The relation between ethnic group attachment and prosocial tendencies: The mediating role of cultural values

Studies suggest that Mexican–American youths who feel attached to their ethnic group engage in more prosocial behaviors. However, the psychological mechanisms that account for this association are not clear. Drawing on social identity and self‐categorization theories, we examined whether the association between ethnic group attachment and tendencies to engage in six distinct types of prosocial behaviors was mediated by familism and Mainstream American values among Mexican American youths. Ethnic group attachment, familism, Mainstream American values, and prosocial tendencies were assessed among 207 Mexican–American early adolescents using an interview format. Latent variable path models showed that ethnic group attachment was associated with greater tendencies to engage in compliant, emotional, dire, and anonymous helping, and that each of these associations was at least partially mediated by greater familism values. Mainstream American values were related to greater tendencies to engage in public prosocial behavior and less altruistic behavior, but did not mediate the associations between ethnic group attachment and prosocial tendencies. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are addressed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Smiling in newborns during communicative wake and active sleep

Many studies have investigated infant smiling behaviour during wake and active sleep. In the majority of studies authors agreed that two month-old infants exhibit social smiles. However it is not clear if newborns exhibit different kinds of smiles during wake and active sleep to two month-old infants and if the communicative context can affect the quantity and quality of these smiles.The aim of this study was to test if different kinds of communication affects the amount and the quality of smiles during different behavioural states.Smiling behaviour was analyzed during interactive wake (IW) and active sleep (AS), in 40 newborns randomly assigned to 4 groups of 10 newborns each: continuous tactile communication group, discontinuous non periodic tactile communication group, discontinuous periodic tactile communication group, absent communication group. In the total sample the open/closed mouth (social/non social) smiles ratio was 38/5 during IW and 1/28 during AS (p < .001). Moreover these ratios were different between the four groups.Different kinds of tactile communication affect amount and quality of the smiles of newborns during IW and AS. Moreover the morphological difference of the smiles during IW and AS suggested that for newborns the smiling behaviour during IW could have a social meaning, as it does for two month-old infants.     

Dynamics of the ankle joint analyzed through moment-angle loops during human walking: gender and age effects

Aim of this study was to provide a non-invasive assessment of the dynamic properties of the ankle joint during human locomotion, with specific focus on the effects of gender and age. Accordingly, flexion-extension angles and moments, obtained through gait analysis, were used to generate moment–angle loops at the ankle joint in 120 healthy subjects walking at a same normalized speed. Four reproducible types of loops were identified: Typical Loops, Narrow, Large and Yielding loops. No significant changes in the slopes of the main loop phases were observed as a function of gender and age, with the exception of a relative increase in the slope of the descending phase in elderly males compared to adult females. As for the ergometric parameters, the peak ankle moment, work produced and net work along the cycle were slightly, but significantly affected, with progressively decrease in the following order: Adult Males, Adult Females, Elderly Males and Elderly Females. The evidence that only few of the quantitative aspects of moment–angle loops were affected suggests that the control strategy which regulates the biomechanical properties of the ankle joint during walking is rather robust and qualitatively consistent across genders and age.     

Deduction without awareness

We investigated whether two basic forms of deductive inference, Modus Ponens and Disjunctive Syllogism, occur automatically and without awareness. In Experiment 1, we used a priming paradigm with a set of conditional and disjunctive problems. For each trial, two premises were shown. The second premise was presented at a rate designed to be undetectable. After each problem, participants had to evaluate whether a newly-presented target number was odd or even. The target number matched or did not match a conclusion endorsed by the two previous premises. We found that when the target matched the conclusion of a Modus Ponens inference, the evaluation of the target number was reliably faster than baseline even when participants reported that they were not aware of the second premise. This priming effect did not occur for any other valid or invalid inference that we tested, including the Disjunctive Syllogism. In Experiment 2, we used a forced-choice paradigm in which we found that some participants were able to access some information on the second premise when their attention was explicitly directed to it. In Experiment 3, we showed that the priming effect for Modus Ponens was present also in subjects who could not access any information about P(2). In Experiment 4 we explored whether spatial relations (e.g., "a before b") or sentences with quantifiers (e.g., "all a with b") could generate a priming effect similar to the one observed for Modus Ponens. A priming effect could be found for Modus Ponens only, but not for the other relations tested. These findings show that the Modus Ponens inference, in contrast to other deductive inferences, can be carried out automatically and unconsciously. Furthermore, our findings suggest that critical deductive inference schemata can be included in the range of high-level cognitive activities that are carried out unconsciously.     

Female sexual offenders: Five Italian case studies

Women who sexually abuse children are rare and case histories are scarce; even less is known about sexually abusive mothers. Due to the number of cases in which women sexually abuse minors, more in-depth studies on this subject are needed. This article examines the clinical files of five women who are currently serving time in Italian prisons for the sexual abuse of children. Records of the abuse cases and other records were utilized. The cases involved varying degrees of participation in the abuse by the mothers, and ranged from active sexual engagement to allowing others to abuse their children. Female perpetrators are likely to be experiencing problems in many areas of their life, including relationship dysfunction and psychological impairment. In three cases women revealed an antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), while in two cases a borderline personality disorder (BPD) was diagnosed according with DSM-IV criteria. Possible motivations for women who molest their children are explored and discussed. The current review shows that most female sex offenders fall into several suggested typology models. Therefore, the existing typologies used to classify female child sex offenders may be insufficient, and more comprehensive exploration of this offender population is needed.     

