Pragmatic difficulties in children with specific language impairment. The role of mentalistic tasks

Several subjects with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show communicative and pragmatic problems. In this study, we suggested that mentalistic comprehension tasks would help us to find a deteriorated pragmatic profile among the population with SLI. To achieve this goal, a group of participants with conventional SLI (n=11) was compared to a group of SLI with more pragmatic problems (n=9) and their respective control group with typically developed language (n=13), of ages between 4 and 7 years. Results revealed that all the groups were able to attribute mental states in tasks where the context was structured. However, the subjects with predominant pragmatic SLI showed poorer performance than those with conventional SLI when tasks were communicative-oriented and they needed to process non-explicit information from the context. These findings suggest that it is possible to isolate a SLI subtype with more pragmatic problems and also that we can use mentalistic tasks to assess these difficulties more accurately.     

Audiovisual bounce-inducing effect: When sound congruence affects grouping in vision

Two disks moving from opposite points in space, overlapping, and stopping at one another’s starting point can be seen as either bouncing off one another or streaming through one another. With silent displays, observers report streaming, whereas, if a sound is played when the disks are in the overlap region, observers report bouncing. The change in perception is thought to be modulated by a lack of attention that inhibits the integration of the motion signal when disks overlap and by the sound that increases the congruence of the display, in comparison with a real elastic bounce. Here, we accompanied the disks’ motion with either a bounce-congruent sound (a billiard ball) or with bounce-incongruent sounds (a water drop, a firework). When the sound was switched on 200 msec before the disks’ overlap, (1) all the audiovisual displays induced more bounce responses than did the silent display, but (2) the bounce-congruent sound induced more bounce responses than did the bounceincongruent sounds. However, when the sound was switched on at the disks’ overlap, only the first result was observed. These results highlight both the role of attention and that of sound congruence.     

Focusing on the bodily self: The influence of endogenous attention on visual body processing

The present study explores whether endogenous attention can modulate body perception. A modified version of the Posner paradigm was used to direct participants' attention toward the appearance of distinct body images, which differed only in detailed idiosyncratic features: one's own and another person's hands. Hand stimuli were preceded by symbolic cues that predicted their identity with high probability, which made it possible to compare the processing of expected (valid) and unexpected (invalid) targets. Results revealed that endogenous attention influenced the processing of participants' own hands by speeding participants' responses to valid in contrast to invalid trials. Crucially, no validity effect was found for the hands of another person. These findings cannot be explained in terms of perceptual familiarity, since an optimization of the processing for both familiar and unfamiliar faces by symbolic cues was observed. In light of these results, it is suggested that participants are able to anticipate particular stimuli within the same perceptual category as long as these stimuli appear to be remarkably distinct to them, which is probably the case for particular faces and their own bodies, in contrast to other people's bodies.     

Dwelling on the hill: Impressions of residents of two favelas in Rio de Janeiro regarding religion and public space

Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with residents in two favelas in Rio de Janeiro, this paper argues that the concept of ‘the divided city’ (fixed and nomadic, planned and negotiated, rich and poor) allows us to make sense of these residents' views of religion and public space. Life ‘on the hill’ is characterised by a greater degree of negotiation and improvisation in all its social relations than is life below in ‘the asphalt’. This offers important insights into the success of Evangelicals [Apart from here in the abstract, references to ‘evangelicals’ in the text follow Brazilian usage, i.e., a broad term including three groups of Protestants: mainstream historical churches or “evangélicos de missão” (Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc); Pentecostals (Assembléia de Deus, Congregação Cristã, Deus é Amor, etc.); and Neo-pentecostals (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, Igreja da Graça de Deus, Igreja Apostólica Renascer em Cristo, etc).(S.E./C.M.)] and Pentecostals, and the relative lack of success by Catholics, in taking a lead in public activities within the community. This finding may well have broader application. However, the paper makes a theoretical and methodological qualification: because the place of religion depends on the particular history and context of the location studied, the most pressing need is for more local studies.     

