The psychological sense of economic hardship: measurement models, validity, and cross-ethnic equivalence for urban families

Poverty is a community stressor that disproportionally affects ethnic minority families. One aspect of programmatic research on poverty focuses on the psychological sense of economic hardship. In a study of 319 African American, European American, and Mexican American urban families, parents completed objective measures of economic status and scales of perceived economic hardship that were adapted from previous research. Measurement models identified a coherent construct of psychological sense of economic hardship that was essentially equivalent for mothers and fathers, English- and Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans, and the 3 ethnic groups. In support of the validity of this construct, relations between objective indicators of economic status and perceived economic hardship showed equivalence across these same groups.     

Syntactic working memory and the establishment of filler-gap dependencies: insights from ERPs and fMRI

In this contribution, we review an ERP experiment and an fMRI experiment which investigated the processing of German wh-questions. On the basis of the ERP results, we will discuss current models of sentence processing and resource distribution during sentence comprehension. We argue that there exists a separate cognitive or neural resource that supports syntactic working memory processes necessary for the temporary maintenance of syntactic information for the parser. In the context of wh-movement, such a memory component is necessary for establishing filler-gap dependencies. The data obtained from the fMRI experiment will be used to discuss the results of previous neuroimaging studies of sentence processing. It is claimed that syntactic working memory, rather than syntactic processing per se, is supported by Broca's Area.     

Pattern of intrusions in verbal recall: comparison of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and frontal lobe dementia

Although some researchers have suggested that intrusions in word list learning are more frequent in Alzheimer's disease, recent studies have shown that this might not be true. In fact, intrusions are common in many neurological degenerative diseases. The goal of the present study was to examine the types of intrusions made by three groups of patients, namely patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and dementia with prominent frontal lobe semiology (FD). Although PD patients learned more words (trials 1 to 5 on the RAVLT) than the two other groups, there was no significant difference in the total number of intrusions. However, significant differences between groups were observed for nonrelated intrusions, the proportion of PD patients (15.4%) being lower than the proportion of AD (45.5%) and FD (45.8%) patients with this type of intrusions. No other type of intrusions (same category, recurring, phonemic) significantly differentiated between the three groups. The proactive interference effect (PI), measured as the difference between first recall of list A and list B recall, was stronger in PD than in the two other groups, reflecting the strong positive correlation between total number of words recalled on the RAVLT and severity of the PI effect. Prior list intrusions (intrusions from list A while recalling list B items) were significantly more pronounced in FD than in the two other groups. Finally, free associations (series of intrusions related to one another but not to the target items) were observed almost exclusively in FD patients. These findings illustrate some qualitative differences between various neurological degenerative diseases. They also stress the marked similarities between AD and FD with regards to verbal learning.     

The mind and brain scholar as a hitchhiker in the post-Gutenberg galaxy: publishing at 2000 and beyond

Electronic journal (e-journal) publishing has started to change the ways we think about publishing. However, many scholars and scientists in the mind and brain sciences are still ignorant of the new possibilities and ongoing debates. This paper will provide a summary of the issues involved, give an update of the current discussion, and supply practical information on issues related to e-journal publishing and self-archiving relevant for the mind and brain sciences. Issues such as differences between traditional and e-journal publishing, open archive initiatives, worldwide conventions, quality control, costs involved in e-journal publishing, and copyright questions will be addressed. Practical hints on how to self-archive, how to submit to the e-journal Psycoloquy, how to create an open research archive, and where to find information relevant to e-publishing will be supplied.     

Using temporal information to construct, update, and retrieve situation models of narratives

Four experiments explored how readers use temporal information to construct and update situation models and retrieve them from memory. In Experiment 1, readers spontaneously constructed temporal and spatial situation models of single sentences. In Experiment 2, temporal inconsistencies caused problems in updating situation models similar to those observed previously for other dimensions of situation models. In Experiment 3, merely implied temporal order information was inferred from narratives, affecting comprehension of later sentences like explicitly stated order information. Moreover, inconsistent temporal order information prevented the creation and storage in memory of an integrated situation model. In Experiment 4, a temporal inconsistency increased processing time even if readers were unable to report the inconsistency. These results confirm the significance of the temporal dimension of situation models.     

