Rocking together: dynamics of intentional and unintentional interpersonal coordination

The current study investigated the interpersonal coordination that occurred between two people when sitting side-by-side in rocking chairs. In two experiments participant pairs rocked in chairs that had the same or different natural periods. By instructing pairs to coordinate their movements inphase or antiphase, Experiment 1 investigated whether the stable patterns of intentional interpersonal coordination were consistent with the dynamics of within person interlimb coordination. By instructing the participants to rock at their own preferred tempo, Experiment 2 investigated whether the rocking chair movements of visually coupled individuals would become unintentionally coordinated. The degree to which the participants fixated on the movements of their co-actor was also manipulated to examine whether visual focus modulates the strength of interpersonal coordination. As expected, the patterns of coordination observed in both experiments demonstrated that the intentional and unintentional interpersonal coordination of rocking chair movements is constrained by the self-organizing dynamics of a coupled oscillator system. The results of the visual focus manipulations indicate that the stability of a visual interpersonal coupling is mediated by attention and the degree to which an individual is able to detect information about a co-actor's movements.     

Reform of statistical inference in psychology: The case of<Emphasis Type="Italic">Memory &; Cognition</Emphasis>

Geoffrey Loftus, Editor ofMemory & Cognition from 1994 to 1997, strongly encouraged presentation of figures with error bars and avoidance of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST). The authors examined 696Memory & Cognition articles published before, during, and after the Loftus editorship. Use of figures with bars increased to 47% under Loftus’s editorship and then declined. Bars were rarely used for interpretation, and NHST remained almost universal. Analysis of 309 articles in other psychology journals confirmed that Loftus’s influence was most evident in the articles he accepted for publication, but was otherwise limited. An e-mail survey of authors of papers accepted by Loftus revealed some support for his policy, but allegiance to traditional practices as well. Reform of psychologists’ statistical practices would require more than editorial encouragement.     

The effects of estradiol on avoidance learning in ovariectomized adult rats

The present study examined the effects of ovariectomy and subsequent estradiol replacement on learning in young adult rats using a set of instrumental avoidance paradigms differing in the nature and extent of prior experience in the learning context. Thus, one group of animals was placed directly into avoidance learning (AV). A second group was trained on an appetitive task first, and then transferred into the aversive context (AP-AV). The third group was exposed to the training context without any specific appetitive response requirement, and then required to learn an active avoidance response (Context-AV). We found that estradiol (OVX+E) impaired avoidance acquisition in all cases relative ovariectomized controls (OVX). In contrast, while avoidance learning is improved following appetitive training or context exposure in both OVX+E and OVX animals, the OVX+E animals profit to a greater extent from the appetitive or context experience than do the OVX controls. We suggest that this difference may be due to enhanced attentional processes or improved hippocampal processing of contextual factors. Thus, estradiol negatively influences simple associative avoidance learning in ovariectomized rats, but appears to promote positive transfer.     

The MAVRIC-C and MAVRIC-P: a preliminary reliability and validity study

We administered the Measure of Aggression, Violence, and Rage in Children (MAVRIC; Bass, Geenens, & Popper, 1993a, 1993b), a questionnaire assessing the severity of reactive, impulsive aggression, to 28 prepubertal psychiatrically hospitalized children and 54 prepubertal lowrisk nonpatients and their mothers. Cross-informant reliability was supported between the MAVRIC-Child Version (MAVRIC-C; Bass et al., 1993a) and MAVRIC-Parent Version (MAVRIC-P; Bass et al., 1993b), r = .62, p < .001. Convergent validity was supported with the Aggressive Behavior factor of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991a) for the MAVRIC-C, r = .62, p < .001, and MAVRIC-P, r = .74, p < .001. Both versions were also associated with disruptive behavior disorders, inpatient status, and assaultive behavior. We discuss the differences in the perception of aggression as a function of informant.     

Memory and suggestibility in maltreated children: age,stress arousal,dissociation, and psychopathology

The present study was designed to assess children's memory and suggestibility in the context of ongoing child maltreatment investigations. One hundred eighty-nine 3-17-year-olds involved in evaluations of alleged maltreatment were interviewed with specific and misleading questions about an anogenital examination and clinical assessment. For the anogenital examination, children's stress arousal was indexed both behaviorally and physiologically. For all children, individual-difference data were gathered on intellectual and short-term memory abilities, general psychopathology, and dissociative tendencies. Interviewers' ratings were available for a subset of children concerning the amount of detail provided in abuse disclosures. Results indicated that general psychopathology, short-term memory, and intellectual ability predicted facets of children's memory performance. Older compared to younger children evinced fewer memory errors and greater suggestibility resistance. Age was also significantly related to the amount of detail in children's abuse disclosures. Neither dissociation nor stress arousal significantly predicted children's memory. Implications for understanding maltreated children's eyewitness memory are discussed.     

The association between psychopathology in fathers versus mothers and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: a meta-analysis

In light of the selective focus on maternal (vs. paternal) psychopathology as a risk factor for child development, this meta-analysis examines the relative strength of the association between psychopathology in mothers versus fathers and the presence of internalizing and externalizing disorders in children. Associations were stronger between maternal than paternal psychopathology and the presence of internalizing (but not externalizing) problems in children, with all average effect sizes being small in magnitude. Relations were moderated by variables that highlight theoretically relevant differences between psychopathology in mothers versus fathers (e.g., age of children studied, type of parental psychopathology) and by variables related to methodological differences across studies (e.g., method of assessing psychopathology in parents and children, type of sample recruited, familial composition).     

The Effects of Accuracy Motivation on Children's and Adults' Event Recall,Suggestibility, and Their Answers to Unanswerable Questions

This study investigated children's and adults' event recall accuracy and suggestibility effects when participants' accuracy motivation was manipulated. A total of 240 participants (6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds, and adults) were shown a video and later asked 4 types of questions: answerable questions, both open-ended and strongly misleading, and unanswerable questions, both open-ended and strongly misleading. Participants were either (a) rewarded with a token for every correct answer (high accuracy motivation, Free Report Plus Incentive condition), (b) explicitly given the option of answering with "don't know" when unsure (medium accuracy motivation, Free Report condition), or (c) asked to provide an answer to every question, even when they were not sure or had to guess or both (low accuracy motivation, Forced Report condition). The condition with the high accuracy motivation yielded the highest recall accuracy scores for answerable open-ended and misleading questions. For unanswerable questions, even the youngest age group was able to increase the number of appropriate "don't know" answers when highly motivated to be accurate, but a misleading question format undermined these abilities. The results highlight important interactions between social (accuracy motivation) and cognitive factors (metacognitive monitoring processes) in children's formal interviewing.