Prenatal SSRI exposure: Effects on later child development

The aim of this review is to integrate research on the pharmacological mechanisms of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the following effects on fetal brain development and child cognitive function seen in children with prenatal exposure to SSRIs. As antidepressants are transferred from the mother to the fetus through the placenta, the fetus is vulnerable to alterations in neurotransmission and possibly altered neural functioning. Because of this risk, pregnant women suffering from depression are often advised to discontinue their use of antidepressants during pregnancy. Though, maternal untreated depression may also have negative consequences for the fetus and child after birth. In the present review, we find a distinction between studies of early versus late development. Studies on early cognitive development indicate no negative effects, while studies on later development report some cognitive difficulties and behavioral problems, indicating latent effects of exposure. However, the reviewed studies are not all converging, and it is not clear whether and to what extent prenatal SSRI exposure affects cognitive development.     

Beliefs about factors affecting the Reliability of eyewitness testimony: A Comparison of judges,jurors and the general public

We surveyed 164 members of the juror pool of the Court of Appeal and a representative sample of 1000 adult Norwegians without juror experience, about their knowledge and beliefs about eyewitness testimony, and compared their answers to a prior survey of Norwegian judges. Although the judges were somewhat more knowledgeable than jurors and the general public, all groups had limited knowledge of eyewitness testimony. Juror experience, in terms of number of times serving as juror, did not correlate with eyewitness knowledge. Consistent with this finding, the knowledge scores of the jurors were similar to the scores of the general public, tested with an abridged seven‐item version of the questionnaire. Comparisons with the results of surveys conducted in the US, indicate similar levels of knowledge among law professionals and jurors in the two countries. Increasing the knowledge of eyewitness testimony among the principal participants in the judiciary system may be an important component of the solution to eyewitness error. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expected car use reduction in response to structural travel demand management measures

Selecting the appropriate travel demand management (TDM) measures aiming to reduce the environmental problems associated with private transportation demands a thorough understanding of the behavioral consequences of different measures. In this scenario based study, the expected car use reduction in response to one push measure (i.e. raised tax on fossil fuel), one pull measure (i.e. improved public transport), and a combination of the two measures were analyzed. The aim was to compare the expected car use reduction in response to the different TDM measures, the car use reduction strategies used to achieve this reduction, and factors important for the expected car use reduction (i.e. background factors, internal motivational factors (general intention and personal norm), and perceived personal impact of the measure). In a two step between-subject design, a sample of car users first answered a pre-questionnaire and subsequently three groups of car users (N = 274) each evaluated one of the TDM measures. Results demonstrated that the combined measure led to larger expected car use reduction compared to the measures evaluated individually and the reduction was mainly expected to be made by means of trip chaining and changing travel mode. Moreover, internal motivational factors, such as personal norm or general intention, and the perceived impact of the measure, were found to be important for the expected car use reduction in response to the TDM measures.     

The influence of a reading task on children’s eye movements during reading

In the present study, second graders (n= 23), fourth graders (n= 16), sixth graders (n= 24) and adults (n= 21) read texts adopted from children’s science textbooks either with the task to answer a “why” question presented as the title of the text or for comprehension when their eye movements were recorded. Immediately after reading, readers answered a text memory and an integration question. Second graders showed an effect of questions as increased processing during first-pass reading, whereas older readers showed the effect in later look-backs. For adult readers, questions also facilitated first-pass reading. Text memory or integration question-answering was not influenced by the reading task. The results indicate that questions increase the standards of coherence for text information and that already young readers do modify their reading behaviour according to task demands.     

Interindividual differences in neonatal sociality and emotionality predict juvenile social status in rhesus monkeys

In humans, socioeconomic status (SES) has profound outcomes on socio‐emotional development and health. However, while much is known about the consequences of SES, little research has examined the predictors of SES due to the longitudinal nature of such studies. We sought to explore whether interindividual differences in neonatal sociality, temperament, and early social experiences predicted juvenile social status in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), as a proxy for SES in humans. We performed neonatal imitation tests in infants’ first week of life and emotional reactivity assessments at 2 and 4 weeks of age. We examined whether these traits, as well as the rearing environment in the first 8 months of life (with the mother or with same‐aged peers only) and maternal social status predicted juvenile (2–3 years old) social status following the formation of peer social groups at 8 months. We found that infants who exhibited higher rates of neonatal imitation and newborn emotional reactivity achieved higher social status as juveniles, as did infants who were reared with their mothers, compared to infants reared with peers. Maternal social status was only associated with juvenile status for infant dyads reared in the same maternal group, indicating that relative social relationships were transferred through social experience. These results suggest that neonatal imitation and emotional reactivity may reflect ingrained predispositions toward sociality that predict later outcomes, and that nonnormative social experiences can alter socio‐developmental trajectories. Our results indicate that neonatal characteristics and early social experiences predict later social outcomes in adolescence, including gradients of social stratification.     

Physiological threat responses predict number processing

Psychological Research - Being able to adequately process numbers is a key competency in everyday life. Yet, self-reported negative affective responses towards numbers are known to deteriorate...     

Keep your eyes open: dispositional vigilance moderates the relationship between operational police stress and stress symptoms

Background: Vigilant coping is characterized by a deep processing of threat-related information. In many cases, vigilant coping increases stress symptoms, whereas avoidant coping decreases negative affect. However, vigilance may be beneficial when stress-eliciting situations involve a risk of injury or escalation as is usually the case in police operations. Design: We investigated the roles of vigilance and cognitive avoidance in police operations in a cross-sectional survey. Methods: The participants were 137 students (104?men, M_age?=?28.54, SD?=?8.04) from the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences; 76 of them were already police officers (work experience: M?=?12.59?years), and 61 were police officer candidates who had completed a 3- to 6-month police internship. Participants completed a paper-and-pencil survey and reported their operational stress, dispositional vigilance and cognitive avoidance in police operations, and stress symptoms. Results: We found that vigilance was negatively associated with stress symptoms and moderated the relationship between operational stress and stress symptoms. Cognitive avoidance, on the other hand, just missed the level of statistical significance in our test of whether it was positively associated with stress symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that vigilance may protect against the negative consequences of stress in police operations.     

The specificity of temporal expectancy: evidence from a variable foreperiod paradigm

In speeded choice tasks with variable foreperiods (FPs), individuals behaviourally adapt to various frequency manipulations. Adaptations have been shown to frequencies of different stimulus-response events, to frequencies of different foreperiods, and to frequencies of different event-foreperiod combinations. We have investigated how participants adapt to a situation where all three frequency manipulations are done simultaneously. Three variable foreperiod experiments are reported. In Experiment 1, one target (the peak distributed target) appeared particularly frequently after one particular FP (the peak foreperiod), while another target was less frequent and equally distributed over all foreperiods. In Experiment 2, the equally distributed target was overall more frequent than the peak distributed one. In both experiments, performance advantages for the peak distributed target were specific to the peak foreperiod, and performance advantages at the peak foreperiod were specific to the peak distributed targets. A third experiment showed that, when two differently frequent target are both equally distributed over FPs, the performance distribution over FPs is not significantly different between both targets. Together, the results suggest that participants were able to simultaneously and specifically adapt to frequency manipulations in events, foreperiods, and event-foreperiod combinations.     

Minimal Varieties of Involutive Residuated Lattices

We establish the existence uncountably many atoms in the subvariety lattice of the variety of involutive residuated lattices. The proof utilizes a construction used in the proof of the corresponding result for residuated lattices and is based on the fact that every residuated lattice with greatest element can be associated in a canonical way with an involutive residuated lattice. Dedicated to the memory of Willem Johannes Blok