Eliciting Self-Explanations Improves Children's Performance on a Field-Based Map Skills Task

Abstract

To investigate children's ability to translate between the environment and an abstract representation, fourth graders were asked to indicate the location of colored flags by placing similarly colored stickers on a map. In the explaining condition, students wrote down what clues they had used; in the baseline condition, they placed stickers without explanation. The explaining students significantly outperformed the baseline students, especially with respect to egregious errors indicative of failure to understand basic representational correspondence. The hypothesized interpretation is that children who generated explanations were more likely to notice and then correct discrepancies between their answers in progress and the referent space and that they did so by activating existing spatial and symbolic competencies.     

National Differences in Work Attitudes Between the UK and Germany

Abstract

In a comparative study involving approximately 900 UK and German adults, an attempt was made to explore the strength of the relationships between diverse but related work attitudes and to examine national differences in work attitudes, which may be related to economic growth. The UK sample preferred business-oriented occupations, rather than the professions—medicine, social work and teaching—(jobs in which Germans expressed higher interest) and was characterized by higher scores on work ethic, achievement motivation, competitiveness, and achievement/conformity, but lower scores on positive attitudes to savings. No significant difference was observed in terms of financial beliefs (valuation of money) or mastery. Work attitude and occupational interest were intimately interrelated, although the relationship was significantly moderated by gender. Socio-historical economic and political origins of these similarities and differences are discussed, along with the theoretical and methodological implications of these findings.     

From Classroom to Controversy: Conflict in the Teaching of Religion

What happens when a class assignment becomes a source of controversy? How do we respond? What do we learn? By describing the controversy surrounding an assignment on religion and representation, this article examines conflict's productive role in teaching about New Religious Movements (NRMs) and religion. It suggests that we consider how our personal and institutional dispositions toward conflict influence our pedagogies. Moreover, it urges us to consider how teaching conflicts within and/or between disciplines can enhance our learning objectives and stimulate students' ability to think critically.     

Successive and conditional discrimination learning in pigs

We studied the ability of pigs to discriminate tone cues using successive and conditional discrimination tasks. Pigs (n = 8) were trained in a successive discrimination Go/No-Go task (Experiment 1) to associate a Go-cue with a reward at the end of a runway and a No-Go-cue with the absence of reward. Latency to reach the goal-box was recorded for each cue-type. Learning of a conditional discrimination task was compared between low-birthweight (LBW, n = 5) and normal-birthweight (NBW, n = 6) pigs (Experiment 2) and between conventional farm (n = 7) and Göttingen miniature (n = 8) pigs (Experiment 3). In this active-choice task, one cue signalled a response in a right goal-box was correct and a second cue signalled a response in a left goal-box was correct. Cues were differentially rewarded. The number of sessions to learn the discrimination and number of correct choices per cue-type were recorded. In Experiment 1, four out of eight pigs showed learning on the task, that is, a higher latency to respond to the No-Go-cue, within 25 sessions. In Experiment 2, eight out of 11 pigs learned the discrimination within 46 sessions. LBW learners learned faster than NBW learners. In Experiment 3, all 15 pigs learned the task within 16 sessions. Göttingen miniature pigs learned faster than conventional farm pigs. While some methodological issues may improve the Go/No-Go design, it is suggested that an active-choice task yields clearer and more consistent results than one relying on latency alone.     

The interaction of synesthetic and print color and its relation to visual imagery

Synesthetic color induced by graphemes is well understood to be an automatic perceptual phenomenon paralleling print color in some ways, but also differing in others. We addressed this juxtaposition by asking how synesthetes are affected by synesthetic and print colors that are the same. We tested two groups of grapheme–color synesthetes using a basic color-priming method in which a grapheme prime was presented, followed by a color patch (probe), the color of which was to be named as quickly and accurately as possible. The primes induced either no color, print color only, synesthetic color only, or both forms of color (e.g., a letter “A” printed in red that also triggered synesthetic red). As expected, responses to name the probe color were faster if it was congruent with the prime color than if it was incongruent. The new finding (Exp. 1) was that a prime that induced the same print and synesthetic colors led to substantially larger priming effects than did either type of color individually, an effect that could not be attributed to semantic priming (Exp. 2). In addition, the synesthesia effects correlated with a standard measure of visual imagery. These findings are discussed as being consistent with the hypothesis that print and synesthetic color converge on similar color mechanisms.     

