Social perception in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

Although the profile of social cognitive difficulties is well recognized in children with certain neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), this profile is not as well established in other clinical pediatric populations. The objective of the present study is to examine patterns of social perception in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) compared to typically-developing (TD) control children. A total of 56 children between 8 and 12 years of age—35 with FASD and 21 TD—completed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task – Children’s Version (RMET-C). The RMET-C accuracy scores were compared between groups and also by item difficulty and emotional valence. The relation between cognitive functioning, age, FASD severity, and RMET-C performance was also investigated. The children in the FASD group did not perform as well as the children in the TD group on the RMET-C Total score and Easy items, as well as the Positive, Negative, and Neutral emotional valence items. When age and IQ were investigated, there was a significant effect of age on the Positive items in the TD group, with scores increasing with age. With regard to FASD severity, children with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder were outperformed by children with full/partial fetal alcohol syndrome on the Positive and Negative items. Overall, these results further the understanding of the social cognitive profile in children with FASD and how this profile relates to other childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorders.     

A tale of two processes: On Joseph Henrich’s the secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution,domesticating our species,and making us smarter

We situate Henrich’s book in the larger research tradition of which it is a part and show how he presents a wide array of recent psychological, physiological, and neurological data as supporting the view that two related but distinct processes have shaped human nature and made us unique: cumulative cultural evolution and culture-driven genetic evolution. We briefly sketch out several ways philosophers might fruitfully engage with this view and note some implications it may have for current philosophic debates in moral and political theory and over the nature of extended cognition. We end by noting how Henrich’s view of the source of cultural design and innovation, and the prominence of place he gives to the extended process of cultural evolution, cuts against a cluster of broad but common views about human minds, recasting putative bugs as features and indicating that many of the distinctive features of our individual minds evolved to allow them to be effective cogs in the larger, more productive cultural machine.     

The effect of presentation rate on implicit sequence learning in aging

Implicit sequence learning is thought to be preserved in aging when the to-be learned associations are first-order; however, when associations are second-order, older adults (OAs) tend to experience deficits as compared to young adults (YAs). Two experiments were conducted using a first (Experiment 1) and second-order (Experiment 2) serial-reaction time task. Stimuli were presented at a constant rate of either 800 milliseconds (fast) or 1200 milliseconds (slow). Results indicate that both age groups learned first-order dependencies equally in both conditions. OAs and YAs also learned second-order dependencies, but the learning of lag-2 information was significantly impacted by the rate of presentation for both groups. OAs showed significant lag-2 learning in slow condition while YAs showed significant lag-2 learning in the fast condition. The sensitivity of implicit sequence learning to the rate of presentation supports the idea that OAs and YAs different processing speeds impact the ability to build complex associations across time and intervening events.     

Is regret for inaction relatively self‐enhancing?

Previous accounts of regret suggest that people report greater regret for inaction than for action because the former is longer lasting and more painful than the latter. We suggest instead that the tendency for people's greatest regrets to concern inaction more than action may be due to the relatively self‐enhancing nature of regrets for inaction. In Study 1 we asked people to think about their greatest recent regret and to code it as being due to action or inaction. In Study 2 participants described their greatest regret from across their entire life. In both studies we observed an inaction effect only amongst individuals high in self‐esteem (HSE). In Study 2 we found that the inaction effect was confined to HSE people whose greatest regret was personal in nature. These results support the claim that regret for inaction is relatively self‐enhancing and suggest that the inaction effect found in real‐life regrets may be due, in part at least, to the self‐enhancement goals of HSE individuals. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring the Ethical Propensities of Accounting Students: Mach IV versus DIT

This study responds to Bay and Greenberg's (Bay, D.D. and Greenberg, R.R. (2001). The relationship of the DIT and behavior: A replication. Issues in Accounting Education 10(3): 367–380) call to investigate alternative psychometric instruments to measure ethical behavior other than the heavily relied upon Defining Issues Test. The Mach IV scale (Christie, 1970) has been cited in more than 500 published psychological studies; however, it has not been used extensively in the accounting ethics research. This study provides some preliminary evidence on the use of the Mach IV scale in an accounting ethics context. Similar to ethics studies in other academic disciplines, results across two dependent measures indicate accounting students high in Machiavellianism are more likely to view questionable ethical behavior as acceptable. The research findings also indicate that the Machiavellian construct appears to be a better predictor of ethical propensities in comparison to the commonly used Defining Issues Test. The paper concludes with a discussion on how these reported research findings impact the accounting profession and accounting education.     

Time pressure and group performance: Exploring underlying processes in the Attentional Focus Model

The Attentional Focus Model (Karau & Kelly, 1992) predicts that time pressure should lead group members to focus on a restricted range of task-relevant cues and to adopt task completion as their major interaction objective. Although this prediction has been supported in several studies (e.g., Karau & Kelly, 1992; Kelly, Jackson, & Hutson-Comeaux, 1997; Kelly & Karau, 1999; Parks & Cowlin, 1995), the exact processes that underlie information restriction have not been specified. We propose that two processes are involved. Specifically, the restriction of information may occur because time pressure affects the way in which information is initially encoded or attended to before a group enters its decision-making phase, or because group members filter out what they judge to be less important information during group discussion and decision making. We assessed both of these processes within a decision-making experiment where time pressure was manipulated prior to learning information that would be used to perform a task. Recall of information learned prior to group discussion did not differ by time pressure condition, arguing against an encoding process. In contrast, interaction data demonstrated information restriction by group members, arguing for a filtering process. Thought listings collected 1 min into the group discussion in some groups also supported a filtering process, as did questionnaire data. Implications of these findings for the Attentional Focus Model and for effective group decision making are discussed.     

A Standard of Care for the Assessment of Suicide Risk and Associated Treatment: The Florida State University Psychology Clinic as an Example

The Florida State University has established a set of guidelines to be used as a standard of care for suicide. This standard of care guides therapists through a suicide risk assessment that focuses on key variables related to suicidal behavior that are among the best predictors of completed suicide. This standard of care includes necessary components of suicide risk assessment, critical steps to follow to ensure the safety of suicidal patients, treatment recommendations, and guidelines for minimizing the legal risk of the therapist. Though this standard of care was developed in a research and training clinic, these principles may be applied to all clinicians offering psychological services to patients, regardless of the nature of the clinic or setting.     

Internet dependence in the collegiate population: the role of shyness.

Low sensation seeking and loneliness have been associated with collegiate Internet dependence. In an attempt to further explicate the factors associated with collegiate Internet dependence, interpersonal shyness (both online and in face-to-face [FTF] interactions) was explored. An online questionnaire was used to assess Internet dependency and shyness. The results demonstrated the predicted interaction such that shyness level for nondependents did not differ online or in FTF interactions. However, dependents' shyness was greater in FTF interactions relative to online interpersonal exchanges. The results were discussed in terms of how various Internet resources (e.g., e-mail, chat rooms, and instant messages) can be used to ameliorate shyness and how such negatively reinforced behavior could foster dependence.