Differential Genetic and Environmental Influences on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Children

While significant heritability for childhood aggression has been claimed, it is not known whether there are differential genetic and environmental contributions to proactive and reactive forms of aggression in children. This study quantifies genetic and environmental contributions to these two forms of aggression in an ethnically diverse urban sample of 9–10 year old twins (N = 1219), and compares results across different informants (child self-report, mother, and teacher ratings) using the Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ). Confirmatory factor analysis of RPQ items indicated a significant and strong fit for a two-factor proactive–reactive model which was significantly superior to a one-factor model and which replicated across gender as well as the three informant sources. Males scored significantly higher than females on both self-report reactive and proactive aggression, findings that replicated on mother and teacher versions of the RPQ. Asian–Americans scored lower than most ethnic groups on reactive aggression yet were equivalent to Caucasians on proactive aggression. African–Americans scored higher than other ethnic groups on all measures of aggression except caregiver reports. Heritable influences were found for both forms of aggression across informants, but while boys’ self-reports revealed genetic influences on proactive (50%) and reactive (38%) aggression, shared and non-shared environmental influences almost entirely accounted for girls’ self-report reactive and proactive aggression. Although genetic correlations between reactive and proactive aggression were significant across informants, there was evidence that the genetic correlation was less than unity in boys self reported aggression, indicating that genetic factors differ for proactive and reactive aggression. These findings provide the first evidence for varying genetic and environmental etiologies for reactive and proactive aggression across gender, and provide additional support for distinction between these two forms of aggression.     

Attentional mechanisms associated with repressive distancing

This research explores the role of attentional shift and disengagement in repressive distancing. During a target-detection task in which emotional and neutral facial expressions were used as cues, participants received performance feedback intended to elicit a negative emotional reaction that rendered the task either threatening or not threatening to self-concept. When the task was perceived to threaten self-concept, repressors distanced themselves by rapidly disengaging their attention from the facial expressions rather than by slowly shifting or not shifting their attention to the facial expressions. Attentional disengagement was accompanied by sympathetic nervous system activity suggestive of a defense response. This research provides further insight into the nature and consequences of the interplay of dispositional tendencies, situational contexts, and higher order cognitive influences in attentional behavior.     

Factors influencing the temporal relationship between alcohol consumption and experiences with aggression among college women.

The authors assessed temporal relationships among alcohol use, aggression, and mood using daily data from 179 college women. Participants called an interactive voice response system over an 8-week period. The odds of experiencing verbal, sexual, and physical aggression (odd ratios = 2.25, 19.44, and 11.84, respectively) were significantly higher on heavy drinking days (M = 7.46 drinks) compared to nondrinking days. Both a history of victimization and greater psychological symptom severity influenced the odds of involvement in verbal aggression. The odds of alcohol consumption were 3 times higher during the 24 hr following verbal aggression compared with days in which verbal aggression did not occur. On the day immediately following involvement in either verbal or physical aggression, positive mood decreased and negative mood increased. During the week (2-7 days) following sexual aggression, women's positive mood was decreased. These findings reinforce the need for interventions aimed at reducing heavy episodic drinking on college campuses.     

An Examination of the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory‐3 Correctional Scale in a College Student Population

In this study, the authors examined the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory‐3 Correctional scale's sensitivity and specificity at detecting college students' illegal behaviors. Sensitivity was strong, but specificity was weak. Implications for counseling and suggestions for future research are included.     

Assessing preference in elders with dementia using multimedia and verbal pleasant events schedules

The current study compared an abbreviated oral interview version of the Pleasant Events Schedule – Alzheimer's Disease (PES‐AD) to a multimedia‐supplemented version. Both measures identified multiple preferred items and their scores were moderately correlated (r = .481). Direct observations were conducted to determine whether either of the two measures predicted subsequent engagement. For all nine individuals with dementia, items endorsed as preferred by both versions of the PES‐AD resulted in high levels of engagement and items endorsed as non‐preferred items on both measures resulted in low to moderate levels of engagement. Individuals with MMSE scores of 10 or higher had more stable and differentiated patterns of engagement than individuals with scores below 10. For individuals with higher MMSE scores, items endorsed only by the multimedia version resulted in high engagement levels (i.e., true positive) while items endorsed only on the verbal presentation resulted in low levels (i.e., false positive). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distress, coping, and blogging: comparing new myspace users by their intention to blog.

New Myspace.com users (N = 134, mean age 24.5 years) completed a questionnaire about their intent to blog and several psychosocial variables. Intending bloggers scored higher on psychological distress, self-blame, and venting and scored lower on social integration and satisfaction with number of online and face-to-face friends. Intending bloggers may view this activity as a potential mechanism for coping with distress in situations in which they feel inadequately linked with social supports.