Children's emotions and coping with interpersonal stress as correlates of social competence

Identifying correlates of children's emotional reactions and coping can provide information about developmental processes and identify useful strategies for improving children's adaptation to stress. We investigated associations of social competence with children's responses to standardised, controllable interpersonal stressors. The stressors included bullying, arguing with a parent, and not being picked for a team sport. We expected greater competence to be associated with certain coping responses, and expected that coping would be better explained by also considering emotional reactions. Children (N = 230, Grades 3 to 7) reacted to three videotaped stressors, and children and parents completed questionnaires. Children rated as more competent used active and challenge coping strategies, such as problem solving and support seeking, more than other children, and they also responded with more sadness. Children's competence was associated with fear, but only in bivariate correlations, and was not associated with angry responses. In a structural equation model, emotions were associated with more coping responses, and the emotional reaction of sadness accounted for the link between children's social competence and adaptive (i.e., challenge) coping. Findings suggest that competent children use more adaptive coping, and this is accounted for by their greater feelings of sadness when dealing with controllable interpersonal stressors.     

How and to What Extent Do Two Cover, Copy, and Compare Spelling Interventions Contribute to Spelling, Word Recognition, and Vocabulary Development?

We used an adapted alternating treatments design to evaluate and compare the effects of 2 spelling interventions on spelling acquisition and maintenance, word reading, and vocabulary in three first-grade students. The first intervention, Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC), involved having participants look at a word, cover it, write it, then compare the written response with the original stimulus. For the second intervention, Cover, Copy, and Compare + Sentence Definition (CCC + SD), CCC was supplemented with the experimenter reading a sentence containing the word and a brief definition of the word. Results showed that both interventions increased participants’ spelling at an equivalent rate, which was greater than a control condition. All participants showed greater gains in word reading in the 2 interventions than the control condition, and only 1 participant was better able to define words learned in the CCC + SD condition relative to the CCC condition.     

Patterns of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among United States Air Force Combat Search and Rescue Personnel

U.S. Air Force (USAF) combat search and rescue (CSAR) aircrew and special duty rescue personnel are specially trained airmen with high levels of direct exposure to combat-related medical trauma. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence rate of CSAR military personnel meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition; DSM–5) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom criteria. USAF CSAR aircrew (n = 128) and rescue personnel (n = 300) across multiple units participated in the study by completing a demographics survey and the PTSD checklist based on DSM–5. Fourteen participants endorsed a pattern of symptoms of moderate to extreme level of severity meeting PTSD diagnostic criteria. Recommendations are provided for line and medical leadership to optimize health and performance among CSAR personnel.     

An analysis of response,direction, and place learning in an open field and T maze

Rats were trained to locate food in a response, direction, or place problem on an open field located at 2 positions. In Experiment 1, both the response and direction groups solved the problem. The place group failed to solve the task in approximately 300 trials. Experiment 2 demonstrated that rats need distinguishable start points to solve a place problem when neither a response nor a direction solution is available. Findings from Experiment 3 suggest that a combination of path traveled and distinct cues help to differentiate start points. Experiment 4 replicated the findings using a T maze. These results suggest "place" solutions are difficult for rats. The data are discussed with respect to conditional learning and modern spatial mapping theory.     

Birth order effects in dominance: failure to support Sulloway's view

Contrary to Sulloway's 1996 assertion that firstborns should score higher than laterborns on measures of dominance, the dominance scores for 76 firstborn undergraduate students (50 women, 26 men) did not differ significantly from the scores of 75 laterborn students (48 women, 27 men) on the 16PF dimension of Dominance vs Submissiveness (Factor E). Further research into possible differences in performance strategies between laterborns and firstborns in childhood vs adulthood is necessary to evaluate Sulloway's theory of ordinal position definitively.     

Effects of Interspersing Additional Brief Math Problems on Student Performance and Perception of Math Assignments: Getting Students to Prefer to Do More Work

Three experiments were conducted to assess the effects of the interspersing procedure on students' mathematics performance, perceptions of mathematics assignments, and preference for mathematics assignments when more work was added. In Experiment I, college students worked computation problems from two assignments. The control assignment contained 15 three-digit by two-digit problems (3 × 2) and the experimental assignments contained 18 3 × 2 problems and 6 additional interspersed one-digit by one-digit problems (1 × 1). Students then rated the assignments and chose one for homework. Results showed significantly more students preferred (i.e., chose it for homework) the experimental assignment with the additional target (i.e., 3 × 2) and interspersed problems. Furthermore, significantly more students rated this experiment as requiring less effort and being less difficult. Moreover, students' mathematics performance was not affected by the procedure. Experiment II strengthened the internal validity by showing that students did not prefer the experimental assignment because it contained more target problems. Experiment III showed that the interspersing procedure was not powerful enough to extend findings beyond the 20% level (i.e., 40 and 60% more conditions). Results showed how the interspersing procedure could be used to encourage students to choose to do more target computation tasks. Discussion focuses on the applied value of the interspersing procedure and plausible causal mechanisms that may account for current and past findings related to student choice and interspersing brief tasks.     

The duration and perceived intensity of sucrose taste

Thirty-two subjects judged the perceived intensity of each of four concentrations of sucrose over 2 min. Stimuli were either sipped and expectorated or flowed over the subject’s extended tongue. Ratio judgments on a line scale and category ratings were made. Sixteen of the subjects had had extensive training in judging the sensory attributes of food products, and another group of 16 subjects were untrained. The perceived intensity of sucrose rose to a peak within 5 or 10 sec, and then declined over 2 min. In both the sip and the flow conditions, the taste disappeared completely for 26 of 32 subjects. Stronger concentrations were perceived as having greater peak intensities and longer lasting taste. The differences between concentrations were enhanced when sipped rather than flowed over the tongue. Judgments of intensity and duration were largely unaffected by the training level of subjects and the use of different rating scales.