Psychology

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Parent reported child deception: the online preschooler lie scale (OPLS)
(Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, 2011) Froese, Kimberly A.; Eaton, Warren O.; Glenwright, Melanie
Generally viewed as a negative behavior, child lying is a cognitive accomplishment that requires awareness of others’ thinking. In developing a measure of the breadth of a child’s lie repertoire, we recruited an online, diverse, cross-cultural sample of 179 parents to answer questions about family demographics, parent personality, and the types of lies told by their child. Nine items that were internally consistent and positively correlated with age were summed to create the Online Preschooler Lie Scale score. OPLS scores’ developmental identity remained evident even in the face of many competing demographic factors. The breadth of a child’s lying repertoire is a marker for developmental advance, and it can be assessed with convenient online methods.
Open Access
Participant recruitment in an online world: using blog comments and forum posts.
(2011) Eaton, Warren O.; Lewycky, Samantha T.
The recruitment of participants to online research can be difficult when they must meet restrictive requirements, a situation we faced in recruiting the parents of 2-month-olds. Here we describe a new method, blog commenting, and compare it to the more common online technique of posting recruitment information on parent-oriented online forums. In the blog method, we searched blogs for infant-specific terms and phrases; we then read entries from those retrieved blogs and identified ones written by a parent of an appropriately aged infant. We then posted to the blog a comment in which we invited the parent to participate and to visit our research web site. Rates of study completion and most participant characteristics did not differ for blog- and forum-recruited participants. We discuss the particular strengths and weaknesses of blog recruiting and conclude that it is well suited for topics that people care to write about.
Open Access
Age-of-walking as a predictor of childhood vocabulary
(Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal., 2011-04) Schultz, Jennifer N.; Eaton, Warren O.
Open Access
Is online data collection a useful approach for studying second-order false-beliefs?
(Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal., 2011-04) Froese, K. A.; Glenwright, M. R.; Eaton, Warren O.
Open Access
Does crawling attainment predict the appearance of proto-declarative pointing? An age-of-attainment method using survival analysis.
(Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal., 2011-04) Lall, Debra I. K.; Eaton, Warren O.
Open Access
Predicting child safety practices: maternal age as an overlooked variable
(Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal., 2011-04) DeJaeger, Amy E.; Eaton, Warren O.
Open Access
Accessing populations with specialized clinical needs: an illustrative case study using Google Adwords™
(American Psychological Assocation, 2013) Eaton, Warren O.; Kenyon, Katherine M.
When seeking help for health problems, a majority of individuals now look online first. There they are confronted with millions of results and typically visit only a few toplisted websites. As a consequence, being noticed is a significant problem for psychologists who use online tools to recruit help-seeking persons to either research studies or professional practices. The salience of a psychologist’s online presence can be increased through the use pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements that, for a price, appear near the top of the search results listings. The potential of PPC advertising to recruit a clinical sample for a research survey on childhood obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) was tested in this proof-of-concept case study using Google AdwordsTM. We created and implemented ads whose appearance on searchers screens was triggered by selected keywords that matched the content of our website landing page. Ads were displayed in 11 selected geographic locations worldwide and were aimed at parents of children with OCD. Over a 16-week campaign 183 participants completed our survey at an average cost of $27 per survey completion. Detailed keyword phrases were most effective, and geographical variation was notable. The results show that PPC advertising can be cost effective for the recruitment of participants to studies on a specialized clinical topic. Moreover, because PPC ads can be restricted to small geographic areas, online advertising may also be cost effective for making psychological services known to potential local clients.
Open Access
Analyzing age of milestone attainments from daily checklist recordings using SAS/STAT® procedures
(2013-04-12) Eaton, Warren O.; Bodnarchuk, Jennifer L.
The ages at which children first reach developmental milestones like sitting, crawling, or walking display substantial child-to-child variability that may reveal the operation of important developmental processes. Survival analysis (also called event-history analysis) is well suited for such data because it is designed to assess time-situated events characterized by a qualitative change from one discrete state to another (e.g., from not walking to walking). Multiple definitions of state changes are possible and deserve study, but their implementation from daily recordings is computationally intensive. The SAS/STAT® procedure Expand can efficiently convert raw milestone data into a format for analysis with the SAS Lifereg procedure, one of several survival analysis procedures. This report comprises an annotated SAS program for the conversion of multiple daily checklist recordings into variously defined events suitable for input into an illustrative survival analysis.
