Correlates of attachment at age 3: construct validity of the preschool attachment classification system

This study examined correlates of attachment at age 3 to further validate preschool separation-reunion measures. Three-year-olds (N = 150) and their mothers participated in a separation-reunion protocol, the Preschool Attachment Classification System (PACS: J. Cassidy & R. S. Marvin with the MacArthur Working Group on Attachment, 1992), and a mother-child interaction session during a laboratory visit. Mothers also completed psychosocial measures and, along with teachers, evaluated child behavior problems. The secure and disorganized groups received, respectively, the highest and lowest interaction scores. Disorganized children showed a higher level of teacher-reported externalizing and internalizing problems than did secure children. Mothers of insecure children reported higher child externalizing (all insecure groups) and internalizing (avoidant group) scores, more personal distress related to emotional bonding (disorganized group), childrearing control (ambivalent group), and child hyperactivity (avoidant group). Results strongly support the validity of the PACS as a measure of attachment in 3-year-olds.     

Attachment at early school age and developmental risk: examining family contexts and behavior problems of controlling-caregiving, controlling-punitive, and behaviorally disorganized children

Preschool to school-age trajectories of 242 children, including 37 with insecure-disorganized and 66 with insecure-organized attachment patterns, were examined. Child attachment and stressful life events (the latter retrospectively) were measured at ages 5-7, and mother-child interactive quality, parenting stress, marital satisfaction, and teacher-reported behavior problems were evaluated concurrently and 2 years earlier. Results indicated that all three disorganized subgroups had poorer mother-child interactive patterns and more difficult family climates than secure or insecure-organized children. The controlling-punitive group showed significant increases in maternal reports of child-related stress between preschool and school age. The controlling-caregiving group showed greater likelihood of loss of a close family member, and mothers of the insecure-other group reported lower marital satisfaction and greater likelihood of their own or a spouse's hospitalization. Controlling-punitive children had higher externalizing scores, and controlling-caregiving children higher internalizing scores, than secure children.     

Influence of sex differences in leaders' behavior

Sex differences in influence tactics were examined with a sample of 269 followers (67 men, 202 women) at a large midwestern national insurance company who rated the downward influence tactics used by their direct supervisors. Downward influence tactics are behaviors used by leaders to gain compliance from followers. One department within the organization was identified as a source for participants in the study. Participation was voluntary. The age range for the sample was 21 to 65 years, with the largest percentage falling in the 40-49 year range (M = 3.8, SD = .8). Hierarchical linear modeling procedures were utilized to analyze the multiple level data (leader and follower) and to examine variables within the organization at different levels of analysis. Leader participants were asked to solicit their followers to complete an influence tactic measure, which consisted of the most reliable subscales taken from the Influence Behavior Questionnaire, Schriesheim and Hinkin Influence Measure, and the Profiles of Organizational Influence Strategies. The integrated measure resulted in a 45-item scale. It was hypothesized that, overall, followers would report that male leaders would use hard influence tactics more frequently than female leaders. On the other hand, followers would report that female leaders would use soft influence tactics more frequently than male leaders. When differentiating followers by sex, however, we expected that male followers would report more than female followers that their leaders use hard tactics more frequently. Also, we expected that female followers would report (more than male followers) that their leaders use soft tactics more frequently. Overall, followers reported that male leaders used significantly more personal appeal and consultation, so called "soft tactics," with their followers than did female leaders. Female followers reported that their leaders (both male and female) used consultation and inspirational appeal more frequently. In contrast, male followers reported that their leaders used exchange, so called "hard tactics," more frequently.     

Unitary vs multiple semantics: PET studies of word and picture processing

In this paper we examine a central issue in cognitive neuroscience: are there separate conceptual representations associated with different input modalities (e.g., Paivio, 1971, 1986; Warrington & Shallice, 1984) or do inputs from different modalities converge on to the same set of representations (e.g., Caramazza, Hillis, Rapp, & Romani, 1990; Lambon Ralph, Graham, Patterson, & Hodges, 1999; Rapp, Hillis, & Caramazza, 1993)? We present an analysis of four PET studies (three semantic categorisation tasks and one lexical decision task), two of which employ words as stimuli and two of which employ pictures. Using conjunction analyses, we found robust semantic activation, common to both input modalities in anterior and medial aspects of the left fusiform gyrus, left parahippocampal and perirhinal cortices, and left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47). There were modality-specific activations in both temporal poles (words) and occipitotemporal cortices (pictures). We propose that the temporal poles are involved in processing both words and pictures, but their engagement might be primarily determined by the level of specificity at which an object is processed. Activation in posterior temporal regions associated with picture processing most likely reflects intermediate, pre-semantic stages of visual processing. Our data are most consistent with a hierarchically structured, unitary system of semantic representations for both verbal and visual modalities, subserved by anterior regions of the inferior temporal cortex.     

