Higher face recognition ability in girls: Magnified by own-sex and own-ethnicity bias

Earlier studies on adults have shown sex differences in face recognition. Women tend to recognise more faces of other women than men do, whereas there are no sex differences with regard to male faces. In order to test the generality of earlier findings and to examine potential reasons for the observed pattern of sex differences, two groups of Swedish 9-year-old children (n = 101 and n = 96) viewed faces of either Swedish or Bangladeshi children and adults for later recognition. Results showed that girls outperformed boys in recognition of female faces, irrespective of ethnicity and age of the faces. Boys and girls recognised Swedish male faces to an equal extent, whereas girls recognised more Bangladeshi male faces than boys did. These results indicate that three factors explain the magnitude of sex differences in face recognition: an overall female superior face recognition ability, the correspondence between the sex of viewer and the gender of the face, and prior knowledge of the ethnicity of the face.     

Thinking about the future early in life: The role of relational memory

The constructive episodic simulation hypothesis suggests that we imagine possible future events by flexibly recombining details of past experiences to produce novel scenarios. Here we tested this hypothesis by determining whether episodic future thinking is related to relational memory ability during the preschool years. Children (3- to 5-year-olds) were asked to remember a past event and imagine a possible future event using an adapted version of the recombination paradigm. Relational learning and inference were assessed using a task adapted from the neuroimaging literature. The results show that preschoolers were able to describe both past and possible future events; however, they produced more specific episodic details in relation to past events relative to future events. Episodic future thinking performance was correlated with performance on the relational inference task, consistent with the idea that the ability to flexibly recombine relational knowledge is critical in episodic future thinking.     

Where we live: some dilemmas and technical issues for the child psychotherapist in interpretative work with looked-after and adopted children

This paper addresses, from a Kleinian perspective, some of the dilemmas and technical issues faced by the child psychotherapist in work with looked-after and adopted children. A selective review of psychoanalytic literature focusing on the use of transference and countertransference is given. Clinical material provides some examples of different kinds of interpretation, and of the importance of timing and emotional resonance in the interpretations.     

The Relationship Between Recalled Self-esteem as a Child and Current Levels of Professional Burnout among Anglican Clergy in England

This study links and tests three strands of theory concerned with explaining individual differences in levels of professional burnout in general and among religious professionals in particular. These three strands concern the significance of current self-esteem, recalled self-esteem as a child, and personality. Data were provided by a sample of 1,278 male stipendiary parochial clergy working in the Church of England who completed the modified Maslach Burnout Inventory (specially designed for use among clergy), and the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (designed to measure the personality dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism), together with a semantic differential index of recalled self-esteem as a child. The bivariate correlation coefficients demonstrated significant associations between more positive self-esteem as a child and lower levels of professional burnout (higher personal accomplishment, lower emotional exhaustion and lower depersonalisation). The bivariate correlation coefficients also demonstrated significant associations between personality and professional burnout. Multiple regression analyses, however, demonstrated that the association between recalled self-esteem as a child and professional burnout largely disappeared after controlling for the personality variables. The conclusion is drawn that knowledge about the personality profile of clergy functions as a more secure predictor of susceptibility to professional burnout than knowledge about recalled self-esteem as a child.     

Medial temporal lobe memory in childhood: developmental transitions

The medial temporal lobes (MTL) support declarative memory and mature structurally and functionally during the postnatal years in humans. Although recent work has addressed the development of declarative memory in early childhood, less is known about continued development beyond this period of time. The purpose of this investigation was to explore MTL‐dependent memory across middle childhood. Children (6 –10 years old) and adults completed two computerized tasks, place learning (PL) and transitive inference (TI), that each examined relational memory, as well as the flexible use of relational learning. Findings suggest that the development of relational memory precedes the development of the ability to use relational knowledge flexibly in novel situations. Implications for the development of underlying brain areas and ideas for future neuroimaging investigations are discussed.     

The Long and Winding Road: An Autobiographic Study of an Elite Athlete Mother’s Journey to Winning Gold

Within sport psychology, researchers have explored elite athlete mothers’ experiences. More work is needed to understand the nuanced psychosocial aspects of their athletic journeys. Studying autobiographical narratives is useful toward understanding the psychosocial nuances of motherhood and athletics in sociocultural context. Within the present study we sought to extend this understanding through studying one elite athlete’s—British runner Jo Pavey—journey as an athlete mother within her autobiography This Mum Runs (26 chapters totaling 253 pages). Thematic narrative analysis of key chapters focusing on pregnancy and motherhood in relation to training and competition allowed for the identification of a central theme—discovery narrative–reconfiguring the performance narrative—along with two subthemes: go with the flow and best of both worlds. The subthemes are used to illustrate the navigation of tensions in relation to an athlete mother identity grounded in family relationships to facilitate training and competition goals, within a discovery narrative. Applied sport psychology recommendations are made using narrative theory in relation to key findings. Recommendations focused on athlete stories and narrative resources as concrete entry points to encourage compatible athlete mother identities and sport career engagement. This study adds to sport psychology work that has used autobiography as theoretical, analytical, and applied resources to expand understanding of marginalized and/or hard to access topics in elite sport. This is the first autobiographic study to focus on elite athlete mother identities, furthering understanding of nuanced identity negotiation and experiences over time.

Lay Summary: Understanding of elite athlete mother's negotiation of identity and athletic career is expanded through studying published/public autobiographical narratives. A discovery narrative grounded in personal growth and family relationships facilitates strategies that facilitate training and competition goals.     

Preschoolers with Down syndrome do not yet show the learning and memory impairments seen in adults with Down syndrome

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) exhibit a behavioral phenotype of specific strengths and weaknesses, in addition to a generalized cognitive delay. In particular, adults with DS exhibit specific deficits in learning and memory processes that depend on the hippocampus, and there is some suggestion of impairments on executive function tasks that depend on the prefrontal cortex. While these functions have been investigated in adults with DS, it is largely unclear how these processes develop in young children with DS. Here we tested preschoolers with DS and typically developing children, age‐matched on either receptive language or non‐verbal scores as a proxy for mental age (MA), on a battery of eye‐tracking and behavioral measures that have been shown to depend on the hippocampus or the prefrontal cortex. Preschoolers with DS performed equivalently to MA‐matched controls, suggesting that the disability‐specific memory deficits documented in adults with DS, in addition to a cognitive delay, are not yet evident in preschoolers with DS, and likely emerge progressively with age. Our results reinforce the idea that early childhood may be a critical time frame for targeted early intervention. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6GUA6my22Q&list=UU3FIcom6UpITHZOIEa8Onnw