The school adjustment of South Asian immigrant children in the United States

This study examined the school adjustment process among South Asian children who had immigrated to the United States with their parents, and who had below-average grades. Both risk and protective factors for dropping out of school were explored in the context of the traditions, familial values, and social norms of South Asians. Data were collected from 75 parents and 75 children in separate semistructured interviews. Content analysis revealed three major themes: congruence of the parents' and school's views on the value of education, congruence of the parents' and children's beliefs that education is the tool to achieve goals, and determination of the children to achieve goals. The low level of proficiency in English was found to be a critical factor in low achievement and school failure. It was concluded that parental encouragement to succeed, in conjunction with teachers' efforts, can be used to facilitate children's school adjustment. Strategies for assisting immigrant children are discussed.     

Effects of intraseptal zolpidem and chlordiazepoxide on spatial working memory and high-affinity choline uptake in the hippocampus

Injection of GABA(A)/benzodiazepine receptor ligands into the medial septum (MS) alters the activity of cholinergic neurons that innervate the hippocampus and can produce bidirectional modulation of spatial memory. Recent evidence suggests that two subtypes of the GABA(A) receptor are differentially localized to either GABAergic (alpha(1)/beta(2)/gamma(2)) or cholinergic (alpha(3)/beta(3)/gamma(2)) neurons within the MS. The present studies characterized the dose-related behavioral and neurochemical effects of intraseptal infusions of two benzodiazepine (BDZ) agonists that appear to exhibit different profiles of pharmacological specificity for these receptor subtypes. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were cannulated and then artificial CSF, chlordiazepoxide (CDP: 8 or 12 microg), or zolpidem (4, 8, or 12 microg) was injected into the MS. Spatial working memory was assessed in a delay radial-arm maze task and the activity of cholinergic neurons in the MS was evaluated by high-affinity choline uptake (HA-ChU) in the hippocampus. Intraseptal injection of either CDP or zolpidem produced dose-related impairments in spatial working memory and decreases in hippocampal HAChU. Both BDZ agonists were found to produce retrograde memory deficits and a decrease in HAChU following the highest dose tested (12 microg). However, intraseptal injection of 8 microg of zolpidem produced a behavioral deficit comparable to the high dose of CDP, but did not alter HAChU within the HPC. Although the cholinergic component of the septohippocampal pathway has been shown to be important in modulating hippocampal physiology and spatial memory processes, data from the present experiments suggest that the GABAergic component may also play an important role in the behavioral functions of the septohippocampal pathway.     

Crossmodal transfer of arousal, but not pleasantness, from the musical to the visual domain

Arousal and valence (pleasantness) are considered primary dimensions of emotion. However, the degree to which these dimensions interact in emotional processing across sensory modalities is poorly understood. We addressed this issue by applying a crossmodal priming paradigm in which auditory primes (Romantic piano solo music) varying in arousal and/or pleasantness were sequentially paired with visual targets (IAPS pictures). In Experiment 1, the emotion spaces of 120 primes and 120 targets were explored separately in addition to the effects of musical training and gender. Thirty-two participants rated their felt pleasantness and arousal in response to primes and targets on equivalent rating scales as well as their familiarity with the stimuli. Musical training was associated with elevated familiarity ratings for high-arousing music and a trend for elevated arousal ratings, especially in response to unpleasant musical stimuli. Males reported higher arousal than females for pleasant visual stimuli. In Experiment 2, 40 nonmusicians rated their felt arousal and pleasantness in response to 20 visual targets after listening to 80 musical primes. Arousal associated with the musical primes modulated felt arousal in response to visual targets, yet no such transfer of pleasantness was observed between the two modalities. Experiment 3 sought to rule out the possibility of any order effect of the subjective ratings, and responses of 14 nonmusicians replicated results of Experiment 2. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the crossmodal priming paradigm in basic research on musical emotions.     

Synthesis,transformation and superconductivity of dual phase In–Sn alloy nanoparticles embedded in an Al matrix

We report the synthesis of nanoembedded biphasic alloy particles of In–Sn near eutectic alloy compositions embedded in an aluminium matrix by rapid solidification processing. Detailed transmission electron microscopy indicates that the two phases present at room temperature in as-synthesized samples are β and γ phases with tetragonal and hexagonal crystal structures, respectively. These co-exist with a small amount of single phase In or Sn particles with sizes less than 10?nm. Low temperature magnetization measurements indicate a superconducting transition temperature of 5?K, suggesting complete decomposition of the β-phase at small sizes and at low temperature. The small particles show type II behavior with a critical field Hc₁≈44?G and two values for Hc₂ of 250 and 1000?G, respectively. These values are considerably lower than those observed in bulk In–Sn alloys.     

The Journey of Personal Growth: A Qualitative Exploration of Personal Growth Processes in Young Adulthood

The present study aimed at qualitative exploration of personal growth processes among young adults. It also explored the linkages of personal growth processes with implicit beliefs and possible selves. An extreme case sampling approach was used and it involved two groups of individuals, those high and low on action orientation. A semi structured interview was utilized to elicit subjective accounts of these individuals about their personal growth goals and related processes. A thematic analysis of the interview protocols that individuals actively striving towards personal growth often endorsed incremental theory beliefs (considered their current self as mutable) in comparison to people not working actively on their personal growth goals. As the study focused on malleable variables such as beliefs, strategies and manner of approach to life goals, it has implications in designing promotive intervention programs to help young adults discover ways of strengthening and sustaining their motivation and efforts in intentional pursuit of their personal growth goals.     

