Bilingual advantage,bidialectal advantage or neither? Comparing performance across three tests of executive function in middle childhood

When bilinguals speak, both fluent language systems become activated in parallel and exert an influence on speech production. As a consequence of maintaining separation between the two linguistic systems, bilinguals are purported to develop enhanced executive control functioning. Like bilinguals, individuals who speak two dialects must also maintain separation between two linguistic systems, albeit to a lesser degree. Across three tests of executive function, we compared bilingual and bidialectal children's performance to that of a monolingual control group. No evidence for a bidialectal advantage was found. However, in line with a growing number of recent partial and failed replications, we observed a significant bilingual advantage only in one measure in one task. This calls the robustness of the bilingual advantage into question. A comprehensive review of studies investigating advantages of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in bilingual children reveals that the bilingual advantage is likely to be both task and sample specific, and the interaction between these factors makes qualification of the effect challenging. These findings highlight the importance of tracking the impact of dual linguistic systems across the lifespan using tasks calibrated for difficulty across different ages.     

Shape, color and the other-race effect in the infant brain

The 'other-race' effect describes the phenomenon in which faces are difficult to distinguish from one another if they belong to an ethnic or racial group to which the observer has had little exposure. Adult observers typically display multiple forms of recognition error for other-race faces, and infants exhibit behavioral evidence of a developing other-race effect at about 9 months of age. The neural correlates of the adult other-race effect have been identified using ERPs and fMRI, but the effects of racial category on infants' neural response to face stimuli have to date not been described. We examine two distinct components of the infant ERP response to human faces and demonstrate through the use of computer-generated 'hybrid' faces that the observed other-race effect is not the result of low-level sensitivity to 3D shape and color differences between the stimuli. Rather, differential processing depends critically on the joint encoding of race-specific features.     

A social‐contextual understanding of concordance and discordance between maternal prenatal representations of the infant and infant–mother attachment

This prospective study examined the relationship between maternal prenatal representations of the infant and later infant–mother attachment, including contextual factors related to concordance and discordance among dyads over time. Participants were 173 pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 40 who were interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy and 2 and 13 months after birth. Maternal representations were assessed by the Working Model of the Child Interview during pregnancy (WMCI; C.H. Zeanah, D. Benoit, L. Hirshberg, M.L. Barton, & C. Regan, 1994), and infant–mother attachment was assessed through the Strange Situation procedure (M.D.S. Ainsworth, M. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978) when infants were 13 months old. There was substantial discordance between maternal and infant classifications, although a significant concordance rate was found when classifications were collapsed into balanced/secure and nonbalanced/insecure groups based on prenatal representations and postnatal infant attachment groups (60%; χ² = 6.90, p < .01; κ .20). As expected, discordance between maternal representations and infant–mother attachment was meaningfully related to contextual risk factors, maternal depression, and infant behaviors.     

Neural correlates of facial emotion processing in infancy

In the present study we examined the neural correlates of facial emotion processing in the first year of life using ERP measures and cortical source analysis. EEG data were collected cross‐sectionally from 5‐ (N = 49), 7‐ (N = 50), and 12‐month‐old (N = 51) infants while they were viewing images of angry, fearful, and happy faces. The N290 component was found to be larger in amplitude in response to fearful and happy than angry faces in all posterior clusters and showed largest response to fear than the other two emotions only over the right occipital area. The P400 and Nc components were found to be larger in amplitude in response to angry than happy and fearful faces over central and frontal scalp. Cortical source analysis of the N290 component revealed greater cortical activation in the right fusiform face area in response to fearful faces. This effect started to emerge at 5 months and became well established at 7 months, but it disappeared at 12 months. The P400 and Nc components were primarily localized to the PCC/Precuneus where heightened responses to angry faces were observed. The current results suggest the detection of a fearful face in infants’ brain can happen shortly (~200–290 ms) after the stimulus onset, and this process may rely on the face network and develop substantially between 5 to 7 months of age. The current findings also suggest the differential processing of angry faces occurred later in the P400/Nc time window, which recruits the PCC/Precuneus and is associated with the allocation of infants’ attention.     

