Post-traumatic feeding disorders in infancy: Behaviors predicting treatment outcome

The purpose of this study was to examine whether specific problem feeding behaviors exhibited by infants with post-traumatic feeding disorders (PTFD) predict treatment outcome. In this case series, 24 infants aged 7 weeks to 34 months received a three-component intervention for the treatment of their PTFD. The three components of the interventions included (1) physiological and environmental changes to regularize hunger-satiety cycles and promote good eating habits and routines; (2) nutritional monitoring; and (3) behavior therapy (flooding). Infants with PTFD who exhibited passive refusal to swallow food placed in their mouths and did not chew/suck/move food placed in their mouths for more than 5 sec were significantly less likely to respond to treatment, compared to infants with PTFD who did not exhibit these behaviors. Further, compared with infants with PTFD who responded to treatment, more infants with PTFD who did not respond had anatomical/mechanical problems of their upper airway such as tracheoesophageal fistula or lung disease such as bronchopulmonary dysplagia. The findings have direct implications for the assessment and treatment of PTFD in infancy.     

“Working model of the child interview”: Infant clinical status related to maternal perceptions

Parental perceptions and subjective experience of infants have long been considered important in clinical work with infants and families. Using three different samples of infants, we compare mothers' representations of their infants in clinically referred and nonreferred groups, using the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI). Twenty-four mothers of infants with failure to thrive (and 25 matched controls), 17 mothers of toddlers with sleep disorders (and 20 matched controls), and 13 mothers of infants seen in a general infant psychiatry clinic participated. Compared to their nonclinical counterparts, mothers of infants with clinical problems had representations of their infants that were significantly more likely to be classified distorted or disengaged. Infant gender, age, and birth order were independent of maternal classifications. We conclude that the WMCI is a useful structured interview to categorize mothers' perceptions and subjective experience of their infant and relationship with the infant. Mothers' WMCI classifications are associated with the clinical status of the infant. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

One Conception of Secularism for All? A Comparison of Conceptions of Laïcité among Nonbelievers,Catholics, and Muslims in France

In European countries, a large number of people feel that Islam is incompatible with secularism. France's legal principle of laïcité (a type of state “secularism”) has governed the relationship between religion and society since 1905. However, recent research suggests that there coexist two distinct lay conceptions of laïcité that differ most notably in their tolerance for the presence of religious symbols in public places, one inclusive, the other restrictive. This latter conception appears to target mainly Muslims. The present research examined the lay conceptions of laïcité held by Catholics, Muslims, and nonbelievers. Analyses of participants’ responses (N = 375) to a scale measuring lay beliefs about laïcité confirmed the existence of two distinct lay conceptions of laïcité that differed in the importance given to public expression of religious beliefs, religious neutrality of the state, and equal treatment of different religions. The results also showed that, independent of participants’ religiosity, the restrictive conception was more prevalent among nonbelievers, the two conceptions were equally prevalent among Catholics, and the inclusive conception was more prevalent among Muslims.     

God and the Girl

Philosophia - Abstract Imagine you are an agnostic who wants to maximise your chances of getting the right answer to the question whether God exists. I show that theism and atheism are not on an...     

Simultaneous completions of modal and amodal figures: Visual evoked potentials reveal asymmetrical interference effects

Modal and amodal completion processes are thought to affect the emergence and the potency of each other. To see whether one dominates over the other, we measured the Npd, that is, the negativity of visual-evoked potentials whose amplitude increases with perceptual difficulty. In the first experiment, the Npds to illusory (modal) squares and diamonds placed over amodal diamonds and squares, respectively, were found to be greater when targets were the amodal figures than when targets were the modal figures, thus suggesting that modal figures created more interference. A second experiment showed that greater Npds were specific to interference and not to the greater difficulty at focusing on amodal figures rather than on modal figures. A third experiment showed that the interference also occurs with real figures in replacement of modal ones. Overall, the results suggest a certain dominance of modal completion over amodal completion when both occur in the same display.     

Why do people behave immorally when drunk?

