Social competence and conduct problems in young children: issues in assessment

Examined the differences in various facets of social competence in 2 groups of young children (ages 4-7 years)--a clinic-referred group of aggressive children (N = 60) diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder or conduct problems and a matched comparison group of typically developing children (N = 60). Four aspects of social competence were assessed: social information processing, actual observations of conflict management skills and social play interactions during peer interactions, positive social interactions with mothers and fathers at home, and teacher reports of social competence. The social information processing assessed included problem-solving skills (hypothetical skills as demonstrated on a social problem-solving test), self-perceptions (child's awareness of his or her own social self and feelings of loneliness), perceptions of others (attributions), and perceptions of others' attitudes toward oneself. To determine the construct validity of various means of assessing child social competence, we correlated children's social information processing measures with parent and teacher reports of social adjustment and with actual observations of interactions during peer play and at home with parents. Results comparing the 2 groups suggest that young children with conduct problems have deficits in their social information processing awareness or interpretation of social cues--they overestimate their own social competence and misattribute hostile intent to others. Tests of cognitive problem solving and observations of peer play interactions indicated that the children with conduct problems had significantly fewer positive problem-solving strategies and positive social skills, more negative conflict management strategies, and delayed play skills with peers than the comparison children. Correlation analyses indicated significant correlations between children's negative attributions and the ratio of positive to negative problem-solving strategies with observations of peer play interactions.     

Cortical potentials evoked by confirming and disconfirming feedback following an auditory discrimination

Vertex potentials elicited by visual feedback (signals following an auditory intensity discrimination have been studied with eight Ss. Feedback signals which confirmed the prior sensory decision elicited small P3s, while disconfirming, feedback elicited P3s that were larger. On the average, the latency of P3 was also found to increase with increasing disparity between the judgment and. the feedback information. These effects were part bf an overall dichotomy in waveshape following confirming vs disconforming feedback. These findings are incorporated in a general model of the role of P3 in perceptual decision making.     

Spatial frequency comparisons of rotated gratings

Reaction time for determining if two square-wave gratings are the same or different is a bimodal function of the relative angular separation (RAS) between them. Response time peaks at 60° and 120° separation and drops siguificantly at approximately 90°, provided that the gratings being compared are of the same spatial frequency. This pattern of results is not in line with those previously reported for more complex figures, nor may it be attributed to any “oblique effect,” since the same function is obtained with the comparison gratings placed at different retinal orientations. One possible explanation is that orthogonally tuned orientation channels interact in a facilitatory fashion in the human visual system.     

Commentary for special issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology in honor of Alan Scoboria

The world would be a better place if there were more people like Alan. What an extraordinary convergence of kindness, reflectiveness, persistence, ethics, breadth of knowledge, and raw smarts! He positively and substantially contributed to cognitive, clinical, and social psychology, and to the lives of his students and collaborators. This collection carries that legacy forward. Alan would have relished reading every one of these articles. I am honored by the opportunity to comment. I hope to do so in a way that Alan would approve. I begin with a brief reflection on one of the “big picture” ideas in Alan's work. Then I discuss several issues that I know were near and dear to Alan and that have also occupied my own thinking for years. In addition to scientific accounts of true and false beliefs and memories, my comments are informed by the methodological reform movement. As an oldster, I also take this opportunity to mention a few earlier issues/findings that relate to current controversies.     

What's Fair When a Child Testifies?1

Undergraduates (N = 385) watched a 2-hr, videotaped, mock trial of a child sexual abuse case. The child testified in open court, with a barrier between the child and the defendant, or via closed circuit television. Students enacted the role of a juror, sibling of the defendant, or sibling of the mother of the victim. The judge either did or did not warn jurors that the barrier or video should not be considered evidence of the defendant's guilt. Use of the barrier or video did not influence guilty votes, the credibility of witnesses, nor the perceived fairness of the trial for jurors. Siblings of the defendant perceived these procedures to be biased and their use as unfair. Increased publicity about the use of barriers and closed-circuit television when children testify is recommended to reduce objections to these procedures.     

Specificity of the Association between Marital Discord and Longitudinal Changes in Symptoms of Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder in the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing

This longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate actor and partner effects of marital discord on changes in symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in a large population sample of Irish adults (N = 1,445 couples), adjusting for the potential confounds of quality of other social relationships and other psychopathology symptoms. The Actor–Partner Interdependence Model was used to examine actor and partner effects of marital discord on changes in symptoms of depression and GAD at a 2‐year follow‐up. Additional models examined these associations adjusting for family and friend discord and symptoms of the other type of psychopathology (depressive or GAD symptoms). Actor effects of marital discord on depressive and anxiety symptoms were greater for men than for women. There were significant, positive actor effects of marital discord on depressive symptoms for husbands and wives, which remained significant when adjusting for family and friend discord and GAD symptoms. There were significant, positive actor effects of marital discord on GAD symptoms for husbands, which remained significant when adjusting for family and friend discord and depressive symptoms. Results demonstrate that longitudinal associations between marital discord and depressive symptoms (for wives and husbands) and GAD symptoms (for husbands) are incremental to other rival explanations (family and friend discord and the other set of symptoms). Findings provide evidence for a potential causal association leading from marital discord to symptoms of depression and GAD.     

Regulatory fit as input for stop rules

Three experiments show that the motivational effects of regulatory fit (consistency between regulatory state and strategic means) are context dependent. With no explicit decision rule about when to stop (Experiment 1) or an explicit enjoyment stop rule (Experiments 2 and 3), participants exerted more effort on tasks when experiencing regulatory fit than when experiencing regulatory nonfit. With an explicit sufficiency stop rule (Experiments 2 and 3), participants exerted less effort when experiencing regulatory fit than when experiencing regulatory nonfit. The interactive effect of regulatory fit and stop rules can be explained by misattribution of rightness feelings from regulatory fit; the effect was eliminated by drawing participants' attention to an earlier event as a source of rightness feelings (Experiments 1 and 3).     

Behavioral assessment of impulsivity: a comparison of children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

We conducted a brief computer-based assessment involving choices of concurrently presented arithmetic problems associated with competing reinforcer dimensions to assess impulsivity (choices controlled primarily by reinforcer immediacy) as well as the relative influence of other dimensions (reinforcer rate, quality, and response effort), with 58 children. Results were compared for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were and were not receiving medication, and with typically developing children without ADHD. Within-subject and between-groups analyses of the ordinal influence of each of the reinforcer dimensions were conducted using both time- and response-allocation measures. In general, the choices of children with ADHD were most influenced by reinforcer immediacy and quality and least by rate and effort, suggesting impulsivity. The choices of children in the non-ADHD group were most influenced by reinforcer quality, and the influence of immediacy relative to the other dimensions was not statistically significant. Results are discussed with respect to the implications for assessment and treatment of ADHD.