Contrasting effects of motor and visual spatial learning tasks on dendritic arborization and spine density in rats

Rats were trained in four different learning tasks including the Morris-water task, a T-maze delayed nonmatch-to-sample task, a skilled unilateral reaching task, and a skilled bilateral string-pulling task. At the end of training the brains were harvested and stained using a Golgi-Cox procedure. Learning the spatial navigation task produced increased dendritic length and branching as well as decreased spine density in layer III pyramidal cells in occipital cortex. Learning the T-maze task increased dendritic branching in layer III medial but not orbital frontal cortex pyramidal cells and increased spine density in both regions. The motor learning tasks produced increased dendritic length and branching in layer V pyramidal cells in the forelimb cortex in the hemisphere contralateral to the trained limb in the unilateral skilled reaching task and in both limbs in the bilateral skilled pulling task. There were no changes in spine density in layer V in the motor tasks, but there was a decrease in spine density in layer III in the unilateral reaching task. Spatial and motor learning thus produce different patterns of change in layer III cortical pyramidal neurons. Furthermore, changes in spine density and dendritic length and branching are not tightly correlated and can increase and/or decrease independently of one another in learning tasks.     

Clinicians’ Attitudes Toward Therapeutic Alliance in E-Therapy

Although therapeutic alliance is a crucial factor in face-to-face therapies, no data exist on clinicians’ attitudes towards alliance in E-therapy. The study explored clinicians’ perceived importance of alliance in E-therapy, clinicians’ confidence in their skills to develop alliance in E-therapy, and whether attitudes towards alliance in E-therapy are associated with intended E-therapy practice. Clinicians (n = 106) responded to an online survey. The majority of clinicians considered alliance to be extremely important in both face-to-face therapy and E-therapy. However, clinicians’ ratings of the importance of alliance in face-to-face therapies were significantly higher than their ratings of the importance of alliance in E-therapy. Clinicians reported less confidence in their skills to develop alliance in E-therapy than in face-to-face therapy. Intended E-therapy practice correlated with confidence in one's ability to develop alliance in E-therapy and with previous E-therapy practice.     

Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis function and hedonic behavior in adult male and female rats prenatally stressed by maternal food restriction

Neuroendocrine activation during stress is affected by many factors contributing to the variability of the stress response. The present study was aimed at evaluating long-term changes in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis function and in hedonic behavior in adult offspring prenatally stressed by maternal food restriction, with attention on possible gender differences. Adult offspring were blood sampled via a tail artery cannula. Prenatally stressed females had significantly higher adrenal weights compared to males. Plasma ACTH levels, which rose in response to acute stress induced by handling, were significantly higher in females compared to those in males. A similar pattern was found in plasma corticosterone. The rise in ACTH levels was more pronounced in prenatally stressed rats though the rise in corticosterone failed to be modified. Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and proopiomelanocortin mRNA levels in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus and anterior pituitary, respectively, were found to be unchanged. The present experiments failed to reveal a decrease in hedonic behavior in prenatally stressed rats. In contrast, in male offspring a tendency to a higher sucrose preference was observed. These data together with observed changes in hormone and CRH mRNA levels indicate that the gestational stress used did not result in a depression-like state in adult offspring.     

Sexual self-disclosure in Cyberspace among Taiwanese adolescents: gender differences and the interplay of Cyberspace and real life.

This study explored adolescents' sexual self-disclosure in real life and cyberspace, as well as gender differences of sexual self-disclosure in cyberspace. There were 115 male and 92 female adolescents who participated in this pretest and posttest survey. In general, the depth of sexual self-disclosure in real life was greater than in cyberspace, but the breadth of sexual selfdisclosure in both real life and cyberspace was equivalent. The cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that adolescents who were willing to self-disclose sexual topics in real life also selfdisclosed them more in cyberspace, and vice versa. Furthermore, sexual self-disclosure in both disclosing environments was mutually predicted by each other. The findings also indicated that cyberspace might not be a substitute channel of compensatory gratification for sexual self-disclosure in real life. As for gender differences, the breadth and depth of sexual self-disclosure in male adolescents were greater than in female adolescents, in both real life and cyberspace. Male adolescents tend to be more active in Internet sexuality than females. However, female adolescents' sexual emancipation in cyberspace is not evident in Taiwan. Possible reasons, implications, and limitations of the findings are discussed.     

