Previous research on route learning has shown that men learn routes faster and with fewer errors than women. The same patterns have also been found for girls and boys. In this study, 19 children of ages 5 to 6 years, 26 children of ages 7 to 9 years, and 22 children of ages 10 to 12 years were presented a route learning task. The children were randomly assigned to either the Landmark group in which they were required to learn a route on a map that included landmarks or the No-landmark group in which they learned a route on a map without landmarks. Significant main effects were found for age and sex. Older children learned the route faster and with fewer errors than younger children. Boys made significantly fewer errors and took less time and fewer trials to reach criterion in learning the route regardless of whether landmarks were present or not. The role of landmarks in route learning needs to be further clarified.

A combined interpersonal circumplex/five-factor model approach was used to investigate personality correlates of Eating Disorders Inventory-3 (EDI-3; Garner, 2004) scales for a non-clinical sample of 234 college women. EDI-3 non-symptom scales and composites had appreciable loadings in the two-dimensional interpersonal circumplex space, with angular locations ranging mainly from Cold (180°) to Submissive (270°). In the five-factor analyses, Neuroticism made significant positive contributions to all of the EDI-3 scales and composites; Conscientiousness made contributions (all negative, save one) to 11 of the 18 scales. The results affirm the centrality of negative affect (i.e., Neuroticism) in disordered eating, but highlight also the importance of assessing interpersonal deficits, which in previous studies have been associated both with the etiology of eating-related problems and increased risk of dropout from treatment. Finally, collapsing or “weighting” EDI-3 item scores may compromise unnecessarily the psychometric properties of the scales—particularly in non-clinical populations—and we recommend derivation of additional EDI-3 norms, based on unweighted item scores.

No abstract