April Bleske-Rechek

Tracking Exceptional Human Capital Over Two Decades

Talent-search participants (286 males, 94 females) scoring in the top 0.01% on cognitive-ability measures were identified before age 13 and tracked over 20 years. Their creative, occupational, and life accomplishments are compared with those of graduate students (299 males, 287 females) enrolled in top-ranked U.S. mathematics, engineering, and physical science programs in 1992 and tracked over 10 years. By their mid-30s, the two groups achieved comparable and exceptional success (e.g., securing top tenure-track positions) and reported high and commensurate career and life satisfaction. College entrance exams administered to intellectually precocious youth uncover extraordinary potential for careers requiring creativity and scientific and technological innovation in the information age.

Psychological adaptation to human sperm competition

Abstract Sperm competition occurs when the sperm of two or more males simultaneously occupy the reproductive tract of a female and compete to fertilize an egg. We used a questionnaire to investigate psychological responses to the risk of sperm competition for 194 men in committed, sexual relationships in the United States and in Germany. As predicted, a man who spends a greater (relative to a man who spends a lesser) proportion of time apart from his partner since the couples last copulation reported (a) that his partner is more attractive, (b) that other men find his partner more attractive, (c) greater interest in copulating with his partner, and (d) that his partner is more sexually interested in him. All effects were independent of total time since the couples last copulation and the mans relationship satisfaction. Discussion addresses two failed predictions and directions for future work.

Opposite-Sex Friendship: Sex Differences and Similarities in Initiation, Selection, and Dissolution

The authors hypothesized that people form opposite-sex friendships (OSFs), in part, to acquire long-term mates (both sexes), to gain short-term sexual access (men more than women), and to gain physical protection (women more than men). In Study 1, men and women evaluated reasons for initiating OSFs, characteristics preferred in an OSF, and reasons for ending OSFs. Study 2 extended the framework to include individual differences in sociosexual orientation. Compared with women, men judged sexual attraction and a desire for sex as more important reasons for initiating OSFs, reported a preference for sexual attractiveness when selecting OSFs, and judged the lack of sex as a more important reason for dissolving OSFs. Women judged physical protection as a more important reason for initiating OSFs and the lack of it as a more important reason for dissolving them. Across sex, people with an unrestricted sexual style were more likely to perceive OSFs as opportunities for sex. Discussion addresses the implications of the results for understanding conflict in OSFs.

Meeting the Educational Needs of Special Populations Advanced Placement's Role in Developing Exceptional Human Capital

We evaluated the Advanced Placement (AP) program from the point of view of intellectually precocious youth and their subsequent educational-vocational outcomes, analyzing normative and idiographic longitudinal data collected across 30 years from 3,937 participants. Most took AP courses in high school, and those who did frequently nominated an AP course as their favorite. Students who took AP courses, compared with their intellectual peers who did not, appeared more satisfied with the intellectual caliber of their high school experience and, ultimately, achieved more. Overall, this special population placed a premium on intellectual challenge in high school and found the lack of such challenge distressing. These findings can inform contemporary educational policy debates regarding the AP program; they also have general implications for designing and evaluating educational interventions for students with special needs.

Benefit or burden? Attraction in cross-sex friendship

We propose that, because cross-sex friendships are a historically recent phenomenon, men’s and women’s evolved mating strategies impinge on their friendship experiences. In our first study involving pairs of friends, emerging adult males reported more attraction to their friend than emerging adult females did, regardless of their own or their friend’s current relationship status. In our second study, both emerging and middle-aged adult males and females nominated attraction to their cross-sex friend as a cost more often than as a benefit. Younger females and middle-aged participants who reported more attraction to a current cross-sex friend reported less satisfaction in their current romantic relationship. Our findings implicate attraction in cross-sex friendship as both common and of potential negative consequence for individuals’ long-term mateships.