Identifying repressors: A methodological issue for health psychology

Abstract

The majority of studies in health psychology use self-report measures. However, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that this methodology may be problematic for a significant minority of the population: individuals who possess a repressive coping style (repressors). Repressors, who fail to report negative affect, answer many self-report measures in a positive fashion. Research has identified an association between repressors, who are identified by low trait anxiety scores and high defensiveness scores, and adverse health outcomes. Therefore, repressors are an important group for health psychologists to investigate. Health psychology research should use more than one method of data collection in an attempt to unravel this difficult methodological problem.     

Predicting Burnout Among HIV/AIDS and Oncology Health Care Workers

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between repressive coping, controllability, self-esteem and comparative optimism for health-related events. Repressors (low trait anxiety-high defensiveness) compared with both (a) specific control groups on anxiety and defensiveness (e.g., low-anxious, high-anxious and defensive high anxious) and (b) total nonrepressors were significantly more comparatively optimistic for health-related events. Repressors remained significantly more comparatively optimistic than total nonrepressors when self-esteem was partialled out.

For individual events, repressors differed in comparative optimism for events which were rated as high controllability. It is concluded that repressors are exhibiting comparative optimism over and above nonrepressor groups for events which are rated as controllable. These results suggest that comparative optimism findings may be exaggerated by not controlling for the disproportionate influence of repressors in skewing sample means. Suggestions for future studies are discussed.     

Stress Management and the Motives of Restorative Events at the United States Coast Guard Academy

The United States Coast Guard Academy seeks to develop leaders of character to become officers and manage its numerous missions. During training, cadets receive multiple stressors from their academic, military, and athletic responsibilities, not to mention the social stressors of friends and family. To become leaders of character, cadets need to effectively manage these stressors. This study reviewed cadets' motives leading to effective and noneffective stress management techniques they employed. During the winter of 2008, cadets described their stressors and stress reduction techniques (restorative events) and evaluated their efficacy based on the factors of attention restoration theory (ART). Discriminant analysis identified several motives associated with restorative events; however, many of the common events employed by cadets did not include components of ART, indicating that these events may not be effectively mitigating stress. A follow-up logistic regression indicated that stress reduction was based on restorative events performed to escape routine and role overloads, provide achievement, teach or share skills, and enjoy nature. Events affording low restoration involved motives of physical rest, learning, and physical fitness. Recommendations to improve cadets' stress management are discussed.     

Some Differences in Extinction by Normal and Whole-Body Irradiated Monkeys

Abstract

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Jones, R. M. New Studies in Mystical Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1927. Pp. 205. $1.75.

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Holzinger, K. J. Statistical Methods for Students in Education. Boston: Ginn, 1928. Pp. viii + 372. $3.60.

Hartshorne, H. and May, M. A. Studies in Deceit. New York: Macmillan, 1928. Bk. I, pp xxi+414; Bk. II, pp. viii+306. $4.50.

Claremont, C. A. Intelligence and Mental Growth. New York: Norton, 1928. Pp. 120. $1.00.

Malinowski, B. Myth in Primitive Psychology. New York: Norton, 1926. Pp. ix+94. $1.00.

Malinowski, B. The Father in Primitive Psychology. New York: Norton, 1927. Pp. 95. $1.00.

Miller, E. Types of Mind and Body. New York: Norton, 1927. Pp. 95. $1.00.

Warden, C. J. A Short Outline of Comparative Psychology. New York: Norton, 1927. Pp. xii+96. $1.00.

Wheeler, W. M. Emergent Evolution and the Development of Societies. New York: Norton, 1928. Pp. vii+80. $1.00.