A projective assessment of autonomous motivation in children: Correlational and experimental evidence

This article presents two studies aimed at validating a new TAT-like projective measure of autonomous motivation in children. Study 1 assesses the validity of the new measure by correlating it with self-report questionnaires of autonomous motivation, positive and negative affect, task value and mastery goal orientation. Study 2 is an experiment in which autonomous motivation is manipulated and then assessed with the new projective measure and with a self-report scale. Results of both studies support the validity of the new projective measure. In study 2, regression analysis suggests that the new projective measure is sensitive to aspects of experimentally induced autonomous motivation that are not captured by a self-report measure.

Infant sleep problems: Origins,assessment, interventions

Infant sleep problems have become prevalent as complaints of parents to clinicians during the first 2 years of the child's life. This paper reviews (1) identification of multiple etiological sources for infant sleep problems from a systems perspective, (2) the assessment of sleep disturbances, and (3) the applica tion of intervention methods to the appropriate component of system dysfunction. These areas are reviewed by integrating research findings with clinical vignettes from our practice as pediatric sleep clinicians.     

The Role of Simple Emotion Recognition Skills among School Aged Boys at Risk of ADHD

Poor social skills and behavioral problems are a major component of ADHD. The different explanations offered so far, such as cognitive deficits and deficient self regulation, have not been able fully to account for the various aspects of the social dysfunction, suggesting that other mechanisms might underlay this impairment. Our study sought to assess the emotion recognition of Israeli boys at risk of ADHD, and to evaluate its associations with their social skills. A group of 111 boys (grades 4 and 5) were assigned to an At-risk (n=50) and a control (n=61) group based on their scores in an ADHD symptoms questionnaire. The two groups were matched on age, socio-economic status and class and school environment. Group comparisons revealed that compared to their non-At-risk counterparts, At-risk boys have impaired emotion recognition. Finally, multiple groups Structural Equation Modeling analyses (SEM) demonstrated that emotion misrecognition plays a significant role in the At-risk children's social functioning and behavioral problems compared to its role in the social competence and behavioral problems among the comparison group. Implications for the understanding and treatment of social skills problems among children at risk of ADHD are proposed.     

Tradition versus tradition: Mizrahi pupils in National Religious schools in Israel, 1948–1990

Absorbing the immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa in Israel was one of the Israeli education system’s important tasks. This article deals with the way the National Religious schools treated these new immigrants and their descendants, known as Oriental Jews, Mizrahi Jews, or “Mizrahim.” The differences between Mizrahi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews (those of European ancestry) were related to differences in religious traditions, academic level, and religious observance. Educators imposed the Ashkenazi tradition on Mizrahi pupils. This created social tension and alienated Mizrahi pupils from the system. On the other side, Ashkenazi pupils who had difficulties with the heterogeneous educational environment left the public system and enrolled in more religious schools, which had a much smaller percentage of Mizrahi pupils. This segregation was even more common at the high school level. Ashkenazim attended yeshiva high schools, while Mizrahi pupils went to regular high schools. Small changes were evident by the 1990s. By that time, more Mizrahi pupils were attending the elite yeshivot, and the public system adopted a more multicultural attitude and included the Mizrahi tradition as well.     

Effective learning and retention of braille letter tactile discrimination skills in children with developmental dyslexia

Children with developmental dyslexia (DD) may differ from typical readers in aspects other than reading. The notion of a general deficit in the ability to acquire and retain procedural (‘how to’) knowledge as long‐term procedural memory has been proposed. Here, we compared the ability of elementary school children, with and without reading difficulties (DD, typical readers), to improve their tactile discrimination with practice and tested the children's ability to retain the gains. Forty 10–11‐year‐olds practiced the tactile discrimination of four braille letters, presented as pairs, while blindfolded. In a trial, participants were asked to report whether the target stimuli were identical or different from each other. The structured training session consisted of six blocks of 16 trials each. Performance was re‐tested at 24 hours and two weeks post‐training. Both groups improved in speed and in accuracy. In session 1, children with DD started as significantly less accurate and were slower than the typical readers but showed rapid learning and successfully closed the gap. Only two children with DD failed to benefit from training and were not included in subsequent data analyses. At 24 hours post‐training both groups showed effective retention of the gains in speed and accuracy. Importantly, children with DD were able to retain the gains in speed and accuracy, over a two‐week interval as effectively as typical readers. Thus, children with DD were as effective in the acquisition and retention of tactile discrimination of braille letters as typical readers of the same age. The results do not support the notion of a general procedural learning disability in DD.     

