Visual Attention to Antismoking PSAs: Smoking Cues Versus Other Attention‐Grabbing Features

This study examines how addicted smokers attend visually to smoking‐related public service announcements (PSAs) in adults smokers. Smokers' onscreen visual fixation is an indicator of cognitive resources allocated to visual attention. Characteristic of individuals with addictive tendencies, smokers are expected to be appetitively activated by images of their addiction—specifically smoking cues. At the same time, these cues are embedded in messages that associate avoidance responses with these appetitive cues, potentially inducing avoidance of PSA processing. Findings suggest that segments of PSAs that contain smoking cues are processed similarly to segments that contain complex stimuli (operationalized in this case as high in information introduced) and that visual attention is aligned with smoking cues on the screen.     

Music interferes with learning from television during infancy

Infants are frequently exposed to music during daily activities, including free play, and while viewing infant‐directed videotapes that contain instrumental music soundtracks. In Experiment 1, an instrumental music soundtrack was played during a live or televised demonstration to examine its effects on deferred imitation by 6‐, 12‐, and 18‐month‐old infants. Transfer of information was indexed via deferred imitation of the target actions following a 24‐h delay. For half the infants, the music context was also reinstated at the time of test. Performance by experimental groups was compared to that of a baseline control group that participated in the test session without prior exposure to the demonstration. Imitation performance was above baseline for the live groups but not for the video groups regardless of age or the music context at test. In Experiment 2, we added matched sound effects to the video demonstration and infants performed above baseline. We conclude that the music track creates additional cognitive load, disrupts selective attention to the target actions and inhibits transfer of learning from television of the imitation task. Music may impair an infant's ability to translate information from a two‐dimensional to three‐dimensional world even if the auditory context remains the same. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MEASUREMENT ERROR IN RESEARCH ON HUMAN RESOURCES and FIRM PERFORMANCE: HOW MUCH ERROR IS THERE AND HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE EFFECT SIZE ESTIMATES?

Studies of the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance typically use a single respondent to assess firm level HR practices or HR effectiveness. However, previous research in other substantive areas suggests that rater differences are a potentially important source of measurement error. We demonstrate analytically the potential consequences of both random and systematic measurement error in research on HR and firm performance. However, our main focus is on random error and we show how generalizability theory can be applied to obtain better estimates of reliability by simultaneously recognizing multiple sources (e.g., items, raters) of random measurement error. These more inclusive reliability estimates, in turn, offer the possibility of more precisely quantifying substantive relationships in the HR and firm performance literature. In our sample, reliabilities (as estimated by generalizability coefficients) for single-rater assessments of HR variables were generally below .50. This degree of measurement error, if present in substantive studies on HR and firm performance, could lead to considerable bias, given that an unstandardized regression coefficient is corrected for measurement error in the independent variable by dividing by its reliability coefficient (not its square root). We also found only limited convergent validity between HR and line managers ratings of a second type of HR measure, HR effectiveness. In general, our findings suggest that future researchers need to devote greater attention to measurement error and construct validity issues. Our study provides an example of how generalizability theory can be useful in this pursuit.     

Investigating Correlates of Self-Regulation in Early Childhood with a Representative Sample of English-Speaking American Families

Children who possess less self-regulatory skill are at a disadvantage when compared to children who demonstrate greater skill at regulating their emotions, cognitions and behavior. Children with these regulatory deficits have difficulty connecting with peers, generating relationships with teachers, negotiating their social world, and succeeding academically. By understanding the correlates of self-regulatory abilities, interventions can be developed to ensure that children at-risk for poor self-regulation receive the support necessary to enhance their regulatory skills. Using data from a nationally representative survey of English-speaking American parents with children between the ages of two and eight (n = 1,141), we evaluated a host of demographic and parenting variables to isolate the correlates of self-regulation. Older children were found to have fewer regulatory problems than younger children while children from low-income homes and male children were found to have greater problems with self-regulation. Minority status, household composition (single vs multi-parent), and parental education were not significant correlates of self-regulation. Findings also illustrate the powerful relationship between parenting style and self-regulation. Parents who rely on nurturing parenting practices that reinforce the child’s sense of autonomy while still maintaining a consistent parenting presence (i.e., authoritative parenting) have children who demonstrate stronger self-regulatory skills. Parents who exert an excess of parental control (i.e., authoritarian parents) have children with weaker self-regulatory skills. And lastly, parents who have notable absence of control (i.e., permissive parents) are more likely to have children with considerable regulatory deficits. Results offer implications for both practitioners and scholars.     

TV as storyteller: How exposure to television narratives impacts at‐risk preschoolers' story knowledge and narrative skills

Educational media serve as informal educators within the home by supplementing young children's development. Substantial evidence documents the contributions of educational television to preschoolers' acquisition of a variety of skills; however, television's natural capacity as storyteller and the role it plays in preschoolers' early literacy development has been largely overlooked. This study examined the effects of viewing different TV program types on 311 at‐risk preschoolers' story knowledge and narrative skills. Children were assigned to one of 4 viewing conditions (i.e. watching up to 40 episodes of a particular program type): no viewing; expository; embedded narrative; or traditional narrative. Story knowledge scores were higher for those viewing either narrative type. In contrast, viewing specific narrative types differentially affected the component skills of narrative competence. Story retelling and identification of explicit story events were higher after repeat viewing of embedded narratives while generating implicit story content was higher after repeat viewing of traditional narratives.