"Prospective Span as a Cognitive Ability": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Louis S. Dickstein (Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 1969, 33[6], 757-760. On page 758, column 1, paragraph 2, sentence 2, the reliability of .80 should refer to interjudge reliability rather than test-retest reliability. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1970-03616-001.) Hypothesized that prospective span (PS) in TAT stories, as a measure of cognitive capacity of anticipation, should be related to cognitive tasks involving the specific capacity of anticipation but not to more general measures of verbal intelligence. In 51 male undergraduates, PS was related to 2 cognitive tasks requiring anticipation, the Mazes Test and the Seeing Deficiencies Test, but unrelated to the Vocabulary and Information subtests of the WAIS. Contrary to previous studies, PS was negatively related to academic grades. Large differences were obtained between PS scores for the different TAT cards. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of elementary school children's private speech to behavioral accompaniment to task, attention, and task performance.

Tested assumptions drawn from Vygotsky's (1934 [1962]) theory about the development of private speech (PS) and its relationship to task performance, attention, and motor behaviors accompanying task orientation. 75 1st and 3rd graders were observed in their classrooms while engaged in math seatwork. Results show a developmental trend toward increasingly task-relevant and less audible PS and a shifting relationship of intelligence to PS with grade, which was consistent with Vygotsky's assumption that PS undergoes a curvilinear course of development that is governed by cognitive maturity. The relationship of PS to task success, as measured by classroom assignment performance and scores on the mathematics portion of the Stanford Achievement Test, varied with grade and mental ability (Cognitive Abilities Test—Primary Battery). Findings suggest that using the type of PS that is in natural developmental ascendence, given the child's level of intellectual maturity, is positively related to performance, but reverting to less mature forms is negatively predictive. Use of task-relevant PS predicted greater task attentional focus and reduction of extraneous, tension-reducing motor behaviors. Findings support Vygotsky's theory of the functional significance of PS in children's cognitive development and the validity of the theory for children's task-related behaviors in natural classroom learning contexts. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential Access to Information and Anticipated Group Interaction: Impact on Individual Reasoning.

Two studies examined the impact of relative differences in access to information and anticipated group interaction on individual reasoning. On 2 different reasoning tasks (P. C. Wason's [1966] selection task and D. Kahneman & A. Tversky's [1973] lawyer-engineer problem), participants sensing that they knew more in anticipation of group interaction or knew less when not anticipating interaction were less susceptible to typical cognitive biases demonstrated by these tasks. Study 2 also showed that the effect of these social contexts was contingent on the task presentation format. Thus, knowing more in anticipation of group interaction and knowing less when not anticipating group interaction seemingly compensated for task features that enhance suboptimal reasoning strategies. These results illustrate the importance of the social context in which reasoning is situated and are discussed in terms of cognitive tuning, social comparison, and social motivations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational induction and the behavior correlates of the achievement and affiliation motives.

The present study derives from previous work in this area with which the author was involved (see 33: 7674). Herein, the effects of picture cues, picture order, individual vs. group administration, measures of performance on certain tasks, and varying kinds of instructions on TAT stories were investigated. "Motivating" instructions and high ACE Q scores were significantly correlated with high performance on the problems; predictions in regard to characteristics of motive and performance were made but not supported by the data of the TAT stories. The study is related to others in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object relations and social cognition in borderlines, major depressives, and normals: A Thematic Apperception Test analysis.

This study compared reliably diagnosed borderline personality patients (n?=?35) with major depressives (n?=?25) and normals (n?=?30) on 4 dimensions of object relations and social cognition coded from Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses: Complexity of Representations of People, Affect–Tone of Relationship Paradigms (malevolent to benevolent), Capacity for Emotional Investment in Relationships, and Understanding of Social Causality. As predicted, borderlines scored significantly lower on all 4 scales than did normals and lower on Affect–Tone and Capacity for Emotional Investment than did nonborderline major depressives. Borderlines also produced more pathological responses than did both groups on every scale, indicating more poorly differentiated representation, grossly illogical attributions, malevolent expectations, and need-gratifying relationship paradigms. The results suggest the importance of distinguishing several interdependent but distinct cognitive–affective dimensions of object relations and the potential utility of assessing object relations and social cognition from TAT responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is "working memory capacity" just another name for word knowledge?

