Proactive interference in immediate serial recall

Two experiments yielded significant inter-list proactive interference (PI) in immediate serial recall of nine-consonants lists. This argues against the assumption that intra-trial rehearsal is sufficiently powerful to prevent PI from occurring. In the first experiment PI proved to be more pronounced in the case of visually than of auditorily presented lists to the extent that the modality effect on the prerecent items could be completely attributed to PI. PI also enlarged the effect of output interference through reversed order recall. These findings were confirmed in the second experiment which also showed that the effect of PI persisted at a slower presentation rate, suggesting that the role of rehearsal in counteracting PI should not be overestimated. Implications of these results for current notions on short-term retention are discussed.     

An integration of shifts toward risk and caution in gambling situations

Findings have been reported and replicated indicating group-induced caution at the racetrack and group-induced risk in blackjack gambling. The present research examined the effects of two consistent differences between the blackjack and racetrack situations: (a) the amount of money available to groups versus individuals; and (b) the number of bets made in the postbaseline session. It was found that group-induced caution can occur in the blackjack setting if groups have larger stakes than individuals, as was the case in the racetrack studies, and that this effect disappears over trials, due to group versus individual differences established in the previous blackjack studies. Since current explanations of choice shifts cannot account for the observed trial effects, it was suggested that traditional choice-dilemma material, on which these explanations are largely based, be examined for such effects. Implications of the possible outcomes of such an examination for current group polarization theory were discussed.     

Effects of amphetamine and barbiturate in a serial reaction task under paced and self-paced conditions.

Effects of drug conditions (barbiturate, amphetamine, placebo) were investigated in a serial choice RT-task under three pacing conditions: self-paced, paced-fast (approx. 3 signals/sec) and paced-slow (approx. 1 signal/sec). Drug treatment and pacing condition were varied in a factorial design with 9 male Ss. Drugs affected the reaction time but not the error scores. Barbiturate slowed down RT and this effect was most prominent in paced-fast. Amphetamine, on the other hand, speeded up the RT but it had no effect in paced-fast. To account for these differential effects of the two drugs, it was postulated that barbiturate counteracts the arousing effect of time pressure whereas amphetamine speeds up reaction when the task is not arousing. This is consistent with Trumbo and Gaillard (1975) but it contradicts predictions derived from a theory by Broadbent (1971).     

Psychopathology Following Interpersonal Violence: A Comparison of Risk Factors in Older and Younger Adults

A randomly selected sample of 549 women age 55 years and older and 2,669 women age 18–34 years was interviewed via telephone to determine prevalences of physical and sexual assault, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and depression. Prevalences of sexual and physical assaults were lower in older compared to younger women. In addition, given a trauma, prevalences and proportionate risk of posttraumatic psychopathology and depression were also lower for older, relative to younger women. Specifically, multivariate analyses revealed that sexual assault predicted only PTSD avoidance in older adults, but all forms of PTSD symptomatology and depression in younger adult women. Similarly, physical assault predicted only PTSD re-experiencing symptoms in older women, but all forms of PTSD symptoms and depression in younger women. Self-reported health status was not associated with any increased risk of psychopathology, and low income predicted increased avoidance and depression only in younger women.     

Multiple‐Lens Paradigm: Evaluating African American Girls and Their Development

Developmental issues for African American adolescent girls are best understood using a multiple‐lens paradigm inclusive of gender, race, ethnicity, and social class. This article provides a context for assessing the relevance of these socially influenced constructs to identity development for adolescent African American girls. The relationship between the “myth of femininity” and personal worth and value is examined using this paradigm.     

Depressed mothers’ infants show less negative affect during non-contingent interactions

Infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers were videotaped interacting with their mothers in the [Nadel, J., Carchon, I., Kervella, C., Marcelli, D., & Reserbat-Plantey, D. (1999). Report: Expectancies for social contingency in 2-month-olds. Developmental Science, 2, 164–173] paradigm which consists of three segments including: (1) a free play, contingent interaction, (2) a non-contingent replay of the mothers’ behavior that had been videotaped during the first segment, and (3) a return to a free play, contingent interaction. As compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, infants of depressed mothers showed less negative change (less increase in frowning) in their behavior during the non-contingent replay segment. This finding was interpreted as the infants of depressed mothers being more accustomed to non-contingent behavior in their mothers, thus experiencing less violation of expectancy in this situation.     

The dynamics of a disturbance: New and established interests in technology policy debates

The effects of technological change have political implications. A “disturbance,” such as the rise of the Internet as a mass medium, brings about new policy issues and establishes new interest organizations in the lobbying community. The differential mobilization of interests can affect the resolution of these policy issues. I combine face-to-face interviews with Washington representatives from organizations involved in Internet policy debates with compiled data on the extent of their involvement to outline the difficulties that organizations face when building lobbying capacity, developing an agenda, and forming coalitions. The results indicate that new entrants face substantially more constraints than established interests and that these differences may affect policy outcomes. He formerly served as Research Director for the California Commission on Internet Political Practices.     

Curvature affects haptic length perception

One possible way of haptically perceiving length is to trace a path with one’s index finger and estimate the distance traversed. Here, we present an experiment in which observers judge the lengths of paths across cylindrically curved surfaces. We found that convex and concave surfaces had qualitatively different effects: convex lengths were overestimated, whereas concave lengths were underestimated. In addition, we observed that the index finger moved more slowly across the convex surface than across the concave one. As a result, movement times for convex lengths were longer. The considerable correlation between movement times and length estimates suggests that observers take the duration of movement as their primary measure of perceived length, but disregard movement speeds. Several mechanisms that could underlie observers’ failure to account for speed differences are considered.     

Triple P-Positive Parenting Program as a public health approach to strengthening parenting

Parenting programs have considerable potential to improve the mental health and well-being of children, improve family relationships, and benefit the community at large. However, traditional clinical models of service delivery reach relatively few parents. A public health approach is needed to ensure that more parents benefit and that a societal-level impact is achieved. The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program is a comprehensive, multilevel system of parenting intervention that combines within a single intervention universal and more targeted interventions for high-risk children and their parents. With Triple P, the overarching goal is to enhance the knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents at a whole-of-population level and, in turn, to reduce the prevalence rates of behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents. The distinguishing features of the intervention and variables that influence its effective implementation are discussed. Self-regulation is a unifying concept that is applied throughout the entire system (e.g., to interactions between children, parents, service providers, and agencies involved in delivering the intervention). Challenges and future directions for the development of public health approaches to parenting are discussed.     

What's the difference? Insider perspectives on the importance,content, and meaning of interpersonal differences

This study presents a new approach to examine how team members experience interpersonal differences. This approach offers a way to examine how team members experience their differences with specific other individuals, and how these differences are related to the amount of perceived conflict with these individuals in an organizational context. Data from a non‐profit governmental institution in The Netherlands were analysed, including 80 participants from 15 diverse teams. Five types of differences were salient to the individuals in this sample: differences related to extraversion; work pose; approach to work; task‐related expertise; and seniority. Furthermore, individuals tend to contrast positive and negative evaluations of differences related to extraversion and approaches to work, but to conceptualize positive and negative evaluations of task‐related expertise, seniority, and work pose as more mutually independent phenomena. Moreover, we found that differences related to task‐related expertise were negatively related to both task and relationship conflict. In contrast, differences related to extraversion were positively related to both task and relationship conflict. Finally, the approach‐to‐work cluster was positively related to only task conflict.