Remembering and retelling stories in individual and collaborative contexts

Collaborative cognition, in which two or more people work together on a cognitive task, may be typical of everyday life, and may even represent an important aspect of everyday cognitive adaptation for older adults. We examined collaborative memory for stories by comparing younger (n = 64) and older (n = 66) individuals and dyads with collaborative performance produced by married spouses and stranger dyads. Overall, across four collaborative recall products (two positive and two negative performance indicators), some evidence for our hypothesis of general or selective collaborative effectiveness was observed. Moreover, such evidence was obtained at both an immediate and delayed recall episode. Discussion includes applications, limitations and suggestions for future research. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Free associations and dominance ratings of homophones for young and older adults.

Homophones are words that share phonology but differ in meaning and spelling (e.g., beach, beech). This article presents the results of normative surveys that asked young and older adults to free associate to and rate the dominance of 197 homophones. Although norms exist for young adults on word familiarity and frequency for homophones, these results supplement the literature by (1) reporting the four most frequent responses to visually presented homophones for both young and older adults, and (2) reporting young and older adults' ratings of homophone dominance. Results indicated that young and older adults gave the same first response to 67% of the homophones and rated homophone dominance similarly on 60% of the homophone sets. These results identify a subset of homophones that are preferable for research with young and older adults because of age-related equivalence in free association and dominance ratings. These norms can be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society's Web archive, www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Women, money, and psychodynamic group psychotherapy.

Developmental concerns and sociocultural expectations may keep female patients and therapists from addressing financial issues openly in group psychotherapy. Interpersonal theory provides a different view of nurturing that may help women leaders deal better with financial discussions in group. This paper includes a review of the literature on group psychotherapy and fees; feminist literature relevant to leadership; money management in group therapy; countertransference; and case examples.     

Validation of the shortened cope for use with breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy

To study the relationship between cancer and emotional adjustment, investigation of situation-specific coping behaviors with respect to narrowly defined Stressors has recently been promoted. The development and validation of shorter instruments, designed to facilitate completion by clinical populations, has also been recommended. The current study examined the coping skills used by French-Canadian women undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer. A factor analysis of the 28-item shortened COPE (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) yielded the following eight factors: disengagement, self-distraction, active coping, using emotional support from husband/ partner, using emotional support from friends, turning to religion, humor, and substance use. The test-retest and Cronbach alpha internal consistency reliability coefficients of the French-Canadian shortened COPE were actually higher than those observed in the full-length version of the instrument. In addition, the eight factor-based scores correlated in a theoretically meaningful manner with existing measures of coping skills with illness (Coping with Health Injuries and Problems; CHIP) and mood disturbance (Profile of Mood States; POMS), thus suggesting good construct convergent and concurrent criterion validity. In particular, the disengagement COPE scale was correlated highly with anxiety, depression, and anger. While further validation is recommended, the results show promise for the shortened COPE in assessing coping in women with breast cancer, and also provide continued evidence for the notion that specific coping skills are associated with particular mood states.     

What "mice trap" tells us about the mental lexicon

Level ordering has proven inadequate as a morphological theory, leaving unexplained the experimental results taken to support it as a component of innate grammar-young children's acceptance of irregular plurals in English compounds. The present study demonstrates that these results can be explained by slower access to the grammatically preferred singulars of irregular nouns when compounds are created on-line from plural stimuli. Experiments on English noun-noun compound production and on production of either singular or plural forms from the same or opposite form confirmed that more irregular than regular plurals were used in compounds, and showed that producing irregular singulars from plurals was slower than producing regular singulars. Plural responses were also slower when cue and required response number differed.     

The role of computational models in neuropsychological investigations of language: reply to Ruml and Caramazza (2000)

W. Ruml and A. Caramazza's (2000) analysis of the model of normal and aphasic lexical access proposed by G. S. Dell, M. F. Schwartz, N. Martin, E. M. Saffran, and D. A. Gagnon (1997) is completely at odds with current practice concerning the use of models in psychology. An evaluation of Dell et al.'s original claims using Ruml and Caramazza's model parameters sustains these claims in all respects.     

How patients’ representations of cystic fibrosis-related diabetes inform their health behaviours

Background: Although diabetes is a frequent complication of cystic fibrosis (CF), patients’ behaviours tend not to comply with best practice recommendations. Using Leventhal’s Common-Sense Model, we address this issue by exploring patients’ representations of CF-related diabetes (CFRD) to better understand the discrepancy between patients’ expected and observed health behaviours.

Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with patients (n = 39) in six CF clinics in Quebec, Canada. These interviews were part of a larger research project on screening and management practices for CFRD.

Results: Illness representations differed between two groups of interviewed patients: (1) one group had either CF without dysglycemia or CF with impaired glucose tolerance; and (2) the other group had CFRD. Both representations were internally consistent and encompassed Leventhal’s five dimensions of illness representation: illness identity, cause, timeline, consequences and control.

Conclusions: Patients require specific information on CFRD. The screening phase could be a crucial time to help patients adjust their representations to fit the reality of CFRD.     

Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Support,Proactive Personality,and Perceived Employability in Workers Over 50

This article examines the relationship between perceived organizational support, proactive personality, and perceived employability in a sample of workers over 50. An online questionnaire assessing these variables were filled by 213 employees. Results confirmed that individual dispositions have a significant impact on perceived employability but also indicated that organizational context may have a greater impact on employability. The implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions are offered for future research on employability.     

Heart rate variability reflects self-regulatory strength, effort, and fatigue

Experimental research reliably demonstrates that self-regulatory deficits are a consequence of prior self-regulatory effort. However, in naturalistic settings, although people know that they are sometimes vulnerable to saying, eating, or doing the wrong thing, they cannot accurately gauge their capacity to self-regulate at any given time. Because self-regulation and autonomic regulation colocalize in the brain, an autonomic measure, heart rate variability (HRV), could provide an index of self-regulatory strength and activity. During an experimental manipulation of self-regulation (eating carrots or cookies), HRV was elevated during high self-regulatory effort (eat carrots, resist cookies) compared with low self-regulatory effort (eat cookies, resist carrots). The experimental manipulation and higher HRV at baseline independently predicted persistence at a subsequent anagram task. HRV appears to index self-regulatory strength and effort, making it possible to study these phenomena in the field as well as the lab.     

Optimism and College Retention: Mediation by Motivation,Performance, and Adjustment1

Although higher education has been linked to better income, longer life expectancy, and better health, about 25–45% of incoming college freshmen never graduate. The current study examined whether optimistic expectancies are associated with college retention. Participants (N = 2,189) were given surveys when entering college, and academic records were attained after freshman year completion. Dispositional and academic optimism were associated with less chance of dropping out of college, as well as better motivation and adjustment. Academic optimism was also associated with higher grade point average (GPA). Structural equation models revealed that dispositional optimism predicted retention through motivation and adjustment, which in turn predicted retention. Academic optimism, on the other hand, predicted retention through its effect on GPA, motivation, and adjustment.