Boys withdraw more in one-on-one interactions, whereas girls withdraw more in groups

Past research predicts that males will be more likely to withdraw in one-on-one interactions versus groups, whereas females will be more likely to withdraw in groups than in one-on-one interactions. Ninety-eight 10-year-old children engaged in a word generation task either in same-sex dyads or in groups. Boys completed significantly more words in groups than in dyads, whereas girls' performance was similar in the 2 social structures. Confirming the hypothesis, analyses of the dynamics of dyads and groups using time spent writing as a measure of effort demonstrated that boys withdrew more than girls in dyads, whereas girls withdrew more than boys in groups. Furthermore, in groups, girls were more likely than boys to focus on one individual. Causal explanations for sex differences in preferences for differing social structures are proposed.     

Changes in meaning in life across the course of psychodynamic psychotherapy

Using the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), we studied Presence and Search for meaning for 34 adult clients in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Clients completed the MLQ and Outcome Questionnaire (OQ) before intake and after every eight sessions. Variance in Presence scores was mostly attributable to clients; variance in Search scores was mostly attributable to clients and therapists. Clients initially high in Presence decreased and then increased back to initial levels; clients initially low in Presence increased and then decreased back to initial levels. Clients initially low in Search increased and then leveled off; clients initially high in Search decreased and then leveled off. In lagged cross panel analyses, when clients decreased in psychological distress during one eight-week time period, they increased in Presence during the next eight-week time period; when they increased in psychological distress during one eight-week time period, they increased in search in the next time period. Excerpts from post-therapy interviews illustrate the process of working with meaning in life in psychotherapy. Implications for practice and training are discussed.     

Motivation and Management Styles in the Public and Private Sectors in Taiwan and a Comparison With the United States

Motivation studies in organizations have focused primarily on private sector organizations in the U.S. The current study looks at motivation and managerial styles in the private and public sectors in Taiwan (Republic of China). The results were also compared to nonnative data for the U.S. The findings indicate that motivational levels are much higher in Taiwan than in the U.S. and consistent between the public and private sectors. There is also a strong positive perception of public sector work in Taiwan and a greater understanding and commitment to participate in motivationally based managerial styles in all types of organizations. The study suggests the need to explore the motivational processes in organizations other than those based in the Western culture.     

Strategies for visual word recognition and orthographical depth: a multilingual comparison

We investigated the psychological reality of the concept of orthographical depth and its influence on visual word recognition by examining naming performance in Hebrew, English, and Serbo-Croatian. We ran three sets of experiments in which we used native speakers and identical experimental methods in each language. Experiment 1 revealed that the lexical status of the stimulus (high-frequency words, low-frequency words, and nonwords) significantly affected naming in Hebrew (the deepest of the three orthographies). This effect was only moderate in English and nonsignificant in Serbo-Croatian (the shallowest of the three orthographies). Moreover, only in Hebrew did lexical status have similar effects on naming and lexical decision performance. Experiment 2 revealed that semantic priming effects in naming were larger in Hebrew than in English and completely absent in Serbo-Croatian. Experiment 3 revealed that a large proportion of nonlexical tokens (nonwords) in the stimulus list affects naming words in Hebrew and in English, but not in Serbo-Croatian. These results were interpreted as strong support for the orthographical depth hypothesis and suggest, in general, that in shallow orthographies phonology is generated directly from print, whereas in deep orthographies phonology is derived from the internal lexicon.     

Learning from the patient: The East,synchronicity and transference in the history of an unknown case of C.G. Jung

This article presents the history of one until now unknown case of C.G. Jung: Maggy Reichstein. Born in Indonesia in 1894 in a very aristocratic family, she brought her sister to Zurich to be treated by Jung in 1919, and later she herself was in analysis with him. Jung used her case as example in his lecture in 1937 on the realities of practical psychotherapy, relating it to the process of transference and countertransference. Jung deepened his studies in Eastern psychology after a series of dreams she had, which culminated in the Yoga Kundalini Seminars. She was also the case presented in his article of 1951 on the concept of synchronicity. Jung wrote that her case, concerning synchronicity, remained unique in his experience. Jung also published some of her mandalas. He considered her able to understand his ideas in depth. Reichstein was for Jung an important case, which challenged and triggered his interests in different subjects.     

