Perceived collective continuity and attitudes toward outgroups

In a series of six studies, we examined the role that perceived collective continuity (PCC) plays in intergroup attitudes. While the extant literature focuses on attitudes toward ingroups, the current studies chose to expand upon this research by concentrating on three types of outgroups (national, religious, and organizational). Results indicated that for groups perceived as neutral or positive, increased PCC was associated with more positive attitudes, while for enemy groups, increased PCC was associated with more negative attitudes. Entitativity played a mediating role such that as the outgroup was perceived as more continuous, it was also seen as more entitative. Higher entitativity led to less negative attitudes toward a past ally but more negative attitudes toward a past enemy. Results held whether past conflict and PCC were measured or manipulated, further supporting our findings. PCC has negative or positive implications for judgments of outgroups depending on intergroup history. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Factor structure of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF-P) at age three years

The preschool period is an important developmental period for the emergence of cognitive self-regulatory skills or executive functions (EF). To date, evidence regarding the structure of EF in preschool children has supported both unitary and multicomponent models. The aim of the present study was to test the factor structure of early EF as measured by the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool version (BRIEF-P). BRIEF-P consists of five subscales and three broader indexes, hypothesized to tap into different subcomponents of EF. Parent ratings of EF from a nonreferred sample of children recruited from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (N = 1134; age range 37–47 months) were subjected to confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Three theoretically derived models were assessed; the second-order three-factor model originally proposed by the BRIEF-P authors, a “true” first-order one-factor model and a second-order one-factor model. CFA fit statistics supported the original three-factor solution. However, the difference in fit was marginal between this model and the second-order one-factor model. A follow-up exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported the existence of several factors underlying EF in early preschool years, with a considerable overlap with the five BRIEF-P subscales. Our results suggest that some differentiation in EF has taken place at age 3 years, which is reflected in behavior ratings. The internal consistency of the BRIEF-P five clinical subscales is supported. Subscale interrelations may, however, differ at this age from those observed in the preschool group as a whole.     

Psychological type of American Evangelical missionary candidates

Sending missionaries into the field requires an enormous up-front investment on the part of the candidate as well as the sending organisation. An effective candidate selection process can limit the significant financial and emotional effects of a bad fit for a field placement. The present study seeks to analyse the typology of missionary candidates, using the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). A sample of 475 American Evangelical missionary candidates took the MBTI as part of their candidacy process. Results indicate that there were significant differences on 12 of the 16 MBTI typologies of the missionary candidates compared to the national representative sample. The ENFJ (14.1%) and ENFP (14.1%) typologies were significantly overrepresented in the sample. The personality types most underrepresented were ISTP (1.1%) and ISFP (1.7%). Comparisons with similar religious populations are discussed. Implications for how missionary candidates may adjust to field work based on type are considered.     

Attention to Explicit and Implicit Contrast in Verb Learning

Contrast information could be useful for verb learning, but few studies have examined children's ability to use this type of information. Contrast may be useful when children are told explicitly that different verbs apply, or when they hear two different verbs in a single context. Three studies examine children's attention to different types of contrast as they learn new verbs. Study 1 shows that 3.5-year-olds can use both implicit contrast (“I'm meeking it. I'm koobing it.”) and explicit contrast (“I'm meeking it. I'm not meeking it.”) when learning a new verb, while a control group's responses did not differ from chance. Study 2 shows that even though children at this age who hear explicit contrast statements differ from a control group, they do not reliably extend a newly learned verb to events with new objects. In Study 3, children in three age groups were given both comparison and contrast information, not in blocks of trials as in past studies, but in a procedure that interleaved both cues. Results show that while 2.5-year-olds were unable to use these cues when asked to compare and contrast, by 3.5 years old, children are beginning to be able to process these cues and use them to influence their verb extensions, and by 4.5 years, children are proficient at integrating multiple cues when learning and extending new verbs. Together these studies examine children's use of contrast in verb learning, a potentially important source of information that has been rarely studied.     

Children's Use of Social Cues When Learning Conventions

In a series of two experiments, we examined 5-year-old children's motivations for learning new conventional actions. Children watched two teachers open a novel container; the teachers differed in the nonfunctional, conventional actions they used in the process. In Experiment 1, one teacher spoke with a native accent and the other spoke with a nonnative accent. Children showed a preference for following the native-accented teacher, and this preference was interpreted as a motivation to match an in-group member. In Experiment 2, the speech accent of the teacher was crossed with explicit expressions of (un)certainty by the teachers. In this case, children preferred the more certain teacher, even when the certain teacher spoke with a nonnative speech accent. This preference was taken as demonstrating a utilitarian motivation that led to choosing the teacher most likely to have useful information. Taken together, these results suggest that by 5 years of age, children are motivated by both utilitarian and in-group considerations when selecting between sources of information; however, when forced to select between the two motivations, utilitarian concerns take precedent.     

