Corporal Punishment and Elevated Neural Response to Threat in Children

Spanking remains common around the world, despite evidence linking corporal punishment to detrimental child outcomes. This study tested whether children (M_age = 11.60) who were spanked (N = 40) exhibited altered neural function in response to stimuli that suggest the presence of an environmental threat compared to children who were not spanked (N = 107). Children who were spanked exhibited greater activation in multiple regions of the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dorsomedial PFC, bilateral frontal pole, and left middle frontal gyrus in response to fearful relative to neutral faces compared to children who were not spanked. These findings suggest that spanking may alter neural responses to environmental threats in a manner similar to more severe forms of maltreatment.     

HUMAN SUBJECTS AND COGNITIVE AGING RESEARCH: A UNIQUE SOLUTION TO A PERENNIAL PROBLEM

A fundamental concern of cognitive aging researchers is to find a representative sample of healthy, older adults who are willing to participate in experimental research. There are essentially two methods for marshalling a sizable body of older research participants. One can solicit the aid of local community‐dwelling adults through civic and church‐related organizations. Alternatively, one can travel to specific locations where elderly people are likely to congregate, for example, a retirement community. In this article, we describe our experiences with these two methods of research‐participant recruitment. The processes involved in both securing and utilizing a local body of research volunteers are presented first. We then discuss two subject‐testing expeditions outside of the university environment that have been highly successful. In the final section, we contrast selected demographic characteristics of our local and off‐site research volunteers and discuss the implications of differences between these two populations for conducting research with aged people.     

Equating With Miditests Using IRT

The equating performance of two internal anchor test structures—miditests and minitests—is studied for four IRT equating methods using simulated data. Originally proposed by Sinharay and Holland, miditests are anchors that have the same mean difficulty as the overall test but less variance in item difficulties. Four popular IRT equating methods were tested, and both the means and SDs of the true ability of the group to be equated were varied. We evaluate equating accuracy marginally and conditional on true ability. Our results suggest miditests perform about as well as traditional minitests for most conditions. Findings are discussed in terms of comparability to the typical minitest design and the trade‐off between accuracy and flexibility in test construction.     

The salience and utility of school sex education to young men

This paper focuses on young men's views on the school sex education they have received, the influence of this sex education on their intended or actual behaviour, and the extent to which other sources of information complement or supplement school sex education. Thirty‐five in‐depth interviews and eight group discussions were conducted with male pupils from six schools in the east of Scotland. Most of those interviewed did cite school as a useful source in learning about sex. The most commonly named highlights were learning more about what girls think about sexual matters and learning how to use a condom. Nine described how something they had learned in school sex education had changed the way they had behaved in a sexual encounter. A further eight, who had not experienced sexual intercourse, talked about how they thought sex education would influence their behaviour in a positive way in the future. The most common criticism of sex education was that it was not explicit enough. Although friends and/or television were named by the majority of young men as useful, for most young men school sex education appeared to be the only substantive source of information they had received on sexual matters.     

Supporting learners with special educational needs and disabilities in the foreign languages classroom

Due to misconceptions about the challenges of language learning, foreign languages classrooms have not always been accessible spaces for all learners. This article seeks to address the needs of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in the foreign languages classroom and challenge the notion that this group of students cannot or should not learn languages. Current research tends to focus on specific learning difficulties in language learning, but little research considers the language learning experiences of children with SEND more broadly. Accordingly, this article delineates the advantages of language learning for learners with SEND, drawing on emerging research that shows that second language acquisition is not only possible but positive for many learners with additional needs. It then considers some of the specific challenges that SEND learners may face in the foreign languages classroom before outlining key strategies to facilitate inclusion among this diverse group of learners.

Key points

• Learners with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) should not routinely be removed from the foreign languages classroom, but instead should be provided with opportunities to thrive within it. This article discusses the unique importance of foreign language learning for learners with SEND.
• Research evidence suggests that learning new languages is, on the whole, possible—and perhaps hugely beneficial—for children with developmental differences and learning difficulties, but will depend on the circumstances and profile of the individual child.
• The article explores some specific challenges that students with different additional needs might encounter in their foreign languages education, based on the four areas of need outlined in the SEND Code of Practice: communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health difficulties; and sensory or physical needs.
• To conclude, the article presents a range of key strategies that foreign languages teachers might implement in the classroom to support learners with different special educational needs and disabilities.

     

Sales Teams or Salespersons: Performance Implications for Embracing Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultural Values in a Global Marketplace

Identifying antecedents of salesperson performance is a long‐standing objective in the sales management research field. The purpose of this article is to outline how the practical understanding of, and the willingness to embrace, sales employees' cultural value‐systems adds value while considering performance drivers, individualistic versus collectivistic values, and performance outcomes. The cultural dimensions under consideration, individualism and collectivism, cannot be approached as a dichotomy. As is the case for all cultural dimensions, they represent a continuum and not absolutes. In this study, the work preferences and predispositions of participants were compared using an international data set. Respondents were culturally classified based on research (i.e., Americans and Australians as individualists and Japanese and South Koreans as collectivists). Specifically, it was found that individualists were less attached to their current work situation; collectivists indicated less work/family conflict; and individualists valued independent work more while collectivists valued deciding work time. This is important because of the need to understand how to effectively connect with the values of people to encourage positive performance outcomes. The reality is that value holds differing degrees of emphasis; the performance formula is the theoretical framework to guide this research. The implications of the results for sales management professionals are discussed.