News & notes.

This News & Notes section of the History of Psychology Journal includes a notice of death, a letter from the Division President, a report from the representative to the Council of the American Psychological Association for February 2001, information on a conference held in honor of Robert V. Guthrie, information about the centenary of the British Psychological Society, an announcement for a silent auction for rare books, and finally personal news. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Effect of defining features on inhibition in a spatial localization task": Correction to Simone et al (1998).

Reports an error in "Effect of defining features on inhibition in a spatial localization task" by Patricia M. Simone, Elizabeth A. Carlisle and Eileen B. McCormick (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1998[Jun], Vol 24[3], 993-1005). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) main effects and interactions reported in the article were incorrect owing to an error in programming. Electronic mail requests for a table of corrected ANOVAs may be sent to psimone@scu.edu. Planned comparisons altered by the corrected analyses occur in the results of Experiments 2 and 4. The corrected results are presented in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1998-02354-022.) In selective attention tasks, inhibition appears to be limited to the reported feature of a stimulus, suggesting that reported features determine inhibition (S. P. Tipper, B. Weaver, & G. Houghton, see record 1995-20194-001). This article examines whether defining features can also determine inhibition when participants are required to make a cognitive search on the basis of a target feature (color or shape). In 2 spatial localization experiments in which a touch-sensitive monitor was used, results indicated that distractor inhibition depended on both defining and reported stimulus features. Two additional experiments examined the locus of discrepancy between these results and other findings (e.g., B. Milliken, S. R Tipper, & B. Weaver, see record 1994-35938-001). The researchers concluded that defining features can determine inhibition in a selective attention task involving spatial localization. However, defining-feature inhibition may depend on level of analysis of the stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Effects of media on picturing by children and adults": Correction to Seidman and Beilin.

Reports an error in "Effects of media on picturing by children and adults" by Susan Seidman and Harry Beilin (Developmental Psychology, 1984[Jul], Vol 20[4], 667-672). The reference to Copple, Cocking, and Waxman on pages 667 and 672 is incorrectly cited as 1968. The correct date is 1980. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1984-25563-001.) Examined the hypothesis that adults and children have media-specific conceptions of picturing and that the functional uses of photography and drawing differ across development. 30 preschoolers (aged 4.0-5.6 yrs), 30 schoolchildren (aged 6.6-10.0 yrs), and 30 adults (aged 17-63 yrs) responded to either a photographic or drawing task. In each task, Ss were asked to talk aloud about what they were doing or thinking as they produced their pictures. The results show a progression with age from viewing photography as only reflecting the real object (preschoolers), to viewing it as a medium that allows for control and alteration of reality (school age children and adults). For drawing, all age groups displayed knowledge of the ability to control aspects of their productions. Symbolic performance is thus as closely linked to the S's experience in the use of a medium as to the age of the S. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Age-linked declines in retrieving orthographic knowledge: Empirical, practical, and theoretical implications": Correction to MacKay and Abrams (1998).

Reports an error in "Age-linked declines in retrieving orthographic knowledge: Empirical, practical, and theoretical implications" by Donald G. MacKay and Lise Abrams (Psychology and Aging, 1998[Dec], Vol 13[4], 647-662). The article contained an error. In Table 1 on page 652, the values for rated spelling ability at age 20 and at current age were reversed for older and oldest adults. The corrected table is included in the erratum, with values that have been changed in bold. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1998-11674-011.) This study developed and tested a Transmission Deficit hypothesis of how aging affects retrieval of orthographic knowledge. Young, older, and very old adults heard a tape-recorded series of difficult-to-spell words of high and low frequency, spoken slowly, clearly and repeatedly, and wrote down each word at their own pace. With perceptual errors and vocabulary differences factored out, misspellings increased with aging, especially for high-frequency words. In addition, data from a metamemory questionnaire indicated that the oldest adults were aware of their declining ability to spell. These findings were not due to general slowing, educational factors, hours per week spent reading, writing, or solving crossword puzzles, or age-linked declines in monitoring or detecting self-produced errors. However, the results fit Transmission Deficit predictions, and suggested an age-linked decline in retrieval of orthographic knowledge that resembles age-linked declines in spoken word retrieval observed in many other studies. Practical implications of this age-linked decline for conceptions of normal aging are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Marital quality and mother-child and father-child interactions with school-aged children": Correction to Brody and Pellegrini.

