Selective migration—Again

Wolff (1979) has recently reinterpreted the data of Lee (1951). The Lee data, according to Wolff, indicate that Black migration from the south to Philadelphia had been selective in an IQ-relevant manner. Thus, according to Wolff, north- south differences in mean IQ among Blacks are at least in part a consequence of selective migration. However, Wolff's deduction from Lee's data is shown to depend entirely upon an insupportable assumption about cumulative IQ deficit in southern Black children.     

Rights and Restrictions: Temporary Agricultural Migrants and Trade Unions’ Activism in Canada and Spain

In the last two decades, temporary worker programs have experienced an unprecedented expansion as instruments of what is defined as the migration management approach. Various migrant rights activists have voiced concerns about the treatment of temporary migrants in these programs and taken initiative to advance their rights. For some migrant rights advocates, it is the temporary nature of migration that is primarily responsible for the rights deficit. Yet, other migrant rights activists accept the temporariness of labour migration while trying to ensure that migrants receive legal protections for their work rights and that these protections are enforced. Trade unions are among the actors who try to protect and advance temporary migrants’ labour rights, but their role in supporting or challenging the principles of temporary migration governance has been neglected in the scholarly literature. The article addresses this gap by highlighting the divergent position of Canadian and Spanish Unions on temporariness of this type of migration. As the article argues, the difference is related to the following four factors: (1) the degree to which the unions in question are institutionally embedded in immigration policy-making, (2) the social environment (that is, discourses on temporariness advanced by other unions and grassroots organizations), (3) the degree of protectionism unions express vis-à-vis new immigrant flows and (4) whether regulated temporary migration is contrasted with permanent or unauthorized migration.     

Selective migration— Still a viable hypothesis

Kamin (1980) has contended that arguments presented in Wolff (1979) are too weak to justify “resuscitating the selective migration debate.” Although Kamin's (1980) critique points up the need for closer scrutiny of the cumulative-deficit phenomenon, it fails to refute Wolff's (1979) conclusion that selective migration is partly responsible for the North-South black IQ differential.     

Genetics of neuronal migration in the cerebral cortex

The development of the cerebral cortex requires large-scale movement of neurons from areas of proliferation to areas of differentiation and adult function in the cortex proper, and the patterns of this neuronal migration are surprisingly complex. The migration of neurons is affected by several naturally occurring genetic defects in humans and mice; identification of the genes responsible for some of these conditions has recently yielded new insights into the mechanisms that regulate migration. Other key genes have been identified via the creation of induced mutations that can also cause dramatic disorders of neuronal migration. However, our understanding of the physiological and biochemical links between these genes is still relatively spotty. A number of molecules have also been studied in mice (Reelin, mDab1, and the VLDL and ApoE2 receptors) that appear to represent part of a coherent signaling pathway that regulates migration, because multiple genes cause an indistinguishable phenotype when mutated. On the other hand, two human genes that cause lissencephaly (LIS1, DCX) encode proteins that have recently been implicated as regulators or microtubule dynamics. This article reviews some of the mutant phenotypes in light of the mechanisms of neuronal migration. MRDD Research Reviews 6:34-40, 2000.     

The psychology of farming: A review of twenty-five years of research

If all of mankind is to have an adequate diet, we must both stabilize world population and increase markedly world food supply. Moreover, attaining any such increase in food supply may be as much a problem in vocational psychology (e.g. the skill, knowledge, openness to change, and motivation of farmers) as in agricultural technology. The purpose of this review is to further psychological work on agricultural productivity by listing and evaluating a cross-section of relevant articles since 1945. Because psychologists have largely ignored agriculture, most reviewed studies were conducted by other behavioral scientists. Studies are grouped according to three broad areas: (1) predictors of choice, success, and satisfaction; (2) adoption of recommended practices; and (3) communal agriculture.     

