Task Complexity and Older Adults' Decision-Making Competence.

This article reports progress in an ongoing research program examining older adults' decision-making competence (DMC). Using a theoretical framework that emphasizes the person-task fit in assessing DMC, the authors report the results of a study comparing older versus younger adults' decision performance on simple and complex tasks about health, finance, and nutrition. The authors hypothesized and found that increasing age and task complexity were related to greater comprehension errors and inconsistency in decision making. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a large amount of age-related variance in performance on the decision tasks could be accounted for by exogenous social variables, health measures, basic cognitive skills, and attitudinal measures. The discussion emphasizes several directions for future research, including the need to validate the meaning of performance on these tasks for real-life decision processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women's responses to young infants' cries.

Women's caregiving and perceptual responses to young infants' cries were assessed as a function of parity and cry cause. Ss cared for a crying infant manikin in a simulated baby-sitting situation. Mothers and nonmothers were quite similar in basic features of their caregiving behaviors, suggesting that the effects of parity may be to fine-tune skills that many women bring to the task of caring for young infants. The specific cause of the cry (hunger or pain) was associated with few differences in caregiving behavior, even though a subsequent perceptual task showed that Ss reliably discriminated the two cries. Further analyses of the perceptual data indicated that cry sounds communicate information about the general distress level of the infant better than information about specific causes. Thus, although the sound of the cry may inform caregivers about overall distress level, caregiving behaviors appear to be determined by additional factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The discriminating nature of infants' exploratory actions.

The specificity of infants' exploratory actions to object properties was demonstrated in two studies with 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. The first study was an initial test of the hypothesis that infants would discriminate in their actions among objects that varied in weight, sound, texture, and other properties. The second study documented specificity between actions, table surface properties, and object properties. Both studies illustrate that providing infants with multiple action-relevant properties elicits a rich action repertoire. Infants tailor actions to particular object and table characteristics, and age differences suggest a developing economy of action and changing exploratory systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young Adults' Perceptions of Children With Cerebral Palsy.

Objective: To examine factors influencing young adults' perceptions of children with cerebral palsy. Participants and Procedure: A total of 180 college students read vignettes about a healthy child or a child with cerebral palsy with mild or moderate physical impairments. Main Outcome Measure: Perceptions of the child (Ratings of the Child Questionnaire). Results: Young adults held less positive perceptions of children with cerebral palsy compared with a healthy child. Women endorsed more positive perceptions for all children than men. Knowledge about cerebral palsy and wanting to work with children were related to positive perceptions of children with cerebral palsy. Conclusions: Young adults' negative perceptions of children with cerebral palsy suggest the need for interventions to improve their knowledge about this condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young infants' retention of information about bisyllabic utterances.

This study examined 2- to 3-month-olds' representations of bisyllables. In 3 experiments, infants were familiarized with sets of bisyllables that either did or did not share a common consonant–vowel (CV) syllable. In Experiment 1, infants detected the presence of a new bisyllable in the test phase except when it shared a common initial CV syllable. A modified version of the high-amplitude sucking procedure, incorporating a 2-min delay period, tested infants' retention of information about bisyllables in the remaining 2 experiments. In Experiment 2, infants were significantly more likely to retain information about bisyllables that shared the same initial CV syllable. Finally, the authors investigated whether infants simply benefited from the presence of 2 common phonetic segments, regardless of whether these came from the same CV syllable. The results showed that CV syllable organization is important in infants' ability to encode and retain information about bisyllables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Indirect effects and infants' reaction to strangers.

Examined whether an infant's reaction to a stranger would be indirectly influenced by the infant's observing a stranger–third party interaction. It was expected that the infant's subsequent willingness to play with a stranger would be influenced by prior observation of a positive interaction between a stranger and a third party, especially if the third party was the infant's mother. 45 15-mo-old infants were exposed to 1 of 3 situations. In Condition 1, the S observed its mother interacting with an unfamiliar adult (UA2) in a positive manner; in Condition 2, the S observed UA2 interacting with another unfamiliar adult (UA1) in a positive manner; and in Condition 3, UA2 did not interact with the mother or UA1. Following exposure to Conditions 1, 2, or 3, UA2 approached the S to play. Ss in Conditions 1 and 2 were less wary of UA2 and more willing to interact with the mother than were Ss in Condition 3. Furthermore, Ss in Condition 1 showed more positive affect when offered a toy by the stranger and accepted a toy more in the last minute of play. Results suggest indirect effects influence social interactions and show that significant others can play an important role in mediating these effects. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of Older Adults' Preferences for Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment.

