“Signs of Suicide” Shows Promise as a Middle School Suicide Prevention Program

Although the Signs of Suicide (SOS) suicide prevention program has been implemented at both the middle and high school levels, its efficacy has been demonstrated previously only among high school students. The current study evaluated SOS implemented in high military impact middle schools. Compared to controls, SOS participants demonstrated improved knowledge about suicide and suicide prevention, and participants with pretest ideation reported fewer suicidal behaviors at posttest than controls with pretest ideation. These results provide preliminary evidence for SOS's efficacy as a suicide prevention program for middle school students.     

Children’s Memory for Temporal Information: The Roles of Temporal Language and Executive Function

Abstract

The ability to recall the temporal order of events develops much more slowly than the ability to recall facts about events. To explore what processes facilitate memory for temporal information, we tested 3- to 6-year-old children (N?=?40) for immediate memory of the temporal order of events from a storybook, using a visual timeline task and a yes/no recognition task. In addition, children completed tasks assessing their understanding of before and after and the executive functions of inhibition using the Day/Night Stroop task and cognitive shifting using the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task. Older children (Mage?=?69.25?months) outperformed younger children (Mage?=?52.35?months) on all measures; however, the only significant predictor of memory for the temporal ordering of events was cognitive shifting. The findings suggest that the difficulty in memory for temporal information is related to development of a general cognitive ability, as indexed by the DCCS, rather than specific temporal abilities.     

Increasing Deception Detection Accuracy with Strategic Questioning

One explanation for the finding of slightly above‐chance accuracy in detecting deception experiments is limited variance in sender transparency. The current study sought to increase accuracy by increasing variance in sender transparency with strategic interrogative questioning. Participants (total N = 128) observed cheaters and noncheaters who were questioned with either indirect background questions or strategic questioning. Accuracy was significantly below chance (44%) in the background questions condition and substantially above chance (68%) in the strategic interrogative questioning condition. The results suggest that transparency can be increased by strategic question asking and that accuracy rates well above chance are possible even for untrained judges exposed to only brief communications.     

CLIENT PREFERENCE FOR COUNSELOR GENDER

This article presents the results of an investigation of male and female clients' expressed preferences for gender of their counselor. The study addressed two major comparisons: clients with a preference for therapist gender versus those without a preference, and clients with a preference for a male therapist versus those with a preference for a female therapist. LOGIT analyses indicate significant relationships among sex of the client, sex of the intake counselor, whether or not clients express a preference, and whether they express a preference for a male or female counselor. Results also suggest an influence of the sex of the intake counselor. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for counseling and research activities.     

Serial reversal learning in freshwater stingrays (Potamotrygon motoro)

Animal Cognition - Serial reversal learning is considered a reliable approach for the testing of behavioral flexibility, and animals that inhabit fluctuating habitats and different environments are...     

THE ORIGINS AND ACTIVITIES OF APA's DIVISION OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN

The activities of APA's Division of the Psychology of Women are traced from the origins of the Division in 1973 to the present. Division 35 evolved in response to pressures relating to the status of women in psychology as well as concerns about the content and practice of the psychology of women. The Division has fostered significant research on the psychology of women, been an important organizing base for women psychologists in their quest for visibility and influence, and provided institutional sup-port for issues of diversity in psychology and society.     

Solving Inductive Reasoning Problems in Mathematics: Not‐so‐Trivial Pursuit

This study investigated the cognitive processes involved in inductive reasoning. Sixteen undergraduates solved quadratic function–finding problems and provided concurrent verbal protocols. Three fundamental areas of inductive activity were identified: Data Gathering, Pattern Finding, and Hypothesis Generation. These activities are evident in three different strategies that they used to successfully find functions. In all three strategies, Pattern Finding played a critical role not previously identified in the literature. In the most common strategy, called the Pursuit strategy, participants created new quantities from x and y, detected patterns in these quantities, and expressed these patterns in terms of x. These expressions were then built into full hypotheses. The processes involved in this strategy are instantiated in an ACT‐based model that simulates both successful and unsuccessful performance. The protocols and the model suggest that numerical knowledge is essential to the detection of patterns and, therefore, to higher‐order problem solving.