Response to Induced Relaxation During Pregnancy: Comparison of Women with High Versus Low Levels of Anxiety

Relaxation exercises have become a standard intervention for individuals with anxiety disorders but little is known about their potential for anxiety relief during pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to examine psychoendocrine (i) baseline differences and (ii) changes after a standardized relaxation period in pregnant women with high versus low levels of anxiety. Thirty-nine third-trimester high and low anxious pregnant women performed active or passive relaxation while levels of anxiety, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) system activity were assessed before and after the relaxation period. In women with high levels of trait anxiety, state anxiety (F(1,36)?=?8.3, p?=?.007) and negative affect (F(1,36)?=?7.99, p?=?.008) as well as ACTH (F(1,35)?=?9.24, p?=?.002) remained elevated over the entire course of the experimental procedure, the last indicating increased HPA axis activity. In addition, norepinephrine showed a constricted decrease of relaxation reflecting lower response of the SAM-system (F(1,37)?=?4.41, p?=?.043). Although relaxation exercises have become a standard intervention for individuals with anxiety, pregnant women with high levels of trait anxiety benefited less than women with low levels from a single standardized relaxation period.     

Virtual conversation partner for adults with autism

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is notable for severely impaired reciprocal social interaction skills relative to language and intellectual abilities, presenting a major barrier to social integration and vocational success. Evidence-based interventions to address these needs are lacking. We report on the development of a small, prototype conversation simulation to teach conversational skills to adolescents and adults with ASD and average to superior intellectual abilities. We also report on a test of the feasibility and acceptability of the simulation approach with a sample of the target population. The simulation engages the user in a virtual conversation with an on-screen partner whose reactions provide naturalistic feedback geared to the appropriateness of the learner's response choices. The prototype simulation, which provides for up to 12 potentially unique multi-turn conversations, was used over a period of 2 weeks by 16 adolescents and adults who then rated statements about the system on a linear scale of 1 (disagreement) to 5 (high agreement). The participants highly endorsed the majority of positive statements about the quality and credibility of the interaction and the virtual conversation partner. In contrast, agreement with positive statements about instructional features external to the conversation was moderate. Unexpectedly, most participants strongly agreed that using the simulation had been helpful to them. Further development and testing in the context of a controlled study with randomized assignment to control and experimental groups are needed to determine whether this approach is effective in improving real-world pragmatic language behavior of high-functioning adults with ASD.     

Happy with a difference, unhappy with an identity: Observers’ mood determines processing depth in visual search

Visual search for feature targets was employed to investigate whether the mechanisms underlying visual selective attention are modulated by observers’ mood. The effects of induced mood on overall mean reaction times and on changes and repetitions of target-defining features and dimensions across consecutive trials were measured. The results showed that reaction times were significantly slower in the negative than in the positive and neutral mood groups. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that the processing stage that is activated to select visual information in a feature search task is modulated by the observer’s mood. In participants with positive or neutral moods, dimension-specific, but no feature-specific, intertrial transition effects were found, suggesting that these observers based their responses on a salience signal coding the most conspicuous display location. Conversely, intertrial effects in observers in a negative mood were feature-specific in nature, suggesting that these participants accessed the feature identity level before responding.     

The Performance of Pre‐Founding Entrepreneurial Teams: The Importance of Learning and Leadership

Entrepreneurial teams often struggle with simultaneous task and team challenges at an early stage of new venture creation. The way in which teams shape their teamwork is key in leveraging performance in the pre‐founding phase. Learning should help the team in establishing good teamwork and in expanding its members’ entrepreneurial capabilities. Leadership is needed to facilitate and guide this learning. Accordingly, we investigated learning and leadership as facilitators of performance in the pre‐founding phase. Specifically, we examined team reflexivity as a collective internal learning process and boundary spanning behaviour as an externally directed individual activity, operating at different levels in fostering team and individual performance. Charismatic team leadership was examined as a catalyst of learning, shaping team and individual performance ultimately. The multilevel mediation model was tested based on data from 196 members of 58 teams of a venture creation programme. Team reflexivity predicted team and individual performance. Boundary spanning behaviour was not related to performance. As hypothesised, charismatic team leadership predicted team and individual performance, both mediated by team reflexivity. This research highlights the relevance of team learning in pre‐founding teams and emphasises leadership in shaping learning and moving new ventures forward.     

