Blue is in the Eye of the Beholder: A Cross-Linguistic Study on Color Perception and Memory.

The linguistic relativity hypothesis states that the language one speaks affects how one thinks. Color categorization across languages has often been studied in order to examine the hypothesis. However, those studies often rely on uniform color stimuli or focus on one aspect of cognition. In experiment one, we examined how Russian- and English-speaking participants rated the color of blue/grey eyes perceptually and from memory. Russian-speakers are more likely to describe such eyes as grey, whereas English-speakers are more likely to describe them as blue. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In the first condition (perception), participants saw the color scale and an eye picture simultaneously and then chose the color that best matched the picture. In the second condition (memory), participants matched the color of an eye to the color scale from memory. The third condition (label) was similar to the second, except participants labeled the eye orally before matching the color from memory. A Bayesian analysis showed that Russian-speakers rated the eyes greyer than did English-speakers in the memory and label conditions, but not perception conditions. In experiment two, we examined how short-term linguistic memory traces are related to color memory. Overall, results find nuanced support for the linguistic relativity hypothesis: language affects color memory more than color perception.

Changes Over Time in the Comprehension of He and They as Epicene Pronouns.

An epicene pronoun is a gender-neutral singular pronoun used in sentences when the gender of the subject is unknown or unspecified. In English, he and they are commonly-used epicene pronouns. Until recently, he has been widely accepted as being grammatically correct. However, many have argued that he is sexist because it may bias people to think about males. Two experiments were performed using a lexical decision task in which participants reacted to gendered words (e.g., aunt and uncle) after reading sentences using he, they, or unrelated epicene pronouns. We conducted the experiments 15 years apart in order to explore whether change in pronoun usage and the social significance of pronouns would be associated with different priming effects. Both experiments demonstrated that pronouns influence the processing of gendered nouns. However, in Experiment 1 they facilitated the processing of feminine nouns whereas in Experiment 2, he slowed the processing of feminine nouns. We discuss these results with respect to language change and conclude that they is a more effective epicene.

Relative weights of the backpacks of elementary-aged children.

The purpose of the study was to describe the range of relative backpack weights of one group of elementary-aged children and the extent to which they exceeded recommended levels. A second purpose was to explore whether gender and age help predict the relative weight of children's backpacks. Ninety-five 8- to 12-year-old elementary school students (56% girls; 88% car or bus riders) participated. Their school backpacks were weighed, and their age, gender, and mode of transportation to school were recorded. Only 40% of the sample carried backpacks that were less than 10% of their body weights. Five percent of the students' backpacks exceeded 20% of their body weights. Neither age group nor gender significantly predicted relative backpack weight or relative weight levels. Recommendations are made for ways to reduce the weight these young children carry.

College students' compensatory eating and behaviors in response to alcohol consumption.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates college students' behaviors in response to the calories ingested by drinking alcohol. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A sample of 274 nonclinical undergraduate alcohol drinkers completed an online survey asking about behaviors that students employed to make up for calories in alcohol or to get drunk more effectively. Drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and belief in a just world were also assessed to evaluate scale validity. RESULTS: Participants reported engaging in exercise and dietary restriction as calorie control strategies both proactively and reactively and tended toward calorie restriction activities during drinking episodes. Relatively few reported engaging in more drastic strategies such as purging or laxative use. Women scored higher than men, and students living with friends scored higher than other students. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have implications for health initiatives aimed at college students and suggest the importance of considering both social and cognitive factors.

Development and validation of the Compensatory Eating and Behaviors in Response to Alcohol Consumption Scale (CEBRACS).

The goal of the current investigation was to develop and validate a measure to assess an individual's eating-related behaviors related to alcohol consumption, specifically behaviors intended to compensate for calories so that more alcohol could be consumed or restrict calories to enhance the psychoactive effects of alcohol consumption. Two hundred and seventy four undergraduate students (n=51 males; 75.2% Caucasian) completed a newly developed scale, the Compensatory Eating and Behaviors in Response to Alcohol Consumption Scale (CEBRACS), along with measures of eating restriction, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction. An exploratory factor analysis on the CEBRACS revealed the existence of 4 clear-cut factors: alcohol effects, bulimia, dieting and exercise, and restriction. Internal consistency statistics for all subscales ranged from .79 to .95. Pearson product-moment correlations between the CEBRACS and measures of bulimia, restriction, and body dissatisfaction ranged from .04 to .44. T-tests revealed no gender differences in compensatory eating behaviors. Future research directions and limitations of the current study are discussed.

Maternal epistemological perspectives and variations in mental state talk.

PURPOSE: This study examined how complexity of maternal epistemological beliefs predicted mothers' and children's talk about the mind. METHOD: Twenty-eight mothers of 5- to 10-year-olds completed a measure of receptive vocabulary, and mothers and children participated in a storytelling task specifically designed to elicit talk about the mind. Their use of mental state terms to encode pragmatic functions and mothers' epistemologies were assessed and compared. RESULTS: Maternal mental state talk and amount of talk increased with epistemological complexity. With the number of utterances held constant, mothers with simple, dualistic perspectives of knowledge used mental states more often to direct interaction; mothers with more complex epistemologies used mental states more often to encourage child reflection. Mothers with the less complex perspective underperformed on the receptive vocabulary measure in comparison to others. Children's amount of talk and use of a variety of mental state terms also increased with maternal epistemological complexity. The amount of talk and mental state terms produced by mothers and children frequently persisted after the effects of maternal receptive vocabulary were removed. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal epistemologies predict several qualities of mothers' and children's mental state talk that may contribute to children's developing theory of mind.

African American English dialect and performance on nonword spelling and phonemic awareness tasks.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of dialect on phonemic awareness and nonword spelling tasks. These tasks were selected for their reliance on phonological and orthographic processing, which may be influenced by dialect use. METHOD: Eighty typically developing African American children in Grades 1 and 3 were first screened for dialect use and then completed a standardized test of phonological processing and a nonword spelling measure. The influence of dialect was analyzed in both experimental tasks, followed by a qualitative analysis of dialect use in nonword spellings. RESULTS: Dialect density measures based solely on the use of African American English (AAE) phonological features explained few differences in phonological processing scores. In contrast, correlations indicated that children with higher dialect densities produced more nonword spelling errors influenced by AAE, an effect most evident in Grade 3. Qualitative analyses revealed AAE phonological features occurring in many of the misspelled nonwords. CONCLUSION: After Grade 2, nonword spelling may be more sensitive to the effects of dialect variation than are phonemic awareness tasks. It is suggested that spelling may be a more sensitive clinical indicator of difficulties in integrating the phonological and orthographic information needed for fluent decoding skill.

A Developmental Lexical Bias in the Interpretation of Discrepant Messages.

Children's interpretations of lexical and vocal cues to speaker affect, independently and in combination, were examined in four studies. In Experiments 1 and 2, 7- to 11 -year-olds'judgments of lexical and paralinguistic cues were evaluated. In Experiment 3, these cues were combined to produce consistent and discrepant messages. The affective interpretations of 7- to 10-year-olds reflected a weighted-averaging strategy favoring the affect conveyed lexically. In Experiment 4, the developmental trajectory of children's interpretations of discrepancy from 4 to 10 years of age was investigated. Both 4- and 7-year-olds appeared to use a weighted-averaging strategy favoring lexical content, whereas 10-year-olds utilized a strategy favoring paralanguage.