Reports an error in "Marital quality and mother-child and father-child interactions with school-aged children" by Gene H. Brody, Anthony D. Pellegrini and Irving E. Sigel (Developmental Psychology, 1986[May], Vol 22[3], 291-296). In the article, the second author's name was misspelled in the issue's table of contents, title of the article, and page headings of the article. The name appears correctly in this erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1986-24288-001.) Mother-child and father-child teaching interactions of 60 families (parents aged 31-37 yrs, children aged 5.5-7.5 yrs) were videotaped, from which frequency counts of efficacious teaching behaviors were obtained for each parent-child teaching interaction. Parents completed the Scale of Marriage Problems. A dyad score of marital problems was formed by adding the husbands' and wives' scores, and a 2-level variable of marital problems was then derived by performing a median split on the marital problem dyad scores. Normative comparisons suggested that the couples whose scores fell below the median were characterized as nondistressed and the couples whose scores fell above the median were characterized as slightly discontented with their marital relationship. Few differences in teaching styles were found between mothers and fathers in the nondistressed group. Mothers in the slightly discontented group used more questions, positive feedback, informational feedback, and verbal task management and intruded less often into their children's learning effort than did the fathers in this group. Fathers with increased reports of marital problems used less positive feedback and were more intrusive; mothers in this group appeared to compensate for a less-than-satisfactory marriage by being more involved in teaching their children. In turn, children of slightly discontented mothers were more actively responsive to their teaching behaviors than were children of nondistressed mothers. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Network interference and number-fact retrieval: Evidence from children's alphaplication": Erratum.

Reports an error in "Network interference and number-fact retrieval: Evidence from children's alphaplication" by D. Jeffrey Graham and Jamie I. Campbell (Canadian Journal of Psychology Revue Canadienne de Psychologie, 1992[Mar], Vol 46[1], 65-91). Figure 1 was inadvertently omitted. Reprints of this article, available from the authors, will include this figure. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1992-42555-001.) Investigated the origins of several phenomena of number-fact retrieval by asking 45 children (aged 8 yrs 2 mo to 10 yrs 7 mo) to memorize alphaplication facts (arithmetic-like memory items composed of letters instead of numbers). Ss' performance in the task showed paralleled aspects of simple arithmetic performance. There was a strong performance advantage for tie over nontie problems on both reaction time (RT) and errors. Specific errors frequently involved operand-related answers. Correct RTs and error rates across problems were closely linked. Correct answers to poorly learned problems tended to be the most common error responses. Performance was not as good for problems that were introduced later in the learning sequence. Results support the network-interference approach to number-fact retrieval of J. I. Campbell and D. J. Graham (see record 1986-16912-001). (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Home environment, self-concept, and academic achievement: A causal modeling approach": Correction to Song and Hattie.

Reports an error in "Home environment, self-concept, and academic achievement: A causal modeling approach" by In-sub Song and John Hattie (Journal of Educational Psychology, 1984[Dec], Vol 76[6], 1269-1281). The caption to Figure 3 on page 1271 is incorrect. "SOSC = social self-concept" should read "NASC = nonacademic self-concept." In addition, on page 1274 in the Results section, the reference to McDonald & Leong (1974) should have been deleted. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-15818-001.) Investigated the relation between home environment, self-concept, and academic achievement in 2,297 14-15 yr old Koreans. Data on Ss was collected in 4 different samples to test 4 structural equation models. Group 1 consisted of 537 males, Group 2 consisted of 537 males, Group 3 consisted of 611 females, and Group 4 consisted of 612 females. Results show that over the 4 samples, self-concept was a mediating variable between home environment and academic achievement. Results did not support the commonly held view that home environment exerts direct effects on academic achievement. Social status indicators had indirect effects on self-concept via family psychological characteristics. Academic self-concept affected academic achievement more strongly than did presentation-of-self or social self-concept. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Ocular fixation control as a function of age and exposure duration": Correction to Kosnik et al.

