MORAL THEME COMPREHENSION IN THIRD GRADERS,FIFTH GRADERS,AND COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Proponents of character education (e.g., Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues) argue that children should hear moral stories in order to develop moral character. But do children necessarily understand the moral message of a narrative? Third and fifth grade students and adults were tested for their ability to apprehend the moral messages in three stories selected from The Book of Virtues and other sources. After listening and reading along with three moral stories, participants were asked to generate the message, select the message from a list of possible messages and select a vignette with the same message from three possible vignettes. Subjects also heard and read a non‐moral story and answered comprehension questions about it. Results indicate a developmental difference in moral theme understanding unexplained by reading comprehension scores alone.     

The missing link between faces and names: Evidence from Alzheimer's disease patients

Retrieval of proper names is a cause of concern and complaint among elderly adults and it is an early symptom of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). While it is well established that AD patients have deficits of proper name retrieval, the nature of such impairment is not yet fully understood. Specifically, it is unknown whether this deficit is due to a degradation of the links between faces and proper names, or due to deficits in intentionally accessing and retrieving proper names from faces. Here, we aim to investigate the integrity of the links between famous faces and proper names in AD while minimizing the impact of the explicit retrieval. We compare the performances of AD patients and elderly controls in a face-name priming task. We assess the integrity of the link between faces and names at two different levels: identity level - the name and face belong to the same person; and semantic level - the name and face belong to the same category (e.g., politicians). Our results reveal that AD patients compared with controls show intact semantic priming but reduced priming for person identity. This suggests that the deficits in intentionally retrieving proper names in AD are the result of a partial disruption of the network at the identity level, i.e., the links between known faces and proper names.     

UNDERSTANDING THE SEXUALITY OF MEXICAN-BORN WOMEN AND THEIR RISK FOR HIV/AIDS

Participants in this study were 300 Mexican women of rural origin who were born and raised in villages of that country and who belong to one of three groups: married and living with their husbands in Los Angeles, California ( n = 100), married to migrant workers but living in Mexico ( n = 100), and living in Mexico with their spouses ( n = 100). Trained female professionals conducted face-to-face interviews in Spanish, in Mexico and in the United States. The purpose of this study was to identify specific sexual practices, coping strategies in sex-related situations, and fears and concerns regarding sexual intercourse. This article analyzes how these elements place Mexican ruralorigin women at risk for HIV/AIDS. It discusses the need to design intervention strategies to prevent HIV/AIDS that take into consideration the limited power of women in traditional societies and the cultural precepts that promote gender roles characterized by male dominance and female submissiveness in the sexual arena.