Effect of dimensional salience and salience of variability on problem solving: A developmental study.

Presented a matching task to 120 6-20 yr olds to investigate the relative influence of dimensional salience and salience of variability on problem solving. The task included 4 dimensions: form, color, number, and position. On each problem, 1 dimension was relevant and the other 3, which could be either constant or variable, were irrelevant for solution. Ss were asked to find which of 2 stimuli was more similar to a standard stimulus. Results show the same dimensional hierarchy for both reaction time and error scores. The effect of variability, as measured by reaction time and error scores, increased with increasing number of variable irrelevant dimensions and decreased with age. The effect of variability proved to be greater than the effect of dimensions. The implications of the relative influence of dimensional salience and salience variability for problem solving are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treatment preference, treatment-preference match, and psychotherapist credibility: Influence on session outcome and preference shift.

The relationship between treatment preference, counselor credibility, and outcome was examined using two different methods. Client-rated outcome was higher for 32 volunteer clients who received an action-oriented session than for 32 volunteer clients who received an insight-oriented session and for clients who perceived their psychotherapists as credible, although session outcome did not differ between clients who did and did not receive their preferred treatment (insight-oriented vs. action-oriented). Clients who received their nonpreferred treatment shifted more in their preferences than did clients who received their preferred treatment. In addition, 76 participants viewed Rogers doing a demonstration session with Gloria. In general, they shifted toward preferring insight, especially if they perceived Rogers as credible. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's preference for complementary pairs: Evidence against a shift to a taxonomic preference.

Examined the development of conceptual preference for complementary and taxonomic relationships among 8 groups of 12 children (aged 3 yrs to 15 yrs 6 mo). The triads procedure was used with picture pairings familiar to the youngest age group. Data reveal a preference for complementary pairing for all age groups. These preferences were independent of Ss' ability to explain taxonomic relationships and of the relative attractiveness of the pictures, as determined by ratings of a 2nd sample of 96 children. Studies that have shown a shift from a complementary to a taxonomic conceptual preference in the early school years are reviewed, and the utility of conceptualizing the increased use of taxonomic organization with age as a shift in preference is questioned. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill: Some adult comparisons.

Three groups of college readers were compared on several information-processing and language comprehension tasks that tap the cognitive components of reading. The groups were skilled readers with high verbal and nonverbal abilities, low-skilled readers with a disparity between verbal and nonverbal abilities, and low-skilled readers who were low in both verbal and nonverbal ability. Results confirm the importance of word processing and general language comprehension in distinguishing skilled from less skilled readers. Results also support the view that reading ability is best described as a continuous function and provide evidence of the reemergence of lower level processing skills in adults as a function of text difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue interactions in flavor preference learning: A configural analysis.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 37(2) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes (see record 2011-08162-003). There was an error in Figure 3, which is described in the correction.] Four experiments showed that the preference normally established to a neutral flavor cue that was paired with maltodextrin was attenuated when that cue was conditioned in compound with another flavor—overshadowing. Furthermore, two experiments showed that the preference for a neutral flavor conditioned as part of a compound was further attenuated if the other element in that compound was separately paired with the reinforcer—blocking. These results stand in contrast to a number of previous compound flavor preference conditioning experiments, which have not revealed reliable cue competition effects. These discrepant findings are discussed in terms of the effects of within-compound associations and a configural perspective on potentiation. Modeling of this configural perspective predicts that a compound of two separately trained cues will elicit a similar response to the individual cues themselves—absence of summation. Two experiments confirmed this prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are age trends in adult hand preference best explained by developmental shifts or generational differences?

Analyzed hand use in the performance of 6 everyday activities as a function of age in a sample of 654 adults (aged 18–85 yrs). An unskilled grasping task showed the largest shift toward consistent right-handedness as a function of age; skilled manipulation tasks, such as writing, exhibited weaker age-related trends. Analysis of individual preference patterns shows decreases in mixed right hand use and increases in consistent right hand use in older adults. There was also a weaker age-related reduction in mixed left hand use but the number of consistent left-handers remained a small, constant percentage across all age groups. Results are congruent with the predictions of 2 developmental hypotheses that stipulate a postulated age trend toward hand preference consistency, and a practice effect related to an environment arranged to favor right hand use. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teams embedded in organizations: Some implications.

From the early 1980s to the present, organizations have increased their reliance on teams. Over the same time period, the amount of traditional small group team research has decreased. The void has been filled by research that is focused on issues facing task-performing teams embedded in organizations. It is argued here that the organizational perspective has produced research that complements and extends past research on groups and teams. A case is made for differences in orientation between traditional team research and work aimed specifically at teams in organizations. Implications of these differences are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of discrimination shift learning in young children.

