What happened in kindergarten? Mother-child conversations about life story chapters

ABSTRACT

Research indicates that adults form life story chapters, representations of extended time periods that include people, places and activities. Life chapter memories are distinct from episodic memories and have implications for behaviour, self and mental health, yet little is known about their development during childhood. Two exploratory studies examined parent–child conversations about life chapters. In Study 1, mothers recorded naturalistic conversations with their 5–6 year old children about two chapters in the child’s life. In Study 2, mothers recorded conversations with their 6–7 year old children about a particular life chapter—the child’s kindergarten year—and also about a specific episode of their choice. The results indicated that young children are able to recall and discuss information about life chapters and that parents actively scaffold children’s discussion of general information in chapters as well as specific events. Mothers’ conversational style when discussing chapters (e.g., elaborativeness) predicted children’s memory contributions, and was also positively correlated with their style when discussing specific events. The results suggest new avenues for research on the ontogeny of life chapters, the factors that shape them, and their role in development.     

Effectiveness of the Visual–Auditory Shadowing Method on Learning the Pronunciation of Kanji

This study investigates whether the visual–auditory (VA) shadowing method can better facilitate vocabulary learning for learners of Japanese as a second language (JSL) than the visual–visual (VV) shadowing method in K-8 immersion education. Learning vocabulary involves three aspects: meaning, orthography, and pronunciation. The Japanese language has complex orthography and pronunciation. Learners of Japanese need to learn three kinds of orthographic characters: ideographs (kanji) and two kinds of syllabic characters (hiragana and katakana). In addition, because the pronunciation of kanji can vary by context, learners must learn several pronunciations for a single kanji character. This study explores a reasonable way to learn pronunciations of kanji and compares VA shadowing (n = 48) and VV shadowing (n = 47) to investigate which condition better facilitates learning the pronunciation of Japanese ideographs. The analysis suggests that compared to the VV shadowing condition (p < .05), the VA shadowing condition is more effective for Level 3 learners but not for Level 2 or Level 1 learners.     

One-year test–retest reliability of the Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS)

The Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS) is a novel behavioral task designed to measure individual differences in negative reinforcement-based risk taking propensity. Performance on the MRBURNS has been linked with alcohol-related problems and negative reinforcement-based drinking motives, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression; however, it is unclear if performance on the task represents a stable measure of negative reinforcement-based risk taking over time. As such, the current study aimed to examine the test–retest reliability of the MRBURNS over a period of one year. Results indicate that the correlation between year 1 and year 2 risk behavior (average number of pumps) on the MRBURNS was .43 across all trials. With the one year test–retest reliability of the MRBURNS established, the MRBURNS may be a useful approach to measuring the relative contribution of negative reinforcement-based risk taking in the development of risky behaviors over time, and may be used to monitor the effects of novel interventions that aim to reduce negative reinforcement based risk taking in the real world.     

Signaling trustworthiness: The effect of leader humor on feedback-seeking behavior

ABSTRACT

Given its capacity to cultivate a range of positive outcomes in the workplace, humor has been recognized as a valuable tool for leadership purposes. However, the theoretical understanding of leader humor remains relatively limited and the mechanism through which it influences follower outcomes has not been clearly identified. Drawing on signaling theory, we developed and empirically tested a model which delineates the relationship between leader humor and a specific follower behavior – proactive feedback seeking. We collected data from 304 employees and their respective leaders working in a large Canadian retail organization. Results of our analyses indicate that leader humor can impact subordinate feedback-seeking behavior via its influence on subordinates’ affect-based and cognition-based trust in the leader.     

Familiarity and categorization processes in memory search

A fundamental distinction in tasks of memory search is whether items receive varied mappings (targets and distractors switch roles across trials) or consistent mappings (targets and distractors never switch roles). The type of mapping often produces markedly different performance patterns, but formal memory-based models that account quantitatively for detailed aspects of the results have not yet been developed and evaluated. Experiments were conducted to test a modern exemplar-retrieval model on its ability to account for memory-search performance involving a wide range of memory-set sizes in both varied-mapping (VM) and consistent-mapping (CM) probe-recognition tasks. The model formalized the idea that both familiarity-based and categorization-based processes operate. The model was required to fit detailed response-time (RT) distributions of individual, highly practiced subjects. A key manipulation involved the repetition of negative probes across trials. This manipulation produced a dramatic dissociation: False-alarm rates increased and correct-rejection RTs got longer in VM, but not in CM. The qualitative pattern of results and modeling analyses provided evidence for a strong form of categorization-based processing in CM, in which observers made use of the membership of negative probes in the “new” category to make old–new recognition decisions.     

Modeling duration of overtaking in two lane highways

The paper attempts to reveal which factors may influence the duration of overtaking in two lane highways. Questions such as what is the duration of young male and female drivers’ overtaking activities and, given that a driver conducts an overtaking maneuver, how long will it take, are addressed using classical survival analysis. Data are collected using a driving simulator. Different models are developed for describing the total overtaking duration, as well as the duration of the acceleration and back-to-lane phases. Results show that the duration of each of the phases of overtaking considered, as well as the total overtaking duration may be best described by a Log–logistic distribution. Analyses point out that, apart from the acceleration phase, the gender is a critical factor to the duration modeling. Other influential factors are the speed difference from the lead vehicle, the speed of opposing traffic, the spacing from the lead and opposing traffic, as well as whether the driver is engaged in multiple overtakes. Finally, the modeling implications to driving assistance systems are discussed.