Numeracy as a Predictor of Adaptive Risky Decision Making

Numeracy or one's ability to appropriately process and use numerical information has been shown to be an important individual difference factor in decision making. The current study utilized a risky decision‐making task (called the “cups task”) in which choices are made to both earn and avoid losing hypothetical money. Critically, this design allowed investigators to examine numeracy‐related differences in adaptive decision‐making as measured by sensitivity to expected value (EV) differences over 54 paired‐choice trials—some in which it was advantageous to take a risk and some in which it was not. Results showed that in an undergraduate sample of 114 individuals, the less numerate took more risks and were less sensitive to varying EV levels than the more numerate, especially when it was disadvantageous to take a risk and when the choice involved a potential loss (rather than a gain). These results are consistent with a dual processing account in which the more numerate are much better than the less numerate at extracting the precise affective “gist” of the numerical information, which is then used to determine the goodness or badness of a particular choice. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cārvāka Miscellany II

Materialism in India, very much like materialism in Greece, has to be reconstructed on the basis of fragments. Although the materialist tradition can be traced back to the early Upaniṣads on the one hand and the Buddhist and Jain canonical works on the other, the fragments offer only a glimpse of materialist thought. The same is true of the Presocratic philosophical tradition in Greece. Yet the glimpses we have from other, non-philosophical works are no less illuminating than those found in philosophical works proper. Some instances of the early sources related to pre-Cārvāka materialism have already been offered before (see R. Bhattacharya 2012b). In what follows, I propose to add a few more instances related to (a) the anti-Vedic tradition mentioned by Patañjali, (b) the voice of rationalism found in the Purāṇas, (c) the reception of Jābāli, a proto-materialist thinker as well as (d) the Cārvāka/Lokāyata in modern Indian literature, (e) the representation of Lokāyata in Jain literature and (f) the Rājataraṅgiṇī.

     

Swayed by the music: sampling bias towards musical preference distinguishes like from dislike decisions

This study investigated the interaction between sampling behavior and preference formation underlying subjective decision making for like and dislike decisions. Two-alternative forced-choice tasks were used with closely-matched musical excerpts and the participants were free to listen and re-listen, i.e. to sample and resample each excerpt, until they reached a decision. We predicted that for decisions involving resampling, a sampling bias would be observed before the moment of conscious decision for the like decision only. The results indeed showed a gradually increasing sampling bias favouring the choice (73%) before the moment of overt response for like decisions. Such a bias was absent for dislike decisions. Furthermore, the participants reported stronger relative preferences for like decisions as compared to dislike decisions. This study demonstrated distinct differences in preference formation between like and dislike decisions, both in the implicit orienting/sampling processes prior to the conscious decision and in the subjective evaluation afterwards.     

Shadows of music-language interaction on low frequency brain oscillatory patterns

Electrophysiological studies investigating similarities between music and language perception have relied exclusively on the signal averaging technique, which does not adequately represent oscillatory aspects of electrical brain activity that are relevant for higher cognition. The current study investigated the patterns of brain oscillations during simultaneous processing of music and language using visually presented sentences and auditorily presented chord sequences. Music-syntactically regular or irregular chord functions were presented in sync with syntactically or semantically correct or incorrect words. Irregular chord functions (presented simultaneously with a syntactically correct word) produced an early (150-250 ms) spectral power decrease over anterior frontal regions in the theta band (5-7 Hz) and a late (350-700 ms) power increase in both the delta and the theta band (2-7 Hz) over parietal regions. Syntactically incorrect words (presented simultaneously with a regular chord) elicited a similar late power increase in delta-theta band over parietal sites, but no early effect. Interestingly, the late effect was significantly diminished when the language-syntactic and music-syntactic irregularities occurred at the same time. Further, the presence of a semantic violation occurring simultaneously with regular chords produced a significant increase in later delta-theta power at posterior regions; this effect was marginally decreased when the identical semantic violation occurred simultaneously with a music syntactical violation. Altogether, these results show that low frequency oscillatory networks get activated during the syntactic processing of both music and language, and further, these networks may possibly be shared.     

Life in Overabundance: Agar on Life-Extension and the Fear of Death

In Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement, Nicholas Agar presents a novel argument against the prospect of radical life-extension. Agar’s argument hinges on the claim that extended lifespans will result in people’s lives being dominated by the fear of death. Here we examine this claim and the surrounding issues in Agar’s discussion. We argue, firstly, that Agar’s view rests on empirically dubious assumptions about human rationality and attitudes to risk, and secondly, that even if those assumptions are granted, the fears that Agar adverts to are unlikely to dominate people’s lives if and when radical life-extension is made possible. Further, we claim that the structure of the decision-making process around life-extension is unlikely to be the way that it would have to be in order for Agar’s claims about fear of death to make sense. Finally, we argue that Agar is implicitly committed to a narrow conception of human value. In response, we suggest that the pursuit of life-extension can itself be seen as an expression of certain important aspects of our distinctively human nature.