Characteristics of Preschool Gender Enforcers and Peers Who Associate with Them

Sex Roles - Children who try to exclude others due to their gender can be considered as “gender enforcers.” Using multiple methods (observations, interviews) and informants (children,...     

A Short-Term Longitudinal Exploration of the Impact of TV Exposure on Objectifying Attitudes Toward Women in Early Adolescent Boys

Sex Roles - The present study aimed to examine the relationships over time between television viewing (music and tween TV) and boys’ endorsement of sexualized gender roles, that is, views of...     

Validation of the Poisoning Severity Score (PSS) in suicidal behavior by self‐poisoning

Intentional self‐poisoning is the leading method of suicidal behavior leading to medical attention worldwide. The medical severity of self‐poisoning events has major treatment, prognostic, and medico‐legal implications, yet measures of severity are limited. The Poisoning Severity Score (PSS) is a widely used scale but validation data are limited, particularly in the study of suicidal behavior per se. The sample was a consecutive series of intentional self‐poisoning patients aged 13 to 65 treated at a large university medical center (n = 673). PSS scores, with a range 0 (none) to 4 (death), were calculated along with other structured clinical data and analyzed in a series of linear regressions adjusted for age and sex. Higher PSS scores were consistently associated with greater medical morbidity and more intensive acute medical treatments, and nearly all effect sizes were large. Results support the validity of the PSS in hospital‐treated self‐poisoning patients.     

The relative success of recognition-based inference in multichoice decisions

The utility of an "ecologically rational" recognition-based decision rule in multichoice decision problems is analyzed, varying the type of judgment required (greater or lesser). The maximum size and range of a counterintuitive advantage associated with recognition-based judgment (the "less-is-more effect") is identified for a range of cue validity values. Greater ranges of the less-is-more effect occur when participants are asked which is the greatest of m choices ( m > 2) than which is the least. Less-is-more effects also have greater range for larger values of m . This implies that the classic two-alternative forced choice task, as studied by Goldstein and Gigerenzer (2002) , may not be the most appropriate test case for less-is-more effects.     

Parent-Rated Anxiety Symptoms in Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Frequency and Association with Core Autism Symptoms and Cognitive Functioning

Background In addition to the core symptoms, children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) often exhibit other problem behaviors such as aggression, hyperactivity, and anxiety, which can contribute to overall impairment and, therefore, become the focus of clinical attention. Limited data are available on the prevalence of anxiety in these children. We examined frequency and correlates of parent-rated anxiety symptoms in a large sample of children with PDD. Methods The goals of this study were to examine the frequency and correlates of parent-rated anxiety symptoms in a sample of 171 medication-free children with PDD who participated in two NIH-funded medication trials. Twenty items of the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory (CASI) were used to measure anxiety. Results Forty three percent of the total sample met screening cut-off criteria for at least one anxiety disorder. Higher levels of anxiety on the 20-item CASI scale were associated with higher IQ, the presence of functional language use, and with higher levels of stereotyped behaviors. In children with higher IQ, anxiety was also associated with greater impairment in social reciprocity. Conclusion Anxiety is common in PDD and warrants consideration in clinical evaluation and treatment planning. This study suggests that parent ratings could be a useful source of information about anxiety symptoms in this population. Some anxiety symptoms such as phobic and social anxiety may be closer to core symptoms of PDD. Further efforts to validate tools to ascertain anxiety are needed, as are studies to empirically test approaches to treat anxiety in PDD.     

Toddlers' use of cues in a search task

Search for a ball that has undergone hidden motion rapidly improves during the second year of life (Dev. Psychol., 2000; 36 :394–401). In three experiments we investigated whether the poor performance of younger toddlers was due to attentional failure by highlighting the major cue for the hidden object. We observed only slight improvement in search behaviour. We performed two other experiments that tested the depth of understanding of 3‐year‐olds in this task and found that their performance was robust to changes in the apparatus and experimental procedures. Overall, the results point to a rapidly developing ability in the second year of life to either reason about space or select the correct motor response in search tasks. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ethos and ethics of translational research

Calls for the "translation" of research from bench to bedside are increasingly demanding. What is translation, and why does it matter? We sketch the recent history of outcome-oriented translational research in the United States, with a particular focus on the Roadmap Initiative of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Our main example of contemporary translational research is stem cell research, which has superseded genomics as the translational object of choice. We explore the nature of and obstacles to translational research and assess the ethical and biomedical challenges of embracing a translational ethos.     

The development of category-based induction: reexamining conclusions from the induction then recognition (ITR) paradigm

Three studies examined the development of category-based induction using an induction then recognition (ITR) procedure in which participants make category-based predictions about study items and are then given a surprise recognition test that requires discrimination between old and new category members. Exposure duration for study items was either self-paced (Experiment 1) or fixed for 5-year-olds and adults (Experiments 2a-b). Adults always showed a decrement in recognition performance following induction. Children showed the same decrement when exposure duration was equated across age groups. These results show that both young children and adults spontaneously access category-level information during induction. When study exposure time is self-paced, however, children may process additional, noncategorical aspects of study stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).