Social sensitivity in adolescents and adults with learning disabilities.

This study investigated social sensitivity and self-concept in students with learning disabilities (LD) and their non-learning-disabled (non-LD) peers. Thirty students each from public junior and senior high schools and a community college participated in the study; at each grade level, half were identified as learning disabled and half experienced no learning problem. Students were individually assessed in 30-minute interviews for their accuracy in interpreting the thoughts and feelings of actors in tape-recorded stories depicting two adults in happy angry, anxious, and sad interactions. A questionnaire assessing four dimensions of self-concept in learning situations (motivation, task orientation, problem-solving ability, and class membership) was also administered. LD students at all grade levels were significantly less accurate at interpreting social situations than were their non-LD peers, and had significantly lower self-concepts. These results support the need for remediation efforts specifically aimed at social skills for overcoming social deficits in adulthood.     

Timing variability in circle drawing and tapping: probing the relationship between event and emergent timing

R. Ivry, R. M. Spencer, H. N. Zelaznik, and J. Diedrichsen (2002) have proposed a distinction between timed movements in which a temporal representation is part of the task goal (event timing) and those in which timing properties are emergent. The issue addressed in the present experiment was how timing in conditions conducive to emergent timing becomes established. According to what the authors term the transformation hypothesis, timing initially requires an event-based representation when the temporal goal is defined externally (e.g., by a metronome), but over the first few movement cycles, control processes become established that allow timing to become emergent. Different groups of participants (N = 84) executed either 1 timed interval, 4 timed intervals, or 2 timed intervals separated by a pause. They produced the intervals by either circle drawing, a task associated with emergent timing, or tapping, a task associated with event timing. Analyses of movement variability suggested that similar timing processes were used in the 2 tasks only during the 1st interval. Those results are consistent with the transformation hypothesis and lead to the inference that the transition from event-based control to emergent timing can occur rapidly during continuous movements.     

READING IS NOT A GUESSING GAME‐THE GREAT DEBATE REVISITED

The present study describes preschool read-alouds in terms of the types of texts to which children are exposed. The methods involved analyzing the genre and instructional foci of 426 titles read by 13 teachers throughout an entire academic year. Additionally, associations between teacher characteristics and texts teachers read in their classrooms were examined. Findings indicated that (a) narrative texts were the dominate genre read-aloud; (b) children's exposure to alphabet books, nursery rhymes, books featuring math concepts, and multicultural content occurred at generally low rates; and (c) few significant associations exist between quantity of books read and teacher characteristics.     

The Role of Meaningful Stimuli in Large Stimulus Classes

The Psychological Record - The present experiment examined the effect of having the D-stimuli as meaningful pictures when establishing 18 conditional discriminations and testing for the emergence...     

Why do women treated for breast cancer report good health despite disease or disability? A pilot study.

Few studies have explained the basis on which people with acknowledged physical pathology or disability report good self-perceived health. This limited qualitative study of 13 women identified two common pathways to subjective health taken by women treated for breast cancer, each involving a shift in emphasis from being healthy physically to being whole emotionally, relationally, or spiritually.     

Impressions on Social Networking Sites: Examining the Influence of Frequency of Status Updates and Likes on Judgments of Observers

This study explores how the number of status updates and markers of approval on social networking site profiles affect observers’ impressions of a profile owner’s personality and character. Using signaling theory and Brunswik’s lens model, the broader aim of this study was to examine whether the presentation of content on profiles affects inference making of the profile owner’s character. An experimental design was employed among college students to test whether the frequency of status updates and “Likes” on those updates affect initial impressions of a profile owner’s psychological state and social skills deficits and in turn later appraisals of attractiveness and credibility. The findings indicated that fewer status updates on a profile led to judgments of the profile owner as more depressed and socially unskilled than owners who post status updates more frequently. Impressions concerning depression and social skills deficits biased later judgments of the owner’s attractiveness but not credibility.     

Let’s be healthy together: Relational motivation for physical health is more effective for women

Four studies examined the role of relationally-autonomous reasons in health behavior (RARHs) and how gender moderates their association with health outcomes. Study 1 (n = 160) involved the development of a measure of RARHs. The results of a factor analysis distinguished RARHs from other types of health reasons. In Study 2, participants (n = 284) completed a survey assessing their relational reasons prior to taking assessments of their body composition and fitness level. In Study 3, participants (n = 577) completed an online survey assessing RARHs, self-construal and health behaviors. The results of Studies 2 and 3 showed that RARHs positively predicted healthy outcomes for females only. In Study 4, participants (n = 72) were asked to complete an online survey, attend an orientation session, keep track of their exercise and nutrition over the course of a week, and attend a follow-up session. The results revealed that having an exercise partner was positively associated with RARHs, and that this in turn predicted reported effort and progress outcomes at the follow-up session for females only. Implications for theories of motivation and gender differences are discussed.     

WORD EXPOSURE CONDITIONS AND PRESCHOOLERS' NOVEL WORD LEARNING DURING SHARED STORYBOOK READING

In this experiment, 23 preschool children participated in two adult-child shared storybook reading sessions over a 1-week period. The objective was to characterize the influence of various conditions of word exposure upon children's receptive and expressive learning of novel words occurring within storybook reading interactions. Specifically, the effects of two contrasting conditions were examined: (a) adults' questioning versus labeling of novel words, and (b) adults' use of perceptual versus conceptual questions about novel words. Results suggested that adults' labeling of novel words facilitated children's receptive word learning more so than questioning; however, this effect was not observed for expressive word learning. Results also suggested no difference in receptive or expressive word learning as a result of conceptual versus perceptual questions. Implications of these findings are discussed.