Reviews discrimination shift learning studies involving normal 3-7 yr olds to determine under what conditions reversal and intradimensional shifts are easier than nonreversal and extradimensional shifts and vice versa. Variability of the irrelevant dimension, dimensional preference, and overtraining appear to be unequivocal determinants of the relative difficulty of the various kinds of shifts, while verbalization, problem format, and perceptual pretraining are more equivocally related to the relative difficulty of discrimination shifts. (21/2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imitation and expansions: Some developmental aspects of mother-child communications.

Videotaped 2 groups each of 9 children (age ranges = 18-26 mo and 48-61 mo, respectively) in a free-play setting with their mothers. Interactions were analyzed for relationships between mothers' and children's speech with regard to complexity and usage of selected speech types. Mothers' expansions of child utterances were positively related to the younger, but not the older, children's imitations of mothers' speech. Mothers' sentence complexity was positively related to younger, but not older, children's frequency of responding to questions. Child speech that is responsive to mothers' speech seems to provide a gauge by which mothers tailor their language complexity, allowing the child to exert an influence on his language environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social justice in practicum training: Competencies and developmental implications.

This article addresses the challenge in the predoctoral education of professional psychologists of providing practicum training experiences with a strong social justice focus while also ensuring that students are acquiring the full range of foundational competencies expected of practicing psychologists. The theory-based distinction between interactional, procedural, and distributive justice will be discussed as a framework for considering a developmental progression in practicum training, moving from individually focused skills to more advanced competencies emphasizing social/institutional change. The article concludes with aspirational recommendations for any academic program seriously committed to the pursuit of social justice as part of its training mission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some theoretical issues confronting developmental psychologists.

A nagging persistent problem for developmental psychologists has always been the nativism-empiricism controversy. It is still with us today in almost every facet of developmental psychology. This issue is leading to an increasing "ecological" perspective in developmental psychology the end result of which is not clear yet. While Piagetian theory remains the reference point for much of cognitive developmental psychology, there has been a very marked decline in the degree to which many cognitive researchers subscribe to that theory. At the moment there is no grand integrative theory of cognitive development such Piaget's, much less of the field of developmental psychology as a whole. However, this may mean that the field as a whole is more open to different theoretical approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactive personality-environment transactions and adult developmental trajectories.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 42(6) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2006-20488-034). In the article, Figures 2 and 3 are reversed. The figure and caption that appear on page 882 are incorrectly labeled "Figure 2" when they should be labeled "Figure 3." The figure and caption that appear on page 883 are incorrectly labeled "Figure 3" when they should be labeled "Figure 2."] The possibility, which is based on the concept of reactive personality-environment transactions, that individuals learn different things from the same experience as a function of personality differences may help explain individual differences in adult developmental trajectories. In an analogue, longitudinal design, business students were taught about stock market investing, and they engaged in 5 practice investment sessions. Although all participants earned the same returns on their investments, they varied in the expectancies they formed about stock investing as a function of their personality status. As anticipated, behavioral inhibition (heightened sensitivity to punishment) facilitated formation of negative investing expectancies and antagonized formation of positive investing expectancies, and behavioral activation (heightened sensitivity to reward) facilitated formation of positive investing expectancies and antagonized formation of negative investing expectancies. Differential learning in a task that approximated skill acquisition for a developmental transition implies that personality may help shape individual developmental trajectories in the adult years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Area postrema lesions impair flavor-toxin aversion learning but not flavor-nutrient preference learning.

Rats with lesions of the area postrema. (APX) or sham lesions were trained to associate flavored solutions with positive or negative postingestive consequences. The APX rats were similar to controls in learning preferences for flavors paired with concurrent intragastric infusions of maltodextrin or corn oil and for a flavor paired with delayed maltodextrin infusions. In contrast, the APX rats displayed impaired aversion learning for flavors paired with toxic drug treatments (lithium chloride infusion or methylscopolamine injection). The aversion learning deficit ranged from mild to total, depending on training procedures. These findings confirm the important role of the area postrema in flavor-toxin learning but provide no evidence for its involvement in flavor-nutrient conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning on social dilemmas varying in emotional saliency: An adult developmental perspective.

