Whose fault is it anyway: How do parents respond to their child’s setbacks?

We documented what parents report as the cause of their child’s academic and conduct setbacks and what they say they do in response. We recruited an opportunity sample of 479 parents and narrowed our sample to parents of children without disabilities between the ages of 5–18 (N = 312). Parents responded to open-ended questions, and we coded responses into categories of disciplinary tactics and types of attributions. Parents who reported experience with child setbacks significantly differed from parents who did not report such experience on several outcome variables. Parents did not exhibit hedonic biasing such that most reported causes of setbacks were controllable by the child; reported controllable causes correlated with the reported use of punishment. Our findings suggest that parental behavior change efforts must also address parents’ attributions, or verbal explanations, of causes of events. We discuss implications of our findings for child and parent researchers, educators, and practitioners.     

Neural representations of faces and limbs neighbor in human high-level visual cortex: evidence for a new organization principle

Neurophysiology and optical imaging studies in monkeys and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in both monkeys and humans have localized clustered neural responses in inferotemporal cortex selective for images of biologically relevant categories, such as faces and limbs. Using higher resolution (1.5 mm voxels) fMRI scanning methods than past studies (3–5 mm voxels), we recently reported a network of multiple face- and limb-selective regions that neighbor one another in human ventral temporal cortex (Weiner and Grill-Spector, Neuroimage, 52(4):1559–1573, 2010) and lateral occipitotemporal cortex (Weiner and Grill-Spector, Neuroimage, 56(4):2183–2199, 2011). Here, we expand on three basic organization principles of high-level visual cortex revealed by these findings: (1) consistency in the anatomical location of functional regions, (2) preserved spatial relationship among functional regions, and (3) a topographic organization of face- and limb-selective regions in adjacent and alternating clusters. We highlight the implications of this structure in comparing functional brain organization between typical and atypical populations. We conclude with a new model of high-level visual cortex consisting of ventral, lateral, and dorsal components, where multimodal processing related to vision, action, haptics, and language converges in the lateral pathway.     

Accounts for Success as Determinants of Perceived Arrogance and Modesty

Two factors are assumed to induce impressions of arrogance and modesty in reaction to others' accounts for success: the dimensions underlying the cause for success and the perceived desirability of the cause. Guided by Weiner's attribution theory (B. Weiner, 1986), it was proposed that accounts ascribing success to internal, stable, uncontrollable, and desirable causes represent positive given qualities of a person (e.g., intelligence and beauty) that lead to perceptions of arrogance and lack of modesty. Three vignette experiments measuring subjects' reactions to others' accounts for achievements in school and sports confirmed these predictions. Accounts induce impressions of arrogance and modesty regardless of the level of the achievement. Additionally, arrogance reduces admiration toward the achiever whereas increments in modesty and/or level of success increase it. The present findings provide further evidence of the significance of attributional information for social judgments.     

Vocal control therapy for stutterers: A trial program

A problem-solving approach to the treatment of stuttering, called vocal control therapy, has been shaped over a 4-year period. The program includes behavioral desensitization techniques as well as retraining vocal, respiratory, and other speech functions for fluency. Data from pre- and posttherapy video tapes of 12 out of 34 cases are given. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

How Causal Probabilities Might Fit into Our Objectively Indeterministic World

We suggest a rigorous theory of how objective single-case transition probabilities fit into our world. The theory combines indeterminism and relativity in the “branching space–times” pattern, and relies on the existing theory of causae causantes (originating causes). Its fundamental suggestion is that (at least in simple cases) the probabilities of all transitions can be computed from the basic probabilities attributed individually to their originating causes. The theory explains when and how one can reasonably infer from the probabilities of one “chance set-up” to the probabilities of another such set-up that is located far away. We thank Tomasz Placek for his significant help via an extensive and instructive correspondence, Thomas Müller for numerous eye-opening conversations and for his corrections to and comments upon a long sequence of drafts, both Placek and Müller for pre-publication sharing of their results, and Christopher Hitchcock for a number of suggestions.     

Asymmetrical attributions for approach versus avoidance behavior

Five studies examined responsibility inferences and/or person and situation attributions in positively versus negatively valenced motivational contexts. In Experiment 1, participants received information about a teaching assistant who was promised a reward or threatened with a punishment when asked for compliance with a requested transgression. The teaching assistant was perceived as more responsible for complying given the positive than the negative incentive. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2 using different vignettes and incentives. Experiment 3 revealed that the effect of incentive valence on perceived responsibility for compliance remains significant when statistically controlling for perceived compliance rates. Experiment 4 then demonstrated that there are not only greater responsibility judgments given a positive than a negative incentive but also greater dispositional attributions. Finally, Experiment 5 revealed that a similar incentive valence effect is found in other appetitive versus aversive motivational contexts. Theoretical explanations of this phenomenon are discussed.