Diet and gender influences on processing and discrimination of speech sounds in 3- and 6-month-old infants: a developmental ERP study

Early post-natal nutrition influences later development, but there are no studies comparing brain function in healthy infants as a function of dietary intake even though the major infant diets differ significantly in nutrient composition. We studied brain responses (event-related potentials; ERPs) to speech sounds for infants who were fed either breast milk (BF), milk-based formula (MF), or soy formula (SF) during the first 6 months of life. Two syllables presented in an oddball paradigm elicited a late positive wave (P350) from temporal and frontal brain regions involved in language processes. All groups showed significantly greater response amplitudes to the infrequent syllable across sites at 3 months and frontally at 6 months, but significant discrimination at temporal sites was only observed at 6 months in BF infants. Decreases in response amplitudes from 3 to 6 months were greater for the frequently presented syllable, most prominent in BF infants, and greater in females than males. The results indicate greater syllable discrimination in BF than formula-fed infants, but whether this can be attributed to dietary influences alone remains unclear. Feeding method and background factor differences between breastfed and formula-fed infants may also contribute to the observed differences. The general absence of differences between formula-fed groups is notable and suggests that milk-based formula and soy formula equally support brain development and function during the first post-natal 6 months. Finally, the results indicate gender differences in the development of neural and temporal processes involved in sensory discrimination, and suggest that at 6 months these processes are better developed in females.     

Examining the constructs of work-to-family enrichment and positive spillover

This paper reports three studies examining construct validity evidence for two recently developed measures of the positive side of the work–family interface: work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS; Hanson, Hammer, & Colton, 2006) and work-to-family enrichment (WFE; Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, & Grzywacz, 2006). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the results from the first two studies indicate that the best fitting model distinguishes between WFPS and WFE, each with three sub-dimensions. However, these studies also showed that several items measuring WFE cross-loaded onto factors measuring WFPS. Results from the discriminant analyses showed that the sub-dimensions of WFPS and WFE uniquely predicted job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Yet, when WFPS and WFE were examined as one dimension, the measure of WFE predicted life satisfaction, but the measure of WFPS did not add to the prediction above WFE. Across both studies, WFE mediated the relationship between WFPS with both job and life satisfaction. Lastly, Study 3 provides some evidence of the content adequacy of these items; however, several items overlapped in content. These results suggest that enrichment and positive spillover are distinct but related constructs, each with three sub-dimensions. Further, more work is needed to refine the measurement of WFE and WFPS; however, this research helps advance our understanding of the positive side of the work–family interface.     

Current developments in the practice of individual psychoanalytic psychodrama in France

The authors present the history of individual psychoanalytic psychodrama and its current developments as practised in France. They put forward the technique, objectives and rules, along with the indications, limits and risks that ensue from the specific nature of this therapeutic approach. Through its technical adjustments, individual psychoanalytic psychodrama provides a therapeutic option that is appropriate to the defences prevalent in many patients that cause classical psychotherapies to fail: massive inhibition, operative functioning far removed from affects or in false self mode; phobias, disavowal or splitting of the internal psychic life and emotions; prevalence of short discharge circuits in acted-out behaviours and bodily or visceral complaints and expressions. Psychodrama utilizes these defences not in order to eliminate them but to 'subvert' them so that they can continue to carry out their protective role, in particular ensuring narcissistic continuity. At the same time, psychodrama relaxes these defences and facilitates a possible filtering through of the repressed material. Through the number of actors and the diffraction of transference that this allows, psychodrama provides a possibility of adjusting the potentially traumatic effect of the encounter with the object and the instigation of the transference in the regressive dimension induced by any psychotherapeutic process.     

Perfectionistic Automatic Thoughts and Psychological Distress in Adolescents: An Analysis of the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory

The present paper examines a measure of perfectionistic automatic thoughts in terms of its psychometric properties and association with depression in adolescents. The Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory (PCI) was administered to two samples of adolescents. The first sample of adolescents (N?=?250) also completed measures of trait perfectionism and depression. The second sample of adolescents (N?=?105) completed these same measures as well as measures of negative automatic thoughts, positive automatic thoughts, self-criticism, and dependency. Psychometric analyses established that the PCI consists of one large factor with a high level of internal consistency. As expected, the PCI in adolescents was correlated significantly with trait measures of perfectionism, self-criticism, dependency, as well as general measures of automatic thoughts. Most importantly, a series of hierarchical regressions established that the PCI accounted for a significant degree of unique variance in depression, over and above the variance attributable to trait personality measures and negative automatic thoughts in general. Overall, the findings suggest perfectionistic automatic thoughts can be assessed in a reliable and valid manner in adolescents and that the experience of frequent, perfectionistic thoughts contributes uniquely to increased levels of psychological distress.     

