An investigation of appearance motives for tanning: The development and evaluation of the Physical Appearance Reasons For Tanning Scale (PARTS) and its relation to sunbathing and indoor tanning intentions

Motives for UV exposure have been shown to be related to appearance concerns, yet little research has examined specific tan appearance attitudes. Given this lacuna, Study 1 involved the identification of six factors among college female tanners: general attractiveness, media influence, family/friends influence, physical fitness appearance, acne reasons, and skin aging concerns. In Study 2, a separate sample of college female tanners were used to validate a higher order factor model, which demonstrated acceptable fit. Additionally, the factors converged in the expected directions, with the general attractiveness and skin aging concerns being the best correlate of UV exposure and sun-protection intentions. The relevance of these findings to skin cancer prevention is discussed.     

Improving the 'how' and 'what' decisions of elite table tennis players

Training methods in sport usually focus on improving either technical or tactical aspects of performance, ignoring the fact that successful performance requires the athlete to simultaneously decide what movement to perform and how it should be executed. Young elite table tennis players were trained, in a first phase, to improve their forehand and backhand movements and, in a second phase, to make a tactical switch between forehand and backhand movements. Half of the players took part in behavioral training focusing on how to perform the required movements, whereas half received additional video feedback about their technical and tactical performance (decision training). The results indicate that improvements of how decisions (techniques) and what decisions (tactics) can occur as a consequence of combining technical and tactical training. These results were stable in delayed Post-test analyses of competitive matches. It was concluded that a combination of both technical and tactical training is beneficial to elite table tennis performers, particularly during early seasonal training programs.     

On the outside looking in: loneliness and social monitoring

The skill-deficit view of loneliness posits that unskilled social interactions block lonely individuals from social inclusion. The current studies examine loneliness in relation to social attention and perception processes thought to be important for socially skilled behavior. Two studies investigate the association between social monitoring (attention to social information and cues) and self-reported loneliness and number of close social ties. In Study 1, higher levels of loneliness are related to increased rather than decreased incidental social memory. In Study 2, individuals with fewer reported friends show heightened decoding of social cues in faces and voices. Results of these studies suggest that the attentional and perceptual building blocks of socially skilled behavior remain intact, and perhaps enhanced, in lonely individuals. Implications for recent models of belonging regulation and theories of loneliness are discussed.     

Influence of Therapist and Client Behaviors on Therapy Alliance

This study considers the combined effect of therapist behaviors and couples interaction dynamics on therapeutic alliance because it seems to be a significant predictor of successful therapy outcomes. We measured therapeutic alliance using the Working Alliance Inventory, Observer Version (WAI-O), which includes three subscales: goals, tasks, and bond. We investigated the combined effect of therapist behaviors and couples interactions on therapeutic alliance. There were three significant findings: (1) the models better predicted therapeutic alliance for men clients than women clients; (2) combined consideration of partner behaviors and therapist behaviors provided the stronger prediction of therapeutic alliance; and (3) different variables predicted alliance for women clients versus men clients.     

Dynamic averaging and foraging decisions in horses (Equus callabus)

The variability of most environments taxes foraging decisions by increasing the uncertainty of the information available. One solution to the problem is to use dynamic averaging, as do some granivores and carnivores. Arguably, the same strategy could be useful for grazing herbivores, even though their food renews and is more homogeneously distributed. Horses (Equus callabus) were given choices between variable patches after short or long delays. When patch information was current, horses returned to the patch that was recently best, whereas those without current information matched choices to the long-term average values of the patches. These results demonstrate that a grazing species uses dynamic averaging and indicate that, like granivores and carnivores, they can use temporal weighting to optimize foraging decisions.     

