The effect of age on rule-based category learning

An explicit, rule-based, category-learning task with abstract visual stimuli was administered to 50 healthy older adults and 48 younger adults. Accuracy and reaction time (RT) were examined for the effects of age, perceptual abilities, rule memory, rule complexity, stimulus novelty, and response competition. Older adults performed at equivalent levels to younger adults when applying a simple rule, but showed performance decrements when applying a more complex rule. The age effect interacted with both stimulus novelty and response competition, and was not eliminated after controlling for basic perceptual abilities and rule memory. The authors suggest that older adults show category learning deficits in conditions that require enhanced cognitive control. These results are discussed in reference to the growing body of literature regarding age-related change in executive abilities and frontal lobe function.     

The effects of social comparison,emotion induction,and parent vaccination status on parental intentions for COVID-19 vaccine uptake in children

Parental vaccine hesitancy—delays in vaccine uptake for children—is a significant public health concern. Using an online adult sample of U.S. parents (N = 183), the current research experimentally examined how exposure to cautious or risky social comparison models on social media (in terms of their COVID-19 beliefs and behaviors) influenced parental intentions to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. Additionally, we examined whether the influence of social comparison models was moderated by emotional state (fear or contentment) and parental vaccination status. Overall, we found that parents exposed to cautious (vs. risky) comparison models and vaccinated (vs. unvaccinated) parents reported greater vaccine intentions for their children. We further found that vaccination intentions were highest among unvaccinated parents after exposure to cautious (vs. risky) comparison models, whereas intentions were highest among vaccinated parents after exposure to risky (vs. cautious) comparison models (but only when induced to feel content). Overall, our findings highlight the importance of understanding the additive and interactive impact of psychological and situational factors in shaping parental vaccine hesitancy.     

Reliability and concurrent relations between the teacher version of the child behavior profile and the conners revised teacher rating scale

A total of 104 disturbed boys aged 6–11 were assessed with the teacher version of the Child Behavior Profile and the Conners Revised Teacher Rating Scale (TRS). A subsample of 55 boys were reassessed with both measures at an interval of 1 week. For the teacher Profile, test-retest correlations averaged r=87 for eight behavior problem scales and r=91 for four adaptive functioning scales. Reliabilities were slightly higher for Externalizing scales (average r=.91) than for Internalizing scales (r=.80). Reliabilities averaged .94 for the Revised TRS. Correlations between the two measures indicated a strong correspondence between the three Externalizing scales of the Profile and the factor-based TRS scales. Specifically, Profile scales labeled Inattentive, Nervous-Overactive, and Aggressive correlated highly (p < .001) with TRS scales labeled Inattentive-Passive, Hyperactivity, and Conduct Problem, respectively. The Conners Hyperkinesis Index correlated highly with all three Externalizing scales of the Profile, particularly Aggressive (r=.82). Overall, these results support the reliability and concurrent validity of both measures.This research was supported by an NIMH Research Scientist Development Award (MH00403) to the first author and by NIMH grant number MH37372. The support of the William T. Grant Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are indebted to the students, teachers, and staff of PACE School for their cooperation. Tom Achenbach provided valuable comments on an earlier draft.     

“First Things First”: Maslow's Hierarchy as a Framework for Rebt in Promoting Disability Adjustment During Rehabilitation

Maslow's theory of hierarchical human needs can be integrated into a framework for identifying the psychological priorities of those faced with severe disablement and hospitalization. Within this framework can be identified a variety of behavioral and rational emotive interventions which can be tailored to the most logical sources of the key emotional discomforts in each category of Maslow's hierarchy. Interventions discussed range from those with a greater emphasis on educating and changing the staff-environment responsiveness regarding the patient's more basic and prepotent priorities, to an increasing focus on treating the patient's irrational belief system, as priorities at higher levels are addressed.     

Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative

The current research tested the hypothesis that making many choices impairs subsequent self-control. Drawing from a limited-resource model of self-regulation and executive function, the authors hypothesized that decision making depletes the same resource used for self-control and active responding. In 4 laboratory studies, some participants made choices among consumer goods or college course options, whereas others thought about the same options without making choices. Making choices led to reduced self-control (i.e., less physical stamina, reduced persistence in the face of failure, more procrastination, and less quality and quantity of arithmetic calculations). A field study then found that reduced self-control was predicted by shoppers' self-reported degree of previous active decision making. Further studies suggested that choosing is more depleting than merely deliberating and forming preferences about options and more depleting than implementing choices made by someone else and that anticipating the choice task as enjoyable can reduce the depleting effect for the first choices but not for many choices.     

Learning geographical information from hypothetical maps

People show biases or distortions in their geographical judgments, such as mistakenly judging Rome to be south of Chicago (the Chicago-Rome illusion). These errors may derive from either perceptual heuristics or categorical organization. However, previous work on geographic knowledge has generally examined people's judgments of real-world locations for which learning history is unknown. This article reports experiments on the learning of hypothetical geographical spaces, in which participants acquired information in a fashion designed to control real-world factors, such as variable travel experiences or stereotypes about other countries, as well as to mimic initial encounters with locations through reading or conventional school-based geography education. Five experiments combine to suggest that biases in judgment based on learning of this kind are different in key regards from those seen with real-world geography and may be based more on the use of perceptual heuristics than on categorical organization.     

Improving session attendance in mental health and substance abuse settings: a review of controlled studies

Patient nonattendance to scheduled sessions results in excessive costs to mental health and substance abuse providers and compromises the care of clients. This paper presents a comprehensive review of interventions that have been shown to increase session attendance rates in these settings. Unique to other review papers, reliability estimates were performed in the selection and evaluation of obtained studies. Reliability of article selection and evaluation strategies was excellent (.80 to .88). Study results indicate several attendance improvement methods appear to be particularly promising, such as scheduling appointments promptly, reminder letters and telephone calls, soliciting patient commitment, and helping to resolve obstacles to attending the session. The specific manner in which these interventions are implemented appears to influence session attendance rates. Moreover, some attendance improvement interventions are clearly effective in some settings, but not others. Specific recommendations are provided in light of the study findings.     

Natural Mentoring Relationships and the Adjustment to College among Underrepresented Students

This study investigated associations between natural mentoring relationships and academic performance via psychological distress among underrepresented college students attending an elite predominantly White institution (PWI). Specifically, this study explored whether the quantity of natural mentors possessed upon college entry, the retention of natural mentors across the first year of college, and overall changes in the number of natural mentors possessed during the first year of college predicted improvements in students' semester grade point averages (GPAs) via reductions in psychological distress. Participants in this study included 336 first‐year undergraduate students attending a selective PWI. Students were eligible to participate in this study if they were first‐generation college students, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, or students from underrepresented racial/ethnic minority groups. Results of this study indicated that a greater number of retained natural mentoring relationships across the first year of college were associated with improvements in students' GPAs via reductions in symptoms of depression from the Fall to Spring semester. The results of this study suggest that institutional efforts to support the maintenance of preexisting mentoring relationships may be an effective approach to promoting the academic success of underrepresented college students during the first year of college.