A factor analytic study of the Stanford Binet with young children

Seven factors were found as the result of a factor analysis of year IV-6 through year VI of the 1960 Revision of the Stanford Binet Intelligence Test. No factor had a sufficient number of high loadings to justify interpretation as ‘g’, a general intelligence factor. The test protocols used were of 152 children from three to seven years of age who attended a University nursery school or Head Start day care centers. The group included 107 white and 45 Negro children who had been tested as part of a routine intellectual evaluation. The socioeconomic level, as measured by occupation of the parent, was higher than that of the standardizing population of the Binet, as was the mean IQ (109.4 ± 14.7). The results of this study were compared with the logical analysis of Meeker & Bonsall based upon Guilford's factors of the intellect, and with Valett's profile analysis.     

Exploring the Relationship Between Religious Coping and Spirituality Among Three Types of Collegiate Substance Abuse

Religion and spirituality are protective factors against collegiate substance abuse; however, considering the variance among different types of drug abuse is important. We investigated religious coping and spirituality in relation to hazardous drinking, marijuana use, and psychostimulant use. Results indicated that positive religious coping and several dimensions of spirituality protect against hazardous drinking and marijuana use. Furthermore, differences in religious coping and spirituality may not exist between groups of psychostimulant users.     

Savoring with Intent: Investigating Types of and Motives for Responses to Positive Events

To contribute to a growing literature on positive affect (PA) regulation, we report on two studies investigating college students’ responses to hypothetical positive events using a new measure, the Positive Events and Responses Survey (PEARS). The PEARS includes various responses, including savoring (up-regulating PA) and dampening strategies (down-regulating PA), and novel responses (e.g., mass-sharing using Facebook). We examined its convergent and concurrent validity, its relationship with the value of happiness, and motives underlying savoring. Factor analyses supported a 3-factor model: natural savoring (e.g., expressing PA), intentional savoring (e.g., reflecting on the self), and dampening (e.g., minimizing the event). Both natural and intentional savoring were linked to other savoring behaviors, but only natural savoring was linked to perceived savoring ability and (in some bivariate results) to well-being. In contrast, dampening was consistently linked to less savoring and more dampening on other measures, lower well-being, and more depressive symptoms. People reporting valuing happiness more reported higher likelihood of all three types of responses. Qualitative data provided partial support for the hypothesis that intentional savoring strategies are more often used for instrumental reasons (e.g., boosting self-esteem), whereas natural savoring responses may sometimes be more automatic or stem from feeling PA. These studies validate a new measure and suggest that reasons underlying people’s savoring matter.     

Incongruent imagery interferes with action initiation

It has been suggested that representing an action through observation and imagery share neural processes with action execution. In support of this view, motor-priming research has shown that observing an action can influence action initiation. However, there is little motor-priming research showing that imagining an action can modulate action initiation. The current study examined whether action imagery could prime subsequent execution of a reach and grasp action. Across two motion analysis tracking experiments, 40 participants grasped an object following congruent or incongruent action imagery. In Experiment 1, movement initiation was faster following congruent compared to incongruent imagery, demonstrating that imagery can prime the initiation of grasping. In Experiment 2, incongruent imagery resulted in slower movement initiation compared to a no-imagery control. These data show that imagining a different action to that which is performed can interfere with action production. We propose that the most likely neural correlates of this interference effect are brain regions that code imagined and executed actions. Further, we outline a plausible mechanistic account of how priming in these brain regions through imagery could play a role in action cognition.     

The influence of visual information on auditory lateralization

Sætrevik, B. (2010). The influence of visual information on auditory lateralization. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. The classic McGurk study showed that presentation of one syllable in the visual modality simultaneous with a different syllable in the auditory modality creates the perception of a third, not presented syllable. The current study presented dichotic syllable pairs (one in each ear) simultaneously with video clips of a mouth pronouncing the syllables from one of the ears, or pronouncing a syllable that was not part of the dichotic pair. When asked to report the auditory stimuli, responses were shifted towards selecting the auditory stimulus from the side that matched the visual stimulus.