Going beyond the facts: Young children extend knowledge by integrating episodes

The major question posed in this research was whether 4- and 6-year-olds productively extend their knowledge by integrating information acquired in separate episodes. The vehicle was a read-aloud activity during which children were presented with a novel fact in each of two passages. In Experiment 1, both age groups showed evidence of integration between the passages. For the 6-year-olds, the evidence came in the form of responses to open-ended questions. The 4-year-olds recognized the correct answers but did not generate them in the open-ended question format. The 6-year-olds who generated the correct answers also were likely to recall both of the individual facts presented in the passages. In Experiment 2, we tested whether the 4-year-olds’ integration performance would improve if their memory for the individual facts improved. Extra exposure to the individual facts resulted in higher levels of integration performance in both recall and recognition testing. The roles of memory and other potential sources of age-related differences in integration performance are discussed.     

The Order of Dominance Among Conceptual Capacities: An Experimental Test of Heidbreder'S Hypothesis

College freshmen in an educational opportunity program were trained in an orientation program by behavior rehearsal techniques to cope with the social demands of some in-class and out-of-class situations. At the end of their freshman year, data were available on 48 male and 51 female black students and 23 male and 21 female white students. Trainees earned better grades than controls on the campus where training was offered but not at smaller branch campuses. Results suggest the importance of para-academic skills of meeting assignments and knowing when, where, and how to seek help. Academic performance may be enhanced by training in campus and classroom social skills.     

A signal detection analysis of gist-based discrimination of genetic breast cancer risk

Pervasive biases in probability judgment render the probability scale a poor response mode for assessing risk judgments. By applying fuzzy trace theory, we used ordinal gist categories as a response mode, coupled with a signal detection model to assess risk judgments. The signal detection model is an extension of the familiar model used in binary choice paradigms. It provides three measures of discriminability—low versus medium risk, medium versus high risk, and low versus high risk—and two measures of response bias. We used the model to assess the effectiveness of BRCA Gist, an intelligent tutoring system designed to improve women’s judgments and understanding of genetic risk for breast cancer. Participants were randomly assigned to the BRCA Gist intelligent tutoring system, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Web pages, or a control group, and then they rated cases that had been developed using the Pedigree Assessment Tool and also vetted by medical experts. BRCA Gist participants demonstrated increased discriminability for all three risk categories, relative to the control group; the NCI group showed increased discriminability for two of the three levels. This result suggests that BRCA Gist best improved discriminability among genetic risk categories, and both BRCA Gist and the NCI website improved participants’ ability to discriminate, rather than simply shifting their decision criterion. A spreadsheet that fits the model and compares parameters across the conditions can be downloaded from the Behavior Research Methods website and used in any research involving categorical responses.     

Gender Identity and Adjustment in Middle Childhood

This article has two purposes. The first is to present a brief (and speculative) account of the developmental origins of the several components of gender identity featured in the multidimensional model of gender identity proposed by Egan and Perry (2001). The second is to offer additional empirical support for the construct and discriminant validity of the various gender identity dimensions. Children (M age = 11.5 years) were assessed for 4 components of gender identity: (a) felt gender typicality, (b) contentment with gender assignment, (c) felt pressure for gender conformity, and (d) intergroup bias (the sentiment that one's own sex is superior). Gender typicality, gender contentedness, and felt pressure (but not intergroup bias) related to indexes of psychosocial adjustment in specific and theoretically meaningful ways. The case for a multidimensional approach to gender identity is strengthened.     

Family Peer Advocates: A Pilot Study of the Content and Process of Service Provision

Professional family peer advocates are increasingly employed by public mental health systems to deliver family-to-family support that reduces barriers families face in accessing children’s mental health care. These services, however, are neither uniformly available nor standardized. This pilot study describes the process, content and context of family-to-family support services. Simulating a parent seeking services, a trained standardized parent participated as a client in meetings with advocates in four programs and collected data through structured observations, a structured survey, and session audiotapes. The “walk-through” process was determined to be feasible and acceptable to family peer advocates as a way of evaluating services. Four family peer advocates provided an average of 25 services during each 2-session simulation with the standardized parent, including the following: information and educational support, instruction and skills development, emotional and affirmational support, instrumental support, and advocacy. Findings also revealed variability in the range of services provided and identified challenges in aspects of service provision, such as boundaries of advocate roles, availability of confidential service environments, and addressing crises and parent concerns about child safety. This paper provides the first in-depth look at services provided by this emerging workforce.     

Psychological underpinnings of intrafamilial computer-mediated communication: a preliminary exploration of CMC uptake with parents and siblings

This preliminary study investigates the uptake of computer-mediated communication (CMC) with parents and siblings, an area on which no research appears to have been conducted. Given the lack of relevant literature, grounded theory methodology was used and online focus group discussions were conducted in an attempt to generate suitable hypotheses for further empirical studies. Codification of the discussion data revealed various categories of meaning, namely: a perceived inappropriateness of CMC with members of family of origin; issues relating to the family generational gap; the nature of the offline sibling/parent relationship; the non-viability of online affordances such as planned self-disclosure, deception, identity construction; and disinhibition in interactions with family-of-origin members. These themes could be molded into hypotheses to assess the psychosocial limitations of CMC and to determine if it can indeed become a ubiquitous alternative to traditional communication modes as some scholars have claimed.     

Intimate partner cohesion and military unit cohesion: Different types of interpersonal relationships each uniquely predict soldier well-being

Although research on military populations has found that measures of personal well-being are correlated with both intimate partner cohesion and military unit cohesion, it is not clear how these correlations should be interpreted. Based on Relationship Regulation Theory, it was expected that each type of interpersonal relationship would have independent effects, that each would uniquely predict outcomes, and that effects would remain significant after controlling for person-level traits and experiences, such as trait resilience and exposure to combat. A sample of 273 active-duty military personnel completed self-report measures of cohesion in two types of interpersonal relationships (intimate relationships and military unit relationships), two control variables (trait resilience and combat exposure), and three outcome variables (well-being, negative emotionality, and trauma-related stress). Results indicated that cohesion in the two types of relationships were minimally related to each other, but both correlated with outcome variables. Effects for each type of interpersonal relationship remained significant after controlling for the other type and controlling for trait resilience and combat exposure. The results suggest that the effects of interpersonal cohesion are best understood as reflecting experiences in specific types of relationships rather than general characteristics of people in those relationships.     

Female laryngectomees' satisfaction with communication methods and speech-language pathology services

132 female laryngectomees responded to a questionnaire regarding satisfaction with their communication methods as postlaryngectomees and speech-language pathology services. Respondents were satisfied overall with their primary communication selection; however, most would like to try a method that produced a more feminine-sounding voice. 68% were satisfied with their speech-language pathology services.