Pragmatic versus form-based accounts of referential contrast: evidence for effects of informativity expectations

Characterizing the relationship between form-based linguistic knowledge and representation of context has long been of importance in the study of on-line language processing. Recent experimental research has shown evidence of very rapid effects of referential context in resolving local indeterminacies on-line. However, there has been no consensus regarding the nature of these context effects. The current paper summarizes recent work covering a range of phenomena for which referential contrast has been shown to influence on-line processing, including prenominal and postnominal modification, focus operators, and intonational focus. The results of the body of work suggest that referential context effects are not limited to situations in which the linguistic form of the utterance directly specifies the point of contact with context. Rather, context effects of a pragmatic, Gricean nature appear to be possible, suggesting the relationship between linguistic form and context in rapid on-line processing can be of a very indirect nature.     

Affective, behavioral, and cognitive functioning in adolescents with multiple suicide attempts

The purpose of this study was to examine affective, behavioral, and cognitive functioning in adolescents with multiple suicide attempts. Forty-seven adolescents with a history of multiple suicide attempts (MA) were compared to 74 single suicide attempters (SA) on psychiatric diagnosis, depressive symptoms, affect regulation, self-mutilation, alcohol use, and hopelessness. Results revealed that the MA group was more likely to be diagnosed with a mood disorder, and reported more severe depressive symptoms and anger, in comparison to the SA group. Behaviorally, the MA group had higher rates of disruptive behavior disorders and higher levels of affect dysregulation and serious self-mutilation than the SA group. Further, greater levels of hopelessness were reported by the MA than the SA group. After controlling for a mood disorder diagnosis, only differences in anger, affect dysregulation, and serious self-mutilation remained significant. Overall, results suggest that treatment with adolescent suicide attempters might specifically target anger and affect dysregulation to reduce risk for future suicidal behavior.     

DSM-IV criteria for generalized anxiety disorder in older adults: distinguishing the worried from the well

This study compared 36 older adults with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), 22 older adults with subsyndromal anxiety symptoms, and 32 normal controls on criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) for GAD. GAD patients reported more frequent and uncontrollable worry, somewhat different worry content, higher prevalence of most associated symptoms, and more distress or impairment than the subsyndromal group or normal controls. Individuals with subsyndromal anxiety reported more excessive, frequent, and uncontrollable worry than asymptomatic individuals, along with more sleep disturbance, fatigue, and distress or impairment. Results indicate that the key features of late-life GAD are distress and impairment, frequency and uncontrollability of worry, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance and that clinicians treating older adults with GAD should monitor and treat residual symptoms.     

Guest Reviewers for 2000

Authors Index

Guest Reviewers for 2000     

Empathic Blushing in Friends and Strangers

Three volunteers watched a previously recorded video of one of them singing, as cheek sensors monitored their blushing. When performers watched videotapes of their performance, they blushed significantly more than strangers, but not more than their own friends, watching with them. Friends and strangers did not differ significantly in blushing, however. Skin conductance arousal responses of performers and friends, but not performers and strangers, or friends of performers and strangers, were correlated. In a second experiment, strangers who sang before watching another person sing blushed more than strangers who did not sing first, or who sang and then watched a neutral video. This suggests that performing the embarrassing act may have predisposed people to blush, perhaps empathically, later. No gender differences were seen in blushing. Embarrassability questionnaire scores did not correlate with blushing. Empathic accuracy, and associative learning, are proposed to account for the results.     

Construct-oriented Biodata Development for Selection to a Differentiated Performance Domain

This study describes the development of a multidimensional biodata form which used explicit constructs to guide item generation and rational scale development, construct validation, criterion measurement and empirical keying. These constructs were goal-orientation, teamwork, customer service, resourcefulness, learning ability and leadership. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in both applicant and incumbent samples were used to identify and test the model which included the thirteen, more differentiated rational scales relating to these six, broader constructs. Empirical keying of the rationally developed scales was conducted against criterion construct scales conceptually related to each predictor construct. Empirical keying at the item level was found to result in higher validities and cross-validities than either empirical keying at the scale level, or rational keying. The item keyed instrument also demonstrated incremental validity over a test of cognitive ability for specific work performance domains as well as overall work performance.     

