Social Anxiety and Content Specificity of Interpretation and Judgemental Bias in Children

Previous research with adult samples has demonstrated that social anxiety disorder is associated with content‐specific interpretation and judgemental biases. The present study extends our understanding of the specificity of cognitive biases in childhood social anxiety. A sample of non‐clinical children aged 11–12 years completed social anxiety and depression scales and was presented with scenarios depicting hypothetical events varying along two dimensions: relevance to self (event occurs to self or to other) and domain of activity (event is social or non‐social). Partial support for the content‐specificity hypothesis was found. Children's social anxiety symptoms were positively associated with negative interpretation ratings for ambiguous self‐referent and other‐referent events, but only when these events were in the social domain. Further, children's social anxiety symptoms were positively associated with emotional cost judgements for ambiguous social and non‐social events, but only when these events referred to the self. Both patterns of results remained significant even after controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms. Implications of the results for our understanding of maintaining factors in childhood social anxiety are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prefrontal cortex dysfunction and ‘Jumping to Conclusions’: Bias or deficit?

The 'beads task' is used to measure the cognitive basis of delusions, namely the 'Jumping to Conclusions' (JTC) reasoning bias. However, it is not clear whether the task merely taps executive dysfunction - known to be impaired in patients with schizophrenia - such as planning and resistance to impulse. To study this, 19 individuals with neurosurgical excisions to the prefrontal cortex, 21 unmedicated adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and 25 healthy controls completed two conditions of the beads task, in addition to tests of memory and executive function as well as control tests of probabilistic reasoning ability. The results indicated that the prefrontal lobe group (in particular, those with left-sided lesions) demonstrated a JTC bias relative to the ADHD and control groups. Further exploratory analyses indicated that JTC on the beads task was associated with poorer performance in certain executive domains. The results are discussed in terms of the executive demands of the beads task and possible implications for the model of psychotic delusions based on the JTC bias.     

My Child Is Better Than Average: The Extension and Restriction of Unrealistic Optimism1

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether parents make unrealistic evaluations of children and what factors predict these evaluations. Parents of 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds rated their child's risk for various positive and negative outcomes, temperament, and health and behavior problems. Parents also completed an adult attachment measure. Parents appeared to give relatively little consideration to realistic constraints when predicting their child's future. Parents scoring higher on attachment avoidance were less optimistic that their child would attain positive outcomes and avoid negative outcomes, consistent with the view that optimism is a motivated phenomenon. Greater child internalizing behaviors also were associated with less parental optimism for positive outcomes. Findings have implications for the delivery of health messages to parents.     

Dual-Element Effects in Pigeons’ Matching-to-Sample with Temporal and Visual Stimuli

The present study examined whether the dual-element effect occurs when temporal and visual stimuli appear simultaneously in a zero-delayed, symbolic matching-to-sample task. Two groups of pigeons were first exposed to either a red or green sample stimulus, for either 30 s or 5 s. The sample was followed by the presentation of yellow and blue comparisons. For pigeons in one group, the duration of the sample was the relevant cue. Responses to the yellow comparison were reinforced if the sample was 30 s, and responses to the blue comparison were reinforced if the sample was 5 s. For the other group, sample duration was irrelevant. Responses to the yellow comparison were reinforced if the sample had been green and responses to the blue comparison were reinforced if the sample had been red. Both groups then learned a second matching task in which the sample and comparison stimuli were vertical and horizontal lines. Finally, matching performance was examined when the lines appeared together with the temporal or color elements. The results showed that the line matching task was acquired more slowly for pigeons that were first trained to attend to duration. More importantly, matching was reduced when the temporal and line elements appeared simultaneously, and the effects were similar to those obtained when visual elements are combined.

     

A processing model for the analysis of one-way arguments in discourse

This paper describes a computational model for analyzing arguments in discourse. In particular, the model describes processes necessary for interpreting one uninterrupted argument from a speaker. The resulting output is a representation for the underlying claim and evidence relations between propositions of the argument. For our processing model we present: (i) a characterization of coherent orderings of propositions, used to limit search for interpretation of each new proposition (ii) a working definition of the evidence relation, used to recognize connections between propositions (iii) a theory of the function and use of clue words — special words and phrases indicating the structure of the argument — then used in the analysis to control search for interpretation and verification of evidence relations.     

Ingroup and outgroup minorities: Differential impact upon public and private responses

The experiment which is presented in this paper was designed to overcome some of the problems associated with previous research investigating the effects of social categorization and minority influence. Sixty-eight fourteen-year-old British Secondary School pupils indicated their attitudes towards a 'grant for pupils' before and after reading a text which advocated a minority position. The text was attributed as being the work of either pupils from their own school (ingroup minority) or from a school they discriminated against (outgroup minority). Responses were either made in ‘public’ (by telling subjects that other pupils would see their responses) or in ‘private’ (by subjects putting their responses into a ‘ballot box’). The results showed that on public responses ingroup minorities had more influence than outgroup minorities while there was no difference on private responses. Also, greater change occurred when responses were made in private than in public. These results are compatible with the intergroup analysis of minority influence.     

Boys and girls as social support theorists

Interviews were conducted with 36 children (6 girls and 6 boys at each of three age levels: 7, 10, and 13) to explore gender differences in the perceived costs and benefits of seeking social support from the social network. Each child was asked why children in five hypothetical situations would or would not turn to others. Content analysis of the interview protocols revealed that boys and girls did speak about the goals and concerns of children in distinctive ways. Girls were more likely than boys to describe children as seeking practical help from others, but were also more likely to envision children who were too overcome with emotion to confide in others or who desired to be alone to work out their own responses to the situation. The findings are discussed in light of gender role norms concerning interpersonal connection and emotional expression.