Does retrieval fluency contribute to the underconfidence-with-practice effect?

Judgments of learning (JOLs) made during multiple study-test trials underestimate increases in recall performance across those trials, an effect that has been dubbed the underconfidence-with-practice (UWP) effect. In 3 experiments, the authors examined the contribution of retrieval fluency to the UWP effect for immediate and delayed JOLs. The UWP effect was demonstrated with reliable underconfidence on Trial 2 occurring for both kinds of JOL. However, in contrast to a retrieval-fluency hypothesis, fine-grained analyses indicated that the reliance of JOLs on retrieval fluency contributed minimally to the UWP effect. Our discussion focuses on the status of the retrieval-fluency hypothesis for the UWP effect.     

Knowing is half the battle: teaching stereotype threat as a means of improving women's math performance

We tested whether informing women about stereotype threat is a useful intervention to improve their performance in a threatening testing situation. Men and women completed difficult math problems described either as a problem-solving task or as a math test. In a third (teaching-intervention) condition, the test was also described as a math test, but participants were additionally informed that stereotype threat could interfere with women's math performance. Results showed that women performed worse than men when the problems were described as a math test (and stereotype threat was not discussed), but did not differ from men in the problem-solving condition or in the condition in which they learned about stereotype threat. For women, attributing anxiety to gender stereotypes was associated with lower performance in the math-test condition but improved performance in the teaching-intervention condition. The results suggest that teaching about stereotype threat might offer a practical means of reducing its detrimental effects.     

A Review of Self-Management Interventions Targeting Academic Outcomes for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

The purpose of this review was to report on the effectiveness and focus of academic self-management interventions for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders. Twenty-two studies published in 20 articles and involving 78 participants met inclusionary criteria. The overall mean effect size (ES) across those studies was 1.80 (range –0.46 to 3.00), indicating effects were generally large in magnitude and educationally meaningful. Self-monitoring interventions were the predominant type of self-management technique used by researchers. The mean ES for intervention types were self-evaluation (1.13), self-monitoring (1.90), strategy instruction techniques (1.75), self-instruction techniques (2.71), and multiple-component interventions (2.11). Interventions targeted improvement in math calculation skills more than any other area. The mean ES by academic area were math interventions (1.97), writing (1.13), reading (2.28), and social studies (2.66). There was evidence to support a claim of the generalization and maintenance of findings. Implications, limitations, and areas for future research are discussed.     

A Comparison of Results and Acceptability of Functional Behavioral Assessment Procedures with a Group of Middle School Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders (E/BD)

There is currently controversy over the validity and applicability of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) procedures with students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD). A set of FBA procedures, including teacher and student interviews and direct classroom observations, were carried out with eight students with disabilities (7 classified E/BD, one classified LD). Results indicated that when all three methods (teacher/student interviews, classroom observations) yielded a ranking for a function they agreed 64% of those occasions. For those situations in which there was overall disagreement there was agreement between teacher interview and classroom observations most of the time. Social validity data indicated that both students and teachers felt that the assessment procedures were a useful and productive process.     

Uncertainty reduction, self-enhancement, and ingroup identification

Two experiments tested the prediction that uncertainty reduction and self-enhancement motivations have an interactive effect on ingroup identification. In Experiment 1 (N = 64), uncertainty and group status were manipulated, and the effect on ingroup identification was measured. As predicted, low-uncertainty participants identified more strongly with a high- than low-status group, whereas high-uncertainty participants showed no preference; and low-status group members identified more strongly under high than low uncertainty, whereas high-status group members showed no preference. Experiment 2 (N = 210) replicated Experiment 1, but with a third independent variable that manipulated how prototypical participants were of their group. As predicted, the effects obtained in Experiment 1 only emerged where participants were highly prototypical. Low prototypicality depressed identification with a low-status group under high uncertainty. The implications of these results for intergroup relations and the role of prototypicality in social identity processes are discussed.     

Human cognition and 1/f scaling

Ubiquitous 1/f scaling in human cognition and physiology suggests a mind-body interaction that contradicts commonly held assumptions. The intrinsic dynamics of psychological phenomena are interaction dominant (rather than component dominant), and the origin of purposive behavior lies with a general principle of self-organization (rather than a special neurocognitive mechanism). E.-J. Wagenmakers, S. Farrell, and R. Ratcliff (2005) raised concerns about the kinds of data and analyses that support generic 1/f scaling. This reply is a defense that furthermore questions the model that Wagenmakers and colleagues endorse and their strategy for addressing complexity.     

Repetition blindness in rapid lists: activation and inhibition versus construction and attribution

The authors examine the repetition blindness effect--the failure to report one of the occurrences of a word presented twice in a rapid list. This phenomenon has been ascribed to inhibitory processes that prevent immediate tokenization of the 2nd occurrence of a repeated word. The authors present several kinds of evidence against that account, including observations that repetition blindness (a) does not occur when repetitions are not embedded in a list of familiar orthographic units, (b) is alleviated by precuing the subject with the identity of the word that may repeat within a rapid list, and (c) can be caused by cues presented after the list, when the opportunity for inhibition has passed. It is proposed that repetition blindness can better be understood through the principles of construction and attribution.     

Social psychology, terrorism, and identity: a preliminary re-examination of theory, culture, self, and society

This article relies upon structural symbolic interactionism and five of its organizing concepts (i.e. symbols, the definition of the situation, roles, socialization and role-taking, and the self) to put forth a novel conceptual framework for understanding the terrorist identity. In order to demonstrate the practical utility of the framework, applications to various terrorist groups around the globe are incorporated into the analysis. Overall, both the theoretical and application work help reorient the academic and practitioner behavioral science communities to the importance of culture, self, and society when investigating one's membership in and identity through militant extremist organizations. Given the unique approach taken by this article, several provisional implications are delineated. In particular, future research on terrorism, strategies linked to counter-terrorism, legal and public policy reform, and the relevance of utilizing a sociologically animated social psychology in the assessment of other forms of criminal behavior are all very tentatively explored.     

Suicide compared to other causes of mortality in physicians

Physicians frequently are early adopters of healthy behaviors based on their knowledge and economic resources. The mortality patterns of physicians in the United States, particularly suicide, have not been rigorously described for over a decade. Previous studies have shown lower all-cause mortality among physicians yet reported conflicting results about cause-specific mortality such as suicide. In this study, we compared all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a sample of physicians to the age-gender matched general U.S. population from 1948 through 1998. We also compared the mortality experience across medical specialties. The risk of all-cause mortality was 56% lower than expected in men, and 26% lower in women, compared to the general population. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were markedly lower for diseases strongly linked to smoking, e.g., cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and lung cancer. Suicide was the only cause of death where risk was greater than the general population. Overall, we found that physicians are at substantially lower risk of dying compared to the general population for all causes of death except suicide. The findings for suicide are strikingly different than other causes of death and should provide impetus for new research on the mental health of physicians.