Co‐occurrence statistics as a language‐dependent cue for speech segmentation

To what extent can language acquisition be explained in terms of different associative learning mechanisms? It has been hypothesized that distributional regularities in spoken languages are strong enough to elicit statistical learning about dependencies among speech units. Distributional regularities could be a useful cue for word learning even without rich language‐specific knowledge. However, it is not clear how strong and reliable the distributional cues are that humans might use to segment speech. We investigate cross‐linguistic viability of different statistical learning strategies by analyzing child‐directed speech corpora from nine languages and by modeling possible statistics‐based speech segmentations. We show that languages vary as to which statistical segmentation strategies are most successful. The variability of the results can be partially explained by systematic differences between languages, such as rhythmical differences. The results confirm previous findings that different statistical learning strategies are successful in different languages and suggest that infants may have to primarily rely on non‐statistical cues when they begin their process of speech segmentation.     

Relationship amongst mood,propensity to forgive,and mental-health problems in female Italian adolescents

Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, neurological, and cognitive transformations, as well as shifts in relationships through the development of new roles across social domains. As an outcome of such transformations, adolescents may become vulnerable to mental-health problems during this period. Therefore, it is important to focus on predictors of mental-health problems to identify effective prevention strategies. This study examined the mediating role of propensity to forgive in the relationship amongst mood and mental health in a sample of female Italian students who consisted of 342 nonreferred adolescents. Participants completed the Positive Affect-Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, and the General Health Questionnaire. The mediation analysis results suggest that mood has a direct effect on mental-health problems and an indirect effect through propensity to forgive. The results suggest the importance of considering implementing education programmes and forgiveness interventions within clinical practice as a means of reducing mental-health problems.     

Neophobia is negatively related to reversal learning ability in females of a generalist bird of prey,the Chimango Caracara, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Milvago chimango</Emphasis>

In an ever-changing environment, the ability to adapt choices to new conditions is essential for daily living and ultimately, for survival. Behavioural flexibility allows animals to maximise survival and reproduction in novel settings by adjusting their behaviour based on specific information and feedback acquired in their current environments. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that an individual’s personality type can limit the extent to which the individual might behave flexibly, by influencing the way an individual pays attention to novelty and how much information it collects and stores, which in turn affects the individual’s decision-making and learning process. In this study, the behavioural flexibility of a generalist predator, the Chimango Caracara, Milvago chimango, was analysed using the reversal learning paradigm, focusing on the comparison between age classes, and the relation of learning flexibility with a personality trait, the level of neophobia. Due to the low number of male individuals captured, this study was carried out only with female birds. The results showed that age had no significant effect either on the acquisition of a stimulus-reward association, or on the capacity of reversing this previously learned association. Reversal of the response was a harder task for these birds in comparison with the initial acquisition process. The individual’s performances in the learning tasks seemed to be uncorrelated with each other, suggesting that they involve different neural mechanisms. Contrary to the general pattern observed in the majority of previous work on personality and cognition in non-human animals, the level of neophobia did not correlate with the initial associative learning performance in both adults and juveniles, yet it showed a significant negative relationship with reversal learning ability, mainly in the regressive phase of this task, for the two age classes. Our results suggest that the predatory and generalist lifestyle of female individuals of M. chimango along with the selective pressures of the environment of the individuals studied might play a critical role in the degree and direction of the linkage between novelty response and learning flexibility observed in this study.     

Cheating on college examinations

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of contexts on cheating attitudes and behavior among Brazilian undergraduates. Participants were 77 Previous Choice Engineering and 70 Late Choice Engineering students. Previous Choice students enter the desired field chosen by examination, whereas Late Choice students' grades during the two first college years give them preference to choose the field. Their self-reported attitudes and behaviors were compared with those of 82 chemistry undergraduates from two universities (UNI-C and USP-C). The Late Choice students reported significant negative opinion about cheating, whereas Previous Choice students, especially women, reported significant favorable opinion. Furthermore, Previous Choice students reported colleagues more frequently gave them answers on examinations than Late Choice students. The two university groups in chemistry had intermediate scores. Deterrents of cheating strongly embedded in the student culture were found among Late Choice engineering undergraduates which may be explained by social learning theory.     

Validation of the modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale (M-CTS) in a Spanish population of youths

The modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale (M-CTS), originally created by Straus in 1979, is one of the most extensively used instruments to detect violent verbal and physical behaviours in youths' and adolescents' dating relations. The aim of the present work was to analyze the psychometric properties of the instrument and to validate its adequacy in the Spanish population. The sample was made up of 5,355 Spanish youths from the Community of Madrid, ages between 16 and 26 years. By means of confirmatory factor analysis, four factors that were consistent with the theory and with previous research were identified: arguments, psychological/verbal aggression, slight physical aggression, and severe physical aggression. It is concluded that the scale assesses the presence of various types of aggression in youths' and adolescents' dating relationships with sufficient psychometric guarantees.     

