Early Childhood Externalising Behaviour Problems: Child, Parenting, and Family-related Predictors Over Time

This study examined the dynamic relationships between child, parenting, and family-related predictor variables and early childhood externalising behaviour problems. A community sample of 395 Australian children was followed longitudinally, and assessed at 4 and 6 years with the Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form, and standard measures of parenting, temperament, and familial adversity. Variables based on the average scores across the two assessments and the change in scores between assessments were utilised as predictors of parent-reported and teacher-reported externalising behaviour problems at age 6. It was hypothesised that both higher average scores and more detrimental changes in scores, would independently predict externalising problems at age 6. Multivariable analyses found that the presence of parent-reported child externalising problems in six-year-olds were predicted by: (i) the presence of parent-reported child externalising problems at age 4, (ii) higher average “teacher-reported child externalising behaviour,” “inflexible temperament,” “non-persistent temperament,” and “over-reactive parenting,” and (iii) an increased “inflexible temperament” score between age 4 and age 6. The presence of teacher-reported child externalising problems at age 6 was predicted by higher average “parent-reported child externalising behaviour,” and “over-reactive parenting.” The results provide further evidence of the adverse impact of continuing high levels of temperament difficulties and over-reactive parenting on externalising behaviour in early childhood. However, contrary to expectations, the contribution of including the dynamic change scores was limited.     

Inclusionary Discrimination: Pigmentocracy and Patriotism in the Dominican Republic

This study explored the nature of racial hierarchy and the connection between racial identity and Dominican patriotism using a questionnaire given to an in situ sample in the Dominican Republic. The analyses compared the contradictory expectations of the "racial democracy" (or "Iberian exceptionalism") thesis and social dominance theory. Results showed that despite the very high level of racial intermarriage in the Dominican Republic, there was strong evidence of a "pigmentocracy," or group-based social hierarchy based largely on skin color. Furthermore, despite a slight tendency for people to give slightly higher status ratings to their own "racial" category than were given to them by members of other "racial" categories, this pigmentocracy was highly consensual across the racial hierarchy. These results were consistent with the expectations of social dominance theory. However, in contrast to similar analyses in the United States and Israel, these Dominican findings showed no evidence that members of different "racial" categories had different levels of patriotic attachment to the nation. Also in contrast to recent American findings, there was no evidence that Dominican patriotism was positively associated with anti-black racism, social dominance orientation, negative affect toward other racial groups, or ethnocentrism, regardless of the "racial" category one belonged to. These latter results were consistent with the racial democracy thesis. The theoretical implications of these somewhat conflicting findings are discussed.     

A microcomputer-based technique for measuring response times in written protocols

We describe a computer system that can be used to collect response times simultaneously with written protocols. It is applicable to tasks in which written protocols and associated response times are of interest.     

Efficacy of Attention Bias Modification Using Threat and Appetitive Stimuli: A Meta-Analytic Review

Attention bias modification (ABM) protocols aim to modify attentional biases underlying many forms of pathology. Our objective was to conduct an effect size analysis of ABM across a wide range of samples and psychological problems. We conducted a literature search using PubMed, PsycInfo, and author searches to identify randomized studies that examined the effects of ABM on attention and subjective experiences. We identified 37 studies (41 experiments) totaling 2,135 participants who were randomized to training toward neutral, positive, threat, or appetitive stimuli or to a control condition. The effect size estimate for changes in attentional bias was large for the neutral versus threat comparisons (g = 1.06), neutral versus appetitive (g = 1.41), and neutral versus control comparisons (g = 0.80), and small for positive versus control (g = 0.24). The effects of ABM on attention bias were moderated by stimulus type (words vs. pictures) and sample characteristics (healthy vs. high symptomatology). Effect sizes of ABM on subjective experiences ranged from 0.03 to 0.60 for postchallenge outcomes, –0.31 to 0.51 for posttreatment, and were moderated by number of training sessions, stimulus type, and stimulus orientation (top/bottom vs. left/right). Fail-safe N calculations suggested that the effect size estimates were robust for the training effects on attentional biases, but not for the effect on subjective experiences. ABM studies using threat stimuli produced significant effects on attention bias across comparison conditions, whereas appetitive stimuli produced changes in attention only when comparing appetitive versus neutral conditions. ABM has a moderate and robust effect on attention bias when using threat stimuli. Further studies are needed to determine whether these effects are also robust when using appetitive stimuli and for affecting subjective experiences.     

Familiarity from the configuration of objects in 3-dimensional space and its relation to déjà vu: a virtual reality investigation

Déjà vu is the striking sense that the present situation feels familiar, alongside the realization that it has to be new. According to the Gestalt familiarity hypothesis, déjà vu results when the configuration of elements within a scene maps onto a configuration previously seen, but the previous scene fails to come to mind. We examined this using virtual reality (VR) technology. When a new immersive VR scene resembled a previously-viewed scene in its configuration but people failed to recall the previously-viewed scene, familiarity ratings and reports of déjà vu were indeed higher than for completely novel scenes. People also exhibited the contrasting sense of newness and of familiarity that is characteristic of déjà vu. Familiarity ratings and déjà vu reports among scenes recognized as new increased with increasing feature-match of a scene to one stored in memory, suggesting that feature-matching can produce familiarity and déjà vu when recall fails.     

Book reviews

Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars, Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1992, 654 pp. ISBN 0–300–053425–8.

Harvey Ferguson, Religious Transformation in Western Society: The End of Happiness. London and New York, Routledge, 1992, xvi, 269 pp. ISBN 0–415–02574–5.

