Temporal Orientation and the Association Between Adverse Life Events and Internalizing Symptoms in Vietnamese American and European American Adolescents.

Adverse life events are associated with greater internalizing symptoms. However, prior research has identified cross-cultural variation in whether and to what extent factors amplify or buffer the impact of these stressors. Broadly defined as the tendency to focus on past, present, or future events, temporal orientation is a dispositional factor that is culturally influenced and may explain variance in internalizing symptoms following adverse events. Cultural congruence, or the degree to which a factor is considered normative in an individual's culture, may be an important explanation of variation in levels of risk. The current study examines how culturally congruent temporal orientation differentially impacts the relation between adverse life events and internalizing symptoms in a longitudinal sample of 10th and 11th grade Vietnamese American (n = 372) and European American adolescents (n = 304). Results indicated that Vietnamese American adolescents endorsed significantly higher levels of past and present, but not future, temporal orientation compared to European American adolescents. Among both Vietnamese and European American adolescents, past temporal orientation was positively associated with internalizing symptoms and adverse life events. Findings also demonstrated that the influence of present temporal orientation on the relation between adverse life events and internalizing symptoms was further moderated by ethnicity, such that present temporal orientation buffered risk for negative outcomes among European Americans but not Vietnamese Americans. These data highlight the importance of measuring and testing specific dimensions of culturally relevant processes when considering responses to adverse life events.

Impact of Sibling Victimization on Child Internalizing Symptoms.

The current study examined associations between sibling victimization and anxiety and depression symptoms while also considering peer victimization within time and six months later among elementary school-age youth. Both sibling and peer victimization were associated with depression symptoms within as well as across time when considered independently. However, when examined together, peer victimization was only uniquely associated with depression symptoms within time and sibling victimization was only uniquely associated with depression symptoms across time. Sibling and peer victimization were associated with anxiety symptoms within, but not across, time when examined independently, and no associations were evident when sibling and peer victimization were examined simultaneously. No interactive effects of sibling and peer victimization were evident for depression or anxiety symptoms, indicating unique rather than cumulative contributions. Findings suggest that the impact of sibling victimization on depression symptoms is more robust than effects of peer victimization over time.

Number line estimation and standardized test performance: The left digit effect does not predict SAT math score.

INTRODUCTION: Recent work reveals a new source of error in number line estimation (NLE), the left digit effect (Lai, Zax, et al., 2018), whereby numerals with different leftmost digits but similar magnitudes (e.g., 399, 401) are placed farther apart on a number line (e.g., 0 to 1,000) than is warranted. The goals of the present study were to: (1) replicate the left digit effect, and (2) assess whether it is related to mathematical achievement. METHOD: Participants were all individuals (adult college students) who completed the NLE task in the laboratory between 2014 and 2019 for whom SAT scores were available (n = 227). RESULTS: We replicated the left digit effect but found its size was not correlated with SAT math score, although it was negatively correlated with SAT verbal score for one NLE task version. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide further evidence that individual digits strongly influence estimation performance and suggest that this effect may have different cognitive contributors, and predict different complex skills, than overall NLE accuracy.

Developmental change in partition dependent resource allocation behavior.

Partition dependence, the tendency to distribute choices differently based on the way options are grouped, has important implications for decision making. This phenomenon, observed in adults across a variety of contexts such as allocating resources or making selections from a menu of items, can bias decision makers toward some choices and away from others. Only one study to date (Reichelson, Zax, Patalano, & Barth, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 1029-1036, 2019) has investigated the developmental trajectory of this phenomenon. In the current study we investigate children's and adults' susceptibility to partitioning effects in a child-friendly resource allocation task. In Experiment 1 (N = 80), adults distributed 12 food tokens to animals at the zoo. Based on previous findings that older children show weaker partition dependence in this task, we predicted that adults might exhibit reduced partition dependent behavior: they showed none. In Experiment 2 (N = 272), we used a less transparent task with only five food tokens, predicting that both adults and children (ages 3-10 years) would show partition dependence. Children, but not adults, made partition dependent resource allocations, with younger children exhibiting greater effects than older children. These experiments provide further evidence that children's decisions, like adults' (in other tasks), are influenced by the arbitrary partitioning of the available options. This work supports previous findings that younger children may be more susceptible to these effects, and maps developmental change in partition dependent behavior from early childhood to adulthood on this child-friendly partition dependence task.

