Thai Norms for Name,Image, and Category Agreement,Object Familiarity,Visual Complexity,Manipulability, and Age of Acquisition for 480 Color Photographic Objects

Normative databases containing psycholinguistic variables are commonly used to aid stimulus selection for investigations into language and other cognitive processes. Norms exist for many languages, but not for Thai. The aim of the present research, therefore, was to obtain Thai normative data for the BOSS, a set of 480 high resolution color photographic images of real objects (Brodeur et al. in PLoS ONE 5(5), 2010.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010773). Norms were provided by 584 Thai university students on eight dimensions: name agreement, object familiarity, visual complexity, category agreement, image agreement, two types of manipulability (graspability and mimeability), and age of acquisition. The results revealed comparatively similar levels of name agreement to Brodeur et al. especially when unfamiliar items were factored out. The pattern of intercorrelations among the Thai psycholinguistic norms was comparable to previous studies and our cross-linguistic correlations were robust for the same set of pictures in English and French. Conjointly, the findings extend the relevancy of the BOSS to Thailand, supporting this photographic resource for investigations of language and other cognitive processes in monolingual, multilingual, and brain-impaired populations.     

Would disfluency by any other name still be disfluent? Examining the disfluency effect with cursive handwriting

When exposed to words presented under perceptually disfluent conditions (e.g., words written in Haettenschweiler font), participants have difficulty initially recognizing the words. Those same words, though, may be better remembered later than words presented in standard type font. This counterintuitive finding is referred to as the disfluency effect. Evidence for this disfluency effect, however, has been mixed, suggesting possible moderating factors. Using a recognition memory task, level of disfluency was examined as a moderating factor across three experiments using a novel cursive manipulation that varied on degree of legibility (easy-to-read cursive vs. hard-to-read cursive). In addition, list type and retention interval between study and test were manipulated. Across all three experiments, cursive words engendered better memory than type-print words. This memory effect persisted across varied list designs (blocked vs. mixed) and a longer (24-hour) retention interval. A small-scale meta-analysis across the three experiments suggested that the cursive disfluency effect is moderated by level of disfluency: easy-to-read cursive words tended to be better remembered than hard-to-read cursive words. Taken together, these results challenge extant accounts of the disfluency effect. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Resurrecting the Empathy–Bullying Relationship with a Pro-Bullying Attitudes Mediator: the Lazarus Effect in Mediation Research

The purpose of this study was to determine whether pro-bullying attitudes are capable of mediating the low empathy–bullying relationship in the absence of a significant unmediated correlation between low empathy and bullying behavior. Using three waves of self-report data from 1371 (677 boys, 694 girls) pre-adolescent/early adolescent members of the Illinois Study of Bullying and Sexual Violence (ISBSV), the mediating effect of pro-bullying attitudes on the low empathy–bullying connection was examined. A path analysis revealed that pro-bullying attitudes successfully mediated the pathway running from low empathy to bully perpetration even though the unmediated relationship between low empathy and bullying perpetration was non-significant. A control or comparison pathway running from bully perpetration to pro-bullying attitudes to low empathy was also tested and found to be non-significant. It would appear that low empathy contributes to bullying perpetration by stimulating pro-bullying attitudes which, in turn, promote bullying perpetration. The theoretical, research, and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Longitudinal Associations between Oppositional Defiant Symptoms and Interpersonal Relationships among Chinese Children

Children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) are at increased risk for developing poor relationships with people around them, but the longitudinal links between ODD symptoms and subsequent interpersonal functioning remain unclear. In the current study, we examined the bidirectional associations between ODD symptoms and children’s relationships with parents, peers, and teachers. We included separate analyses for parent vs. teacher reports of ODD symptoms, with regard to subsequent interpersonal relationships. Participants included 256 children with ODD, recruited in China, along with their parents and teachers, assessed at three time points roughly two years apart. Parents and teachers reported child ODD symptoms at each time point, and children reported their perceptions of father– and mother–child attachment, peer relationships, and teacher–student relationships across the three time points. ODD symptoms reported either by parents or teachers predicted impairments in interpersonal functioning. Meanwhile, child interpersonal impairments with peers and teachers predicted subsequent increase in teacher-reported ODD symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of transactional models of influence—and of considering early intervention for ODD in protecting children from developing further deficits and impairments. Additionally, we discuss the perspectives of multiple informants on ODD symptoms, including their different patterns of association with subsequent interpersonal relationships.     

