Audio: The Movie [DVD]. York,PA: Tracer Technologies, 2006

NPR analyst Juan Williams appeared on The O'Reilly Factor and said that he gets “worried” and “nervous” when he sees people in Muslim dress on airplanes. Two days later NPR fired Williams and the day after that Williams issued a serious accusation against NPR: “I was fired for telling the truth.” Criticism of NPR mounted—arising particularly from conservative commentators—and CEO Vivian Schiller disseminated a statement defending her organization. This essay applies the theory of image repair discourse to NPR's CEO Vivian Schiller's apology for firing Williams. Two accusations were in play and they prompted two distinct defenses: Her reaction to accusations that NPR had not followed appropriate procedures for termination Williams employed the strategies of mortification and corrective action and her defense of the firing itself used transcendence, bolstering, and attack accuser. This essay evaluates this defense as a poor example of image repair.     

Social Competence and Oral Language Development for Young Children of Latino Immigrants

Research Findings: In this study we analyze how parent and teacher ratings of young Latino children’s social competencies in rural California are associated with children’s oral language development. We find (a) that there is considerable incongruence between parent and teacher ratings of child social competence, (b) that both parent and teacher ratings account for meaningful variation in children’s oral language development, and (c) that incongruence between parent and teacher ratings is associated with oral language above and beyond the effects of parent and teacher ratings alone. Practice or Policy: Young Latino children’s social competencies contribute to their oral language development. These competencies represent an important, though to date underutilized, asset for building stronger academic/language functioning. Part of the paradoxical development of Latino children (i.e., strong social though weak academic/language competence) could be attributable to cultural differences that underlie teacher and parent perceptions of social competence. Teachers of young Latino children should (a) be aware of the cultural nature of social competence and (b) explore culturally responsive ways of interacting in classrooms to build stronger oral language functioning.     

Effectiveness of psychological intervention following sport injury

With increasing attention given to the development and implementation of psychological interventions during the sport injury rehabilitation process, there is a need to document the effectiveness of these interventions. The purpose of this review was to summarize the empirical findings of the effects of psychological interventions in reducing post-injury psychological consequences and improving psychological coping during the injury rehabilitation process among competitive and recreational athletes. In February 2012, utilizing a comprehensive search strategy, we conducted electronic searches of multiple electronic databases for randomized and nonrandomized control trials that evaluated interventions targeting populations of injured competitive and recreational athletes age 17 years and older. We included interventions that directly intervene on injured athletes' psychological outcomes (e.g., psychological consequences, psychological coping and re-injury anxiety) and utilized psychological strategies including imagery, goal-setting, relaxation, and other common techniques during the post-injury rehabilitation period. Six studies, described in seven peer-reviewed published articles, met study inclusion criteria and were included in this review. Of those studies, two included randomized control trials, two used before and after study designs and two were case study designs. Two interventions utilized guided imagery and relaxation, two interventions utilized goal-setting and one each utilized microcounseling, written disclosure, and acceptance and commitment therapy. Guided imagery/relaxation was shown to be associated with improved psychological coping and reduced re-injury anxiety. Goal setting, however, was not directly associated with the reduction of negative psychological consequences. Other psychological techniques such as microcounseling skills, acceptance and commitment therapy, and written disclosure have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing negative psychological consequences, improving psychological coping, and reducing re-injury anxiety. Our findings suggest a significant need to develop and implement well-designed intervention studies that target improvement of post-injury psychological outcomes in order to assist injured athletes successfully recovery from sport injury.     

Maternal Reminiscing Style During Early Childhood Predicts the Age of Adolescents' Earliest Memories

Individual differences in parental reminiscing style are hypothesized to have long-lasting effects on children's autobiographical memory development, including the age of their earliest memories. This study represents the first prospective test of this hypothesis. Conversations about past events between 17 mother–child dyads were recorded on multiple occasions between the children's 2nd and 4th birthdays. When these children were aged 12–13 years, they were interviewed about their early memories. Adolescents whose mothers used a greater ratio of elaborations to repetitions during the early childhood conversations had earlier memories than adolescents whose mothers used a smaller ratio of elaborations to repetitions. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that past-event conversations during early childhood have long-lasting effects on autobiographical memory.     

Training mothers in elaborative reminiscing enhances children's autobiographical memory and narrative

This longitudinal intervention assessed children's memory at 2(1/2) years (short-term posttest; N=115) and their memory and narrative at 3(1/2) years (long-term posttest; N=100) as a function of maternal training in elaborative reminiscing when children were 1(1/2) to 2(1/2) years. At both posttests, trained mothers were more elaborative in their reminiscing than untrained mothers. At the long-term posttest, trained mothers were also more repetitive than untrained mothers. Children of trained mothers provided richer memories than children of untrained mothers at both posttests. Children of trained mothers also produced more accurate memories with researchers but only if they had high initial levels of self-awareness. Results are discussed with respect to theory and practice in autobiographical memory development.     

KReC-MD: Knowledge Revision with Multiple Documents

Educational Psychology Review - The aim of this paper is two-fold. The first aim is to review the core representational and processing aspects of influential accounts of single-document and...     

A Media Sociology for the Networked Public Sphere: The Hierarchy of Influences Model

We have promoted a hierarchy of influences model for understanding the complex factors shaping media—particularly news—content: from the individual to social-system level. Meanwhile, technology-enabled changes in the media eco-system have shifted old boundaries and encouraged new, more spatially oriented concepts, such as fields and networks. In this essay we revisit our levels-of-analysis perspective, which in the historical context of communication research was a response to the media effects paradigm, and incorporate within the model examples from recent research. We argue that the hierarchical of influences can still take into account new realignments of media and other forces. Emerging spaces in the network public sphere may not fit as easily into the once familiar professional, organizational, and institutional containers, but the new media configurations supporting these spaces must still be understood with reference to a larger framework of power.     

The relative contributions of vocabulary,decoding, and phonemic awareness to word reading in English versus German

Beginning readers in shallow orthographies acquire word reading skills more quickly than in deep orthographies like English. In addition to extending this evidence base by comparing reading acquisition in English with the more transparent German, we conducted a longitudinal study and investigated whether different early reading skills made different contributions to word reading as a function of orthography. Children (n = 133) were recruited from the first year of primary school in New Zealand (age 5;8) and Germany (age 7;2) and from kindergartens in Germany (age 5;0) to provide both age- and schooling-matched samples. Parallel measures of phonemic awareness, vocabulary, decoding skill, and word reading (accuracy) were administered at two time points, 1 year apart. An advantage for orthography and school attendance existed for reading development. Vocabulary made a greater contribution to word reading in English than in German as did decoding skill. Findings underscore the relative importance of vocabulary and decoding skills for early reading in English.     

Correction to: KReC-MD: Knowledge Revision with Multiple Documents

Educational Psychology Review -