Infant vocalization: A comprehensive view

Two different accounts of infant vocal development have recently been advanced. Both stress the lawful nature of this development and propose that it occurs in a series of stages. One account stresses the infant's attempt to make speech-like sounds from the earliest months and proposes that characteristics of speech are successively brought under the infant's control. The other suggests that instead, processes of integration and coordination of aspects of vocalization are taking place and considers these processes in relation to the situational contexts of vocalizing. A more comprehensive view is proposed in which aspects of both accounts are incorporated.     

Overcoming interference: an fMRI investigation of pattern separation in the medial temporal lobe

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) supports the formation and retrieval of long-term declarative memories, or memories for facts and everyday events. One challenge posed for this type of memory stems from the highly overlapping nature of common episodes. Within cognitive psychology, it is widely accepted that interference between information learned at different times is a major limitation on memory. In spite of several decades of intense research in the fields of interference theory and the neurobiological underpinnings of declarative memory, there is little direct evidence bearing on how the MTL resolves this interference to form accurate memories of everyday facts and events. Computational models of MTL function have proposed a mechanism in which the MTL, specifically the hippocampus, performs pattern separation, whereby overlapping representations are made less similar. However, there is little evidence bearing on how this process is carried out in the intact human MTL. Using high-resolution fMRI, we conducted a set of experiments that taxed behavioral pattern separation by using highly similar, interfering stimuli in a modified continuous recognition task. Regions within the parahippocampal gyrus demonstrated activity consistent with a "recall to reject" strategy. In contrast and critical to performing the task, activity within the hippocampus distinguished between correctly identified true stimulus repetitions, correctly rejected presentations of similar lure stimuli, and false alarms to similar lures. These data support the computational models' assertion that the hippocampus plays a key role in pattern separation.     

Comparing the Family Environments of Adolescents with Conduct Disorder or Depression

We attempted to differentiate the family environments of youth with Conduct Disorder (CD) compared to youth with a depressive disorder. Participants were 34 adolescents from a residential treatment facility. The K-SADS-P was used to determine the youth's diagnosis, while their family environment was assessed by the Self Report Measure of Family Functioning Child Version. A MANOVA was used to compare the two diagnostic groups on seven family environment variables. Results indicate that adolescents with CD described their parents as having a permissive and ambiguous discipline style, while adolescents with a depressive disorder described their relationship with their parents as enmeshed. A discriminant function analysis, using the two family environment variables of enmeshment and laissez-faire family style as predictors, correctly classified 82% of the participants. Implications for treatment of youth with both types of diagnoses and their families are discussed.     

Psychosocial Factors Associated With Stage of Change for Contraceptive Use Among Women at Increased Risk for HIV and STDs

This study assessed the psychosocial factors associated with contraceptive use among inner-city women at risk for HIV/STDs by using the transtheoretical model of behavior change. The five-city study group of women aged 15 to 34 years was recruited from neighborhoods, social service agencies and shelters ( n = 998). We measured stages of change for contraceptive use and assessed theoretically proposed factors associated with being at a higher stage. Variables such as perceived advantages of contraceptive use and normative support for use were very important at early stages, but less important in later stages. However, self-efficacy was important in both early (OR =1.5) and later (OR = 1.6) stages, suggesting that women's confidence in their ability to initiate and sustain contraceptive use is crucial.     

The effects of repeated idea elaboration on unconscious plagiarism

Unconscious plagiarism occurs in a recall task when someone presents someone else’s idea as his or her own. Recent research has shown that the likelihood of such an error is inflated if the idea is improved during the retention interval, but not if it is imagined. Here, we explore the effects of repeating the elaboration phase during the retention interval. Participants in a group first generated alternate uses to common objects before elaborating the ideas either by imagining them or by improving them. This elaboration phase occurred once, twice, or not at all. Later, they attempted to recall their original ideas and generate new ideas. Repeated imagery did not inflate unconscious plagiarism on either task. In contrast, repeating the improvement phase increased plagiarism to dramatically high levels in the recall task. The latter effect might be particularly pertinent to real-world cases of plagiarism in which the ideas under dispute have been the subject of creative development over many occasions.     

Examining assumptions about item responding in personality assessment: should ideal point methods be considered for scale development and scoring?

The present study investigated whether the assumptions of an ideal point response process, similar in spirit to Thurstone's work in the context of attitude measurement, can provide viable alternatives to the traditionally used dominance assumptions for personality item calibration and scoring. Item response theory methods were used to compare the fit of 2 ideal point and 2 dominance models with data from the 5th edition of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (S. Conn & M. L. Rieke, 1994). The authors' results indicate that ideal point models can provide as good or better fit to personality items than do dominance models because they can fit monotonically increasing item response functions but do not require this property. Several implications of these findings for personality measurement and personnel selection are described.