Selective exposure to information and cognitive dissonance

Despite numerous attempts, the selective exposure prediction of Festinger's (A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson, 1957) theory of cognitive dissonance has not been consistently demonstrated. In previous studies, this failure can be attributed to design deficiencies, and other related problems. The present study manipulated dissonance by having subjects write a counterattitudinal essay under conditions of high or low choice. Information in the form of pamphlets and discussion groups was offered to the subjects such that they could choose information that was consonant and dissonant with the decision to write the essay. The information was offered either before or after an attitude measure on the essay topic, as the attitude measure could also be a source of dissonance reduction. The results indicate that the high choice manipulation yielded greater attitude change than the low-choice manipulation. High-choice subjects desired consonant information more and dissonant information less than did low-choice subjects. This effect was found for both measures of information desire (pamphlets and discussion groups). Low-choice subjects who received the attitude questionnaire before the information measures wanted information more than if offered the information before the attitude questionnaire, implying a sensitizing effect produced by the attitude questionnaire for the low-choice subjects. The various effects are discussed as providing support for predictions from Festinger's dissonance theory.     

Temperament and migration patterns in Finland

Migration is a central determinant of population dynamics and structure. We examined whether three major temperament traits--sociability, emotionality, and activity--predicted migration propensity, selective urban-rural migration, and migration distance in a 9-year prospective study in Finland. The participants were Finnish women and men (N= 1,733) ages 15 to 30 years at baseline. The home municipality's position on the urban-rural continuum was assessed on the basis of the municipality's population density. We found that high sociability predicted migration to urban areas and longer migration distances. High activity increased general migration propensity (including migration to both urban and rural areas). High emotionality increased the likelihood of leaving the home municipality and decreased migration distances, but was not associated with selective urban-rural migration. These data suggest that temperament predicts the self-selection of environments on a demographic scale and may be relevant in understanding population dynamics.     

Psychophysical scales of age based on marriage frequencies

The frequency of marriage between women of one age and men of another was assumed to depend upon the overall tendencies of women and men of the corresponding psychological ages to marry, multiplied by a nonincreasing function of the absolute difference between the psychological ages. Using this model and standard nonmetric scaling techniques, scales of psychological age as a function of physical age were inferred from published marriage frequencies for 1951 and 1959. Psychological age was well approximated by the cube root of the difference between physical age and a threshold age of about 12 years for women and 14 years for men.     

面孔吸引力和信息正确性对幼儿选择性信任的影响

实验1采用3×2×2 的混合设计, 考察4~6岁幼儿获取全新信息时基于面孔吸引力的选择性信任及其特点。结果显示：(1) 4~6岁的男孩和女孩均表现出对高面孔吸引力者的选择性信任。(2)在选择性信任程度方面：5岁比4岁高, 而4岁和6岁之间、5岁和6岁之间则相同; 女孩在询问任务中比男孩表现出更高的选择性信任, 在赞同任务中则相同。那么, 幼儿的这种选择性信任是否受到信息正确性的调节?为此, 实验2采用2×3的被试间设计, 探讨信息提供者提供信息的正确性对4~6岁幼儿基于面孔吸引力的选择性信任的影响。结果显示：在正确性为50% vs. 50%条件下, 幼儿未对信息提供者产生选择性信任; 在正确性为25% vs. 75%条件下, 幼儿对提供较大正确性信息的低面孔吸引力者产生了选择性信任。研究结果表明：(1)在信息缺乏时, 4~6岁幼儿普遍存在有偏见的选择性信任; 女孩比男孩更易受到社会偏见因素的影响。(2)在信息明确时, 4~6岁幼儿也能做出相对理性的选择性信任。     

Selection from perceptual and conceptual representations

The lateral prefrontal cortex has been implicated in a wide variety of functions that guide our behavior, and one such candidate function is selection. Selection mechanisms have been described in several domains spanning different stages of processing, from visual attention to response execution. Here, we consider two such mechanisms: selecting relevant information from the perceptual world (e.g., visual selective attention) and selecting relevant information from conceptual representations (e.g., selecting a specific attribute about an object from long-term memory). Although the mechanisms involved in visual selective attention have been well characterized, much less is known about the latter case of selection. In this article, we review the relevant literature from the attention domain as a springboard to understanding the mechanisms involved in conceptual selection.     

The Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Exon 3 VNTR Contributes to Adaptive Personality Differences in an Italian Small Island Population

The search for evolutionary forces shaping the diversity of human personality traits encouraged studies that have found that islanders are relatively closed and introverted, with little interest in the external world. The ‘personality gene flow’ hypothesis was proposed to explain the mechanism underlying this difference, suggesting that the frequency of alleles that influence islander personality traits might progressively increase in the gene pools on islands because of selective emigration of individuals not displaying these alleles. We genotyped 96 individuals from the Italian mainland and 117 from Giglio Island, whose residents were previously assessed regarding their personality traits. We genotyped three polymorphisms: the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) exon 3 repeat region, the serotonin‐transporter SLC6A4 5‐HTTLPR indel and the dopamine transporter SLC6A3 DAT1 3′UTR repeat region. Only the DRD4 exon 3 repeat was hypothesised to show varying allele frequencies because this polymorphism could be associated with human migration and personality traits such as extraversion, openness and novelty seeking. As predicted, no differences in allele frequencies were found for the SLC6A4 and SLC6A3 polymorphisms, whereas significant differences were observed in the frequency of the DRD4 exon 3 alleles. The DRD4.2 repeat was more common in mainlanders, as expected, whereas the DRD4.7 allele was over‐represented among islanders who never emigrated. This last result contradicts the suggested association of this allele with long‐distance migrations. We suggest that emigration might have caused gene flow out the island that resulted in somewhat unpredictable changes in the frequencies of specific alleles, thus influencing islander personality traits. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Ego Integrity in the Lives of Older Women: A Follow-Up of Mothers From the Sears,Maccoby, and Levin (1951) Patterns of Child Rearing Study

Ego integrity, Erik Erikson's (E. H. Erikson, 1963) concept of psychological maturity in later life and the pinnacle of 8 stages, has been one of the least studied of all his stage constructs. This paper explores the meaning of ego integrity (as assessed by C. D. Ryff & S. G. Heincke, 1983) in the lives of a sample of older women, by examining the predictors and concomitants of ego integrity (EI), using data from interviews conducted with the same women in 1951 and 1996 and a questionnaire administered in 1996. A 3-step regression model revealed that “identity” assessed in 1951 predicted generativity in 1996; the level of educational attainment and marital status were also significant predictors. In step 2, generativity alone predicted ego integrity, which in turn predicted depression. Ego integrity was associated with higher marital satisfaction in the mothers' lives, both in the past and in the present; it was implicated in better relationships with their adult children, in the mothers' willingness to both give and receive help, and in several dimensions of psychological well-being.     

Relations between 18-month-olds’ gaze pattern and target action performance: A deferred imitation study with eye tracking

Deferred imitation studies are used to assess infants’ declarative memory performance. These studies have found that deferred imitation performance improves with age, which is usually attributed to advancing memory capabilities. Imitation studies, however, are also used to assess infants’ action understanding. In this second research program it has been observed that infants around the age of one year imitate selectively, i.e., they imitate certain kinds of target actions and omit others. In contrast to this, two-year-olds usually imitate the model's exact actions. 18-month-olds imitate more exactly than one-year-olds, but more selectively than two-year-olds, a fact which makes this age group especially interesting, since the processes underlying selective vs. exact imitation are largely debated. The question, for example, if selective attention to certain kinds of target actions accounts for preferential imitation of these actions in young infants is still open. Additionally, relations between memory capabilities and selective imitation processes, as well as their role in shaping 18-month-olds’ neither completely selective, nor completely exact imitation have not been thoroughly investigated yet. The present study, therefore, assessed 18-month-olds’ gaze toward two types of actions (functional vs. arbitrary target actions) and the model's face during target action demonstration, as well as infants’ deferred imitation performance. Although infants’ fixation times to functional target actions were not longer than to arbitrary target actions, they imitated the functional target actions more frequently than the arbitrary ones. This suggests that selective imitation does not rely on selective gaze toward functional target actions during the demonstration phase. In addition, a post hoc analysis of interindividual differences suggested that infants’ attention to the model's social-communicative cues might play an important role in exact imitation, meaning the imitation of both functional and arbitrary target actions.     

