AGING RESEARCH IN HIGHER EDUCATION: RESEARCH IN READING PROCESSES OF THE ELDERLY (PROBLEMS AND PROMISE)

Abstract

This article considers an assortment of issues regarding research into reading problems of the elderly. It is based on research results that grew out of a two‐year federal grant from the National Institute of Aging. The discussion includes an examination of demands placed on senior citizens’ reading skills by materials disseminated through agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.     

The Relationships Among Grief Experience,Problem-Solving Appraisal,and Depression: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Research has consistently shown a relationship between problem-solving appraisal and depressive symptoms. This study expands that research by including grief symptomatology as a variable. A college student sample completed the Problem-Solving inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Revised Grief Experience Inventory. Consistent with hypotheses, those individuals who had experienced the death of a close loved one within the previous 5 years reported significantly higher levels of grief and depression than those who had not experienced such a loss. However, the group that had experienced the death of a close loved one did not report significantly worse problem-solving scores than the group that did not. This study also examined the relationships among problem-solving appraisal, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms within the subsample that had experienced the loss of a close loved one within the previous 5 years. Consistent with predictions, grief symptoms were associated with depressive symptoms and self-appraised ineffective problem solving. The results of this study extend the research on grief and mourning. Also, the results expand our understanding of the grief process by providing preliminary evidence for the role of problem solving in this process     

Competitive state anxiety and self-confidence: Intensity and direction as relative predictors of performance on a golf putting task

Abstract

This study considered relationships between the intensity and directional aspects of competitive state anxiety as measured by the modified Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory-2(D) (Jones & Swain, 1992 Jones, G. and Swain, A. B. J. 1992. Intensity and direction as dimensions of competitive state anxiety and relationships with competitiveness. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 74: 467–472. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in a sample of 12 experienced male golfers. Anxiety and performance scores from identical putting tasks performed under three different anxiety-manipulated competitive conditions were used to assess both the predictions of Multidimensional Anxiety Theory (MAT; Martens et al., 1990 Martens, R., Burton, D., Vealey, R., Bump, L. and Smith, D. 1990. “The development of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2)”. In Competitive anxiety in sport, Edited by: Martens, R., Vealey, R. S. and Burton, D. 117–190. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.  [Google Scholar]) and the relative value of intensity and direction in explaining performance variance. A within-subjects regression analysis of the intra-individual data showed partial support for the three MAT hypotheses. Cognitive anxiety intensity demonstrated a negative linear relationship with performance, somatic anxiety intensity showed a curvilinear relationship with performance, and self-confidence intensity revealed a positive linear relation. Cognitive directional anxiety illustrated a positive linear relationship with putting performance. Multiple regression analyses indicated that direction (42% of variance) was a better predictor of performance than intensity (22%)     

Don’t just repeat after me: Retrieval practice is better than imitation for foreign vocabulary learning

Second language (L2) instruction programs often ask learners to repeat aloud words spoken by a native speaker. However, recent research on retrieval practice has suggested that imitating native pronunciation might be less effective than drill instruction, wherein the learner is required to produce the L2 words from memory (and given feedback). We contrasted the effectiveness of imitation and retrieval practice drills on learning L2 spoken vocabulary. Learners viewed pictures of objects and heard their names; in the imitation condition, they heard and then repeated aloud each name, whereas in the retrieval practice condition, they tried to produce the name before hearing it. On a final test administered either immediately after training (Exp. 1) or after a 2-day delay (Exp. 2), retrieval practice produced better comprehension of the L2 words, better ability to produce the L2 words, and no loss of pronunciation quality.     

Confronting Condescending Ethics: How Community-Based Research Challenges Traditional Approaches to Consent, Confidentiality, and Capacity

Community based research is conducted by, for, and with the participation of community members, and aims to ensure that knowledge contributes to making a concrete and constructive difference in the world (The Loka Institute 2002). Yet decisions about research ethics are often controlled outside the research community itself. In this analysis we grapple with the imposition of a community confidentiality clause and the implications it had for consent, confidentiality, and capacity in a province-wide community based research project. Through untangling these implications we provide recommendations for reframing how to think about research ethics and strategies for enabling research ethics’ processes to be more responsive to and respectful of community-based research.     

Growth and pruning of mushroom body Kenyon cell dendrites during worker behavioral development in the paper wasp, Polybia aequatorialis (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Adult workers of some social insect species show dramatic behavioral changes as they pass through a sequence of task specializations. In the paper wasp, Polybia aequatorialis, female workers begin adult life within the nest tending brood, progress to maintaining and defending the nest exterior, and ultimately leave the nest to forage. The mushroom body (MB) calyx neuropil increases in volume as workers progress from in-nest to foraging tasks. In other social Hymenoptera (bees and ants), MB Kenyon cell dendrites, axons and synapses change with the transition to foraging, but these neuronal effects had not been studied in wasps. Furthermore, the on-nest worker of Polybia wasps, an intermediate task specialization not identified in bees or ants, provides the opportunity to study pre-foraging worker class transitions. We asked whether Kenyon cell dendritic arborization varies with the task specialization of Polybia workers observed in the field near Monteverde, Costa Rica. Golgi-impregnated arbors in the lip and collar calyces, which receive a predominance of olfactory and visual input, respectively, were quantified using Sholl’s concentric circles and a novel application of virtual spherical probes. Arbors of the lip varied in a manner reminiscent of honeybees, with foragers having the largest and in-nest workers having the smallest arbors. In contrast, arbors of the collar were largest in foragers but smallest in on-nest workers. Thus, progression through task specializations in P. aequatorialis involves subregion specific dendritic growth and regression in the MB neuropil. These results may reflect the sensitivity of Kenyon cell dendritic structure to specialization dependent social and sensory experience.     

Neuroticism and the Architecture of the Self: Exploring Neuroticism as a Moderator of the Impact of Ideal Self‐Discrepancies on Emotion

ABSTRACT Two studies examined the moderating role of neuroticism in discrepancy‐emotion relations. In Study 1, neuroticism, self‐discrepancies, and depression were measured. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant interaction between neuroticism and ideal self‐discrepancies such that the magnitude of ideal self‐discrepancies was a stronger predictor of depression for people high in neuroticism than people low in neuroticism. Study 2 used an experimental paradigm to test the same hypothesis. Participants were randomly assigned to an ideal self‐discrepancy salience condition or a control condition in which ideal self‐discrepancies were not made salient. A significant interaction between self‐discrepancy condition and neuroticism emerged such that the ideal self‐discrepancy condition produced higher dejection‐related affect relative to the control condition for people high in neuroticism compared to people low in neuroticism.     

Implicit statistical learning in language processing: Word predictability is the key

Fundamental learning abilities related to the implicit encoding of sequential structure have been postulated to underlie language acquisition and processing. However, there is very little direct evidence to date supporting such a link between implicit statistical learning and language. In three experiments using novel methods of assessing implicit learning and language abilities, we show that sensitivity to sequential structure – as measured by improvements to immediate memory span for structurally-consistent input sequences – is significantly correlated with the ability to use knowledge of word predictability to aid speech perception under degraded listening conditions. Importantly, the association remained even after controlling for participant performance on other cognitive tasks, including short-term and working memory, intelligence, attention and inhibition, and vocabulary knowledge. Thus, the evidence suggests that implicit learning abilities are essential for acquiring long-term knowledge of the sequential structure of language – i.e., knowledge of word predictability – and that individual differences on such abilities impact speech perception in everyday situations. These findings provide a new theoretical rationale linking basic learning phenomena to specific aspects of spoken language processing in adults, and may furthermore indicate new fruitful directions for investigating both typical and atypical language development.