Examination of variables that affect the efficacy of instructive feedback

Instructive feedback is a procedure in which additional, nontarget stimuli are presented during instructional trials for students with a wide array of disabilities. This preliminary investigation examined whether participant behavior during instructive feedback, including attending and echoic behavior, altered the efficacy of instructive feedback for 2 children with autism. Results showed that participant behavior during instructive feedback related to training outcomes for both participants and treatment modifications based on participant behavior influenced acquisition. Future directions of research and implications for practice are discussed.     

Optimizing Honor Codes for Online Exam Administration

This study examined self-reported academic dishonesty at a midsize public university. Students (N = 492) rated the likelihood they would cheat after accepting to abide by each of eight honor code pledges before Internet-based assignments and examinations. The statements were derived from honor pledges used by different universities across the United States and varied in length, formality, and the extent to which the statements included consequences for academic dishonesty. Longer, formal honor codes with consequences were associated with a lower likelihood to cheat. Results showed a significant three-way interaction and suggest how to best design honor codes.     

Gun Enthusiasm,Hypermasculinity, Manhood Honor,and Lifetime Aggression

Links between gun enthusiasm, hypermasculinity, manhood honor maintenance, trait antagonism, and lifetime aggression were examined in this national sample of American men (N = 861). Regression analysis identified honor ideology for manhood and emotion devaluation as the factors that accounted best for gun enthusiasm. Large effect sizes (d > .70 in more than half of the contrasts) were found between cohorts harboring extreme positive versus negative gun attitudes. Gun owners (26.7% of sample) also showed elevations in most of these same trait dimensions, but not lifetime aggression. Gun owners and enthusiasts did not show evidence of childhood maltreatment or current emotional distress. Gun enthusiasts instead seemed to convey a sense of self-assurance and preparedness to respond aggressively to perceived affronts, particularly as they pertained to maintenance of their masculine ideals.     

Effects of HIV/AIDS Information on Attitudes Toward AIDS: A Cross-Ethnic Comparison of College Students

College students (N = 274) from five ethnic groups were administered an AIDS information questionnaire and the Attitudes Toward AIDS Scale (ATAS; Goh, in press) to determine the effects of AIDS information on attitudes toward AIDS. A series of chi-squares and multivariate analyses of variance indicated significant differences among ethnic groups on the usage of HIV/AIDS information, the self-reported degree of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, measured knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and HIV/AIDS-related attitudes. Besides ethnicity, access to HIV/AIDS information and self-reported degree of knowledge about AIDS had significant effects on a person's measured knowledge of and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS.     

Social referencing in infants of mothers with symptoms of depression

The present study examined the acquisition of social referencing skills in infants of mothers with symptoms of depression (n = 44). We aimed to determine if a short discrimination training could facilitate infants’ social referencing. Mothers were instructed to pose either joyful or fearful facial expressions to cue infants’ approach/avoidance responses toward an ambiguous object. Maternal expressions were correlated with pleasant or unpleasant events occurring after the infant's response. The results showed that after the intervention, infants looked at their mothers more frequently and reached or avoided the ambiguous object based on the preceding maternal expression. The results suggest that discrimination training procedures can establish social referencing in infants of mothers with symptoms of depression.     

Time but not force is transferred between ipsilateral upper and lower limbs

The authors compared the force and time endpoint accuracy of goal-directed ipsilateral upper and lower limb isometric contractions and determined the components of motor performance that can be transferred from 1 limb to the other after practice. Ten young adults (27.4 +/- 4.4 years) performed 100 trials that involved their matching peak force to a force-time target with ankle dorsiflexor and elbow flexor muscles. The peak force error and variability was greater for ankle dorsiflexor contractions than for elbow flexor contractions, whereas the timing error and variability did not significantly vary with limb. There was transfer of timing, but not force, of motor output between upper and lower limbs. The timing error of the elbow flexor contractions decreased by 23% when those contractions were preceded by ankle dorsiflexor contractions, and the timing error of the ankle dorsiflexors decreased by 24% when those contractions were preceded by elbow flexor contractions. These finding therefore suggest that timing of an aiming isometric contraction may be organized at a common part of the brain for the upper and lower limbs.     

Multiple social identities and reactivity to daily stress among ethnically diverse young adults

In a sample of 181 young adults from Filipino, European, Latin and Asian American backgrounds, cluster analytic techniques were employed to determine how ethnic, American, family, and religious identity interact to form unique identity configurations. Four clusters emerged: Many Social Identities (MSI), Blended/Low Religious (B/LR), Blended/Low Ethnic and American (B/LEA), and Few Social Identities (FSI). Based on daily diary reports over 14 days, differential reactivity to daily stressors was examined on feelings of anxiety and positive mood. Results suggested that individuals in the MSI, B/LR and B/LEA clusters reported increased anxiety on days when they experienced more stressors. In addition, individuals in the MSI and B/LR clusters reported feeling less positive when they experienced stressors. Multiple identity configurations and their implications for stress reactivity are discussed.     

Prenatal dopamine and neonatal behavior and biochemistry

Depressed pregnant women (N=126) were divided into high and low prenatal maternal dopamine (HVA) groups based on a tertile split on their dopamine levels at 20 weeks gestation. The high versus the low dopamine group had lower Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) scores, higher norepinephrine levels at the 20-week gestational age visit and higher dopamine and serotonin levels at both the 20- and the 32-week gestational age visits. The neonates of the mothers with high versus low prenatal dopamine levels also had higher dopamine and serotonin levels as well as lower cortisol levels. Finally, the neonates in the high dopamine group had better autonomic stability and excitability scores on the Brazelton Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale. Thus, prenatal maternal dopamine levels appear to be negatively related to prenatal depression scores and positively related to neonatal dopamine and behavioral regulation, although these effects are confounded by elevated serotonin levels.     

Vagal activity, early growth and emotional development

A review of the research on infant vagal tone suggests that vagal activity is associated with both infant growth and infant socioemotional development. Vagal activity has been noted to increase following the stimulation of pressure receptors as in massage therapy. Vagal activity, in turn, stimulates gastric motility which mediates weight gain in infants. Vagal activity has also been notably elevated during synchronous mother–infant interactions and positive affect, providing confirmatory data for the Porges “social engagement system” model. In contrast, low vagal activity has been noted in prenatally depressed mothers (and prenatally angry and anxious mothers) and their infants, as well as in children with autism. These studies highlight the relations between vagal activity and the social behaviors of attentiveness, facial expressions and vocalizations.