Effects of three-step prompting on compliance with caregiver requests

Three-step prompting is a procedure commonly used in behavioral assessments and interventions; however, little research has evaluated the effects of this procedure on increasing children's compliance with caregiver requests. In this study, caregivers of children who demonstrated low levels of compliance were trained to use three-step prompting when presenting task requests to their children. Results indicated that training caregivers to implement this procedure decreased the frequency of caregiver-delivered prompts and increased compliance by the children.     

Performance feedback improves the resolution of confidence judgments

A training experiment was carried out to examine whether feedback concerning the appropriateness of confidence judgments, given in terms of probability, improves calibration and resolution skills. Subjects participated in four separate sessions in which they responded to a series of general knowledge questions. Immediately before completing the questionnaires in Sessions 2, 3, and 4, half of the subjects were given detailed feedback concerning their confidence levels and accuracy rates. The remaining half were given no such feedback, and thus served as a control group. The resolution of confidence judgments improved across sessions to a greater extent for the group exposed to performance feedback than for the control group. Calibration of confidence judgments was uninfluenced by the performance feedback manipulation.     

Can (elaborated) imagined contact interventions reduce prejudice among those higher in intergroup disgust sensitivity (ITG‐DS)?

Intergroup disgust sensitivity (ITG‐DS) reflects an affect‐laden revulsion toward out‐groups. Previous attempts to weaken its prediction of prejudice have failed. Given that clinical approaches to disgust sensitivity successfully utilize mental imagery, we consider contact simulation interventions. Participants were randomly assigned to control, standard imagined contact, or an elaborated contact condition (elaborated imagined contact [EIC]; detailed imagination involving physical contact with a homeless person, with relaxation instructions). Both contact conditions (vs. control) significantly weakened the link between ITG‐DS and prejudice, yet only EIC weakened the relation between ITG‐DS and out‐group trust. Mediated moderation analysis confirmed that EIC significantly attenuated the link between ITG‐DS and prejudice through increasing trust. Clinically relevant treatments are thus valuable in severing the association between (a) ITG‐DS and (b) lower out‐group trust and greater out‐group prejudice.     

Intergroup disgust sensitivity as a predictor of islamophobia: The modulating effect of fear

The present research investigated whether intergroup disgust sensitivity (ITG-DS) predicts greater Islamophobia, and whether this positive association is modulated (strengthened or weakened) by the experience of concurrent incidental non-disgust emotions (fear, sadness, anger, happiness). In Study 1 (N = 225) participants completed measures of ITG-DS (an emotionally charged individual difference variable reflecting heightened tendency to experience disgust and revulsion reactions toward ethnic outgroup encounters) and dispositional measures of fear, sadness, anger, and happiness. Results revealed that among those experiencing greater (vs. lower) fear or sadness, the positive relation between ITG-DS and Islamophobia was significantly stronger. In Study 2 (N = 174), fear, sadness, and happiness were experimentally induced. Among those induced to experience fear, the positive relation between ITG-DS and prejudice toward Muslims was significantly strengthened relative to control. Overall, specific negative emotions, especially fear, interacted with individual differences in intergroup-relevant disgust sensitivity to inform outgroup evaluations.     

Brain training in older adults: evidence of transfer to memory span performance and pseudo-Matthew effects

In this study the effects of 'brain training' using the Nintendo DS Brain Training program were examined in two groups of older adults; the cognitive performance of an experimental group (n = 21) who were asked to use the Nintendo DS regularly over a 6-week period was compared with the control group (n = 20). Groups were matched on age (mean age = 74 years), education, computer experience, daily activities (time spent reading or watching television), and initial scores of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Analyses revealed that improvements were primarily in the Digit Span Test, specifically Digits Backwards. Although the Brain Training package appeared to have some efficacy, other factors such as perceived quality of life and perceived cognitive functioning were at least equally important in determining training outcomes. The implications of these findings for cognitive training are discussed.     

Book and Website Reviews

Using practicing sales managers as subjects, the results indicate that personal characteristics of gender and weight may be used in making disciplinary judgments following episodes of a particular type of unacceptable work behavior, an unethical selling act. As hypothesized, saleswomen were disciplined less severely while overweight salespeople were disciplined more severely. However, being overweight produced harsher discipline for saleswomen but had no effect on salesmen. A stated organizational policy about the particular type of unacceptable behavior used did bring about more equal treatment for those described as overweight but did not even out the discipline administered to men and women.     

Las deliberaciones del jurado: Contenido de la discusión y procesos de influencia en la toma de decisiones de un jurado

Resumen

Esta investigación estudia el proceso de deliberación del jurado. Un conjunto de sujetos, representativos, miembros de distintos jurados, asistieron a la proyección de un vídeo de un juicio que presentaba tres delitos, deliberaron en grupos de seis miembros, dieron un veredicto para cada uno de los cargos, y rellenaron un cuestionario posdeliberatorio que evaluó el proceso de juicio de cada sujeto. Las deliberaciones se recogieron en vídeo y se analizó su contenido. Los resultados indicaban que la distribución del voto inicial permitía una buena predición del veredicto final: las mayorías tendían a prevalecer. El contenido de la deliberación se centró en dos temas básicamente: a) los hechos del caso y b) las expresiones favorables al veredicto de culpabilidad o no culpabilidad. El Análisis de Pautas sugirió que las decisiones relativas al primer cargo se basaban en conjunto en el contenido de las deliberaciones y en la distribución del voto grupal, en tanto las decisiones sobre los restantes cargos se basaban básicamente en presiones de carácter normativo. El que los jurados hubieran cambiado o no de veredicto durante la deliberación afectaba a sus impresiones acerca del juicio tras la deliberación.     

Infant colic and maternal depression

The combined impact of infant colic and maternal depression on infant, parent, and family difficulties was examined. The sample included 93 consecutive patients seen at an outpatient Colic Clinic. Most mothers had private insurance and completed high school. Infants were approximately 2 months of age. Questionnaires completed by the mother prior to treatment onset were used to measure depressive symptoms in the mothers, infant cry, sleep and temperament, characteristics, parenting stress, maternal self‐esteem, social support, and family function. Moderate to severe depressive symptoms were reported by 45.2% of the mothers. More severe depressive symptoms in the mothers were related to fussy/difficult infant temperament, more parenting stress, lower parental self‐esteem, and more family‐functioning problems. Pediatric health care providers need to be aware that the combined effects of colic and maternal depression can be problematic for the family. ©2005 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Fractional factorial designs for legal psychology

Researchers considering novel or exploratory psycholegal research are often able to easily generate a sizable list of independent variables (IVs) that might influence a measure of interest. Where the research question is novel and the literature is not developed, however, choosing from among a long list of potential variables those worthy of empirical investigation often presents a formidable task. Many researchers may feel compelled by legal psychology's heavy reliance on full-factorial designs to narrow the IVs under investigation to two or three in order to avoid an expensive and unwieldy design involving numerous high-order interactions. This article suggests that fractional factorial designs provide a reasonable alternative to full-factorial designs in such circumstances because they allow the psycholegal researcher to examine the main effects of a large number of factors while disregarding high-order interactions. An introduction to the logic of fractional factorial designs is provided and several examples from the social sciences are presented.