ADHD children outperform normal children in an artificial grammar implicit learning task: ERP and RT evidence

This study focuses on Implicit learning (IL) in children. One of the main debates in this field concerns the occurrence of IL indicators in experimental settings and its manifestation in different populations. In this research, we are looking for evidence of the occurrence of IL in normal children and in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), based on the relationship between accuracy, reaction time and event-related potentials (ERPs). Our results show differences between the analyzed groups with respect to markers for electrophysiological activity and reaction time, but not for accuracy. In consequence, we suggest that research in IL should explore different indicators and their relationship with the cognitive processing levels involved. In addition, IL might involve different forms of information processing in normal children and children with ADHD. We discuss the possible impact of these findings for future research.     

Cognitive load and semantic analogies: Searching semantic space

The aim of the present study is to investigate the performance of children of different ages on an analogymaking task involving semantic analogies in which there are competing semantic matches. We suggest that this can best be studied in terms of developmental changes in executive functioning. We hypothesize that the selection of common relational structure requires the inhibition of other salient features, in particular semantically related matches. Our results show that children's performance in classic A ∶ B ∶∶ C ∶ D analogy-making tasks seems to depend crucially on the nature of the distractors and the association strength between both the A and B terms and the C and D terms. These results agree with an analogy-making account (Richland, Morrison, & Holyoak, 2006) based on different limitations in executive functioning at different ages.     

Breastfeeding and the mother–infant relationship—A review

A positive effect of breastfeeding on the mother–infant relationship is often assumed in the scientific literature, but this has not been systematically reviewed. This review aims to clarify the role of breastfeeding in the mother–infant relationship, which is conceptualized as the maternal bond toward the infant and infant attachment toward the mother. Our findings indicate that theoretical mechanisms through which breastfeeding may enhance the maternal bond or infant attachment (i.e., endocrine and sensory factors involved in breastfeeding) can be found in both humans and animal models. However, the few empirical studies investigating this association have not found convincing support for a relation between breastfeeding and the quality of the mother–infant relationship. We therefore conclude that assumptions on a positive role of breastfeeding on the mother–infant relationship are not supported by empirical evidence, and recommendation of breastfeeding should solely be based on its well-documented positive effects on infant and maternal health.     

Moral inertia

I argue that, according to ordinary morality, there is moral inertia, that is, moral pressure to fail to intervene in certain circumstances. Moral inertia is manifested in scenarios with a particular causal structure: deflection scenarios, where a threatening or benefiting process is diverted from a group of people to another. I explain why the deflection structure is essential for moral inertia to be manifested. I argue that there are two different manifestations of moral inertia: strict prohibitions on interventions, and constraints on interventions. Finally, I discuss the connection between moral inertia and the distinction between killing and letting die (or doing and allowing harm).

Justice Perceptions as Predictors of Customer Satisfaction: The Impact of Distributive,Procedural, and Interactional Justice1

This article attempts to extend prior research by testing the effects of justice components (distributive, procedural, and interactional) on customer satisfaction beyond the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm. To this end, two separate field survey studies were conducted. A total of 568 customers were surveyed in 38 hotels and 40 restaurants. The results showed that distributive justice was critical in predicting customer satisfaction, while the influence of procedural and interactional justice was secondary. Justice concepts were also robust against the simultaneous inclusion of disconfirmation and performance in the satisfaction equation. The article concludes with theoretical and managerial implications, as well as opportunities for future research.     

Changing Patterns of Gender Portrayals in Portuguese Television Advertisements1

The purpose of this study was to identify patterns in Portuguese television advertisements and interpret changes in the portrayal of gender roles using data collected 7 years apart: 1996 and 2003. We grouped 11 attributes of the central figure displayed in 623 evening commercials using a k‐means cluster procedure. There were 4 distinct groups of advertisements that emerged, 2 of them characterizing a predominantly male central figure and the other 2 a female central figure. The overall increase in women portrayed in advertisements from 1996 (32.9%) to 2003 (40.8%) is reflected in a shift toward an increase of advertisements with a female central figure in the typically male “narrator” cluster. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Role of the Disease in the Psychological Impact of Pre-Symptomatic Testing for SCA2 and FAP ATTRV30M: Experience with the Disease, Kinship and Gender of the Transmitting Parent

To identify possible factors affecting the psychological impact of pre-symptomatic testing for spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) and familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP ATTRV30M), we studied (1) the effect of previous experience with the disease in the family, (2) kinship with the closest affected relative and (3) gender of affected parent, when adapting to test results; as well as (4) differences in the course of psychological wellbeing in 63 subjects ( 28 at-risk for FAP ATTRV30M, and 35 at risk for SCA2), who pursued predictive testing for these diseases, in Cuba and in Portugal. Our research shows that individuals with little or no experience with the disease in their family exhibited more anxiety; at-risk subjects for SCA2 or FAP ATTRV30M who had a first degree relative with the disease showed lower levels of anxiety and depression during pre-symptomatic testing. Also those with an affected mother had lower levels of depression, either immediately, or one year after receipt of test results. Adaptation to pre-symptomatic testing results differed for subjects at-risk for the two different conditions. Unlike the FAP ATTRV30M families, carriers for SCA2 reported pathological levels of depression immediately after-testing (3 weeks), although those levels had returned to normal levels at 6 months. Subjects at-risk for FAP ATTRV30M tended to have less anxiety than those tested for SCA2, at the one-year follow-up. Overall, depression levels improved over time, while anxiety remained more constant. A longer awareness of the disease in the family, closer kinship, and a transmitting mother all lessened the impact of pre-symptomatic testing, as expressed by the post-test levels of anxiety and depression.     

Cueing the interpretation of a Necker Cube: a way to inspect fundamental cognitive processes

The term perceptual bistability refers to all those conditions in which an observer looks at an ambiguous stimulus that can have two or more distinct but equally reliable interpretations. In this work, we investigate perception of Necker Cube in which bistability consists of the possibility to interpret the cube depth in two different ways. We manipulated the cube ambiguity by darkening one of the cube faces (cue) to provide a clear cube interpretation due to the occlusion depth index. When the position of the cue is stationary the cube perceived perspective is steady and driven by the cue position. However, when we alternated in time the cue position (i.e. we changed the position of the darkened cube face) two different perceptual phenomena occurred: for low frequencies the cube perspective alternated in line with the position of the cue; however for high frequencies the cue was no longer able to bias the perception but it appears as a floating feature traveling across the solid with the cube whole perspective that returns to be bistable as in the conventional, bias-free, case.     

Preliminary evidence for impaired rapid verb generation in schizophrenia

It has been hypothesized that nouns and verbs are processed within relatively separable semantic memory networks. Although abnormal semantic processing is a common feature of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, no prior studies have specifically examined the comparability of noun and verb generation deficits in schizophrenia. In the current study, verb (action), noun (animal), and letter (f) fluency performance was evaluated in 22 inpatients with schizophrenia and 27 healthy comparison subjects. On average, individuals with schizophrenia performed approximately one standard deviation below the healthy comparison subjects on action, animal, and letter fluency. Action fluency-but not letter or animal fluency-was moderately correlated with tests of working memory, response inhibition, semantic memory, and cognitive flexibility. Findings suggest that verb- and noun-based fluency deficits are of comparable severity in schizophrenia, but that the impairment in verb generation may be driven by different underlying cognitive mechanisms. Further, hypothesis-driven research on the nature and extent of verb network disruption in schizophrenia appears warranted.