Jesus' Prophethood and Islam: Insights from the Risale‐i Nur

While Jesus’ prophethood is an indisputable component of his identity in the Christian tradition, it has been marginalized for centuries in favor of his identity as savior. In this article, I argue that an engagement with an understanding of Jesus’ prophethood in Islam, particularly as explicated by the Turkish thinker Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, can help Christians recover a more robust interpretation of Jesus as prophet that has a positive impact on a Christian articulation of the church and of discipleship today.     

Retrieval speeds context fluctuation: Why semantic generation enhances later learning but hinders prior learning

In recent work, retrieval has been shown to enhance memory for events following that retrieval. In this set of experiments, we examined the effects of interleaved semantic retrieval on both previous and future learning within a multilist learning paradigm. Interleaved retrieval led to enhanced memory for lists learned following retrieval. In contrast, memory was impaired for lists learned prior to retrieval (Experiment 1). These results are consistent with recent work in multilist learning, directed forgetting, and list-before-last retrieval, all of which indicate a crucial role for retrieval in enhancing mental list segregation. This pattern of results follows clearly from a theoretical perspective in which retrieval drives internal contextual change and in which contextual overlap between study and test promotes better memory. Consistent with that perspective, a 15-min delay before the final test eliminated both effects (Experiment 2). Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 with materials and assessments more appropriate for educational settings: Interleaved semantic retrieval led learners to be more able to answer questions correctly about texts studied after a retrieval event but less able to do so for texts studied earlier.     

Get the gist? The effects of processing depth on false recognition in short-term and long-term memory

Gist-based processing has been proposed to account for robust false memories in the converging-associates task. The deep-encoding processes known to enhance verbatim memory also strengthen gist memory and increase distortions of long-term memory (LTM). Recent research has demonstrated that compelling false memory illusions are relatively delay-invariant, also occurring under canonical short-term memory (STM) conditions. To investigate the contributions of gist to false memory at short and long delays, processing depth was manipulated as participants encoded lists of four semantically related words and were probed immediately, following a filled 3- to 4-s retention interval, or approximately 20 min later, in a surprise recognition test. In two experiments, the encoding manipulation dissociated STM and LTM on the frequency, but not the phenomenology, of false memory. Deep encoding at STM increases false recognition rates at LTM, but confidence ratings and remember/know judgments are similar across delays and do not differ as a function of processing depth. These results suggest that some shared and some unique processes underlie false memory illusions at short and long delays.     

Teachers as therapeutic agents: perceptions of a school-based mental health initiative

Teacher–child relationship building (TCRB) is a play-based professional development programme adapted from kinder training and filial therapy. Intended for early education teachers and students, TCRB is designed to strengthen the teacher–child relationship, improve student behaviour, enhance academic involvement and develop teachers' classroom management skills. In the current study, we utilised a phenomenological approach to examine teachers' perceptions of the initial implementation of TCRB through identifying individual and collective perspectives in the summation of themes. Findings indicated that the teachers perceived the TCRB model to be informative, well organised, appropriately structured and effective in enhancing teacher–child relationships, improving classroom management skills and reducing behavioural problems among child participants. Limitations of the study, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Trauma and Health Symptoms in a Community Sample: Examining the Influences of Gender and Daily Stress

Although there is a rich body of literature on trauma and health, limited research has investigated the variables of gender, trauma symptoms, physical health, mental health, and daily stress together in a community sample. Considering the deleterious effects of trauma on health, our overarching inquiry was whether trauma symptoms can predict overall mental and physical health with attention to gender and daily stress as potential moderators. Participants (n = 103; 50.5% women) completed self-report measures of trauma symptoms, mental health, physical health, and daily stress, along with demographic information. Trauma symptoms predicted 25.2% of the variance in general health symptoms. Gender significantly added to the variance accounted for, but daily stress was not significant in the model. Trauma symptoms predicted 37.1% of the variance in mental health symptoms. Daily stress significantly added to the model, but gender did not. Results are interpreted through the integration of family stress theory and feminist frameworks, adding to the literature by further illuminating the relationships between gender, daily stress, health symptoms, and trauma in a community sample.