Inward- and Outward-Directed Violence in the Lives of Urban Minority Adults Followed from Middle School into Their Thirties

This study explores connections between inward-directed violence and outward-directed violence using data from the Reach for Health sample, which was originally recruited in the 1990s from three middle schools in economically distressed, predominantly African American neighborhoods of New York City. Now in their thirties, participants (N = 595) completed surveys assessing current suicidal thoughts and behaviors as well as other violence involvements, including intimate partner violence victimization and perpetration. About 10% of males and females reported any suicidal ideation or attempt in the past 12 months. In logistic regression analyses adjusting for sociodemographics, prior reports of feeling blue in middle school (OR: 1.12, CI: 1.02–4.39) and young adult suicidality (OR: 2.54, CI: 1.30–4.95) are significantly related to later suicidality. So are concurrent aggressive behaviors, including reports of physical fighting outside the home (OR: 2.70, CI: 1.29–5.67) and IPV perpetration (OR: 2.09, CI: 1.11–3.94). Neither IPV victimization nor witnessing neighborhood violence is correlated. Findings shed light on the persistence of suicidality in the lives of those who come of age, and often remain, in communities with high levels of poverty, and confirm linkages of suicidality with externally directed aggression. Life-stage interventions are needed to counter the interwoven causes and consequences of multiple forms of violence.     

Psychological characteristics,sport engagement,and performance in alpine skiers

Previously, investigators have sought to clarify the role of psychological factors in the development of expertise across numerous sport domains; however, almost no empirical work exists on winter sport athletes. Using a retrospective design, we examined associations between psychological traits, engagement in practice-related activities, and performance among sub-elite level, youth alpine skiers. A total of 169 skiers (88 women) enrolled at professional development academies in the United States completed a battery of questionnaires assessing practice history profiles and performance milestones, as well as various psychological factors (e.g., mental toughness, grit, perfectionism). Performance was assessed using national ranking across both speed and technical disciplines. In addition to linear models and MANOVA/MANCOVA tests, linear mixed-effect regressions were utilized to assess relationships between psychological factors, practice hours, and ranking over time. Higher scores on perfectionistic strivings (personal standards) were associated with improved performance. Also, grit was associated with increased engagement in individual practice hours. Coach-led one-on-one practice hours were associated with increased perfectionistic concerns (e.g., parental pressure), while indirect exposure (e.g., attending events without competing) was associated with decreased mental toughness. Findings highlight potentially important associations between athletes’ dispositional characteristics, prolonged ski engagement, and performance trajectory.     

What do you think I think you think?: Strategic reasoning in matrix games

In reasoning about strategic interpersonal situations, such as in playing games, an individual's representation of the situation often includes not only information about the goals and rules of the game, but also a mental model of other minds. Often such mental models involve a hierarchy of reflexive reasoning commonly employed in social situations ("What do you think I think you think..."), and may be related to the developmental notion of 'theory of mind'. In two experiments, the authors formally investigate such interpersonal recursive reasoning in college-age adults within the context of matrix games. Participants are asked to predict the moves of another player (experimenter's confederate) in a two-choice, sequential-move game that may terminate at various stages with different payoffs for each player. Participants are also asked to decide optimally on their own moves based on the prediction made. Errors concerning the prediction, or translation of those predictions into decisions about one's action, were recorded. Results demonstrate the existence of a "default" mental model about the other player in the game context that is dynamically modified as new evidence is accumulated. Predictions about this other player's behavior are, in general, used consistently in decision-making, though the opponent tends to be modeled, by default, to behave in a myopic fashion not anticipating the participant's own action.     

Representation and working memory in early arithmetic

Working memory has been implicated in the early acquisition of arithmetic skill, but the relations among different components of working memory, performance on different types of arithmetic problems, and development have not been explored. Preschool and Grade 1 children completed measures of phonological, visual-spatial, and central executive working memory, as well as nonverbal and verbal arithmetic problems, some of which included irrelevant information. For preschool children, accuracy was higher on nonverbal problems than on verbal problems, and the best and only unique predictor of performance on the standard nonverbal problems was visual-spatial working memory. This finding is consistent with the view that most preschoolers use a mental model for arithmetic that requires visual-spatial working memory. For Grade 1 children, performance was equivalent on nonverbal and verbal problems, and phonological working memory was the best predictor of performance on standard verbal problems. For both age groups, problems with added irrelevant information were substantially more difficult than standard problems, and in some cases measures of the central executive predicted performance. Assessing performance on different components of working memory in conjunction with different types of arithmetic problems provided new insights into the developing relations between working memory and how children do arithmetic.     

A formal model for structuring local perceptions of environmental space

The problem of constructing computational models of space that mimic those found in human spatial reasoning is addressed. This paper extends a formal model that addressed point objects in a 2D world to include the presence of line objects and barriers. The problem consists of determining an appropriate global model for the spatial configuration given a sequence of local views or observations. A formal model is proposed based on constraint network theory. The model leads to the identification of stable regions within which perceptual information about the environment changes slowly, and zones of transition within which the perceptual information changes more quickly. A special case of transition zones is a gateway, which may be viewed as a kind of discontinuity or singularity in the model. It is expected that the model obtained will be used to mimic human mental representations of navigable outdoor environments.     

The Meta-Cognitive Beliefs Questionnaire: development of a measure of obsessional beliefs

A 67 item self-report questionnaire called the Meta-Cognitive Beliefs Questionnaire (MCBQ) was developed to assess endorsement of beliefs about the importance of control and negative consequences associated with unwanted, ego-dystonic intrusive thoughts, images and impulses. The MCBQ and a battery of questionnaires that assessed symptoms and cognitions of worry, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and depression were administered to large samples of undergraduate students. Beliefs about control of intrusive thoughts and perceived negative consequences due to uncontrolled mental intrusions had a unique significant relationship with obsessions, and to a lesser extent, worry. These findings are consistent with current cognitive behavioral theories that suggest an important role for meta-cognitive beliefs in the pathogenesis of obsessions.     

Familial handedness and spatial ability: a study with Chinese students aged 14-24

This study tested Annett's right-shift theory on spatial ability with two samples from China. The Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test (MRT), Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, and Family Handedness Questionnaire were administered to 266 high school students and 297 undergraduates. We found very few r++ or r-- among Chinese students. Most Chinese are either moderately right-handed or ambidextrous. Consistent with Casey's finding, we found using different methods to classify handedness leads to different conclusions. However, we did not find the effect of familial handedness that Casey found. Visual strategy is related to success on the MRT but handedness is not.