Subjective experience and the attentional lapse: task engagement and disengagement during sustained attention

Three experiments investigated the relationship between subjective experience and attentional lapses during sustained attention. These experiments employed two measures of subjective experience (thought probes and questionnaires) to examine how differences in awareness correspond to variations in both task performance (reaction time and errors) and psycho-physiological measures (heart rate and galvanic skin response). This series of experiments examine these phenomena during the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART, Robertson, Manly, Adrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997). The results suggest we can dissociate between two components of subjective experience during sustained attention: (A) task unrelated thought which corresponds to an absent minded disengagement from the task and (B) a pre-occupation with one's task performance that seems to be best conceptualised as a strategic attempt to deploy attentional resources in response to a perception of environmental demands which exceed ones ability to perform the task. The implications of these findings for our understanding of how awareness is maintained on task relevant material during periods of sustained attention are discussed.     

Twelve- and 16-month-old infants recognize properties of mentioned absent things

Absent reference comprehension is a critical achievement of early development, yet little is known about its emergence. In the current study, 12- and 16-month-old infants' recognition of properties of mentioned absent things was used as an index of absent reference comprehension. Infants were presented with displays matching the color and prior spatial location of a mentioned absent object and displays matching the color and prior spatial location of a non-mentioned absent object. Infants could reveal their comprehension of absent reference by directing more looking and gesturing at the display matching the mentioned absent object than at the display matching the non-mentioned absent object. Infants at both ages revealed some tendency to do so, but infants at 16 months revealed more advanced understanding--infants at 16 months, but not at 12 months, coordinated their attention to the display matching properties of the mentioned absent thing with looks to the speaker. Implications for the infants' understanding of communicative intentions are discussed.     

Ethnic differences in battered women's formal help-seeking strategies: a focus on health, mental health, and spirituality

The primary goal of this study was to identify ethnic differences in battered women's use of health, mental health, and spiritual coping strategies, as well as differences in the perceived helpfulness of each strategy. The authors recruited a sample of 376 African American and Caucasian victims of interpersonal violence from various sites. In comparison with Caucasian women in the sample, African American women were significantly more likely to report using prayer as a coping strategy and significantly less likely to seek help from mental health counselors. The 2 groups did not significantly differ in terms of the extent to which they sought help from clergy or medical professionals. African American women found prayer to be more helpful than did Caucasian women.     

Reliability and validity of the Women's Health Initiative Insomnia Rating Scale

The reliability and construct validity of the 5-item Women's Health Initiative Insomnia Rating Scale (WHIIRS) were evaluated in 2 studies. In Study 1, using a sample of 66,269 postmenopausal women, validity of the WHIIRS was assessed by examining its relationship to other measures known to be related to sleep quality. Reliability of the WHIIRS was estimated using a resampling approach; the mean alpha coefficient was .78. Test-retest reliability coefficients were .96 for same-day administration and .66 after a year or more. Correlations of the WHIIRS with the other measures were in the predicted directions. Study 2 used a sample of 459 women and compared the WHIIRS with objective indicators of sleep quality. Results showed that differences in the objective indicators could be detected by the WHIIRS. Findings suggest that a between-group mean difference of approximately 0.50 of a standard deviation on the WHIIRS may be clinically meaningful.     

Visual search in multicharacter arrays with and without gaps

Subjects searched through briefly presented arrays of letters in a controlled order, indicating quickly which of two possible targets had occurred. Some arrays contained gaps—three missing letters. Reaction time (RT) and accuracy were both improved by a gap after the target; improvement was less when the gap preceded the target. To account for these results, a new model is proposed, one which calls for overlapping processing of successive array items. This is not a “hybrid” model, but a third alternative between the two extremes of serial (zero overlap) and parallel (complete overlap). Quantified, the overlapping model generates U-shaped serial-position curves and produces RT predictions in good accord with our data from arrays with and without gaps. The predicted functions for RT vs. array size are concave upward; however, for arrays of five or less they are virtually linear and not very different in slope for positive and negative trials. Although this model is primarily designed for RT, with some additional assumptions it can be extended to accuracy results.