Location,Location, Location: Applying Spatial Statistics to the Relationship Landscape

The desire to understand relationships is a passion shared by professionals in research, clinical, and educational settings. Questionnaires are frequently used in each of these settings for a multitude of purposes—such as screening, assessment, program evaluation, or establishing therapeutic effectiveness. However, clinical issues arise when a couple's answers on questionnaires do not match clinical judgment or lack clinical utility, while statistical problems arise when data from both partners are put into analyses. This article introduces the use of geospatial statistics to analyze couple data plotted on a two‐dimensional “relational map.” Relationship maps can increase assessment sensitivity, track treatment progress, and remove statistical issues typically associated with couple data. This article briefly introduces core assumptions of spatial models, illustrates the use of spatial models in creating a relational landscape of divorce, offers suggestions for the use of relational maps in a clinical setting, and explores future research ideas.     

Reciprocal Relationships between Trajectories of Loneliness and Screen Media Use during Adolescence

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Adolescence is the peak period for loneliness. Now a ubiquitous part of the adolescent landscape, electronic screens may provide avenues for ameliorating...     

Measuring context–response associations that drive habits

People achieve important life outcomes of health, financial security, and productivity by repeating operant behavior. To identify whether such operants reflect goal pursuit or habit, the present research introduces a new paradigm that yields objective measures of learning and controls for the motivations of goal pursuit. In two experiments, participants practiced a sequential task of making sushi and then completed a test of the strength of cue–response (habit) associations in memory. Finally, they repeated the sushi task without instructions while under cognitive load (designed to impede deliberation about goals). As predicted, greater task practice yielded stronger cue–response associations, which in turn promoted task success. Practice did not improve performance by enhancing goal intentions or other task motivations. We conclude that repetition facilitates performance by creating mental associations that automatically activate practiced, habitual responses upon perception of recurring context cues.     

Effects of stress and motivation on performing a spatial task

Learning is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom but has been studied extensively in only a handful of species. Moreover, learning studied under laboratory conditions is typically unrelated to the animal's natural environment or life history. Here, we designed a task relevant to the natural behavior of male African cichlid fish (Astatotilapia burtoni), to determine if they could be trained on a spatial task to gain access to females and shelter. We measured both how successfully animals completed this task over time and whether and how immediate early gene and hormone expression profiles were related to success. While training fish in a maze, we measured time to task completion, circulating levels of three key hormones (cortisol, 11-ketotestosterone, and testosterone) and mRNA abundance of seven target genes including three immediate early genes (that served proxies for brain activity) in nine brain regions. Data from our subjects fell naturally into three phenotypes: fish that could be trained (learners), fish that could not be trained (non-learners) and fish that never attempted the task (non-attempters). Learners and non-learners had lower levels of circulating cortisol compared to fish that never attempted the task. Learners had the highest immediate early gene mRNA levels in the homologue of the hippocampus (dorsolateral telencephalon; Dl), lower cortisol (stress) levels and were more motivated to accomplish the task as measured by behavioral observations. Fish that never attempted the task showed the lowest activity within the Dl, high stress levels and little to no apparent motivation. Data from non-learners fell between these two extremes in behavior, stress, and motivation.     

The cellular mechanisms of memory are modified by experience

The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) is thought to be essential for synaptic plasticity and learning. However, recent work indicates that the role of this receptor depends on the prior history of the research subject. For example, animals trained on a hippocampus-dependent learning task are subsequently able to acquire new information in the absence of NMDAR activation. The current experiments were designed to identify the types of experiences that lead to NMDAR-independent learning. Using contextual fear conditioning in mice, we find that NMDAR-independent learning is only observed when (1) animals are trained on the same behavioral task and (2) initial learning is successfully encoded into long-term memory.     

Feminism and the Evolution of Sex Differences and Similarities

Distrust between most evolutionary psychologists and most feminist psychologists is evident in the majority of the articles contained in this Special Issue. The debates between proponents of these perspectives reflect different views of the potential for transforming gender relations from patriarchal to gender-equal. Yet, with respect to the overall prevalence of sex differences or similarities, the articles in the Special Issue show that neither feminist psychologists nor evolutionary psychologists have uniform positions. Questions about how and if women and men differ are still under negotiation in the articles in this Special Issue as well as in other research related to evolutionary and feminist psychology. Clearer conclusions would be fostered by standardized metrics for representing male?Cfemale comparisons, more varied research methods for assessing both psychological and biological processes, greater diversity in populations sampled, and more researcher openness to taking into account findings that challenge their theories. Theoretical growth also is needed, especially to develop and integrate the many individual feminism-influenced theories represented in this Special Issue. To this end, we propose an integrative evolutionary framework that recognizes human culture in both ultimate and proximal causes of female and male behavior.     

Can Nervous Nelly negotiate? How anxiety causes negotiators to make low first offers,exit early,and earn less profit

Negotiations trigger anxiety. Across four studies, we demonstrate that anxiety is harmful to negotiator performance. In our experiments, we induced either anxiety or neutral feelings and studied behavior in negotiation and continuous shrinking-pie tasks. Compared to negotiators experiencing neutral feelings, negotiators who feel anxious expect lower outcomes, make lower first offers, respond more quickly to offers, exit bargaining situations earlier, and ultimately obtain worse outcomes. The relationship between anxiety and negotiator behavior is moderated by negotiator self-efficacy; high self-efficacy mitigates the harmful effects of anxiety.     

Feedback specificity,information processing,and transfer of training

This study examines the effects of feedback specificity on transfer of training and the mechanisms through which feedback can enhance or inhibit transfer. We used concurrent verbal protocol methodology to elicit and operationalize the explicit information processing activities used by 48 trainees performing the Furniture Factory computer simulation. We hypothesized and found support for a moderated mediation model. Increasing feedback specificity influenced the exposure trainees had to different task conditions and negatively affected their levels of explicit information processing. In turn, explicit information processes and levels of exposure to different task conditions interacted to impact transfer of training. Those who received less specific feedback relied more heavily on explicit information processing and had more exposure to the challenging aspects of the task than those who received more specific feedback, which differentially affected what they learned about the task. We discuss how feedback specificity and exposure to different task conditions may prime different learning processes.