Concurrent Relations Between Perspective-Taking Skills,Desire Understanding,and Internal-State Vocabulary

Recent studies suggest that there appears to be a similar developmental sequence in the understanding of mental states in both internal-state language and in standard theory-of-mind tasks. These findings suggest possible developmental relations between children's ability to talk and think about the mind. Two experiments investigated the concurrent relations between internal-state vocabulary and theory-of-mind abilities in 30-month-old toddlers. In Experiment 1, children's internal-state language vocabulary was significantly and specifically related to their concurrent understanding of others' visual and emotional perspectives and was less strongly related to desire understanding. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings by examining the link between internal-state vocabulary and visual perspective-taking and comprehension of own versus other's desire, controlling for general verbal skills. Children with a more developed internal-state vocabulary performed better on perspective-taking tasks. These findings suggest that labeling and reasoning about mental states are related abilities at the early stages of theory-of-mind development.     

On the Relationship Between Interoceptive Awareness and Alexithymia: Is Interoceptive Awareness Related to Emotional Awareness?

Interoceptive awareness (IA) is associated with emotional experience, the processing of emotional stimuli, and activation of brain structures that monitor the internal visceral and emotional state of the organism. Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing one's emotions and externally oriented thinking (EOT) and reflects impairments in emotional awareness and the regulation of emotions. This study examined the relationship between alexithymia and IA in a healthy population of N=155 persons. A well-validated heartbeat perception task to measure interoceptive awareness, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and a depression questionnaire (BDI-2) were administered to 88 women and 67 men. IA was inversely associated with all features of alexithymia in the whole sample. When considering sex differences, IA turned out to be a relevant negative predictor for the EOT subscale only in men. This large sample investigation in a nonclinical population indicates that IA represents a relevant negative predictor for alexithymia.     

Attentional Performance in Children and Adolescents with Tic Disorder and Co-Occurring Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: New Insights from a 2 × 2 Factorial Design Study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of both tic disorder (TD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on attentional functions. N = 96 children and adolescents participated in the study, including n = 21 subjects with TD, n = 23 subjects with ADHD, n = 25 subjects with TD+ADHD, and n = 27 controls. Attentional performance was tested based on four computerized attention tasks (sustained attention, divided attention, go/nogo and set shifting). The effect of TD as well as ADHD on attentional performance was tested using a 2 × 2 factorial approach. A diagnosis of TD had no negative impact on attentional functions but was associated with improved performance in the set shifting task. By contrast, regardless of a diagnosis of TD, subjects with ADHD were found to perform worse in the sustained attention, divided attention and go/nogo task. No interaction effect between the factors TD and ADHD was revealed for any of the attention measures. Our results add to findings from other areas of research, showing that in subjects with TD and ADHD, ADHD psychopathology is often the main source of impairment, whereas a diagnosis of TD has little or no impact on neuropsychological performance in most cases and even seems to be associated with adaptive mechanisms.     

Oral and Hand Movement Speeds are Associated with Expressive Language Ability in Children with Speech Sound Disorder

This study tested the hypothesis that children with speech sound disorder have generalized slowed motor speeds. It evaluated associations among oral and hand motor speeds and measures of speech (articulation and phonology) and language (receptive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, sentence imitation), in 11 children with moderate to severe SSD and 11 controls. Syllable durations from a syllable repetition task served as an estimate of maximal oral movement speed. In two imitation tasks, nonwords and clapped rhythms, unstressed vowel durations and quarter-note clap intervals served as estimates of oral and hand movement speed, respectively. Syllable durations were significantly correlated with vowel durations and hand clap intervals. Sentence imitation was correlated with all three timed movement measures. Clustering on syllable repetition durations produced three clusters that also differed in sentence imitation scores. Results are consistent with limited movement speeds across motor systems and SSD subtypes defined by motor speeds as a corollary of expressive language abilities.     

Memory Strategy Development: Lessons from Longitudinal Research

Most research in memory strategy development involves cross-sectional studies, with the implicit assumption that the patterns found in these studies are an accurate reflection of intraindividual changes over time. In this article, we review briefly the development of rehearsal and organizational strategies based on cross-sectional research and then review the findings from the few longitudinal studies assessing intraindividual change in these strategies, focusing on results from the Munich Longitudinal Study (LOGIC). Although average, age-related patterns obtained from longitudinal samples provide similar development functions as those obtained from cross-sectional samples, there is much greater individual variability in strategy acquisition observed in the longitudinal data. This suggests that the canonical development patterns inferred from cross-sectional studies often obfuscate actual intraindividual patterns. Longitudinal evidence also indicates that utilization deficiencies are observed less frequently than assumed in cross-sectional research.     

like and cross modality recognition in subnormal children

The ability of mentally subnormal children to recognize previously presented visual or verbal stimuli was compared. In “like-modality” procedures they had to recognize words or pictures in the modality in which they had originally been presented. In “cross-modality” procedures the stimulus they had to recognize was in the opposite modality from that which had been used for the first presentation.

In every recognition test the items had to be recognized from among an equal number of novel stimuli. Cross-modality procedures resulted in higher recognition scores. The hypothesis is advanced that this could be accounted for by the necessary translation from one type of sensory image to another in the cross-modality trials, which might minimize over-generalization.     

Now I see it but you don't: 14-month-olds can represent another person's visual perspective

Twelve- and 14-month-old infants' ability to represent another person's visual perspective (Level-1 visual perspective taking) was studied in a looking-time paradigm. Fourteen-month-olds looked longer at a person reaching for and grasping a new object when the old goal-object was visible than when it was invisible to the person (but visible to the infant). These findings are consistent with the interpretation that infants 'rationalized' the person's reach for a new object when the old goal-object was out of sight. Twelve-month-olds did not distinguish between test conditions. The present findings are consistent with recent research on infants' developing understanding of seeing.     

Die Bedeutung der Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivitätsstörung für die Entstehung und Prognose von Störungen des Sozialverhaltens im Kindes- und Jugendalter

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) are two of the most common neurobehavioral disorders of childhood. Despite of their high comorbidity rate both disorders can be reliably differentiated. Especially the comorbid condition is associated with a poor outcome and some of the affected children develop an Antisocial Personality Disorder. This article summarizes diagnostic criteria and epidemiological data of both disorders and emphasises the role of ADHD in the aetiology and pathogenesis of antisocial behavior. ADHD seems to have a negative impact particular in children of the early-starter subtype of CD. Findings from genetic, psychophysiological and neuroimaging studies emphasise the relevance of biological risk factors in the etiological models and developmental pathways of antisocial behavior. We present so far unpublished data of children with ADHD and ADHD/disruptive behavior disorders which indicate group-specific neurocognitive impairments in the comorbid condition. ADHD and CD seem to constitute a synergistic and interactive relationship in that each disorder aggravates the other. Recent findings point to a “true hybrid” of ADHD/CD. Considering the negative outcome of the comorbid condition, several findings suggest that high-quality treatments may have considerable impact on restoring ADHD children to better functioning.