The Missing Link: On Strengthening the Relationship Between Values and Attitudes

Three experiments that test whether the activation of values may result in a change in the relationship between the activated value and connected attitudes are discussed. Participants were primed with the value universalism and subsequently asked for their attitude toward organically grown food. Our results strongly suggest that values are more likely to significantly influence attitudes when the relevant value is activated and the link between the activated value and attitude is activated as well. However, merely activating a specific value is not sufficient to instigate a significant change in the relationship between a value and its related attitudes.     

Towards a theory-based assessment of coping: The german adaptation of the strategic approach to coping scale

Although coping has become one of the central constructs in the area of research on life events, emotions, and health, it is yet not clear how to conceptualize coping in the most powerful way. Coping instruments often lack a clear underlying theory or are confounded with the stress process itself. Therefore, a theoretical as well as empirical framework is needed. The study at hand presents cross-sectional data from a German version of a coping scale that is constructed in line with the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (SACS) developed by Hobfoll et al. The German scale findings support those of the original, US version, but also indicate potential cultural distinction. The findings suggest that the GSACS is theory syntonic and has potential for elaborating coping research.     

The relationship of individual and communal state-trait coping and interpersonal resources as trust,empathy and responsibility

Prior research and theoretical considerations revealed important information about the role of individual state-trait coping and personal resources for coping with an examination. However, the relationship between communal coping strategies and interpersonal resources has yet to be investigated. In order to understand the relationship between state-trait coping and interpersonal resources, several statistical analyses were used. The German Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (GSACS, GSACS-Exam), the Interpersonal Trust Scale (ITS), and exam-specific Empathy and Responsibility Scales (RESP-Exam, EMP-Exam) were combined for collecting data from a sample of 122 examiner-examinee-dyads. Data on empathy and responsibility of examiners were gathered as well as dispositional coping styles and trust of examinees eight weeks prior to an oral examination. Dispositional coping predicted comparable situational coping, reported immediately after the examination at a low-moderate level. Communal coping strategies tended to vary more than individual ones. Interpersonal resources were found to predict specific communal coping responses and a path model revealed the mediating effect of interpersonal trust. The results are discussed in the light of communal coping theory and educational significance.     

Serial and subjective clustering on a verbal learning test (VLT) in children aged 5–15: The nature of subjective clustering

This study investigated which strategies children aged 5–15 years (N?=?408) employ while performing a multitrial free recall test of semantically unrelated words. Serial clustering (i.e., a relatively passive strategy) is an index of the sequential consistency of recall order. Subjective clustering (i.e., a more active strategy) is based on similar word groupings in successive trials. Previously, Meijs et al. (2009 Meijs, C. J. C., Hurks, P. P. M., Kalff, A. C., Slaats-Willemse, D. I. E., Rozendaal, N. and Jolles, J. 2009. Differential development of learning strategies on a Pictorial Verbal Learning Test (PVLT) in primary school children. Child Neuropsychology, 15: 247–261. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) found that the level of (serial and subjective) clustering increases with age. At all ages, the level of serial clustering correlates positively with the ability to recall information on VLT trials. However, subjective clustering is more predictive of VLT performance than serial clustering after ≥ 3 trials, but only in children aged 8+. Knowledge on how children organize words (based on, for example, sound or meaning) and how this relates to developmental stage is still lacking. This study revealed that the level of subjective clustering is primarily determined by the position of words in a VLT list. More specifically, primacy (i.e., recall of words 1–3 of the VLT list — whether recalled in the same order or reversed) and recency (i.e., recall of words 14–15) effects primarily determine level subjective organization over successive trials. Thus, older children still organize words based on the serial position of the VLT list and are much less likely to organize them based on any other feature of the words, for example, sound or meaning. This indicates that the most important information to be learned needs to be presented first or last, even in older children and even with repeated presentations.     

Typical dreams: stability and gender differences

Although the variability of dream content is large, typical dream themes that occur quite often and are reported by many people can be identified (e.g., being chased, falling, flying, failing an examination, being unable to find a toilet or restroom). The present study is an investigation of the stability of the rank order of the dream themes and of gender differences in the content of dreams. The authors administered A. L. Zadra and T. A. Nielsen's (1997) Typical Dream Questionnaire to 444 participants. The findings indicated that most of the 55 dream themes occurred at least once in most of the participants' lifetimes. In addition, the correlation coefficients for the rank order of the themes were very high; that is, the relative frequencies were stable. The gender differences in the present study were in line with content analytic findings; for example, men reported dreams about physical aggression more often than did women. Overall, previous research and the present data indicate that available research results of the measurement of typical dream themes are reliable and valid. The question of the meaning of these themes or the relationship between typical dream contents and waking life experiences, however, has not yet been answered and is open to future research.     

