Object permanence in lemurs

Object permanence, the ability to mentally represent objects that have disappeared from view, should be advantageous to animals in their interaction with the natural world. The objective of this study was to examine whether lemurs possess object permanence. Thirteen adult subjects representing four species of diurnal lemur (Eulemur fulvus rufus, Eulemur mongoz, Lemur catta and Hapalemur griseus) were presented with seven standard Piagetian visible and invisible object displacement tests, plus one single visible test where the subject had to wait predetermined times before allowed to search, and two invisible tests where each hiding place was made visually unique. In all visible tests lemurs were able to find an object that had been in clear view before being hidden. However, when lemurs were not allowed to search for up to 25-s, performance declined with increasing time-delay. Subjects did not outperform chance on any invisible displacements regardless of whether hiding places were visually uniform or unique, therefore the upper limit of object permanence observed was Stage 5b. Lemur species in this study eat stationary foods and are not subject to stalking predators, thus Stage 5 object permanence is probably sufficient to solve most problems encountered in the wild.     

Building and managing an online panel with phpPanelAdmin

Online data collection within social and behavioral research is burgeoning. For surveying individuals online, researchers are increasingly relying on online panels and similar subject pools. phpPanelAdmin is a Web-based platform that is intended to assist researchers in quickly setting up and managing an online panel. phpPanelAdmin solves many problems that can arise when one is collecting data in online panels. As an open-source program placed under GNU General Public License, phpPanelAdmin (www.goeritz.net/panelware) is not only free of charge but free of restrictions on its use, modification, and distribution. Building a new online panel—which before required weeks and special skills—is now possible within minutes and at no cost. Furthermore, phpPanelAdmin can be connected to an existing online panel or even be used for managing offline subject pools. Functions include creating a panel sign-up form; automatically unfolding the panel database; searching for panelists; viewing, modifying, and deleting panelists’ data; deleting and cloning variables; drawing samples; sending e-mail to panelists; exporting data; displaying panel statistics at a glance; identifying duplicates; creating and managing e-mail templates; executing user-defined SQL statements; and obtaining help.     

Using the World-Wide Web to obtain large-scale word norms: 190,212 ratings on a set of 2,654 German nouns

This article presents a new database of 2,654 German nouns rated by a sample of 3,907 subjects on three psycholinguistic attributes: concreteness, valence, and arousal. As a new means of data collection in the field of psycholinguistic research, all ratings were obtained via the Internet, using a tailored Web application. Analysis of the obtained word norms showed good agreement with two existing norm sets. A cluster analysis revealed a plausible set of four classes of nouns: abstract concepts, aversive events, pleasant activities, and physical objects. In an additional application example, we demonstrate the usefulness of the database for creating parallel word lists whose elements match as closely as possible. The complete database is available for free from ftp://ftp.uni-duesseldorf.de/ pub/psycho/lahl/WWN. Moreover, the Web application used for data collection is inherently capable of collecting word norms in any language and is going to be released for public use as well.     

How to support learning from multiple hypertext sources

In the present study, we investigated three factors that were assumed to have a significant influence on the success of learning from multiple hypertexts, and on the construction of a documents model in particular. These factors were task (argumentative vs. narrative), available text material (with vs. without primary sources), and presentation format (active vs. static). The study was conducted with the help of the combination of three tools (DEWEX, Chemnitz LogAnalyzer, and SummTool) developed for Web-based experimenting. The results show that the task is the most important factor for successful learning from multiple hypertexts. Depending on the task, the participants were either able or unable to apply adequate strategies, such as considering the source information. It was also observed that argumentative tasks were supported by an active hypertext presentation format, whereas performance on narrative tasks increased with a passive presentation format. No effect was shown for the type of texts available.     