Open Access
An overlooked milestone : is age of sitting foundational in predicting age of onset of proto-declarative pointing?
(2013-04-16) Lall, Debra I. K.; Eaton, Warren O.
Infant pointing to engage another’s attention demonstrates social understanding and predicts later language accomplishments. Crawling onset is thought to predict such pointing because self-locomotion facilitates perspective taking and self-initiated social engagement. Early crawlers point more than age-matched late crawlers, but this evidence for the role of self-locomotion is weakened by broad age-matching. Co-variation in the ages of onset for both crawling and pointing could also be due to shared underlying gross motor development. If locomotion is the active predictive ingredient in the crawl-point relation, the predictive potency of crawling should be largely independent of prior non-locomotor sitting onset. Longitudinally extracted ages of onset for sitting, crawling, and pointing were available for 312 infants. 30% of them did not show the expected sit-crawl-sequence, which rules out crawling as a necessary prerequisite for pointing. For the remaining 258 babies, crawling remained a significant predictor of pointing even after sitting, which was a weaker predictor, was accounted for. Self-locomotion may be important for the development of pointing, but it isn’t the sole active ingredient.
Open Access
Is there a relationship between ADHD and attachment insecurity?
(2014-02-21) Cheung, Kristene; Theule, Jennifer
The present study investigated the relationship between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms and insecure attachment styles. The results of a meta-analysis will be provided to clarify a possible link between ADHD and attachment and to establish the effect size. Practitioners will learn of the degree to which ADHD symptoms correspond with attachment insecurity and whether the results of this study provide support for the efficacy of attachment-based interventions for this population.
Open Access
Examining Western Elimination Communication Practices and Outcomes : An Online Survey
(2014-05-06) Lee, Janelle Boram; Soderstrom, Melanie; Eaton, Warren O.
Open Access
The Effectiveness of Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Young Children with Internalizing Disorders: A meta-analysis
(2014-06-05) Cheung, Kristene; Hurl, Kylee; Germain, Sarah; Theule, Jennifer; Markel, Clarisa
A meta-analysis was conducted on the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions for young children (ages 2 to 5) with internalizing disorders. Internalizing disorders, including anxiety and depression, are among the most common presenting problems of young children at community mental health services. Children may exhibit symptoms of internalizing disorders in the early stages of development and children as young as three years old have met diagnostic criteria for an internalizing disorder. Symptoms of internalizing disorders interfere with school adjustment, impede academic performance, and affect the overall family dynamic. Early intervention is imperative given that these symptoms remain relatively stable throughout one’s lifetime without treatment. Given the high prevalence and early onset of these disorders, it is important to assess the efficacy of treatment for these symptoms. Potential moderators will also be explored in this meta-analysis in order to identify effective features of the interventions, as well as possible participant characteristics (e.g., age, gender) to determine who would most likely benefit from the treatment. Implications of this research can be used to develop and promote effective treatment options for this population.
Open Access
The Association Between Conduct Disorder and Insecure Attachment: A Meta-Analysis
(2014-06-06) Cheung, Kristene; Theule, Jennifer; Germain, Sarah; Markel, Clarisa
The present study investigated the relationship between Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)/ Conduct Disorder (CD) symptoms and attachment style. To date, the cause of these disorders has not yet been fully determined. The etiological literature on CD/ODD has acknowledged both biological and psychosocial explanations for the disorders, including a strong emphasis on familial risk factors (e.g., Biederman et al., 1990; Frick et al., 1992). There is evidence to support the theory that environmental factors can influence atypical development (e.g., Burgin & Bohleber, 2010; Clarke et al., 2002). Empirical research has attempted to tease apart the genetic and psychosocial contributing factors to these disorders. Specifically, researchers have begun to explore the notion that CD/ODD symptoms may be associated with insecure attachment styles (e.g., Shaw & Vondra, 1995; Vando et al., 2008). A meta-analysis was conducted in order to review the research findings and clarify a possible link between insecure attachment styles and CD/ODD symptoms and to establish the degree and size of the effect. The publication year of the studies included in the analysis was found to be a significant moderator.
Open Access
Infant flat head syndrome : unexpectedly common, early appearing, and multi-national
(2015-03-17) Eaton, Warren O.; Pirlog, Ioana.