Examined age-comparative evidence of social cognitive reasoning in adulthood, as mediated by the emotional saliency of tasks tapping postformal reasoning. Specifically, the tasks focused on the ability to resolve discrepant accounts of the same event sequence. It was assumed that less mature thinking may be more evident in reasoning contexts in which emotional factors play a major role. A postformal coding scheme was used to assess levels of reasoning in an interpersonal context. Tasks were administered to 60 Ss—20 adolescents (aged 14–16.5 yrs), 20 young adults (aged 20–25 yrs), and 20 mature adults (aged 30–46 yrs). Measures of formal operations, ego level, and verbal ability were also administered, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Sentence Completion Test. An interaction was found between age and degree of emotional saliency of the task for reasoning level. Specifically, adolescents performed less well on tasks higher in degree of emotional saliency. In addition, developmental differences in postformal reasoning as a function of age and ego level were found. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lateral preference patterns as a discriminator of learning difficulties.

In Study 1, the lateral preference patterns for 246 normal and 108 learning-disabled (LD) children (8.3–12.7 yrs) were compared using factors of the Dean Laterality Preference Schedule. Results indicate that although Ss did not differ in their patterns for peripheral activities across factors, LD Ss were significantly more bilateral on factors involving visually guided fine motor activity, listening, and fine motor foot preference. Further analysis showed that one significant discriminant function correctly predicted the group placement of some 71% of the Ss. Findings are interpreted as supporting a hypothesis of less coherent lateralized cerebral systems for many LD children. Study 2 examined the verbal—spatial abilities of 78 LD 5th graders classified as normal or mixed in their preference patterns using the discriminant function derived in Study 1. Results indicate that whereas Ss of mixed dominance for peripheral activities were deficient in spatial abilities, they were verbally more adept than normally lateralized LD Ss. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competence in early adult romantic relationships: A developmental perspective on family influences.

The present prospective, longitudinal study of 193 young adults (85 men, 108 women, M?=?20.7 years old) and their partners in ongoing romantic relationships in 1997 was initiated in 1989, when the 193 target youths were in the 7th grade. On the basis of the model for the development of early adult romantic relationships (DEARR; C. Bryant & R. D. Conger, in press), the authors hypothesized that interactional processes in the family of origin would predict interpersonal skills by the target youths, which would be positively related to the early adult couple's relationship quality. Observational ratings showed that nurturant–involved parenting in the family of origin predicted behaviors by the target youth to a romantic partner that were warm, supportive, and low in hostility. These competent behaviors of the target youth were positively associated with relationship quality for the early adult couple and also mediated or explained the connection between parenting and relationship quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some reflections on imagery and psychotherapy implications.

This commentary elaborates on K. D. Arbuthnott, D. W. Arbuthnott, and L. Rossiter's (2001; see record 2001-00732-001) recommendations regarding the use of imagery in psychotherapy. The reflections focus primarily on occasions when imagery may be used to help clients reprocess and work through painful or traumatic memories. Highlighted are the values of (a) developing competence before using imagery, (b) attending to issues related to informed consent and ethics, (c) integrating the use of imagery within a comprehensive assessment, (d) establishing appropriate client expectations, (e) building on information derived from less directive methods, (f) being well versed with a variety of therapeutic tools, (g) paying attention to individual differences in clients' reactions to and use of imagery, and (h) responding appropriately if clients experience spontaneous memories of unknown origin. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The borderline personality diagnosis: Some negative implications.

The "borderline personality" diagnosis is examined in terms of a number of dimensions, including prevailing cultural-societal pressures, the patient–therapist relationship, implications for metapsychology, and its effect on the education and training of psychotherapists. It is concluded that, although the popularity of the diagnosis is, in part, a humane response to an increasingly disturbed patient population, there are other less noble motives. They include the faddishness of the profession, an implicit pejorative statement about the patient, a distancing effect on the patient–therapist relationship, confusions in terminology and concepts, and distortions inherent in a locational-spatial metaphor (borderline) to describe psychodynamics and psychopathology. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud's shift from the seduction theory: Some overlooked reality factors.

Suggests that unconscious pressures guided Freud in the further development of his thought beyond the seduction theory; however, significant conscious reasons led him to the insufficiency of that theory as a complete explanation for hysteria. Freud's evidence had not come from spontaneous expressions by patients of their childhood sexual abuse but from his pressing his theory on them. Furthermore, he then found himself no better able to explain his patients' behavior than his colleagues with other theories. Most particularly, all these patients left his care, and he was confronted with a collapse of his practice. He nonetheless continued both clinically and theoretically to take account of patients' spontaneous reports of childhood sexual abuse. Freud's negative reaction to S. Ferenczi (1933) on this subject was strongly influenced by Freud's knowledge of Ferenczi's personal problems, including Ferenczi's sexual play with his medical patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)