Implicit motor sequence learning is represented in response locations

Previous work (Willingham, 1999) has indicated that implicit motor sequence learning is not primarily perceptual; that is, what is learned is not a sequence of stimuli. Still other work has indicated that implicit motor sequence learning is not specific to particular muscle groups or effectors. In the present work, we tested whether implicit motor sequence learning would be represented as a sequence of response locations. In Experiment 1, learning showed very poor transfer when the response locations were changed, even though the stimulus positions were unchanged. In Experiment 2, participants switched their hand positions at transfer, so that one group of participants pushed the same sequence of keys but used a different sequence of finger movements to do so, whereas another group pushed a different sequence of keys but used the same sequence of finger movements used at training. Knowledge of the sequence was shown at transfer only if the sequence of response locations was maintained, not the sequence of finger movements.     

Effects of Self-Monitoring on the On-Task Behavior and Written Language Performance of Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities

The present study was conducted to determine the effects of self-monitoring and a changing criterion with public posting phase on student on-task behavior and written language performance. Four elementary school boys participated and were enrolled in an urban-based, elementary-level resource room for students with learning disabilities. Self-monitoring procedures for on-task behavior included the students listening to a tone recorded at 60-s intervals and responding to the question, “Am I on-task?” Written language performance involved the students writing for a 10-min. session and counting and graphing the number of words written. During baseline conditions, student on-task behavior and written language performance were collected. During the self-monitoring conditions, the students monitored their on-task behavior and written language performance simultaneously. In the changing criterion with public posting condition, the students received their goal for the day's session prior to writing, wrote, and recorded whether they met their goal. While the results show a functional relationship between self-monitoring and on-task behavior, the data for the relationship between self-monitoring and written language performance were less compelling. A greater increase occurred when the changing criterion with public posting condition was introduced. Results suggest that self-monitoring changed on-task behavior; however, further research needs to be conducted to determine the conditions that would produce comparable effects for written language performance. Several implications for students and teachers and parent training were discussed.     

The Roles of Ethnicity and School Context in Predicting Children's Victimization by Peers

This study examines the prevalence, stability, and contextual correlates of peer victimization in a sample of African-American, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White urban elementary school-age children. A total of 1956 children (40% African-American, 42% Hispanic, and 18% White) attending any 1 of 14 public elementary schools located in one large and one mid-sized Midwestern city participated in this study. Peer ratings of victimization were obtained at two points in time, separated by a 2-year period. Findings revealed that risk for being victimized by peers varied by ethnicity and by school context. Hispanic children had lower victimization scores than did either African-American or White children. These findings, however, were moderated by school context, such that attending ethnically integrated schools was associated with a significantly higher risk of victimization for White children and a slightly lower risk of victimization for African-American children and did not affect the risk of victimization for Hispanic children. In addition, African-American children were less likely than Hispanic and White children to be repeatedly victimized by peers over time. The importance of considering ethnicity and context in explaining peer victimization is discussed and suggestions for preventive interventions and future research are provided.     

Evidence for abstract, schematic knowledge of three spatial diagram representations

Spatial diagram representations such as hierarchies, matrices, and networks are important tools for thinking. Our data suggest that college students possess abstract schemas for these representations that include at least rudimentary information about their applicability conditions. In Experiment 1, subjects were better able to select the appropriate spatial diagram representation for a problem when cued to use general category information in memory about those representations than when cued to use specific example problems given during the experiment. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the superior performance in the general category condition was not based on a comparison of the test problems with examples in memory. The results of Experiment 3 showed that the superior performance was not due to learning that occurred during the experiment or to transfer appropriate processing. The General Discussion section considers the nature of students' representation schemas and the question of why college students have only rudimentary schemas for common and widely applicable diagrammatic representations.     

Does Alternating Between Masculine and Feminine Pronouns Eliminate Perceived Gender Bias in Text?

This study explores whether alternating betweenthe pronouns he and she ina text is an effective way to avoid sexist language.Participants were psychology students at a largemidwestern university and were predominately White and frommiddle-class backgrounds. Students read two versions ofan essay, one that alternated between masculine andfeminine pronouns and one that exclusively used paired, he or she-type pronouns. Readersperceived the alternating version to be biased in favorof females and lower in overall quality than the pairedversion. However, the alternating version appeared to be more effective at combating sexism,suggesting an alternating strategy may be desirable forauthors with this goal. If the author is not primarilyconcerned with increasing readers' awareness of gender issues, techniques such as pluralization or thesingular they may be moreappropriate.     

