The development of executive functions and early mathematics: A dynamic relationship

Background. The relationship between executive functions and mathematical skills has been studied extensively, but results are inconclusive, and how this relationship evolves longitudinally is largely unknown. Aim. The aim was to investigate the factor structure of executive functions in inhibition, shifting, and updating; the longitudinal development of executive functions and mathematics; and the relation between them. Sample. A total of 211 children in grade 2 (7–8 years old) from 10 schools in the Netherlands. Method. Children were followed in grade 1 and 2 of primary education. Executive functions and mathematics were measured four times. The test battery contained multiple tasks for each executive function: Animal stroop, local global, and Simon task for inhibition; Animal Shifting, Trail Making Test in Colours, and Sorting Task for shifting; and Digit Span Backwards, Odd One Out, and Keep Track for updating. The factor structure of executive functions was assessed and relations with mathematics were investigated using growth modelling. Results. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that inhibition and shifting could not be distinguished from each other. Updating was a separate factor, and its development was strongly related to mathematical development while inhibition and shifting did not predict mathematics in the presence of the updating factor. Conclusions. The strong relationship between updating and mathematics suggest that updating skills play a key role in the maths learning process. This makes updating a promising target for future intervention studies.     

Microgenetic patterns of children's multiplication learning: confirming the overlapping waves model by latent growth modeling

Variability in strategy selection is an important characteristic of learning new skills such as mathematical skills. Strategies gradually come and go during this development. In 1996, Siegler described this phenomenon as "overlapping waves." In the current microgenetic study, we attempted to model these overlapping waves statistically. In addition, we investigated whether development in strategy selection is related to development in accuracy and to what degree working memory is related to both. We expected that children with poor working memory are limited in their possibilities to make the associations that are necessary to progress to more mature strategies. This limitation would explain the often-found relationship between working memory and mathematical abilities. To this aim, the strategy selection and accuracy of 98 children who were learning single-digit multiplication was assessed eight times on a weekly basis. Using latent growth modeling for categorical data, we confirmed Siegler's hypothesis of overlapping waves. Moreover, both the intercepts and the slopes of strategy selection and accuracy were strongly interrelated. Finally, working memory predicted both strategy selection and accuracy, confirming that working memory is related to mathematical problem solving in two ways because it influences both the maturity of strategy choice and the probability of making procedural mistakes.     

Status incongruity and backlash effects: Defending the gender hierarchy motivates prejudice against female leaders

Agentic female leaders risk social and economic penalties for behaving counter-stereotypically (i.e., backlash; Rudman, 1998), but what motivates prejudice against female leaders? The status incongruity hypothesis (SIH) proposes that agentic women are penalized for status violations because doing so defends the gender hierarchy. Consistent with this view, Study 1 found that women are proscribed from dominant, high status displays (which are reserved for leaders and men); Studies 2–3 revealed that prejudice against agentic female leaders was mediated by a dominance penalty; and in Study 3, participants' gender system-justifying beliefs moderated backlash effects. Study 4 found that backlash was exacerbated when perceivers were primed with a system threat. Study 5 showed that only female leaders who threatened the status quo suffered sabotage. In concert, support for the SIH suggests that backlash functions to preserve male dominance by reinforcing a double standard for power and control.     

Measurement invariance of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) across three cultural groups

This study investigated the factorial structure and invariance of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) across cultural groups from three nations, namely, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Iran (N = 1120). The three-dimensional structure of mental well-being was supported in all the groups. The results of measurement invariance testing confirmed the full metric and partial scalar invariance of the MHC-SF. The study also compared the latent means for the aspects of mental well-being in the three cultural groups, and found significant differences. The significance and implications of the results are discussed.     

Correlates of autobiographical memory specificity: the role of depression, anxiety and childhood trauma

The present study examined the role of childhood trauma, major depressive disorder (MDD), and anxiety disorder (AD) in overgeneral autobiographical memory. Ninety-three outpatients and 24 healthy controls completed a childhood trauma questionnaire and an autobiographical memory test (AMT). Results showed that MDD diagnosis rather than trauma history predicted AMT-performance. Memory specificity was not related to AD diagnosis, recovered MDD, or self-rated depression severity. The present findings cast doubts on theories that emphasize the role of childhood trauma in overgeneral autobiographical memory.     

Motivation by ideal

Moral ideals should not be seen as simple and purely personal, but as complex values with a social dimension that transcend attempts to formulate or realize them. Orientation towards ideals needs a realistic component: people should identify with the quest for an ideal, not with the ideal itself, and consider the possibility of negative consequences of their pursuit. Such realism about ideals includes acknowledging that ideals are not the only, nor the most important, motivating force of morality.     

Enrichment processes and gain spirals at work and at home: A 3‐year cross‐lagged panel study

In this study, we combined the Job Demands‐Resources model and Conservation of Resources theory with work‐family enrichment (WFE) literature, using the Resource–Gain–Development perspective in particular, in order to (1) investigate the motivating and wellness‐promoting role of job and home resources in predicting enrichment in work and family leading to further positive outcomes, and (2) examine positive gain spirals between the study variables over time. More specifically, we investigated whether job resources predict work engagement through WFE, and similarly, whether home resources predict marital satisfaction through FWE. We also investigated the reciprocal effects between job and home resources, enrichment in both directions, and well‐being in both domains. The study was based on a two‐wave, 3‐year, full panel design among Finnish dentists (N= 1,632). Results showed that job resources at T1 predicted WFE at T2, and WFE and engagement reciprocally influenced each other over time. Home resources at T1, on the other hand, did not predict family‐work enrichment (FEW) at T2; instead, FWE at T1 influenced both home resources and marital satisfaction at T2. Moreover, we found reciprocal impacts (‘gain spirals’) between domain‐specific resources (job/home resources) and domain‐specific well‐being (engagement/marital satisfaction) and between WFE and engagement, thus supporting the Conservation of Resources theory. The same results were found for both genders, suggesting that similar enrichment processes may take place among both women and men. Theoretically, this study suggests that adding the idea of positive feedback loops might benefit the models theorizing WFE.     

Neurocognitive endophenotypes of impulsivity and compulsivity: towards dimensional psychiatry

A key criticism of the main diagnostic tool in psychiatry, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-IV), is that it lacks a biological footing. In this article, we argue for a biological approach to psychiatry based on 'neurocognitive endophenotypes', whereby changes in behavioural or cognitive processes are associated with discrete deficits in defined neural systems. We focus on the constructs of impulsivity and compulsivity as key examples of the approach and discuss their possible cross-diagnostic significance, applying them to co-morbidities and commonalities across a range of disorders (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, substance dependence, obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders). We argue that this approach has important implications for the future classification of psychiatric disorders, genetics and therapeutics.     

Equality as a benchmark for third-party punishment and reward: The moderating role of uncertainty in social dilemmas

The present paper focuses on third-parties’ decisions to punish and reward in social dilemmas, and on the moderating role of environmental uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty about the size of the common resource). We argue and demonstrate that in social dilemmas third-parties use the equality rule as a strict benchmark to determine punishments (Study 1) as well as rewards (Study 2), but only under environmental certainty. Under environmental uncertainty, third-parties do not apply such a strict benchmark to distinguish cooperators from defectors. Instead, they appear to use the following rule: the more an individual group member has cooperated the less he/she should be punished (Study 1) and the more he/she should be rewarded (Study 2). As such, these findings are the first to demonstrate that third-party sanctioning decisions are moderated by environmental uncertainty.