Information learned from generic language becomes central to children’s biological concepts: Evidence from their open-ended explanations

Generic sentences (e.g., “Snakes have holes in their teeth”) convey that a property (e.g., having holes in one’s teeth) is true of a category (e.g., snakes). We test the hypothesis that, in addition to this basic aspect of their meaning, generic sentences also imply that the information they express is more conceptually central than the information conveyed in similar non-generic sentences (e.g., “This snake has holes in his teeth”). To test this hypothesis, we elicited 4- and 5-year-old children’s open-ended explanations for generic and non-generic versions of the same novel properties. Based on arguments in the categorization literature, we assumed that, relative to more peripheral properties, properties that are understood as conceptually central would be explained more often as causes and less often as effects of other features, behaviors, or processes. Two experiments confirmed the prediction that preschool-age children construe novel information learned from generics as more conceptually central than the same information learned from non-generics. Additionally, Experiment 2 suggested that the conceptual status of novel properties learned from generic sentences becomes similar to that of familiar properties that are already at the category core. These findings illustrate the power of generic language to shape children’s concepts.     

Classes and collections: Principles of organization in the learning of hierarchical relations

This study demonstrates that children tend to distort class inclusion relations (e.g., the relation of oaks to trees) into the part-whole structure of collections (e.g., the relations of oaks to a forest). Children aged 6 to 17 were taught novel class inclusion hierarchies, analogous to the relation between oaks, pines, and trees. In one condition, the class inclusion relations were taught by ostensive definition alone, e.g., stating “These are trees” while pointing to trees and, “These are oaks” while pointing to oaks. in the second condition, children were additionally told what would be analogous to “Oaks and pines are two kinds of trees”. With this additional information to constrain their interpretation, even the youngest children correctly interpreted the relation as class inclusion. In contrast, with limited information, children as old as 14 erroneously imposed a collection structure on the inclusion hierarchies. They would deny, for example, that any single tree was a tree (as they should of they thought “tree” meant “forest”), and would pick up several trees despite being asked for a tree. The results indicated that the part-whole structure of collections is simpler to establish and maintain than the structure of inclusion.     

A test of the regulatory fit hypothesis in perceptual classification learning

This article builds a bridge between research on regulatory focus in motivation and classification learning. It tests the hypothesis that a fit between the situational regulatory focus and the reward structure of the task leads to greater cognitive flexibility than does a mismatch between situational focus and the reward structure and that the fit between the regulatory-focus-induced processing characteristics and the nature of the environment influences performance. In Experiment 1, we used a classification task for which cognitive flexibility should be advantageous and examined both gains (Experiment 1A) and losses (Experiment 1B) reward structures. In Experiments 2 and 3, we used a classification task for which cognitive flexibility should be disadvantageous. In Experiment 2, we used a gains reward structure, and in Experiment 3, we used a losses reward structure. As was predicted, when cognitive flexibility was advantageous, the participants in a regulatory fit showed faster learning and more quickly shifted toward the optimal response strategy. Also as was predicted, when cognitive flexibility was disadvantageous, the participants in a regulatory mismatch showed faster learning and more quickly shifted toward the optimal response strategy. Implications for current theories of motivation and classification learning are discussed.     

Gender differences in attitudes toward gay men and lesbians: the role of motivation to respond without prejudice

Research has uncovered consistent gender differences in attitudes toward gay men, with women expressing less prejudice than men (Herek, 2003). Attitudes toward lesbians generally show a similar pattern, but to a weaker extent. The present work demonstrated that motivation to respond without prejudice importantly contributes to these divergent attitudes. Study 1 revealed that women evince higher internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS, Plant & Devine, 1998) than do men and that this difference partially mediates the relationship between gender and attitudes toward gay men. The second study replicated this finding and demonstrated that IMS mediates the relationship between gender and attitudes toward lesbians. Study 2 further revealed that gender-role variables contribute to the observed gender differences in motivation to respond without prejudice. These findings provide new insights into the nature of sexual prejudice and for the first time point to possible antecedents of variation in motivation to respond without prejudice.     

