Revisiting the changing and stable properties of coping utilization using latent class growth analysis: A longitudinal investigation with soccer referees

ObjectivesThis study examined the longitudinal factor invariance of problem-focused, disengagement-focused, and seeking social support coping to provide an unbiased estimation of the mean-level and differential stability of coping with longitudinal confirmatory factor analyses with mean structure. This study also examined different patterns of longitudinal coping utilization with Latent Class Growth Modeling (LCGM).MethodSoccer referees (N = 227), aged from 15 to 53 years, completed a French version of the Ways of Coping Checklist at three times over an entire season.ResultsThe structure of the coping dimensions could be assumed longitudinally invariant. The mean-level utilization of problem-focused coping did not change significantly over the season despite the presence of test–retest instability. Both disengagement and seeking support coping utilization have significantly decreased over time while displaying moderate test–retest stability. Results of LCGM revealed that, while most referees did not change their utilization of problem-focused coping, two subgroups have respectively increased and decreased their use of problem-focused coping. Two subgroups decreased significantly their use of both disengagement-oriented and seeking support coping whereas one subgroup maintained the same level of utilization.ConclusionsResults indicated that coping utilization displayed both trait-like and state-like properties, differing for distinct subgroups of referees. This research provided further evidence for the need of moving beyond the sole reliance on traditional analyses of change to recast the trait-like versus state-like debate on coping into a more idiosyncratic-nomothetic framework.     

Infant‐holding biases in mothers and affective symptoms during pregnancy and after delivery

Several authors have reported that participants have a leftward bias when holding a newborn or young infant. Our study of mothers met before and after their infant's birth sought to ascertain whether particular combinations of affective symptoms (depression, anxiety) and holding positions (horizontal versus vertical) were related to holding‐side biases. Our results showed that (a) mothers displayed a significant leftward (71%) holding bias, (b) mothers with affective symptoms held their newborn on the right side and more frequently in the vertical position, and (c) hemispheric specialization for perceiving visual emotions had no significant effect on the holding‐side biases of new mothers. These results suggest that maternal affective symptoms have a dominant effect on the determination of holding‐side preferences, when associated with a particular holding position. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Aging on Functional Connectivity of the Amygdala for Subsequent Memory of Negative Pictures: A Network Analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data

ABSTRACT— Aging is associated with preserved enhancement of emotional memory, as well as with age-related reductions in memory for negative stimuli, but the neural networks underlying such alterations are not clear. We used a subsequent-memory paradigm to identify brain activity predicting enhanced emotional memory in young and older adults. Activity in the amygdala predicted enhanced emotional memory, with subsequent-memory activity greater for negative stimuli than for neutral stimuli, across age groups, a finding consistent with an overall enhancement of emotional memory. However, older adults recruited greater activity in anterior regions and less activity in posterior regions in general for negative stimuli that were subsequently remembered. Functional connectivity of the amygdala with the rest of the brain was consistent with age-related reductions in memory for negative stimuli: Older adults showed decreased functional connectivity between the amygdala and the hippocampus, but increased functional connectivity between the amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. These findings suggest that age-related differences in the enhancement of emotional memory might reflect decreased connectivity between the amygdala and typical subsequent-memory regions, as well as the engagement of regulatory processes that inhibit emotional responses.     

Reduced fixation on the upper area of personally familiar faces following acquired prosopagnosia

Selective impairment of face recognition following brain damage, as in acquired prosopagnosia, may cause a dramatic loss of diagnosticity of the eye area of the face and an increased reliance on the mouth for identification ( Caldara et al., 2005 ). To clarify the nature of this phenomenon, we measured eye fixation patterns in a case of pure prosopagnosia (PS, Rossion et al., 2003 ) during her identification of photographs of personally familiar faces (27 children of her kindergarten). Her age‐matched colleague served as a control. Consistent with previous evidence, the normal control identified the faces within two fixations located just below the eyes (central upper nose). This pattern (location and duration) of fixations remained unchanged even by increasing difficulty by presenting anti‐caricatures of the faces. In contrast, the great majority of the patient's fixations, irrespective of her accuracy, were located on the mouth. Overall, these observations confirm the abnormally reduced processing of the upper area of the face in acquired prosopagnosia. Most importantly, the prosopagnosic patient also fixated the area of the eyes spontaneously in between the first and last fixation, ruling out alternative accounts of her behaviour such as, for example, avoidance or failure to orient attention to the eyes, as observed in autistic or bilateral amygdala patients. Rather, they reinforce our proposal of a high‐level perceptual account ( Caldara et al., 2005 ), according to which acquired prosopagnosic patients have lost the ability to represent multiple elements of an individual face as a perceptual unit (holistic face perception). To identify a given face, they focus very precisely on local features rather than seeing the whole of a face from its diagnostic centre (i.e. just below the eyes). The upper area of the face is particularly less attended to and less relevant for the prosopagnosic patient because it contains multiple features that require normal holistic perception in order to be the most diagnostic region. Consequently, prosopagnosic patients develop a more robust representation of the mouth, a relatively isolated feature in the face that may contain more information than any single element of the upper face area, and is thus sampled repeatedly for resolving ambiguity in the process of identification.     