Physical Cues of Ovulatory Status: A Failure to Replicate Enhanced Facial Attractiveness and Reduced Waist-to-Hip Ratio at High Fertility:

We investigated womens facial attractiveness and body shape as a function of menstrual cycle phase, with the expectation from previous research that both would be enhanced during the high fertile phase. To control for the effects of womens daily behaviors on their appearance and waistline, we visited 37 normally cycling women twice in their dorm, where we photographed and measured them at low and high fertile days of their cycle immediately upon their waking. Seventy-four judges from a separate institution chose, for each woman, the picture they thought was more attractive. We analyzed a subset of 20 women who, by forward counting, had a High Fertility visit between Days 10–13 and a Low Fertility visit between Days 20–23; and we also analyzed a subsample of 17 women who, by reverse counting, had a High Fertility visit on the days leading to ovulation and a Low Fertility visit one week after ovulation. In neither set of analyses were womens waist-to-hip ratios lower nearer ovulation, and in neither set were womens high fertile pictures chosen at an above-chance rate by either male or female judges. We did not find evidence that facial attractiveness and waist-to-hip ratio are reliable physical cues of ovulatory status.

Discrepant Performance on Multiple-Choice And Short Answer Assessments and the Relation of Performance to General Scholastic Aptitude

We conducted correlational and performance discrepancy analyses on exam and achievement data taken from students in three psychology courses. Across courses, the same findings emerged. First, only a small fraction of students consistently performed more strongly on one type of assessment (e.g., multiple‐choice) than on another (e.g., short answer). Second, students’ multiple‐choice performance, above and beyond their short answer performance, accounted for variation in students’ standing on achievement measures unrelated to psychology (including high school class standing, American College Test score, and college grade point average). In contrast, students’ short answer performance, above and beyond their multiple‐choice performance, did not account for variation in students’ standing on those achievement measures. Our findings support the continued use of multiple‐choice items to assess student learning.

Causal Inference from Descriptions of Experimental and Non-Experimental Research: Public Understanding of Correlation-Versus-Causation

ABSTRACT The human tendency to conflate correlation with causation has been lamented by various scientists (Kida, 2006; Stanovich, 2009), and vivid examples of it can be found in both the media and peer-reviewed literature. However, there is little systematic data on the extent to which individuals conflate correlation with causation. In three experiments, we presented people with one of four research vignettes generated from the combination of two independent variables: whether the vignette described an experimental or non-experimental design, and whether it revealed a positive or negative association. Upon reading their vignette, participants selected inferences that could be drawn from the findings. Participants drew causal inferences from non-experimental vignettes as often as they did from experimental vignettes, and more frequently for causal statements and directions of association that fit with intuitive notions than for those that did not. We discuss our findings in relation to other biases in human thinking.

Attractiveness and Rivalry in Women’s Same-Sex Friendships

The human tendency to affiliate with similar others is manifested in a variety of interpersonal relationships, including same-sex friendships. We propose that similarity between female friends in physical attractiveness entails both benefits and costs, with one cost being the potential for mating rivalry. In this chapter we discuss previous research on the prevalence and potential benefits of allying with similar others, the nature of intrasexual competition between women, and the intimate yet competitive nature of women’s friendships with other women. Then, we describe two recent studies from our lab designed to test the proposal that female friends are similarly attractive and that discrepancies in friends’ physical attractiveness levels are tied to perceptions of rivalry in their friendship. We demonstrate that female friends assort on attributes tied to intrasexual competition among women, specifically body shape and overall attractiveness. We also demonstrate that discrepancies in female friends’ attractiveness are linked to women’s perceptions of rivalry in their friendships. Finally, we provide discriminant evidence of these effects; specifically, attributes less relevant to women’s mate value, such as ambition and athleticism, are not tied to women’s perceptions of rivalry with their friends. We discuss the unique character of female friendships in the context of an evolutionary history dominated by male philopatry, and we offer ideas for future research on how sexual behavior is tied to female–female friendship dynamics.