The Syllable Effect in Anagram Solution: Unrecognised Evidence from Past Studies

Six previous studies of the variables affecting anagram solution are re-examined for the evidence that number of syllables contributes to solution difficulty. It was shown that the number of syllables in a solution word was confounded with imagery for one study and with diagram frequency for another. More importantly it was shown that the number of syllables has a large effect on anagram solution difficulty in the re-analysis of the results from the other four studies. In these studies, the number of syllables was either more important than the principal variable examined in the experiment or the second most important variable. Overall the effect size for the number of syllables was large, d = 1.14. The results are discussed in the light of other research and it is suggested that anagram solution may have more in common with other word identification and reading processes than has been previously thought.     

When team members’ values differ: The moderating role of team leadership

Integrating theory and research on values, diversity, situational strength, and team leadership, we proposed that team leadership moderates the effects of values diversity on team conflict. In a longitudinal survey study of national service teams, we found significant, but opposite, moderating effects of task-focused and person-focused leadership. As predicted, task-focused leadership attenuated the diversity–conflict relationship, while person-focused leadership exacerbated the diversity–conflict relationship. More specifically, task-focused leadership decreased the relationship between work ethic diversity and team conflict. Person-focused leadership increased the relationship between traditionalism diversity and team conflict. Team conflict mediated the effects of the interactions of leadership and values diversity on team effectiveness.     

Planning in sentence production: Evidence for the phrase as a default planning scope

Controversy remains as to the scope of advanced planning in language production. Smith and Wheeldon (1999) found significantly longer onset latencies when subjects described moving-picture displays by producing sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase than for matched sentences beginning with a simple noun phrase. While these findings are consistent with a phrasal scope of planning, they might also be explained on the basis of: (1) greater retrieval fluency for the second content word in the simple initial noun phrase sentences and (2) visual grouping factors. In Experiments 1 and 2, retrieval fluency for the second content word was equated for the complex and simple initial noun phrase conditions. Experiments 3 and 4 addressed the visual grouping hypothesis by using stationary displays and by comparing onset latencies for the same display for sentence and list productions. Longer onset latencies for the sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase were obtained in all experiments, supporting the phrasal scope of planning hypothesis. The results indicate that in speech, as in other motor production domains, planning occurs beyond the minimal production unit.     

Examining Religious Disaffiliation Through a Family Systems Lens: Implications for Treatment

Religious disaffiliation can be emotionally and relationally challenging. Research indicates that people who disaffiliate can experience grief, emotional distress, and even posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Research also indicates that disaffiliation can put strain on family relationships, yet exactly how this impacts the family system as a whole is much less understood. This qualitative study, using grounded theory analytic procedures, fills a gap in the literature by utilizing a systemic approach to explore the impact of religious disaffiliation on family units. Twelve participants from five different families representing five different religions were interviewed. At least one disaffiliated member and one affiliated member were interviewed from each family system. Results offered a deeper understanding of (a) the relational impact of religious disaffiliation and (b) the relational challenges of navigating interactions after disaffiliation. Six clinical implications are offered with the goal of helping family members understand their unique experience of this transitional time, process their emotions, enhance distress tolerance skills, and effectively communicate with one another in a spirit of kindness and respect to prevent relational wounds, expedite the healing process, and protect family bonds.     

Using a paired-associate learning task to assess parent-child phenotypic similarity

The fact of uncertain paternity has led some researchers to hypothesize that children should more closely resemble their fathers than their mothers. The evidence in support of this hypothesis is mixed, partly because the procedures used to measure perceived phenotypic similarity may not be sensitive enough to detect small effects and partly because comparisons are made between fathers and mothers rather than random control groups. In the present experiment the viability of using a paired-associate learning paradigm to investigate parent-child phenotypic similarity is demonstrated using 15 stimulus sets of colored photographs picturing two adults and one child. Using a 2 x 2 between subjects analysis of variance for total errors across learning trials, evidence indicated genetic relatedness for both mothers and fathers influences perceived resemblance and that association of male facial features with those of children, whether paternal or not, are learned more quickly than female facial features. While the significance of genetic relatedness to facial similarity was expected, the overall sex difference was not. However, the additive combination of these variables, genetic relatedness and maleness may explain why children seem to more closely resemble their fathers.     

Controlling the integration of emotion and cognition: the role of frontal cortex in distinguishing helpful from hurtful emotional information

Emotion has been both lauded and vilified for its role in decision making. How are people able to ensure that helpful emotions guide decision making and irrelevant emotions are kept out of decision making? The orbitofrontal cortex has been identified as a neural area involved in incorporating emotion into decision making. Is this area's function specific to the integration of emotion and cognition, or does it more broadly govern whether emotional information should be integrated into cognition? The present research examined the role of orbitofrontal cortex when it was appropriate to control (i.e., prevent) the influence of emotion in decision making (Experiment 1) and to incorporate the influence of emotion in decision making (Experiment 2). Together, the two studies suggest that activity in lateral orbitofrontal cortex is associated with evaluating the contextual relevance of emotional information for decision making.     

Madness and Disability in Contemporary Chinese Film

This article draws on recent research in the medical humanities to analyze two contemporary Chinese films: Zhang Yuan's Sons (1996) and Zhou Xiaowen's The Common People (1998). By portraying psychic and physical anguish in ways that refuse to divorce biology from culture, such films offer rare moral dialogues on biomedical issues and contribute a cross-cultural perspective invaluable to the task of responding to illness and suffering.     

Comparison of muscle functions during three contrasting abdominal exercises

That different amplitudes of muscle activities during various abdominal exercises not only reflect the inherent differences in motor control but movement speed as well was hypothesized. 20 healthy adults (M age = 23 yr.) performed three exercises that involved varying amounts of trunk control: the partial sit-up, full sit-up, and AbSlide roll. Covariate analyses indicated that the amplitude of muscle activities could be partitioned into three categories: motor control and scaling (speed and amplitude), scaling only, and motor control only. Overall, the AbSlide exercise activated the most amount of muscular activity, followed by the full and partial sit-up exercises. Results are discussed in terms of how the various muscles contribute to motor control and velocity scaling.     

How do people with different attachment styles balance work and family? A personality perspective on work-family linkage

This study explored whether different models of work-family relationship were possible for individuals with different attachment styles. A mail survey was conducted using employees (N = 481) at a midwestern university in the United States. Results suggested that (a) individuals with a preoccupied attachment pattern were more likely to experience negative spillover from the family/home to the work domain than those with a secure or dismissing style, (b) securely attached individuals experienced positive spillover in both work and family domains more than those in the other groups, and (c) preoccupied individuals were much less likely to use a segmentation strategy than the other 3 attachment groups. However, when the conventional job satisfaction life satisfaction relationship was examined, the data provided unique support for the spillover model. Implications of the findings for both attachment and work family relationship literatures are discussed.