Convex hull and tour crossings in the Euclidean traveling salesperson problem: Implications for human performance studies

Recently there has been growing interest among psychologists in human performance on the Euclidean traveling salesperson problem (E-TSP). A debate has been initiated on what strategy people use in solving visually presented E-TSP instances. The most prominent hypothesis is the convex-hull hypothesis, originally proposed by MacGregor and Ormerod (1996). We argue that, in the literature so far, there is no evidence for this hypothesis. Alternatively we propose and motivate the hypothesis that people aim at avoiding crossings.     

La pratique répétée du Trail Making Test réduit les différences liées à l’âge sur la performance à ce test

Age-related impairment in executive functioning has been found to explain partially the decrease of cognitive performance with aging. However, the practice of an executive test can improve performance to this test. In the present study, we investigated first how the practice of the Trail Making Test (TMT, flexibility test) may influence the age-related deficit to the performance in this test and then how the performance tended to improve, and at which pace, through the practice of this executive test. Two age groups of participants (young and older adults) practiced the TMT and were compared to two control groups (i.e., no practice between pre- and post-test). The practice groups’ scores were obtained at the end of each session. Globally, the results showed an improvement of performance (1) greater in the practice groups than in the control groups and (2) in practice groups, greater in older adults than in younger ones. Both younger and older adults progressed during the early practice sessions but the younger ones reached their optimal level earlier than the older adults who continued to improve over the sessions. These results could have a major impact on adapting cognitive stimulation programs to individual's characteristics such as age.     

Bridging the Divide Between Psychodynamic and Behavioral Approaches for Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

ABSTRACT

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is one of the primary reasons youth are referred to mental health services. Disruptive behavior disorders such as ODD are heterogeneous in their presentation, developmental trajectories, and treatment needs. Given the high attrition rates in child psychotherapy in general, there is a need for a range of interventions tailored to meet the unique needs of each family to help increase familial engagement and positive outcomes for children with ODD.

This article outlines composite clinical case material of a child with ODD who was treated with Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C), a manualized, psychodynamic intervention for ODD. The case presented is then reconceptualized from a behavioral parent training perspective. This approach uses parent training to encourage positive parenting practices and reduce coercive reinforcement cycles. The case material and its reconceptualization are followed by a discussion of the distinctions between psychodynamic and behavioral approaches to children with ODD. An integrated psychotherapy approach is proposed, and the benefits and challenges of psychotherapy integration are discussed.     

The relationship between conformity to gender norms,sexual orientation,and gender identity for sexual minorities

The current study examined how dimensions of masculinity and femininity were expressed for sexual minorities. Cluster analysis was used to determine the number of latent classes for conformity to masculine and feminine norms for sexual minorities. A four-class solution was the best fit to the data. Cluster 1 (labeled Relating to others through equality and caring, n = 41) was characterized by low dominance and power over women and high involvement with kids and have nice relationships norms. Cluster 2 (labeled Relating to others through avoidance and misogyny, n = 38) was characterized by low risk-taking and have nice relationships and high power over women and disdain for homosexuality. Cluster 3 (labeled Relating to others through power, n = 34) was characterized by high winning, pursuit of status, and appearance and low modesty. Cluster 4 (labeled Relating to others through sex, n = 27) was characterized by low involvement in romantic relationships and sexual fidelity while endorsing high playboy attitudes. Results indicate that conforming to gender norms tends to follow categories of interpersonal beliefs and behaviors rather than being based in gender identity or sexual orientation. Implications of the results for future research and clinical practice are examined.     

Can children break the cycle of disadvantage? Structure and agency in the transmission of education across generations

Research has shown that parents tend to pass educational advantage or disadvantage on to their children. However, little is known about the extent to which the intergenerational transmission of education involves children’s agency. In this study we drew from two traditions in sociological and social psychological theorizing—the theory of cultural and social reproduction and the theory of human agency—to examine whether agency influences children’s educational performance, and if so, whether this influence can be observed among children across social classes. We used data from the Spanish sample of the Program for International Student Assessment (N = 25,003 15-year-olds). Results indicate that the level of child agency was weakly positively related to social class, that child agency impacted on a child’s educational performance, and that the positive effect of agency on educational performance did not vary by social class. This suggests that strategies to enhance disadvantaged children’s agency may prove useful in reducing social gradients in educational performance. More generally, our findings may ignite a debate about the role that social structure and human agency play in shaping social inequality and mobility.