A Dyadic Perspective on Speech Accommodation and Social Connection: Both Partners' Rejection Sensitivity Matters

Findings from confederate paradigms predict that mimicry is an adaptive route to social connection for rejection‐sensitive individuals (Lakin, Chartrand, & Arkin, 2008). However, dyadic perspectives predict that whether mimicry leads to perceived connection depends on the rejection sensitivity (RS) of both partners in an interaction. We investigated these predictions in 50 college women who completed a dyadic cooperative task in which members were matched or mismatched in being dispositionally high or low in RS. We used a psycholinguistics paradigm to assess, through independent listeners' judgments (N = 162), how much interacting individuals accommodate phonetic aspects of their speech toward each other. Results confirmed predictions from confederate paradigms in matched RS dyads. However, mismatched dyads showed an asymmetry in levels of accommodation and perceived connection: Those high in RS accommodated more than their low‐RS partner but emerged feeling less connected. Mediational analyses indicated that low‐RS individuals' nonaccommodation in mismatched dyads helped explain their high‐RS partners' relatively low perceived connection to them. Establishing whether mimicry is an adaptive route to social connection requires analyzing mimicry as a dyadic process influenced by the needs of each dyad member.     

Believing in change: The role of implicit theory on consumer's perception of the brand's corporate social responsibility message

With the sustainable consumption paradigms, corporate social responsibilities (CSR) across industries have been under scrutiny. However, little research exists on how brand's business model and consumers' characteristics are intertwined to influence CSR evaluation. Our study aims to examine how the brand type (e.g., fast vs. slow business model) influences the relationships among CSR-brand fit, authenticity, and skepticism, thus improving attitudes toward the brand. In addition, based on the implicit theory, how the consumer's incremental mindset (vs. entity) influences a brand's CSR evaluations are studied. Through two studies, our findings demonstrate consumers perceived a higher CSR-brand fit for the slow fashion/food brand than the fast fashion/food brand. A higher CSR-brand fit heightened the CSR authenticity and alleviated skepticism, which in turn resulted in positive brand evaluations. Importantly, incremental mindsets weakened the effect of brand type on CSR-brand fit. As one of the first studies to examine the relationship between consumers' implicit theory orientation and a brand's CSR message, our findings demonstrate that an incremental mindset is a powerful consumer characteristic in evaluating a brand's CSR activities that are less congruent with the brand's established business model.     

Textual demands of passages in three english/language arts common core assessments and one core literacy program for intermediate elementary grades

The Common Core has emphasized reading for comprehension, including making inferences. However, little is known about the textual demands found within assessment and instructional passages that are promoted as being in line with Common Core expectations. The purpose of this content analysis was to identify the readability levels, passage length, and types of inferences found within 72 fiction and nonfiction passages from the PARCC, Smarter Balanced, and SAGE Common Core assessments and one core literacy program, Journeys, for students in grades three, four, and five. Results show that the readability levels of passages in this study were written at higher levels than their associated grade levels. Anaphoric relationships were by far the most common inference type found in the texts, followed by Prior Knowledge and Retrospective inferences.     

Treatment of elopement following a latency‐based interview‐informed,synthesized contingency analysis

Using a latency measure during a functional analysis of problem behavior increases the brevity of the assessment period and decreases risks resulting from exposure to contexts intended to evoke problem behavior. In addition, latency‐based functional analyses may be especially suitable for discrete behaviors such as elopement, which require resetting the environment after each instance of the response. We evaluated a comprehensive assessment and treatment package for the elopement of two children diagnosed with autism. We observed short latencies to elopement during the test condition of the analysis and no elopement during the control condition. We then taught the participants multiple forms of functional communication responses of increasing complexity while elopement was blocked. This was followed by the thinning of reinforcement to a terminal goal, creating a treatment package that nearly eliminated elopement and was socially validated by caregivers.     

The development and validation of a measure of character: The CIVIC

The present research study sought to develop and validate a character scale – the Comprehensive Inventory of Virtuous Instantiations of Character using a total sample size of 3679 across five studies. In Study 1, character trait items were generated using an integrative classification system. In Study 2, character trait scales were further refined and their factor structure examined, revealing eight higher-order character dimensions or character cores: appreciation, intellectual engagement, fortitude, interpersonal consideration, sincerity, temperance, transcendence, and empathy. Study 3 established convergent validity of character traits with extant measures and discriminability from personality facets, social desirability, and moral cognitive development. Study 4 revealed that character cores were more strongly related to evaluative constructs than personality dimensions. Study 5 demonstrated that character cores predicted performance and psychological well-being outcomes above and beyond personality. The implications of our findings for the assessment and taxonomy of character are discussed.     

SOCIOEMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS IN TODDLERS WITH LANGUAGE DELAY

Toddlers with language delay are at risk for persistent developmental and behavioral difficulties; however, the association between socioemotional/behavior problems and language in young children is not well understood. This study explored socioemotional/behavior problems in a unique sample of toddlers with language delays using a measure developed explicitly for this age group. Toddlers identified by 18 months with receptive and expressive language delay (LD; n = 30) or typical development (TD; n = 61) were evaluated at 18 and 24 months of age using the Infant‐Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) and the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Compared to toddlers who had TD, toddlers with LD had significantly more concerning scores at 18 and 24 months on all ITSEA domains. The rate of “clinical concern” on most domains was not high in either group, except that >60% of LD toddlers were in the clinical concern range on the Competence domain. Socioemotional/behavioral problems were dimensionally related to receptive and expressive language, with greater language delay associated with more concerning ITSEA scores. Socioemotional and behavioral problems are related to receptive and expressive language abilities in 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds, indicating the need for screening of both types of concerns in toddlers identified with potential language delays.     

School-based mental health programming for children with inattentive and disruptive behavior problems: first-year treatment outcome

This article examines the effectiveness of an evidence-based behavioral treatment package for children with inattentive and disruptive behavior problems when delivered in the context of a school-based mental health program. Child symptomatology and functioning are assessed in a treatment group (n = 30) and a waitlist control group (n = 12) across multiple time points (fall, winter, and spring). Treatment includes a daily report card procedure, year-long teacher consultation, and parenting sessions. According to the parent report, treated children show marked reductions in hyperactive and impulsive, oppositional or defiant and aggressive behavior, and marked improvement in peer relationships. Teachers observe treatment-related group differences in inattention, academic functioning, and the student-teacher relationship. Feasibility and acceptability data have implications for transporting evidence-based treatments to community settings and for integrating mental health services into the culture of the school community.     

Aging and visual 3-D shape recognition from motion

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the ability of younger and older adults to recognize 3-D object shape from patterns of optical motion. In Experiment 1, participants were required to identify dotted surfaces that rotated in depth (i.e., surface structure portrayed using the kinetic depth effect). The task difficulty was manipulated by limiting the surface point lifetimes within the stimulus apparent motion sequences. In Experiment 2, the participants identified solid, naturally shaped objects (replicas of bell peppers, Capsicum annuum) that were defined by occlusion boundary contours, patterns of specular highlights, or combined optical patterns containing both boundary contours and specular highlights. Significant and adverse effects of increased age were found in both experiments. Despite the fact that previous research has found that increases in age do not reduce solid shape discrimination, our current results indicated that the same conclusion does not hold for shape identification. We demonstrated that aging results in a reduction in the ability to visually recognize 3-D shape independent of how the 3-D structure is defined (motions of isolated points, deformations of smooth optical fields containing specular highlights, etc.).     

The effects of divided attention at study and test on false recognition: A comparison of DRM and categorized lists

Three experiments investigated the effects of divided attention at encoding and retrieval on false recognition. In Experiment 1, participants studied word lists in either full or divided attention (random number generation) conditions and then took part in a recognition test with full attention. In Experiment 2, after studying word lists with full attention, participants carried out a recognition test with either full or divided attention. Experiment 3 manipulated attention at both study and test. We also compared Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) and categorized lists, due to recent claims regarding the locus of false memories produced by such lists (Smith, Gerkens, Pierce, & Choi, 2002). With both list types, false "remember" responses were reduced by divided attention at encoding and increased by divided attention at retrieval. The findings suggest that the production of false memories occurs as a result of the generation of associates at encoding and failures of source monitoring retrieval. Crucially, this is true for both DRM and categorized lists.     

Stereotype susceptibility narrows the gender gap in imagined self-rotation performance

Three studies examined the impact of stereotype messages on men’s and women’s performance of a mental rotation task involving imagined self-rotations. Experiment 1 established baseline differences between men and women; women made 12% more errors than did men. Experiment 2 found that exposure to a positive stereotype message enhanced women’s performance in comparison with that of another group of women who received neutral information. In Experiment 3, men who were exposed to the same stereotype message emphasizing a female advantage made more errors than did male controls, and the magnitude of error was similar to that for women from Experiment 1. The results suggest that the gender gap in mental rotation performance is partially caused by experiential factors, particularly those induced by sociocultural stereotypes.