Testing a word is not a test of word learning

Although vocabulary acquisition requires children learn names for multiple things, many investigations of word learning mechanisms teach children the name for only one of the objects presented. This is problematic because it is unclear whether children's performance reflects recall of the correct name–object association or simply selection of the only object that was singled out by being the only object named. Children introduced to one novel name may perform at ceiling as they are not required to discriminate on the basis of the name per se, and appear to rapidly learn words following minimal exposure to a single word. We introduced children to four novel objects. For half the children, only one of the objects was named and for the other children, all four objects were named. Only children introduced to one word reliably selected the target object at test. This demonstration highlights the over-simplicity of one-word learning paradigms and the need for a shift in word learning paradigms where more than one word is taught to ensure children disambiguate objects on the basis of their names rather than their degree of salience.     

Examination of a sociocultural model of excessive exercise among male and female adolescents

There is substantial evidence that sociocultural pressures and body image disturbances can lead to disordered eating, yet few studies have examined their impact on excessive exercise. The study adapted a sociocultural model for disordered eating to predict excessive exercise using data from boys and girls in early adolescence (N = 421). Perceived sociocultural pressures to lose weight and build muscle, body image disturbance and appearance investment were associated with a compulsive need to exercise. Adolescents’ investment in appearance and body image disturbance fully mediated the relationship between sociocultural pressures and a compulsive need for exercise. There was no support for the meditational model in predicting adolescents’ frequency or duration of exercise. Results support the sociocultural model as an explanatory model for excessive exercise, but suggest appearance investment and body image disturbance are important mediators of sociocultural pressures.     

Enhanced perceptual priming for neutral stimuli in a traumatic context: A pathway to intrusive memories?

Clinical observations suggest that re-experiencing symptoms are triggered by stimuli that are perceptually similar to those present shortly before the trauma or its worst moments. Two experiments investigated the possible role of perceptual priming in this phenomenon. Volunteers (N = 28, N = 62) watched a series of “traumatic” and neutral picture stories, and completed blurred object identification (priming) and recognition memory tasks. Neutral objects that immediately preceded the “traumatic” stories were more strongly primed, but not better recognised, than objects from neutral stories. Enhanced priming predicted subsequent re-experiencing symptoms. The results support the role of perceptual priming in re-experiencing.     

The use of visualisations to develop the aesthetic aspects of spiritual literacy

This paper reports on a pilot project to explore the relationship between the imagined physical experience and the inner–personal aspects of a guided visualisation journey in relation to spiritual literacy for children aged 7–11. The project examined the use of auditory and aesthetic stimuli during a visualisation as a pre-linguistic trigger so the experience could be recalled, developed or enhanced through the stimuli alone. It used guided visualisations and reflective activities with eight pupils in two upper primary settings to examine whether this recollection of the imagined physical journey aided development of a personal, spiritual experience after the event, and whether the psychological expression of the imagined physical experience aided this in some way. It was recognised that the child’s connection with the context could affect the depth, quality or even intensity of interpretation. Therefore, the project draws upon theories including psychosynthesis theory, which takes into account the uniqueness of the individual’s life journey and therefore allows the children to make meaningful links within their schema.     

Mentoring: Processes and Perceptions of Sport and Exercise Psychology Graduate Students

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) conference programs address cultural diversity. A content analysis was conducted by analyzing 5214 AASP conference program abstracts from 1986 to 2007. Only 10.5% of all abstracts included discussion of a cultural diversity issue and 31.9% included a diverse sample. Of those abstracts that addressed cultural diversity issues, the majority addressed gender, with almost no attention to race and ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, social class, disability, or older adults. These results highlight the continuing neglect, but compelling need to address cultural diversity in sport and exercise psychology, and specifically within AASP programming.     

Picture book exposure elicits positive visual preferences in toddlers

Although the relationship between “mere exposure” and attitude enhancement is well established in the adult domain, there has been little similar work with children. This article examines whether toddlers’ visual attention toward pictures of foods can be enhanced by repeated visual exposure to pictures of foods in a parent-administered picture book. We describe three studies that explored the number and nature of exposures required to elicit positive visual preferences for stimuli and the extent to which induced preferences generalize to other similar items. Results show that positive preferences for stimuli are easily and reliably induced in children and, importantly, that this effect of exposure is not restricted to the exposed stimulus per se but also applies to new representations of the exposed item.     