Intuitive symbolic magnitude judgments and decision making under risk in adults.

Performance on an intuitive symbolic number skills task-namely the number line estimation task-has previously been found to predict value function curvature in decision making under risk, using a cumulative prospect theory (CPT) model. However there has been no evidence of a similar relationship with the probability weighting function. This is surprising given that both number line estimation and probability weighting can be construed as involving proportion judgment, that is, involving estimating a number on a bounded scale based on its proportional relationship to the whole. In the present work, we re-evaluated the relationship between number line estimation and probability weighting through the lens of proportion judgment. Using a CPT model with a two-parameter probability weighting function, we found a double dissociation: number line estimation bias predicted probability weighting curvature while performance on a different number skills task, number comparison, predicted probability weighting elevation. Interestingly, while degree of bias was correlated across tasks, the direction of bias was not. The findings provide support for proportion judgment as a plausible account of the shape of the probability weighting function, and suggest directions for future work.

An Empirical Crosswalk for the PTSD Checklist: Translating DSM-IV to DSM-5 Using a Veteran Sample.

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) introduced numerous revisions to the fourth edition's (DSM-IV) criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posing a challenge to clinicians and researchers who wish to assess PTSD symptoms continuously over time. The aim of this study was to develop a crosswalk between the DSM-IV and DSM-5 versions of the PTSD Checklist (PCL), a widely used self-rated measure of PTSD symptom severity. Participants were 1,003 U.S. veterans (58.7% with PTSD) who completed the PCL for DSM-IV (the PCL-C) and DSM-5 (the PCL-5) during their participation in an ongoing longitudinal registry study. In a randomly selected training sample (n = 800), we used equipercentile equating with loglinear smoothing to compute a "crosswalk" between PCL-C and PCL-5 scores. We evaluated the correspondence between the crosswalk-determined predicted scores and observed PCL-5 scores in the remaining validation sample (n = 203). The results showed strong correspondence between crosswalk-predicted PCL-5 scores and observed PCL-5 scores in the validation sample, ICC = .96. Predicted PCL-5 scores performed comparably to observed PCL-5 scores when examining their agreement with PTSD diagnosis ascertained by clinical interview: predicted PCL-5, κ = 0.57; observed PCL-5, κ = 0.59. Subsample comparisons indicated that the crosswalk's accuracy did not differ across characteristics including gender, age, racial minority status, and PTSD status. The results support the validity of this newly developed PCL-C to PCL-5 crosswalk in a veteran sample, providing a tool with which to interpret and translate scores across the two measures.

