Bidirectional Influences of Violence Exposure and Adjustment in Early Adolescence: Externalizing Behaviors and School Connectedness

This study utilized cross-lagged longitudinal models to examine prospective, bidirectional relationships between witnessing violence and victimization and three adjustment variables—delinquency, conduct problems, and school connectedness. Participants included 603 early adolescent boys and girls (78% African American, 20% Caucasian). Witnessing violence was related to subsequent lower levels of school connectedness and more conduct problems. For Caucasian but not African American adolescents, witnessing violence also predicted later delinquency. Victimization was linked with lower school connectedness over time, and for boys but not girls also with more conduct problems. Only adolescent delinquency was associated with subsequent witnessing violence and victimization. This research was partially supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Grant No. R49–CCR418569.     

Musical and verbal memory in Alzheimer’s disease: A study of long-term and short-term memory

Musical memory was tested in Alzheimer patients and in healthy older adults using long-term and short-term memory tasks. Long-term memory (LTM) was tested with a recognition procedure using unfamiliar melodies. Short-term memory (STM) was evaluated with same/different judgment tasks on short series of notes. Musical memory was compared to verbal memory using a task that used pseudowords (LTM) or syllables (STM). Results indicated impaired musical memory in AD patients relative to healthy controls. The deficit was found for both long-term and short-term memory. Furthermore, it was of the same magnitude for both musical and verbal domains whether tested with short-term or long-term memory tasks. No correlation was found between musical and verbal LTM. However, there was a significant correlation between verbal and musical STM in AD participants and healthy older adults, which suggests that the two domains may share common mechanisms.     

The assessment of recognition memory using the Remember/Know procedure in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and probable Alzheimer’s disease

This study used the Remember/Know (R/K) procedure combined with signal detection analyses to assess recognition memory in 20 elders with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), 10 patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as well as matched healthy older adults. Signal detection analyses first indicated that aMCI and control participants were comparable on general recognition performance. As regards AD patients, they were impaired relative to both aMCI and healthy elders. When assessing Remember and Know responses the aMCI group showed diminished sensitivity for Remember responses but intact Know responses compared to healthy elders. In contrast, AD patients showed decreased sensitivity for both Remember and Know responses compared to control and aMCI participants. The response bias index revealed that AD patients were more liberal than aMCI and control participants when providing Know responses. On the other measures, response bias was comparable between the groups. Overall, this study indicates that the R/K procedure can characterize different aspects of recognition memory performance in persons with aMCI or AD.     

Experiences and Decisions that Motivate Women at Increased Risk of Breast Cancer to Participate in an Experimental Screening Program

Although the discovery of mutations on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes associated with high breast cancer risk has given rise to screening and surveillance initiatives, there is little documentation on why high-risk women choose to enter screening programs. The objective of this qualitative study was to develop a detailed understanding of the experiences and decisions that motivate women with increased risk of hereditary breast cancer to participate in the multicentered Quebec experimental breast screening program. Our study involved 21 participants who were either BRCA carriers or at risk and untested. These women were interviewed while participating in the screening program. Our study demonstrates that intensive screening programs may provide valuable reassurance for women with increased familial risk of hereditary breast cancer, who count on early detection and rapid response from professionals if and when a problem arises. Health professionals must take these and others concerns into account to ensure their interventions are most consistent with women’s needs.     

Le rôle du contexte d’expression et du statut social des intervenants de santé dans la production d’un discours normatif : le cas de la relation des jeunes à l’alcool

The objective of this research is to show that, under usual conditions of interaction between an agent of health and of its public intervention, the individuals produce a “pro-health” speech which can lead astray this agent, concerning the representation which they have of alcohol. Students, producing verbal associations about this object, were confronted either with an agent of health or with a student, and were speaking either for themselves or as the students would do in general. The results show that the individuals, placed in front of an agent of health and directly implied in the beliefs that they express, tend to adopt the speech wished by this agent. However, this manifest adhesion only appears to be circumstantial, insofar as the speech of the individuals is different when they are expressed vis-a-vis a member of its group and in the name of this one. The implications of these results with regard to the interventions of prevention are discussed.     