Are Peripheral Regions Benefiting from National Policies Aimed at Attracting Skilled Migrants? Case Study of the Northern Territory of Australia

Complex and interrelated trends in population and labour market dynamics in peripheral regions of developed countries have compelled them to use international skilled migration to address their skill shortages and facilitate economic development. Using the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia as a case study, this paper examines if and how these regions can benefit from a national policy for skilled migration, including the regional migration policy, which Australia has been operating since 1996–1997. The paper situates the regional migration policy in a context of the global competition for skills, explains how it came about and outlines the key characteristics of the NT as a peripheral region. An innovative approach to immigration data analysis permits formulating four propositions about the nature of international migration to peripheral regions. The analysis consists of tracking over a period of 17 years, the dynamics between all components of Australia’s and the Northern Territory’s permanent additions and comparing changes in the composition of their respective skilled migration streams. The paper proposes that peripheral regions benefit from skilled migration with a lagged effect as compared to Australia as a whole. It suggests that in order to better address skill shortages, they should also develop the capacity of the locally resident immigrant groups.     

Attitudes toward the unification of Western Europe and cross-national suicide rates: eight European countries, 1973-1990

Durkheim's (1897/1951) theory of political integration argues that when political crises occur, individuals band together to solve the problem at hand. As a result, this increased integration yields lower suicide rates. The purpose of this analysis is to examine a different component of the concept of political integration-that of attitudes. During the past couple of decades, individuals in eight Western European countries have been asked about their attitudes toward the unification of Western Europe. Cross-sectional time series analysis reveals that the attitudes individuals hold toward such an event are significantly related to suicide rates. Although Durkheim's theory of political integration focuses on events within a given country, the research herein finds that political integration exists on an international level as well. A reformulation of Durkheim's theory of political integration is put forth.     

The role of working memory in auditory selective attention

A growing body of research now demonstrates that working memory plays an important role in controlling the extent to which irrelevant visual distractors are processed during visual selective attention tasks (e.g., Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, & Viding, 2004). Recently, it has been shown that the successful selection of tactile information also depends on the availability of working memory (Dalton, Lavie, & Spence, 2009). Here, we investigate whether working memory plays a role in auditory selective attention. Participants focused their attention on short continuous bursts of white noise (targets) while attempting to ignore pulsed bursts of noise (distractors). Distractor interference in this auditory task, as measured in terms of the difference in performance between congruent and incongruent distractor trials, increased significantly under high (vs. low) load in a concurrent working-memory task. These results provide the first evidence demonstrating a causal role for working memory in reducing interference by irrelevant auditory distractors.     

SPREADING OF VISUAL ATTENTION TO MODALLY VERSUS AMODALLY COMPLETED REGIONS

Abstract— Regions of objects that are partially obscured at the current retinal image are often perceptually filled in by the visual system (Kanizsa, 1979). In some cases (modal completion), this causes the filled-in region to appear tinged with the color and brightness of unobscured parts of that object, but m other cases (amodal completion), it does not (Michotte & Burke, 1951). It has recently been argued that modal and amodal completion both arise in preattentive vision, and may operate equivalently at that level (Davis & Driver, 1994, He & Nakayama, 1992, Shipley & Kellman, 1992). In this article, we show that they have different effects on attentive vision, with attention tending to spread to (and from) modally completed regions and their visible inducers, but not to (or from) comparable amodally completed regions and their inducers. This finding is consistent with visual attention operating on surfaces (e g, He & Nakayama, 1995) in a viewer-centered representation of the scene, after the operation of filling-in processes.     

Differential Diagnosis with the Bender Gestalt Test

Forty-two patients, 18 of whom were diagnosed as organic and 24 as having a functional psychiatric disorder, were given the Bender Gestalt test. Both the Hain (1964) and the Pascal and Suttell (1951) scoring systems gave mean scores for the two groups which were different at beyond the .001 level of significance. The Pascal-Suttell also gave a significant difference between means when either patient group was compared with normals. Using a previously established cutoff score for the Hain, 76% of the patients were correctly classified, as compared with 81% by a clinical expert on the Bender.