The use of instructional advance directives assumes that preferences for life-sustaining medical treatment remain stable over time and across changes in life condition. A sample of 332 older adults recorded their preferences for 4 life-sustaining treatments in 9 illness scenarios. These preferences were elicited again 1 and 2 years after the original interview. Overall, preferences for life-sustaining treatment were moderately stable over time, but stability varied significantly across judgments. Preferences were most stable for illness scenarios that were most and least serious and for decisions to refuse treatment. Age, gender, education, and prior completion of an advance directive were all related to preference stability, and evidence indicated that declines in physical or psychological functioning resulted in decreased interest in life-sustaining treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A physiological explanation of infants' early visual development.

Proposes a physiological explanation of infants' early visual development based on recent evidence that the cat's visual system contains at least 3 separate pathways that subserve different functions and develop at different rates. Several lines of evidence suggest the same is true in humans. Data from human newborns suggest that at birth, 2 of these pathways (the X-pathway to the cortex and the Y-pathway directly to the superior colliculus and pretecturm) are functional, but that the third, the Y-pathway to the cortex, is not. Striking changes at 2 mo appear to reflect the dawning influence of that Y-pathway to the cortex. (French abstract) (5 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adults' conceptions of intelligence across the adult life span.

To examine whether young, middle-aged, and older adults view the concept of intelligent person as similar or different during adulthood, 140 adults of various ages rated how likely it would be for individuals of average and exceptional intelligence at 30, 50, and 70 yrs of age to be engaged in behaviors previously identified by adults as characterizing adult intelligence. Adults perceived more similarity between exceptionally intelligent prototypes of closer ages (i.e., 30 and 50 yrs; 50 and 70 yrs). Intelligence was perceived to consist of interest and ability to deal with novelty, everyday competence, and verbal competence (dimensions that were perceived to be differentially important for different-aged prototypes and by individuals of different ages). Participants' conceptions also included the idea that intelligence is malleable and that abilities differentially increase or decrease across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adults' memories of childhood: True and false reports.

In 3 experiments, the authors examined factors that, according to the source-monitoring framework, might influence false memory formation and true/false memory discernment. In Experiment 1, combined effects of warning and visualization on false childhood memory formation were examined, as were individual differences in true and false childhood memories. Combining warnings and visualization led to the lowest false memory and highest true memory. Several individual difference factors (e.g., parental fearful attachment style) predicted false recall. In addition, true and false childhood memories differed (e.g., in amount of information). Experiment 2 examined relations between Deese/Roediger-McDermott task performance and false childhood memories. Deese/Roediger-McDermott performance (e.g., intrusion of unrelated words in free recall) was associated with false childhood memory, suggesting liberal response criteria in source decisions as a common underlying mechanism. Experiment 3 investigated adults' abilities to discern true and false childhood memory reports (e.g., by detecting differences in amount of information as identified in Experiment 1). Adults who were particularly successful in discerning such reports indicated reliance on event plausibility. Overall, the source-monitoring framework provided a viable explanatory framework. Implications for theory and clinical and forensic interviews are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The differentiation of activity in infants' exploration of objects.

If an activity during manipulative play is exploratory, it should, in contrast to other activity, be used differentially for objects that vary in novelty. In a study of 5-mo-olds, different definitions of exploratory mouthing were tested, and results suggest that mouthing followed immediately by a look fulfilled some criteria for an exploratory activity. In the next study of 5- to 11-mo-olds, mouthing with looks after and examining, a measure of visual–manipulative inspection, met the criteria for exploratory activity; other kinds of mouthing and visual–manipulatory activity did not. Exploratory mouthing decreased with age, and examining increased. The exploratory function of mouthing apparently was not due to concurrent manual activity providing haptic information. The conclusion is that some activities are exploratory and information-gathering and other activities are nonexploratory and serve other functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Japanese and American infants' responses to arm restraint.

Five- and 12-mo-old Japanese and American infants participated in a nonpainful arm restraint procedure. Facial responses were scored with an anatomically based coding system (Baby FACS, an adaptation for infants of the Facial Action Coding System [FACS; P. Ekman and W. Friesen, 1978]). Nonfacial body activity (struggling) and negative vocalizations also were scored. Results showed that older infants' latencies to negative response were shorter than those of younger infants, and older infants produced proportionately more negative facial behavior. In addition, 5-mo-old American infants produced criterion negative facial expressions more quickly than 5-mo-old Japanese infants. However, infants of both cultures at both ages eventually produced similar facial configurations and nonfacial behaviors. These findings support the hypothesis that infants' emotional facial expressions are universal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young infants' sensitivity to optical information for collision.