This study is concerned with whether the correlation between complex working memory spans and reading comprehension occurs because the complex spans reflect the capacity of a structural working memory that plays a causal role in comprehension or because a 3rd factor, word knowledge, plays a causal role in both the span tasks and comprehension. If the latter hypothesis is correct, the correlation between word span and reading comprehension should be large when span is tested with low-frequency words but should not occur when span is tested with very familiar words. 90 college students were tested on a simple and a complex version of the word span task with high- and low-frequency words. The Verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (VSAT) was used as a measure of reading comprehension. The correlation between span and VSAT was somewhat higher when span was tested with low-frequency words, but was significant with both low- and high-frequency words. This suggests that both word knowledge and a content-free working memory play a causal role in the relationship between word span and higher level cognitive tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive controls of attention deployment as determinants of visual illusions.

This study represents a continuation of efforts to relate hypotheses drawn from psychoanalytic theory to psychological theory and, in particular, ego psychology to cognitive functioning. The capacity to deploy attention selectively was measured on 8 perceptual tasks, including such problems as Embedded figures, rod and frame, and various measures of illusion. Performance on all 8 tasks was intercorrelated and the matrix factor analyzed. The result was 3 factors, viz., a "field articulation factor" involving "individual consistencies in the capacity to achieve differential response to relevant vs, irrelevant cues," a "scanning factor," and a factor which represents "individual differences in proneness to satiation effects." The results are discussed from the pont of view of their contribution towards cognitive function and the individual's "cognitive style," and are related to several theoretical frames of reference. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3BD20G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental capacity and cognitive functioning: Developmental and social class differences.

Hypothesized that social class performance differences of same-age children would be negligible on pure mental (M) capacity measures but would be greater on tasks that confound other variables with M capacity. This hypothesis is anchored in a neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development (J. Pascual-Leone; see record 1971-07908-001), which gives a central role to an attentional mechanism of limited M capacity that grows monotonically with age. 268 Israeli 8-, 10-, and 12-yr-olds of low or high SES completed 10 cognitive developmental tasks that measured pure M capacity, short-term memory, verbal IQ, and spatial-analytic ability. Results show that M capacity developed similarly in same-age Ss, regardless of SES. Significant differences among the investigated populations were found only in performing tasks that confounded factors of learning and style. Results support the notion that a cognitive development process exists that is universal in stage sequences and in the rate and timing of development. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective cognitive complaints and longitudinal changes in memory and brain function.

Objective: Subjective cognitive complaints are often used in the diagnosis of memory and other cognitive impairment. This study examined whether cognitive complaints are associated with longitudinal changes in cognition and cross-sectional differences in regional brain function during memory performance in 98 participants with a mean age of 75. Method: The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) assessed cognitive complaints and mixed effects regression models were used to determine whether mean CFQ scores predicted rates of change in cognitive function over a period of 11.5 years. Results: Higher CFQ scores, reflecting increased subjective complaints, were associated with steeper rates of decline in immediate and delayed recall on the California Verbal Learning Test. Voxel-based regression analysis was used to determine the cross-sectional relationship between CFQ scores and regional cerebral blood flow measured by PET during a resting condition and during verbal and figural memory tasks. Higher levels of cognitive complaints were associated with increased activity in insular, lingual and cerebellar areas during memory tasks. Conclusions: These findings offer some support for the validity of subjective cognitive complaints as markers of age related changes in memory and brain activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictive validity of an implicit association test for assessing anxiety.

