Secret agents: inferences about hidden causes by 10- and 12-month-old infants

Considerable evidence indicates that preverbal infants expect that only physical contact can cause an inanimate object to move. However, very few studies have investigated infants' expectations about the source of causal power. In three experiments, we found that (a) 10- and 12-month-old infants expect a human hand, and not an inanimate object, to be the primary cause of an inanimate object's motion; (b) infants' expectations can lead them to infer a hidden causal agent without any direct perceptual evidence; and (c) infants do not infer a hidden causal agent if the moving object was previously shown to be capable of self-generated motion.     

Beziehungsmuster und Beziehungskonflikte

Zusammenfassung  Die Veränderung pathogenetisch bedeutsamer Beziehungsmuster gilt als wesentliches psychotherapeutisches Behandlungsziel. Um zielgerichtete Veränderungen von Beziehungsstrukturen zu erreichen, bedarf es sowohl einer Diagnostik und Beschreibung solcher Beziehungsmuster, einer darauf zielenden Behandlungstechnik als auch einer Verlaufskontrolle und Evaluation der angestrebten Veränderungen. Nach einem Überblick über verschiedene Methoden zur Erfassung von Beziehungsmustern wird die Methode des Zentralen-Beziehungskonflikt-Themas (ZBKT) von Luborsky näher beschrieben; ausgewählte Ergebnisse der ZBKT-Forschung werden dargestellt und die Methode kritisch bewertet.

Behavioral Research on the Severe and Persistent Mental Illnesses

We are honored to introduce the special series highlighting behavioral research on the severe and persistent mental illnesses (SPMIs) that appears in this issue of Behavior Therapy. We begin this series by providing a succinct overview of this category of disorders, noting briefly their impact, cost, etiology, and management. We then identify four recent advances in the care of persons living with a SPMI, and provide an overview of the six articles that appear in this series. The series recognizes and showcases outstanding behavioral research, and seeks to encourage new and continuing participation by behavior therapists in the care of persons living with a SPMI.     

Sexualit?t und Internet

On the discussion about sexual internet activities, the professional and public discourses have been strongly polarized for a long time. Currently the trend is that online sexuality is to be seen in a differentiated and empirical manner. Next to undesired (e.g. assault by internet platform) or indirect (e.g. due to excessive pornography use by partners) confrontations with online sexuality, there is a broad spectrum of self-initiated sexual use of the internet. These are, for example reception of information sites, exchange of experiences, utilization of online sexual consultation and romantic relationships. On the other hand clinically relevant problems could accompany sexual internet use, such as cybersex addiction. Because of the mediatization in society ambulant patients in the psychotherapeutic practice are more informed about sexual internet use. For psychotherapists it is important to know the internet-specific details and the potential risks and chances for sexual behavior in order to know how to deal with the situation and if necessary to integrate the internet into the spectrum of web-based sexual therapeutic options.     

Bioethical Issues and Health Care Chaplaincy in Aotearoa New Zealand

This paper summarizes survey and interview results from a cross-sectional study of New Zealand health care chaplaincy personnel concerning their involvement in multiple bioethical issues encountered by patients, families and clinical staff within the health care context. Some implications of this study concerning health care chaplaincy, ecclesiastical institutions, health care institutions and government responsibilities are discussed and recommendations presented.     

Lower extremity strength and hopping and jumping ground reaction forces in children with neurofibromatosis type 1

The purpose of this study was to (1) extend the research findings of decreased muscular force production in grip strength to the lower extremity strength of children with NF1 and (2) to determine if there was a relationship between isometric strength and functional activities in children with NF1. Force production was assessed using a hand held dynamometer (HHD) and a functional task (hopping and jumping) on a force plate. Data from twenty-six children with NF1 were compared to data from 48 typically developing children of similar sex, weight and height. Children with NF1 demonstrated statistically significant lower force production with HHD (p<0.01) during hip extension, but similar force production for knee extension and ankle plantar flexion compared to the control group. A relationship existed between the ground reaction forces at take-off from both hopping and jumping and the force generated from knee extensor strength in the NF1 group. The addition of a functional task to hand held dynamometry is useful for determining a relationship between common clinical measures and functional activities.     

Grey parrot number acquisition: The inference of cardinal value from ordinal position on the numeral list

A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) had previously been taught to use English count words ("one" through "sih" [six]) to label sets of one to six individual items (Pepperberg, 1994). He had also been taught to use the same count words to label the Arabic numerals 1 through 6. Without training, he inferred the relationship between the Arabic numerals and the sets of objects (Pepperberg, 2006b). In the present study, he was then trained to label vocally the Arabic numerals 7 and 8 ("sih-none", "eight", respectively) and to order these Arabic numerals with respect to the numeral 6. He subsequently inferred the ordinality of 7 and 8 with respect to the smaller numerals and he inferred use of the appropriate label for the cardinal values of seven and eight items. These data suggest that he constructed the cardinal meanings of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" from his knowledge of the cardinal meanings of one through six, together with the place of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" in the ordered count list.