Children with developmental coordination disorder are equally able to generate force but show more variability than typically developing children

Several studies have suggested that children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have difficulties in the fine-tuning of manual force. However, parameterization of the generated force per se is hard to test under normal circumstances as movement planning and execution are also involved. In the present study, an isometric force production task was used to test the hypothesis that children with DCD have a decreased ability to scale force to a required force level and to maintain steady low to submaximal forces. We also tested if the developmental trends were different between the children with DCD and typically developing (TD) children. Twenty-four children with DCD and 24 matched TD children, divided over three age groups (7-9-11 years) participated in this study. Analysis of the data showed that DCD and TD children are equally able to adapt their generated force to the required levels, however DCD children produced a less steady force, even more variable than in the youngest TD children. These results suggest that problems in force control in children with DCD are caused by a higher level of inherent noise of the output system. Since younger DCD children are much more affected than older ones it is suggested that these children are able to learn a strategy to cope with their increased stochastic variability, especially at higher force levels.     

The interaction of state and trait aspects of self-focused attention affects genital, but not subjective, sexual arousal in sexually functional women

In this study we investigated the effects of state and trait aspects of self-focused attention on genital and subjective sexual arousal of sexually functional, healthy women during presentation of audiovisual erotic stimuli. Psychophysiological sexual response was measured as vaginal pulse amplitude using a vaginal photoplethysmograph. Experiential aspects of sexual arousal were measured both during stimulus presentation and retrospectively after stimulus offset. Trait level of sexual self-focus was measured with the Sexual Self-Consciousness Scale. State self-focus was induced by switching on a TV camera that pointed at the participant's face and upper torso. A manipulation check revealed that both groups experienced equally elevated levels of self-focused attention of their physical appearance. Induction of state self-focus per se did not affect genital responses, but an interaction effect of self-focus and participants' level of trait sexual self-focus was revealed. Compared with women with low scores on this trait, women with high scores exhibited smaller genital responses when state self-focus was induced. Both groups did not differ when no self-focus was induced. Increase of state self-focus did not affect subjective sexual arousal, but participants with a high level of trait sexual self-focus reported stronger subjective arousal, compared with those with low trait level. The results were discussed with reference to previous work in this field. Some implications for treatment of sexual arousal disorder were discussed.     

Do Humans Really Learn AnBn Artificial Grammars From Exemplars?

An important topic in the evolution of language is the kinds of grammars that can be computed by humans and other animals. Fitch and Hauser (F&H; 2004) approached this question by assessing the ability of different species to learn 2 grammars, (AB)(n) and A(n) B(n) . A(n) B(n) was taken to indicate a phrase structure grammar, eliciting a center-embedded pattern. (AB)(n) indicates a grammar whose strings entail only local relations between the categories of constituents. F&H's data suggest that humans, but not tamarin monkeys, learn an A(n) B(n) grammar, whereas both learn a simpler (AB)(n) grammar (Fitch & Hauser, 2004). In their experiments, the A constituents were syllables pronounced by a female voice, whereas the B constituents were syllables pronounced by a male voice. This study proposes that what characterizes the A(n) B(n) exemplars is the distributional regularities of the syllables pronounced by either a male or a female rather than the underlying, more abstract patterns. This article replicates F&H's data and reports new controls using either categories similar to those in F&H or less salient ones. This article shows that distributional regularities explain the data better than grammar learning. Indeed, when familiarized with A(n) B(n) exemplars, participants failed to discriminate A(3) B(2) and A(2) B(3) from A(n) B(n) items, missing the crucial feature that the number of As must equal the number of Bs. Therefore, contrary to F&H, this study concludes that no syntactic rules implementing embedded nonadjacent dependencies were learned in these experiments. The difference between human linguistic abilities and the putative precursors in monkeys deserves further exploration.     

Health Behaviors and Psychological Distress in Women Initiating BRCA1/2 Genetic Testing: Comparison with Control Population

The study objective was to compare breast cancer screening practices, lifestyle behaviors and psychological distress among 640 women initiating BRCA1/2 testing to those among 9,498 similarly-aged women from the general population. Health behaviors and psychological distress were reported in a self-administered questionnaire at pre-test genetic counseling. Regression analyses indicate that high-risk women were more frequently performing breast cancer screening and, in the case of those previously diagnosed with cancer, were more likely to be non-smokers and physically active than women from general population. However, women initiating BRCA1/2 testing were significantly more distressed than controls. Globally, high-risk women seemed to be well informed about recommendations for women who are at high risk and to have access to screening adapted to their risk level. Given their significant psychological distress, providing minimal psychosocial support to all women undergoing BRCA1/2 testing at pre-test genetic counseling is relevant.     

The interplay between social dominance orientation and intergroup contact in explaining support for multiculturalism

In two studies, we tested whether social dominance orientation (SDO) and intergroup contact interacted in shaping support for multiculturalism. Study 1 was correlational, while in Study 2 we measured SDO and experimentally manipulated intergroup contact (imagined contact paradigm). We found that SDO and intergroup contact interacted on support for multiculturalism: Intergroup contact was associated with more support for multiculturalism only for high‐SDO individuals, and SDO was negatively associated to support for multiculturalism more strongly for individuals with low or no contact. Finally, we discussed the role of the intergroup setting in which studies are conducted.