Young Israelis' Reactions to National Trauma: The Rabin Assassination andTerror Attacks

This study examined the cognitive and emotional reactions of 477 Israeli high school students to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (immediately after the event as well as 5 months later) and to a series of terror attacks. The respondents' reactions to the two events were compared as a function of gender and political orientation. About 50% of the respondents who changed their political views immediately after the assassination reverted to pre-event attitudes 5 months later. Emotional reactions to the assassination showed substantial fading after 5 months, with extent of fading unaffected by gender or political orientation. The intensity of emotional reactions was affected by political orientation: Although Rabin's supporters and his opponents reacted with equal intensity to the terror attacks, supporters reacted with the same intensity to Rabin's assassination, whereas opponents' reactions to the assassination were less intense.     

α7 Nicotinic Receptor Subunits Are Not Necessary for Hippocampal-Dependent Learning or Sensorimotor Gating: A Behavioral Characterization of Acra7-Deficient Mice

The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunit is abundantly expressed in the hippocampus and contributes to hippocampal cholinergic synaptic transmission suggesting that it may contribute to learning and memory. There is also evidence for an association between levels of α7 nAChR and in sensorimotor gating impairments. To examine the role of α7 nAChRs in learning and memory and sensorimotor gating, Acra7 homozygous mutant mice and their wild-type littermates were tested in a Pavlovian conditioned fear test, for spatial learning in the Morris water task, and in the prepulse inhibition paradigm. Exploratory activity, motor coordination, and startle habituation were also evaluated. Acra7 mutant mice displayed the same levels of contextual and auditory-cue condition fear as wild-type mice. Similarly, there were no differences in spatial learning performance between mutant and wild-type mice. Finally, Acra7 mutant and wild-type mice displayed similar levels of prepulse inhibition. Other behavioral responses in Acra7 mutant mice were also normal, except for an anxiety-related behavior in the open-field test. The results of this study show that the absence of α7 nAChRs has little impact on normal, base-line behavioral responses. Future studies will examine the contribution of α7 nAChR to the enhancement of learning and sensorimotor gating following nicotine treatments.     

The Reaction of the Youth in Israel to the Assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a political assassin caused shock, disbelief, and deep grief to the Israeli people. Particularly prominent was the reaction of the youth, who gathered in large crowds, at the site of the murder and in other places, and engaged in various mourning behaviors of a ritual nature. This drew the attention of the media in Israel and around the world. A study of approximately 700 teenagers conducted after the assassination examined their emotional reactions, participation in ritualistic mourning activities, and assessments of the reasons for feeling shocked. In all areas, differences were found as a function of gender, and attitudes toward Rabin's peace policy. An attempt was made to explain the youth's behavior in terms of the formation of groups and group identity.     

Value Accessibility and Teachers' Ability to Encourage Independent Thought in Students

This study examines the hypothesis that teachers' educational values predict their behavior and students' attributes when these values function as chronically accessible, positively valenced categories which are linked discriminantly to perceptions of specific behaviors. This hypothesis was tested in relation to the value of Encouraging Independent Thought (EIT). Fifty-two teachers were administered, in individual sessions, a sorting task and questionnaires assessing the variables of interest. Several months later, the 1,614 students of these teachers completed questionnaires assessing teacher behaviors and students' attributes. Discriminant accessibility of the value of EIT in teachers predicted two value consistent teacher behaviors: showing tolerance for independent and critical students' opinions and showing interest in and respect for students' ideas – as well as two students' attributes: assignment of little importance to the value of conformity and sense of acceptance by classmates. The findings demonstrate the theoretical usefulness of the notion of discriminant accessibility of values and suggest that, as part of teacher education programs, it is important to strengthen teachers' inclinations to examine the contribution of concrete actions to the realization of abstract values. Discriminant accessibility of the value of EIT also appears to enhance teachers' ability to foster critical thinking in students.