Performance of british university psychology departments as measured by number of publications in BPS journals

The aim of this investigation was to gauge the comparative research performance of university departments of psychology in Britain. The performance indicator was the number of publications per departmental staff member in the journals of the British Psychological Society (BPS) during the seven-year period 1983–1989. The contents of these journals were thoroughly searched, and articles written by members of university psychology departments in Britain were counted. The number of publications of each psychology department was divided by the size of the department in the corresponding year and the resulting annual figures were summed to determine the number of publications in BPS journals per departmental staff member over the seven-year period. These research performance figures correlated significantly with an earlier measure of departmental research performance based on publications in the seven European psychological journals with the highest citations per published article and with recent performance indicators based on other criteria     

Errorful and errorless learning: The impact of cue–target constraint in learning from errors

The benefits of testing on learning are well described, and attention has recently turned to what happens when errors are elicited during learning: Is testing nonetheless beneficial, or can errors hinder learning? Whilst recent findings have indicated that tests boost learning even if errors are made on every trial, other reports, emphasizing the benefits of errorless learning, have indicated that errors lead to poorer later memory performance. The possibility that this discrepancy is a function of the materials that must be learned—in particular, the relationship between the cues and targets—was addressed here. Cued recall after either a study-only errorless condition or an errorful learning condition was contrasted across cue–target associations, for which the extent to which the target was constrained by the cue was either high or low. Experiment 1 showed that whereas errorful learning led to greater recall for low-constraint stimuli, it led to a significant decrease in recall for high-constraint stimuli. This interaction is thought to reflect the extent to which retrieval is constrained by the cue–target association, as well as by the presence of preexisting semantic associations. The advantage of errorful retrieval for low-constraint stimuli was replicated in Experiment 2, and the interaction with stimulus type was replicated in Experiment 3, even when guesses were randomly designated as being either correct or incorrect. This pattern provides support for inferences derived from reports in which participants made errors on all learning trials, whilst highlighting the impact of material characteristics on the benefits and disadvantages that accrue from errorful learning in episodic memory.     

Terror mismanagement: evidence that mortality salience exacerbates attentional bias in social anxiety

Death anxiety is a basic fear underlying a range of psychological conditions, and has been found to increase avoidance in social anxiety. Given that attentional bias is a core feature of social anxiety, the aim of the present study was to examine the impact of mortality salience (MS) on attentional bias in social anxiety. Participants were 36 socially anxious and 37 non-socially anxious individuals, randomly allocated to a MS or control condition. An eye-tracking procedure assessed initial bias towards, and late-stage avoidance of, socially threatening facial expressions. As predicted, socially anxious participants in the MS condition demonstrated significantly more initial bias to social threat than non-socially anxious participants in the MS condition and socially anxious participants in the control condition. However, this effect was not found for late-stage avoidance of social threat. These findings suggest that reminders of death may heighten initial vigilance towards social threat.     

Face aftereffects indicate dissociable, but not distinct, coding of male and female faces

It has been claimed that exposure to distorted faces of one sex induces perceptual aftereffects for test faces that are of the same sex, but not for test faces of the other sex (A. C. Little, L. M. DeBruine, & B. C. Jones, 2005). This result suggests that male and female faces have separate neural coding. Given the high degree of visual similarity between faces of different sexes, this result is surprising. The authors reinvestigated male and female face coding using a different face distortion. In Experiment 1, participants adapted to distorted faces from one sex (e.g., male contracted faces) and were tested with faces of both sexes. Aftereffects were found for both male and female faces, suggesting the existence of common coding mechanisms. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants adapted to oppositely distorted faces from both sexes (male contracted and female expanded faces). Weak opposite aftereffects were found for male and female faces, suggesting the existence of sex-selective face coding mechanisms. Taken together, these results indicate that both common and sex-selective mechanisms code male and female faces.