Evaluating a modified exercise self-efficacy scale for college-age women

This pilot study examined test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities of original and modified formats of the Exercise Self-efficacy Scale in college-age women. 30 completed original and modified versions of the scale. Data from both tests, administered 1 wk. apart, were analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to assess test-retest reliability and Cronbach coefficient alpha for internal consistency. Scores for both versions correlated .96. Cronbach coefficients alpha for the original scale were .96 for Time 1 and .98 for Time 2. Cronbach coefficients alpha for the revised scale were .95 for Time 1 and .98 for Time 2. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency remained consistently high for both versions of the scales within this sample. Implications for use of this scale and recommendations for research are given.     

Conclusion: Construction sites at the juncture of religion and gender

The articles in this special issue offer fresh definitions of ‘new’ and ‘old’, of ‘local’ and ‘world’ religions. The themes of purity, danger and fundamentalism; female leadership, mediumship, self-sexism; and natalism and nationalism are discussed. This conclusion stresses the ‘folk’ sources of ‘mainstream’ religions, and focuses on the way the articles show women to be at the juncture of changing values concerning religion and gender, reform and fundamentalism.     

Memory demands on facial composite identification

Face composites created with FACES 3.0 composite software were used to identify target photographs under varying conditions of memory load. Composites created while viewing a mugshot were presented concurrently with a five‐photograph lineup of actual criminal suspects, immediately preceding the lineup, or with a filled delay between composite and lineup. Compared to a baseline using the mock witness technique, results demonstrated above‐chance identification of target photographs from their composites in all four experiments. Identification was highest with concurrent composite‐lineup presentation and lower under immediate, 30‐second‐delayed, and 4‐minute‐delayed conditions, with no significant identification differences across the three memory conditions. Confidence ratings in target selection only weakly predicted identification accuracy at best. These findings extend the limited research on computerized facial composite systems while addressing composite software use, efficacy, guidelines and limitations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preschoolers Use Social Allegiances to Predict Behavior

Developing mechanisms for predicting human action is a critical task of early conceptual development. Three studies examined whether 4-year-old children (N = 149) use social allegiances to predict behavior, by testing whether they expect the experiences of social partners to influence individual action. After being exposed to a conflict between two individuals from different novel social categories, children reliably predicted that another member of one category would withhold friendship from the contrasting category (Studies 1 and 2) and direct harmful actions toward the contrasting category (Study 3). Children did so even when the initial conflict had no direct implications for the other category members, and even when they knew that the two social categories had a positive relationship in the past. These data show that young children view social categories as marking people who are obligated to one another, and thus use the experiences of allegiance partners to predict how individuals will behave. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Visit the publisher's online edition of Journal of Cognition and Development for the following free supplemental resource(s): Appendices.]     

Imaginary Companions in Childhood: What Can Prospective Longitudinal Research Tell Us About Their Fate by Adolescence?

Do adolescents remember imaginary companions (ICs) from early childhood? Researchers interviewed 46 adolescent participants in a prospective longitudinal study about their ICs from early childhood (age 5½). The existence of one or more ICs was documented in early childhood for 48% of children (G. Trionfi & E. Reese, 2009). At age 16, most adolescents had forgotten their early childhood ICs: Only 5 of the 23 participants who had early childhood ICs recalled those ICs later. Eight participants who had forgotten their early childhood ICs recalled a later IC, and four participants who did not have an IC at age 5 ½ reported one by age 16. Ten of the 23 participants who had early childhood ICs claimed never to have had an IC. Girls were more likely to recall their early childhood ICs. Retrospective reports of ICs in adolescence or later life may be unreliable for investigating differences between those with and without imaginary companions. Those with ICs may not be a homogenous group, with some creating ICs throughout childhood and some desisting from this behavior in early childhood. Findings indicate that both the remembering and forgetting of ICs has potential to illuminate cognitive and creative processes surrounding both memory and imagination.     

Auditory and visual temporal sensitivity: evidence for a hierarchical structure of modality-specific and modality-independent levels of temporal information processing

The present study investigated modality-specific differences in processing of temporal information in the subsecond range. For this purpose, participants performed auditory and visual versions of a rhythm perception and three different duration discrimination tasks to allow for a direct, systematic comparison across both sensory modalities. Our findings clearly indicate higher temporal sensitivity in the auditory than in the visual domain irrespective of type of timing task. To further evaluate whether there is evidence for a common modality-independent timing mechanism or for multiple modality-specific mechanisms, we used structural equation modeling to test three different theoretical models. Neither a single modality-independent timing mechanism, nor two independent modality-specific timing mechanisms fitted the empirical data. Rather, the data are well described by a hierarchical model with modality-specific visual and auditory temporal processing at a first level and a modality-independent processing system at a second level of the hierarchy.