Categorical flexibility in preschoolers: contributions of conceptual knowledge and executive control

The current study evaluated the relative roles of conceptual knowledge and executive control on the development of categorical flexibility, the ability to switch between simultaneously available but conflicting categorical representations of an object. Experiment 1 assessed conceptual knowledge and executive control together; Experiment 2 differentiated conceptual knowledge from costly executive processes. In Experiment 1, 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds were given a three‐choice (taxonomic, thematic, and nonassociate) match‐to‐sample task and asked to match two associates. In Experiment 2, same‐aged children were assessed on another match‐to‐sample task that reduced executive costs by presenting thematic and taxonomic associates on separate trials. By comparing performance across tasks, age‐related changes resulting from conceptual knowledge and executive control indicated that conceptual knowledge of superordinate relations showed gains between 3 and 4 years, whereas gains in executive control were seen between 4 and 5 years, suggesting a décalage in the development of conceptual and executive processes underlying categorical flexibility.     

Scientific, political, ethical, or pragmatic issues in the collection of ethnic statistics: an exploratory survey in public institutions in Montréal

In recent years, ethnic statistics have been at the core of a passionate debate in many Europeans countries. This debate has been as much about the political legitimacy of ethnoracial data collection in the census as it has been about the scientific legitimacy of ethnic statistics to understand social inequality and discrimination. These questions have not provoked the same kind of intense debate among academics in Canada. However, very few studies have examined the relevance of these issues beyond the census. This paper presents results of an exploratory study conducted with 14 major public institutions across diverse sectors including health, law enforcement and public safety, social services, and housing in Montréal. Investigating which institutions collects ethnic statistics and why, the study examined the political, scientific, ethical, and pragmatic issues raised by local managers.     

Testing the representation of time in reference memory in the bisection and the generalization task: the utility of a developmental approach

This study examined the effect of the variability of representation of durations in reference memory on temporal discrimination performance in children aged 5 and 8 years as well as in adults using a bisection (Experiment 1) and a generalization task (Experiment 2). In each task, the participants were familiarized before the blocks of tested trials with either the same referent duration values (fixed condition) or a distribution of referent duration values, with a mean equal to the referent durations used in the fixed condition and a .20 coefficient of variation (variable condition). The results showed that the sensitivity to duration was lower in the variable than in the fixed condition in the children and, to a lesser extent, in the adults. The modelling of the data indicated that this effect was due to the increase in the variability of the representation of durations in reference memory, but also to changes in the decisional processes.     

Social judgment of abortion: a black-sheep effect in a Catholic sheepfold.

French Catholic participants (N = 340) with high or low religious identification read 1 of 8 scenarios presented as an interview with a female target 2 months after she had had an abortion. The experimental device varied situational pressure (pressure vs. no pressure), the target's religious social identity (Catholic vs. neutral), and the consequences of abortion for the target (positive vs. negative). The participants then rated the acceptability of the target's decision. The participants judged abortion more negatively in the no-pressure condition. Moreover, the participants with high religious identification judged abortion more negatively than did those with low religious identification. In partial support of a black-sheep effect, the participants with high religious identification judged the Catholic target more negatively than they judged the neutral one in some conditions (pressure, negative consequences). In other conditions (no pressure, both positive and negative consequences), the participants with low religious identification judged the Catholic target more positively than they judged the neutral one.     

Moral Utilitarianism and Attitudes Toward Animals

The majority of studies investigating attitudes toward animals have underscored the role of demographic and personality factors. The study of the role of general moral worldviews on attitudes toward animals represents an important complementary perspective. In the current study, we analyzed the relationship between moral utilitarianism toward humans and attitudes toward animals. In psychological and neuroscientific studies, moral utilitarianism has been shown to be related to empathy deficits. We expected that utilitarian decision making would be related to the endorsement of an instrumental representation of animals. We measured utilitarianism with the trolley problem, a hypothetical moral dilemma widely used in the psychological study of moral reasoning. A sample of 20,474 French adults answered an online survey measuring attitudes toward animals and moral decision making involving human beings. Results showed that irrespective of participants’ age and gender, there was a slight relationship between utilitarianism measured by the trolley dilemma and the endorsement of an instrumental representation of animal. Limitations and implications for future research are considered.