Students’ Metacomprehension Knowledge: Components that Predict Comprehension Performance

In the present study, we assessed students’ metacomprehension knowledge and examined the components of knowledge most related to comprehension of expository texts. We used the Revised Metacomprehension Scale (RMCS) to investigate the relations between students’ metacomprehension knowledge and comprehension performance. Students who evaluated and regulated their understanding by using explanatory strategies (adjusting to difficult material and identifying and making connections across main points) performed better on a comprehension test than those who relied on the use of external aids. Use of explanatory strategies was positively related to comprehension performance, particularly for students with poorer evaluation and regulation skills. Results suggest that the RMCS is effective at assessing students’ ability to both evaluate and regulate their understanding and can help identify effective strategies for increasing comprehension performance.     

How equivalent are the action execution,imagery, and observation of intransitive movements? Revisiting the concept of somatotopy during action simulation

Jeannerod (2001) hypothesized that action execution, imagery, and observation are functionally equivalent. This led to the major prediction that these motor states are based on the same action-specific and even effector-specific motor representations. The present study examined whether hand and foot movements are represented in a somatotopic manner during action execution, imagery, and action observation.     

Motor learning during social interaction: the role of social interdependence

Motor learning has mostly been studied in laboratory settings where participants execute the task alone, unlike in real life, where people perform activities together with others. Recent discovery of mirror neuron system (MNS)—linking perception of others' actions and execution of our own—makes the scarcity of studies on social aspects of motor learning even more peculiar. Here, we investigated motor learning during interaction with a partner. Participants engaged in 2 consecutive sessions executing the task alone or in pairs. We found that social interaction improved motor performance only when participants had prior individual experience with the task. This effect was amplified if subjects could first observe their partners' actions, suggesting that it may be mediated by prior MNS configuration.     

The Effects of Father Presence and Absence upon Maternal Attitudes

In order to examine possible mediating variables by which father presence and absence exercises its influence upon personality development of the child, efforts were made to study maternal attitudes under conditions of father presence and absence. The Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PAM) was administered to wives of nuclear submarine personnel under counterbalanced conditions of father presence and absence. Significant differences were found on seven subscales as a function of the father's status. Four of the subscales reflected themes of maternal domination, and the remaining three reflected themes of marital dissatisfaction and discord. In all of the seven instances, scores were higher under conditions of father presence. This indicates that there is more breaking the will, strictness, intrusiveness, and acceleration of development (all maternal domination) and more martyrdom, rejection of homemaking role, marital conflict (all marital discord) when the father is present. The increased maternal control under conditions of father presence may be accounted for by modeling of the husband's behavior, complementary authoritarian role behavior, control of husband's attention, and changes in children's behavior. The increase in marital discord may be accounted for by the increased opportunity for argumentation during father presence and changes in children's behavior. Implications for child adjustment are also noted. Clearly, father presence and absence effects may be mediated by the alterations which occur in maternal attitudes under these conditions.     

Learned Industriousness: Replication in Principle

Undergraduate students completed a series of training tasks consisting of solving anagrams, performing addition problems, and making perceptual discriminations, to validate findings of learned industriousness. The group that received high-effort training was given difficult and demanding tasks, whereas the group that received low-effort training was given easy tasks. Controls were given no preliminary training activity. For the criterion task, all participants were provided with a series of pencil and paper mazes to complete. They were allowed to “pass” on whatever mazes they wished (they could progress to the next maze but could not return to any that had been passed). Participants who had received high-effort training passed on significantly fewer mazes than did those in the control and low-effort conditions, thus supporting the generality of effects of reinforced high effort.     

The Influence of Career Stage on Job Attitudes: Toward a Contingency Perspective

Building on career stage theory and contingency theory, the exploratory study considers the influence of career stage on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Findings show that salespeople in exploration report higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when paid a fixed salary, whereas salespeople in establishment report higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when given incentives. Further, during the establishment stage, salespeople employed by firms pursuing a prospector or analyzer strategy indicate higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions than those employed by defender firms. Suggestions are provided concerning how to effectively manage salespeople as they progress through the various career stages.     

Seeking support: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of an Internet message board for people with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

In this article, we report on the findings of a qualitative inquiry into how an online message board for people who have Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) was used by its members. All messages (and responses) posted on the CRPS message board over a 4-month period were collected retrospectively. The data were analysed using the method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Members used the message board to seek (and provide) support to those with CRPS, and also to express their emotions, feelings and experiences linked to their condition. The message board provided an important source of support for a patient group that can otherwise become isolated as a result of their mobility problems. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the unrealistic hopes that patients can hold concerning the anticipated outcomes of their treatment. This is an important issue for healthcare professionals to explicitly address when interacting with the patient group.     

Evidence for a Multi-Dimensional Latent Structural Model of Externalizing Disorders

Strong associations between conduct disorder (CD), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and substance use disorders (SUD) seem to reflect a general vulnerability to externalizing behaviors. Recent studies have characterized this vulnerability on a continuous scale, rather than as distinct categories, suggesting that the revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) take into account the underlying continuum of externalizing behaviors. However, most of this research has not included measures of disorders that appear in childhood [e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)], nor has it considered the full range of possibilities for the latent structure of externalizing behaviors, particularly factor mixture models, which allow for a latent factor to have both continuous and categorical dimensions. Finally, the majority of prior studies have not tested multidimensional models. Using lifetime diagnoses of externalizing disorders from participants in the Fast Track Project (n?=?715), we analyzed a series of latent variable models ranging from fully continuous factor models to fully categorical mixture models. Continuous models provided the best fit to the observed data and also suggested that a two-factor model of externalizing behavior, defined as (1) ODD+ADHD+CD and (2) SUD with adult antisocial behavior sharing common variance with both factors, was necessary to explain the covariation in externalizing disorders. The two-factor model of externalizing behavior was then replicated using a nationally representative sample drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication data (n?=?5,692). These results have important implications for the conceptualization of externalizing disorders in DSM-5.