A qualitative study of Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents’ perceptions of the factors affecting their engagement and performance in school

Although a growing body of quantitative research has examined the non-cognitive factors affecting the school engagement and performance of adolescents across cultures, there is relatively sparse qualitative research investigating the perceptions of adolescents regarding the factors influencing their engagement and performance in school. This focus group study comprising 32 Indian adolescents from India (mean age = 16.78 years) and 20 Indian immigrant adolescents from Canada (mean age = 17.05 years), therefore, using a self-determination theory perspective, explored the perceptions of Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents about the factors affecting their school engagement and performance in India and Canada, respectively. Thematic analysis of eight focus group discussions suggested that Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents were primarily extrinsically motivated toward school and academics. Further, both the Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents perceived their classroom teachers as controlling rather than autonomy-supportive. Implications of the findings are briefly discussed.     

Hand movements reveal the time-course of shape and pigmentation processing in face categorization

Although the roles of shape and pigmentation cues in face categorization have been studied in detail, the time-course of their processing has remained elusive. We measured participants’ hand movements via the computer mouse en route to male or female responses (gender task) or young or old responses (age task) on the screen. Participants were presented with male and female faces (gender task) or with young and old faces (age task) that were typical, shape-atypical, or pigmentation-atypical. Before settling into correct categorizations, the processing of atypical cues led hand trajectories to deviate toward the opposite gender or age category. A temporal analysis of these trajectory deviations revealed dissociable dynamics in shape and pigmentation processing. Pigmentation had a privileged, early role during gender categorization, preceding shape effects by approximately 50 ms and preceding pigmentation effects in age categorization by 100 ms. In age categorization, however, pigmentation had a simultaneous onset of influence as shape. It also had a more dominant influence than shape throughout the gender and age categorization process. The results reveal the time-course of shape and pigmentation processing in gender and age categorization.     

Masculinity and femininity in middle childhood: Developmental and factor analyses

Developmental differences in children's self-perceptions of masculinity and femininity during the middle childhood period were investigated in English-speaking children from Grades 2–7 (N=517). The majority of participants were Caucasian and from middle socioeconomic families. The multidimensionality of masculinity and femininity was also examined. The Children's Personal Attributes Questionnaire (CPAQ), a standardized self-report instrument, was used to assess masculinity (instrumentality) and femininity (socioemotional expressiveness). Developmental differences were found within a cross-sectional design, with a decrease in feminine responding and an increase in masculine responding. At the item level, however, both boys and girls were relatively selective and limited in the items that had a grade effect. Interestingly, greater symmetry was observed between boys' masculine and feminine scores than between girls' scores. Furthermore, fewer boys had predominantly masculine responding than girls had predominantly feminine responding. Factor analysis provided initial support for the presence of three factors—interpersonal orientation, leadership, and emotionality—which appear to have greater specificity and reflect more distinct subtraits than the original scales of the CPAQ. The results of the present study suggest that meaningful developmental changes occur during the middle childhood period, and that a single summary score for masculinity or femininity ignores variations in gender-typed subtraits and thus raises both scoring and interpretation concerns.     

Metabolic mapping of the rat cerebellum during delay and trace eyeblink conditioning

The essential neural circuitry for delay eyeblink conditioning has been largely identified, whereas much of the neural circuitry for trace conditioning has not been identified. The major difference between delay and trace conditioning is a time gap between the presentation of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US) during trace conditioning. It is this time gap or trace interval which accounts for an additional memory component in trace conditioning. Additional neural structures are also necessary for trace conditioning, including hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. This addition of forebrain structures necessary for trace but not delay conditioning suggests other brain areas become involved when a memory gap is added to the conditioning parameters. A metabolic marker of energy use, radioactively labeled glucose analog, was used to compare differences in glucose analog uptake between delay, trace, and unpaired experimental groups in order to identify new areas of involvement within the cerebellum. Known structures such as the interpositus nucleus and lobule HVI showed increased activation for both delay and trace conditioning compared to unpaired conditioning. However, there was a differential amount of activation between anterior and posterior portions of the interpositus nucleus between delay and trace, respectively. Cerebellar cortical areas including lobules IV and V of anterior lobe, Crus I, Crus II, and paramedian lobule also showed increases in activity for delay conditioning but not for trace conditioning. Delay and trace eyeblink conditioning both resulted in increased metabolic activity within the cerebellum but delay conditioning resulted in more widespread cerebellar cortical activation.