Relational factors of vulnerability and protection for adolescent pregnancy: a cross-sectional comparative study of Portuguese pregnant and nonpregnant adolescents of low socioeconomic status

This study explores multiple relational contexts that promote vulnerability and protection against early pregnancy in a potential risk group of Portuguese adolescents. A comparative analysis was made between two groups of female adolescents of low socioeconomic status: pregnant adolescents (n=57) and adolescents without a history of pregnancy (n=81). Results suggest that several variables belonging to different contexts-family and school and peer relations--are important in the characterization of the two groups. Lower levels of mother's overprotection and father's emotional support, presence of early pregnancy in adolescent's mother, lower level of emotional proximity to peer relations, and higher number of school failures are significantly associated with adolescent pregnancy.     

The hippocampus and memory for "what," "where," and "when"

Previous studies have indicated that nonhuman animals might have a capacity for episodic-like recall reflected in memory for "what" events that happened "where" and "when". These studies did not identify the brain structures that are critical to this capacity. Here we trained rats to remember single training episodes, each composed of a series of odors presented in different places on an open field. Additional assessments examined the individual contributions of odor and spatial cues to judgments about the order of events. The results indicated that normal rats used a combination of spatial ("where") and olfactory ("what") cues to distinguish "when" events occurred. Rats with lesions of the hippocampus failed in using combinations of spatial and olfactory cues, even as evidence from probe tests and initial sampling behavior indicated spared capacities for perception of spatial and odor cues, as well as some form of memory for those individual cues. These findings indicate that rats integrate "what," "where," and "when" information in memory for single experiences, and that the hippocampus is critical to this capacity.     

Consequential conditionals: invited and suppressed inferences from valued outcomes

Consequential conditionals are defined as "if P then Q" statements, where P is an action, and Q a predicted outcome of this action, which is either desirable or undesirable to the agent. Experiment 1 shows that desirable (viz. undesirable) outcomes invite an inference to the truth (viz. falsity) of their antecedent. Experiment 2 shows that the more extreme the outcome is, the stronger the invited inference is. Experiment 3 shows that modus ponens from premises "If A then C, A" can be suppressed with the introduction of a consequential conditional, "If C then Q," where Q is an undesirable outcome. Experiment 4 shows that the more undesirable Q is, the larger the suppression is. The authors discuss how these results can enrich current approaches of conditional inference on the basis of mental models, complementary necessary conditions, and conditional probabilities.     

Organization of compensatory postural coordination patterns

The authors investigated whether compensatory postural coordination patterns are organized according to the same dynamical principles as are nonequilibrium phase transitions. Eight participants were asked to maintain upright balance on a moving platform that was sinusoidally translated in the anterior-posterior direction and was systematically increased and decreased 0.19 Hz as a step function every 10 platform cycles through the frequency range 0.19-1.46 Hz. At low platform frequencies, all participants exhibited small joint angular motions with high variability, and the relative phase between the joint motions exhibited drifting patterns and large fluctuations. As platform frequency increased, the amplitude of joint motion increased systematically and joint-specific oscillatory patterns emerged. The findings provided no evidence for a Hopf bifurcation or hysteresis in the transitions of postural coordination modes, however, or, more generally, a basis for distinguishing the relevance of linear versus nonlinear models of postural control.     

An automated technique for the study of cyclic fluctuations in sexual motivation in an avian species

Diurnal fluctuations in sexual behavior occur in freely interacting pairs of male and female birds. These fluctuations are difficult to interpret because they may reflect fluctuations in the motivation of the male, the motivation of the female, or both. A method was developed to study the sexual motivation of male Japanese quail in response to a standard stimulus. Sexual behavior was elicited by a taxidermic model of a female quail in a squatting posture. Sensors beneath and in the back of the model served to detect when the male mounted and made cloacal contact with the model. The technique allowed continuous recording of male sexual behavior under standard conditions. When males were maintained on a photoperiod with lights on at 0600 h and off at 2200 h, sexual behavior peaked in the early afternoon, with a secondary peak just before lights-out.     

