Word Mapping and Executive Functioning in Young Monolingual and Bilingual Children

The effect of bilingualism on the cognitive skills of young children was investigated by comparing performance of 162 children who belonged to one of two age groups (approximately 3- and 4.5-year-olds) and one of three language groups on a series of tasks examining executive control and word mapping. The children were monolingual English speakers, monolingual French speakers, or bilinguals who spoke English and one of a large number of other languages. Monolinguals obtained higher scores than bilinguals on a receptive vocabulary test and were more likely to demonstrate the mutual exclusivity constraint, especially at the younger ages. However, bilinguals obtained higher scores than both groups of monolinguals on three tests of executive functioning: Luria's tapping task measuring response inhibition, the opposite worlds task requiring children to assign incongruent labels to a sequence of animal pictures, and reverse categorization in which children needed to reclassify a set of objects into incongruent categories after an initial classification. There were no differences between the groups in the attentional networks flanker task requiring executive control to ignore a misleading cue. This evidence for a bilingual advantage in aspects of executive functioning at an earlier age than previously reported is discussed in terms of the possibility that bilingual language production may not be the only source of these developmental effects.     

From Sectarian to Secular Control of Education The Case of Newfoundland

On September 2, 1997, Newfoundland transitioned from church to state control over education. Prior to this change, education had been controlled by churches. Recently, on November 9, 2000, an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada by the Roman Catholic Church to declare the change unconstitutional was denied, settling the issue legally, although, perhaps, not politically. This article describes Newfoundland's educational system prior to the public referendum in 1997 that removed church control of education and explores some of the recent issues that have arisen since transition. It calls for further investigation into the effects of the change and the political, social, and economic forces that led to such a fundamental change.     

“Stay in the Game”: Collecting Data on Symptom Improvement in Naturalistic Settings in Order to Increase Reimbursement Rates

An industrious approach to increasing reimbursement rates from third-party payers is reviewed. Balancing fidelity to treatment with real-world demands at a local hospital is discussed, as well as ways we were able to increase reimbursement within our own department. Data in naturalistic settings, though not always able to adhere to randomized controlled trials, offers evidence of improvement in symptoms. This reaction paper encourages other clinical programs to "stay in the game" of data collection while balancing treatment fidelity.     

Self-improvement and cooperation: How exchange relationships promote mastery-approach driven individuals' job outcomes

In the present research we argue that mastery-approach goals may be beneficial in social achievement contexts because these goals lead to constructive exchange relationship building. An examination of three methodologically complementary studies revealed that mastery-approach goals lead to more cooperative and higher-quality exchange relationships than performance-approach goals and are, ultimately, associated with better job outcomes, as well. The results of a questionnaire study demonstrated that mastery-approach goals are more strongly related to cooperative motives and more weakly related to competitive motives than performance-approach goals. Furthermore, an experimental study indicated that mastery-approach driven individuals show a higher concern for others and are more strongly inclined to cooperate with an exchange partner when engaged in a complex reasoning task than performance-approach driven individuals. Finally, an organizational field study showed that team–member exchange mediates the effect of mastery-approach goals on job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.     

How much can you bend before you break: An experience of using constructionist consulting as a tool for organizational learning in the corporate world

This article reflects upon the experience the authors had in the process of designing and facilitating a year-long leadership development class within a division of a high-tech manufacturing corporation in the USA. The design reflected narrative (Simons, 1997; Epston & White, 1990), feminist (Ferguson, 1984; Ramsey & Calvert, 1994), and constructionist principles, and was implemented as a “learning-in-organizing process” (Abma, this issue). We have structured the article to capture the dynamic nature of this process. This includes a discussion of how we as “outsider” class instructors and “insider” participants negotiated and renegotiated the design of the class as well as the effects of these “relational negotiations” on our collective learning. We end with a consideration of the implications of our “learning-in-organizing” for other constructionist consultants (Campbell, Caldicott, & Kinsella, 1994) who are translating organizational learning theories into practice.     

