Discounting input from older adults: the role of age salience on partner age effects in the social contagion of memory

Three experiments examined the impact of partner age on the magnitude of socially suggested false memories. Young participants recalled household scenes in collaboration with an implied young or older adult partner who intentionally recalled false items. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with only the age of their partner (low age-salience context); in Experiment 2, participants were presented with the age of their partner along with a photograph and biographical information about their partner (high age-salience context); in Experiment 3, age salience was varied within the same experiment. Across experiments, participants in both the low age-salience and high age-salience contexts incorporated their partners’ misleading suggestions into their own subsequent recall and recognition reports, thus demonstrating social contagion with implied partners. Importantly, the effect of partner age differed across conditions. Participants in the high age-salience context were less likely to incorporate misleading suggestions from older adult partners than from young adult partners, but participants in the low age-salience context were equally likely to incorporate suggestions from young and older adult partners. Participants discount the memory of older adult partners only when age is highly salient.     

Social Comparisons,Social Support,and Self-Perceptions in Group Exercise for People With Parkinson's Disease

People with Parkinson's disease (PD) may experience declining function and limited interaction with others with PD. Group exercise provides opportunities for physical accomplishment and social support, as well as potential social challenges. We used interpretative phenomenological analysis to examine experiences of social comparison, social support, and self-perceptions of 20 people with PD in group exercise. Participants experienced (a) reticence evolving to inspiration, (b) anxiety relief through camaraderie and breaking taboos, and (c) maintaining athletic identity through participating and helping others. Practical implications include facilitating a safe space and support to alleviate anxiety and sustain participation.     

Initial Evidence for the Reliability and Validity of the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Perpetration (SES-SFP) in College Men

This study provides psychometric data on the Sexual Experiences Survey—Short Form Perpetration (SES-SFP), a revision of one of the most widely used measures of sexual perpetration, in a sample of college men. Participants (n = 402) completed a web survey containing the study measures; a subset of 66 participants completed the SES-SFP again 2 weeks later. Our results provide initial evidence of internal consistency and convergent evidence of validity for the SES-SFP in college men but question the measure’s test-retest reliability. The severity of tactics used to coerce sexually aggressive behaviors was more strongly associated with rape empathy than sexual outcome severity scores, indicating utility of assessing coercive tactics. Additional research is needed regarding the psychometric properties of the SES-SFP and other measures of sexual perpetration in order to accurately assess rates of these behaviors and inform preventive interventions.     

Cognitive Deficits and Positively Biased Self-Perceptions in Children with ADHD

This study examined the relation between cognitive deficits and positive bias in a sample of 272 children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; 7–12 years old). Results indicated that children with ADHD with and without biased self-perceptions exhibit differences in specific cognitive deficits (executive processes, working memory, broad attention, and cognitive fluency) compared to each other and to control children. Further, specific cognitive deficits emerged as partial mediators of the relation between ADHD diagnostic status and positive bias. Interestingly, some differences in results emerged based on the domain considered (academic, social, behavioral competence). Results lend initial support to the role of cognitive deficits in the positive bias of some children with ADHD. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.     

Examining the association between MAOA genotype and incarceration, anger and hostility: The moderating influences of risk and protective factors

Findings from molecular genetic research have indicated that a polymorphism in the promoter region of the MAOA gene interacts with environmental liabilities to predict antisocial phenotypes. We use these findings as a springboard to examine whether a global protective-risk factor index moderates the effect of MAOA genotype on the probability of being incarcerated and on a measure of anger and hostility. Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) indicates that exposure to risk and protective factors in adolescence are able to moderate the effect of MAOA genotype on anger and hostility in adulthood for males. The results in relation to the probability of being incarcerated were consistently null.     

