Concurrent and 2-year longitudinal relations between executive function and the behavior of 1st and 2nd grade children.

Abstract Concurrent and 2-year longitudinal relations were investigated between two indicators of children's ( n =60; mean age = years 11 months) executive function, inhibitory control and sequencing ability, and behavior problem symptomatology. Dependent measures were parent and teacher reported internalizing and externalizing behavior. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated few significant concurrent associations between either inhibitory control or sequencing ability, and behavior problem symptoms. In contrast, baseline inhibitory control predicted decreased teacher reported externalizing, and parent reported externalizing and internalizing behavior problems over a 2-year period. Baseline sequencing ability also predicted decreased teacher reported externalizing and parent reported internalizing behavior over this same time period. Results suggest that some aspects of executive function in early elementary grade-school children may be more strongly associated with change in behavior over time than concurrent behavior. Implications of these findings for the prevention of behavior problems are discussed.     

An investigation of the correlations between aggression,impulsiveness, social problem‐solving,and alcohol use

Impulsivity has been shown to predict aggression and heavy drinking in males, and poor social problem‐solving has been identified as a potential mediating variable in this relationship. We set out to investigate the inter‐relationships among impulsiveness, social problem‐solving, aggression, and alcohol use in a non‐offender sample of British males (N=70). Of our proposed relationships, only two were significant: higher impulsivity was related to poorer social problem‐solving, and poorer social problem‐solving was related to greater aggression. Combining impulsivity and social problem‐solving indicated that poor social problem‐solving, not impulsivity, was what exerted the influence over aggression in this sample. Impulsivity perhaps presents an obstacle to learning in the early developmental years, and the legacy of poor problem‐solving is what later contributes to aggression. Aggr. Behav. 28:439–445, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Automatic stereotypes vs. automatic prejudice: Sorting out the possibilities in the weapon paradigm

Payne (2001) has documented that African-American faces automatically facilitate the categorization of handguns, relative to White faces. We suggest that these provocative results could derive from either the automatic activation of prejudice (negative evaluations) or the automatic activation of stereotypes (both positively and negatively valenced associations). In an extension of Payne’s procedure, we show that African-American faces facilitate the categorization of both handguns and sports-related objects, but not the categorization of insects or fruits. Additionally, both handguns and sports objects are more likely to be miscategorized following a White face prime than an African-American one. These results suggest that when perceivers are attempting to identify objects, automatic stereotypic associations, both positively and negatively valenced ones, are more influential than general negative sentiments towards African-Americans.     

Assessments of changes in the effective salience of stimulus elements as a result of stimulus preexposure

Rats received exposure to 3 flavor compounds, AX and BX, presented in alternation, and CX, presented on a separate block of trials. The hypothesis that this treatment would leave B effectively more salient than C was tested in 3 ways. Experiment 1 showed that the unconditioned response evoked by B was stronger than that evoked by C. Experiment 2 showed that B was more effective than C when used as a reinforcer in a sensory preconditioning procedure. Experiment 3 showed that B was learned about more readily than C as a conditioned stimulus in flavor aversion conditioning. Alternating preexposure to 2 similar stimuli may protect their distinctive features from the loss of salience normally produced by nonreinforced exposure to a stimulus.     

TREBIG: A 360/75 FORTRAN program for three-mode factor analysts designed for big data sets

In the analysis of multifactor, longitudinal data, it has long been the practice of investigators to factor analyze the data in each time period separately and then compare the factor structures by eye. This has obvious problems and various measures of similarity were devised, none of which really worked properly. In recent years, other procedures have been proposed to better handle these sorts of data (i.e., Corballis, 1970; Jöreskog, 1970; Tucker, 1966). Tucker’s solution is termed “3-mode factor analysis,” which is essentially the Eckart-Young decomposition of a set of matrices that are derived by collapsing a tensor of order three. It has the advantage of combining the factor analyzes of each time period and indicating how the changes occur.     

Role of identity integration on the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and psychological adjustment of multiracial people

This study examined relations between perceived racial discrimination, multiracial identity integration (i.e., racial distance and racial conflict), and psychological adjustment (i.e., distress symptoms, positive affect, and negative affect) of 263 multiracial adults, using an online cross-sectional survey design. As hypothesized, higher levels of perceived racial discrimination was related to lower levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., higher distress symptoms and negative affect). Also, higher levels of multiracial identity integration with low racial conflict was related to higher levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., lower distress symptoms and negative affect), whereas higher levels of multiracial identity integration with low racial distance was related to higher levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., lower negative affect). Finally, multiracial identity integration (i.e., lower racial conflict) moderated the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and psychological adjustment (i.e., negative affect) with results suggesting multiracial identity integration related to low racial conflict buffers the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on psychological adjustment. Findings from this study are discussed in terms of future research on the psychological well-being of multiracial individuals and implications for clinical practice with multiracial adults.     

The role of age and inhibitory efficiency in working memory processing and storage components

In this study, we examined the extent to which inhibitory efficiency accounted for age-related decline in the processing and storage components of working memory. Older and younger adults performed a sequential task, which served as an index of deletion-type inhibition (the ability to suppress no-longer-relevant information). The reading span task was used to measure working memory components by examining processing accuracy, processing time, and end-word recall of sentences presented. Reduced inhibitory efficiency, which was poorer in older adults, predicted age-related decline in recall, over and above the effects of processing speed. Similar results were observed for processing accuracy, although the age effect in this component was marginal. These results highlight the important role of deletion-type inhibition in explaining age-related decline in working memory performance, particularly in the storage component, and extend previous research by examining this relationship at a componential level.     

Differences in Creative Problem‐Solving Preferences Across Occupations

FourSight theory contends that individuals show preferences for the mental operations rooted in the creative process. The four fundamental preferences measured by FourSight are Clarifiers, Ideators, Developers, and Implementers. The present study examined the extent to which certain occupations reflect a proclivity for these four creative‐process preferences. Guided by Holland's theory of vocational choice, hypothesized relationships were formulated for the link between FourSight theory and 17 occupations. For example, it was predicted that those who work in finance would show a significant bias toward the Clarifier preference. Of the 17 hypothesized relationships between FourSight and occupation, statistical analysis of the FourSight preferences for 20,784 individuals showed support for 12 predictions and partial support for two of the hypothesized relationships. These findings clearly demonstrate that particular occupations engage specific creative‐process preferences. Future investigations might wish to examine the degree to which the interaction between work and creative‐thinking preferences predicts creative performance, satisfaction, stress, and turnover.