Children's and adults' parafoveal processes in German: Phonological and orthographic effects

Phonological and orthographic information has been shown to play an important role in parafoveal processing in skilled adult reading in English. In the present study, we investigated whether similar parafoveal effects can be found in children using the boundary eye tracking method. Children and adults read sentences in German with embedded target nouns which were presented in original, pseudohomophone (PsH), transposed-letter (TL), lower-case and control conditions to assess phonological and orthographic preview effects. We found evidence of PsH preview benefit effects for children. We also found TL preview benefit effects for adults, while children only showed these effects under specific conditions. Results are consistent with the developmental view that reading initially depends on phonological processes and that orthographic processes become increasingly important.     

Why mindfulness belongs in counseling psychology: A synergistic clinical and research agenda

Mindfulness has become an increasingly visible part of the landscape in psychology and medicine in the past several decades. Only recently has this same interest in mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions appeared in counseling psychology. This article provides a brief synopsis of the mindfulness literature and explores the theoretical, ideological, and practical overlap between core values of counseling psychology and this burgeoning area of research and practice. In addition, the article explores ways in which counseling psychology can contribute uniquely to mindfulness research and practice through a focus on multiculturalism and social justice, psychotherapy process and outcome, and supervision and training. Further, ways in which mindfulness can inform counseling psychology’s mission are examined, including offering a strengths-based approach to psychological intervention and prevention and informing supervision and training. Lastly, five specific recommendations for a synergistic research agenda marrying mindfulness and counseling psychology are offered.     

Bad times are not good times for revolutions: Collective deprivation and the mobilization level of French radical movements (1882–1980)

Contrary to a popular belief, research has generally found no relationship between collective economic deprivation and the rise of radical political movements. On the other hand, various studies show that collective economic deprivation generates societal surges of conservatism. I therefore hypothesize that the absence of a relationship between collective deprivation and radical movements covers up opposite effects of collective deprivation depending on the ideology of radical movements: Reactionary (i.e., conservative radical) movements should mobilize more in times of collective deprivation, whereas revolutionary (i.e., progressive radical) movements should mobilize more in times of collective improvement. This paper tests this hypothesis via a new database measuring the level of mobilization of French radical organizations from 1882 to 1980. Statistical analyses confirm that collective deprivation, operationalized by long‐term economic recession and long‐term growth of inequality, increases the mobilization of reactionary movements and decreases the mobilization of revolutionary movements. These results contradict the view that economic conditions have no role in triggering radical movements and support recent development of system justification theory implying that ideology matters in the explanation of collective action.     

Parenting a Child with Phenylketonuria (PKU): an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the Experience of Parents

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare inherited metabolic disorder which can cause neurological damage if left untreated. PKU is identified through newborn screening in developed countries, and treatment begins immediately to prevent these severe consequences. When a child is diagnosed, parents must assume immediate responsibility for the management of PKU and prevention of neurological damage. Quantitative studies have identified significant psychosocial stressors for parents, but little is known about how the parents experience this process. This study aimed to explore the experiences of parents of children with PKU under the age of two. It is the first study to examine these experiences in this way. Seven parents were interviewed about their experiences, and interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. Three main themes were identified: control, striving for normality and acceptance of PKU as a continuum. Links between the themes and processes underpinning the results were explored with relation to existing literature and theories from a clinical psychology perspective. The role of acceptance of PKU was central to the parent’s experiences. Clinical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Rummage search by expert dyads,novice dyads and novice individuals for objects hidden in houses

Rummage search is the visual and haptic search of complex environments for targets. In this study, rummage search was explored using a novel analytic framework with expert dyads and novice dyads, as well as novice individuals. Participants sought an unknown number of targets placed in four rooms of a residential house. Some targets were plainly visible whereas others were hidden and could only be found through haptic examination. Expert dyads were very good at the task, conducting a slowed, double-checking exhaustive search, while novices both failed to fixate potential target locations and failed to carry out the appropriate action required to search those locations exhaustively. The novice dyads examined more than the novice individuals, but became more superficial in their search. We conclude that effective rummage searching is a skill enhanced by training.     

Phonological processing during silent reading in teenagers who are deaf/hard of hearing: an eye movement investigation

There has been considerable variability within the literature concerning the extent to which deaf/hard of hearing individuals are able to process phonological codes during reading. Two experiments are reported in which participants’ eye movements were recorded as they read sentences containing correctly spelled words (e.g., church), pseudohomophones (e.g., cherch), and spelling controls (e.g., charch). We examined both foveal processing and parafoveal pre‐processing of phonology for three participant groups—teenagers with permanent childhood hearing loss (PCHL), chronological age‐matched controls, and reading age‐matched controls. The teenagers with PCHL showed a pseudohomophone advantage from both directly fixated words and parafoveal preview, similar to their hearing peers. These data provide strong evidence for phonological recoding during silent reading in teenagers with PCHL.     

Impact and Causes of Rater Severity/Leniency in Appraisals without Postevaluation Communication Between Raters and Ratees

In performance appraisals, some assessors are substantially more lenient than others. Research on this effect in appraisals involving communication and interaction between raters and ratees after the performance evaluation has taken place indicates that it may be at least partly caused by individual differences in assessor personality. However, little is known about the impact or causes of rater severity versus leniency in situations in which there is little or no contact between raters and ratees after the performance evaluation. In Study 1 (N = 174) the strength of the severity–leniency effect in this ‘no‐contact’ context is estimated and found to be similar to that reported for ‘with‐contact’ appraisals. No evidence of an association between assessor personality and assessor severity (vs. leniency) is found in the ‘no‐contact’ context. In Study 2 (N = 54) there is no evidence of an association between the fluid cognitive ability of assessors and the severity of their ratings in a no‐contact context. It is concluded that the severity versus leniency effect probably has a considerable impact on performance ratings in ‘no‐contact’ appraisal settings, but that neither rater personality nor rater cognitive ability appear to play a significant role in this.