Choking and excelling under pressure

Decrements in performance on cognitive tasks resulting from pressure to perform (i.e., choking) are thought to be caused by interference with the ability to use explicit strategies (the distraction theory). This view suggests that pressure should improve performance on tasks for which explicit strategies hamper performance. This hypothesis was tested by giving subjects one of two nearly identical learning tasks, a task that required learning a rule or one that required using a holistic information-integration strategy. Explicit rule use would hurt performance in the latter task. As predicted by the distraction theory, pressure decreased performance on the rule-based task but enhanced performance on the information-integration task.     

International perspectives on couple relationship education

This article introduces the special section on international perspectives on couple relationship education. We first describe the theory and research underlying the increased interest in relationship education, with a strong emphasis on social policy issues. We include a discussion of both the benefits and controversies resulting from governments being involved in promoting healthy relationships. We then provide an overview of the four articles included in the special section and show how they illustrate trends occurring in a diverse set of cultural and national contexts. We conclude by highlighting issues and future directions for the relationship education field.     

Dissemination and evaluation of marriage education in the Army

The effectiveness of marriage education was evaluated in two separate samples of primarily married couples in which at least one member of the couple was on active duty in the U.S. Army. The intervention was delivered by Army chaplains. Effects replicated well in the two samples, and demonstrated that marriage education was well received by this population and resulted in improvements in relationship functioning. Changes in relationship quality were examined separately for males and females, and also for couples in which both members of the couple were Caucasian as compared with all other couples. There were no significant differences in changes over time (i.e., from pre- to postmarriage education) among males and females or among couples with different ethnic makeup. These results have important implications for the generalizability of marriage education to diverse samples in nontraditional contexts.     

The impact of the transition to cohabitation on relationship functioning: cross-sectional and longitudinal findings

Most Americans now live together before they marry but little is known about how the transition from dating to cohabiting affects relationships. In two studies, we compared dating and cohabiting relationships in terms of commitment and several indices of relationship quality. In Study 1, we used a nationally representative sample of 1,294 unmarried individuals in opposite sex relationships who completed surveys by mail. Findings showed that cohabiting relationships were characterized by more commitment, lower satisfaction, more negative communication, and more physical aggression than dating (noncohabiting) relationships; controlling for selection factors mitigated some of these differences. Study 2 used a subsample of the Study 1 sample to longitudinally examine how transitioning from dating to cohabiting changes a relationship on the same dimensions. Six waves of mailed surveys spanning 20 months were employed. Findings of Study 2 indicated that individuals experienced declines in most indices of relationship quality as well as in interpersonal commitment after cohabitation began, though the frequency of sex increased temporarily. Constraints to stay together substantially increased with cohabitation and over time. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.     

The effects of marriage education for army couples with a history of infidelity

While existing literature has begun to explore risk factors which may predict differential response to marriage education, a history of couple infidelity has not been examined to determine whether infidelity moderates the impacts of marriage education. The current study evaluated self-report marital satisfaction and communication skills in a sample of 662 married Army couples randomly assigned to marriage education (i.e., PREP) or a no-treatment control group and assessed prior to intervention, post intervention, and at 1 year after intervention. Of these, 23.4% couples reported a history of infidelity in their marriage. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that having a history of infidelity significantly moderated the impact of PREP for marital satisfaction, with a trend for a similar effect on communication skills. However, couples with a history of infidelity assigned to PREP did not reach the same levels of marital satisfaction after intervention seen in the group of couples without infidelity assigned to PREP, although they did show comparable scores on communication skills after intervention. Implications of these findings for relationship education with couples with a history of infidelity are discussed.     

Differential reactions of virtual actors and observers to the triggering and interruption of psychological momentum

The present study compared virtual actors’ and observers’ perceptions of positive and negative psychological momentum (PM) and their responses to sudden interruptions of momentum. Participants with experience playing competitive table tennis imagined that they were playing a table tennis game (virtual actors), whereas participants who lacked experience playing competitive table tennis imagined that they were observing a table tennis game (observers). While viewing an audiovisual simulation of a table tennis match, participants were exposed to either an ascending (i.e., positive momentum) or descending (i.e., negative momentum) scoring sequence that was either suddenly interrupted or not interrupted at all. Participants’ PM perceptions were measured at the conclusion of the simulation. Results indicated that observers’ PM perceptions were lower than were virtual actors’ following the negative momentum sequence. More generally, interrupting positive momentum lowered PM perceptions, whereas interrupting negative momentum increased PM perceptions. Implications for the study of PM in sport are discussed.