Spanish Abstracts by Asociación Chilena de Estrés Traumático (ACET) Un cruce empírico para la lista de verificación de TEPT: traducción de DSM-IV a DSM-5 utilizando una muestra de veteranos CRUCE PARA LA LISTA DE VERIFICACIÓN DEL TEPT La quinta edición del Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico de los Trastornos Mentales (DSM-5) introdujo numerosas revisiones a los criterios de la cuarta edición (DSM-IV) para el trastorno de estrés postraumático (TEPT), lo que representa un desafío para los médicos e investigadores que desean evaluar los síntomas de TEPT de manera continua a través del tiempo. El objetivo de este estudio fue desarrollar un cruce entre las versiones DSM-IV y DSM-5 de la Lista de verificación de TEPT (PCL en su sigla en inglés), una medida autoevaluada ampliamente utilizada de la gravedad de los síntomas de TEPT. Los participantes fueron 1.003 veteranos estadounidenses (58.7% con TEPT) que completaron el PCL para DSM-IV (PCL-C) y DSM-5 (PCL-5) durante su participación en un estudio de registro longitudinal en curso. En una muestra de entrenamiento seleccionada al azar (n = 800), utilizamos equipercentil equiparado con suavizado loglineal para calcular un "cruce" entre las puntuaciones PCL-C y PCL-5. Evaluamos la correspondencia entre las puntuaciones pronosticadas determinadas por el cruce y las puntuaciones PCL-5 observadas en la muestra de validación restante (n = 203). Los resultados mostraron una fuerte correspondencia entre los puntajes PCL-5 pronosticados para el cruce y los puntajes PCL-5 observados en la muestra de validación, ICC = .96. Los puntajes de PCL-5 pronosticados se compararon con los puntajes de PCL-5 observados al examinar su acuerdo con el diagnóstico de TEPT determinado por entrevista clínica: PCL-5 predicho, κ = 0.57; PCL-5 observado, κ = 0,59. Las comparaciones de submuestras indicaron que la precisión del cruce no difirió entre las características, incluidos el género, la edad, el estado de minoría racial y el estado de TEPT. Los resultados respaldan la validez de este paso de cruce recién desarrollado de PCL-C a PCL-5 en una muestra de veteranos, proporcionando una herramienta con la que interpretar y traducir las puntuaciones en las dos medidas.

Spontaneous partitioning and proportion estimation in children's numerical judgments.

What do numerical estimates tell us about developing an understanding of number? One theory is that bounded number line estimation (NLE) tasks reveal a "representational shift" from logarithmically to linearly organized mental representations of number over development. According to a different theoretical framework, developmental change in estimation reflects changes in children's numerical knowledge and their ability to make appropriate relative judgments. Empirical support for this "proportion estimation" framework includes the fact that quantitative models of proportion estimation describe signature patterns of estimation bias. A recent study argued against this latter theory by suggesting that patterns of curvature in number line placements are simply artifacts of a task procedure in which participants receive explicit information about the location of the numerical midpoint. We tested this claim in two experiments with children aged 6-8 years (Experiment 1: N = 47; Experiment 2: N = 104). Results demonstrated that the proportion estimation framework provides a good explanation of children's number line placement in the absence of explicit midpoint cues, that explicit cues to the midpoint are associated with more frequent use of middle reference points in young children, and that children can use a middle reference point spontaneously in the absence of explicit cues (with this tendency increasing with age). These findings provide novel support for the idea that psychophysical models of proportion estimation successfully account for numerical estimates across development regardless of whether spatial and numerical midpoint cues are provided as part of the NLE task.

Probability range and probability distortion in a gambling task.

In decision making under risk, adults tend to overestimate small and underestimate large probabilities (Tversky & Kahneman, 1992). This inverse S-shaped distortion pattern is similar to that observed in a wide variety of proportion judgment tasks (see Hollands & Dyre, 2000, for review). In proportion judgment tasks, distortion patterns tend not to be fixed but rather to depend on the reference points to which the targets are compared. Here, we tested the novel hypothesis that probability distortion in decision making under risk might also be influenced by reference points-in this case, references implied by the probability range. Adult participants were assigned to either a full-range (probabilities from 0-100%), upper-range (50-100%), or lower-range (0-50%) condition, where they indicated certainty equivalents for 176 hypothetical monetary gambles (e.g., "a 50% chance of $100, otherwise $0"). Using a modified cumulative prospect theory model, we found only minimal differences in probability distortion as a function of condition, suggesting no differences in use of reference points by condition, and broadly demonstrating the robustness of distortion pattern across contexts. However, we also observed deviations from the curve across all conditions that warrant further research.

Partition dependence in development: Are children's decisions shaped by the arbitrary grouping of options?