Four experiments explored the properties of the stimulus event that will evoke blinking and backward head movements in 100 3–4 wk old infants. Measured by a sensitive pressure transducer, backward head movements did not occur when Ss viewed displays that specified an object approaching on a collision course, except when some of the object's contours rose in the S's visual field. Thus, such head movements may reflect a tendency of young infants to fixate and pursue contours that move upward. In contrast, displays specifying collision evoked more frequent blinking than displays specifying an object's withdrawal, whether or not rising contours were present. The reliability of the blink response suggests that very young infants are sensitive to some optical information for collision. (French abstract) (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of context on infants' responses to novel objects.

Studied 24 infants (mean age 27 wks) to test the hypothesis that responses to novelty vary with the degree of change from familiarization to test conditions. One such change is to permit manipulation during familiarization but not on the test. In 2 groups, Ss looked at and manipulated the familiarization objects. Ss who could also manipulate during the tests showed better differentiation between novel and familiar objects than did those who could not manipulate during tests. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Limitations on infants' response to rate-based auditory-visual relations.

To study rate-based intersensory matching, infants first were familiarized with different auditory-visual relations and then were tested for detection of auditory visual equivalence. Across several different experiments, 4-, 6-, and 8-mo-old infants first were habituated with (1) a single, temporally concordant auditory-visual compound stimulus, (2) a single, temporally discordant compound stimulus, (3) 2 different temporally concordant compounds, or (4) a silently moving visual stimulus. A consistent and robust finding was a preference for the visual stimulus that moved at a novel velocity, indicating that the temporal attributes of the visual component dominated responsiveness. Only 1 experiment yielded evidence, albeit limited, of intersensory matching; infants habituated with a silently moving visual stimulus preferred the sound-specified visual stimulus in the presence of the rapid sound but not in the presence of the slow sound. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young infants' generalization of emotional expressions: Effects of familiarity.

From birth, infants are exposed to a wealth of emotional information in their interactions. Much research has been done to investigate the development of emotion perception, and factors influencing that development. The current study investigates the role of familiarity on 3.5-month-old infants' generalization of emotional expressions. Infants were assigned to one of two habituation sequences: in one sequence, infants were visually habituated to parental expressions of happy or sad. At test, infants viewed either a continuation of the habituation sequence, their mother depicting a novel expression, an unfamiliar female depicting the habituated expression, or an unfamiliar female depicting a novel expression. In the second sequence, a new sample of infants was matched to the infants in the first sequence. These infants viewed the same habituation and test sequences, but the actors were unfamiliar to them. Only those infants who viewed their own mothers and fathers during the habituation sequence increased looking. They dishabituated looking to maternal novel expressions, the unfamiliar female's novel expression, and the unfamiliar female depicting the habituated expression, especially when sad parental expressions were followed by an expression change to happy or to a change in person. Infants are guided in their recognition of emotional expressions by the familiarity of their parents, before generalizing to others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An investigation of young infants' perceptual representations of speech sounds.

The present study examined the ability of newborns and 2-month-olds to detect phonetic differences between syllables. By relying on the modified high-amplitude sucking procedure, which did not permit the infants to use a simple same–different response, the present experiments tapped the perceptual representations of the speech sounds. Infants as young as a few days old displayed some capacity to represent differences in a set of syllables varying in their phonetic composition, although there was no convincing evidence that their representations were structured in terms of phonetic segments. Finally, evidence of developmental changes in speech processing were noted for the first time with infants in this age range. The change noted was a tendency from global toward more specific representations on the part of the older infants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining infants' preferences for tempo in lullabies and playsongs.

Caregivers around the world sing to their infants. Infants not only prefer to listen to infant-directed singing over adult-directed singing, but infant-directed singing also serves a function, communicating affective information to preverbal infants to aid in adjusting arousal levels. Pitch variation has previously been identified as one performance feature that may help to convey the message. Earlier research has indicated that infants' pitch preferences are context dependent, suggesting that infants are tuned in to the communicative intent of infant-directed singing. However, there are several other performance-based features present in infant-directed singing that may also contribute to the affective message. The current study examined the role of context on infants' tempo preferences in sung playsongs and lullabies. Using a head-turn preference procedure, we measured 24 preverbal infants' natural preferences for foreign language playsongs and lullabies as a function of tempo. Infants showed a preference for fast over slow tempo playsongs, but no such context dependent preference was found within lullabies. Results partially support the role of tempo as a communicative feature of infant directed singing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)