Positional inference in rhesus macaques

Animal Cognition - Understanding how organisms make transitive inferences is critical to understanding their general ability to learn serial relationships. In this context, transitive inference...     

Recognition of facial expressions of emotions by 3-year-olds

Very few large-scale studies have focused on emotional facial expression recognition (FER) in 3-year-olds, an age of rapid social and language development. We studied FER in 808 healthy 3-year-olds using verbal and nonverbal computerized tasks for four basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, and fear). Three-year-olds showed differential performance on the verbal and nonverbal FER tasks, especially with respect to fear. That is to say, fear was one of the most accurately recognized facial expressions as matched nonverbally and the least accurately recognized facial expression as labeled verbally. Sex did not influence emotion-matching nor emotion-labeling performance after adjusting for basic matching or labeling ability. Three-year-olds made systematic errors in emotion-labeling. Namely, happy expressions were often confused with fearful expressions, whereas negative expressions were often confused with other negative expressions. Together, these findings suggest that 3-year-olds' FER skills strongly depend on task specifications. Importantly, fear was the most sensitive facial expression in this regard. Finally, in line with previous studies, we found that recognized emotion categories are initially broad, including emotions of the same valence, as reflected in the nonrandom errors of 3-year-olds.     

An evaluation of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 using item response theory: which items are most strongly related to psychological distress?

The psychometric structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18; Derogatis, 2001) was investigated using Mokken scaling and parametric item response theory. Data of 487 outpatients, 266 students, and 207 prisoners were analyzed. Results of the Mokken analysis indicated that the BSI-18 formed a strong Mokken scale for outpatients and prisoners, indicating strong unidimensionality. For students, only the depression and anxiety items formed a medium Mokken scale. Parametric item response theory analyses showed that the best discriminating items came from the depression and anxiety subscales.     

On reducing an empathy gap: the impact of self-construal and order of judgment

Empathy gaps, in which individuals exaggerate self-other similarities or differences, generate errors in social judgments. We investigated whether changing individuals' self-construal may reduce one specific empathy gap: the illusion of courage. Participants primed with independent or interdependent self-construal made judgments about their own and other people's willingness to dance in public. Participants in the interdependence condition showed a reduction of the empathy gap, but only when judging the other first. This finding highlights that simple contextual manipulations have the potential to reduce egocentric biases in social judgments.     

A beverage-specific measure of expectancies for malt liquor: development and initial testing

Malt liquor (ML) is a unique, high alcohol content beverage marketed to encourage heavy drinking. We developed the Malt Liquor Expectancy Questionnaire (MLEQ), a beverage-specific measure of alcohol expectancies, and examined its association with typical weekly ML use, typical weekly alcohol use, and alcohol problems. Forty positive and 40 negative expectancy items were administered to a sample of 639 young adults who regularly consumed ML. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses led to the development of the 30-item MLEQ. The MLEQ consists of two positive (i.e., Social Facilitation and Enjoyment, Enhanced Sexuality) and two negative factors (i.e., Aggression and Negative Consequences; Impairment and Physical Symptoms) that possess good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity. The psychometrically sound MLEQ contributes to the limited research on beverage-specific expectancies and heavy drinking.     

On the role of intervening distractors in the attentional blink

The attentional blink (AB) refers to the decline in accurate report for a second target (T2) when presented within about 500 ms of a first target (T1) embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation stream of distractors. It is debated whether the distractors presented shortly after T1 cause the AB directly, as is proposed by distractor-based models, or can modulate its amplitude only indirectly by increasing T1 difficulty, as is proposed by capacity-based models. To investigate this issue, an intervening distractor was presented at lag 1 (T1 + 1), at lag 2 (T1 + 2), or at neither of these two lags (no distractor). T2 was presented at either lag 3 or 9. An AB was observed even in the absence of intervening distractors, indicating that distractors are not necessary to produce an AB. Nonetheless, the T1 + 2 distractor did modulate the AB directly, without influencing T1 performance. Neither theory can fully account for the results but can do so given some modifications.     

Choosing the best means to an end: The influence of ingroup goals on the selection of representatives in intergroup negotiations

According to Scheepers, Spears, Doosje, & Manstead (2006), instrumental goals refer to the maximization of profit whereas identity goals are associated with the attainment of a positive social identity. In two experiments, we show that when negotiations are purely instrumental individuals prefer pro-outgroup deviants as representatives (Experiments 1 and 2). In contrast, when negotiations are identity-related, group members increase their preference for normative (Experiments 1 and 2) and pro-ingroup deviants (Experiment 1). Furthermore, these goals also impact perceptions of typicality of group members. Taken together, these results suggest strategic acceptance of deviance when the goal is to bring the other party to concede and increased preference for normativity when identity is the group's main preoccupation. We discuss implications of these results for research on negotiation as well as on the influence of the intergroup context on intragroup dynamics.     

Executive Functioning Characteristics Associated with ADHD Comorbidity in Adolescents with Disruptive Behavior Disorders

The nature of executive dysfunction in youth with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) remains unclear, despite extensive research in samples of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To determine the relationship between DBD, ADHD, and executive function deficits in aggressive teens, adolescents with DBD and comorbid ADHD (DBD + ADHD; n = 25), DBD without ADHD (DBD-ADHD; n = 23), and healthy controls (HC; n = 25) were compared on neurocognitive tests and questionnaires measuring executive functioning. Teens with DBD + ADHD performed worse on both neurocognitive and questionnaire measures of executive function than the DBD-ADHD and HC groups. Results suggest that subgroups of DBD may exist depending on the presence or absence of comorbid ADHD, which may have implications for the selection and efficacy of treatment strategies.     

A Multicultural‐Ecological Assessment Tool: Conceptualization and Practice With an Asian Indian Immigrant Woman

A multicultural‐ecological (M‐Eco) method assesses multiple levels of a client's presentation, such as individual, micro‐, meso‐, exo‐, macro‐, and chronosystems. An M‐Eco method is a culturally sensitive practice of Bronfenbrenner's (1995) ecological perspective that focuses on behavior's contextual and interactional nature and an individual's interactions within his or her cultural group as well as meaning making of contexts. A través de una ecología multicultural (M‐Eco), se consideran múltiples niveles de la presentación de un cliente (individual, micro‐, meso‐, exo‐, macro‐y cronosistemas). M‐Eco es una práctica culturalmente sensible de la perspectiva ecológica de Bronfenbrenner (1995) que se centra en la naturaleza contextual e interaccional del comportamiento y en las interacciones de un individuo dentro de su propio grupo cultural, además de cómo se obtiene significado a partir de contextos.