An individual differences analysis of ability and strategy influences: age-related differences in associative learning

The relationships among abilities, strategies, and performance on an associative learning task were investigated for young (aged 17 to 34) and older adults (aged 60 to 82). Participants received extensive practice on a noun-pair task in which they could use a visual-scanning strategy or a memory-retrieval strategy. Older adults were more likely to use the scanning strategy. Age differences were reduced when comparisons were made only for participants using a retrieval strategy. Associative memory was predictive of learning on the task, and semantic memory access speed was predictive of practiced performance. Practiced performance on a memory-search task that also required associative learning was predictive of practiced noun-pair performance. Models of ability-performance relationships for skill acquisition are discussed.     

How do speakers avoid ambiguous linguistic expressions?

Three experiments assessed how speakers avoid linguistically and nonlinguistically ambiguous expressions. Speakers described target objects (a flying mammal, bat) in contexts including foil objects that caused linguistic (a baseball bat) and nonlinguistic (a larger flying mammal) ambiguity. Speakers sometimes avoided linguistic-ambiguity, and they did so equally regardless of whether they also were about to describe foils. This suggests that comprehension processes can sometimes detect linguistic-ambiguity before producing it. However, once produced, speakers consistently avoided using the same linguistically ambiguous expression again for a different meaning. This suggests that production processes can successfully detect linguistic-ambiguity after-the-fact. Speakers almost always avoided nonlinguistic-ambiguity. Thus, production processes are especially sensitive to nonlinguistic- but not linguistic-ambiguity, with the latter avoided consistently only once it is already articulated.     

Developmental regression in autism spectrum disorders

The occurrence of developmental regression in autism is one of the more puzzling features of this disorder. Although several studies have documented the validity of parental reports of regression using home videos, accumulating data suggest that most children who demonstrate regression also demonstrated previous, subtle, developmental differences. Counter to clinical intuition, the earlier development of social, language, and attachment behaviors followed by regression does not seem to support later recovery of skills or better developmental outcomes compared to children who never had speech or typical social responsivity. In fact, this regressive group may have somewhat greater developmental impairment than the nonregressive group, though the two groups do not appear to present different behavioral phenotypes. Although autism is not the only condition in which regression occurs, it appears to be the most frequent condition. Other disorders that demonstrate an early regression with no known etiology include total blindness from birth and childhood disintegrative disorder, both of which demonstrate behavioral relations to autism. In addition, two biological conditions with known etiologies also involve regression with some behaviors resembling autism behavioral phenotype: Rett syndrome (a genetic disorder; see Glaze, this issue) and Landau-Kleffner syndrome (see McVicar and Shinnar, this issue), which involves a seizure disorder.     

Contraction bias in memorial quantifying judgment: does it come from a stable compressed memory representation or a dynamic adaptation process?

A common response bias in psychophysical judgments is regression toward the mean (overestimation of small and underestimation of large values, or the response contraction bias). The same bias is observed in magnitude estimation from memorized quantities. Participants estimated alphabetic interval distances between 2 letters for different levels of interletter distances. The underestimated and overestimated values and the point of least error changed, depending on the level of alphabetic distances judged; furthermore, their estimation showed a progressively increasing tendency toward the mean, rendering the estimation progressively less accurate as the estimation task was repeated. We conclude that the regression toward the mean in memorial quantifying judgment derives from a cognitive adaptation process rather than from a permanent, compressed memory representation of the stimuli. Two opposing views on the adaptive meaning of this judgment bias are discussed.     

The anatomy of suicidology: a psychological science perspective on the status of suicide research. 2002 Shneidman Award Address

Suicidologists have made tremendous strides in advancing the knowledge of correlates of completed suicide and nonfatal suicidal behavior since the early 1960s. In order to move beyond the simple identification of risk factors, however, scientific suicidology needs to give greater attention to the critical role of theory in guiding inquiry and advancing the understanding of suicidal behaviors. In this article I argue the importance of theoretical grounding from the perspective of psychological science, provide examples of this perspective from my work, and discuss their implications for future research in the field.     

Mental Health and Incarcerated Youth. I: Prevalence and Nature of Psychopathology

The incarceration of mentally ill youth is a serious problem not receiving the same attention as in adults. In this study, we examine the prevalence of psychopathology and level of behavioral symptomatology in incarcerated youth versus youth receiving community mental health services or hospitalization. We randomly recruited youth from middle South Carolina served by a local CMHC (n = 60), youth served by the state adolescent inpatient program (n = 50), and youth in the S.C. Dept. of Juvenile Justice facilities from the same region (n = 75). We used the DISC-PC 2.3 to evaluate DSM-III-R diagnoses and the CBCL and YSR to evaluate behavioral symptomatology. On the DISC, incarcerated youth had significantly higher mean number of diagnoses and symptoms than CMHC youth, but lower numbers than hospitalized youth. Level of caseness (at least one diagnosis) was 86% in hospital youth, 72% in incarcerated youth, and 60% in CMHC youth. The groups differed in CBCL mean total T, internalizing T, and externalizing T scores as well as mean YSR internalizing T scores. Our results indicate the comparability in level of psychopathology in incarcerated and community-treated populations of youth, and the need to develop diversionary programs to prevent the entry of such youth into the juvenile justice system.     

Book reviews

Campbell, B. A., Hayne, H., & Richardson, R. (Eds.) (1992). Attention and information processing in infants and adults. Perspectives from human and animal research. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pp. viii + 360. ISBN 0-8058-0782-9. £54.95 (Hbk).

McFarland, D. (1993). Animal behaviour: Psychobiology, ethology and evolution (2nd ed.). Harlow: Longrnan Scientific and Technical. Pp. xiv + 585. ISBN 0-582-06721-9. £23.99 (Pbk).

Ward, J. P., & Hopkins, W.D. (Eds.) (1993). Primate laterality: Current behavioral evidence of primate asymmetries. New York/Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Pp. xii + 356. ISBN 0-387-97961-1 13-540-97961-1. £34.50 (Pbk).

Zentall, T. R. (Ed.). (1993). Animal cognition. A tribute to Donafd A. Riley. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. xiv + 369. ISBN 0-8058-1 184-2. £22.95 (Pbk); ISBN 0-8058-1 183-4. £53.50 (Hbk).

Roitblatt, H. L., Herman, L. M., & Nachtigall, P.E. (Eds.) (1993). Language and communication. Comparative perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. xvi + 502. ISBN 0-8058-0947-3. £26.95 (Pbk); ISBN 0-8058-0946-5. £59.95 (Hbk).

Bradshaw, J. L, & Rogers, L.J. (1993). The evolution of lateral asymmetries, language, roo1 use, and intellect. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Pp. xiii + 463. ISBN 0-12-124560-8. £58.00 (Hbk).

Ten Cate, C., Slater, P. J. B., & Kruijt, J. P. (Eds.) (1993). Song learning and imprinting. An inquiry into mechanisms of behavioural development. Amsterdam: Netherlands Zoology Society. Pp. 234. £13.00 (Pbk).