Attentional Focus of Students with Hyperactivity During a Word-Search Task

Mirrors have been used to focus attention to aspects of the self (e.g., to known strategies, standards). We hypothesized that this could be important for students with hyperactivity/inattention, who typically direct attention outward to external novelty. In this study, we administered a partially solvable word puzzle to 43 middle school students, with and without hyperactivity/inattention, in the presence and absence of a mirror, counterbalanced for condition and form order. Differences between students with hyperactivity/inattention and comparisons in accuracy were found only in the no mirror condition. Furthermore, the beneficial effect of the mirror for children with hyperactivity/inattention was most pronounced for those who looked at the mirror. Findings were interpreted in terms of their potential to remedy the production deficits of these children.     

The Impact of Sex and Gender Role Self-Perception on Affective Reactions to Different Types of Film

To what extent do differences in biologicalsexand psychological gender identity influence affectivereactions to different genres of film? In order toaddress this question, this investigation examined the impact of sex and gender roleself-perceptions on viewers' responses to neutral,melodramatic, and violent film segments. Working with apredominantly Caucasian population (93% Caucasian) at asoutheastern university, the results emphasize theimportance of sex and gender role self-perceptions onviewers' affective responses to media entertainment. Theimplications of these findings are discussed.

     

Sexual assault: Myths and stereotypes among Australian adolescents

Myths and stereotypes about sexual assault reflect a society which excuses perpetrators of assault and blames victims for failing to control men's sexuality. Such views are well-established by early adulthood, but there is little research with adolescents. This study surveyed two hundred forty-four 14–16 year old Australian high school students (105 male, 139 female), of Anglo-European descent. Males were significantly more likely to endorse sexual assault myths, to agree that forced sex was acceptable in some situations, and to hold false stereotypes about sexual assault. Males also held more restrictive attitudes toward women's roles and endorsed a greater level of sexism in dating relationships. This suggests that male and female adolescents have differing expectations of dating relationships, which may underlie sexual assault within relationships. Assault-supportive attitudes are apparent at a young age, supporting the need for educational and social interventions targeting young people.     

Attributional patterns and perceptions of math and science among fifth-grade through seventh-grade girls and boys

A culturally and economically diverse group of fifth to seventh graders (n = 361) from Boston-area public schools rated their perceptions for liking and difficulty of core academic subjects, including math and science, and their attributions for explaining performance on a math test. Inconsistent with earlier work, girls and boys reported similar perceptions of core subjects, with all students reporting a relatively high liking of math and science. Girls' and boys' attributional patterns for success in math were somewhat consistent with earlier findings, but not their attributions for lack of success. Observations of the math and science classrooms in the study indicated that most teachers, aware of gender equity issues, attempted to teach their students in a gender-fair manner. This factor may account for differences between current findings and those from past studies.Special thanks to Dr. Adele Wolfson for her advice and support. Thanks also to Dr. Lee Cuba and Lillian Sun for their assistance with statistical analyses; to Dr. Beth Hennessey for help with the measure; to Drs. Ken Hawes, Barbara Beatty, and Susan Reverby for connections into schools; to Dr. Martha Pott for suggestions on the original document; to the teachers and principals who granted permission to conduct the research; and to the student participants. Appreciation is also extended to an anonymous reviewer for insightful comments.     

Comparison between Oral and Written Spelling in Alzheimer's Disease

Written and oral spelling were compared in 33 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 25 control subjects. AD patients had poorer spelling results which were influenced by orthographic difficulty and word frequency, but not by grammatical word class. Lexical spelling was also more deteriorated than phonological spelling. Moreover, oral spelling was more impaired than written spelling in AD patients, whereas no difference was present between oral and written spelling of controls. Analysis of spelling errors showed that, for controls, errors were predominantly phonologically accurate in both spelling tasks. Significantly, AD patients produced more phonologically accurate than inaccurate errors in written spelling, whereas these errors did not differ in oral spelling. In contrast to controls who produced more constant than variable responses in oral and written spelling, AD patients made more variable responses (words correctly spelled in one task but incorrectly in the other) and they showed many instances of variable errors (different misspellings from one spelling task to the other). Two stepwise regression procedures showed that written misspellings were specifically correlated with language impairment, whereas oral spelling errors were correlated with attentional and language disorders. These results suggest that AD increases the attentional demands of oral spelling process as compared to written spelling. This dissociation argues, either for a unique Graphemic Buffer in which oral spelling requires more attentional resources than written spelling or for the hypothesis of separate buffers for oral and written spelling.     

Effects of task instructions and oscillation frequency on bimanual coordination

Increases in the oscillation frequency of bimanual movements produce a switch from an anti-phase (180° relative phase) to an in-phase (0° relative phase) coordination pattern. This finding is observed when subjects are instructed not to intervene when they feel themselves slipping out of the anti-phase pattern. The question addressed in this study concerned how performance would be affected if subjects were instructed to try to maintain the pattern at all times. This issue was addressed using two separate groups of subjects: one group was given the do not intervene instructions, the other group was told to try to stay with the pattern at all times. Forearm rotations were tested in 15 s trials, paced by an auditory metronome set at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 Hz. Frequency distributions of the point estimates of relative phase were analyzed. The Do not Intervene group replicated previous findings, as indicated by the development of a bimodal histogram of relative phase distributions with increases in oscillation frequency. However, a very different pattern of findings emerged with increases in oscillation frequency for the group told to stay with the anti-phase pattern. Rather than a bimodal distribution being developed, the data maintained 180° as its central tendency — no secondary distribution developed around 0° relative phase. These data suggest that volitional control can over-ride the inherent dynamical tendencies of the motor system.     

A critical review of theS/L reliability index

The meaning and properties of a commonly used index of reliability, S/L,were examined critically. It was found that the index does not reflect any conventional concept of reliability. When used for an identical behavioral observation session, it is not statistically correlated with other reliability indices. Within an observation session, the standardizing measure of Lis beyond the control of the investigator. Furthermore, the reason for the choice of Las the standard is unclear. The role of chance agreement in S/Lis not known. The exact interpretation of the index depends on which observer reports L.Overall the conceptual and mathematical meaning of S/Lis dubious. It is suggested that the S/Lindex should not be used until its nature is shown to be a measure of reliability. Other approaches such as the intraclass correlations and generalizability coefficients should be used instead.The authors are indebted to Johnny Matson for his critique of an earlier version of this paper.     

Spontaneous startle activity in newborn infants

Spontaneous startles have been reported to occur most frequently in quiet sleep, less frequently in active sleep and drowse, and relatively nonexistent in the waking states. These findings may be a result of a focus on infants whose prenatal histories reflect a restricted range of the conditions to which normal newborns are exposed. The present study examined the spontaneous startle behavior of 30 newborn infants characterized by high numbers of obstetric complications and by indicators of prenatal malnutrition, but within the range of normal, healthy newborns. In this sample, startles were not limited to the sleep and drowse states. Because individual differences in a number of neonatal behaviors have been related to autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning, the different pattern of spontaneous startles observed in this sample may be related to the functional integrity of this system.