The Implicit Association Test (TAT) was adapted to measure anxiety by assessing associations of self (vs. other) with anxiety-related (vs. calmness-related) words. Study 1 showed that the TAT-Anxiety exhibited good internal consistency and adequate stability. Study 2 revealed that the IAT-Anxiety was unaffected by a faking instruction. Study 3 examined the predictive validity of implicit and explicit measures and showed that the TAT-Anxiety was related to changes in experimenter-rated anxiety and performance decrements after failure. Study 4 found that several behavioral indicators of anxiety during a stressful speech were predicted by the TAT. Taken together, these studies show that the TAT-Anxiety is a reliable measure that is able to predict criterion variables above questionnaire measures of anxiety and social desirability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Thematic Apperception Test and the Children's Apperception Test in clinical use.

Reviews the book, The Thematic Apperception Test and the Children's Apperception Test in Clinical Use by Leopold Bellak (see record 1955-04032-000). More than anything else this book gives evidence of the extensivity and maturity of the author's clinical experience. Both in the expository sections of the volume, in which the author elucidates his thinking about such items as theoretical foundations for projective testing and the use of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in psychotherapy, as well as in the case illustration sections in which sample TAT and Children's Apperception Test (CAT) stories are analyzed and interpreted, there is a richness in clinical wisdom and an erudition in psychoanalytic personality theory. However, there are shortcomings of the book as a manual for TAT and CAT interpretation, unless one wishes to accept the author's interpretive procedure "lock, stock, and barrel." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of persistence at a task to expectation of success and achievement related motives.

This investigation examines the effects of S's motivation to achieve success or avoid failure (measured from TAT), his preception of the degree of difficulty of the task, and his probability of success upon continued attempts (persistence) to solve a given problem. Substantiating hypotheses derived from Atkinson's theory (1957, 1958), the results indicated that persistence occurs when motivation to achieve and anticipation of success are high, or when motivation to avoid failure and anticipation of failure are high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental-attentional capacity: does cognitive style make a difference?

There is currently no consensus on whether the difference between field-dependent and field-independent subjects on tasks of cognitive abilities result from different mental processing strategies, from true group differences in cognitive ability, or from both. School-age children (N = 239) were tested for field dependence/independence using the Children's Embedded Figures Test and for mental-attentional capacity using the Figural Intersection Task. Multigroup scaling models were used to separate the contributions of style from ability in children's performance on Figural Intersection items. Results show that field-dependent children have greater odds of success than field-independent children in Figural Intersection items when the task's mental-attentional demand is above the child's mental attentional capacity, as assessed in the same task. The contrary is true when the task's mental-attentional demand is below or equal to the mental-attentional capacity of the child. Overall, field-dependent children obtain lower estimates of mental-attentional capacity than field-independent children in this task. We discuss the implications of these results for the measurement of mental-attentional capacity and the conceptualization of field dependence/independence.     

Validity of questionnaire and TAT measures of need for achievement: Two meta-analyses.

Proponents of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), most notably D. C. McClelland, have argued that the TAT and questionnaires are valid measures of different aspects of achievement motivation. Critics of the TAT have argued that questionnaires but not the TAT are valid measures of the need for achievement. Two meta-analyses of 105 randomly selected empirical research articles found that correlations between TAT measures of need for achievement and outcomes were on average positive; that these correlations were particularly large for outcomes such as career success measured in the presence of intrinsic, or task-related, achievement incentives; that questionnaire measures of need for achievement were also positively correlated with outcomes, particularly in the presence of external or social achievement incentives; and that on average TAT-based correlations were larger than questionnaire-based correlations. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The incomplete equivalence of the paper-and-pencil and computerized versions of the General Aptitude Test Battery.