Multiple mechanisms for recency with vowels and consonants

Three experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the difference in recency effect between vowel-contrasting and stop-contrasting lists of syllables in immediate ordered recall can be explained by item discriminability and regular short-term memory mechanisms, without any recourse to echoic memory or precategorical acoustic storage (PAS). In Experiment 1, the short-term memory mechanisms were manipulated by reducing amount of output interference and length of retention interval. The partial-report technique was used. The most important finding was the usual final-position recency effect (difference in recall between the fifth and sixth serial positions) for the vowel lists but not for the stop lists, regardless of the type of report. Thus the PAS theory could not be rejected. In Experiments 2 and 3, the last item was differentiated from the other items of the list, either by lengthening the interstimulus interval between the last and the next-to-last (Experiment 2) or by increasing the intensity of the last item (Experiment 3). In both cases, an increase of the final-position recency effect was found even for stop lists. Since a drop in recall errors was also obtained for the fourth item when its intensity was increased (von Restorff effect), this final-position recency effect for stop lists is likely to be due to item discriminability, and not to echoic memory for the last item. Item discriminability appeared to be the critical factor.     

THE CONSTANCY OF STRUCTURE OF PERCEIVED PARENTAL REARING STYLE IN GREEK AND SPANISH SUBJECTS AS COMPARED WITH THE DUTCH

To be able to contribute to the cross-cultural study of child-rearing practices and psychopathology, this study sought to examine the cross-national generalizability of parental rearing constructs by analyzing self-report data on the EMBU, an instrument designed to assess memories of one's parents' rearing behavior. Of the four primary factors identified originally with Dutch individuals, namely Rejection, Emotional Warmth, Overprotection and Favoring Subject, the first three were replicated in a similar form in a Greek and a Spanish sample of normal research volunteers. Other properties of the factors, their corresponding scales, and the items constituting the scales were such that it would be warranted to carry out mean scale level or pattern comparisons between subjects from the respective countries on the three constructs evidencing cross-national constancy. Scale-level factor analysis of these constructs produced identical two- factor compositions (CARE and PROTECTION) across the Greek, the Spanish and the Dutch samples which further supported this conclusion.     

Comparison processes on visual mental images

Three experiments were conducted to test whether visual mental images and visual perceptual representations possess equivalent structural properties and undergo functionally equivalent comparison processes. In Experiment 1, subjects were required to perform asame-different letter classification in which the two letters were shown in succession. The first letter in the pair either was actually presented (perceptual condition) or had to be actively generated (imaginal condition). Both conditions showed that (1) response latencies fordifferent decisions decreased as a function of the degree of difference (segment effect), and (2) same decisions were faster than the fastestdifferent ones (fast same effect). In Experiment 2, the imaginal condition only was employed, but no imagery instructions were given and very strict time constraints were assigned. In spite of these restrictions, subjects apparently generated and used visual images, as attested by the fact that the results were comparable to those of the previous experiment. In Experiment 3, three experimental manipulations were introduced to prevent the use of visual images. Such manipulations proved effective, as shown by the disappearance of the segment effect. It was concluded that in the visual modality images and percepts are equivalent in structure and are processed in a very similar way.     

A pragmatic interpretation of intuitionistic propositional logic

We construct an extension ^P of the standard language of classical propositional logic by adjoining to the alphabet of a new category of logical-pragmatic signs. The well formed formulas of are calledradical formulas (rfs) of ^P;rfs preceded by theassertion sign constituteelementary assertive formulas of ^P, which can be connected together by means of thepragmatic connectives N, K, A, C, E, so as to obtain the set of all theassertive formulas (afs). Everyrf of ^P is endowed with atruth value defined classically, and everyaf is endowed with ajustification value, defined in terms of the intuitive notion of proof and depending on the truth values of its radical subformulas. In this framework, we define the notion ofpragmatic validity in ^P and yield a list of criteria of pragmatic validity which hold under the assumption that only classical metalinguistic procedures of proof be accepted. We translate the classical propositional calculus (CPC) and the intuitionistic propositional calculus (IPC) into the assertive part of ^P and show that this translation allows us to interpret Intuitionistic Logic as an axiomatic theory of the constructive proof concept rather than an alternative to Classical Logic. Finally, we show that our framework provides a suitable background for discussing classical problems in the philosophy of logic.This paper is an enlarged and entirely revised version of the paper by Dalla Pozza (1991) worked out in the framework of C.N.R. project n. 89.02281.08, and published in Italian. The basic ideas in it have been propounded since 1986 by Dalla Pozza in a series of seminars given at the University of Lecce and in other Italian Universities. C. Garola collected the scattered parts of the work, helped in solving some conceptual difficulties and refining the formalism, yielded the proofs of some propositions (in particular, in Section 3) and provided physical examples (see in particular Remark 2.3.1).