Open Access
Age of child obsessive-compulsive disorder onset and its relation to gender, symptom severity, and family functioning
(2015-03-17) Kenyon, Katherine M.; Eaton, Warren O.
Open Access
Do Questions Get Infants Talking? Infant Vocal Responses to Questions and Declaratives in Maternal Speech
(Wiley, 2017) Reimchen, Melissa; Soderstrom, Melanie
Maternal questions play a crucial role in early language acquisition by virtue of their special grammatical, prosodic and lexical forms, and their abundance in the input. Infants are able to discriminate questions from other sentence types and produce rising intonations in their own requests. This study examined whether caregiver questions were related to the quantity of infant vocalizations. Thirty-six infants aged 10 and 14 months participated in a laboratory play session with their mothers. In separate blocks, mothers were instructed to ask questions and to refrain from asking questions. Both block-level and utterance-level analyses found no evidence that maternal questions affected the amount of infant-response vocalizations. Mothers of 14-month-olds (but not 10-month-olds) tended to repeat questions.
Open Access
Perception With and Without Attention: Neural Correlates of Grouping by Similarity in Preattention and Divided-Attention Conditions
(2019) Carther-Krone, Tiffany; Lawrence-Dewar, Jane; Shomstein, Sarah; Nah, Joseph; Collegio, Andrew; Marotta, Jonathan
Grouping local elements of the visual environment is crucial for meaningful perception. While our attentional system facilitates perception, it is limited in that we are unaware of some aspects of our environment that can still influence how we experience our world. It is unclear which brain networks underlie this attentional capability, and whether the same brain networks are responsible for accessing visual stimuli regardless of one’s ability to accurately report seeing it. In this study, the neural mechanisms underlying the Ponzo Illusion were investigated under conditions of pre-attention (before awareness of the illusion) and divided-attention (after awareness of the illusion) using fMRI. Participants performed a line discrimination task where two horizontal lines were superimposed on a background of black and white dots. In half of the trials, the dots were organized to induce the Ponzo Illusion if perceptually grouped together. Increased activation was found bilaterally in the early visual cortex (EVC), left lateral occipital complex (LOC), left inferotemporal cortex, right supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and right medial temporal lobe (MTL) to illusory stimuli in the pre-attention condition. Illusory stimuli in the divided-attention condition elicited bilateral activation in the EVC, inferotemporal cortex, superior parietal lobe (SPL), and inferior parietal sulcus (IPS). A direct contrast between pre- and divided-attention conditions revealed increased bilateral activity in IPS, SPL, and EVC for divided-attention, but increased bilateral activation in MTL and frontal cortex for the pre-attention condition. Results show that while there are overlapping regions involved in perceptual grouping regardless of attentional condition, distinct regions of activation arise when grouping is performed under pre-attention versus divided-attention conditions. A different activation of network for pre-attentive grouping suggests that visual information we are unaware of still influences perception of the visual world, and that the neural mechanisms driving perception are modulated by attentional resources.
Open Access
Grasping 2-D Targets in Motion: The Influence of a Preferable Central Grasp Location on Eye-Hand Coordination
(2019) Langridge, Ryan W.; Marotta, Jonathan J.
When using a precision grip to grasp a rectangular object (index finger on top and thumb on the bottom of the object), digit placement is usually close to the object’s horizontal center, ensuring stability. An object’s position will also influence convenient digit placement (e.g. the left side of a rightward positioned object). This research investigated the direction of gaze and index finger placement while visually pursing and grasping moving targets that either allowed for or discouraged a central placement of the index finger and thumb when grasping. Right-handed participants’ eye and hand movements were recorded while they reached for and ‘grasped’ 2-D computer generated targets translating horizontally across a computer screen. Reaches were cued at early, middle, and late stages of target travel. Control targets appeared as a 4 x 4 cm square. Experimental targets resembled Control targets, however the middle portion of the top and bottom edges were removed. At onset of target movement, gaze was directed toward its leading edge. During the reach itself, including at the time of contact, gaze and grasp positions shifted toward the trailing edge. This was especially true for grasps occurring at later stages of target travel, where deviations behind the midline were the largest. In general, gaze deviated further behind the Experimental targets’ midline compared to the Control targets. Overall, horizontal gaze and index finger placement were closer to the target’s midline when grasping Leftward moving targets. Though a misplaced grasp has no consequence when grasping 2-D targets, these results suggest participants favoured a safe, mechanically comfortable movement. In the absence of a preferable central grasp location, participants avoided the front of the object, potentially minimizing the risk of a collision with the leading edge. Increased accuracy when grasping leftward moving targets may reflect a compensatory strategy for cross-body reaching.
