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Reading is typically guided by a task or goal (e.g., studying for a test, writing a paper). A reader's task awareness arises from their mental representation of the task and plays an important role in guiding reading processes, ultimately influencing comprehension outcomes and task success. As such, a better understanding of how task awareness arises and how it affects comprehension is needed. The present study tested the Task Awareness Mediation Hypothesis. This hypothesis assumes that the strategies that support reading comprehension (e.g., paraphrasing, bridging, and elaborative strategies) also support a reader's task awareness while engaged in a literacy task. Further, it assumes that the reader's level of task awareness partially mediates the relationship between these comprehension strategies and a comprehension outcome. At two different time points in a semester, college students completed an assessment of their propensity to engage in comprehension strategies and a complex academic literacy task that provided a measure of comprehension outcomes and an assessment of task awareness. Indirect effects analyses provided evidence for the Task Awareness Mediation Hypothesis showing that the propensity to engage in paraphrasing and elaboration was positively predictive of task awareness, and that task awareness mediated the relationships between these comprehension strategies and performance on the complex academic literacy task. These results indicate that task awareness has complex relationships with comprehension strategies and performance on academic literacy tasks and warrants further consideration as a possible malleable factor to improve student success.

Students, particularly those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and healthcare-related programs, should develop proficient interpersonal skills, including communication. To help students develop effective communication skills, instructors need to consider the value students give to learning these skills. The Student Attitudes Toward Communication Skills Survey (SATCSS) was developed to measure how undergraduate students value learning communication skills based on Expectancy-Value Theory across three modes of communication (verbal, written, non-verbal). The survey was given to students interested in healthcare professions and enrolled in an undergraduate anatomy and physiology (A&P) course (n = 233) at a Midwest research active university. The survey showed evidence of validity, measuring two components: (1) "Value to Profession" (attainment and utility value) and (2) "Value to Self" (intrinsic value and cost). There was a significant difference in sub-scores among the four task values such that students thought that learning communication skills was important and relevant (high attainment and utility value) but not interesting (low intrinsic value) and costly. Students with high total scores valued communication skills across all four task values. As total value scores decreased, it was first due to students finding learning communication skills to be time prohibitive and then a lack of interest in learning communication skills. Based on these results, it is recommended that instructors incorporate communication skills training into content that is already part of their A&P course to reduce time concerns. Additional recommendations include using reflective activities and humor to increase student interest.

Measures implemented globally to minimize spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in significant changes for families. Since children's developmental processes occur within an environmental context, examining how parenting practices and child behavior may have changed during COVID-19 is important to supporting children and families. The purpose of the current study was to examine levels of parenting behaviors for parents of kindergarten children prior to and following the onset of the global pandemic. In a sample of parents (n = 100; 89% female) we examined how child symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depressive, and oppositional symptoms), and mindful parenting related to changes in parenting behaviors. The results demonstrated that changes in parents' levels of setting limits and supporting good behavior with their children from fall to spring depended on levels of children's oppositional symptoms, children's anxiety symptoms, and mindful parenting. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) changed the context of schooling for both parents and their children. Learning at home presents new challenges for parents of young children and particularly for parents of children with behavior difficulties, such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The current study examined changes to parent and child behavior due to COVID-19 among 4- and 5-year-old children and their parents. Changes in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and levels of parental involvement in children's learning were examined. ADHD symptoms were also examined as a moderator of changes in parent involvement. Data were collected prior to COVID-19 and several months after school closures. Results indicated that parents' ratings of their children's ADHD symptoms increased from prior to COVID-19 to during COVID-19. There were few changes to parents' educational involvement; however, parents' beliefs about their responsibility to be involved in their children's learning changed differentially according to child gender.

