Out of sight,out of mind: The attentional blink can eliminate synaesthetic colours

Mechanisms of selective attention exert a powerful influence on visual perception. We examined whether attentional selection is necessary for generation of the vivid colours experienced by individuals with grapheme-colour synaesthesia. Twelve synaesthetes and matched controls viewed rapid serial displays of nonsense characters within which were embedded an oriented grating (T1) and a letter-prime (T2), forming a modified attentional blink (AB) task. At the end of the stream a coloured probe appeared that was either congruent or incongruent with the synaesthetic colour elicited by the letter-prime. When the prime was attended, synaesthetes showed a reliable effect of prime-probe congruency. In contrast, when the prime appeared at 350 ms following T1 (during the AB), the congruency effect was eliminated. Our findings suggest that focused attention is crucial for inducing letters to elicit colours in synaesthesia.     

Support and Nonsupport for Nationalist Rebellion: A Prospect Theory Approach

Prospect theory has been advanced as one way to link intentional rebellious action and the influence of social conditions on individual decisions to support such action. This study extends the application of prospect theory by explaining tendencies toward action or inaction among individuals within identical social contexts. Put simply, the way in which people define reference points has an effect on how they perceive violent options. These perceptions may invoke inaction biases among members of a constituent community. This explanation is explored with illustrative examples drawn from interviews with individuals who supported or did not support rebellious action in Northern Ireland (in 1998) and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (in 1999). The interview data suggest that territorial demands are an important factor in how rebellious options are perceived.     

Use of an Orientation Session May Help Decrease Attrition in a Pediatric Weight Management Program for Low-Income Minority Adolescents

This study examined predictors of attrition from a pediatric weight-control program in a low-income minority community and the potential usefulness of an orientation session to increase length of treatment. Participants were 342 children and adolescents (M age=13.0 years old; 54% female; 89% African American; M BMI=44.2, M BMI z-score=6.0) and their caregivers who attended FitMatters, a multidisciplinary cognitive-behavioral program focused on long-term participation. Those who attended an orientation session stayed in treatment significantly longer, but attrition was not affected by demographic factors, weight status, or psychological functioning. These results indicate that an orientation session that clearly delineates the structure of a program and expected attitudinal and behavioral requirements for the families may help align expectations, as well as more effectively identify families who are ready to make concerted efforts to change the family lifestyle in support of their obese children's efforts.     

Students Who Like and Dislike School

The major goal of this study was to investigate relationships among levels of 341 secondary school students’ school satisfaction and various intrapersonal, interpersonal, and academic measures. The measures included the School subscale from the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1994), Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1991), Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al. 1997), Behavioral Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992), self-perceived grade point average (GPA) and participation in extracurricular activities (SEAs). Students were placed into three groups based on their school satisfaction reports, including very low (lowest 20%), average (middle 30%), and very high (highest 20%) levels of school satisfaction. Students with very low school satisfaction differed from students with very high school satisfaction on all adjustment measures; students with very low school satisfaction also differed from students with average levels of school satisfaction on all measures, except the self-esteem measure. Relative to students reporting average levels of school satisfaction, students reporting very high satisfaction demonstrated significantly higher scores on measures of global life satisfaction, hope, internal locus of control, and GPA. Finally, only three students in the very high satisfaction group and nine students in the average satisfaction group reported clinical levels of psychological symptoms. In the very low satisfaction group, clinical levels of symptoms were reported by 30%, 22%, and 16% of the students on the Clinical Maladjustment, Personal Adjustment, and Emotional Symptoms Index, respectively. Implications for future research and educational practices are discussed.     

Resilience-Based Intervention with Underserved Children: Impact on Self-Regulation in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Schools

Resilience and emotion regulation are crucial for optimal psychosocial functioning in children. This study assessed whether a group-based intervention, the Resilience Builder Program (RBP), improved student report of emotion regulation when administered in elementary schools. Sixty-seven students aged 9–12 years (M = 10.50, SD =.74; 82.1% male, 98.5% ethnic/racial minority) were randomly assigned to receive the RBP intervention immediately or following a semester delay. Participants reported their emotional control using the How I Feel scale. Students who received the RBP reported a significant increase in their emotional control and a significant decrease in negative emotion compared to those students in the delayed treatment sample who had not yet received the intervention. Further, students indicated a strongly positive perception of the therapy.     

Impact of Child and Parent Motivation on Social Skills Training Outcome

This study explores child and parent motivation at the start of a social skills training group program and its relationship with treatment outcome. A total of 59 children (aged 7–12) participated. Parents were more aware of, distressed by, and motivated to change the presenting problem than were their children. Greater parent awareness of their child’s difficulty making and keeping friends and perceived importance of their child learning ways to make and keep more friends significantly predicted more improved social skills. Increasing parents’ awareness and perceived importance of treating the presenting problem at the start of therapy may increase treatment effectiveness.     

Developing an efficient clinical information system for a comprehensive psychiatric institute: II. Initial evaluation form

This paper describes the objectives, design, organization, content, evaluation, and implementation of the initial evaluation form, first component of a comprehensive psychiatric institute’s clinical information system. Major features of this effort are the involvement of a large number of clinicians in the form’s development, the use of complementary narrative and standardized components, the use of an expanded DSM-III multiaxial diagnostic format, pilot testing with over 1,000 patients, the evaluation of the form’s usefulness and interrater reliability, the form’s computerization, facilitating data retrieval and coordination with other institutional data bases, and the form’s monitoring.     

Regard and perceptions of size in soccer: better is bigger

Celebrated people often seem larger than life. In a series of experiments, and with observational data, we asked whether an association exists between regard for the action capabilities of soccer players and perceptual estimations of their size. Higher regard resulted in overestimations of size, and momentary modifications of apparent action capability resulted in overestimations or underestimations of size directly related to performance success or failure, respectively.     

Inattentive listening undermines self-verification in personal storytelling

Two studies explore the narrative construction of self-perceptions in conversational storytelling among pairs of same-sex friends. Specifically, the studies examined how listener behavior can support or undermine attempts to self-verify in personal storytelling. In two studies (n=100 dyads), speakers told attentive, distracted, or disagreeable (Study 1 only) friends about a recent experience. Distracted, but not disagreeable, friends tended to undermine participants' attempts to verify their self-perception of being interested in an activity (Study 1) or their self-perception that an event was typical for them (Study 2). These results support the notion that friends can be an important source of influence on self-perceptions and, perhaps surprisingly, suggest that responsiveness from friends, rather than agreement per se, may be crucial for supporting self-verification processes.