Alcohol intoxication is a major source of antisocial behavior in our society, strongly implicated in various forms of interpersonal aggression. Yet, moral philosophers have paid surprisingly little attention to the literature on alcohol and its effects. In part, this is because philosophers who have adopted a more empirically informed approach to moral psychology have gravitated toward moral sentimentalism, while the literature on alcohol intoxication fits very poorly with the sentimentalist account. Most contemporary research on the psychological effects of alcohol is focused upon variants of the “disinhibition” theory, which suggests that alcohol does not provoke any specific affect, it merely weakens executive control. This research, we argue, lends support to a deontic moral psychology, which identifies our ability to suppress behavioral impulses as a central feature of moral agency.     

On the role of intervening distractors in the attentional blink

The attentional blink (AB) refers to the decline in accurate report for a second target (T2) when presented within about 500 ms of a first target (T1) embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation stream of distractors. It is debated whether the distractors presented shortly after T1 cause the AB directly, as is proposed by distractor-based models, or can modulate its amplitude only indirectly by increasing T1 difficulty, as is proposed by capacity-based models. To investigate this issue, an intervening distractor was presented at lag 1 (T1 + 1), at lag 2 (T1 + 2), or at neither of these two lags (no distractor). T2 was presented at either lag 3 or 9. An AB was observed even in the absence of intervening distractors, indicating that distractors are not necessary to produce an AB. Nonetheless, the T1 + 2 distractor did modulate the AB directly, without influencing T1 performance. Neither theory can fully account for the results but can do so given some modifications.     

Achievement Goals in Educational Contexts: A Social Psychology Perspective

Research on achievement goals usually defines mastery goals as the desire to acquire knowledge, and performance goals as the desire to outperform (or not to underperform) others. Educational contexts are most of the time social contexts, involving various persons and groups, of various hierarchical positions, and various cultural and ideological contexts. Surprisingly, most research in the achievement goal field has been conducted at an individual level of analysis. In the present paper, we will review the social consequences and antecedents of goal endorsement. This research indicates that goals strongly affect the way one behaves with co‐learners. Moreover, it suggests that more than merely individual dispositions, goals reflect the social relation students have with other persons, institutions, and with the society to which they belong. We conclude this paper by setting an agenda for future achievement goal research.     

A kinematic and dynamic comparison of surface and underwater displacement in high level monofin swimming

Fin swimming performance can be divided into underwater and surface water races. World records are about 10% faster for underwater swimming vs. surface swimming, but little is known about the advantage of underwater swimming for monofin swimming. Some authors reported that the air–water interface influences the kinematics and leads to a narrow vertical amplitude of the fin. On the one hand, surface swimming is expected to affect drag parameters (cross-sectional area (S) and active drag (AD)) when compared to underwater swimming. On the other hand, the surface swimming technique may also affect efficiency (η_F). The aim of this study is therefore to evaluate and compare drag parameters and efficiency during underwater and surface swimming. To this end, 12 international level monofin swimmers were measured during both underwater and surface swimming. Kinematic parameters (both dimensional and non-dimensional), η_F (calculated according to the Elongated-Body Theory), and AD (computed with Velocity Perturbation Method) were calculated for an underwater and a surface fin swimming trial, performed at maximal speed. As expected, results showed significantly lower velocities during surface swimming vs. underwater  = 2.5 m s⁻¹ vs.  = 2.36 m s⁻¹, p < .01). Velocities during underwater and surface swimming were strongly correlated (r = .97, p < .01). Underwater swimming was also associated with higher vertical amplitudes of the fin compared to surface swimming ( = 0.55 m vs. ) = 0.46 m, p < .01). Length-specific amplitudes (A_under/L_b) were in the order of 20% during underwater swimming as for undulating fish, and significantly higher than during surface swimming (A_surf/L_b = 17%, p < .01). Efficiency for surface swimming was about 6% lower than for underwater swimming ( = 0.79 vs.  = 0.74, p < .01). This decrease could be associated with an increase in swimming frequency for surface swimming ( = 2.15 Hz vs.  = 2.08 Hz, p < .01). Active drag during surface swimming was about 7% higher than for underwater swimming ( = 78.9 N vs.  = 84.7 N, p < .01). A significantly smaller cross-sectional area for surface swimming ( = 0.053 m² vs.  = 0.044 m², p < .01) and higher drag coefficient for surface swimming ( = 0.47 vs.  = 0.69, p < .01) were measured. Finally, correlation between cross-sectional area and vertical amplitude of the fin was reported for both underwater and surface swimming. These results suggest that the performance improvement during underwater swimming is not only linked to a wave drag reduction effect but also to a specific swimming technique due to the free surface.