Boys’ and Girls’ Relational and Physical Aggression in Nine Countries

Distinguishing between relational and physical aggression has become a key feature of many developmental studies in North America and Western Europe, but very little information is available on relational and physical aggression in more diverse cultural contexts. This study examined the factor structure of, associations between, and gender differences in relational and physical aggression in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. Children ages 7–10 years (N = 1,410) reported on their relationally and physically aggressive behavior. Relational and physical aggression shared a common factor structure across countries. In all nine countries, relational and physical aggression were significantly correlated (average r = .49). Countries differed in the mean levels of both relational and physical aggression that children reported using and with respect to whether children reported using more physical than relational aggression or more relational than physical aggression. Boys reported being more physically aggressive than girls across all nine countries; no consistent gender differences emerged in relational aggression. Despite mean‐level differences in relational and physical aggression across countries, the findings provided support for cross‐country similarities in associations between relational and physical aggression as well as links between gender and aggression. Aggr. Behav. 38:298‐308, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Sequence learning in pianists and nonpianists: An fMRI study of motor expertise

Previous studies of motor learning have proposed a distinction between fast and slow learning, but these mechanisms have rarely been examined simultaneously. We examined the influence of longterm motor expertise (slow learning) while pianists and nonpianists performed alternating epochs of sequenced and random keypresses in response to visual cues (fast learning) during functional neuroimaging. All of the participants demonstrated learning of the sequence as demonstrated by decreasing reaction times (RTs) on sequence trials relative to random trials throughout the session. Pianists also demonstrated faster RTs and superior sequence acquisition in comparison with nonpianists. Withinsession decreases in bilateral sensorimotor and parietal activation were observed for both groups. Additionally, there was more extensive activation throughout the session for pianists in comparison with nonpianists across a network of primarily right-lateralized prefrontal, sensorimotor, and parietal regions. These findings provide evidence that different neural systems subserve slow and fast phases of learning.     

Individual capacity differences predict working memory performance and prefrontal activity following dopamine receptor stimulation

Dopamine receptors are abundant in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a critical region involved in working memory. This pharmacological fMRI study tested the relationships between dopamine, PFC function, and individual differences in working memory capacity. Subjects performed a verbal delayed-recognition task after taking either the dopamine receptor agonist bromocriptine or a placebo. Behavioral effects of bromocriptine treatment depended on subjects’ working memory spans, with the greatest behavioral benefit for lower span subjects. After bromocriptine, PFC activity was positively correlated with a measure of cognitive efficiency (RT slope) during the probe period of the task. Less efficient subjects with slower memory retrieval rates had greater PFC activity, whereas more efficient subjects had less activity. After placebo, these measures were uncorrelated. These results support the role of dopamine in verbal working memory and suggest that dopamine may modulate the efficiency of retrieval of items from the contents of working memory. Individual differences in PFC dopamine receptor concentration may thus underlie the behavioral effects of dopamine stimulation on working memory function.     

Spatial working memory activity of the caudate nucleus is sensitive to frame of reference

We used event-related fMRI to test the hypothesis that the caudate nucleus is preferentially recruited by a spatial working memory task employing egocentrically defined stimuli, which are amenable to transformation into a motor code, as contrasted with allocentrically defined stimuli, which are not. Our results revealed greater delay-epoch activity in egocentric than in allocentric trials in the caudate nucleus and trends in the same direction in the putamen and the lateral premotor cortex (PMC). Response-related activity was greater for egocentric trials in the lateral PMC. We propose that the neostriatum, possibly interacting with the PMC, may contribute to the sensory-motor transformation necessary to establish a prospective motor code (e.g., the representation of a saccade or a grasp). In addition, the PMC may participate in decision-making processes, prompted by the onset of the probe stimulus, that employ this prospective motor information. This model accounts for the empirical evidence that motor distraction disrupts spatial working memory performance.     