Stop Doubting with Descartes

Did Descartes manage to overcome the skeptics? If we understand “overcome” in the sense of “refute,” the answer is no, since his hyperbolic doubt harbors several blind spots and is, therefore, not as radical as is commonly argued. In this way, the victory of the cogito is perhaps less decisive and fruitful than it is claimed. If we understand “overcome” in the sense of “remove” or “move beyond,” the answer is yes. Descartes has overcome skepticism, but at the cost of a decision, a sort of bet made in favor of reason based on a confidence in the human mind that is never really subverted. This faith in reason, truth, and specific epistemological principles in Descartes’ philosophy constitute what Wittgenstein calls “hinges,” which are indispensable for doubting and searching for truth. In this sense, Descartes’ anti-skepticism is more a confidence in reason in order to save the possibility of science than the result of a logical refutation.

     

Should I invite them? Bystanders' inclusivity judgements towards outgroup victims and ingroup bullies in intergroup bullying

This study examined bystanders' judgements of bullying and their inclusivity towards refugee victims and ingroup bully peers. Participants included 587 Turkish adolescents (M_age = 13.14, SD = 1.60) who were presented with two stories: intergroup (Syrian refugee victim) and intragroup (Turkish victim) bullying. They indicated acceptability of bullying, retaliation, and how likely they would be to include victims and bullies in different social contexts. Empathy, prejudice, desired social distance, and peer norms towards Syrian refugees were examined as predictors. Adolescents in schools with a higher number of Syrian peers were more likely to expect they would include the Syrian victim than adolescents in schools with a lower number of Syrian peers. Further, adolescents with higher empathy were more likely to include the Syrian victim while adolescents with higher prejudice and desired social distance were less likely to include the Syrian victim. The results highlight the importance of attending to bystanders' future interactions with victims and bullies, as bystanders have the opportunity to challenge injustice by promoting inclusive school climates in diverse societies. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .     

Sentence comprehension and production in children with cochlear implants: Errorless procedures and equivalence-based instruction

Research supports equivalence-based instruction (EBI) and matrix training for increased listening and speaking skills in children with cochlear implants (CI). We incorporated errorless procedures to optimize the EBI and evaluated the effects on the auditory comprehension and verbal responding at-sentences level in six CI children who were readers and showed inaccurate tacting. Subject-verb-object sentences were arranged in two matrices; diagonal combinations were trained and evaluated non-diagonal combinations. EBI included stimulus fading and exclusion to directly teach the dictated sentence-picture matching; written-sentences construction upon dictation also was taught. Probes assessed the derived stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response relations. All participants learned the auditory-visual discriminations and the exclusion resulted in fewer errors than on a stimulus fading procedure. Five participants formed equivalence classes and increased verbal responding to equivalent stimuli, especially pictures tacting. They also showed recombinative generalization for both matrices. Professionals can incorporate errorless procedures to EBI for improving sentence comprehension, tacting, and productivity in CI children.     

Using humor to increase COVID-19 vaccination intention for the unvaccinated: The moderating role of trust in government

Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, scholars and practitioners have put much effort into testing effective advertising strategies for COVID-19 vaccinations. Guided by humor theories, this study aimed to examine (1) the effect of humor on persuading COVID-19 vaccination and (2) the moderating role of trust in government for the unvaccinated population. Across two studies (college students and general adult populations), for lower trust in government individuals, through greater public service advertisement (PSA) processing depth and believability, there was a higher vaccination intention after the humor (non-humor) advertisement. For higher trust in government individuals, there was evidence that the vaccination intention was lowered after the humor (vs. non-humor) message through lowered PSA processing depth and believability. This study expands humor theory into testing COVID-19 vaccination messages while considering an individual psychological factor, trust in the government, that has emerged as an essential determinant to COVID-19 messaging. The contributions to COVID-19 vaccination advertising strategy and advertising to the unvaccinated population, in general, are discussed.