An experimental approach to language training in second language acquisition: Focus on negation

The effect of negation training in a second language on the expression of negation in the native language was investigated. Four-year-old children from bilingual (Spanish/English) homes who showed no expressive or receptive ability in Spanish negation and were either proficient or nonproficient in English negation received Spanish negation training. Children who were proficient in English negation maintained correct responses in English and showed increased correct responses in Spanish following simultaneous training in both languages or in Spanish alone. Children who were nonproficient in English negation demonstrated a decrease in correct English responses following training in Spanish alone; however, children who received training in English and Spanish simultaneously showed increases in correct responses in both languages. These findings suggest that language training programs with children learning a second language should consider the relationship of the two language training conditions (simultaneous vs. independent) with the child's level of native language proficiency.     

The effects of neonatal gonadectomy and prenatal stress on cortical thickness and asymmetry in rats

In Study I measures of cortical thickness were taken in 90-day-old male and female Sprague-Dawley, Wistar, and Long-Evans rats that were born to pregnant females shipped to the laboratory in late pregnancy and that were either gonadectomized at birth or left intact. No evidence for hemispheric differences in cortical thickness was found in any of the groups. Gonadectomy resulted in increased cortical thickness in male Sprague-Dawley and Wistar rats and in small increases in thickness of the left hemisphere in Long-Evans rats, especially males. No effects of gonadectomy were found in females of any strain. The lack of the expected right-over-left difference in cortical thickness in intact males may have been due to prenatal stress caused by housing, handling, and shipping. In Study 2 measures of cortical thickness were taken in 90-day-old male and female Sprague-Dawley rats that were bred in our laboratory, but otherwise similarly treated at birth. In this second study, the expected right-over-left hemispheric difference in cortical thickness was found in intact male rats; none was found in gonadectomized males or in either of the female groups. The lack of asymmetry in gonadectomized males appeared to be due to an increase in thickness in the left hemisphere. Taken together these studies provide support for the idea that hormones of testicular origin suppress cortical enlargement in the perinatal period, particularly in the left hemisphere.     

Difference without dominance: Children's talk in mixed- and same-sex dyads

This study explores whether third graders verbalize gender differences in dominance in mixed- and same-sex interaction. We tape-recorded the conversations of 43 pairs of Caucasian working-class children playing checkers in same- or mixed-sex conditions. Children appear to develop gender-differentiated speech styles. Boys brag and insult their opponents in both mixed- and same-sex conditions more often than do girls. Girls talk off-topic, interrupt, and laugh more in same-sex dyads than do boys or either, boys or girls in mixed-sex dyads. Gender differences in same-sex interaction were reflected in mixed-sex interaction. Although boys account for a larger proportion of direct requests and self-promoting speech in mixed-sex encounters, we failed to uncover substantial asymmetry in mixed-sex interaction, indicating that boys do not conversationally dominate girls in third grade. However, children were less mutually engaged in mixed-sex than in same-sex interactions, and girls especially showed less positive affect in mixed-sex dyads.     

Sustained behavioral contrast in children

Children were exposed to a multiple schedule involving equal variable-interval schedules in each of two components and a multiple schedule involving a variable-interval schedule in one component and an extinction schedule in the other. Response rates were equal in both components when each involved a variable-interval schedule. Response rates differed in the two components of the multiple variable-interval extinction schedule. Response rates were higher in the variable-interval schedule when the accompanying schedule was extinction than when it was variable interval. The increase in response rate in the variable-interval component, simultaneous with the decrease in response rate in the extinction component, illustrated sustained behavioral contrast, and was the first evidence of this phenomenon in children.     

A further analysis of time bisection behavior in children with and without reference memory: the similarity and the partition task

Experiment 1 compared the temporal performance of 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds and adults in a bisection task with and without referent durations (similarity vs. partition). The results showed that temporal sensitivity was lower in the partition than in the similarity condition in children, whereas it was similar in these two conditions in the adults. In addition, the 5-year-olds produced a higher bisection point value in the partition than in the similarity task. Experiment 2, which examined changes in bisection performance over the trial blocks in the partition task, revealed that the 5-year-olds' bisection performance improved over the trial blocks, whereas the performance of the older participants did not. Further analyses revealed a greater variability in the establishment of the duration criterion in young children.     