Lean on me: The importance of one's own and partner's intercultural personality for expatriate's and expatriate spouse's successful adjustment abroad

This research explores the role of three intercultural personality traits—emotional stability, social initiative, and open-mindedness—as coping resources for expatriate couples’ adjustment. First, we examined the direct relationships of expatriates’ and expatriate spouses’ personality trait levels with psychological and sociocultural adjustment. Psychological adjustment refers to internal psychological outcomes such as mental health and personal satisfaction, whereas sociocultural adjustment refers to more externally oriented psychological outcomes that link the individual to the new environment. Second, we examined the association of expatriates’ personality trait levels with professional adjustment, which was defined in terms of job performance and organizational commitment. Cross-sectional analyses among 196 expatriates and expatriate spouses (i.e., 98 expatriate couples) revealed that the three dimensions are each associated with specific facets of adjustment. A longitudinal analysis among a subsample (45 couples) partially confirmed these findings. Furthermore, we obtained evidence for a resource compensation effect, that is, the compensatory process whereby one partner's lack of sufficiently high levels of a certain personality trait is compensated for by the other partner's high(er) levels of this traits. Through this resource compensation effect, the negative consequences of a lack of sufficient levels of a personality trait on adjustment can be diminished. Apparently, in the absence of sufficiently high trait levels, individuals can benefit from personality resources in their partners.     

Age Differences in Output-Monitoring Accuracy

ABSTRACT

Output monitoring refers to memory for whether an intended action has been completed. Failures in output monitoring can lead to action repetitions or action omissions. Output monitoring is difficult for both younger and older adults, but few studies have examined age differences in output monitoring. Two experiments using a picture-based prospective memory task with an output-monitoring component were conducted to investigate the role of increased contextual detail and pre-exposure on output-monitoring accuracy in younger and older adults. Across the two experimental manipulations older adults demonstrated less accurate output monitoring by primarily committing errors of repetition. Pre-exposure to targets resulted in worse output-monitoring accuracy for both younger and older adults.     

Conditioned water affects pair formation behaviour in the marine polychaete Neanthes (Nereis) acuminata

Assessing cues from conspecifics is paramount during mate choice decisions. Neanthes acuminata is a marine polychaete with a unique life cycle: pair formation, female death following reproduction, male parental care and male ability to mate again after egg care. Males completing such egg care are ‘experienced’. Females have been shown to prefer experienced males over all others, including aggressively dominant males. As the female dies following reproduction, the reproductive success of her offspring depends upon successful parental care by the male. It is therefore vital that the female makes a good mate choice decision. This paper shows that the use of conditioned water from males caring for eggs and newly experienced males caused the female to alter her choice to a previously undesired male. However, conditioned water from males, which had reproduced but were isolated for 2 weeks, did not have the same effect on pairing behaviour. This indicates that the smell of experience is short lived.     

Effects of acute psychosocial stress exposure on endocrine and affective reactivity in college students differing in the 5-HTTLPR genotype and trait neuroticism

Enhanced stress vulnerability has been implicated in the pathogenesis of affective disorders. Although both genetic (5-HTTLPR) and cognitive (neuroticism) factors are known to increase stress vulnerability, no experimental study has investigated the interaction between these two factors on psychobiological reactivity following acute stress exposure. This study used a balanced experimental design to examine the interaction between the 5-HTTLPR genotype and trait neuroticism in neuroendocrine and affective stress responses. From a large group of 771 students, 48 carriers of the short/short (S/S) allele and 48 carriers of the long/long (L/L) allele with the lowest and the highest neuroticism scores (77 females, 19 males; mean age?±?SD: 20.6?±?2 years) were selected and exposed to an acute psychosocial stressor. Mood was assessed before and after the stressor, and salivary cortisol concentrations were measured before and at 20, 30, and 60?min after stressor onset. Acute stress increased salivary cortisol concentration regardless of either 5-HTTLPR genotype or neuroticism, but it caused a less profound negative mood change in L/L compared to S/S-allele carriers with the lowest neuroticism scores. The 5-HTTLPR genotype influences affective reactivity to acute stress conditional upon neuroticism, improving resilience to acute stress in L/L-allele carriers if they do not already possess high cognitive-affective (neuroticism) vulnerability.