Student Preference for Explicit Timing and Interspersal Procedures as a Function of Math Problem Completion Rates: Testing the Discrete Task Completion Hypothesis

A within-subjects design was used to compare explicit timing and interspersal with college students. Students were given 3 minutes to complete problems on the explicit timing assignment (25 problems, 3 digits –3 digits) and the interspersal assignment (25 similar problems and 10 problems, 1 digit –1 digit). Results indicated that: (a) students completed more total problems during interspersal for both trials, (b) students completed more target problems during explicit timing for the second trial, and (c) students only preferred interspersal for the first trial. The data from trial one fit the discrete task completion hypothesis and matching law, yet the data from trial two do not match as closely (Skinner, 2002). Discussion focuses on continued need for more research on academic interventions, comparing academic interventions, the discrete task completion hypothesis, and the matching law.     

Youth Exposed to Violence: Stability, Co-occurrence, and Context

With considerable literature establishing how separate types of violence disrupt the lives of children, there is emerging interest in examining violence across multiple interpersonal domains. This article examines four commonly occurring and frequently researched domains of violence exposure: marital physical aggression, mother-to-youth aggression, father-to-youth aggression, and community violence. A community-based sample of 103 parents and youth provided three waves of data at annual intervals beginning when the youth were aged 9–10. We explored stability of exposure, co-occurrence across different types of violence exposure, and associations with co-occurring risk factors. Approximately 30–45% of youth reported intermittent exposure over the 3 years. In addition to overlap among types of violence exposure within the family, we found overlap between parent-to-youth aggression and community violence, an association that was exacerbated in families where fathers reported high levels of global distress symptoms. Mother-to-youth, father-to-youth, and community violence related to youth behavior problems beyond the contextual risk factors of low income, stressful life events, and parents’ global distress symptoms. These results highlight the importance of examining violence longitudinally, across multiple types, and with attention to contextual factors.     

Assessing the Predictive Accuracy of hMLH1 and hMSH2 Mutation Probability Models

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is characterized by a susceptibility to colorectal and extra-colonic cancers. Several guidelines exist for the identification of families suspected of having HNPCC, however these guidelines lack adequate sensitivity and specificity. In an attempt to improve accuracy for the detection of individuals with HNPCC, the Wijnen pre-test probability model (1998) and Myriad Genetics Laboratory prevalence table (2004) were developed. Here we evaluate the Wijnen model and Myriad table at predicting the presence of a mutation in individuals undergoing genetic testing for HNPCC. Forty-nine patients who had undergone genetic testing for germline mutations in hMLH1 and/or hMSH2 were part of our analysis. Our results revealed that the revised Bethesda guidelines performed with the highest sensitivity for germline mutations (94.4%), however the specificity was low (12.9%). Using a 10.0% mutation probability threshold, the Wijnen model and Myriad table had sensitivities of 55.6 and 60.0%, respectively and specificities of 54.8 and 23.8%, respectively. The Wijnen model and Myriad table were poor predictors of mutation prevalence, which is shown by the areas underneath their corresponding receiver operator characteristic curves (0.616 and 0.400, respectively). The results of this study demonsrate that neither the Wijnen model nor the Myriad table are sensitive or specific enough to be used as the only indication when to offer genetic testing for HNPCC.     

Remembering the message: the use of a reminder cue to increase condom use following a safer sex intervention.

Condom use interventions may be more powerful if they provide cues to recall safe-sex messages when sexual activity occurs. The authors tested this notion by assigning sexually active introductory psychology students (N = 196) to a standard safe-sex intervention, a safe-sex with reminder intervention, or a control (drinking and driving) intervention. Participants assigned to the reminder intervention were given a "friendship bracelet" to wear and were instructed to have the bracelet remind them of the intervention. In a follow-up session (5-7 weeks later), they were asked questions pertaining to condom use. Of the 125 participants who had engaged in sexual intercourse, condom use at last intercourse was higher in the bracelet condition (55%) than in the standard (27%) or control (36%) conditions. The authors also found that the bracelet remained effective, even when participants were under the influence of alcohol. These findings therefore imply that health intervention programs may be more efficacious if they include strategies such as reminder cues to increase the salience of health information in the appropriate contexts.     

