Children's implicit knowledge of harmony in Western music

Three experiments examined children's knowledge of harmony in Western music. The children heard a series of chords followed by a final, target chord. In Experiment 1, French 6- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was sung with the vowel /i/ or /u/. In Experiment 2, Australian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was played on a piano or a trumpet. In Experiment 3, Canadian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target sounded good (i.e. consonant) or bad (dissonant). The target was either the most stable chord in the established musical key (i.e. the tonic, based on do, the first note of the scale) or a less stable chord. Performance was faster (Experiments 1, 2 and 3) and more accurate (Experiment 3) when the target was the tonic chord. The findings confirm that children have implicit knowledge of syntactic functions that typify Western harmony.     

Scholastic Attainment Following Severe Early Institutional Deprivation: A Study of Children Adopted from Romania

The relationship between severe early institutional deprivation and scholastic attainment at age 11 in 127 children (68 girls and 59 boys) adopted from institutions in Romania was compared to the attainment of 49 children (17 girls and 32 boys) adopted within the UK from a non-institutional background. Overall, children adopted from Romania had significantly lower attainment scores than those adopted within the UK; the children within the Romanian sample who had spent 6 months or more in an institution had significantly lower attainment scores than those who had spent less than 6 months in an institution, but there was no additional risk of low attainment associated with longer institutional care after 6 months. The lower scholastic attainment in the children adopted from Romanian institutions, as compared with domestic adoptees, was mediated by IQ, and to a lesser degree, inattention/overactivity. When these factors were taken into account, only small between-group differences in attainment remained.     

Neurocognitive sequelae of pediatric sickle cell disease: a review of the literature.

This literature review summarizes all studies relating neuropsychological performance to neuroimaging findings in pediatric sickle cell disease (N=28; published 1991-2005). Although inconsistencies exist within and across domains, deficits in intelligence (IQ), attention and executive functions, memory, language, visuomotor abilities, and academic achievement have been identified. Overall neurocognitive compromise was revealed to be related to the level of neurological injury and the location of silent infarct. Attentional and executive dysfunction is prevalent and related to frontal lobe abnormalities.     

Neurofibromatosis Type 1 in Genetic Counseling Practice: Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

The objective of this document is to provide recommendations for the genetic counseling of patients and families undergoing evaluation for neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) or who have received a diagnosis of NF1. These recommendations are the opinions of a multi-center working group of genetic counselors with expertise in the care of individuals with NF1. These recommendations are based on the committee’s clinical experiences, a review of pertinent English language medical articles, and reports of expert committees. These recommendations are not intended to dictate an exclusive course of management, nor does the use of such recommendations guarantee a particular outcome. These recommendations do not displace a health care provider’s professional judgment based on the clinical circumstances of an individual patient. Both Heather B. Radtke and Courtney D. Sebold contributed equally to this document.     

College dating and social anxiety: using the Internet as a means of connecting to others.

With the advent and widespread use of the Internet, various online media are being used to connect and maintain social relationships in individuals of all ages. Social relationships are vital to healthy development, and individuals with social and/or dating anxiety may have marked difficulty in establishing appropriate, supportive relationships because of fear of negative evaluation by others. For these individuals, the Internet may open avenues of communication and provide an outlet through which relationships can be formed and preserved. This study investigated the characteristics of computer and Internet use in young adults to determine whether individuals who were high in social/dating anxiety symptoms were more likely to make and maintain social relationships online. To further understand the patterns of these behaviors, several measures of social and dating anxiety were collected and analyzed along with demographic, computer use, and relationship characteristics. Results indicated differences between high and low social/dating anxiety with respect to media use and relationship formation. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Alphabetizing in old age

Abstract: A long term, intensive analysis with a woman in old old age is reported. An attempt is made to answer the question, ‘What, in analytic work, is healing?’. The patient's previous classical Jungian work is contrasted with the author's developmental perspective. It is suggested that an enactment, representing what Neville Symington has called an analyst's act of freedom, was crucial in effecting a profound transformation in the patient's psyche.     

Use of Self-perspectives and their Sources to Predict the Mathematics Enrollment Intentions of Girls and Boys

An understanding of the differences in the ways in which self-efficacy and interest influence boys’ and girls’ intentions to continue enrollment in mathematics courses may provide insight into how to encourage continued mathematics enrollment for all students. Two competing theoretical models of mathematics self-efficacy and interest in predicting students’ enrollment intentions and achievement were evaluated separately across samples of middle level boys and girls. One model was empirically supported for both groups and indicated the independent influence of self-efficacy and interest in predicting enrollment intentions. Multi-group analyses revealed that self-efficacy’s influence in enrollment intentions and achievement was significantly stronger for boys than for girls, and interest was significantly more important in the prediction of enrollment intentions for girls than for boys.     

Norms of age of acquisition and concreteness for 30,000 Dutch words

Word processing studies increasingly make use of regression analyses based on large numbers of stimuli (the so-called megastudy approach) rather than experimental designs based on small factorial designs. This requires the availability of word features for many words. Following similar studies in English, we present and validate ratings of age of acquisition and concreteness for 30,000 Dutch words. These include nearly all lemmas language researchers are likely to be interested in. The ratings are freely available for research purposes.