Sublexical or lexical effects on serial recall of nonwords?

S. E. Gathercole, C. R. Frankish, S. J. Pickering, and S. Peaker (1999) reported 2 experiments in which they manipulated phonotactic properties of nonword stimuli and observed the effects on serial recall. Their results show superior recall for items consisting of more frequent phoneme pairs (biphone frequency). Biphone frequency was counted as the number of 3 phoneme words in which the phoneme pair occurs. In the first experiment of the current article, the authors made the same manipulation while controlling for the number of lexical neighbors and found no effect of biphone frequency. In the second experiment, the authors manipulated neighborhood size while controlling biphone frequency and found a significant effect of neighborhood size. The authors argued that serial recall of nonwords is influenced by lexical rather than sublexical knowledge.     

Ethics of neuroimaging in pediatric development

Neuroimaging in pediatrics is accompanied by all the ethical dilemmas associated with neuroimaging in adults, magnified significantly. The defining characteristics of childhood make working ethically with the population particularly problematic. Children have not developed the rational capabilities necessary to make informed decisions and the variability and change associated with development contribute to heightened risks and/or benefits of any procedure and limit interpretation of data. As a consequence, fewer pediatric than adult neuroimaging research studies have been done, further limiting general knowledge of the field. Significant strides have been made just within the past few years with the collection of normative data sets of healthy children. Recommendations on how to proceed with pediatric neuroimaging studies while ensuring ethical treatment of the participants are presented.     

Profiles of wisdom among emerging adults: Associations with empathy,gratitude, and forgiveness

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine multidimensional profiles of wisdom among emerging adults. We expected individuals who displayed deeper perspective across multiple dimensions of wisdom to also report greatest adjustment in reports of empathy, gratitude, and forgiveness. Two hundred and sixty-three undergraduate students reported dispositional empathy, gratitude, and forgiveness. Participants also responded to situational vignettes concerning gratitude and forgiveness. Wisdom was measured by coding written advice to hypothetical dilemmas. Cluster analyses supported four wisdom profiles: ‘Procedure-Focused,’ emphasizing methods for addressing challenges; ‘Fact-Focused,’ accentuating factual knowledge; ‘Shallow Perspective,’ showing less perspective across all dimensions; and ‘Deep Perspective,’ showing greater perspective across all dimensions. Participants in the ‘Shallow Perspective’ profile reported less empathy than those in the ‘Deep Perspective’ and ‘Procedure-Focused’ profiles. There were no differences in gratitude and forgiveness across clusters. Results suggest that emerging adults who have more fully developed perspectives about life challenges show greater interpersonal strengths.     

The horizontal-vertical delusion

Most people can correctly apply the concepts of horizontal and vertical in describing objects, but a simple demonstration shows that they are confused about how these concepts work. The nature of the confusion and its possible causes are briefly discussed.     

Muscle dysmorphia: Current research and potential classification as a disorder

ObjectiveTo review the literature for scientific evidence in support of inclusion of Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).DesignThe criteria proposed by Blashfield, Sprock, and Fuller (1990) were used for determining whether scientific evidence supports the introduction of MD as a new disorder into a disease classification system.MethodPeer-reviewed journal articles were identified by searching databases for articles published (in print and electronically) from 2001 to 2011.ResultsThe search identified 59 journal articles that specifically focused on MD, of which 39 were empirical journal articles. There is ample literature on MD, including a common set of diagnostic criteria and assessment instruments to measure MD. However, questions remain about the diagnostic reliability and validity, including inter-rater reliability, and whether MD represents a disorder that consists of symptoms that frequently co-occur. Also, evidence of syndrome differentiation is lacking. Only two of the five criteria proposed by Blashfield et al. have been met.ConclusionLiterature suggests that MD is associated with several indicators of clinical significance and distinctiveness. However the current review has found significant limitations and gaps in the scientific literature on MD. Possible options regarding the status of MD in the DSM-5 are proposed, including introducing MD as an example of an eating disorder not otherwise specified, retaining MD as a body dysmorphic disorder, introducing MD as a new disorder, or introducing MD as a provisional diagnosis in need of further study.     

Distributive Justice in the State of Nature: An Egalitarian View

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel egalitarian answer to the question: what initial distribution of the world’s resources could possibly count as just? Like many writers in the natural rights tradition, I take for granted that distributive justice consists in conformity to pre-political principles that apply to property regimes. Against the background of that assumption, the paper distinguishes between broadly Lockean and broadly Grotian conceptions of distributive justice in the state of nature. After an extended critique of various versions of the Lockean approach, it argues for a particular, egalitarian version of the Grotian view. My position is based on what I call the common ownership formula, which says: each human being, as an equal co-owner of the world’s resources, may use those resources provided that the terms of their use are in conformity with principles that no co-owner could reasonably reject as the basis of an informed, unforced general agreement between all of the world’s co-owners who sought to find equitable principles of resource division. Using this principle, I suggest how an unequivocally egalitarian view of pre-political entitlement can be justified without recourse to any alleged duty to ameliorate the effects of brute bad luck on people’s lives.     

Pregnant Women’s Perspectives on Expanded Carrier Screening

Expanded carrier screening (ECS) is a relatively new carrier screening option that assesses many conditions simultaneously, as opposed to traditional ethnicity-based carrier screening for a limited number of conditions. This study aimed to explore pregnant women’s perspectives on ECS, including reasons for electing or declining and anxiety associated with this decision-making. A total of 80 pregnant women were surveyed from Northwestern Medicine’s Clinical Genetics Division after presenting for aneuploidy screening. Of the 80 participants, 40 elected and 40 declined ECS. Trends regarding reasons for electing or declining ECS include ethnicity, desire for genetic risk information, lack of family history, perceived likelihood of being a carrier, and perceived impact on reproductive decisions. Individuals who declined ECS seemed to prefer ethnicity-based carrier screening and believed that ECS would increase their anxiety, whereas individuals who elected ECS seemed to prefer more screening and tended to believe that ECS would reduce their anxiety. These findings provide insight on decision-making with regard to ECS and can help guide interactions that genetic counselors and other healthcare providers have with patients, including assisting patients in the decision-making process.     

Adaptation of CBT for Traumatized South African Indigenous Groups: Examples from Multiplex CBT for PTSD

This article describes how Culturally Adapted Multiplex CBT, a treatment that emphasizes somatic processing and emotion regulation, was adapted for a traumatized South African indigenous group, the Sepedi. A model of psychopathology is presented, the Multiplex Model of Trauma-Related Disorder, which depicts the processes that generate multiple comorbidities and prominent somatization in minority, refugee, and other non-Western populations. The nine dimensions of Culturally Adapted Multiplex CBT are discussed, and so too the “cultural adaptation diamond.” Concepts such as “explanatory model bridging” are presented. A culturally sensitive assessment measure of local somatic complaints and cultural syndromes (the Sepedi Symptom and Syndrome Addendum, or Sepedi SSA) is detailed, as well as how CBT techniques were implemented with this group—for example, modification of culturally specific catastrophic cognitions, doing exposure (e.g., interoceptive exposure), teaching attentional control and mindfulness techniques, and teaching “loving kindness.” Case examples with clinical outcomes are provided to further illustrate how Multiplex CBT was adapted for the South African indigenous group.