Motor adaptation to different dynamic environments is facilitated by indicative context stimuli

When humans are exposed to external forces while performing arm movements, they adapt by compensating for these novel forces. The basis of this learning process is thought to be a neural representation that models the relation between all forces acting upon the system and the kinematic effects they produce, called inverse dynamic model (IDM). The present study investigated whether and how the predictability of a given external force affects the selection of an appropriate motor response to compensate for such force. Adult human subjects (N=32) held a handle that could rotate around the elbow joint and learned to perform goal-directed forearm flexion movements, while an external velocity-dependent negative damping force was applied that assisted forearm movement. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. In the associative group, the applied damping force was always associated with a specific initial position. Thus, after initial learning, the force application became predictable. In the non-associative group, where the same movements were performed, the applied force was independent of the initial position, so that no association between force and location could be formed. We found that only the associative group significantly reduced target error when damping was present. That is, the location cue aided these subjects in generating dynamic responses in the appropriate limb. Our results indicate that motor adaptation to different dynamic environments can be facilitated by indicative stimuli.     

Inferential bridging relations reveal distinct neural mechanisms: evidence from event-related brain potentials

This study investigates the online comprehension of Determiner Phrases (DPs) as a function of the given-new distinction in two-sentence texts in German and further focuses on DPs whose interpretation depends on inferential information (so-called 'bridging relations'). Previous reaction time studies report an advantage of given over new information. In the present study, this difference is reflected in distinct neural mechanisms: event-related potentials reveal that previously introduced (i.e., given) DPs elicit a reduced N400, while new DPs show an enhanced N400 followed by a P600. Crucially, inferentially bridged DPs, which are hypothesized to share properties with new and given information, first pattern with given DPs (showing an attenuated N400) and then with new DPs (showing an enhanced P600). The data demonstrate that salience relations between DPs and prior context ease DP integration and that additional cost arises from the establishment of independent reference. They further reveal that processing cost associated with the interpretation of bridged DPs results from the anaphoric complexity of introducing an independent referent.     

Spatial knowledge of children with spina bifida in a virtual large-scale space

The spatial knowledge of 18 children with spina bifida and 18 healthy control children (matched according to sex, age, and verbal IQ) was investigated in a computer-simulated environment. All children had to learn a route through a virtual floor system containing 18 landmarks. Controlling for cognitive abilities, the results revealed that children with spina bifida showed impaired route knowledge but not an impaired landmark knowledge. Thus the results suggest that children with spina bifida are not impaired in all large-scale abilities similarly. The impairments of the children with spina bifida are more accentuated in more behaviour based measurements, which indicates a relation to the reduced mobility of the children with spina bifida.     

Distance cognition in virtual environmental space: Further investigations to clarify the route-angularity effect

Two experiments with 72 participants in total investigated the route-angularity effect. This effect is shown when a greater number of turns along a route increase the estimated length of this route. In this study it was shown that the route-angularity effect is likely to be a memory-based effect depending on task difficulty. The important factor seems to be how heavily memory is loaded during learning. The route-angularity effect even appears in intentional learning, when memory is loaded heavily. Under this learning condition participants know beforehand that they have to estimate distances. All experiments were conducted in a controlled virtual environment, which allows a reliable investigation of distance estimations in environmental space.     

Decomposing retrieval and integration in memory for actions: a multinomial modeling approach

Typically, action phrases are recalled better if participants are asked to enact the phrases than if they are just asked to remember them. When investigating which processes constitute this enactment effect a difficulty is that observable effects in standard memory tests are ambiguous because such tests require several processes. In the present article, we introduce a multinomial model that decomposes observable memory performance into a retrieval parameter and a parameter concerning the item-specific processing and integration of an action phrase. These parameters are estimated from free recall and cued recall performance. The model fitted the data of two experiments designed to test it. Experiment 1 demonstrated the basic usefulness of the model by showing expected differences in the integration parameter in the absence of unexpected differences in the retrieval parameter. Experiment 2 extended the conditions under which the model is useful by showing expected differences in the retrieval parameter even in the presence of unexpected differences in the integration parameter. Together, these findings support our theoretical framework according to which enactment generally boosts integration of action phrases, but increases retrieval only for phrases with context cues.