Side Streets and U-Turns: Effects of Context Switching,Direction Switching,and Factor Switching on Interitem Correlations and Misresponse Rates

This study tested implications of the context switching perspective proposed by Hamby, Ickes, and Babcock (2016 Hamby, T., Ickes, W., &; Babcock, M. (2016). Evidence for context switching in the effects of average item length and item-length variability on internal consistency. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98, 491–502. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1147044[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Using trained raters to assess the amount of reframing required to interpret the meaning of the subsequent (second) item within all adjacent item pairs, we first established that this process variable could be measured reliably. Then, in the data for 18 personality measures drawn from 3 individual-difference domains, we found that the amount of reframing (i.e., context switching) needed to interpret successive items predicted both lower interitem correlations and a greater percentage of misresponders. Similarly, item pairs that were mismatched in “directional” wording also predicted both lower interitem correlations and more misresponders. Finally, item pairs representing different factors predicted lower interitem correlations. Although the effects of direction switching and factor switching were partially mediated by the amount of reframing required, they remained significant even when the mediating effect of reframing was statistically controlled. These results indicate that interpreting the meaning of test items is a task for which the level of difficulty can vary with each successive item, as a function of how the current item compares to the previous item in aspects such as its context generality or specificity, directional wording, and content domain.     

Quantifying latent social motivation and its associations with joint attention and language in infants at high and low likelihood for autism spectrum disorder

Social motivation—the psychobiological predisposition for social orienting, seeking social contact, and maintaining social interaction—manifests in early infancy and is hypothesized to be foundational for social communication development in typical and atypical populations. However, the lack of infant social-motivation measures has hindered delineation of associations between infant social motivation, other early-arising social abilities such as joint attention, and language outcomes. To investigate how infant social motivation contributes to joint attention and language, this study utilizes a mixed longitudinal sample of 741 infants at high (HL = 515) and low (LL = 226) likelihood for ASD. Using moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA), we incorporated items from parent-report measures to establish a novel latent factor model of infant social motivation that exhibits measurement invariance by age, sex, and familial ASD likelihood. We then examined developmental associations between 6- and 12-month social motivation, joint attention at 12–15 months, and language at 24 months of age. On average, greater social-motivation growth from 6–12 months was associated with greater initiating joint attention (IJA) and trend-level increases in sophistication of responding to joint attention (RJA). IJA and RJA were both positively associated with 24-month language abilities. There were no additional associations between social motivation and future language in our path model. These findings substantiate a novel, theoretically driven approach to modeling social motivation and suggest a developmental cascade through which social motivation impacts other foundational skills. These findings have implications for the timing and nature of intervention targets to support social communication development in infancy.

Highlights

• We describe a novel, theoretically based model of infant social motivation wherein multiple parent-reported indicators contribute to a unitary latent social-motivation factor.
• Analyses revealed social-motivation factor scores exhibited measurement invariance for a longitudinal sample of infants at high and low familial ASD likelihood.
• Social-motivation growth from ages 6–12 months is associated with better 12−15-month joint attention abilities, which in turn are associated with greater 24-month language skills.
• Findings inform timing and targets of potential interventions to support healthy social communication in the first year of life.

     

Under pressure: the interaction between high-stakes contexts and individual differences in decision-making in humans and non-human species

Animal Cognition - Observed behavior can be the result of complex cognitive processes that are influenced by environmental factors, physiological process, and situational features. Pressure, a...     

Food, mood, and attitude: reducing risk for eating disorders in college women.

Food, Mood, and Attitude (FMA) is a CD-ROM prevention program developed to decrease risk for eating disorders in college women. Female 1st-year students (N = 240) were randomly assigned to the intervention (FMA) or control group. Equal numbers of students at risk and of low risk for developing an eating disorder were assigned to each condition. Participants in the FMA condition improved on all measures relative to controls. Significant 3-way interactions (Time x Condition x Risk Status) were found on measures of internalization of sociocultural attitudes about thinness, shape concerns, and weight concerns, indicating that at-risk participants in the intervention group improved to a greater extent than did low-risk participants. At follow-up, significantly fewer women in the FMA group reported overeating and excessive exercise relative to controls.     

Awareness,Attitudes, and Use of Crisis Hotlines among Youth At‐Risk for Suicide

Crisis hotlines have been central to suicide prevention efforts; however, utilization among youth remains low. A sample of at‐risk youth was surveyed about their awareness, utilization, and attitudes toward local and national crisis hotlines. Youth reported low rates of awareness and utilization, yet expressed a strong interest in phone hotlines (41% vs. 59% for new media categories combined). Youth reported stigma, but that help‐seeking could be positively influenced by peers and adults in their support system. Implications include making crisis services available across several mediums and the importance of engaging trusted others in youth suicide awareness campaigns and prevention efforts.