Reports an error in "Ocular fixation control as a function of age and exposure duration" by William Kosnik, Donald Kline, John Fikre and Robert Sekuler (Psychology and Aging, 1987[Sep], Vol 2[3], 302-305). In the aforementioned article, the following corrections should be made: 1. The title of Table 1 should be changed to Mean Bivariate Areas (min-arc2) and Mean Horizontal and Vertical Standard Deviations (min-arc) of Fixations of Older and Younger Groups. 2. The equation on page 304 should have used the natural log rather than the log base 10. The corrected equation is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1988-01066-001.) In previous work we reported that fixation stability did not deteriorate in older adults over relatively long viewing durations. In the present study we reanalyzed the data to examine potential aging effects on fixational control for viewing durations typically used in psychological experimentation. Monocular eye movements were recorded in 12 older and 12 younger observers using a dual Purkinje image technique, while observers fixated a stationary target. The two-dimensional scatter of eye positions was measured during nine viewing durations ranging from 100 ms to 12.8 s. Fixational control of the two groups was comparable at all of the viewing durations. Both younger and older observers were able to maintain fixation within an area several times smaller than the size of the fovea. Implications for aging studies that use briefly presented visual stimuli are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Development of the concept of truth-functional negation": Correction to Kim.

Reports an error in "Development of the concept of truth-functional negation" by Kyung Kim (Developmental Psychology, 1985[May], Vol 21[3], 462-472). In the article, several key words were omitted from the last sentence of the Method section on page 464, column 2, third paragraph. The corrected sentence is included in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-25108-001.) Studied the development of the concept of truth-functional negation in 2 experiments, using 36 English-speaking children (aged 3-6 yrs) and 10 Korean-speaking children (aged 4-5 yrs) as Ss. In Exp I, English-speaking Ss were given a sentence-variation task in which the following 4 sentence types were used to describe 36 pictures of common items: true affirmative, false affirmative, true negative (TN), and false negative. The results show that a majority of Ss under 5 yrs had difficulty with negative sentences, particularly TN sentences, indicating a lack of explicit understanding of truth-functional negation as defined in logic. In Exp II, a cross-linguistic replication of Exp I was attempted with Korean-speaking Ss. Despite some cross-linguistic differences in the negation system, the Korean-speaking Ss showed essentially the same pattern of results, suggesting that the development in question proceeds within the general limit set by the general cognitive development. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Children's Depression Inventory: Construct and discriminant validity across clinical and nonreferred (control) populations": Correction to Carey et al.

Reports an error in "Children's Depression Inventory: Construct and discriminant validity across clinical and nonreferred (control) populations" by Michael P. Carey, Michael E. Faulstich, Frank M. Gresham, Laurie Ruggiero and Patience Enyart (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1987[Oct], Vol 55[5], 755-761). An error occurred in Table 3. Specifically, for the three-factor solutions, the coefficient of congruence between the first factor of the combined sample and the first (rather than the second) factor of the nonreferred sample should read "93." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1988-06332-001.) The construct and discriminant validity of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) was evaluated for a large child and adolescent sample of clinical inpatients (n?=?153) and demographically comparable nonreferred subjects (n?=?153). Principal component analyses of the overall sample, using separate groups of clinical and nonreferred samples, found two- and three-factor models with optimal simple structure and clinical meaningfulness. These factors characterized Depressive Affect, Oppositional Behavior, and Personal Adjustment. The first two factors exhibited adequate internal consistency and correspondence across samples, whereas the third factor was strongest for nonreferred subjects. All three factor scores entered a significant discriminant function and correctly classified most nonreferred and clinical subjects. However, only Depressive Affect and Oppositional Behavior entered into the discriminant function that distinguished depressive and conduct-disorder subjects from nonreferred subjects. The percentage of nonreferred subjects who were correctly categorized ranged from 70.4 to 71.6, whereas the percentage of correctly classified clinical subjects ranged from 25 to 60. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in healthy male paramedics during a workday and a nonworkday": Erratum.

