Adults' representations of division facts: a consequence of learning history?

There has been a recent increase in the study of adults' performance on simple division problems. Researchers up to now have focused on the relationship between multiplication and division and have found that multiplication often has a mediating role in the solution of division problems (Campbell, 1997, 1999; LeFevre & Morris, 1999; Mauro, LeFevre, & Morris, 2002). In this study, division was exclusively examined to determine the strategies that are used to solve these problems and to identify factors relating to particular strategy use. Thirty-two participants were asked to solve two sets of 64 simple division problems (from 4 divided by 2 to 81 divided by 9) and error, latency, and strategy report data were collected. Fewer errors were made on easy problems, which were also solved more quickly than difficult problems. Participants used retrieval, multiplication, and other strategies to solve the problems and tended to use retrieval more on easy than difficult problems and used multiplication more on difficult problems than easy problems. Unexpected age differences in strategy use were also found. Older participants tended to rely more heavily on retrieval than younger participants. These results suggest that older participants may have stronger representations for simple division problems than younger participants.     

Relational aggression in college students: Examining the roles of social anxiety and empathy

This study examined the unique contributions of social anxiety and empathy to relational aggression in 300 19–to–25–year–old (M=21.25; SD=1.32) male (n=97) and female (n=203) college students using hierarchical linear regression analysis. The interactive relations between gender and social anxiety, and between gender and empathy, were also assessed. In addition to the gender and overt aggression covariates, fear of negative evaluation and perspective taking were unique predictors of relational aggression. Males, students who were more overtly aggressive, and those who reported greater fear of negative evaluation were more relationally aggressive than were peers. Students with higher levels of perspective taking reported using less relational aggression than did peers. A gender x empathetic concern interaction indicated that for males only, lower levels of empathetic concern were associated with higher levels of relational aggression. Results are discussed within a social information‐processing perspective. Aggr. Behav. 29:430–439, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Maternal self‐efficacy beliefs,competence in parenting,and toddlers' behavior and developmental status

This study was designed to examine parenting self‐efficacy beliefs as correlates of mothers' competence in parenting toddlers and as predictors of toddlers' behavior and development. Sixty‐eight predominantly middle‐class mother–toddler pairs participated in this study. Mothers completed questionnaires, toddlers were administered the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID‐II), and each dyad participated in the Crowell Procedure, which is designed to observe parent and toddler behaviors in a semistructured laboratory context. Although domain‐general and domain‐specific parenting self‐efficacy beliefs were not associated with parenting competence, domain‐specific beliefs were significantly related to toddlers' scores on the Mental Scale of the BSID‐II and several behaviors observed during the Crowell Procedure (Affection Towards Mother, Avoidance of Mother, Compliance, Enthusiasm, and Negativity). Implications of the findings are discussed. ©2003 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Can Messages Make a Difference? The Association Between E‐Mail Messages and Health Outcomes in Diabetes Patients

This investigation examined the impact of social support messages on patient health outcomes. Forty‐one American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian patients received a total of 618 e‐mail messages from their healthcare provider (HCP). The e‐mail messages were divided into 3,565 message units and coded for instances of emotional social support. Patient glycosulated hemoglobin scores (HbA1c) showed significantly improved glycemic control and emotional social support messages were associated with significant decreases in HbA1c values. Patient involvement with the system, measured by system login frequency and the frequency of uploaded blood glucose scores to the HCP, did not predict change in HbA1c.     

Achieving activity transitions in physician‐patient encounters.

This article examines how physicians and patients interactionally accomplish the transition from the activity of history taking to that of physical examination. Prior research focuses on participants' reliance on overt verbal resources (e.g., physicians' requests for permission to examine patients or explanations that foreshadow examination). Using the methodology of conversation analysis, this article draws on a corpus of 40 primary‐care encounters to demonstrate that: (a) In addition to verbal behavior, nonverbal behavior is integral to the accomplishment of transitions; and (b) patients' understandings of physicians' verbal and nonverbal behavior as communicating transitions are achieved through situating those behaviors in other contexts of embodied action, talk, activity, and social structure (i.e., the phase structure of encounters). Findings have implications for: (a) the theoretic relationship between verbal and nonverbal behavior in terms of social meaning, (b) what it means to explain transitions and reduce patients' uncertainty, (c) the organization of physician‐patient interaction, and (d) the relationship and interface between macro‐ and microconceptualization of context.