Open Access
Grasping in a Cluttered Environment: Avoiding Obstacles Under Memory Guidance
(2019) Abbas, Hana H; Marotta, Jonathan J
Humans often reach to remembered objects, such as when picking up a coffee cup from behind our morning paper. When reaching to previously seen, now out-of-view objects, we rely on our perceptual memory of the scene, to guide our actions (Milner & Goodale, 1995). Based in relative coordinates, encoded perceptual representations may likely exaggerate the risk associated with nearby obstacles. For instance, a cereal bowl next to our coffee cup may be judged as larger than it really is under memory-guided conditions, resulting in a more cautious obstacle avoidance approach to best prevent a messy collision. In contrast, when visual information is available up to the point when a reach is initiated, the precise positions of objects relative to the self are likely to be computed and incorporated into a motor plan, allowing for finely tuned eye-hand maneuvers around positioned obstacles. The objective of this study was to examine obstacle avoidance during memory-guided grasping. Eye-hand coordination was monitored as subjects had to reach through a pair of obstacles in order to grasp a 3D target. The availability of visual information underwent a between-subjects manipulation, such that reaches occurred either with continuous visual information (visually-guided condition), immediately in the absence of visual feedback (memory-guided no-delay condition), or after a 2-s delay in the absence of visual feedback (memory-guided delay condition). The positions and widths of obstacles were manipulated, though their inner edges remained a constant distance apart. We expected the memory-guided delay group to exhibit exaggerated avoidance strategies, particularly around wider obstacles. Results revealed subjects were able to effectively avoid obstacles in the visually-guided and memory-guided no-delay conditions, though overall performance was poorer in the no-delay group, resulting from the inability to use visual information for the online control of action. Still, subjects in these groups consistently altered the paths of the index finger and wrist and adjusted the index finger position on the target object to accommodate obstacles that obstructed the reach path to different degrees. Contrary to expectation, the memory-guided delay group resorted to a more moderate strategy, with fewer instances of altered index finger and wrist paths or adjusted index finger positions on the target object in response to positioned obstacles, though successful grasps were still seen. In other words, subjects reaching to remembered objects tended to use a “good enough” approach for avoiding obstacles. In conclusion, obstacle avoidance behaviour, driven by our stored perceptual representations of a scene, appears to adopt a more moderate, rather than exaggerative, strategy. This work was funded by Research Manitoba, NSERC CGSM, and NSERC Discovery Grant.
Open Access
Eye-hand Coordination in Reaching and Grasping Vertically Translating Targets
(2019) Thulasiram, Matsya R; Langridge, Ryan W; Abbas, Hana H; Marotta, Jonathan J
Previous research in our lab has revealed a strong visual bias toward the eventual index finger contact location when grasping stationary or horizontally moving targets. However, the unique properties of the thumb may have an increased role when grasping vertically moving targets. Using their index finger and thumb, right-handed individuals reached for and grasped 2-D rectangular targets moving upward or downward on a vertically oriented computer screen. It was expected that fixations would be directed toward the index finger when grasping upward moving targets, and to the thumb when grasping downward moving targets. In trials involving upward moving targets, initial fixations were positioned well above the target, in anticipation of the eventual movement, and remained above the target even after the target started to move. Gaze shifted to the leading (upper) edge of the target when participants initiated their reaching movement, suggesting that participants were primarily attending to the eventual contact location of the index finger. Initial fixations toward downward moving targets were positioned well below its bottom edge, once again anticipating eventual movement. When the targets started to move, gaze shifted upward to a position just below the target’s centre of mass (COM) and remained there during reach onset. Final fixations for both upward and downward moving targets were positioned slightly above the target’s COM, a location that would allow the monitoring of both index and thumb when grasping. These results suggest that while index finger placement is prioritized when grasping upward moving targets, visual attention is directed toward more central locations when grasping downward moving targets, thus allowing both contact points to be monitored simultaneously. This is suggestive of an increased importance of the thumb, in addition to the index finger placement, not shown previously when grasping stationary or horizontally translating targets.

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