Pilot assessment of pain of orthopaedic patients in Hong Kong

This pilot study examined the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the Chinese version of the Acute Lower Back Pain Screening Questionnaire. A sample of 45 acute low back pain patients (27 men and 18 women; mean age = 47.8) were recruited from the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology of the Tuen Mun Hospital in Hong Kong. Three items of the original questionnaire were excluded from the analyses because response was low by 30 of the 45 patients. The questionnaire showed good internal reliability (Cronbach alpha = .88) and correlated significantly with other test scores: the Faces Pain Scale-Revised (alpha = .74), the Chinese (Hong Kong) SF-12 Health Survey (Mental subscale, alpha = -.47; Physical subscale alpha = -.62), and the Chinese Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Anxiety subscale, alpha = .42; Depression subscale, alpha = .43). The questionnaire could be used in research and clinical work to provide data on the multicomponents of a pain experience as well as psychosocial risk factors related to pain among the Chinese. Researchers might examine the course of change in chronic pain.     

Publication Patterns of The Personnel and Guidance Journal/Journal of Counseling & Development: 1978 to 1993

The purposes of this study were (a) to identify the primary institutional sources of articles to The Personnel and Guidance Journal/Journal of Counseling & Development from 1978 to 1993 (Volumes 57–71); (b) to identify the primary individual contributors to this journal during the survey period; (c) to identify and compare the program affiliations of individual contributors by editor during the survey period; and (d) to speculate as to whether the study results, collectively, indicate a trend toward more psychologists than counselors contributing to this journal. A total of 1,843 articles were reviewed. Of the 2,198 authors, 69% were academicians and 31% were practitioners. The data suggest that there has been a clear pattern of more psychologists than counselors contributing to this journal.     

Social-cognitive processing and depressive symptoms in children: A comparison of measures

We assessed aspects of the reliability and validity of three measures of socialcognitive processing in children that have been developed to investigate the relations of such processes to childhood depression: the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ), the Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire (CNCEQ), and the Common Beliefs Inventory for Students (CBIS). In an unselected sample of 61 children, aged 8 to 12, the internal consistencies of the total scores on the CNCEQ and the CBIS were good; for the CASQ, it was only moderate. Internal consistencies of all subscale scores were inadequate. Despite this, several subscale and total scores were significantly associated with depressive symptoms, and the measures were generally correlated with each other. Although these data are encouraging concerning the role of social-cognitive processing in childhood depression, the field needs to develop psychometrically stronger measures and to test the role of social cognition in prospective studies of depression.This study was supported in part by a grant from the Spencer Foundation Awards to Young Scholars Program to the first author. The authors would like to express their thanks to Deborah Long for secretarial assistance, and to W. Edward Craighead, John Curry, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

The Parental Schoolwork Support Measure-Youth: development and psychometric evaluation

Parental involvement in school-related tasks is associated with a number of positive outcomes across ethnic groups. However, a growing literature suggests that unique forms of involvement and barriers exist among linguistic minority Latino families. The Parental Schoolwork Support Measure-Youth (PSSM-Y) is introduced in this study along with the psychometric properties found with a sample of 133 Latino youth in Grades 5 through 7 from a public school in a low-income urban neighborhood. Exploratory factor analyses indicated the presence of three factors called direct support, language and support, and indirect support, which together accounted for 66.3% of the common variance in the 16-item version. Strong internal consistency and test-retest coefficients were found for the PSSM-Y in this sample. In addition, schoolwork support was correlated with youth depression, economic pressure, loneliness, and familism in the expected directions. The findings are discussed in terms of the potential utility of this measure for future school-based studies of Latino students and youth of immigrant backgrounds in the United States.     

USING CALIBRATION AND INTEROBSERVER AGREEMENT ALGORITHMS TO ASSESS THE ACCURACY AND PRECISION OF DATA FROM ELECTRONIC AND PEN‐AND‐PAPER CONTINUOUS RECORDING METHODS

Often it is assumed that electronic recording by observers necessarily provides better quality data than pen‐and‐paper methods. Fifteen novice observers recorded rates of responding from 10 role‐played video samples using one of three continuous recording input formats: keyboard (laptop), touchscreen (personal digital assistants), or pen‐and‐paper. We evaluated the quality of the observers' data compared with criterion records using calibration and interobserver agreement algorithms. Results of the calibration analysis revealed that observers in the touchscreen group produced the most consistently accurate and precise data, the keyboard group observers showed wide variation in precision and accuracy, and the pen‐and‐paper group observers were significantly less precise than the touchscreen group. We conclude that although electronic recording has the potential to be as accurate as, and more precise than, pen‐and‐paper methods, this is far from guaranteed. Analyses of observers' errors advise recommendations for improving data accuracy and precision when using each method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.