Children of divorce in the 1990s: An update of the Amato and Keith (1991) meta-analysis.

The present study updates the P. R. Amato and B. Keith (1991) meta-analysis of children and divorce with a new analysis of 67 studies published in the 1990s. Compared with children with continuously married parents, children with divorced parents continued to score significantly lower on measures of academic achievement, conduct, psychological adjustment, self-concept, and social relations. After controlling for study characteristics. curvilinear trends with respect to decade of publication were present for academic achievement, psychological well-being, self-concept, and social relations. For these outcomes, the gap between children with divorced and married parents decreased during the 1980s and increased again during the 1990s. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The factor-analytic approach to intelligence is alive and well: A review of Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies.

Reviews the book, Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies by J. B. Carroll (see record 1993-97611-000). Carroll divides his book into three parts. The first is a historical and conceptual review of psychometric theory. Carroll begins by clearly defining and differentiating key concepts such as ability, aptitude, achievement, latent trait, and intervening variable, although recognizing that in practice it is often difficult to make absolute distinctions. The second part, and the bulk of the book, is a detailed analysis and synthesis of a myriad of findings in the area of cognitive abilities. In the third part of his book, Carroll summarizes his undertaking and addresses traditional concerns and controversies. He compares and contrasts his model of cognitive abilities with that of others. Although Carroll's book does not and indeed cannot resolve the issues and controversies concerning the nature of human cognitive abilities, it does represent a notable contribution to our ongoing endeavours. It undoubtedly is a book that anyone interested in cognitive abilities would wish to explore because of its encyclopedic, in-depth coverage of the topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The bio-sciences information exchange of the Smithsonian Institution: a clearinghouse for research in the bio-sciences.

The exchange serves as "… a clearinghouse for current research… work just beginning or not yet ready for publication." Its functions and operations are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A systematic and transparent approach for assessing the methodological quality of intervention effectiveness research: The Study Design and Implementation Assessment Device (Study DIAD).

Assessments of studies meant to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, programs, and policies can serve an important role in the interpretation of research results. However, evidence suggests that available quality assessment tools have poor measurement characteristics and can lead to opposing conclusions when applied to the same body of studies. These tools tend to (a) be insufficiently operational, (b) rely on arbitrary post-hoc decision rules, and (c) result in a single number to represent a multidimensional construct. In response to these limitations, a multilevel and hierarchical instrument was developed in consultation with a wide range of methodological and statistical experts. The instrument focuses on the operational details of studies and results in a profile of scores instead of a single score to represent study quality. A pilot test suggested that satisfactory between-judge agreement can be obtained using well-trained raters working in naturalistic conditions. Limitations of the instrument are discussed, but these are inherent in making decisions about study quality given incomplete reporting and in the absence of strong, contextually based information about the effects of design flaws on study outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior in a nonexperiment: The effects of behavioral field research on the work performance of factory employees.

To determine whether a field research process itself has an influence on employee productivity which might become confounded with the influence of more legitimate independent variables, 73 male workers in 1 department of a factory were studied. Field research operations, consisting of observational and survey techniques, were employed during the middle 2 wk. of the 6-wk "before," "during," and "after" experimental design. Research effects on the total department and the 8 work groups were negligible. Hypothesized moderator influences for age, authoritarianism, rural-urban background and union activity level, although small, were found thus demonstrating that research operations can affect different people in different ways on a productivity criterion. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discriminating the relation between relations: The role of entropy in abstract conceptualization by baboons (Papio papio) and humans (Homo sapiens).

Two baboons (Papio papio) successfully learned relational matching-to-sample: They picked the choice display that involved the same relation among 16 pictures (same or different) as the sample display, although the sample display shared no pictures with the choice displays. The baboons generalized relational matching behavior to sample displays created from novel pictures. Further experiments varying the number of sample pictures and the mixture of same and different sample pictures suggested that entropy plays a key role in the baboons' conceptual behavior. Two humans (Homo sapiens) were similarly trained and tested; their behavior was both similar to and different from the baboons' behavior. The results suggest that animals other than humans and chimpanzees can discriminate the relation between relations. They further suggest that entropy detection may underlie same-different conceptualization, but that additional processes may participate in human conceptualization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of dairy heifers to the visual cliff formed by a herringbone milking pit: Evidence of fear of heights in cows (Bos taurus).

The ability of cows (Bos taurus) to perceive depth has never been experimentally investigated. If cows can perceive depth, the milking pit in commercial milking facilities may be fear provoking for dairy cows, as past research has shown that most land-dwelling species possess an instinctive fear of heights. In the current study, 12 dairy heifers (1-year-old cows) were exposed to a milking pit (depth-exposed group) and 13 heifers (control group) were exposed to a standard change in the environment while they moved through a milking facility over a 5-day treatment period. Heifers in the depth-exposed group showed a higher heart rate (p