Corporal Punishment by American Parents: National Data on Prevalence, Chronicity, Severity, and Duration, in Relation to Child and Family Characteristics

We present data on corporal punishment (CP) by a nationally representative sample of 991 American parents interviewed in 1995. Six types of CP were examined: slaps on the hand or leg, spanking on the buttocks, pinching, shaking, hitting on the buttocks with a belt or paddle, and slapping in the face. The overall prevalence rate (the percentage of parents using any of these types of CP during the previous year) was 35% for infants and reached a peak of 94% at ages 3 and 4. Despite rapid decline after age 5, just over half of American parents hit children at age 12, a third at age 14, and 13% at age 17. Analysis of chronicity found that parents who hit teenage children did so an average of about six times during the year. Severity, as measured by hitting the child with a belt or paddle, was greatest for children age 5–12 (28% of such children). CP was more prevalent among African American and low socioeconomic status parents, in the South, for boys, and by mothers. The pervasiveness of CP reported in this article, and the harmful side effects of CP shown by recent longitudinal research, indicates a need for psychology and sociology textbooks to reverse the current tendency to almost ignore CP and instead treat it as a major aspect of the socialization experience of American children; and for developmental psychologists to be cognizant of the likelihood that parents are using CP far more often than even advocates of CP recommend, and to inform parents about the risks involved.     

Wisdom and Life Experience: How Grandfathers Mentor Their Grandchildren

This exploratory study uses qualitative methods to focus on the largely unexamined role of the grandfather and to examine men's experiences as grandfathers. We gathered information through both surveys and individual interviews to explore men's feelings and attitudes toward the grandfather role. Of the 51 grandfathers that completed a survey, 20 participated in interviews. Our examination of the data collected reveals the life lessons men teach their grandchildren. The grandfathers in this study expressed strong desires for purposeful involvement in their grandchildren's lives and indicated desires for transferring values to grandchildren and teaching interpersonal relationships. Through this involvement, they educate through life experiences and serve as mentors for their grandchildren. We suggest that this mentoring role makes a positive contribution to the lives of grandchildren and to the identity of grandfathers.     

An Evaluation of the Job Stress Questionnaire with a Sample of Entrepreneurs

A modified version of Caplan's Job Stress Questionnaire (JSQ) was administered to 169 male and 56 female entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs were found to have higher levels of stress associated with workload than with role ambiguity and underutilization of skills. Compared to scores reported previously for various occupational categories, the entrepreneurs scored significantly higher than did white collar, blue collar, and professional groups on the workload scale and significantly lower on scales measuring role ambiguity and under-utilization of skills. These results may be due to the nature of entrepreneurial activity, which is often characterized by heavy workloads, long hours, and a self-established role in the organization. Additionally, the factorial composition of the JSQ and its internal consistency were examined. Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity at the item and subscale level confirmed the a priori dimensions of the JSQ, although the internal consistency of the scales were low to moderate. The need for various improvements in the measurement of occupational stress is briefly discussed.     

Famous people knowledge and the right and left temporal lobes

It is generally accepted that the anterior temporal lobes support knowledge of famous people. The specific roles of the right and left temporal lobe remain a subject of debate, with some studies suggesting differential roles based on modality (visual versus verbal information) and others category (person knowledge versus general semantics). The present study re-examined performance of semantic dementia patients with predominantly right and predominantly left temporal lobe atrophy on famous face, famous name and general semantic tasks, with the specific aim of testing the hypothesis that the right temporal lobe has a privileged role for person knowledge and the left temporal lobe for general semantic knowledge. Comparisons of performance rankings across tasks showed no evidence to support this hypothesis. By contrast, there was robust evidence from naming, identification and familiarity measures for modality effects: right-sided atrophy being associated with relatively greater impairment for faces and visual tasks and left-sided atrophy for names and verbal tasks. A double dissociation in test scores in two patients reinforced these findings. The data present a challenge for the influential `semantic hub' model, which views the anterior temporal lobes as an area of convergence in which semantic information is represented in amodal form.