Combining Clickstream Analyses and Graph-Modeled Data Clustering for Identifying Common Response Processes

Psychometrika - Complex interactive test items are becoming more widely used in assessments. Being computer-administered, assessments using interactive items allow logging time-stamped action...     

Body posture facilitates retrieval of autobiographical memories

We assessed potential facilitation of congruent body posture on access to and retention of autobiographical memories in younger and older adults. Response times were shorter when body positions during prompted retrieval of autobiographical events were similar to the body positions in the original events than when body position was incongruent. Free recall of the autobiographical events two weeks later was also better for congruent-posture than for incongruent-posture memories. The findings were similar for younger and older adults, except for the finding that free recall was more accurate in younger adults than in older adults in the congruent condition. We discuss these findings in the context of theories of embodied cognition.     

Inattention as a key predictor of tobacco use in adolescence

The authors examined the prediction from inattention to tobacco use among 2 cohorts (ages 7 and 13) of a community sample followed to young adulthood. Changes in self-reported tobacco use were tested with marginal transitional regression models, using parent and teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and other psychopathology, along with other factors, as predictors. Inattention, but not hyperactivity-impulsivity, significantly predicted adolescent tobacco use and young adult daily tobacco use. Peer substance use, parental substance use, and conduct disorder also predicted increases in tobacco use. African American ethnicity was strongly protective against later tobacco use.     

Effects of regulatory focus on endorsement of religious beliefs

Regulatory focus has an impact on different judgments. Specifically, promotion focus is directed at achieving positive outcome whereas prevention focus is directed at preventing negative outcomes. Thus, people in promotion focus endorse positive outcome-framed messages whereas people in prevention focus endorse negative outcome-framed messages. In two experiments, we examined whether this holds true for religious beliefs. In Experiment 1, participants were undergraduate students; we found the expected interaction between regulatory focus and verse frame. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding with participants from conservative Lutheran communities, demonstrating that there was a transient influence of induced regulatory focus. This finding suggests that regulatory focus either is difficult to discount or is not a peripheral cue that is used in heuristic processing only, but an internal state that has a pervasive impact even if people are highly motivated to process information systematically.     

Testing the race model inequality: An algorithm and computer programs

In divided-attention tasks, responses are faster when two target stimuli are presented, and thus one is redundant, than when only a single target stimulus is presented. Raab (1962) suggested an account of this redundant-targets effect in terms of a race model in which the response to redundant target stimuli is initiated by the faster of two separate target detection processes. Such models make a prediction about the probability distributions of reaction times that is often called the race model inequality, and it is often of interest to test this prediction. In this article, we describe a precise algorithm that can be used to test the race model inequality and present MATLAB routines and a Pascal program that implement this algorithm.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Multiple Problem Behaviors: Prospective Relationships between Mothers and Daughters

Much of the research examining intergenerational continuity of problems from mother to offspring has focused on homotypic continuity (e.g., depression), despite the fact that different types of mental health problems tend to cluster in both adults and children. It remains unclear whether mothers with multiple mental health problems compared to mothers with fewer or no problems are more likely to have daughters with multiple mental health problems during middle childhood (ages 7 to 11). Six waves of maternal and child data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study (n = 2,451) were used to examine the specificity of effects of maternal psychopathology on child adjustment. Child multiple mental health problems comprised disruptive behavior, ADHD symptoms, depressed mood, anxiety symptoms and somatic complaints, while maternal multiple mental health problems consisted of depression, prior conduct problems and somatic complaints. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) was used to examine the prospective relationships between mother’s single and multiple mental health problems and their daughter’s single and multiple mental health problems across the elementary school-aged period (ages 7–11 years). The results show that multiple mental health problems in the mothers predicted multiple mental health problems in the daughters even when earlier mental health problem of the daughters, demographic factors, and childrearing practices were controlled. Maternal low parental warmth and harsh punishment independently contributed to the prediction of multiple mental health problems in their daughter, but mediation analyses showed that the contribution of parenting behaviors to the explanation of girls’ mental health problems was small.     

Language encodes geographical information

Population counts and longitude and latitude coordinates were estimated for the 50 largest cities in the United States by computational linguistic techniques and by human participants. The mathematical technique Latent Semantic Analysis applied to newspaper texts produced similarity ratings between the 50 cities that allowed for a multidimensional scaling (MDS) of these cities. MDS coordinates correlated with the actual longitude and latitude of these cities, showing that cities that are located together share similar semantic contexts. This finding was replicated using a first-order co-occurrence algorithm. The computational estimates of geographical location as well as population were akin to human estimates. These findings show that language encodes geographical information that language users in turn may use in their understanding of language and the world.     

Estimating the difference limen in 2AFC tasks: Pitfalls and improved estimators

Discrimination performance is often assessed by measuring the difference limen (DL; or just noticeable difference) in a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task. Here, we show that the DL estimated from 2AFC percentage-correct data is likely to systematically under- or overestimate true discrimination performance if order effects are present. We show how pitfalls with the 2AFC task may be avoided and suggest a novel approach for analyzing 2AFC data.     

The auditory redundant signals effect: An influence of number of stimuli or number of percepts?

In two experiments, we examined simple reaction times (RTs) for detection of the onsets and offsets of auditory stimuli. Both experiments assessed the redundant signals effect (RSE), which is traditionally defined as the reduction in RT associated with the presentation of two redundant stimuli, rather than a single stimulus. In Experiment 1, with two identical tones presented via headphones to the left ear, right ear, or both, no RSE was found in responding to tone onsets, but a large RSE was found in responding to their offsets. In Experiment 2, with a pure tone and white noise as the two stimulus alternatives, RSEs were found for responding to both onsets and offsets. The results support the notion that the occurrence of an RSE depends on the number of percepts, rather than the number of stimuli, and on the requirement to respond to stimulus onsets versus offsets. The parallel grains model (Miller & Ulrich, 2003) provides one possible account of this pattern of results.     

Peer Deviance,Parenting and Disruptive Behavior Among Young Girls

This study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between peer deviance, parenting practices, and conduct and oppositional problems among young girls ages 7 and 8. Participants were 588 African American and European American girls who were part of a population-based study of the development of conduct problems and delinquency among girls. Affiliations with problem-prone peers were apparent among a sizeable minority of the girls, and these associations included both males and females. Although peer delinquency concurrently predicted disruptive behaviors, the gender of these peers did not contribute to girls’ behavior problems. Harsh parenting and low parental warmth showed both concurrent and prospective associations with girls’ disruptive behaviors. Similar patterns of association were seen for African American and European American girls. The findings show that peer and parent risk processes are important contributors to the early development of young girls’ conduct and oppositional behaviors. These data contribute to our understanding of girls’ aggression and antisocial behaviors and further inform our understanding of risk processes for these behaviors among young girls in particular.