The Interim Service Preferences of Parents Waiting for Children’s Mental Health Treatment: A Discrete Choice Conjoint Experiment

Parents seeking help for children with mental health problems are often assigned to a waiting list. We used a discrete choice conjoint experiment to model preferences for interim services that might be used while waiting for the formal assessment and treatment process to begin. A sample of 1,059 parents (92 % mothers) seeking mental health services for 4 to 16 year olds chose between hypothetical interim services composed by experimentally varying combinations of the levels of 13 interim service attributes. Latent Class analysis yielded a four–segment solution. All segments preferred interim options helping them understand how agencies work, enhancing their parenting knowledge and skill, and providing an opportunity to understand or begin dealing with their own difficulties. The Group Contact segment (35.1 %) preferred interim services in meetings with other parents, supported by phone contacts, frequent checkup calls, and wait–time updates. Virtual Contact parents (29.2 %) preferred to meet other parents in small internet chat groups supported by e–mail contact. Membership in this segment was linked to higher education and computer skills. Frequent Contact parents (24.4 %) preferred face–to–face interim services supported by weekly progress checks and wait time updates. Limited Contact parents (11.3 %) were less intent on using interim services. They preferred to pursue interim services alone, with contacts by phone, supported by fewer check–up calls and less frequent wait time updates. All segments were more likely to enroll in interim services involving their child.     

“Do You Trust Him?” Children’s Trust Beliefs and Developmental Trajectories of Aggressive Behavior in an Ethnically Diverse Sample

This study investigated the role of trust beliefs (i.e., trustworthiness, trustfulness) on aggression trajectories in a four-wave longitudinal study using an ethnically diverse sample of 8- to 11-year-old children (N?=?1,028), as well as the risk profiles of low trust beliefs and low socioeconomic status on aggression trajectories. At Time 1 to Time 4, teachers provided ratings of overt aggressive behavior. At Time 1, children’s trust beliefs were assessed by a sociometric peer nomination instrument and derived using social relations analysis. Latent growth curve analysis revealed five trajectories of aggressive behavior: high-stable, medium-stable, low-stable, increasing, and decreasing. As hypothesized, children in the high-stable trajectory were perceived as less trustworthy than children in the low-stable, medium-stable, and increasing trajectories. Children in the high-stable trajectory were less trustful than children in the low-stable trajectory and had a significantly higher risk profile (i.e., low trust beliefs and low SES) compared to children in the low-stable trajectory. Our findings indicate that the developmental course of aggression during middle childhood is predicted by children’s trustworthiness and trustfulness. A risk profile of low trust and low socioeconomic status contributes to high-stable aggression trajectories.     

Where cognitive development and aging meet: face learning ability peaks after age 30

Research on age-related cognitive change traditionally focuses on either development or aging, where development ends with adulthood and aging begins around 55 years. This approach ignores age-related changes during the 35 years in-between, implying that this period is uninformative. Here we investigated face recognition as an ability that may mature late relative to other abilities. Using data from over 60,000 participants, we traced the ability to learn new faces from pre-adolescence through middle age. In three separate experiments, we show that face learning ability improves until just after age 30 – even though other putatively related abilities (inverted face recognition and name recognition) stop showing age-related improvements years earlier. Our data provide the first behavioral evidence for late maturation of face processing and the dissociation of face recognition from other abilities over time demonstrates that studies on adult age development can provide insight into the organization and development of cognitive systems.     

Measuring category intuitiveness in unconstrained categorization tasks

What makes a category seem natural or intuitive? In this paper, an unsupervised categorization task was employed to examine observer agreement concerning the categorization of nine different stimulus sets. The stimulus sets were designed to capture different intuitions about classification structure. The main empirical index of category intuitiveness was the frequency of the preferred classification, for different stimulus sets. With 169 participants, and a within participants design, with some stimulus sets the most frequent classification was produced over 50 times and with others not more than two or three times. The main empirical finding was that cluster tightness was more important in determining category intuitiveness, than cluster separation. The results were considered in relation to the following models of unsupervised categorization: DIVA, the rational model, the simplicity model, SUSTAIN, an Unsupervised version of the Generalized Context Model (UGCM), and a simple geometric model based on similarity. DIVA, the geometric approach, SUSTAIN, and the UGCM provided good, though not perfect, fits. Overall, the present work highlights several theoretical and practical issues regarding unsupervised categorization and reveals weaknesses in some of the corresponding formal models.     