Internal and external factors modulate food-calling in domestic hens

Two series of experiments investigated factors affecting utterance of food calls in the domestic hen, Gallus domesticus. The first series of experiments tested the effect of food preference and the hen’s internal state on the utterance of food calls. Different food types were presented first singly and then in a choice test to 20 hens, first when hens were laying, and then when they were maternal. The second series of experiments tested the effect of hunger level on the utterance of food calls in laying hens, and maternal hens with or without chicks. These two series of experiments showed that laying hens and maternal hens showed a similar marked preference for certain types of food, but laying hens very rarely emitted food calls, in contrast to maternal hens. This shows the effect of the bird’s psychophysiological state on her tendency to emit food calls. The more a maternal hen preferred a food type, the more food calls she emitted. This was observed from the beginning of a test in single-food tests as well as in choice tests. Hunger level positively affected food-call production under certain feeding conditions in maternal hens, but not in laying hens. When maternal hens were tested in the absence of their chicks, utterance of food calls was more sustained than in the presence of chicks. Received: 14 May 1998 / Accepted after revision: 11 October 1998     

Evidence for a role of action in colour perception

Action is not usually considered to play a role in colour perception. However, sensorimotor theories of perception (eg O'Regan and No?, 2001 Behavior and Brain Science 24 939-1011) suggest that, on the contrary, the transformations created by action in the sensory input are a necessary condition for all perception. In the case of colour vision, eye movements may explain how a retina with significant irregularities in resolution and cone arrangement (Roorda and Williams, 1999 Nature 397 520-522) could permit the perception of a richly coloured world (Clark and O'Regan, 2000 15th International Conference on Pattern Recognition volume 2: Pattern Recognition and Neural Networks pp 503-506; Skaff et al, 2002 16th International Conference on Pattern Recognition volume 2, pp 681-684). We provide evidence that perception of colour is modified when an artificial coupling is introduced linking eye movements and colour changes. After 40 min of wearing left-field-blue/right-field-yellow spectacles, observers' colour vision adapts so that, after removing the spectacles, white patches seem to become bluer when the eyes move rightwards and yellower when the eyes move leftwards. This induced dependence of colour perception on the direction of eye saccade is shown to be related to the amount of eye movements during exposure. This result, which cannot be explained either by retinal adaptation, or by a conditioned association between colour and side, constitutes first clear evidence for a role of eye movements in perceived colour and argues for the involvement in colour perception of neural mechanisms continuously tuned to sensorimotor contingencies.     

When to intervene and take a stand: Evaluating bystander roles in intergroup name-calling contexts

Children (n = 121, M = 9.86 years, SD = 0.64) and adolescents (n = 101, M = 12.84 years, SD = 0.69) evaluated proactive and passive bystander behaviour to intergroup name-calling (N = 222, 54% female). Scenarios depicted ingroup perpetrators and outgroup victims who were from a stigmatized group (ethnicity) or a non-stigmatized group (school affiliation), with bystanders depicted as being proactive (intervening to help) or passive (failing to challenge the aggression), counter to their own group's norm. Children and adolescents personally evaluated proactive bystanders more favourably than passive bystanders. However, adolescents, more than children, expected their peers to be more positive about proactive bystanders than passive bystanders in the stigmatized context. Results are discussed in terms of the complexities of bystander decisions and implications for anti-bullying interventions.     

Adolescents' evaluations of those who challenge exclusive and inclusive peer norms

Early and middle adolescents' judgements and reasonings about peers who challenge exclusive and inclusive peer group norms were examined across three studies with varying intergroup contexts. Study 1 participants included (N = 199) non-Arab American participants responding to an Arab American/non-Arab American intergroup context. Study 2 included (N = 123) non-Asian and (N = 105) Asian American participants responding to an Asian/non-Asian American intergroup context. Study 3 included (N = 275) Lebanese participants responding to an American/Lebanese intergroup context. Across all three studies participants responded to ingroup and outgroup deviant group members who challenged their peer groups to either include or exclude an outgroup peer with similar interests. Findings indicated that adolescents approved of peers who challenged exclusive peer norms and advocated for inclusion of an ethnic and cultural outgroup, and disapproved of peers who challenged inclusive group norms and advocated for exclusion. Non-Arab and non-Asian American adolescents displayed ingroup bias when evaluating a deviant advocating for exclusion. Additionally, age differences were found among Asian American adolescents. Findings will be discussed in the light of intergroup research on those who challenge injustices.