Masculinity,status, and subordination: Why working for a gender stereotype violator causes men to lose status

Occupying gender stereotype-incongruent roles can lead individuals to lose status and earn a lower salary. The present research examined whether merely working for a supervisor in a gender-atypical occupational role leads a subordinate to lose status. Two studies found that male subordinates of gender deviants (i.e., a female supervisor in a masculine domain or a male supervisor in a feminine domain) were accorded lower status and were paid less than male subordinates of supervisors in gender-congruent roles (i.e., a female supervisor in a feminine domain or a male supervisor in a masculine domain). However, the status of female subordinates was unaffected by working for a gender atypical supervisor. Moreover, the status loss for male subordinates was mediated by a perceived lack of masculinity. Thus, establishing the male subordinate's masculine credentials eliminated the bias.     

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.     

Über einige Bedingungen des Zusammenhanges von Lidschlag und Blickwendung

Zusammenfassung Der Zusammenhang zwischen Blickwendung und Lidschlag wurde experimentell untersucht. Als wirksame Faktoren erwiesen sich die Größe der Blickwendung, die Kopfbewegung, die Art der Wahrnehmungsobjekte (Person — Gegenstand) und bei Personen der Grad der Aufmerksamkeitszuwendung. Über alle Versuchsbedingungen hinweg zeigte sich die relative Häufigkeit des Lidschlages bei der Blickwendung als individuell konstant.

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The relationship between gaze movement and eye blink under various conditions

Summary The relationship between gaze movement and eye blink was investigated. The angle of eye movement, movement of the head, the type of objects perceived (person-object) and (when persons were viewed) the degree of attention were found to be relevant factors. Under all conditions studied, the relative frequency of blinking during gaze movement was shown to be individually constant.

     

Interpersonal hierarchy expectation: introduction of a new construct

The goal of these series of studies was to introduce a new individual difference construct, interpersonal hierarchy expectation (IHE), and to show that it predicts interpersonal perception. IHE means expecting social interactions and relationships to be hierarchically structured. I developed a self-report questionnaire to measure IHE (IHE Scale [IHES]). In 5 studies, 581 undergraduates took the IHES together with an array of self-report personality measures. Three studies included a measure of hierarchy perception. According to prediction, people who expected interpersonal hierarchies were prone to perceive hierarchies in interactions and relationships. The IHES is an easy to apply, short, self-report measure that might prove useful in personnel training and selection as well as in other studies of personality and social behavior.     

Lack of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 7 selectively modulates Theta rhythm and working memory

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are known to play a role in synaptic plasticity and learning. We have previously shown that mGluR7 deletion in mice produces a selective working memory (WM) impairment, while other types of memory such as reference memory remain unaffected. Since WM has been associated with Theta activity (6-12 Hz) in EEGs, and since EEG abnormalities have been observed in these mice before, we studied the effect of mGluR7 gene ablation on EEG activity in the hippocampus, in particular in the Theta range, during performance of a WM task. In an eight-arm maze with four arms baited, mGluR7 knock-out (KO) and wild-type mice committed the same number of reference memory errors, whereas KOs committed more WM errors. While performing the task, KO mice showed substantially higher Theta amplitudes, and the ratio of Theta to overall EEG power was much increased. No change was seen in the Delta (0-5 Hz), or Gamma (30-40 Hz) EEG bands compared with controls. When recording EEGs during periods of rest in the home cages, no difference was seen between groups. These findings suggest that mGluR7 is important for modulation and control of Theta activity. Since only WM was affected, and only the Theta range of EEG activity was altered, these results show a correlation between Theta rhythm and WM performance, and therefore support the concept that Theta activity in the hippocampus is involved in WM storage.     

Respiration and postural sway: detection of phase synchronizations and interactions

The aim of the central nervous system in upright stance is to control an intrinsically unstable plant. Internal disturbances, such as haemodynamics and respiration, constitute an endogenous threat to equilibrium. The way CNS reacts to those perturbations was studied in this work, through the analysis of summary scores taken from posturographic and pneumographic data. Signals were recorded simultaneously during trials administered on a sample population of healthy young adults, while sitting and standing and at paced and spontaneous uncontrolled breathing. The extraction of posturographic and pneumographic parameters was accompanied by the utilization of techniques for the detection of phase synchronization in bivariate data, and the extraction of an interaction index, the mutual information MI. The effects of the biomechanical condition and respiratory amplitude on MI and summary measures were tested with a two-way ANOVA. Summary scores clearly depend on posture condition. Synchronization between breath and postural sway is always present, depends on both biomechanical condition and respiratory threat, and cannot be reduced to a simple linear relation.