Word-processing training and retraining: effects of adult age, experience, and interface

Novice (Experiment 1) and experienced (Experiment 2) young, middle-aged, and older adults learned a new word-processing application in keystrokes, menus, or menus-plus-icons interface conditions. Novices showed strong age differences in the time to complete the 3-day tutorial and in declarative and procedural tests of word-processing knowledge. Menus and menus-plus-icons were superior to keystrokes condition. though interface did not interact with age. Experienced users showed age-related slowing in learning rate but minimal age differences in test performance when retrained on a new word-processing program. Age and computer experience accounted for much of the variance in both learning time and word-processing performance; interface type, speed of processing, and spatial generation ability made additional contributions. Experience interacted with age to predict performance. Implications for training and retraining older workers are discussed.     

The heritability of cognitive functioning in very old adults: evidence from Danish twins aged 75 years and older

Heritable influences on cognitive functioning were investigated in a sample of 403 pairs of like-sex Danish twins aged 75 years and older. Twins completed the Mini-Mental State Examination and 3 other cognitive tests. Genetic factors accounted for 26-54% of the variance on these measures, with the balance being due to environmental factors that create differences rather than similarities among reared-together relatives. Deleting twins with severe cognitive impairment had little effect on the results, indicating that the heritability of cognitive functioning was not due entirely to genes affecting dementia. Neither age nor gender moderated twin similarity, and differential social contact could not account for correlation differences between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. These results replicate G. E. McClearn et al.'s (1997) study in indicating substantial genetic influences on late-life cognitive functioning.     

Beyond the Obvious: Chronic Vividness of Imagery and the Use of Information in Decision Making

The authors investigate two competing hypotheses about how chronic vividness of imagery interacts with the vividness and salience of information in decision making. Results from four studies, covering a variety of decision domains, indicate that chronic imagery vividness rarely amplifies the effects of vivid and salient information. Imagery vividness may, in fact, attenuate the effects of vivid and salient information. This is because, relative to nonvivid imagers, vivid imagers rely less on information that appears obvious and rely more on information that seems less obvious. This tendency is so robust that vividness of imagery may amplify the effects of vivid information only when this information is the only information available in the decision field. The findings seem to reflect vivid imagers' tendency to totally immerse themselves in a decision problem and scrutinize the available information creatively.     

Adolescent depression and risk factors

Seventy-nine high school seniors were administered the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), as well as a questionnaire on parent relationships, peer relationships, positive and negative feelings including suicidal thoughts, and lifestyle variables including academic performance, exercise, and drug use. The group of adolescents who scored above the clinical cutoff for depression on the CES-D (n = 29) had poorer relations with parents. Further, the incidence of paternal depression in that group was greater. The depressed adolescents also had less optimal peer relationships, fewer friends, and were less popular. They experienced less happiness and more frequent suicidal thoughts. They spent less time doing homework, had a lower grade point average, and spent less time exercising. The depressed group also reported more use of marijuana and cocaine. A stepwise regression indicated that physical affection with parents, homework, well-being, exercise, happiness, and parent relations explained 55% of the variance.     

Time is on my side: optimism in intertemporal choice

The present research examines the role of optimism on time preferences for both losses and gains. It is argued that optimism has asymmetric effects on time preferences for gains versus losses: one reason why decision makers prefer immediate gains is because they are optimistic that these gains will be followed by additional gains in future. In contrast, decision makers prefer to delay losses because they are optimistic that losses are avoidable in the future. Optimism about outcomes affects time preferences for both gains and losses, such that low optimism reduces the discount rates while increased optimism is associated with higher discount rates. This prediction was supported in two different domains: monetary outcomes (Study 1), and health (Study 2). Implications of these results for both research practice and time preferences in the real world are discussed.