Religiones Latinoamericanas 1 (Religiones: Cuestiones Tcoricometodoiogicas), Mexico City, Asociación Latinoamericana para el Estudio de las Religiones. January‐June 1991.

Revista de Estudios Budistas I, 1, Mexico City, Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios Budistas. April 1991.

Koichi Shinohara and Gregory Schopen (eds), From Benares to Beijing: Essays on Buddhism and Chinese Religion. Canada, Mosaic Press, 1992, 304 pp. ISBN 0–88962–443–7.

Robert E. Buswell, Jr and Robert M. Gimello (eds), Paths to Liberation: The Mārga and its Transformations in Buddhist Thought. Honolulu: Kuroda Institute, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, ix, 525 pp.

Susan Grossman and Rivka Haut (eds), Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue. New York, The Jewish Publication Society, 1992, i‐340 pp. ISBN 0–8276–0395–9.

Akbar S. Ahmed, Resistance and Control in Pakistan. London, Routledge, 1991. 2nd edition, first published in 1983 under the tide Religion and Politics in Muslim Society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, xx + 207 pp., £12.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–415–05797–3.

Garry Wills, Under God: Religion and American Politics. New York and London, Simon and Schuster, 1990, 445 pp., £17.99 (hardback), £9.99 (paperback).

J. Andrew Overman and Robert S. MacLennan (eds), Diaspora Jews and Judaism: Essays in Honor of and in Dialogue with, A. Thomas Kraabel. South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 41, Atlanta, GA, Scholars Press, 1992, xviii + 368 pp., no price given. ISBN 1 55540 696 3.

Christine Trevett, Women and Quakerism in the 17th Century. York, Sessions Book Trust, The Ebor Pess, 1991, 171 pp.

Jan Peter Schouten, Revolution of the Mystics: On the Social Aspects of Viraiaivism. Kampcn, The Netherlands, Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1991, xiii + 331 pp. ISBN 90 242 3425 5.

Michael L. Budde, The Two Churches: Catholicism and Capitalism in the World System. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1992, 172 pp., £25.00. ISBN 0–8223–1229–8.

Teun Goudriaan (ed.), Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism: Studies in Honor of André Padoux. SUNY Series in Tantric Studies, Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1992, xv + 359 pp. ISBN 0–7914–0898–1.

Robert S. Shepard, God's People in the Ivory Tower: Religion in the Early American University. Brooklyn, Carlson, 1991, 174 pp. $50.00. ISBN 0–926019–56–2.     

Memory for Emotional Content from Entertainment Film: The Role of Subtitles,Sex, and Empathy

A major component of consuming filmed entertainment is vicariously experiencing emotions of the filmed characters, yet little is known about how this occurs. Four experiments assessed memory for emotions felt by characters in extended film clips from either a contemporary farce (Overboard) or a historical drama (Sense and Sensibility) under various conditions of native or foreign language in the dialogue or subtitles. English-speaking participants watched a clip and then assessed on 6-point scales specific positive and negative affect felt by characters at various points during the film. Both positive and negative affect felt by characters in both films were perceived and remembered better in conditions with English sound or subtitles than in conditions with no English channel, although, unexpectedly, spoken dialogue or subtitles alone were equally effective at conveying emotion. Overall, emotion memory from the contemporary farce was better than from the historical drama and was surprisingly good even in conditions with no English, especially for the farce. Conditions with only sound, subtitles, or pictures were very comparable to each other. Participants higher in trait fantasy empathy remembered emotions better. The components of an eventual model of emotional comprehension were sketched.     

Influences of rate, length, and complexity on speech disfluency in a single-speech sample in preschool children who stutter

The purpose of the present study was (1) to determine whether speech rate, utterance length, and grammatical complexity (number of clauses and clausal constituents per utterance) influenced stuttering-like disfluencies as children became more disfluent at the end of a 1200-syllable speech sample [Sawyer, J., & Yairi, E. (2006). The effect of sample size on the assessment of stuttering severity. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15, 36-44] and (2) to explore the interaction of speech rate, length, and grammatical complexity at the beginning (syllables 1-300, Section A) and the end (syllables 901-1200, Section B) of the speech sample. Participants were eight boys and six girls (M=40.9 months) who were selected from the Sawyer and Yairi [Sawyer, J., & Yairi, E. (2006). The effect of sample size on the assessment of stuttering severity. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15, 36-44] study. Mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes, the number of clauses, clausal constituents, and articulation rate, measured in syllables per second were analyzed from the children's conversational speech. The median split procedure [Logan, K., & Conture, E. (1995). Length, grammatical complexity, and rate differences in stuttered and fluent conversational utterances of children who stutter. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 20, 35-61; Yaruss, J. S. (1997). Utterance timing and childhood stuttering. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 22, 263-286] was used to study interactions between articulation rate, utterance length, and grammatical complexity across the two sections. The mean number of clauses per utterance, clausal constituents per utterance, and articulation rate revealed no significant differences between Section A and Section B, whereas MLU significantly increased in Section B (p=.013). Clausal constituents and MLU were significantly correlated both in Sections A and B. The median split procedure revealed trends for utterances characterized as high length and low-speech rate to be greater in number in Section B than A, but the differences were not significant. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to: (a) describe the influence of grammatical complexity and mean length of utterance on disfluent speech; (b) compare different procedures for assessing speech rate and determine why the effects of articulation rate have been inconclusive; (c) discuss procedures for comparing length, rate, and complexity across a single-speech sample; and (d) explain why therapeutic methods that emphasize shorter utterance lengths, rather than only slower speech rates, are advisable in establishing fluency in preschool children who stutter.