The suppression model remains unsound: A reply to Deutsch

In the present issue, we critically review the influentialsuppression model of the octave illusion (Chambers, Mattingley, & Moss, 2004). In a rejoinder to our article, Deutsch (2004b) defends the utility of the suppression model. Here, we respond to Deutsch’s arguments, many of which are based on criticisms of our recent experimental report (Chambers, Mattingley, & Moss, 2002). We argue that Deutsch’s criticisms of this previous investigation are unfounded and that her defense of the suppression model fails to account for the most important weaknesses of this theory. We conclude that the suppression model remains inadequate as an explanation of the octave illusion.     

Reconsidering evidence for the suppression model of the octave illusion

The octave illusion is elicited by a sequence of tones presented to each ear that continuously alternate in frequency by one octave, but with high and low frequencies always in different ears. The percept for most listeners is a high pitch in one ear, alternating with a low pitch in the other ear. The influentialsuppression model of the illusion proposed by Deutsch and Roll (1976) carries three postulates: first, that listeners perceive only the pitch of the tones presented to their dominant ear; second, that this pitch is heard in whichever ear received the higher frequency tone; and third, that this apparent dissociation betweenwhat andwhere mechanisms arises from sequential interactions between the tones. In the present article, we reappraise evidence for the suppression model and demonstrate (1) the incompatibility of the theory with the existing literature on pitch perception, sound localization, and ear dominance and (2) methodological limitations in studies that have claimed to provide support for the suppression model. We conclude by proposing an alternative theory of the octave illusion that is based on established principles of fusion, rather than suppression, between ears.     

Different paths to justice: the ADA, employment, and administrative enforcement by the EEOC and FEPAs

Under Title I of the ADA, individuals who believe they have been subjected to disability-based employment discrimination may file an administrative charge. This article looks at who files charges; over what issues, and with what outcomes in both Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) field offices, and state and local fair employment practice agencies (FEPAs). The data for the article are computerized records of all ADA charges filed through March 31, 1998. The data indicate that individuals who rely on a FEPA to investigate their charge have a greater likelihood of obtaining a beneficial outcome than individuals who rely on the EEOC, but proportionately more individuals receiving a beneficial outcome are likely to receive monetary benefits from the EEOC than from a FEPA. Further, those who receive beneficial outcomes will probably receive greater monetary benefits from charges investigated by the EEOC than from those investigated by a FEPA.     

Life Stages, Paradigms, and Patterns in the Twentieth Century

In response to John Wortley's article, Four-Stage Systems of Human Development, that appears in this issue, Stephanie Moss provides an overview of the theories that inform postmodern paradigms of aging. She demonstrates how in contrast to the rigidity of the ancient systems of aging that Wortley discusses, twentieth-century ideas provide flexible models that may be used to discuss the phenomenon of aging without imposing deterministic strictures. Through the yoking of feminist, Marxist, and psychoanalytical theories, Moss delivers a conceptualization of aging that begins to dissolve the binary oppositions that have permeated Western thought through the greater part of the twentieth century.     

Linguistic Basicness and Colour Information Processing

Berlin and Kay's notion of basicness was defined by a combination of linguistic and psychological criteria, but they suggested that the psychological criteria might be extended. The experiments reported here were designed to explore a possible extension by searching for perceptual effects of basicness. Russian speakers who have two basic terms for the blue region of colour space were compared with English speakers who have only one basic term for the same region on two perceptual tasks. The first two experiments sought for greater Stroop interference for the Russians than for the English for the critical “blue” stimuli, and the third experiment sought greater perceptual differentiation for the Russians in the blue region. All experiments clearly replicated standard findings, but all singularly failed to find the predicted differences between the two groups. It is argued that whilst the results are consistent with there being no psychological effect of basicness, it is necessary to search for possible effects in other domains, such as recognition memory, before accepting this conclusion.     

Oral behavioral patterns in facial pain, headache and non-headache populations

Patterns of oral behavior have been suggested as factors leading to head and facial pain. The present study evaluated the frequency with which certain oral habits were self-reported by five groups of Ss: Facial Pain. Tension Headache, Migraine Headache, Combined Migraine and Tension Headache and No Pain. Four oral behavior patterns were found to be significantly different among groups. These were diurnal bruxism. thrusting the jaw forward, cupping the chin in the hand and resting the hand on the side of the face. When Ss were reclassified into those reporting no facial pain, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain, or a combination of TMJ and jaw muscle pain, the variables of diurnal bruxism and resting the hand on the side of the face were found to predict significantly both pain groups. However, the resting the hand factor was negatively weighted for the TMJ Pain group only. One other factor, nocturnal bruxism. was found to be self-reported at a significantly higher frequency in the Combined Facial Pain group compared to the No Facial Pain and TMJ Pain groups. Discussion focuses on the implications of the present findings on research in the facial pain and headache areas.