Behavioral and social cognitive processes in preschool children's social dominance

This longitudinal, naturalistic study addressed behavioral and social cognitive processes implicated in preschool children's social dominance. In the first objective, we examined the degree to which peer aggression, affiliation, and postaggression reconciliation predicted social dominance across a school year. Consistent with predictions, all three predicted dominance early in the year while only affiliation predicted dominance later in the year, suggesting that aggression, affiliation, and reconciliation were used to establish social dominance where affiliation was used to maintain it. In the second, exploratory, objective we tested the relative importance of social dominance and reconciliation (the Machiavellian and Vygotskian intelligence hypotheses, respectively) in predicting theory of mind/false belief. Results indicated that social dominance accounted for significant variance, beyond that related to reconciliation and affiliation, in predicting theory of mind/false belief status. Results are discussed in terms of specific behavioral and social cognitive processes employed in establishing and maintaining social dominance.     

Revealing the invisible hand: The role of teachers in children's peer experiences

To introduce this special issue, the concept of the teacher as an “invisible hand” is presented as a metaphor to describe the potentially influential but relatively understudied contribution that educators are likely to have on children’s peer relationships and their broader interpersonal growth. Building from conceptual work distinguishing between the role of adults and peers in children’s social development, we summarize empirical support for the view that teachers are in a position to develop and guide the classroom as a society by simultaneously directing institutional expectations while also providing students with opportunities to collectively construct their own peer culture. Key social development constructs are reviewed from this lens, and the four articles and two commentaries that constitute this special issue are discussed in relation to their contributions to clarifying and extending current views of the role of teachers in school social dynamics. We conclude by considering intervention implications of this work, and we argue that teachers are the one professional in a child’s life who have the opportunity to view the whole child in relation to the social ecology in which he or she is embedded.     

Factor Structure of the PTSD Checklist in a Sample of OEF/OIF Veterans Presenting to Primary Care: Specific and Nonspecific Aspects of Dysphoria

Although DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include three primary symptom clusters, recent evidence from confirmatory factor analyses suggest that the latent structure of PTSD is better represented by four factors, which will likely be reflected in the upcoming DSM-5. Given this likely transition from three to four clusters, the present study sought to examine specific and non-specific aspects of dysphoria in the factor structure of PTSD symptoms in a sample of OEF/OIF combat veterans presenting to a Veterans Affairs primary care clinic. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the PCL-M (Weathers et al. 1993). Results from confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a dysphoria factor involving a number of non-specific distress symptoms may be an important part of the PTSD symptom profile. After controlling for variance due to general psychological distress, we further found that factor loadings on the dysphoria factor were attenuated but continued to significantly load onto the factor, suggesting that dysphoria may be a specific part of the PTSD symptom constellation.     

Conditionals in Theories of Truth

We argue that distinct conditionals—conditionals that are governed by different logics—are needed to formalize the rules of Truth Introduction and Truth Elimination. We show that revision theory, when enriched with the new conditionals, yields an attractive theory of truth. We go on to compare this theory with one recently proposed by Hartry Field.     

The discounting model selector: Statistical software for delay discounting applications

Original, open‐source computer software was developed and validated against established delay discounting methods in the literature. The software executed approximate Bayesian model selection methods from user‐supplied temporal discounting data and computed the effective delay 50 (ED50) from the best performing model. Software was custom‐designed to enable behavior analysts to conveniently apply recent statistical methods to temporal discounting data with the aid of a graphical user interface (GUI). The results of independent validation of the approximate Bayesian model selection methods indicated that the program provided results identical to that of the original source paper and its methods. Monte Carlo simulation (n = 50,000) confirmed that true model was selected most often in each setting. Simulation code and data for this study were posted to an online repository for use by other researchers. The model selection approach was applied to three existing delay discounting data sets from the literature in addition to the data from the source paper. Comparisons of model selected ED50 were consistent with traditional indices of discounting. Conceptual issues related to the development and use of computer software by behavior analysts and the opportunities afforded by free and open‐sourced software are discussed and a review of possible expansions of this software are provided.