Predictive probability and analogy by similarity in inductive logic

The-continuum of inductive methods was derived from an assumption, called-condition, which says that the probability of finding an individual having propertyx _j depends only on the number of observed individuals having propertyx _j and on the total number of observed individuals. So, according to that assumption, all individuals with properties which are different fromx _j have equal weight with respect to that probability and, in particular, it does not matter whether any individual was observed having some propertysimilar tox _j (the most complete proof of this result is presented in Carnap, 1980).The problem thus remained open to find some general condition, weaker than the-condition, which would allow for thederivation of probability functions which might be sensitive to similarity. Carnap himself suggested a weakening of the-condition which might allow for similarity sensitive probability functions (Carnap, 1980, p. 45) but he did not find the family of probability functions derivable from that principle. The aim of this paper is to present the family of probability functions derivable from Carnap's suggestion and to show how it is derived.In Section 1 the general problem of analogy by similarity in inductive logic is presented, Section 2 outlines the notation and the conceptual background involved in the proof, Section 3 gives the proof, Section 4 discusses Carnap's principle and the result, Section 5 is a brief review of the solutions which have previously been proposed.     

Modifiability of attention: Effects of dimensional salience and overtraining on discrimination shifts

Previous results have shown that there is an increased difference between intradimensional (ID) and extradimensional (ED) shifts when subjects shift to a nonpreferred dimension. Fisher and Zeaman (1973) have indicated that such findings can be explained not only by their attention-retention theory, which assumes that attention is completely modifiable, but also by models which assume that attention has a fixed, nonmodifiable component. The present experiment showed that the larger ID-ED difference with a nonsalient dimension is solely attributable to the improved performance of the ID shift condition, a results which is more consistent with the assumption of complete modifiability of attention.     

Decisions Under Temporal AND Emotional Pressure: The Hidden Relationships Between the Unconscious,Personality, and Cognitive Styles

The existence of an unaware psychic space that influences the way we think, perceive, and decide has been known for over a century. This space, defined by Freud as the “unconscious,” contains in itself unaware psychic contents. Its sophisticated adaptive functions, implicit and unaware, allow individuals to transform an enormous amount of information into explicit behaviors, influencing their behaviors. In this article, we advance the hypothesis that there is a strong relationship between the unconscious, personality styles, and decisions under conditions of temporal and emotional pressure. The fact that an increase in the quality of a performance follows an increase in excitation, at least up to a certain threshold, clarifies the concept. Beyond this level of activation, not only are the benefits starting to diminish, but we also notice the onset of dysfunctional conditions that consist of anxiety, inner tension, difficulty in concentration, and inability to decide.     

A microswitch‐based program for promoting initial ambulation responses: An evaluation with two girls with multiple disabilities

We assessed the use of a microswitch‐based program for promoting ambulation responses by two children with multiple disabilities. The goals of the study were to: (a) evaluate the importance of the contingency between the target behavior (forward step) and the programmed consequence (preferred stimuli), (b) measure effects of the intervention on indices of happiness, and (c) assess the social validation of the procedure using 20 physiotherapists as external raters. The intervention involved the automatic delivery of preferred stimuli contingent on forward steps. Results showed that both participants improved their performance (forward steps and indices of happiness) during contingent reinforcement phases compared to baseline and noncontingent reinforcement phases. Moreover, physiotherapists rated the intervention as socially valid.     

Assessing regulatory emotional self-efficacy in three countries

The Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy (RESE) scale was developed to assess perceived self-efficacy in managing negative (NEG) and in expressing positive (POS) affect (G. V. Caprara & M. Gerbino, 2001). In this study of young adults, the factorial structure of the RESE scale was found to be similar in Italy, the United States, and Bolivia. In addition to a factor for POS, NEG was represented by a second-order factor of 2 different negative affects: despondency-distress (DES) and anger-irritation (ANG). Overall, there was partial invariance at both metric and scalar levels across gender and countries. Discriminant and convergent validity of the RESE scale was further examined in the Italian sample. Stronger patterns of association of POS with prosocial behavior, of ANG with low aggressive behavior problems and irritability, and of DES with low anxiety/depressive problems and shyness and high self-esteem were found.