The effect of UCS intensity in classical and avoidance GSR conditioning

This study compared GSR avoidance and yoked-control conditioning procedures. Classical conditioning at two UCS intensities was followed by extinction and, two months later, by an avoidance session. Matching of Ss was based on GSR responsiveness and classical conditioning in the first session. The strong UCS led to more rapid reduction in CR latency (due to an increase in number of Ss responding) in the first session, and there was a tendency for maximum CR magnitude to occur in fewer trials with the strong UCS. No UCS-intensity difference in level of responding to the CS or UCS was found in the first session. A greater amount of spontaneous recovery in the second session was found in the strong UCS group. The avoidance and yoked control groups did not differ in CR magnitudes, latencies, or frequencies, nor in UCR magnitudes in the second session. They did differ significantly in the rate of decline in intertriai responses, the decline being more rapid in the avoidance condition.     

汉语同形歧义词歧义消解的两半球差异

实验探讨汉语同形歧义词(homographs)歧义消解的过程及大脑两半球的差异。被试为华中科技大学96名大学生,实验采用词汇判断任务。句子语境呈现在被试的视野中央,探测词在SOA(stimulus onset asynchronism)为100毫秒或400毫秒时呈现在左视野或右视野。结果发现,(1)当SOA为100毫秒时,在左视野(右半球)上,与语境一致的同形歧义词的主要意义得到激活,与语境不一致的次要意义也有一定程度的激活。在右视野(左半球)上,只有与语境一致的同形歧义词的主要意义得到激活。(2)当SOA为400毫秒时,在左、右视野(两半球)上,与语境一致的同形歧义词的主要意义和次要意义都得到激活。结果表明,大脑左半球对汉语歧义词的歧义消解具有一定的优势,语境敏感模型可以较好地解释本实验的结果。     

Divided attention, aging, and priming in exemplar generation and category verification

Transfer-appropriate processing theories differentiate between conceptual- and perceptual-priming tasks. The former are said to be influenced by the nature of processing engaged in at study, but not by changes in modality between study and test; the latter are sensitive to changes in format between study and test, but not to variations in the extent of semantic processing at study. In the present experiments, we examined the effects of divided attention and aging on priming in exemplar generation and category verification, two tasks that require access to semantic information at test. Manipulations of attention during encoding affected the extent of priming in exemplar generation, but not in category verification. Priming effects were similar in young and older adults in exemplar generation following study in both full and divided attention. Although older adults did not demonstrate priming in category verification in one experiment, no effects of age or divided attention were observed in a second experiment. In addition, priming in category verification was unaffected by varying the level of processing at encoding. However, the absence of levels-of-processing and attention effects in category verification does not signal that priming in this task has a perceptual basis; priming in category verification was insensitive to modality shifts between study and test. The implications of these findings for theories of priming and cognitive aging are considered.     

Historical changes in cigarette smoking and smoking-related beliefs after 2 decades in a midwestern community.

Rates of cigarette smoking and smoking-related beliefs in 1980 and 2001 among 7th-11th graders in a midwestern community were compared. Smoking was less prevalent in 2001 than in 1980, with the greatest declines in experimental smoking and a smaller drop in regular smoking. Beliefs about smoking generally became more negative. Adolescents (particularly nonsmokers) viewed smoking as more addictive and as having more negative social consequences in 2001 than in 1980 and had more negative attitudes toward smoking in 2001. These results were replicated among parent-child pairs in which parents were measured when they were adolescents between 1980 and 1983 and their children were measured in 2001. These beliefs and attitudes partially mediated the effects of time on smoking.     

Religious Context and Prosociality: An Experimental Study from Valparaíso,Chile

Are people more prosocial in a religious context? We addressed this question through an experiment. We randomly placed participants in the control group in a neutral location (a lecture hall), and we placed participants in the experimental group in a religious location (a chapel). The participants then took part in a one‐shot three‐person public goods game, which measured participants’ degree of cooperativeness. The results showed that participants in the experimental group cooperated significantly more than did participants in the control group. Furthermore, participants’ beliefs about other participants’ cooperativeness were more positive in the experimental group than they were in the control group. Improved expectations of others partially explained the enhanced cooperation in the religious context. We found no main or interaction effect of self‐reported religiosity in the experiment.