Eight-Year Latent Class Trajectories of Academic and Social Functioning in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

We examined trajectories of academic and social functioning in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to identify those who might be at risk for especially severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. We estimated a series of growth mixture models using data from two subsamples of children participating in the NIMH Collaborative Multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) including those with at least baseline and 96-month data for reading and mathematics achievement (n = 392; 77.3% male; M age = 7.7; SD = 0.8) or social skills ratings from teachers (n = 259; 74.9% male; M age = 7.6; SD = 0.8). We compared latent trajectories for children with ADHD to mean observed trajectories obtained from a local normative (i.e., non-ADHD) comparison group (n = 289; 80.6% male; M age = 9.9; SD = 1.1). Results indicated six latent trajectory classes for reading and mathematics and four classes for teacher social skills ratings. There was not only a relationship between trajectories of inattention symptoms and academic impairment, but also a similarly strong association between trajectory classes of hyperactive-impulsive symptoms and achievement. Trajectory class membership correlated with socio-demographic and diagnostic characteristics, inattention and hyperactive-impulsive symptom trajectories, externalizing behavior in school, and treatment receipt and dosage. Although children with ADHD display substantial heterogeneity in their reading, math, and social skills growth trajectories, those with behavioral and socio-demographic disadvantages are especially likely to display severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. Evidence-based early screening and intervention that directly address academic and social impairments in elementary school-aged children with ADHD are warranted. The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier is NCT00000388.     

The Psychology of Material Well-Being

Material well-being is defined in terms of satisfaction with a range economic concerns such as government’s handling of the economy, taxes, the cost of basic necessities, household income, pay and fringe benefits from one’s job, financial security, standard of living, and agreement within the family regarding how money should be spent. Much evidence is available demonstrating the substantial effect of material well-being on a variety of measures of subjective well-being. The literature review uncovered a host of antecedents or predictors of material well-being. These antecedents involve two sets of constructs, namely personal factors and contextual factors. Personal factors include socio-demographics (age, gender, education, income, marital status, family structure, etc.); personality traits (self-esteem, etc.) and personality dynamics (compensation, top-down spillover, etc.); needs and need satisfaction (how wealth serve to satisfy different needs), beliefs and mental associations (images of wealthy people); goals and aspirations (income goals and goal attainment); skills, behavior, and resources (financial capability, financial behavior, and lack of financial resources); and values (materialism), lifestyle (consumption), and habits (compulsive consumption). Contextual factors include social comparison (how evaluations of standard of living are influenced by social comparisons), adaptation (how income expectations are adapted by changing circumstances), and changes in the macro economic environment (changes in the rate of unemployment, inflation, economic growth, etc.).     

Domain Compensation in Quality of Life of Individuals with Vasovagal Syncope: a Test of Homeostasis Theory

Although health-related quality of life is often diminished in populations characterised by physical illness, this does not necessarily imply lower overall assessments of general life satisfaction (GLS) and greater incidence of mental illness. According to Homeostasis Theory, this limited impact of health on these more global wellbeing indices may be due to internal and external buffers that serve to maintain one’s overall sense of wellbeing and GLS in the face of adversity. Thus, the present study tested in a sample of 212 individuals (48 with vasovagal syncope, 62 cardiac patients, and 102 healthy control participants) the possibility that poor health-related quality of life (as expected for the cardiac and vasovagal syncope groups) may be offset by relatively higher satisfaction with other aspects of one’s life (the domain compensation hypothesis). Consistent with this view, present findings showed that although individuals in the two health-risk groups reported lower health satisfaction (HSat) than the control group, they had comparable levels of mental health, GLS satisfaction, and subjective wellbeing (minus health; PWI-H). Moreover, moderation analyses confirmed that the relationship between HSat and GLS reduced to non-significance for individuals with PWI-H higher than nationally representative, normative levels. Collectively, these findings suggest that a broader context is necessary to understand the impact that illness may have on one’s sense of GLS and mental health. In particular, the provision of support and satisfaction with other life domains may serve to buffer concerns about one’s health.     

