similar distortions were present even with the shortest possible retention phase, when the target was extinguished at movement onset. Finally, we found the same pattern of distortion when participants were forced to remember the target within an allocentric frame of reference. We argue that even early memory representations for pointing movements are influenced by visual information in the surrounding visual field.     

Central inhibition ability modulates attention-induced motion blindness

Impaired motion perception can be induced in normal observers in a rapid serial visual presentation task. Essential for this effect is the presence of motion distractors prior to the motion target, and we proposed that this attention-induced motion blindness results from high-level inhibition produced by the distractors. To investigate this, we compared the extent of the attention-induced motion blindness effect with performance on central inhibition tasks: Stroop colour naming and negative priming. A negative correlation between Stroop interference and motion performance reflected that low Stroop scores, indicative of strong inhibition ability, was associated with more severe impairments in motion perception. This association could not be explained by individual differences in fluid intelligence, task switching or response speed. Negative priming was not specifically associated with attention-induced motion blindness. The results confirm that attention can modulate motion perception and suggest that the processes involved may be shared with high-level cognitive abilities.     

Discrete emotions and persuasion: the role of emotion-induced expectancies

The authors argue that specific emotions can alter the persuasive impact of messages as a function of the emotional framing of persuasive appeals. Because specific emotions inflate expectancies for events possessing matching emotional overtones (D. DeSteno, R. E. Petty, D. T. Wegener, & D. D. Rucker, 2000), the authors predicted that attempts at persuasion would be more successful when messages were framed with emotional overtones matching the emotional state of the receiver and that these changes would be mediated by emotion-induced biases involving expectancies attached to arguments contained in the messages. Two studies manipulating discrete negative emotional states and message frames (i.e., sadness and anger) confirmed these predictions. The functioning of this emotion-matching bias in parallel with emotion-induced processing differences and the limitations of a valence-based approach to the study of attitude change are also considered.     

The Temporal Automated System for Taste Experiments (TASTE)

We describe a new, open flow device for presenting taste stimuli to human subjects under controlled conditions of timing. The device delivers each stimulus as a mist to the participant’s tongue through one of 16 nozzles attached to a linear slide. Software controls the position of the slide, the duration of the stimulus, and the duration of the pre- and poststimulus water rinses and records the responses of the participant. Temporal characteristics of this system make it especially applicable to studies on the role of attention in taste perception.     

Functional analysis and treatment of self-injurious behavior in young children a summary of 30 cases

The assessment and treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB) has received much attention in the literature; however, few studies have focused on early intervention for this behavior. In the current study, functional analyses with developmentally appropriate modifications were conducted in an outpatient clinic with 30 children (aged 10 months to 4 years 11 months) to assess SIB and problem behavior in its early stages. The reported mean age of SIB onset was 17 months, and head banging was the most prevalent topography. Functional analyses identified sources of reinforcement for SIB in 62.1% of cases; with the inclusion of all forms of problem behavior, sources of reinforcement were identified for 87.5% of cases. Function-based treatments were developed for 24 cases, with functional communication training prescribed most often (70.8% of cases). Implications of these findings for the development of early intervention programs for SIB are discussed.     

Sex differences among five sources of motivation in the motivation sources inventory: preliminary findings

Paper reports sex differences among five sources of motivation for a sample of 208 undergraduate students who completed the Motivation Sources Inventory. t tests yielded few statistically significant sex differences for the five sources of motivation; however, Instrumental Motivation was higher among men than women, while the remaining four motives showed no sex difference. Implications and research opportunities are discussed.