Young Infants' Performance in the Object‐Variation Version of the Above‐Below Categorization Task: A Result of Perceptual Distraction or Conceptual Limitation?

Five experiments were conducted to examine the performance of young infants on above versus below categorization tasks. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that infants did not form abstract categorical representations for above and below when familiarized with different objects depicted in a constant spatial relation relative to a horizontal bar and tested on a novel object depicted in the familiar and novel spatial relation. Experiments 3 through 5 examined perceptual‐attentional distraction versus conceptually based generalization explanations for young infant performance in the object‐variation version of the above‐below categorization task. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that infants still did not form abstract categorical representations for above and below when object variation was removed from the familiarization trials or when object novelty was reduced during the preference test trials. However, Experiment 5 showed that 3‐ and 4‐month‐olds succeeded on the above versus below categorization task when familiarized with object variation and preference tested with a familiar versus novel object‐bar relation. These results indicate that young infants can form categorical representations for above and below in the object‐variation version of the above‐below categorization task, but that such representations are specific to the particular objects presented. Young infant performance in the object‐variation version of the above‐below categorization task thus reflects a conceptually based generalization limit rather than a problem of perceptual‐attentional distraction.     

Minimizing Skin Color Differences Does Not Eliminate the Own-Race Recognition Advantage in Infants

An abundance of experience with own-race faces and limited to no experience with other-race faces has been associated with better recognition memory for own-race faces in infants, children, and adults. This study investigated the developmental origins of this other-race effect (ORE) by examining the role of a salient perceptual property of faces-that of skin color. Six- and 9-month-olds' recognition memory for own- and other-race faces was examined using infant-controlled habituation and visual-paired comparison at test. Infants were shown own- or other-race faces in color or with skin color cues minimized in grayscale images. Results for the color stimuli replicated previous findings that infants show an ORE in face recognition memory. Results for the grayscale stimuli showed that even when a salient perceptual cue to race, such as skin color information, is minimized, 6- to 9-month-olds, nonetheless, show an ORE in their face recognition memory. Infants' use of shape-based and configural cues for face recognition is discussed.     

Data mining in child welfare

Data mining is the sifting through of voluminous data to extract knowledge for decision making. This article illustrates the context, concepts, processes, techniques, and tools of data mining, using statistical and neural network analyses on a dataset concerning employee turnover. The resulting models and their predictive capability, advantages and disadvantages, and implications for decision support are highlighted.     

Mental health need, awareness, and use of counseling services among international graduate students

OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors examined the prevalence of mental health needs in international graduate students, their knowledge of mental health services, and their use of on-campus and off-campus counseling services. METHODS: All registered graduate students in the Spring 2004 semester received an e-mail invitation to participate in a Web survey. Of the 3,121 completed surveys, 551 completed surveys were from international graduate students. RESULTS: Approximately 44% of international graduate students responded that they had had an emotional or stress-related problem that significantly affected their well-being or academic performance within the past year. International students who reported a more functional relationship with their advisors were less likely to report having an emotional or stress-related problem in the past year and using counseling services. International students who reported higher financial confidence were also less likely to use counseling services. CONCLUSIONS: There is an unmet mental health need among international graduate students. Special mental health outreach efforts should be directed at international graduate students, with particular attention on the relationship between students and their advisors and on adequate financial support for students.     

A comparison of the Hosmer–Lemeshow,Pigeon–Heyse,and Tsiatis goodness-of-fit tests for binary logistic regression under two grouping methods

Algebraic relationships between Hosmer–Lemeshow (HL), Pigeon–Heyse (J²), and Tsiatis (T) goodness-of-fit statistics for binary logistic regression models with continuous covariates were investigated, and their distributional properties and performances studied using simulations. Groups were formed under deciles-of-risk (DOR) and partition-covariate-space (PCS) methods. Under DOR, HL and T followed reported null distributions, while J² did not. Under PCS, only T followed its reported null distribution, with HL and J² dependent on model covariate number and partitioning. Generally, all had similar power. Of the three, T performed best, maintaining Type-I error rates and having a distribution invariant to covariate characteristics, number, and partitioning.     

Defining the Scope of Aid Reduction and Its Challenges for Civil Society Organizations: Laying the Foundation for New Theory

Much of the literature on local civil society organizations and foreign aid focuses on the short-term consequences of funding cycles and contract conditions, but treats foreign aid at the macrolevel like a largely stable condition, as though countries receiving foreign aid will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Empirical evidence of aid reduction, however, suggests that this approach neglects long-term phenomena. This article examines aid patterns on a global scale and explores their potential consequences for civil society organizations. Working from World Bank data, we identify general patterns in country-level aid reduction. We examine the frequency of country-level aid reduction, the magnitude of reduction, its duration, and whether aid reduction tends to be rapid or gradual. Mapping these patterns establishes that country-level reductions in aid are a regularly occurring, global phenomenon. Moreover, even as global ODA levels increase, instances of country-level aid reduction are also increasing. Our findings lay the foundation for building new, generalizable theory about aid reduction and allow us to identify pressing questions about the consequences for civil society organizations in need of further research.     

How Does Learning Impact Development in Infancy? The Case of Perceptual Organization

Pattern perception and organization are critical functions of the visual cognition system. Many organizational processes are available early in life, such that infants as young 3 months of age are able to readily utilize a variety of cues to organize visual patterns. However, other processes are not readily evident in young infants, and their development involves perceptual learning. We describe a theoretical framework that addresses perceptual learning in infancy and the manner in which it affects visual organization and development. It identifies five kinds of experiences that induce learning, and suggests that they work via attentional and unitization mechanisms to modify visual organization. In addition, the framework proposes that this kind of learning is abstract, domain general, functional at different ages in a qualitatively similar manner, and has a long‐term impact on development through a memory reactivation process. Although most models of development assume that experience is fundamental to development, very little is actually known about the process by which experience affects development. The proposed framework is an attempt to account for this process in the domain of perception.     

The Familial Socialization of Culturally Related Values in Mexican American Families

Research has documented a relation between parents' ethnic socialization and youth's ethnic identity, yet there has been little research examining the transmission of cultural values from parents to their children through ethnic socialization and ethnic identity. This study examines a prospective model in which mothers' and fathers' Mexican American values and ethnic socialization efforts are linked to their children's ethnic identity and Mexican American values, in a sample of 750 families (including 467 two-parent families) from an ongoing longitudinal study of Mexican American families (Roosa, Liu, Torres, Gonzales, Knight, & Saenz, 2008). Findings indicated that the socialization of Mexican American values was primarily a function of mothers' Mexican American values and ethnic socialization, and that mothers' Mexican American values were longitudinally related to children's Mexican American values. Finally, these associations were consistent across gender and nativity groups.     

Cross‐Race Preferences for Same‐Race Faces Extend Beyond the African Versus Caucasian Contrast in 3‐Month‐Old Infants

A visual preference procedure was used to examine preferences among faces of different ethnicities (African, Asian, Caucasian, and Middle Eastern) in Chinese 3‐month‐old infants exposed only to Chinese faces. The infants demonstrated a preference for faces from their own ethnic group. Alongside previous results showing that Caucasian infants exposed only to Caucasian faces prefer same‐race faces (Kelly et al., 2005) and that Caucasian and African infants exposed only to native faces prefer the same over the other‐race faces (Bar‐Haim, Ziv, Lamy, & Hodes, 2006), the findings reported here (a) extend the same‐race preference observed in young infants to a new race of infants (Chinese), and (b) show that cross‐race preferences for same‐race faces extend beyond the perceptually robust contrast between African and Caucasian faces.