Does test-enhanced learning transfer for triple associates?

Test-enhanced learning and transfer for triple-associate word stimuli was assessed in three experiments. In each experiment, training and final-test trials involved the presentation of two words per triple associate (triplet), with the third word having to be retrieved. In agreement with the prior literature on different stimuli, training through testing with feedback yielded markedly better final-test performance than did restudy. However, in contrast to the positive transfer reported for paired associate stimuli, minimal or no positive transfer was observed, relative to a restudy control, from a trained cue combination (e.g., A, B, ?) to other cue combinations from the same triplet that required a different response (e.g., B, C, ?). That result also held when two unique cue combinations per triplet were tested during training, and for triplets with low and high average associative strengths. Supplementary analyses provided insight into the overall transfer effect: An incorrect response during training appears to yield positive transfer relative to restudy, whereas a correct response appears to yield no, or even negative, transfer. Cross-experiment analyses indicated that test-enhanced learning is not diminished when two or three cue combinations are presented during training. Thus, even though learning through testing is highly specific, testing on all possible stimulus–response combinations remains the most efficient strategy for the learning of triple associates.     

Exploring the Structure of Adolescent Problem Behaviors and the Associated Adult Outcomes

This study expands on previous research on adolescent problem behaviors by examining whether different constellations of problem behavior in adolescence differentially impact outcomes during emerging adulthood. Data from the in-home interviews of waves 2 and 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) were used to examine these relationships. Latent class analysis, using nineteen problem behaviors measured at wave 2, identified three classes of adolescents representing “low risk, abstainers,” “sexually-active, experimenters,” and a “high risk, diverse behavior” group. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were then used to identify class differences (measured at wave 3) in social stability, general health and service utilization, and criminal justice system involvement during emerging adulthood. Important class differences in the likelihood of negative outcomes during early adulthood were identified. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Personality Correlates of Self-Esteem

The current study examined the relation between self-esteem and the Big Five personality dimensions. Data were collected over the Internet from a large heterogeneous sample of individuals who ranged in age from 9 to 90 years (N = 326,641). Collectively, the Big Five accounted for 34% of the variance in self-esteem. High self-esteem individuals were emotionally stable, extraverted, and conscientious and were somewhat agreeable and open to experience. Despite an extensive search for potential mediators and moderators of this general pattern, the relations between self-esteem and the Big Five largely cut across age, sex, social class, ethnicity, and nationality (United States vs non-United States). High self-esteem individuals tended to ascribe socially desirable traits to themselves, and this tendency partially mediated relations between the Big Five and self-esteem. Discussion focuses on interpreting the social desirability effects, limitations of the study, and directions for future research.     

Source cuing: Memory for melodies

Source cuing is a source-monitoring process in which the retrieval of a memory trace is aided by the use of a memory probe that includes information that is indicative of the original source. This is in contrast to source discrimination, where people need to retrieve the identity of the source of information. Thus, in source cuing, the source information is given, and in source discrimination, the source information is to be retrieved. The operation of source cuing was demonstrated in two experiments in which people had to identify which of two melodies had been heard earlier. Source cuing was present for information that was more indicative of the source (i.e., timbre), but not for information that was less indicative of the source (i.e., pitch). A third experiment demonstrated that the use of source cuing can be influenced by the retrieval context.     

Social representations in the ordinary explanation of a ‘riot’

This paper critically examines the notion of social representations by way of a systematic analysis of media and participants' accounts of the St Pauls street disturbances of 1980. The analysis concentrates on two major explanatory categories which appear in the accounts: (A) ‘race’; (B) ‘government cuts and amenities’. In each case it is possible to distinguish three different levels of consensus between accounts: (i) particular explanatory schemata can be recognized as available but treated as mistaken; (ii) particular explanatory schemata can be recognized as relevant and adopted to explain the particular events, although in different ways; (iii) particular schemata can be adopted and used to explain events in the same way. The flexible meaning of these categories is highlighted along with the recurrent reference to alternative explanations. These findings raise problems for the suggestion that social representations minimize conflict and create ‘consensual universes’, and question the straightforward relationship between social representations and identifiable social groups. In conclusion the need is identified for a more detailed analysis of the language in which social representations are couched, and the relationship they bear to different contexts of use.