Reports an error in "Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in healthy male paramedics during a workday and a nonworkday" by Iris B. Goldstein, Larry D. Jamner and David Shapiro (Health Psychology, 1992, Vol 11[1], 48-54). On page 52, the sentence "For example, the paramedics stood 16.44 times more while home than while at the station" should read "For example, the paramedics stood more while home than while at the station." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1992-29445-001.) Compared ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in 30 White male paramedics (aged 20-43 yrs) during a 24-hr workday and a 24-hr nonworkday. During the 24-hr period as a whole, there were no BP differences between the workday and the nonworkday, but HR was higher during the nonworkday than during the workday. Systolic BP (SBP) recorded in the ambulance on the workday was elevated 9.8 mm Hg, compared with SBP recorded in a car on the nonworkday; it was also 7.2 mm Hg higher at the scene of an accident and at the hospital than during nonworkday activities. Ratings of moods in diaries indicated that paramedics felt more unhappiness, stress, and sadness and less feelings of pleasantness at work than at home. Rather than being elevated for the entire 24-hr period, work BP seemed to reflect the relatively high stress associated with specific situations in the work of a paramedic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

News & notes.

This News & Notes section of the History of Psychology Journal includes a Preliminary Division 26 (History of Psychology) Program for the 2001 American Psychological Association Convention, a message from Division President-Elect, information from the British Psychological Society, information on a forum for History of Human Sciences Article Award and finally, personal news. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

2009 reports of the regional associations.

Presents reports from the regional psychological associations, including: Eastern Psychological Association (Report of the 80th Annual Meeting); Midwestern Psychological Association (Report of the 81st Annual Meeting); New England Psychological Association (Report of the 49th Annual Meeting); Rocky Mountain Psychological Association (Report of the 79th Annual Meeting); Southeastern Psychological Association (Report of the 55th Annual Meeting); Southwestern Psychological Association (Report of the 55th Annual Meeting); Western Psychological Association (Report of the 89th Annual Meeting); and Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (Report of the 101st Annual Meeting). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

1992 reports of the regional associations.

Presents the 1992 reports of the Western Psychological Association, Midwestern Psychological Association, Eastern Psychological Association, Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Southwestern Psychological Association, Southeastern Psychological Association, New England Psychological Association, and Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The 1928 Carlisle conference: Knight Dunlap and a national laboratory for psychology.

In late March 1928, 32 experimental psychologists met in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The National Research Council (NRC) sponsored the conference, which was organized by Knight Dunlap, chair of the NRC's Division of Anthropology and Psychology. The purpose of the Carlisle conference was to examine the status of experimental psychology, and Dunlap used it to propose a national laboratory for psychology, to be created in Washington, DC. This vision clashed with the traditional university-centered research model and the group resisted Dunlap's plan. Dunlap persisted, the eventual result being a National Institute of Psychology, which accomplished little. The Carlisle conference did succeed in being the impetus for small NRC-funded grants-in-aid to researchers, and it set in motion events that eventually led to the American Psychological Association publication manual. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The Memory Functioning Questionnaire for assessment of memory complaints in adulthood and old age": Correction to Gilewski et al.

