THELMA GWINN THURSTONE

This paper examines the life and career of Thelma Gwinn Thurstone—her career strategies and her contributions to psychological testing, intelligence theory, and instruction—based on her publications and a series of personal interviews with her and her colleagues. Thurstone's contributions, with her husband, L. L. Thurstone, included the development of the American Council on Education's Psychological Examinations and the Primary Mental Abilities test batteries. Her own work included the development of instructional materials using the common factor theory of intelligence. Thurstone, wife of a preeminent scholar and mother of three sons, pursued career strategies that facilitated her continued professional activity for six decades. Further research on measurement history and also on women's career strategies are suggested.     

BOOKS Review

Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom. By Ronald Dworkin.
Thought's Ego in Augustine and Descartse . By Gareth B. Matthews.     

Arousal,valence, and memory for detail

A common finding in the emotion‐memory literature is that memory is enhanced for positively arousing stimuli and negatively arousing stimuli relative to neutral stimuli. We tested the notion that post‐stimulus elaboration is responsible for these effects. Post‐stimulus elaboration refers to the process of thinking about an event (after its offset) more frequently or more in‐depth. We tested the hypothesis by presenting participants with 36 slides depicting events that varied in arousal (low and high) and valence (positive and negative). The opportunity for elaboration was manipulated by requiring participants, during the inter‐slide interval, to complete addition problems, simply view the addition problems, or view a blank slide. Cued recall memory was tested for central and background details. Based on the post‐stimulus elaboration hypothesis it was expected that the greatest memory decline would occur for the central details of negatively and positively arousing slides when participants were required to complete addition problems (i.e., a distractor task × arousal × detail interaction). Contrary to the hypothesis, we found that filling the inter‐slide interval with a distractor task decreased memory for negative stimuli compared to positive stimuli. This effect was independent of arousal. We also found that arousal increased central detail memory for positive and negative stimuli and background detail memory for positive stimuli but not for negative stimuli. This interaction was explained on the basis of pre‐attentive encoding and cue utilisation. It was concluded that in order to understand the complex relationship between emotion and memory, future studies should include, as a minimum, the variables of valence, arousal, and detail.     

Religious Affiliation Influences on the Health Status and Behaviours of Students Attending Seventh-Day Adventist Schools in Australia

Students attending Seventh-day Adventist (Adventist) schools in Australia have been shown to have better health status and behaviours compared to secular norms, yet these schools cater for a high percentage of non-Adventist students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of religious affiliation (Adventist/non-Adventist) on the health status and behaviours of students attending Adventist secondary schools in Australia. The sample included 1734 students who responded to a health and lifestyle survey that captured demographic details, self-reported height and weight, self-reported health status, mental health and select health behaviours. Students who identified themselves as Adventist reported significantly better health behaviours than the non-Adventist students in several behavioural domains, especially among the male students. However, this did not translate to a difference in health status. Further research is needed to understand the causal mechanisms responsible for the potential health advantage of Adventist students, which may include family or church religious influences.     

Influence of Accelerometer Placement and/or Heart Rate on Energy Expenditure Prediction during Uphill Exercise

Studies using a triaxial accelerometer and heart rate (HR) simultaneously for estimating energy expenditure (EE) during uphill exercise are rare. Exploring the optimal location for placing the accelerometer for predicting EE during uphill exercise is essential. Sixteen healthy male participants (M ± SEM; age 25.00 ± 0.61 years; body weight 74.13 ± 2.51 kg; body height 1.74 ± 0.01 m; body mass index 24.30 ± 0.63 kg/m²) exercised on a treadmill under 12 conditions (4 speeds and 3 gradients) on 3 days. Triaxial accelerometers, an HR recorder, and a metabolic measurement system were simultaneously used. Accelerometer outputs from various anatomical locations (upper arm, chest, lower back, waist, thigh, and instep) showed significant positive correlations with EE (0.819, 0.846, 0.816, 0.820, 0.672, and 0.669, respectively; p < .05). The linear regression equation for changes in HR showed the highest coefficient of determination (r²) of .837 with 87.9% reliability. When the HR signal was included, the r² value (> .842) and reliability (87.9%) between the accelerometer outputs and EE improved. Accelerometer outputs from the waist position alone provide highly accurate EE values. Using both accelerometer outputs and HR for EE estimation during uphill exercise is feasible and improves the accuracy of EE prediction.     

Children’s Evaluation and Categorization of Transgender Children

Despite extant evidence of negative peer treatment of transgender adolescents and adults, little is known about how young children perceive transgender peers, particularly those who have socially transitioned or are living in line with their gender rather than sex at birth. Whereas children have been shown to be averse to gender nonconformity in peers, because many transgender children appear and behave in ways consistent with their expressed gender (but not their sex at birth), it is unclear how children evaluate these identities. In 2 studies, we investigated 5- to 10-year-old children’s (N_total = 113) preferences for transgender versus gender-“typical” peers who either shared their gender identity or did not. We also examined whether children categorized transgender peers by their sex or expressed gender, as it might inform their evaluations. Children preferred cisgender peers over transgender peers; however, they also liked peers of their own gender rather than the other gender (e.g., female participants preferred girls over boys), demonstrating that the oft-documented own-gender bias plays an important role even when children are reasoning about transgender peers. Children did not reliably categorize transgender peers by sex or gender; yet those who categorized transgender peers by their sex showed greater dislike of transgender peers. The current studies are the first to investigate cisgender children’s attitudes toward transgender children and suggest that perceptions of gender categorization and conformity play a role in children’s evaluations of transgender peers.