Why do people with an anxiety disorder utilize more nonmental health care than those without?

OBJECTIVE: It is unclear why nonmental healthcare utilization is greater among those with psychological problems. The authors examined healthcare utilization in HMO patients to determine whether greater utilization in anxiety disorder (AD) patients was explained by anxiety symptoms (increasing sensitivity to physical symptoms) or comorbid illness (causing greater need for services). DESIGN: Patients were randomly selected from the database of a multi-specialty practice and 1,041 completed a survey assessing psychological symptoms, health behaviors, and demographics. Anxiety symptoms were assessed by questionnaire and the presence of an AD was determined from the medical chart. Healthcare encounters and medication use were abstracted from medical charts and HMO claims data. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Healthcare utilization. RESULTS: Both AD and anxiety symptoms predicted utilization, but symptoms were not associated with utilization in a model that also included AD. Comorbid illness was significantly associated with utilization independent of AD and somewhat reduced the strength of the AD-utilization association. The results were replicated in comparison of those with any psychiatric disorder to those without. CONCLUSION: Among those with AD, greater utilization is not explained by anxiety symptoms but is partly explained by greater comorbid illness. Further study is needed to understand excess healthcare utilization among AD patients.     

Biased attention in childhood Anxiety disorders: A preliminary study

This study provides preliminary tests of two hypotheses: (1) Anxiety-disordered children show an attentional bias toward emotionally threatening stimuli, and (2) normal controls show an attentional bias away from emotionally threatening stimuli. Twelve children, 9 to 14 years of age, with primary diagnoses of anxiety disorder were compared with 12 normal controls matched for age, gender, vocabulary level, and reading ability. Subjects completed a reaction time task that measured visual attention toward threatening versus neutral words. The anxious group showed the predicted attentional bias toward threat words. However, controls did not show the predicted bias away from threat words. These results are the first showing that biased attentional processing occurs among clinically anxious children. The potential role of such an attentional bias in childhood anxiety disorders and future direction for research are discussed.This research was supported by a Seed Grant and a Small Grant to the first author from The Ohio State University. Portions of this paper were presented at the 27th Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Atlanta, November 1993. Thanks are extended to the participants and all those who helped with the project.     

Subgroups of autistic children based on social behavior display distinct patterns of brain activity

Two questions were addressed in the present study: (1) Do autistic and normally developing children exhibit regionally specific differences in electroencephalographic (EEG) activity? (2) Do subgroups of autistic children classified according to Wing and Gould's (1979) system which emphasizes degree of social impairment exhibit distinct patterns of EEG activity? Twenty-eight children with autism (5 to 18 years of age) and two groups of normally developing children (one matched on chronological age and the other on receptive language level) participated. EEG was recorded from left and right frontal, temporal, and parietal regions during an alert baseline condition. Compared to normally developing children, autistic children exhibited reduced EEG power in the frontal and temporal regions, but not in the parietal region. Differences were more prominent in the left than the right hemisphere. Furthermore, subgroups of autistic children based on Wing and Gould's system displayed distinct patterns of brain activity. Compared to autistic children classified as “active-but-odd,” “passive” autistic children displayed reduced alpha EEG power in the frontal region.     

Juror decision-making in a mock sexually violent predator trial: gender differences in the impact of divergent types of expert testimony

Despite widespread use of mental health testimony in cases where violence risk is at issue, relatively little is known about the impact of such information on juror decision-making. This study addressed the effects of testimony based on three types of risk assessment instrument or method (clinical opinion, actuarial assessment, and ratings of psychopathy) to examine whether they would have differential impact on jurors' perceptions of the defendant. In a mock sexually violent predator civil commitment trial, 172 undergraduates were presented a case summary that included prosecution and defense expert testimony related to violence risk based on one of the three methods noted above. Consistent with earlier research, the hypothesis that a defendant described as a "high risk psychopath" by the prosecution would be judged more severely than a defendant judged as "high risk" based on other evaluation procedures was supported, but only among female jurors. Unlike prior studies, little support was found for the hypothesis that clinical opinion testimony would be more influential than actuarially based testimony for either gender. Mechanisms that may underlie the observed gender differences are discussed, as are the potential implications of these findings for civil commitment proceedings.