The performance of 163 applicants for the Dutch Royal Military Academy on the computerized version of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) was compared with the performance of 163 matched applicants on the paper-and-pencil version. There was a modest but clearly discernible influence of computerization. A LISREL analysis showed a reasonable fit for a model postulating two factors that were equally patterned for both test versions. A model postulating equal factor loadings had to be rejected. Individual differences in both the computerized and conventional GATB were strongly related to intelligence. The computerized subtests produced faster and more inaccurate responses than the conventional subtests. Both in terms of number of solved items and correlations with other cognitive measures, the cognitively simple, clerical tests were more affected by computerization than the more complex tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive function in children with Tourette syndrome and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Tourette Syndrome (TS) in children is associated with various neurobehavioral disorders including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children with TS and ADHD show some difficulties with neuropsychological tasks, but we do not know if children with TS alone have neuropsychological deficits. To assess specific cognitive differences among children with TS and/or ADHD, we administered a battery of neuropsychological tests, including 10 tasks related to executive function (EF), to 10 children with TS-only, 48 with ADHD-only, and 32 with TS + ADHD. Children in all groups could not efficiently produce output on a timed continuous performance task [Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA) mean reaction time and reaction time variability]. Children with TS-only appeared to have fewer EF impairments and significantly higher perceptual organization scores than children with TS + ADHD or ADHD-only. These findings suggest that deficiencies in choice reaction time and consistency of timed responses are common to all three groups, but children with TS-only have relatively less EF impairment than children with TS + ADHD or ADHD-only.     

Need for cognition, task difficulty, and the formation of performance expectancies.

In the present article, the authors analyze how performance expectancies are generated and how they affect actual performance. The authors predicted that task difficulty would affect performance expectancies only when cognitive motivation (i.e., need for cognition [NFC]) and cognitive capacity are high. This should be the case because analyzing task difficulty is a process requiring cognitive capacity as well as cognitive motivation. The findings supported the expected NFC × Difficulty interaction for the formation of performance expectancies (Study 1, Study 2), but only when cognitive capacity was high (Study 2). The authors also predicted that expectancies would affect actual performance only if the task is difficult and if task difficulty is taken into account when the expectancy is generated. This hypothesis was supported: Significant relations between performance expectancies and actual performance were found only for difficult tasks and for participants higher in NFC. Studies 5 and 6 showed clear evidence that the NFC × Difficulty interaction could not be explained by differences in the use of task-specific self-concepts. The findings were robust across academic, social, and physical tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting sales turnover from pay satisfaction and expectation.

Examined the effects of pay satisfaction (PS) and pay expectation (PE), the perceived probability of receiving more satisfying pay in another job, on withdrawal cognition (WC) and turnover. Questionnaires completed by 89 sales representatives measured affective and cognitive variables related to turnover decisions. PS and PE were correlated with WC, but PE did not contribute explanatory variance after PS. PS did, however, explain variance in WC beyond that explained by age or tenure, general (nonpay) satisfaction, amount of pay received, and PE. Only WC and PS were significantly correlated with actual turnover. After WC, no other variable explained additional turnover variance. There was no evidence of an interaction effect of PS and PE on WC or turnover. Results suggest that effects of pay on turnover are mediated primarily by PS and intentions to quit. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsiveness to conservation training as a function of induced subjective uncertainty, M-space, and cognitive style.

According to M. Lefebvre and A. Pinard (1972), conflict training can be successful in inducing conservation, but only if children's habitual subjective certainty is disturbed first. To test this notion, 54 low-socioeconomic-status nonconservers, aged 5-8 yrs, were trained with Lefebvre and Pinard's conflict procedure, preceded by activities which induced either high, neutral, or low subjective uncertainty. A comparable group of 9 Ss served as controls. Tests of M-space, field dependence, and impulsivity (backward digit span, portable rod-and-frame test, and Matching Familiar Figures Test, respectively) were administered as covariates. None of the control Ss showed any improvement from pretest to posttest, whereas 50% of the treatment Ss did. However, while improvement was strongly related to M-space ( r = .52), there was no effect due to the preliminary activities or to cognitive style. Results suggest that sensitivity to conflict is not a function of the S's initial degree of subjective uncertainty, but rather of his capacity to coordinate cues and to perceive conflict. To account for the relationship between conflict and M-space, the neo-Piagetian model of conservation proposed by J. Pascual-Leone (1970) is presented and expanded to include a preliminary stage where the resolution of cue conflict in quantification tasks leads to the creation of an executive scheme appropriate for solving the conservation problem. (French summary) (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)