When up-words meet down-sentences: evidence for word- or sentence-based compatibility effects?

Participants were presented with sentences mentioning an entity with a typical location in the upper or lower vertical space (e.g., roof vs. root). Sentences supported or reversed the typical location of the target entity. Sensibility judgments requiring upwards or downwards responses were faster when the response matched rather than mismatched the target entity's typical location. This compatibility effect was independent of whether the sentence context supported or reversed the target entity's typical location. The results, therefore, provide clear evidence for word-based but no evidence for sentence-based simulation processes.     

Is dyslexia a visual perceptive disorder? New empirical data

Several studies have shown that a phonological deficit is the origin of developmental dyslexia, because dyslexics have important difficulties in mapping orthographic to phonological codes. However, visual criteria are still used for the diagnosis of dyslexia and to develop methods of intervention. This study attempts to determine whether there are visual problems in dyslexic children. To this aim, dyslexic children and children without reading difficulties, matched by chronological age, participated in two experiments. One study was based on the Reversal test and the other was a visual decision task in which participants had to decide whether two letters were the same or different. There were 40 pairs of letters, to measure reaction times and mistakes. The results showed that dyslexics had similar performance to controls in the detection of different visual stimuli. Developmental dyslexics do not appear to have visual perceptual problems, but a particular difficulty to retrieve the phonological code of graphemes.     

The informational constraints of behavioral distraction by unexpected sounds: The role of event information

Sounds deviating from an otherwise repeated stream of task-irrelevant auditory stimuli (deviant sounds among standard sounds) are known to capture attention and impact negatively on ongoing behavioral performance (behavioral oddball distraction). Traditional views consider such distraction as the ineluctable consequence of the deviant sounds' low probability of occurrence relative to that of the standard. Contrary to this contention, recent evidence demonstrates that distraction by deviant sounds is not obligatory and occurs only when sounds (standards and deviants), though to be ignored, act as useful warning cues by providing information as to whether and when a target stimulus is to be presented (Parmentier, Elsley, & Ljungberg, 2010). The present study aimed to extend this finding by disentangling the roles of event information (target's probability of occurrence) and temporal information (target's time of occurrence). Comparing performance in a cross-modal oddball task where standard and deviant sounds provided temporal information, event information, both, or none, we found that distraction by deviant sounds emerged when sounds conveyed event information. These results suggest that unexpected changes in a stream of sounds yield behavioral distraction to the extent that standards and deviants carry relevant goal-directed information, specifically, the likelihood of occurrence of an upcoming target. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Development and validation of a scale to assess positive youth development values

This paper describes the development of a self-report scale for adolescents to assess positive youth development values. It presents a substantial number of psychometric results performed on a sample of 2,400 adolescents (1,068 boys and 1,332 girls) from 12 to 17 years ( M = 14.73, SD = 1.25), who were studying secondary education in Western Andalusia. The results provide evidence of the psychometric quality of items, cross-validity of a structure of eight first-order factors and three second-order factors, obtained through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and adequate reliability. This study concludes that the scale presents adequate evidence of validity and reliability that allows assessment, especially in school contexts, of a broad set of values of particular relevance to positive youth development.     

Do Employees Know How Their Supervisors View Them? A Study Examining Metaperceptions of Job Performance

This study investigated employees’ views about how their supervisors would rate their job performance (i.e., employees’ metaperceptions). Two hundred forty employees from a high-tech firm provided self- and metaperception job performance ratings, and their supervisors also provided ratings of the employees’ performance. The study produced several notable findings, including that metaperceptions were more strongly related to supervisory ratings than were self-ratings, that meta-accuracy was stronger for task versus contextual performance, and that employees who engaged in more impression management behavior exhibited higher meta-accuracy. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Translating the QABF to Spanish with an Eye Toward Reliability and Validity

We developed a Spanish‐language version of the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) utilizing a forward‐adaptation and back‐adaptation translation process. Subsequently, we administered the assessment with 80 bilingual participants to assess the reliability and validity of the instrument. Results demonstrated that the Spanish version of the QABF was both reliable (i.e., was internally consistent) and valid (i.e., identified the correct function). Implications and future research are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Principles of Occupational Therapy Group Outcome Assessment in Mental Health

In today's penurious health care climate, occupational therapists must scrutinize their practice and substantiate their interventions in order to remain viable service providers. This article proposes a method of occupational therapy outcomes assessment in mental health care that is rooted in client-centered functional outcomes. Since little consensus exists on which instruments are most effective, this article begins with an outline of broadly accepted principles for assessment of patient outcomes in mental health. Next, we describe a practical method for selecting outcomes measures in interdisciplinary settings. Finally, we offer pragmatic solutions to address barriers to outcome assessment.     

Nuevas perspectivas del procesamiento de información

RESUMEN

La Psicología Cognitiva es una de las áreas más pujantes de la Psicología actual. Pese a lo fructífero de esta nueva rama de la Psicología, es necesario formular algunas críticas a este enfoque. Este será el tema principal del presente artículo. Las críticas estarán centradas en las llamadas “analogías formales”. Cuando un dominio de fenómenos es difícil y confuso para nuestra compresión, una solución lícita es establecer algún tipo de analogía entre ese dominio y otro dominio que conocemos mejor. Lo que hemos denominado analogías formales sirven de elementos de vertebración teórica de los datos psicológicos pero, por otra parte, mue stran debilidades importantes. Las principales analogías de la Psicología Cognitiva serán analizadas en este artículo mostrando sus debilidades más importantes.