A proposal for teaching bioethics in high schools using appropriate visual education tools

Teaching bioethics with visual education tools, such as movies and comics, is a unique way of explaining the history and progress of human research and the art and science of medicine to high school students. For more than a decade, bioethical concepts have appeared in movies, and these films are useful for teaching medical and research ethics in high schools. Using visual tools to teach bioethics can have both interpretational and transformational effects on learners that will enhance their overall understanding of complex moral and legal issues in medicine and research.High school students are uniquely suited to learn bioethics because they will soon become legal adults. As adults, they will make moral decisions that may affect their health and wellbeing as well as that of their communities and societies.However, not all visual education tools are appropriate for bioethics pedagogy in high school. Bioethics film and comic producers must consider the specifics of student age, race, gender, belief, level of education, and sexual orientation. Such tools must not be dominated by either dystopic or utopic genres, must aim for objectivity, and must consider the complexity of ethical decision making. It is critical that the teacher, who is the final arbiter regarding the use of visual tools in the classroom, determines that the visual learning tool is acceptable for students in any particular education context. In addition, during the conceptualization and creation of these tools, bioethics film and comic producers must work harder to ensure that these visual tools are devoid of any form of stereotyping.     

Frame Reflection Lab: a Playful Method for Frame Reflection on Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is an emerging technology that asks for inclusive reflection on how people frame the field. To unravel how we can facilitate such reflection, this study evaluates the Frame Reflection Lab (FRL). Building upon playfulness design principles, the FRL comprises a workshop with video-narratives and co-creative group exercises. We studied how the FRL facilitated frame reflection by organizing workshops with various student groups. Analysis of 12 group conversations and 158 mini-exit surveys yielded patterns in first-order reflection (problem analysis and solution finding in reflection on the development of synthetic biology as a field) as well as patterns in second-order reflection (reflection on values and assumptions underlying the first-order reflection). Also patterns in participants’ (re)framing of synthetic biology could be induced; participants’ viewpoints converged to some extent, yet with openness to individual viewpoint differences. Although the FRL method fortified the reflection processes of participants, the narratives and the workshop’s flexible format could inhibit the reflection too. Therefore, we advise designers of future frame reflection methods to apply stronger conversational facilitation and narratives of slightly mysterious yet identifiable narrators, in case e.g. video-narratives are created and used to scaffold the reflection process. Nevertheless, we argue that the use of a playful frame reflection method like the FRL could function well as (1) a step to precede more application-specific deliberation or decision-making on synthetic biology and as (2) a method for the collection of contemporary citizen viewpoints plus rationales underlying these, for the further (societally) responsible development of the emerging field.     

A Cyberbullying Intervention for Hong Kong Chinese College Students

A cyberbullying intervention was developed and empirically tested with 137 Hong Kong Chinese College students. The intervention was designed to change students’ attitudes about cyberbullying behavior and increase their awareness of cyberbullying. Participants were assigned to an experimental or control group. They completed questionnaires before the intervention (Time 1; T1), immediately after the intervention (Time 2; T2), and again eight weeks later (Time 3; T3). The experimental group participated in a 1-h intervention where they were presented with a simulated Facebook page showing the helpless feelings of cyber-victims, watched video clips of the consequences of cyberbullying, and engaged in small group discussions and a self-reflection writing task. Results showed that participants who received the intervention experienced an increase in their awareness and had more negative attitudes toward cyberbullying (i.e., the perception that cyberbullying is unacceptable behavior) than did the control group. In addition, those who reported being highly engaged in the intervention maintained the positive effects at the 8-week follow-up. The results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of a short-term cyberbullying intervention for college students and that level of participant engagement contributes to its effectiveness.