Reliability of the bipolar form of the profile of mood states using an alternative test protocol

The bipolar version of Profile of Mood States was completed by 124 participants (58 women and 66 men, M age 26.5, SD=3.9 yr.) on two occasions--once when the measure was self-administered according to that test protocol and once when POMS-BI items were projected onto a screen with participants being asked to provide oral responses to items. Data from both modes of administration provided similar support for the internal consistency of the measure (alpha values ranged from .78 to .90).     

The relations of effortful control and ego control to children's resiliency and social functioning

The relations of effortful control and ego control to children's (mean age = 137 months) resiliency, social status, and social competence were examined concurrently (Time 3) and over time. Adults reported on the constructs, and a behavioral measure of persistence was obtained. At Time 3, resiliency mediated the unique relations of both effortful and reactive control to social status, and effortful control directly predicted socially appropriate behavior. Negative emotionality moderated the relations of ego and effortful control to socially appropriate behavior. When levels of the variables 2 years prior were accounted for, all relations held at Time 3 except that effortful control did not predict resiliency (even though it was the stronger predictor at Time 3) and ego control directly predicted socially appropriate behavior.     

Controversy and consensus regarding the use of cognitive ability testing in organizations

Seven hundred three members of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology indicated agreement or disagreement with 49 propositions regarding cognitive ability tests in organizations. There was consensus that cognitive ability tests are valid and fair, that they provide good but incomplete measures, that different abilities are necessary for different jobs, and that diversity is valuable. Items dealing with the unique status of cognitive ability were most likely to generate polarized opinions. A 2-factor model, classifying items as those reflecting societal concerns over the consequences of ability testing and those reflecting an emphasis on the unique status of "g," fit the data well, and these factors proved especially important for predicting responses to the more controversial items.     

Dissociations between implicit and explicit memory in children: the role of strategic processing and the knowledge base

A review of the literature shows that explicit memory develops substantially from three years of age to adulthood, while implicit memory remains stable across this age range. Previously, this developmental dissociation has been attributed to different memory systems, or to confounds with perceptual vs. conceptual processing. Prompted by an alternative developmental framework, the experiments reported here provide evidence against both interpretations. Instead, it will be argued that (a) the implicit-explicit developmental dissociation reflects differences in strategic processing (strategy use and metamemory) across childhood and (b) that implicit memory can show development if a child's knowledge base in the tested domain is developing with age.     

Accurate intelligence assessments in social interactions: mediators and gender effects

Research indicates that people can assess a stranger's measured intelligence more accurately than expected by chance, based on minimal information involving appearance and behavior. The present research documents behavioral correlates of perceived and measured intelligence and identifies behaviors that mediate the relationship between perceived and measured intelligence. In particular, when judges rated targets with video and auditory stimuli available, responsiveness to conversation partner, eye-gaze, and looking at partner while speaking were each significant mediators in the accurate assessment of intelligence. Each of those behaviors, as well as the percentage of looking at partner while speaking as a function of the target's own speaking time, were significant mediators in the video silent condition. Additionally, judge and target gender contributed to accurate intelligence assessments.     

The downside of categories

One of the primary uses of categories is to draw inferences about novel objects based on their category membership. In a recent study, Lagnado and Shanks show that people make different inferences about an object depending on whether they first categorize the object at a general or specific level. Indeed, their inference changes even though they have been given no information about the object. This finding reveals limitations of category-based induction.     

A comparison of higher order auditory processes in younger and older adults

The authors conducted 3 experiments investigating the effects of aging on higher order auditory processes. They compared younger and older adults with respect to (a) their auditory channel capacity, (b) the extent of their top-down control over auditory gain, and (c) their ability to focus attention on a narrow band of frequencies. To ensure that subclinical cochlear processing deficits in older adults (e.g., higher thresholds, poorer discrimination of frequency and intensity differences) did not limit performance, the authors used only stimuli that were perfectly discriminable by all participants. No age differences were found in any of these experiments, suggesting that some higher order auditory processes (e.g., top-down control over auditory gain, auditory attention) are preserved in normal aging, despite numerous age-related declines in peripheral auditory functionality.     

Why do older adults have difficulty following conversations?

Age-related declines in understanding conversation may be largely a consequence of perceptual rather than cognitive declines. B. A. Schneider, M. Daneman, D. R. Murphy, and S. Kwong-See (2000) showed that age-related declines in comprehending single-talker discourse could be eliminated when adjustments were made to compensate for the poorer hearing of older adults. The authors used B. A. Schneider et al.'s methodology to investigate age-related differences in comprehending 2-person conversations. Compensating for hearing difficulties did not eliminate age-related differences when the 2 talkers were spatially separated by 9 degrees or 45 degrees azimuth, but it did when the talkers' contributions came from one central location. These findings suggest that dialogue poses more of a problem for older than for younger adults, not because of the additional cognitive requirements of having to follow 2 talkers rather than 1, but because older adults are not as good as younger adults at making use of the auditory cues that are available for helping listeners perceptually segregate the contributions of 2 spatially separated talkers.     

The two faces of typicality in category-based induction

Studies of category-based induction using different methods have found somewhat contradictory results for whether typical items are a stronger basis for induction. Typical category items are generally more similar to other category items than are atypical ones, and they are also more likely to be categorized into the category in question. We propose that the first aspect (representativeness) influences induction, but the second (uncertainty about the correct category) does not. Two experiments using artificial categories found support for this prediction. Two further experiments manipulated pictures of objects and also found that representativeness in the category influenced the strength of induction, but uncertainty of classification did not. Thus, the two aspects of typicality have different effects on category-based induction.     

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology among partners of men in treatment for relationship abuse

This longitudinal study examined posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among current and former female partners (N = 96) of men participating in a group treatment program for partner abuse perpetrators. Female partner probable PTSD rates, obtained during time points corresponding with pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up for the male clients, were 52%, 34%, and 29%, respectively. Psychological abuse exposure was more strongly and uniquely associated with PTSD symptoms than was physical abuse exposure. Among psychological abuse ratings, denigration, restrictive engulfment, and dominance/intimidation behaviors evidenced the strongest associations with PTSD symptoms. Findings from this study suggest the association between psychological abuse and PTSD is complex and multidetermined.