Survey Response Styles, Acculturation, and Culture Among a Sample of Mexican American Adults

A number of studies have investigated use of extreme (ERS) and acquiescent (ARS) response styles across cultural groups. However, due to within-group heterogeneity, it is important to also examine use of response styles, acculturation, and endorsement of cultural variables at the individual level. This study explores relationships between acculturation, six Mexican cultural factors, ERS, and ARS among a sample of 288 Mexican American telephone survey respondents. Three aspects of acculturation were assessed: Spanish use, the importance of preserving Mexican culture, and interaction with Mexican Americans versus Anglos. These variables were hypothesized to positively associate with ERS and ARS. Participants with higher Spanish use did utilize more ERS and ARS; however, value for preserving Mexican culture and interaction with Mexican Americans were not associated with response style use. In analyses of cultural factors, endorsement of familismo and simpatia were related to more frequent ERS and ARS, machismo was associated with lower ERS among men, and la mujer was related to higher ERS among women. Caballerismo was marginally associated with utilization of ERS among men. No association was found between la mujer abnegada and ERS among women. Relationships between male gender roles and ARS were nonsignificant. Relationships between female gender roles and ARS were mixed but trended in the positive direction. Overall, these findings suggest that Mexican American respondents vary in their use of response styles by acculturation and cultural factors. This usage may be specifically influenced by participants' valuing of and engagement with constructs directly associated with social behavior.     

Syntactic reconstruction and reanalysis,semantic dead ends,and prefrontal cortex

The left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) is crucially has been found to be involved in syntactic processing of various kinds. This study investigates the cortical effects of two types of syntactic processes: (i) Reconstruction in ellipsis (recovery of left-out material given by context, More people have been to Paris than […] to Oslo), using pseudo-elliptical structures (‘dead ends’) as control (More people have been to Paris than I have). (ii) Reanalysis in the face of structural ambiguity in syntactic ‘garden paths’, where the parser initially assigns an incorrect structure and is forced to reanalyze. Reanalysis and reconstruction require additional syntactic processing and were predicted to increase activation in areas otherwise involved in structural computation: LIFG (BA 44, 45), premotor BA 6, and posterior temporal BA 21, 22. This was borne out. The results showed an interaction effect of the types of construction in all three areas reflecting syntactic processing.     

Subclinical delusional ideation and appreciation of sample size and heterogeneity in statistical judgment

Previous studies demonstrate that people high in delusional ideation exhibit a data‐gathering bias on inductive reasoning tasks. The current study set out to investigate the factors that may underpin such a bias by examining healthy individuals, classified as either high or low scorers on the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI). More specifically, whether high PDI scorers have a relatively poor appreciation of sample size and heterogeneity when making statistical judgments. In Expt 1, high PDI scorers made higher probability estimates when generalizing from a sample of 1 with regard to the heterogeneous human property of obesity. In Expt 2, this effect was replicated and was also observed in relation to the heterogeneous property of aggression. The findings suggest that delusion‐prone individuals are less appreciative of the importance of sample size when making statistical judgments about heterogeneous properties; this may underpin the data gathering bias observed in previous studies. There was some support for the hypothesis that threatening material would exacerbate high PDI scorers' indifference to sample size.     

Predicting children's word‐reading accuracy for common English words: The effect of word transparency and complexity

The effects of printed word frequency and transparency measures on single word reading accuracy were examined in 105 six‐year‐old children. The results indicated that it may be necessary to re‐appraise notions of orthography‐to‐phonology correspondences for children of this age. The influence of orthographic neighbourhood size appeared to derive from word frequency and graphemic complexity. The results also indicated that sonograph frequency was more predictive of reading accuracy than the GPC rules and weighted correspondences currently embodied in dual route and connectionist models of skilled reading.     

Living in the Borderlands—An Identity and a Proposal

Abstract :  We live in the borderlands, a place not of separation but of coming together, of connection. The continuing efforts to discern what it means to express who we are as religious people, and what it means regarding the religious identity of those who live in the borderlands is the focus of this study. In many ways, this identity is one that is in the process of being restored, renewed, and reaffirmed after many years of a combination of benign neglect and overt suppression.     

Cross‐national examination of the perpetrator–victim account estimation bias as a function of different types of accounts

In two cross‐national studies, we investigated the existence of a perpetrator–victim account estimation bias and how this bias can be reduced or eliminated when estimating the perpetrator's use of a mixed account; that is, an account in which the perpetrator not only apologizes but also explains mitigating and justifiable circumstances. Japanese and American participants took either the perspective of the perpetrator or the victim and estimated the likelihood of the perpetrator's use of each account. The results supported our hypothesis in both national samples. The implications of the bias and the role of the mixed account in reducing it are discussed.