Relational frameworks for recall in young and older adults

Recent research indicates the presence of an age-related visual processing deficit, for which the elderly may attempt to compensate through the use of relational information. This hypothesis was tested, using the category superiority effect as a model system. In studies of young adults, the category superiority effect has been shown to be confined to relatively abstract stimulus materials, such as verbal items, and to be absent for pictures. However, it was predicted that a category superiority effect would be present in elderly adults both for verbal and for pictorial stimuli, since the elderly would be expected to utilize category information to compensate for imagerie deficits. This prediction was confirmed, consistent with the hypothesis advanced above. It was further suggested that the establishment of a prior framework for recall, based on relational information, would reduce this effect significantly. This prediction was also confirmed. This research was supported by Grant AGI 1605, National Institute on Aging, and by a grant from the School of Natural Sciences, California State University, Fresno.     

Sensitivity for Treatment Effects of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders

The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) is a relatively new self-report questionnaire that measures DSM-defined anxiety disorders symptoms in children. The present study examined the treatment sensitivity of the SCARED. Eleven anxiety-disordered children aged 10 to 13 years received cognitive-behavioral treatment, an intervention that is generally known to be effective. Children completed the SCARED on three occasions: (1) 3 months before treatment (i.e., baseline), (2) at pretreatment, and (3) at posttreatment. Before and after treatment, scores on traditional childhood anxiety measures (i.e., State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Fear Survey Schedule for Children) were also obtained. Results showed that children's SCARED scores remained relatively stable from baseline to pretreatment. However, from pre- to post-treatment, significant decreases were evident for the SCARED and for all traditional measures. These results suggest that the SCARED reliably taps treatment effects and, thus, provide further support for its utility as a self-report index of childhood anxiety in clinical and research settings.     

Women of Spirit: Leaders in the Counseling Profession

This phenomenological study documents the voices and experiences of 10 female leaders in the counseling profession. Two protégés of each leader were interviewed to gain additional perspectives about these leaders. Leaders described experiences, contexts, processes, and outcomes that characterized their roles as positional and nonpositional leaders. Leaders highlighted themes of opportunity, challenge, unique and common ways of being, and empowerment. Protégés confirmed and enriched the leaders' accounts. Recommendations for personal and professional development are included.     

Immediate effects of form-class constraints on spoken word recognition

In many domains of cognitive processing there is strong support for bottom-up priority and delayed top-down (contextual) integration. We ask whether this applies to supra-lexical context that could potentially constrain lexical access. Previous findings of early context integration in word recognition have typically used constraints that can be linked to pair-wise conceptual relations between words. Using an artificial lexicon, we found immediate integration of syntactic expectations based on pragmatic constraints linked to syntactic categories rather than words: phonologically similar "nouns" and "adjectives" did not compete when a combination of syntactic and visual information strongly predicted form class. These results suggest that predictive context is integrated continuously, and that previous findings supporting delayed context integration stem from weak contexts rather than delayed integration.     

The Moderating Influence of Homophobia and Gender‐Role Traditionality on Perceptions of Male Rape Victims1

This study investigated the influence of homophobia and gender‐role traditionality (GRT) on perceptions of male rape victims. Victims were assigned more blame in acquaintance rape than in stranger rape, and homosexual victims were blamed more than were heterosexual victims. Homophobia predicted patterns in rape minimization only when the victim was homosexual. Homophobia also predicted patterns of victim blame attribution in both homosexual and heterosexual victims, with a greater impact when the victim was homosexual. GRT predicted patterns of rape minimization in acquaintance rape, but not in stranger rape; and GRT did not predict differences in victim blame attribution.     

Development and preliminary validation of a mental toughness inventory for Australian football

ObjectivesThis paper describes the development and preliminary evaluation of the Australian football Mental Toughness Inventory (AfMTI).MethodsConfirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were employed to explore the factor structure of a pool of items designed to capture the key components of mental toughness in Australian football [Gucciardi, D.F., Gordon, S., & Dimmock, J.A. (2008). Towards an understanding of mental toughness in Australian football. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 20, 261–281.] Correlations between the four-factor inventory and flow, resilience, and social desirability were examined. The discriminant validity of the inventory was also assessed. Multisource ratings (self, parent, and coach) of the AfMTI were examined in experiment two.ResultsThe AfMTI is a 24-item scale that measures four components of mental toughness in Australian football – thrive through challenge, sport awareness, tough attitude, and desire success. It was shown to have adequate internal reliability estimates across different raters (α = .70–.89). Moderate correlations with flow and resilience were evidenced, while minimal correlations existed with social desirability. Multisource data were somewhat equivocal; correlational data suggested a disagreement between raters, whereas an ANOVA suggested agreement between raters.ConclusionsPreliminary data on the factor structure, internal reliability, and construct validity of the AfMTI were encouraging. However, the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the AfMTI must be verified through further psychometric examinations before it can be considered a useful tool for measuring mental toughness in Australian football.     

The Relationship of Sexual Values and Emotional Awareness to Sexual Activity in Young Adulthood

A sample of 170 college freshman completed assessments related to emotional awareness, sexual values, and levels of sexual activity. There was a significant relationship between sexual values and sexual activity. Abstinence values appear to be important in the decision to engage in sexual activity.     

Acoustic differences, listener expectations, and the perceptual accommodation of talker variability

Two talkers' productions of the same phoneme may be quite different acoustically, whereas their productions of different speech sounds may be virtually identical. Despite this lack of invariance in the relationship between the speech signal and linguistic categories, listeners experience phonetic constancy across a wide range of talkers, speaking styles, linguistic contexts, and acoustic environments. The authors present evidence that perceptual sensitivity to talker variability involves an active cognitive mechanism: Listeners expecting to hear 2 different talkers differing only slightly in average pitch showed performance costs typical of adjusting to talker variability, whereas listeners hearing the same materials but expecting a single talker or given no special instructions did not show these performance costs. The authors discuss the implications for understanding phonetic constancy despite variability between talkers (and other sources of variability) and for theories of speech perception. The results provide further evidence for active, controlled processing in real-time speech perception and are consistent with a model of talker normalization that involves contextual tuning.     

Training AIDS and Anger Prevention Social Skills in At‐Risk Adolescents

Youth in alternative schools often engage in high rates of risk behaviors for AIDS and violence. This study included 42 youth, ages 13 to 18, from alternative schools in San Diego, CA, and tested the effectiveness of behavioral skills training based on the Behavioral‐Ecological Model. Two interventions were evaluated: one teaching condom use skills and the other teaching anger management skills. Changes in most skills were significant at postintervention but were not maintained at 6 months. Few risk‐related attitudes or behaviors improved at 6 months for either group.