A multilevel examination of interpartner intimate partner violence and psychological aggression reporting concordance

Low concordance of reports across partners has consistently been observed when partners report the frequency of intimate partner violence (IPV) and psychological aggression (PA) in their relationship. Researchers have been unsuccessful in the quest to discover systematic biases across reporters, perhaps due to examining constructs that are not the source of bias (e.g., gender, victim/perpetrator status) or examining potentially fruitful constructs using underpowered statistics or erroneous conceptualizations (e.g., examining variables at a dyadic, rather than an individual, level). We used multilevel modeling with two samples (Ns = 88 and 164 couples) to examine husbands' and wives' relationship satisfaction as individual-level correlates of husband- and wife-perpetrated IPV and PA reporting concordance. Consistent with prior literature, low to moderate levels of agreement were observed, and gender and victim/perpetrator status were not consistently associated with reporting concordance. In contrast, for both husbands and wives, relationship satisfaction was associated with reporting concordance such that high relationship satisfaction was related to reporting less of one's partner's PA than the partner reported, whereas low relationship satisfaction was related to reporting more of one's partner's PA than the partner reported. A similar pattern of results emerged for the reporting of IPV, but results did not cross validate between samples. These findings suggest that relationship satisfaction may lead to either reluctance, or increased willingness, to attribute negative relationship events to partner behavior, potentially due to partner blame and relationship schemas. In addition, the influence of individual-level factors may be occluded when aggregated across partners to examine correlates of interpartner reporting concordance.     

A Web-accessible database of characteristics of the 1,945 basic Japanese kanji

In 1981, the Japanese government published a list of the 1,945 basic Japanese kanji (Jooyoo Kanjihyo), including specifications of pronunciation. This list was established as the standard for kanji usage in print. The database for 1,945 basic Japanese kanji provides 30 cells that explain in detail the various characteristics of kanji. Means, standard deviations, distributions, and information related to previous research concerning these kanji are provided in this paper. The database is saved as a Microsoft Excel 2000 file for Windows. This kanji database is accessible on the Web site of the Oxford Text Archive, Oxford University (http://ota.ahds.ac.uk). Using this database, researchers and educators will be able to conduct planned experiments and organize classroom instruction on the basis of the known characteristics of selected kanji.     

Long-term memory for pictures and sentences

Two experiments were conducted to examine the fan effect in recognition memory for pictures and sentences. Subjects in the first experiment memorized sets of pictures (N= 13) or sentences (N=13) in which the study items comprised concept combinations (e.g., the clock is on the television) that could be unambiguously depicted in each modality. The fan effect, contrasting study items involving unique- and shared-concepts combinations, was observed in the recognition reaction time data for sentences but not for pictures. Subjects in the second experiment (N= 17) memorized sets of pictures and sentences in which, in addition to the unique and shared intramodality conditions used in Experiment 1, subjects memorized items in each modality that shared concepts with items in the alternative modality. Although the fan effect was reduced for sentences in the second experiment, the intramodality results were qualitatively comparable to those obtained in Experiment 1. The results in the intermodality conditions indicated that, although pictorial study items influenced reaction time to sentences with which they shared a concept, the reverse was not the case. The results were thought to be inconsistent with the view that pictures and sentences enjoy a common representational format in long-term memory.