Adult Outcomes of Child Conduct Problems: A Cohort Study

The present study assessed the mental health and criminal records of 6,449 males and 6,268 females who presented conduct problems as children by examining an unselected birth cohort followed up to age 30. Conduct problems were defined by teacher ratings of behavior problems and/or antisocial behavior in the community. There was little overlap in the children identified by teachers and by the community. These two groups of children were at differential risk for adult mental disorder. Seventy-six percent of the males and 30% of females with childhood conduct problems had either a criminal record, a mental disorder, or both by age 30. Risk ratios for adult criminality and/or mental disorders, however, were greater for females than for males with a history of childhood conduct problems. Almost all of the mental disorders were severe substance abuse. Mental disorders and crime were strongly associated among males with a history of childhood conduct problems.     

Adult's failures on euclidean and projective spatial tasks: Implications for characterizing spatial cognition

In their initial study of the development of children's spatial concepts, Piaget and Inhelder (1956) designed the “water-level” and “plumb-line” tasks to assess children's Euclidean abilities to perceive and represent horizontals and verticals. Surprisingly, subsequent research has shown that many adults perform badly on these tasks designed for children. Here we studied whether adults (N=160) would also have difficulty on a shadow projection task developed to assess theoretically related projective spatial concepts. The data showed that some adults had difficulty on the shadow task, whether tested by a drawing or by a selection task, and whether scored with respect to qualitative shape or metric accuracy. Performance was significantly worse on complex than simple forms, and when sex differences emerged, they favored males. As hypothesized, the best predictor of shadow performance was performance on the Euclidean tasks. Scores on the Embedded Figures Test and participant sex accounted for small (but significant) additional variance on shadow performance. Implications for theories of spatial development and for modeling individual differences in spatial cognition are discussed.     

The filled-duration illusion: The function of temporal and nontemporal set

Studies of the perception of time have demonstrated that large visual stimuli presented for the same duration as small stimuli will appear to have been presented longer. Two theoretical approaches have been offered to explain this effect. Both have emphasized the absolute amount of information in the stimulus. Thus, both would predict the effect when size is varied between sessions. The present study found no effect of size when size was held constant within sessions, but a substantial effect resulted when size was varied within sessions. Also examined was the range of stimulus durations used within a session. In one condition, patterns of various sizes were presented at 15, 30, or 45 msec, while in a second condition, the same patterns were presented to a different group of subjects at 15, 85, or 155 msec. The size effect was significantly reduced when longer time intervals were presented. A third group of subjects was shown patterns at even longer times but with a reduced range (155, 170, and 185 msec). Here the size effect was of equal magnitude to that of the 15-msec interval condition. The implications of these results are that current theoretical explanations of the filled-duration illusion rely on incorrect assumptions.     

Three theories of self-disclosure exchange

The present study tested predictions derived from equitable exchange, social attraction, and normative information theories of self-disclosure. Variables relevant to each theory were manipulated orthogonally in the following factorial design: (1) intimate vs. superficial vs. no confederate disclosure, (2) positive vs. negative evaluation delivered by the confederate, and (3) intimate vs. non-intimate disclosure as normative for the experimental situation. Groups in which the subject was exposed to one of the independent variables in the absence of the others were included, to yield 18 cells with 10 female subjects per cell. The findings conformed to equitable exchange theory, in that subjects were more willing to disclose to a high- than a low-revealing partner. However, disclosure appeared to be suppressed in response to low disclosure, rather than enhanced by intimate disclosure. Also, true reciprocity of disclosure did not occur, in that subjects did not completely match the intimacy of the confederate. Normative information proved to be a potent determinant of disclosure tendency. No support was found for social attraction theory. Although confederate evaluation was the best predictor of interpersonal attraction, it was the poorest predictor of intent to disclose. Attraction was not found to parallel disclosure level.     

Patterns of Spiritual and Moral Development in Religious and Public Schools in Chicago

This article draws attention to the different approaches adopted in 21 Chicago schools towards the education of pupils in relation to beliefs and values. It presents the findings of the first stage of an ongoing research project, which explores models of religious, spiritual and moral education in American schools. The dangers of omitting an open and critical study of religion in the curriculum are considered.     

Men's and Women's Mating Preferences: Distinct Evolutionary Mechanisms?

Have men and women evolved sex-distinct mating preferences for short-term and long-term mating, as postulated by some evolutionary theorists? Direct tests of assumptions, consideration of confounds with gender, and examination of the same variables for both sexes suggest men and women are remarkably similar. Furthermore, cross-species comparisons indicate that humans do not evidence mating mechanisms indicative of short-term mating (e.g., large female sexual skins, large testicles). Understanding human variability in mating preferences is apt to involve more detailed knowledge of the links between these preferences and biological and chemical mechanisms associated with sexual motivation, sexual arousal, and sexual functioning.     

Reactions of third-graders to recognition allocation after being peer-imitated

Being imitated has generally been regarded as a positive experience conducive to reciprocal imitation of and increased attraction to one’s imitator. An experiment on 3rd-graders, in an adaptation of a Thelen-Kirkland paradigm, investigates whether the receipt of public recognition for a good product would simply amplify those positive effects, or would tend to reverse them, and explores whether gender would moderate models, reactions under such conditions. Recognition allocation was manipulated by having an “authority” award a symbolic star solely to the model, to the confederate imitator alone, to the confederate nonimitator alone, or to no one. The results suggested that the boys rather than girls showed amplification effects of receiving sole recognition: they reciprocally imitated more, and expressed greater attraction to, their same-sex imitator than did the girls. Overall, models expressed relatively less attraction to the imitator than to the nonimitator. When interviewed, the models were equally divided as to which of the two deserved the recognition when they themselves or their imitator received it, but they stated unequivocally that the nonimitator who received the recognition deserved it. They also clearly stated a preference for those tasks on which they themselves had been imitated—given that they themselves or their imitator had received recognition credit, compared to models in the nonimitator-recognition and control conditions. It is clear that recognition allocation is an important construct that should be considered in investigating models, reactions to being imitated, particularly in the light of its significance in the adult world, at least of this culture. Several directions are proposed for pursuing this construct further.     

Implementation of the Sound Partners Reading Program

Eleven first grade and 10 second grade students, all with reading and behavioral difficulties, received one-on-one tutoring using the Sound Partners reading program (Vadasy & Pool, l997). Students received 30 min of tutoring each day for 5 months. Students were assessed on Letter-Word Identification, Passage Comprehension, and Word Attack subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson-Revised (WJ-R): Tests of Achievement. An informal measure (rapid letter naming) was also used. Results indicated that gains of approximately 1 standard deviation (or greater) were noted for subtests of the WJ-R for first-grade students; second graders showed relatively stable performance from pre- to posttest assessments. Similar performance was noted on the informal measure across grades. Program satisfaction data showed that overall the tutors, teachers, and students were pleased with the program. Discussion focuses on the implications for future investigations.