Stability of aggression among adolescents over time: A south African study

In a study spanning 5 years, data were collected on the aggressiveness of over 1,700 male and female subjects. Subjects who were the more aggressive grade 8 (standard 6) pupils at the beginning of the study were discovered to be the more aggressive grade 12 (standard 10) pupils. It is concluded that, whatever its causes, aggression can be viewed as a persistent trait that may be influenced by situational variables but reveals substantial consistency over time. The findings of studies by Huesmann and Eron in the United States as well as Olweus in Scandinavia were thus supported in this South African investigation.     

Overshadowing and blocking of the orientation-contingent color aftereffect: Evidence for a conditioning mechanism

Orientation-contingent color aftereffects have been interpreted by nonassociative mechanisms (adaptation of neural units that are both color and orientation specific) and by associative mechanisms (conditioning resulting from the pairing of pattern and hue). To evaluate associative accounts, contingent aftereffects were induced by exposing subjects to compound chromatic grid patterns consisting of two component gratings: one was horizontal or vertical, and the other a left- or right-learning diagonal. The ability of a component grating to elicit a color aftereffect depended on the relative salience and the aftereffect training history of the grating components. That is, orientation-contingent color aftereffects, like other conditional responses, display overshadowing and blocking. The results suggest that conditioning contributes to these aftereffects.     

Escape responding in a shuttlebox

Measures of response latency are a primary tool for those who investigate escape responding in rats. Unfortunately, the single term “latency to escape” has been applied to several different measures of latency. The present study was designed to demonstrate that two different measures of the “latency to escape” tap different aspects of escape responding. To that end, rats were given escape training using a Sidman Avoidance Schedule with brief inescapable electric shock as the aversive stimulus. The latency to escape the shock-shock interval, as measured from the onset of the last shock in a shock period, did not change across trials. However, the latency to escape the shock period, as measured from the onset of the first shock in a shock period, decreased across trials. In addition, the presentation of a feedback stimulus contingent upon escape responding did not affect the latency to escape either the shock period or a shock-shock interval. The results show that these two latency measures, typically not recognized as unique, measure different characteristics of the strength of escape responding in a shuttlebox. Alternative accounts of this pattern of data were considered.     

Effects of rank ordering stimuli on magnitude ratings of these and other stimuli

Five experiments investigated the effects of rank ordering stimuli on subsequent magnitude ratings of these and other stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects first rank ordered environmental issues in terms of their importance. Ranking stimuli from “most” to “least” led to more extreme ratings than ranking them from “least” to “most,” regardless of whether the rating criterion was the same as or diametrically opposite to the ranking criterion. (For example, subjects who had previously ranked them beginning with the most important issue subsequently rated these issues not only as more important, but also as more trivial, than did subjects who had ranked them beginning with the least important.) These effects generalized to stimuli other than those that had previously been ranked, and generalized over stimulus domains. (For example, ratings of environmental issues were also affected by ranking the importance of attributes of a marriage partner.) Other experiments in the series circumscribed the conditions in which these effects occur. Results suggested that rank ordering stimuli leads subjects to adopt comparative standards, the use of which generalizes to subsequent magnitude rating tasks and produces an anchoring bias similar to that identified by A. Tversky and D. Kahneman (1974, Science (Washington, D.C.), 185, 1124–1131). Implications of these results for the cognitive processes that underlie social judgment are discussed.     

Children's perception of melodies: the role of contour, frequency, and rate of presentation

Children 4 to 6 years of age were exposed to repetitions of a six-tone melody, then tested for their detection of transformations that either preserved or changed the contour of the standard melody. Discrimination performance was examined as a function of contour condition, magnitude of contour change, rate of presentation, and the presence of novel frequencies. Performance was superior for transformations that changed contour compared to those that did not, for greater changes in contour, and for faster presentation rates. Melodies transformed by a reordering of component tones were no less discriminable than those transformed by the addition of novel frequencies.     

When children write nonwords to dictation

Skill in written spelling of simple, monosyllabic nonwords was investigated in 9- to 11-year-old English children. Two aspects of their spellings were of interest: first, could they spell these nonwords so that they sounded correct (nonword spelling accuracy), and second, did their spellings show evidence of biasing from words heard earlier in the test sequence? Nonword spelling was poorer for children of this age than for tested adults. Nevertheless, significant biasing occurred in these children's spellings, though not to the same extent as in adults' nonword spellings, and significant correlations emerged between reading age, nonword spelling skill, susceptibility to biasing, and real word spelling skill. Children with a reading age greater than 11 years showed biasing from word spellings that was within range of that reported for adults, and, for these more skilled readers, word spelling accuracy correlated significantly with both susceptibility to biasing and with nonword spelling accuracy. These children were not as accurate as tested adults at spelling nonwords. Children with a reading age below 11 years were poorer at nonword spelling and showed no overall biasing, yet they also showed a significant correlation between word spelling skill and nonword biasing. Together with evidence from the same task from adults with specific spelling disorders, these results suggest that word knowledge had a direct (biasing) and an indirect (general word spelling knowledge) effect on the performance of the nonword spelling task. But although skill in word spelling may be a necessary prerequisite for nonword spelling, it need not always be sufficient.     

THE EFFECT OF STUDY SKILL TRAINING ON LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS' RETELLING OF EXPOSITORY MATERIAL

This research was conducted to determine the effects of a study skill training procedure on oral retelling of printed expository material read by three intermediate-grade learning disabled students. Measures of story retelling, study characteristics, and answers to comprehension questions were obtained during each session. The study skills taught during the intervention phase involved a modified Study, Question, Read, Recite, and Review technique (Robinson, 1941). Findings confirmed the existence of a functional relationship between the use of the study skill procedure and improved retelling. Experimenter directions and assistance were systematically faded so that during postchecks students used the procedure easily and quickly while obtaining their highest scores for retelling.     

Development of speech and language following bilateral frontal lesions

Language and speech were studied in a young child with perinatally acquired bifrontal lesions. Bilateral frontal pathology seriously interfered with the development of intelligible speech and resulted in a persistent expressive aphasia. Analysis of the neuropsychological profile indicated impairments in intelligence and language comprehension. These deficits, however, were considered secondary to the profound speech programming disorder. The findings indicate that, despite the plasticity of the immature central nervous system, bilateral frontal injury sustained at an early age precludes the development of intelligible speech. Furthermore, structurally intact cortical regions outside the territories of the speech zones fail to mediate normal speech and language development.     

A daily diary study of the relationships among daily self-compassion,perceived stress and health-promoting behaviours

Previous studies consistently found that trait self-compassion is positively associated with health-promoting behaviours, and perceived stress mediates the relationship. The current study primarily aimed at examining whether state self-compassion varying from day to day (daily self-compassion) played the same role as trait self-compassion in improving health-promoting behaviours and whether or not perceived stress would be the mediator in this relationship. Eighty-nine Chinese employees were recruited to finish demographic information and the trait measure of self-compassion first, and then finish daily diaries for seven consecutive days. Daily diary measures included daily self-compassion, perceived stress and health-promoting behaviours including both eating behaviours and exercise behaviours. The results of 1-1-1 multilevel mediation analyses showed that, at both the within- and between-person level, daily self-compassion could positively predict daily eating behaviour through the reduction of perceived stress. However, daily self-compassion did not influence exercise behaviour at both levels. The results of 2-1-1 multilevel mediation analyses cross-validated the between-person relationships in the 1-1-1 multilevel mediation models. These results suggest that, both short-term interventions aiming at increasing state self-compassion and long-term interventions aiming at increasing trait self-compassion can benefit one's eating behaviours through the reduction of stress.