Reports an error in "The Memory Functioning Questionnaire for assessment of memory complaints in adulthood and old age" by Michael J. Gilewski, Elizabeth M. Zelinski and K. Warner Schaie (Psychology and Aging, 1990[Dec], Vol 5[4], 482-490). In the aforementioned article, the author note at the beginning of the article should have contained the following statement: "The Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ) items that appear in the appendix at the end of this article were published previously in 'Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ)' by Michael J. Gilewski and Elizabeth M. Zelinski (Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 1988, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 665-670). The current article reflects the construction validation, scoring, and interpretation of the MFQ more accurately than does the article that appeared in Psychopharmacology Bulletin." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1991-08788-001.) The results of psychometric analyses of the Metamemory Questionnaire (MQ) of E. M. Zelinski et al (1980), developed to evaluate perception of everyday memory functioning, are presented for a sample of 343 men and 435 women (aged 16-89 yrs). Exploratory factor analysis yielded 4 correlated factors (General Frequency of Forgetting, Retrospective Functioning, and Mnemonics Usage) that accounted for 36.7% of the variance in responses to the MQ. Factor structure was invariant across age groups (16-54 vs 55-89 yrs), 2 independent samples, and over 3 yrs. Because some of the original MQ scales did not load on the factors, only 64 of the original 92 items were retained for inclusion in the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ). Internal consistency of MFQ scores is high. The MFQ is therefore reliable for evaluating memory self-appraisals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the mitosis of JCPP.

Addresses the concerns surrounding the division of the Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology (JCPP) into separate comparative and physiological publications. There is ample research to justify a journal of comparative psychology. The growing theoretical importance of etiological, ecological, and sociobiological approaches to behavior demands the institution and nurturance of a genuinely comparative publication within the American Psychological Association. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Memory illusions: False recall and recognition in adults with Asperger's syndrome": Correction to Bowler et al. (2000).

Reports an error in "Memory illusions: False recall and recognition in adults with Asperger's syndrome" by Dermot M. Bowler, John M. Gardiner, Sarah Grice and Pia Saavalainen (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2000[Nov], Vol 109[4], 663-672). On page 665, Figure 1, the figure caption incorrectly reads, "Serial position effects for the Asperger and control groups of participants. Gray boxes = Asperger; black boxes = controls." The correct Figure 1 caption appears in the correction. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2000-12687-011.) As persons on the autistic spectrum are known not to use semantic features of word lists to aid recall, they might show diminished susceptibility to illusory memories that typically occur with lists of associated items. Alternatively, since such individuals also have poor source monitoring, they might show greater susceptibility. The authors found that adults with Asperger's syndrome (n?=?10) recalled similar proportions of a nonpresented strong associate of the study list items, compared with controls (n?=?15). In Exp 2, rates of true and false recognition of study list associates did not differ significantly between Asperger (n?=?10) and control (n?=?10) participants. Moreover, the Asperger participants made fewer remember and more know judgments than controls for veridical but not for false recognitions. Thus, deficits found in some aspects of memory in people with Asperger's syndrome do not affect their susceptibility to memory illusions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Five methods for computing significant individual client change and improvement rates: Support for and individual growth curve approach." Correction to Speer and Greenbaum (1995).

Reports an error in "Five methods for computing significant individual client change and improvement rates: Support for an individual growth curve approach" by David C. Speer and Paul E. Greenbaum (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1995[Dec], Vol 63[6], 1044-1048). In this article, the values reported for hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) in Table 2 (p. 1046) were incorrect. This erratum provides the correct values and further information on the conclusion of the study. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1996-00402-019.) Interest has been renewed in methods for determining individual client change. Currently, there are at least 4 pretreatment–posttreatment (pre-post) difference score methods. A 5th method, based on a random effects model and multiwave data, represents a growth curve approach and was hypothesized to be more sensitive to detecting significant (p?p?     

News and notes.

This edition of News and Notes includes Division 24 Member News and Meeting Announcements. A selection of Division 24 Awards for the 118th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association are presented. Meeting announcements include those for the International Society for Theoretical Psychology (ISTP); Canadian Psychological Association (CPA); and the British Psychological Society's History & Philosophy of Psychology Section. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)