Error and bias in comparative judgment: on being both better and worse than we think we are

People believe that they are better than others on easy tasks and worse than others on difficult tasks. In previous attempts to explain these better-than-average and worse-than-average effects, researchers have invoked bias and motivation as causes. In this article, the authors develop a more parsimonious account, the differential information explanation, in which it is assumed only that people typically have better information about themselves than they do about others. When one's own performance is exceptional (either good or bad), it is often reasonable to assume others' will be less so. Consequently, people estimate the performance of others as less extreme (more regressive) than their own. The result is that people believe they are above average on easy tasks and below average on difficult tasks. These effects are exacerbated when people have accurate information about their performances, increasing the natural discrepancy between knowledge of the self and knowledge of others. The effects are attenuated when people obtain accurate information about the performances of others.     

Family History and APOE-4 Genetic Risk in Alzheimer’s Disease

Identifying risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, such as carrying the APOE-4 allele, and understanding their contributions to disease pathophysiology or clinical presentation is critical for establishing and improving diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. A first-degree family history of Alzheimer's disease represents a composite risk factor, which reflects the influence of known and unknown susceptibility genes and perhaps non-genetic risks. There is emerging evidence that investigating family history risk associated effects may contribute to advances in Alzheimer's disease research and ultimately clinical practice.     

The Association Between Health and Cognitive Performance in a Population-Based Study of Older Adults: The Charlotte County Healthy Aging Study (CCHAS)

In the present study, the relationship between self-reports and objective measures of health status and measures of cognitive performance was examined. Participants consisted of 437 persons (M =72.91 years) from the Charlotte County Healthy Aging Study, a population-based sample of older adults. Cognitive performance was assessed by tests of episodic memory, perceptual speed, and attention. Health status was indexed by subjective ratings, self-reports, and objective measures. The health measures accounted for significant variance on both the Trailmaking A and B tests, accounting for a modest amount of variance (4.4% and 1.1%, respectively). The health measures were not significantly associated with performance on the measures of attention or episodic memory. The results suggest that health status is associated with processing speed to a greater degree than higher order cognitive processes.     

Teaching and telling

Recent work on testimony has raised questions about the extent to which testimony is a distinctively second-personal phenomenon and the possible epistemic significance of its second-personal aspects. However, testimony, in the sense primarily investigated in recent epistemology, is far from the only way in which we acquire knowledge from others. My goal is to distinguish knowledge acquired from testimony – learning from being told – from knowledge acquired from teaching – learning from being taught, and to investigate the similarities and differences between the two with respect to the interpersonal dimensions of their structures.     

Cue‐Based Processing Capacity,Cognitive Load and the Completion of Simulated Short‐Duration Vigilance Tasks in Power Transmission Control

The interaction between human operators and advanced technology systems has become increasingly complex, particularly with the introduction of automated and semi‐automated systems. This complexity is evident in increasing demands for vigilance in what might be regarded as low stimulus environments. Using resource theory as an explanation of the reduction in sustained attention to a task, the present study sought to examine the relationship between cue utilisation and sustained attention in the context of simulated power system control. The participants comprised power system operators from an Australian power transmission organisation, together with university engineering students. Controlling for experience, the results identified a relationship between different levels of cue utilisation and response latency over successive trials on a short vigilance task, consistent with resource theory. At an applied level, the results have implications for the selection and assessment for operators in environments where sustained attention is a necessary requirement. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

I'm more driven now: Resilience and resistance among transgender and gender expansive youth and young adults experiencing homelessness

ABSTRACT

Background: Little is known about the resilience strategies of transgender and gender expansive youth and young adults (YYA) experiencing homelessness. In addition to difficulties accessing trans-affirming supports and services, transgender and gender expansive YYA must contend with structural constraints and oppressive messages about who they are and who they can become. Despite these challenges, transgender and gender expansive YYA experiencing homelessness are finding innovative ways to resist the multiple and overlapping institutionalized challenges they face.

Methods: This qualitative study examined the ways a group of transgender and gender expansive YYA demonstrate resilience and resist dominant narratives about what it means to be young, transgender and experiencing homelessness.

Results: Two primary themes were identified through which transgender and gender expansive YYA experiencing homelessness demonstrated resilience in the midst of structural constraints and oppressive narratives about who they are and who they can become: personal agency and future orientation. Participants exercised personal agency through self-definition and making their own choices. They oriented themselves to future possibilities through positive meaning-making and re-visioning the meaning of home. Participants engaged in these acts of resilience and resistance despite receiving negative messages about themselves.

Conclusions: Study findings illustrate the capacity of transgender and gender expansive YYA experiencing homelessness to reframe their challenges as positive experiences, integral to the people they have become or will be in the future. Findings point to the need to expand conceptualizations about people experiencing homelessness, and to utilize a strengths-based framework in practice and research.