Presentation procedures in lineups and mug books: a direct comparison

The purpose of this research was to replicate and to extend past findings that the best procedure for presenting lineup pictures is not the best procedure for presenting mug book pictures. Participants witnessed a videotape of a simulated crime that was followed by a lineup task for half the participants or a mug book task for the other half. The task factor was crossed with two other factors: (a) a presentation procedure factor—pictures presented one‐at‐a‐time or grouped 12 per page and (b) a presence of the perpetrator factor—perpetrator present or absent in the viewed pictures. For perpetrator‐absent conditions, the one‐at‐a time lineup procedure produced more correct rejections than the grouped lineup procedure replicating past results; however, for the mug book task the two presentation procedures did not differ. For perpetrator‐present conditions, the grouped presentation procedure produced more correct identifications than the one‐at‐a time procedure in both lineups and mug books. The different pattern of results for lineups and mug books was explained in terms of differences in response criterion. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Response Instructions on Faking a Situational Judgment Test

A situational judgment test (SJT) and a Big 5 personality test were administered to 203 participants under instructions to respond honestly and to fake good using a within‐subjects design. Participants indicated both the best and worst response (i.e., Knowledge) and the most likely and least likely response (i.e., Behavioral Tendency) to each situation. Faking effect size for the SJT Behavioral Tendency response format was (d=.34) when participants responded first under honest instructions and (d=.15) when they responded first under faking instructions. Those for the Big 5 dimensions ranged from d=.26 to d=1.0. For the Knowledge response format results were inconsistent. Honest condition Knowledge SJT scores were more highly correlated with cognitive ability (r=.56) than were Behavioral Tendency SJT scores (r=.38). Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Distorted body representations are robust to differences in experimental instructions

Several recent reports have shown that even healthy adults maintain highly distorted representations of the size and shape of their body. These distortions have been shown to be highly consistent across different study designs and dependent measures. However, previous studies have found that visual judgments of size can be modulated by the experimental instructions used, for example, by asking for judgments of the participant’s subjective experience of stimulus size (i.e., apparent instructions) versus judgments of actual stimulus properties (i.e., objective instructions). Previous studies investigating internal body representations have relied exclusively on ‘apparent’ instructions. Here, we investigated whether apparent versus objective instructions modulate findings of distorted body representations underlying position sense (Exp. 1), tactile distance perception (Exp. 2), as well as the conscious body image (Exp. 3). Our results replicate the characteristic distortions previously reported for each of these tasks and further show that these distortions are not affected by instruction type (i.e., apparent vs. objective). These results show that the distortions measured with these paradigms are robust to differences in instructions and do not reflect a dissociation between perception and belief.     

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Neuropsychological and Behavioral Features

Heavy prenatal alcohol exposure can cause alterations to the developing brain. The resulting neurobehavioral deficits seen following this exposure are wide-ranging and potentially devastating and, therefore, are of significant concern to individuals, families, communities, and society. These effects occur on a continuum, and qualitatively similar neuropsychological and behavioral features are seen across the spectrum of effect. The term fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) has been used to emphasize the continuous nature of the outcomes of prenatal alcohol exposure, with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) representing one point on the spectrum. This paper will provide a comprehensive review of the neuropsychological and behavioral effects of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, including a discussion of the emerging neurobehavioral profile. Supporting studies of lower levels of exposure, brain-behavior associations, and animal model systems will be included when appropriate.     

The moderating effects of purchase importance in customer satisfaction process: An empirical investigation

Customer satisfaction continues to draw the interest of researchers and practitioners because it can lead to long term benefits including customer loyalty. Purchase importance plays a role in pre‐purchase process, yet little is known about how it may influence customer satisfaction formation process and loyalty intentions. This study examines the moderating effect of purchase importance in the customer satisfaction formation process and in loyalty intentions. A survey was conducted with customers in a restaurant setting, and structural equation analysis via LISREL was performed. The results show that perceived performance has a stronger influence on satisfaction when purchase importance is low, whereas satisfaction seems to be influenced both by disconfirmation and perceived performance when purchase importance is high. Post‐consumption expectations were found to influence on loyalty intentions under both high and low importance purchase conditions. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A theory-based approach to teaching young children about health: A recipe for understanding

The theory-theory account of conceptual development posits that children's concepts are integrated into theories. Concept learning studies have documented the central role that theories play in children's learning of experimenter-defined categories, but have yet to extensively examine complex, real-world concepts such as health. The present study examined whether providing young children with coherent and causally-related information in a theory-based lesson would facilitate their learning about the concept of health. This study used a pre-test/lesson/post-test design, plus a five month follow-up. Children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: theory (i.e., 20 children received a theory-based lesson); nontheory (i.e., 20 children received a nontheory-based lesson); and control (i.e., 20 children received no lesson). Overall, the results showed that children in the theory condition had a more accurate conception of health than children in the nontheory and control conditions, suggesting the importance of theories in children's learning of complex, real-world concepts.     

Adaptation of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV) for Vietnam

Intelligence testing is used for many purposes including identification of children for proper educational placement (e.g., children with learning disabilities, or intellectually gifted students), and to guide education by identifying cognitive strengths and weaknesses so that teachers can adapt their instructional style to students’ specific learning styles. Most of the research involving intelligence tests has been conducted in highly developed Western countries Yet the need for intelligence testing is as or even more important in developing countries. The present study, conducted through the Vietnam National University Clinical Psychology CRISP Center, focused on the cultural adaptation of the WISC-IV intelligence test for Vietnam. We report on (a) the adaptation process including the translation, cultural analysis and modifications involved in adaptation, (b) present results of two pilot studies, and (c) describe collection of the standardization sample and results of analyses with the standardization sample, with the goal of sharing our experience with other researchers who may be involved in or interested in adapting or developing IQ tests for non-Western, non-English speaking cultures.     

Recruiters' Assessment and Use of Social Capital in Résumé Screening1

An experiment was conducted with undergraduate business students to investigate how human resource (HR) recruiters use social capital conceptualized as friendship between applicants and the recruiter in screening résumés. Results showed that social capital influenced recruiters' assessment of applicants above and beyond human capital. In addition, the influence of friendship ties in applicant assessment was more prominent among female HR recruiters than among male recruiters. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed in the context of employee selection.     

Authorship Ethics: Issues and Suggested Guidelines for the Helping Professions

The authors review the literature and explore common ethical dilemmas related to publishing research. Varying standards are presented to assist professionals and students in their publication endeavors. Joint research collaboration in many graduate programs is encouraged and appears inevitable. Joint research activities may involve student–faculty collaboration or professional peer collaboration. Although many helping professions have ethics codes that address publication issues, there is no standard among them regarding the issue of authorship. Although it appears necessary to follow minimal codes of ethics regarding authorship, consideration of suggested guidelines and aspirational ethics may enhance the professional growth of mental health professionals and students in mental health programs.