Multiple imitation mechanisms in children

Four studies using a computerized paradigm investigated whether children's imitation performance is content-specific and to what extent dependent on other cognitive processes such as trial-and-error learning, recall, and observational learning. Experiment 1 showed that 3-year-olds could successfully imitate what we call novel cognitive rules (e.g., first → second → third), which involved responding to 3 different pictures whose spatial configuration varied randomly from trial to trial. However, these same children failed to imitate what we call novel motor-spatial rules (e.g., up → down → right), which involved responding to 3 identical pictures that remained in a fixed spatial configuration from trial to trial. Experiment 2 showed that this dissociation was not due to a general difficulty in encoding motor-spatial content, as children successfully recalled, following a 30-s delay, a new motor-spatial sequence that had been learned by trial and error. Experiment 3 replicated these results and further demonstrated that 3-year-olds can infer a novel motor-spatial sequence following observation of a partially correct and partially incorrect response-a dissociation between imitation and observational learning (or emulation learning). Finally, Experiment 4 presented 3-year-olds with "familiar" motor-spatial sequences that involved making a linear response (e.g., left → middle → right) as well as "novel" motor-spatial sequences (e.g., right → up → down) used in Experiments 1-3 that were nonlinear and always involved a change in direction. Children had no difficulty imitating familiar motor-spatial sequences but again failed to imitate novel motor-spatial sequences. These results suggest that there may be multiple, dissociable imitation learning mechanisms that are content-specific. More importantly, the development of these imitation systems appears to be independent of the operations of other cognitive systems, including trial and error learning, recall, and observational learning.     

Comparing the effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior and response-cost contingencies on tics in youth with tourette syndrome

Tics are rapid, repetitive, stereotyped movements or vocalizations that arise from neurobiological dysfunction and are influenced by environmental factors. Although persons with tic disorders often experience aversive social reactions in response to tics, little is known about the behavioral effects of such consequences. Along several dimensions, the present study compared the effects of two treatments on tics: response cost (RC) and differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO). Four children with Tourette syndrome were exposed to free-to-tic baseline, DRO, RC, and quasibaseline rebound evaluation conditions using an alternating treatments design. Both DRO and RC produced substantial decreases in tics from baseline levels. No differential effects of DRO and RC contingencies were seen on self-reported stress or in the strength of the reflexive motivating operation (i.e., premonitory urge) believed to trigger tics, and neither condition produced tic-rebound effects. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Gender inequality and gender differences in authoritarianism

Authoritarianism may be endorsed in part as a means of managing and buffering psychological threats (e.g., Duckitt & Fisher, 2003; Henry, 2011). Building on this research, the authors postulated that authoritarianism should be especially prevalent among women in societies with high levels of gender inequality because they especially face more psychological threats associated with stigma compared with men. After establishing that authoritarianism is, in part, a response to rejection, a psychological threat associated with stigma (Study 1), the authors used multilevel modeling to analyze data from 54 societies to find that women endorsed authoritarian values more than men, especially in individualistic societies with high levels of gender inequality (Study 2). Results show that the threats of stigma for women are not uniform across different cultures and that the degree of stigma is related to the degree of endorsement of psychologically protective attitudes such as authoritarianism.     

Memory improvement tapes: How effective for elderly adults?

Abstract

The effectiveness of two commercially available audiocassette memory improvement programs was evaluated in a sample of 32 healthy, community-living elderly adults. Participants were given a set of either Syber Vision's Neuropsychology of Memory Power tapes (Bornstein, 1989) or Nightingale-Conant's Mega Memory tapes (Trudeau, 1992), and a portable cassette player, and instructed to complete the programs within 10 weeks. All participants received a comprehensive battery of memory tests prior to and immediately following the memory improvement programs. Participants completing the memory improvement programs showed no greater gains in memory test performance than no-treatment control participants, but did report greater confidence in their memory abilities. Participants completing the Mega Memory program thought they were less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease after having completed it compared with participants in the other two conditions. Participants reported finding both tape programs acceptable and potentially useful for improving memory; those who completed the Memory Power program reported somewhat greater satisfaction than those completing the Mega Memory program. the claims about rapid, dramatic memory improvement with use of these products were not substantiated in this group of elderly adults and appear to be grossly exaggerated.     

Psychological Aspects of the Role of Religion in Identity Construction

Religious plurality can generate fears through identity destabilization. Religions offer ressources for coping with fears. On one side, production of stereotypes follows a defensive way. On the other side, claim to be universal help to cross boundaries and to cope with stigmatization, misrecognition and discrimination. Coping strategies combine at least five aspects: community, intimate relationship, rules, construction of identity, and worlview. This article shows how these aspects are intertwined.     

Abstracts

Kierkegaard recognized that the changes ushered in by the revolutions of 1848 would profoundly affect human existence in both its political and personal dimensions. At the political level he was concerned that the new forms of government would not be able to govern any more effectively than the previous forms. Loquacity would be substituted for policy. Then, too, the new forms of government encouraged confusion about the actual locus of power; the appearances and the reality of power did not conform. Also, the actual state represents ‘interests’, and as a result, justice is jeopardized. To be sure, compromise will be evident in such an actual state, but is governing possible in and through such conflictual arrangements? What is the relation of the press (media) to the public, and these in turn to politics?     

Selective deficit in spatial location memory in extremely low birth weight children at age six: The PETIT Study

Spatial location memory has rarely been assessed in young children due to a scarcity of developmentally appropriate tests. This study sought to compare nonverbal learning and recall in children born extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1000 g) and less than 33 gestational weeks (GW) with term-born children at early school age using a recently developed and adapted test. We administered a modification of the Hopkins Board to 210 children at age six; 84 born ELBW (35 born < 26 GW; 49 born 26–33 GW) and 126 term-born. Six measures were obtained: naming, trials-to-criterion, errors-to-criterion, delayed item recall, delayed location recall, and percent retention. After age correction, ELBW children had worse general cognition, item naming, delayed item recall, delayed location recall, and percent retention than term-born children. Delayed item recall and percent retention performances of ELBW children remained worse after correction for general cognition. ELBW groups (< 26 GW and 26–33 GW) groups performed worse than term-born children in naming and delayed item recall with chronological age as covariate. Those born before 26 GW, but not 26–33 GW, performed worse than term-born children in delayed location recall and percent retention. Differences remained significant after controlling for gender, maternal education, and delivery type. All three groups' performance declined from final learning trial to delayed location recall, with a decline greater for less than 26 GW than term-born children. Extreme prematurity (< 26 GW) and ELBW are significant risk factors for spatial location memory deficit. The modified Hopkins Board discriminated high-risk preterm and term-born children at early school age and appears to be a useful test to measure this rarely studied cognitive capacity.