ObjectiveSocial support has been linked to beneficial effects on health directly (main effect) and as a buffer to stress. Most research, however, has examined these relationships using global and retrospective assessments of health and stress, which may be subject to recall biases. This study used ambulatory ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods to test the main and stress-buffering effects of social support on the daily health and well-being of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.DesignCommunity volunteers with asthma (n = 97) or RA (n = 31) responded to EMA prompts five times daily for one week.Main outcomesBaseline perceived social support was obtained, and then, participants reported mood, stress and symptoms using EMA. Multilevel mixed-modelling examined whether social support predicted mood and symptoms directly or via stress-reducing effects.ResultsSupporting a main effect, more perceived social support predicted decreased negative mood and stress severity. Supporting a stress-buffering effect, more perceived social support resulted in fewer reported symptoms when stress was present.ConclusionResults suggest perceived social support directly relates to better ambulatory status and dynamically buffers individuals against the negative effects of stressors, and highlight the importance of studying social support across different temporal and contextual levels.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) affirms a right to education for disabled persons and aims to ensure braille instruction for blind individuals. However, there is evidence that braille instruction is often circumvented or abandoned early in CRPD nations because it is perceived as an inefficient learning medium for blind students. This perception persists despite insufficient empirical evidence and a lack of understanding of the efficiency of reading versus listening for learning in sighted individuals. We therefore investigated the efficiency of learning written versus spoken words in blind and sighted samples. Participants (23 blind, 20 sighted) studied the written definitions of 70 rare English words in successive rounds, presented in conjunction with written or spoken wordforms. Blind participants learned with equal efficiency across modalities, whereas sighted participants learned spoken words more efficiently. The findings indicate the inefficiency argument against teaching braille is groundless, both because braille word learning is not less efficient than auditory word learning for blind individuals, and because reading is valued in the education of sighted individuals despite its apparent inefficiency in that population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students, particularly those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and healthcare‐related programs, should develop proficient interpersonal skills, including communication. To help students develop effective communication skills, instructors need to consider the value students give to learning these skills. The Student Attitudes Toward Communication Skills Survey (SATCSS) was developed to measure how undergraduate students value learning communication skills based on Expectancy‐Value Theory across three modes of communication (verbal, written, non‐verbal). The survey was given to students interested in healthcare professions and enrolled in an undergraduate anatomy and physiology (A&P) course (n = 233) at a Midwest research active university. The survey showed evidence of validity, measuring two components: (1) "Value to Profession" (attainment and utility value) and (2) "Value to Self" (intrinsic value and cost). There was a significant difference in sub‐scores among the four task values such that students thought that learning communication skills was important and relevant (high attainment and utility value) but not interesting (low intrinsic value) and costly. Students with high total scores valued communication skills across all four task values. As total value scores decreased, it was first due to students finding learning communication skills to be time prohibitive and then a lack of interest in learning communication skills. Based on these results, it is recommended that instructors incorporate communication skills training into content that is already part of their A&P course to reduce time concerns. Additional recommendations include using reflective activities and humor to increase student interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the effect that belonging to a socially stigmatized group brings to attitudes about social interactions is examined. The study of women role playing a lesbian identity showed that they were much more self-conscious and paranoid about the motivations behind people's actions now that they were considered part of a stigmatized group.

Background& Objectives: Interviewers often provide positive nonverbal feedback to reduce interviewees' anxiety. Socially anxious individuals typically harbor negative self-views discrepant with positive feedback. We examined whether nonverbal feedback and social anxiety jointly influence cortisol responses to, and performance during, interviews.Design: An experimental between-subjects design randomly assigned participants to feedback condition.Methods: Undergraduate students (N = 130) provided saliva and completed social anxiety, interview anxiety, and affective measures before a simulated interview. Following a standardized script, a confederate interviewer provided positive, ambiguous, or negative nonverbal feedback. Participants then provided saliva and completed self-focused attention and self-awareness measures. Confederate interviewers and an external rater evaluated participants' anxiety displays, assertive behavior, and performance.Results: Positive feedback decreased cortisol and improved performance for low social anxiety participants. Socially anxious participants exhibited higher cortisol but did not exhibit significant differences in performance after positive compared to negative feedback.Conclusions: Consistent with previous findings, positive feedback did not benefit socially anxious interviewees. Positive feedback increased physiological arousal relative to negative feedback but did not hinder performance among people high in social anxiety. These results provide novel information about the interactive influence of social anxiety and nonverbal interviewer feedback on arousal, self-focus, and interview performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]