The grouping of options into arbitrary categories influences adults' decisions about allocating choices or resources among those options; this is called "partition dependence." Partition dependence has been demonstrated in a wide range of contexts in adults and is often presented as a technique for designing choice architectures that nudge people towards better decisions. Whether children also make partition dependent decisions is unknown, as are potential patterns of developmental change. In this experiment ( N = 159), we examined whether children exhibit partition dependence using a novel resource allocation task. This novel task, distributing food tokens to zoo animals, did elicit partition dependence in our developmental sample. Both older children (ages 7-10 years) and younger children (ages 3-6 years) made partition dependent allocations, and younger children exhibited a larger partition dependence effect than did older children. This work provides the first evidence that children's decisions, like adults', are influenced by the arbitrary grouping of the options, and suggests that younger children may be more susceptible to this influence, at least in the context explored here.

Digit identity influences numerical estimation in children and adults.

Learning the meanings of Arabic numerals involves mapping the number symbols to mental representations of their corresponding, approximate numerical quantities. It is often assumed that performance on numerical tasks, such as number line estimation (NLE), is primarily driven by translating from a presented numeral to a mental representation of its overall magnitude. Part of this assumption is that the overall numerical magnitude of the presented numeral, not the specific digits that comprise it, is what matters for task performance. Here we ask whether the magnitudes of the presented target numerals drive symbolic number line performance, or whether specific digits influence estimates. If the former is true, estimates of numerals with very similar magnitudes but different hundreds digits (such as 399 and 402) should be placed in similar locations. However, if the latter is true, these placements will differ significantly. In two studies (N = 262), children aged 7-11 and adults completed 0-1000 NLE tasks with target values drawn from a set of paired numerals that fell on either side of "Hundreds" boundaries (e.g., 698 and 701) and "Fifties" boundaries (e.g., 749 and 752). Study 1 used an atypical speeded NLE task, while Study 2 used a standard non-speeded NLE task. Under both speeded and non-speeded conditions, specific hundreds digits in the target numerals exerted a strong influence on estimates, with large effect sizes at all ages, showing that the magnitudes of target numerals are not the primary influence shaping children's or adults' placements. We discuss patterns of developmental change and individual difference revealed by planned and exploratory analyses.

The impact of emotion on numerical estimation: A developmental perspective.

Recent literature has revealed underestimation effects in numerical judgments when adult participants are presented with emotional stimuli (as opposed to neutral). Whether these numerical biases emerge early in development however, or instead reflect overt, learned responses to emotional stimuli across development are unclear. Moreover, reported links between numerical acuity and mathematics achievement point to the importance of exploring how numerical approximation abilities in childhood may be influenced in real-world affective contexts. In this study, children (aged 6-10 years) and adults were presented with happy and neutral facial stimuli in the context of a numerical bisection task. Results reveal that children, like adults, underestimate number following emotional (i.e., happy) faces (relative to neutral). However, children's, but not adult's, responses were also significantly more precise following emotional stimuli. In a second experiment, adult judgments revealed a similar increase in precision following emotional stimuli when numerical discriminations were more challenging (involving larger sets). Together, results are the first to reveal children, like adults, underestimate number in the context of emotional stimuli and this underestimation bias is accompanied with enhanced response precision.

Partition dependence in consumer choice: Perceptual groupings do not reliably shape decisions.

The partitioning of options into arbitrary categories has been shown to influence decisions about allocating choices or resources among those options; this phenomenon is called partition dependence. While we do not call into question the validity of the partition dependence phenomenon in the present work, we do examine the robustness of one of the experimental paradigms reported by Fox, Ratner, and Lieb (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 538-551, 2005, Study 4). In three experiments (N = 300) conducted here, participants chose from a menu of perceptually partitioned options (varieties of candy distributed across bowls). We found no clear evidence of partition dependent choice in children (Experiment 1) and no evidence at all of partition dependence in adults' choices (Experiments 1-3). This was true even when methods were closely matched to those of Fox et al.'s Study 4 (Experiment 3). We conclude that the candy-bowl choice task does not reliably elicit partition dependence and propose possible explanations for the discrepancy between these findings and prior reports. Future work will explore the conditions under which partition dependence in consumer choice does reliably arise.