Costs and Benefits of Bullying in the Context of the Peer Group: A Three Wave Longitudinal Analysis

Whereas previous research has shown that bullying in youth is predictive of a range of negative outcomes later in life, the more proximal consequences of bullying in the context of the peer group at school are not as clear. The present three-wave longitudinal study followed children (N?=?394; 53 % girls; M _age?=?10.3 at Time 1) from late childhood into early adolescence. Joint trajectory analyses were used to examine the dynamic prospective relations between bullying on the one hand, and indices tapping perceived popularity, peer-reported social acceptance, self-perceived social competence, and internalizing symptoms on the other. Results show that although young bullies may be on a developmental path that in the long run becomes problematic, from the bullies’ perspective in the shorter term personal advantages outweigh disadvantages. High bullying is highly positively related to high social status as indexed by perceived popularity. Although bullies are not very high in peer-rated social acceptance, most are not very low either. Moreover, bullies do not demonstrate elevated internalizing symptoms, or problems in the social domain as indexed by self-perceived social competence. As bullying yields clear personal benefits for the bullies without strong costs, the findings underscore the need for interventions targeting mechanisms that reward bullying (198 words).     

Role of Timing of Visual Monitoring and Motor Rehearsal in Observational Learning of Action Patterns

This experiment tested the hypothesis that observational learning is enhanced by visual monitoring of enactments that is optimally timed for conception-action matching and by motor rehearsal that serves to refine the cognitive representation. Subjects observed a modeled action pattern, after which they enacted it with either concurrent, delayed, or no visual monitoring. They then engaged in motor rehearsal or did not rehearse the action pattern. Development of the cognitive representation of the modeled action was also measured. Concurrent visual monitoring of enactments greatly facilitated observational learning, whereas delayed visual monitoring did not affect the acquisition process. Rehearsal aided cognitive representation and behavioral reproduction. The more accurate the cognitive representation of the modeled action pattern, the more skilled were the subsequent reproductions of it. After gaining proficiency in converting conception to action, subjects showed no decline in reproduction accuracy when modeling and visual monitoring were withdrawn.     

Rorschach Indices of Perceptual and Conceptual Disorganization

Figure drawings were obtained from 97 preadolescent males who differed in self and behavioral assessments of self-esteem. These subjects had been selected from a much larger sample and represented five different types of self-esteem. The figure drawings were scored for 15 variables, dealing with formal characteristics, content, and global-interpretations of the total drawings. Five significant differences were obtained, with the content and global-interpretative categories proving more differentiating between self-esteem groups than did the formal characteristics. Behavioral expressions of self-esteem were more associated with figure drawing characteristics than were subjective evaluations. Discussion focuses on the nature of self-concept and self-esteem in children as a sensorimotor rather than symbolic expression.     

Diurnal cortisol rhythm and cognitive functioning in toddlers: The Generation R Study

Little is known about the relationship between diurnal cortisol secretion patterns and cognitive function early in life. This population-based study examined whether diurnal cortisol rhythms and cognitive functioning in toddlers are related. Within the Generation R Study, parents of 364 infants (median age: 14.2 months) collected saliva samples at five moments during one day. We assessed the diurnal cortisol rhythm by calculating the area under the curve (AUC), the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and the diurnal slope. Verbal cognitive functioning and fine motor development was determined at age 18 months. Nonverbal cognitive functioning was assessed at age 30 months. A more positive CAR was associated with a lower risk of delay in language comprehension (OR per 1-SD CAR: 0.62, 95%CI: 0.40–0.98, p = .04), a lower risk of nonoptimal fine motor development (OR per 1-SD slope: 0.74, 95%CI: 0.57–0.96, p = .03), and a lower risk of delay in nonverbal cognitive development (OR per 1-SD CAR: 0.58, 95%CI: 0.38–0.90, p = .02). Also, children with flatter slopes had a lower risk of delay in nonverbal cognitive development (OR per 1-SD slope: 0.51, 95%CI: 0.34–0.76, p = .001). Higher AUC levels were associated with a higher risk of delay in language production. These results show that variations in diurnal cortisol rhythms are already associated with variations in cognitive functioning at a young age. Infants with a diurnal cortisol pattern indicative of less stress and more cortisol reactivity, that is, lower AUC levels and a more positive CAR, show a lower risk of delay in cognitive functioning as toddlers.     

Changes of hardness and electronic work function of Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 bulk metallic glass on annealing

The hardness and electronic work function (EWF) of a bulk metallic glass, namely Zr_41.2Ti_13.8Cu_12.5Ni₁₀Be_22.5, have been studied experimentally, with an emphasis on the effect of heat treatments. The glass was annealed at different time and temperatures, and its hardness and EWF measured using the Rockwell indentation technique and a scanning Kelvin probe system, respectively. It is found that the EWF decreases with annealing time and temperature, whereas the hardness increases. This study shows a close relationship between hardness and EWF, indicating that the EWF could be a sensitive parameter for characterising and investigating the mechanical behaviour of BMG at the electronic level.     

Instrumental Borders of Gender and Religious Conversion in the Balkans∗

Abstract

In this paper I look at religious identifications and affiliations in the Balkans as instrumental political resources for ascertaining hierarchical relations among social groups and individuals, with extensive use of gendered metaphors, referring to different categories of people as either effeminate or truly manly, and actual women often used as a currency of exchange.     

Are space and time automatically integrated in episodic memory?

The aim of the present study was to determine to what extent spatial and temporal features are automatically integrated during encoding in episodic memory. Both nameable and non-nameable stimuli were presented sequentially at different locations on a computer screen. Mixed and pure blocks of trials were used. In the mixed blocks participants were instructed to focus either on the spatial or the temporal order of the objects, as on the majority of the trials recall of this feature was tested (expected trials). However, on a few trials participants had to reproduce the other feature (unexpected trials). In the pure blocks either the spatial or the temporal order of the objects was tested on all trials. More errors were made on unexpected than on expected trials of the mixed blocks. Moreover, no primacy or recency effects were found when performance on the spatial task was plotted as a function of the temporal position. These results suggest that spatial information and temporal order information rely on separate encoding processes.     

Categorical perception of morphed objects using a free-naming experiment

Morphed figures entail a dominant and nondominant interpretation. Testing perception of morphed objects using forced-choice methods demonstrates that morphed figures are perceived as their dominant interpretation (“categorical perception”, or CP). Using a more natural free-naming response could reveal whether CP is an effect independent of method. In Experiment 1, therefore, series of morphed figures were tested for CP using free naming. Half of the morph series were identified as CP patterns. In Experiment 2, we used forced choice to investigate CP, resulting in an increase of number of CP series compared to free naming. The overlap between CP series of Experiments 1 and 2 was small, however. Experiment 3 revealed that higher perceptual similarity between the extremes of the series was strongly related to CP for the free-naming method, in contrast to the forced-choice method. We conclude that the observation of CP depends on the intactness of the intrinsic object structure caused by the morphing procedure.