Associations between evaluation anxiety,cognitive interference and performance on working memory tasks

According to Cognitive Interference Theory, evaluation anxiety leads to increased negative off‐task self‐dialogue which then results in diminished cognitive performance. Given that negative off‐task self‐dialogue is primarily verbal, the phonological loop and central executive components of the working memory system should be most affected by evaluation anxiety. Eighty‐eight participants were randomly assigned to receive evaluation anxiety inducing instructions or supportive instructions prior to administration of three tests (Digit Span, Visual Memory Span, and StroopColour‐Word) that measured the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive components of working memory. Measures of evaluation anxiety and negative off‐task self‐dialogue were obtained during and after testing. Results showed that participants receiving anxiety inducing instructions reported significantly more evaluation anxiety and off‐task self‐dialogue. They also had significantly lower performance on the Digit Span Test and the StroopColour‐Word Test. Negative off‐task self‐dialogue also mediated the relationship between evaluation anxiety and performance on the Digit Span Test. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social–Cognitive Processes in Preschool Boys With and Without Oppositional Defiant Disorder

The social–cognitive characteristics of 88 preschool boys with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and 80 nondisruptive boys were assessed 3 times over a 2-year period. Three questions were addressed: (1) Do social–cognitive processes (encoding, attribution, problem solving, and response evaluation) distinguish clinic-referred preschool boys from peers without behavior problems? (2) What is the relation between preschoolers' social–cognitive processes and observed problem behavior? (3) Are the social–cognitive processes of clinic boys with ODD influenced by comorbidity with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? Boys were presented hypothetical, peer-oriented social dilemmas to resolve. At all 3 assessments, clinic boys were twice as likely as were comparison group boys to generate aggressive solutions. Relative to comparison boys, clinic boys' encoding of social information was less accurate. The groups did not differ in their attributions or response evaluations. Verbal IQ and language skills were modestly correlated with problem solving and encoding. Within the clinic group, social–cognitive processes were not affected by ADHD comorbidity and they showed little relation to later diagnostic status or severity of behavior problems.     

Maslow and Miller: An Exploration of Gender and Affiliation in the Journey to Competence

This article shows that although neither Abraham Maslow nor Jean Baker Miller reference each other in their writings, they are following different paths to the same conclusion: competence proceeds from connection. Miller and Maslow both describe a developmental model that applies equally to women and men. The conclusion of the authors of this article is that there is no need for separate developmental models for men and women because all self‐actualization and optimum mental health evolves from affiliation.     

Causes of young children's confusion of same and different

Three experiments are reported that explore 3-year-olds' and adults' understanding of the words, same and different. In the first, 3-year-olds selected a bead that was “the same color as” or “a different color from” a target bead. In the second, 3-year-olds selected a bead that was “the same in some way as” or “different in some way from” a target bead. Contrary to results reported previously, the majority of consistent responders chose a bead identical with the target in response to the different instruction in both experiments. The rates of both incorrect different responding and incorrect same responding were greater in Experiment II than in Experiment I. In Experiment III, adults chose objects that were “the same as” or “different from” a target; unlike the children, they never chose a target-identical object in response to different instructions. It is argued that children and adults treat same and different differently, and that children's task performance is influenced by three factors: semantic, pragmatic, and nonlinguistic.     

Quantitative Media Literacy: Individual Differences in Dealing with Numbers in the News

A test of arithmetic aptitude was developed and validated. The consequences of individual differences in this aspect of quantitative literacy were then determined for attention to, and dependent recall of, numeric quantities embedded in printed news reports. It was found that persons of high arithmetic aptitude recalled frequencies and ratios more correctly, both in precise and approximate terms, than did persons of low arithmetic aptitude. This effect was consistent across gender of respondent. It was also consistent across commonly employed presentational formats of numeric quantities. The inferior processing of numeric quantities by persons of low quantitative literacy, especially the dependent estimation of risk and benefit likelihoods, is considered in terms of theories that project these persons' greater reliance on intuitive assessments of the incidence of occurrences.     

Skills,training, and activism

Most studies of activism and social movements give more attention to methods and strategies than to the development of skills. Yet skills are crucially important to the success of campaigns. Research on expert performance provides insights into what is required to become highly proficient at a well-defined set of skills. These insights are potentially relevant to activists, as shown by the example of training for lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee in 1960. Skill development needs to be given greater attention by activists and scholars.     

No experimental evidence for emotion-specific gaze cueing in a threat context

We examined the utility of a gaze cueing paradigm to examine sensitivity to differences among negatively valenced expressions. Participants judged target stimuli (dangerous or safe), the location of which was cued by the gaze direction of a central face. Dawel et al. reported that gaze cueing effects (faster response times on valid vs. invalid trials) were larger when the central face displayed fear than when it displayed happiness. Our aim was to determine whether this effect was specific to fear, to all threat-related expressions (fear, anger), or to all negatively valenced expressions (fear, anger, sadness, disgust) with the aim of using this protocol to study the development of implicit discrimination of negatively valenced expressions. Across five experiments in which we varied the number of models (1 vs. 4), the number of expressions (2 vs. 5), and the country of residence of participants (Canada vs. Australia) we found no evidence that the magnitude of gaze cueing effects is modulated by expression. We discuss our failure to replicate in the context of the broader literature.     

Commitment to the environment: the role of subjective norms in college and community samples

We tested a model of antecedents and outcomes of commitment to the environment, defined as psychological attachment and long‐term orientation to the natural world, hypothesizing that satisfaction with, investments in, and subjective norms about the environment would predict commitment, which, in turn, would predict willingness to sacrifice for the environment. In two studies, the model was supported in undergraduate and community samples, and for general commitment to the environment as well as commitment to specific proenvironmental behaviors. Individuals who are satisfied with and invested in the natural world, and who believe that those close to them value it as well, are likely to be committed to the environment and be willing to forego selfish interests to behave proenvironmentally.     

Test of a Factor Mixture-Based Taxonic-Dimensional Model of Anxiety Sensitivity and Panic Attack Vulnerability among University and Clinical Samples in Mexico City

The aim of the present study was to evaluate a factor mixture-based taxonic-dimensional model of anxiety sensitivity (AS) (Bernstein et al. Behavior Therapy 41:515-521, 2010), as measured by the ASI-3 (Taylor et al. Psychological Assessment 19:176-188, 2007), in regard to panic attacks, anxiety symptoms, and behavioral impairment among a university sample (N = 150, n _females  = 107, M _age = 21.3 years, SD = 4.3) and a clinical sample (N = 150, n _females  = 102, M _age = 39.0 years, SD = 12.0) from Mexico City, Mexico. Findings demonstrated cross-national support for the conceptual and operational utility of the AS taxonic-dimensional hypothesis (Bernstein et al. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 20:1-22, 2007b). Specifically, (1) the FMM-based AS taxon class base rate was significantly greater among the clinical relative to the university sample; (2) risk for panic attacks was significantly greater among the AS taxon class relative to the AS normative class; and (3) continuous individual differences in AS physical and psychological concerns, within the AS taxon class, were associated with level of risk for panic attacks, as well as panic attack severity and anxiety symptom levels. Similar AS taxonic-dimensional effects were observed in relation to degree of behavioral impairment across domains of functioning. The study results are discussed with respect to their implications for better understanding the nature of AS-related cognitive vulnerability for panic and related anxiety psychopathology.