Perceptions of breastfeeding in mothers of babies born preterm in comparison to mothers of full-term babies

The purpose of the present study was: a) to describe the theme of verbalizations about breastfeeding in mothers' pre-term (M-PT) and full-term (M-FT) infants; b) to examine the association between these themes and mother's anxiety and depression indicators and socio-demographic characteristics and, neonatal characteristics of the infants. The sample consisted of 50 M-PT and 25 M-FT. The mothers were assessed through State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory and were interviewed using a Guide focusing breastfeeding issues. The M-PT group had significantly more mothers with clinical symptom of anxiety than the M-FT group. The M-PT reported more uncertainties and worries about breastfeeding and figured out more obstacles for the successful breastfeeding than the M-FT. These reports were associated positively with the infants' risk neonatal status; lower birth-weight, higher neonatal clinical risk, and more length time stay in NICU were associated with more mothers' worries and seeing obstacles for breastfeeding. In conclusion, the strategies to enhance the breastfeeding rate in the preterm population have to take into account the mothers' psychological status and their ideas in addition to offering information about the advantages of breastfeeding for child development.     

Illusory conjunctions reflect the time course of the attentional blink

Illusory conjunctions in the time domain are binding errors for features from stimuli presented sequentially but in the same spatial position. A similar experimental paradigm is employed for the attentional blink (AB), an impairment of performance for the second of two targets when it is presented 200–500 msec after the first target. The analysis of errors along the time course of the AB allows the testing of models of illusory conjunctions. In an experiment, observers identified one (control condition) or two (experimental condition) letters in a specified color, so that illusory conjunctions in each response could be linked to specific positions in the series. Two items in the target colors (red and white, embedded in distractors of different colors) were employed in four conditions defined according to whether both targets were in the same or different colors. Besides the U-shaped function for hits, the errors were analyzed by calculating several response parameters reflecting characteristics such as the average position of the responses or the attentional suppression during the blink. The several error parameters cluster in two time courses, as would be expected from prevailing models of the AB. Furthermore, the results match the predictions from Botella, Barriopedro, and Suero’s (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27, 1452–1467, 2001) model for illusory conjunctions.     

Sociometric types and social interaction styles in a sample of Spanish adolescents

This study analyzed the relationship between social interaction styles and sociometric types in a sample of 1,349 (51.7% boys, and 48.3% girls) Spanish adolescents. The results revealed that the proportion of prosocial adolescents nominated as liked by peers was significantly higher than prosocial with social anxiety, whereas the proportion of aggressive adolescents nominated by peers as rejected was significantly higher than the proportion of rejected-prosocial and rejected-with social anxiety. The percentages of sociometric types and social interaction styles varied significantly according to gender and academic grade. Logistic regression analyses showed that being prosocial was 48% more likely when adolescents are nominated by peers as liked, whereas being prosocial was 41% and 79% less likely when adolescents were nominated as rejected and neglected, respectively. Furthermore, prosocial adolescents were 67% more likely nominated by peers as liked, and were less likely nominated as rejected (42%) and neglected (78%). Finally, being neglected was 83% more likely in aggressive adolescents.     

What has fMRI told us about the Development of Cognitive Control through Adolescence?

Cognitive control, the ability to voluntarily guide our behavior, continues to improve throughout adolescence. Below we review the literature on age-related changes in brain function related to response inhibition and working memory, which support cognitive control. Findings from studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) indicate that processing errors, sustaining a cognitive control state, and reaching adult levels of precision, persist through adolescence. Developmental changes in patterns of brain function suggest that core regions of the circuitry underlying cognitive control are on-line early in development. However, age-related changes in localized processes across the brain, and in establishing long range connections that support top-down modulation of behavior, more effective neural processing for optimal mature executive function. While great progress has been made in understanding the age-related changes in brain processes underlying cognitive development, there are still important challenges in developmental neuroimaging methods and the interpretation of data that need to be addressed.     

Attentional distractor interference may be diminished by concurrent working memory load in normal participants and traumatic brain injury patients

A reduction in congruency effects under working memory (WM) load has been previously described using different attentional paradigms (e.g.,  and ). One hypothesis is that different types of WM load have different effects on attentional selection, depending on whether a specific memory load demands resources in common with target or distractor processing. In particular, if information in WM is related to the distractors in the selective attention task, there is a reduction in distraction (Kim et al., 2005). However, although previous results seem to point to a decrease in interference under high WM load conditions (Kim et al., 2005), the lack of a neutral baseline for the congruency effects makes it difficult to differentiate between a decrease in interference or in facilitation. In the present work we included neutral trials in the task introduced by Kim et al. (2005) and tested normal participants and traumatic brain injury patients. Results support a reduction in the processing of distractors under WM load, at least for incongruent trials in both groups. Theoretical as well as applied implications are discussed.     

