Prejudiced attitude measurement using the Rasch Rating Scale model

There have been two basic approaches for the study of minority group prejudice against the majority: to adapt instruments from the majority group, and to use qualitative techniques by analyzing the content of the discourse of the groups involved. Neither of these procedures solves the problem of measuring intergroup attitudes of majorities and minorities in interaction. This study shows the result of a prejudice scale which was developed to measure the attitude of both the minority and majority groups. Prejudice is conceived as an attitude which requires the beliefs or opinions about the out-group, the emotions it elicits, and the behavior or intentional behavior toward it to be known for its evaluation. The innovation in this work is that the psychometric development of the scale was based on the item response theory, and more specifically, the rating scale model.     

Working memory and two-digit number processing

The processing of two-digit numbers in comparison tasks involves the activation and manipulation of magnitude information to decide which number is larger. The present study explored the role of different working memory (WM) components and skills in the processing of two-digit numbers by examining the unit-decade compatibility effect with Arabic digits and number words. In the study, the unit-decade compatibility effect and different WM components were evaluated. The results indicated that the unit-decade compatibility effect was associated to specific WM skills depending on the number format (Arabic digits and number words). We discussed the implications of these results for the decomposed view of two-digit numbers.     

Parenting practices and internalizing and externalizing problems in Spanish adolescents

The goal of this study was to analyze the relationship between parenting practices and internalizing and externalizing problems presented by a group of adolescents according to their gender. Four hundred and sixty-nine secondary school students (aged between 12 and 18) participated in this study. The adolescents presented differences in perception of the educational practices of both parents as a function of their gender. Negative parenting practices were positively related to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems, whereas positive practices were negatively related to externalizing problems. Moreover, differences between boys and girls were found in predictor variables of problems, and the predictive power of the variables was higher for externalizing problems.     

Primacy of emotional vs. semantic scene recognition in peripheral vision

Emotional scenes were presented peripherally (5.2° away from fixation) or foveally (at fixation) for 150 ms. In affective evaluation tasks viewers judged whether a scene was unpleasant or not, or whether it was pleasant or not. In semantic categorisation tasks viewers judged whether a scene involved animals or humans (superordinate-level task), or whether it portrayed females or males (subordinate-level task). The same stimuli were used for the affective and the semantic task. Results indicated that in peripheral vision affective evaluation was less accurate and slower than animal/human discrimination, and did not show any advantage over gender discrimination. In addition, performance impairment in the peripheral relative to the foveal condition was greater or equivalent for affective than for semantic categorisation. These findings cast doubts on the specialness and the primacy of affective over semantic recognition. The findings are also relevant when considering the role of the subcortical "low route" in emotional processing.     

Prospective information for pass decisional behavior in rugby union

Decision-making requires the perception of relevant information variables that emerge from the player–environment interaction. The purpose of the present article is to empirically assess whether players’ decisional behavior about which type of pass to make is influenced by the spatio-temporal variable tau. Time series positional data of rugby players were analyzed from video footage taken in real match scenarios. The tau of the distance motion gap between attacker and defender was calculated, along with the duration of the next pass. Results revealed that the initial tau value predicted 64% of the variance found in pass duration. A qualitative distinction of tau dynamics between two periods of the approach between the attacker and the defender was also observed. We argue that the time-to-contact between the attacker and the defender may yield information about future pass possibilities. Additionally, the informational fields constraining attacker–defender interaction may be viewed as a convergent channeling of possibilities towards a single pass solution.     

Eye movement assessment of emotional processing in anxiety

Eye fixations of participants high or low in trait anxiety were monitored during reading of context sentences predicting threatening or nonthreat events, followed by sentences in which a target word represented the predictable event or an inconsistent event. No effects were found on the target word but on the regions following it. When this word represented a threatening event suggested by the context, high anxiety facilitated reading of the posttarget region. When the target word was inconsistent with a threatening event, high anxiety was associated with interference in the final region. No such effects occurred with nonthreat sentences. This reveals selective prediction of threat in high anxiety. However, rather than being automatic, this bias involves elaboration that takes time to develop.     

Factors Associated with Providers’ Work Engagement and Burnout in Homeless Services: A Cross‐national Study

The complexity of homeless service users’ characteristics and the contextual challenges faced by services can make the experience of working with people in homelessness stressful and can put providers’ well‐being at risk. In the current study, we investigated the association between service characteristics (i.e., the availability of training and supervision and the capability‐fostering approach) and social service providers’ work engagement and burnout. The study involved 497 social service providers working in homeless services in eight different European countries (62% women; mean age = 40.73, SD = 10.45) and was part of the Horizon 2020 European study “Homelessness as Unfairness (HOME_EU).” Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), findings showed that the availability of training and supervision were positively associated with providers’ work engagement and negatively associated with burnout. However, results varied based on the perceived usefulness of the training and supervision provided within the service and the specific outcome considered. The most consistent finding was the association between the degree to which a service promotes users’ capabilities and all the aspects of providers’ well‐being analyzed. Results are discussed in relation to their implications for how configuration of homeless services can promote social service providers’ well‐being and high‐quality care.     

Application of the dual-component model of working memory to ADHD:Greater secondary memory deficit despite confounded cognitive differences

The dual-component model postulates that working memory capacity consists of two dissociable components: maintenance in primary memory (PM) and retrieval from secondary memory (SM). Recent application of this model to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has revealed that the SM component is more deficient than the PM component across both verbal and spatial modalities. The present study attempts to strengthen this conclusion by addressing two weaknesses in the previous study. First, the present study shows that the SM component continues to be more deficient than the PM component across both modalities under conditions in which (1) all participants were instructed to use the same recall strategy (resulting in the exclusion of fewer participants); and, (2) individual differences in this strategy were controlled. Second, the present study also documents a group difference in word reading efficiency that is confounded with diagnostic status and that might have influenced estimates of PM and SM capacities in the verbal modality. However, although the SM component is more deficient than the PM component in the ADHD group, the magnitude of this interaction does not vary as a function task modality. These findings are interpreted to suggest that the pattern of WM deficiencies observed are part of a causal pathway that can lead to the symptoms of ADHD, as well as to impairments in reading (and intelligence) due to overlapping cue-dependent retrieval mechanisms. These findings provide additional support for the notion that the SM component of WM is an important and neglected target for treatment.     

The Subtle Influence of Check and X Marks: How Symbolic Markings Influence Judgment

Symbols can exert an influence on how we think, feel, and even behave. Here we examine whether symbolic markings serve as primes and influence how people make judgments. We propose that making either a check or an X mark to indicate an opinion can lead people to process the same information differently, thereby influencing the judgment people make. Across four experiments, we find that the check and X marks carry different symbolic associations; people associate check with good and X with bad. We also find downstream consequences of these mental associations. People who make positively connoted check marks (as opposed to negatively connoted X marks) to indicate their judgments are more agreeable toward familiar, controversial social policies as well as market research survey items on values and life styles. Differential symbolic markings with check and X marks seem to shape how people think and make judgments.