Lymphocyte subsets, cardiovascular measures and anxiety state before and after a professional examination

Controversies exist regarding the impact of psychological stress on the functioning of the immune system in humans. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to evaluate whether the condition of a pre-exam stress may or not modify resting lymphocyte subsets, as well as blood pressure and heart rate. About 22 medical residents of both sexes not suffering from any medical or psychiatric disorder were included in the study. Anxiety levels were measured by means of the Hamilton rating scale for anxiety (HRSA) and anxiety traits by means of the panic-agoraphobic spectrum self-report (PAS-SR) version and the obsessive-compulsive spectrum self-report (OBS-SR) version. The results showed that systolic blood pressure and heart rate increased significantly just before sitting an examination (t(1)) in all subjects, as compared with a calm situation (t(2)), in parallel with the increase in the HRSA total score, while no significant difference was observed in lymphocyte subsets at the two assessment times. However, men had a higher number of CD4+ cells than women at t(1) and t(2), while women showed a higher heart rate at t(1). In addition, significant correlations between CD4+ lymphocyte count and heart rate at t(1) or HRSA at t(2) were detected. These findings indicate that the acute stress determined by sitting for examination provokes changes in autonomic nervous system parameters, such as blood pressure and heart rate, as well as in the subjective feeling of anxiety, as shown by the increased HRSA total scores, which were not paralleled by modifications of lymphocyte subsets. However, individual differences, related to both sex and personality traits yet to be identified, seem to have an impact in shaping the stress response.     

Arbitrary social comparison,malicious envy,and generosity

Existing work on the effects of social comparison on envy and generosity typically involves manipulation of social comparison with respect to dimensions that carry personal meaning and reflect upon the self, for example, performance, ability, or achievement. In the current work, we examine the effects of social comparison based on a purely arbitrary, manipulated situation. We measure malicious envy via monetary decisions that have real consequences for the target of comparison, in place of a self-reported questionnaire. In addition, we test the effects of the preliminary social comparison on generosity in a subsequent and ostensibly unrelated situation. In Experiment 1 we demonstrate the effect of randomly manipulated upward social comparison on a monetary allocation decision, and we establish the link between this allocation decision and malicious envy. In Experiment 2 we show that upward comparison affects not only malicious envy towards the target of the comparison but also decreases generosity towards a third party in a subsequent, ostensibly unrelated situation. Experiment 3 shows the effect of this type of social comparison, beyond a specific direction, on reducing generosity towards a third party.     

How toddlers represent enclosed spaces

Recent findings indicate that toddlers can use geometric cues to locate an object hidden in a corner of a rectangular room after being disoriented [Cognition 61 (1996) 195]. It has been suggested that locating the object involves reestablishing one's initial heading. The present experiments examine search behavior after disorientation. We find that toddlers go directly to a particular corner, indicating that they do not have to reestablish their original heading. It also has been suggested that toddlers ability to use geometric cues is limited to surrounding spaces. We find that toddlers can locate an object from outside as well as from inside a space, although the task is harder from outside. Based on these results, we argue that while toddlers do not represent their position relative to a particular portion of a space, they nevertheless may represent their position relative to the entire space (i.e., outside vs. inside).     

Bullying among siblings: The role of personality and relational variables

This study aimed to investigate: (1) the influence of gender, sibling age, and sibling gender on sibling bullying and victimization; (2) the links between personality characteristics, quality of the sibling relationship, and sibling bullying/victimization; (3) the association between sibling and school bullying/victimization, and the direct and indirect associations between personality variables and school bullying/victimization. The sample comprised 195 children (98 boys and 97 girls, aged 10–12 years). Instruments included: a self‐report questionnaire for bullying and victimization, the Big Five Questionnaire for Children and the Sibling Inventory of Behaviour. Results highlighted that the presence of an older brother is a risk factor for the emergence of sibling victimization. For both boys and girls, high levels of conflict in the dyad and low levels of empathy were significantly related to sibling bullying and sibling victimization. For males, energy was associated with sibling bullying and indirectly to school bullying; friendliness and high emotional instability were directly associated with school bullying. School victimization was directly associated with emotional instability for both males and females. Finally, both sibling bullying and sibling victimization were associated with bullying and victimization at school. The discussion highlights the role of a multi‐contextual approach to understand and prevent bullying.     

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): attachment styles and parental bonding

The attachment styles and parental bonding by 64 patients (M age = 43.2 yr., SD = 13.3) with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) were compared with those of 64 patients (M age = 42.2 yr., SD = 13.5) with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and 126 Healthy participants (M age = 42.2 yr., SD = 12.1). Analysis of scores on the Attachment Style Questionnaire indicated insecure attachment in both the patient and control groups. The Parental Bonding scores indicated perceptions of Affectionless Control by parents in both patient groups. In particular, the mean Father-Protection subscale scores were significantly higher for in the GERD group than in the Healthy and IBD groups.