Predictors of Risky and Precautionary Sexual Behaviors Among Single and Married White Women1

Risky and precautionary sexual behaviors were examined in a community sample of 260 single and married/cohabitating White women. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the ability of age, socioeconomic status (SES), marital status, religiosity, and 9 health belief constructs to predict risky sexual behavior with one's partner, using a barrier method of birth control, unintended pregnancies, and number of sexual partners in the past year. The pattern of results suggests that single White women appear to feel more vulnerable to HIV and STD infection and more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior than do married White women. The discussion focuses on the importance of sociocultural factors in understanding risk behaviors within the social context of relationship status, the complexity of the concept of risk reduction, and the need for going beyond the health belief model in order to develop different HIV prevention strategies for single and married White women.     

Psychoanalytic interpretations: Word-music and translation

A perspective on psychoanalytic interpretations as a special case of artistic translations (i.e. translations of both content and formal aspects of discourse) is proposed. Mutative interpretations are seen as creative endeavours that always presuppose a prior text, which is itself already a translation. Freud's main uses of the metaphor of translation as an intrapsychic as well as an intersubjective phenomena, their resonance among later psychoanalytic thinkers and their convergence with classic theories of translation are presented. A perspective on psychoanalytic interpretations as an evolving self-other dialect is developed within the framework of Borges's theory of translation and Bakhtin's concept of exotopy. This framework questions the possibility of an original source, proposes the translator's inevitable implication in translation and underscores intersubjectivity as a necessary way towards the translation of absent meanings. The work of translation also highlights the relevance of space and time contexts, as well as the necessary role of a different other for the interpretation of unconscious processes. Differences between theories of translation reiterate contemporary psychoanalytic controversies about the preeminence of the analysand's subjectivity and the intersubjective approach to treatment. Borges's 'The Aleph' and an excerpt of Dora's case offer paradigmatic demonstrations of the limits and possibilities of understanding through translation.     

Personality and Emotional Intelligence in Older Adults: A Predictive Model Based on Structural Equations Modeling

Recent research on emotions in aging points to emotional intelligence (EI) as a factor that plays an important role in this process, and different conceptualizations of EI show that this construct is closely linked to personality in the general population. The main purpose of this study was to find out whether findings obtained in the general population indicating a predictive relationship between personality and EI are also confirmed during the aging process. A sample of 233 healthy older subjects between 60 and 90?years old was used. Participants answered two self-report scales on EI and personality, respectively. Structural equation modeling was used to test the predictive role of personality in EI. Personality was found to be a predictor of EI in older people, and the weight of the prediction was significant in all the dimensions of the big five personality factors, except the dimension of neuroticism, which is known to vary greatly during the aging process. These results indicate that personality influences EI differently in the older adult population, compared to the general population. This is a relevant finding that should be examined further in order to better understand the influence of personality on positive emotional development in this population.     

Reading Difficulties in Low-SES Children: A Study of Cognitive Profiles

Reading difficulties of children growing up in poverty contexts have not received as much attention as those of children from middle-income families. This paper analyzes the reading-related cognitive profiles of Argentine, Spanish-speaking, low-SES children with reading difficulties (RD), by comparing them with chronological age- (CA) and reading age- (RA) matched children from the same socioeconomic background. Ninety children (30 in each group) participated in the study. Testing included reading, spelling, verbal memory, phonological sensitivity, rapid naming, letter knowledge, and vocabulary measures. Results showed that children from the RD group performed significantly worse than their same-age peers. These findings would suggest the presence of a cognitive vulnerability in children with reading difficulties. Interestingly, when compared with children from the RA-matched control group, children in the RD group only obtained significantly lower scores in phoneme segmentation and letter-sound recognition tasks. Cognitive profiles of low-income children growing in poverty differ from cognitive profiles described for middle-income children with dyslexia. Given that teaching of letter sounds is not included in Argentina’s mandatory curriculum, it is possible that letter-sound teaching constitutes an environmental factor that interacts with other risk factors to produce reading difficulties in poverty contexts.     

A multisource approach to self-critical vulnerability to depression: the moderating role of attachment

The present study investigated the effects of self-criticism, dependency, and attachment variables in depression among couples. We utilized a multisource design that involved self-reports and spouse reports of personality and depression. This approach enabled us to explore the patterns of relations between self-reported and the spouse's report of the partner's view of self-criticism, dependency, and attachment dimensions, as well as the contribution of the latter to the moderation of distress. Participants were 120 couples in their first marriages. It was found that: (1) Self- and spouses' reported self-criticism are both associated with depression; (2) negative assessments of personality factors and attachment models by the self and spouse contribute uniquely in predicting depressive symptomatology; and (3) beyond the covariation between target's depression and marital maladjustment, attachment models of self and of other as reported by both the self and spouse moderate the effects of self-reported personality vulnerability on depressive symptomatology. Our results indicate that self-ratings and ratings by others must both be considered in the context of depression in close interpersonal relationships. Beyond the methodological implications of multisource data, our findings support the view of depression as an interpersonal process.