Age-of-acquisition and subjective frequency estimates for all generally known monosyllabic French words and their relation with other psycholinguistic variables

Ratings for age of acquisition (AoA) and subjective frequency were collected for the 1,493 monosyllabic French words that were most known to French students. AoA ratings were collected by asking participants to estimate in years the age at which they learned each word. Subjective frequency ratings were collected on a 7-point scale, ranging from never encountered to encountered several times daily. The results were analyzed to address the relationship between AoA and subjective frequency ratings with other psycholinguistic variables (objective frequency, imageability, number of letters, and number of orthographic neighbors). The results showed high reliability ratings with other databases. Supplementary materials for this study may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society’s Archive of Norms, Stimuli, and Data, www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Does it matter where you work? A comparison of how three work venues (traditional office, virtual office, and home office) influence aspects of work and personal/family life

Millions use electronic tools to do their jobs away from the traditional office. Some labor in a “virtual office” with flexibility to work wherever it makes sense and others telecommute primarily from home. This IBM study compares how three work venues (traditional office, n=4316, virtual office, n=767, and home office, n=441) may influence aspects of work (job performance, job motivation, job retention, workload success, and career opportunity) and personal/family life (work/life balance and personal/family success). Perceptions, direct comparisons, and multivariate analyses suggest that the influence of the virtual office is mostly positive on aspects of work but somewhat negative on aspects of personal/family life. The influence of the home office appears to be mostly positive and the influence of traditional office mostly negative on aspects of both work and personal/life. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

When prototypicality makes ‘maybes’ look more certain: Another look at targets' vigilance towards prejudice cues

In previous research, targets' sensitivity to prejudice cues has been assessed on the basis of two types of information. Prototypical information renders the situation representative of discrimination encountered by the ingroup. Diagnostic information is a direct indication that prejudice possibly is operating in a given situation. We hypothesize that, when available and processed at the onset of an evaluation situation, prototypical information shapes targets' understanding of subsequent diagnostic information. In three experiments, participants were informed that they were to be evaluated by relevant outgroup members either before or after having performed a task. Diagnostic information was always provided at the same moment, i.e. after the task was completed, and was either uncertain (prejudice may bias the evaluation) or certain (prejudice certainly biases the evaluation). In the before condition, attributions to prejudice were as elevated whatever participants were told that prejudice might, or certainly did, bias the evaluation. Furthermore, in the case of uncertain diagnostic information, those who were readily informed of the evaluator(s)' identity attributed their failure to prejudice to a greater extent than those who received this information later. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aggressive behavior in children's dolls' house play

The present study addressed the question of whether there are gender and age differences in aggressive behavior when it is studied as the spontaneous expression of mental contents and not as the result of immediate social interaction. This study also investigated whether aggression, in terms of mental content, is related to temperamental aspects. Aggressive behaviors were examined in make‐believe play, in relation to age, gender, and temperament in a near‐ecological context, i.e., the Dolls' House Play. The participants, 55 boys and 47 girls, subdivided into three age levels (4 years–4 years and 6 months; 5–6 years; and 7 years and 6 months–8 years and 6 months) were requested to represent what happens in their family 1) during Mealtimes; 2) at Bedtime; 3) on the Saddest day; and 4) the Happiest day; their Dolls' House Play was then recorded. Children's temperaments were measured with the TABC‐Teachers' form [Martin, The Temperament Assessment Battery for Children, Brandon, VT: Clinical Psychology Publishing, 1998]. Data analysis was conducted considering aggressive behaviors in their distinct expressions—physical, verbal, direct, and indirect. Results revealed no statistical differences between boys and girls when all aggressive behaviors were compounded. However, when the distinct types of aggressiveness were considered, boys presented statistically higher levels of physical aggression than girls did. Moreover, boys and girls reacted with different types of aggression in the different emotional contexts created by the four episodes. Few age differences were observed. Surprisingly, there was a significantly greater presence of indirect verbal aggressiveness in younger children. With respect to temperament, a higher level of negative emotivity was significantly linked to a greater degree of aggressive behaviors in some of the episodes. In conclusion, this paper confirms gender differences in the type of aggressive behavior children display even in the absence of any immediate social interaction, which might itself trigger aggression. Aggr. Behav. 30:504–519, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Differential sucking by neonates of depressed versus non-depressed mothers

Forty-two neonates (M = 39-h old) of depressed and non-depressed mothers sucked on cold (50 °F) and warm (78 °F) nipples on alternating trials. Half the infants received the cold nipple on the first of the eight trials (20 s each) and the other half received the warm nipple first. Neonates of depressed mothers sucked twice as much as neonates of non-depressed mothers, suggesting arousal dysregulation, overactivity or greater hedonic behavior in the newborns of depressed mothers. Although the newborns did not show a preference for cold or warm nipples, a temperature order effect revealed that neonates who received the cold nipple on the first trial sucked significantly more on trials 2–8 than those who received the warm nipple on the first trial, suggesting that an initially cold nipple might elicit greater sucking. More research is needed on maternal mood effects and temperature of objects to determine how these factors affect neonatal sucking behaviors.     

Consideration Set Overvaluation: When Impossibly Favorable Ratings of a Set of Brands Are Observed

Consumers often focus on the characteristics of one brand and consider insufficiently the characteristics of other brands. Singular evaluation processes often result in judgments of a focal brand that are more extreme than warranted. This research investigates the extent to which this extremity effect generalizes to a consideration set consisting of multiple brands. Three experiments show that a set of favorably regarded brands is perceived as more favorable than would be possible if the salience manipulation had no effect. In Experiment 1, participants overestimated the likelihood that the best brand in the market was included in the presented set. In Experiment 2, the average rank assigned to the brands in the presented set was inflated. Extreme judgments were observed regardless of whether the focal set of brands was offered by a specialty store with a high‐quality reputation or by a general merchandise store with a low‐quality reputation. In Experiment 3, extreme intentions to buy now from the focal store were reduced when a comparative (vs. singular) judgment task was performed, but only when the need for cognitive closure was low as opposed to high. The results suggest that singular evaluation processes lead to consideration set overvaluation regardless of which particular favorably regarded brands happen to be included in the set.