Childhood vaccine refusal and hesitancy intentions in Croatia: insights from a population-based study

Considering that programmatic data suggest a recent rise in vaccine refusal in Croatia, this study, first of its kind in Southeast Europe, aimed to estimate the prevalence, and sociodemographic, and sociocultural determinants of childhood vaccine refusal and hesitancy (CVRH) intentions among Croatian adults. Multi-stage stratified population-based survey included 1000 individuals aged 18–88 years (M_age = 47.7, SD = 17.8), of whom 51.7% were women. The outcome, a categorical indicator, distinguished among individuals who would approve vaccinating their children (vaccine accepting), those who would approve some but not all vaccines (vaccine hesitant), and those who would refuse vaccination (vaccine refusing). A sizeable minority of participants was characterized by childhood vaccine refusal (10.6%) and hesitancy intentions (19.5%). In a multivariate assessment controlling for parenthood, the odds of vaccine hesitancy were significantly increased by a younger age (AOR = 1.96–3.03, p < .01). Religiosity (AOR = 1.12, p < .05) and the use of alternative medicine (AOR = 2.85, p < .001) increased the odds of vaccine refusal. However, individual characteristics seem to be relatively poor predictors of CVRH intentions in Croatia. Following the social contagion model, future research should move beyond individual-level approach and take into account social interaction and social network effects.     

Comparing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Systemic Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder: Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial (SOPHO-CBT/ST)

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to pilot the newly developed manualized and monitored systemic therapy (ST) for social anxiety disorder (SAD), as compared to manualized and monitored cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We conducted a prospective multicenter, assessor-blind pilot RCT on 38 outpatients (ICD F40.1; Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID); Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS-SR >30). The primary outcome was level of social anxiety (LSAS-SR) at the end of treatment. A total of 252 persons were screened, and 38 patients were randomized and started therapy (CBT: 20 patients; ST: 18 patients; age: M = 36 years, SD = 14). Within-group, simple-effect intent-to-treat analyses (ITT) showed significant reduction in LSAS-SR (CBT:d = 1.04; ST:d = 1.67), while ITT mixed-design ANOVA demonstrated the advantage of ST (d = 0.81). Per-protocol analyses supported these results. Remission based on reliable change indices also demonstrated significant difference (LSAS-SR: 15% in CBT; 39% in ST;h: 0.550), supported by blind diagnosticians’ ratings of those who completed therapy (SCID; 45% in CBT, 78% in ST,p = .083). No adverse events were reported. CBT and ST both reduced social anxiety, supporting patient improvement with the newly developed ST for SAD; this has yet to be verified in a subsequent confirmatory RCT.     

The association between in-class cultural diversity with empathy and bullying in adolescence: A multilevel mediation analysis

Little is known about the associations between cultural class composition, teacher support for diversity (TSD), cognitive and affective empathy, and bullying and victimisation. Research shows that empathy is negatively associated with bullying and victimisation; and support for diversity and classroom cultural diversity are positively linked to social skills. The present study examines whether cultural diversity and perceived TSD are protective factors against bullying and victimisation, either directly or mediated by empathy. Participants were 897 students from Grades 7 to 10 (M_age = 13.45, SD_age = 1.07, 51.3% girls, 46.7% boys) in 36 classes. Multilevel mediation analyses were conducted. Age and gender were controlled for. More perceived TSD and affective empathy were associated with less bullying. Moreover, the effect of perceived TSD on bullying was partly indirect through affective empathy. Victimisation was not predicted by the study variables. The class level showed no effects. Bullying and victimisation are complex phenomena, which seem to be linked more to individual than to class characteristics. The result that higher perceived TSD was linked to empathy and bullying provides a promising starting point for measures of competence enhancement and bullying prevention.     

Inadequate and infrequent are not alike: ERPs to deviant prosodic patterns in spoken sentence comprehension

The current study on German investigates Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs) for the perception of sentences with intonations which are infrequent (i.e. vocatives) or inadequate in daily conversation. These ERPs are compared to the processing correlates for sentences in which the syntax-to-prosody relations are congruent and used frequently during communication. Results show that perceiving an adequate but infrequent prosodic structure does not result in the same brain responses as encountering an inadequate prosodic pattern. While an early negative-going ERP followed by an N400 were observed for both the infrequent and the inadequate syntax-to-prosody association, only the inadequate intonation also elicits a P600.     

Can learning potential in schizophrenia be assessed with the standard CVLT‐II? An exploratory study

This study examined the potential of using the regular administration of a common neuropsychological test, the CVLT-II, to assess learning potential in schizophrenia. Based on List A trial 1 performance and the learning slope, a schizophrenia sample was divided into three learning potential groups (non-learners, learners and high-achievers) that differed in the use of learning strategies. High-achievers utilized more semantic clustering than learners and non-learners, and non-learners were less consistent in words recalled than the other two groups. This standard administration approach is a promising, time-saving alternative to the modified tests of learning potential used so far.