Both your intention and mine are reflected in the kinematics of my reach-to-grasp movement

The aim of the present study is to ascertain whether in a social context the kinematic parameters are influenced by the stance of the participants. In particular, we consider two basic modes of social cognition, namely cooperation and competition. Na?ve subjects were asked either to cooperate or to compete with a partner (a professional female actor), whose attitude could be either congruent or incongruent with the task instructions. Thus, on congruent conditions, subjects cooperated or competed with a partner showing a congruent cooperative or competitive attitude. On incongruent trials, the partner assumed an attitude that was manifestly in contrast with the instruction: competitive for the cooperative task, cooperative for the competitive task. We hypothesized that this mismatch between partner's attitude and instruction would produce a sort of unexpected social situation, affecting the kinematics of reach-to-grasp movement performed by the agents. If cooperative and competitive kinematic patterns are sensitive to the partner's attitude, then we should expect that an incongruent attitude have the potency to determine a reversal in kinematic patterning. Results revealed that for the incongruent trials the specific kinematic patterns for cooperation and competition found for the congruent conditions where modified according to the incongruent attitude assumed by the model actor. We suggest that this 'attitude' contagion is part of a sophisticated system that allows us to infer about the intention to act in a social context.     

Morpheme-based reading aloud: evidence from dyslexic and skilled Italian readers

The role of morphology in reading aloud was examined measuring naming latencies to pseudowords and words composed of morphemes (roots and derivational suffixes) and corresponding simple pseudowords and words. Three groups of Italian children of different ages and reading abilities, including dyslexic children, as well as one group of adult readers participated in the study. All four groups read faster and more accurately pseudowords composed of root and suffix than simple pseudowords (Experiment 1). Unlike skilled young and adult readers, both dyslexics and younger children benefited from morphological structure also in reading aloud words (Experiment 2). It is proposed that the morpheme is a unit of intermediate grain size that proves useful in processing all linguistic stimuli, including words, in individuals with limited reading ability (dyslexics and younger readers) who did not fully develop mastering of whole-word processing. For skilled readers, morphemic parsing is useful for reading those stimuli (i.e., pseudowords made up of morphemes), for which a whole-word lexical unit does not exist; where such whole-word lexical units do exist, skilled readers do not need to rely on morphological parsing because they can rely on a lexical (whole-word) reading unit that is larger than the morpheme.     

Systemic administration of a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor impairs fear sensitization in the plus-maze

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of fear sensitization in rats previously treated with an inhibitor of the NO syntheses and submitted to Trial1/Trial2 plus-maze (PM) procedure. Male Wistar rats received a systemic treatment with N(omega)-nitro-L-Arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME; 5, 10 or 50 mg kg(-1)) and were submitted to PM Trial1. In the following day the animals were re-exposed to the PM with no drug administration (Trial2). Some standards spatial-temporal measures, such as the percentage of entries (% Open arm entries) and time spent (% Open arm time) in the open arms and risk assessment frequency were recorded and used to estimate the animal level of fear sensitization in PM Trial2. The results showed that animals receiving L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) displayed increased % Open arm entries and % Open arm time in Trial2 in relation to the group receiving 0.9% saline, which is compatible with impaired fear/anxiety acquisition during Trial1/Trial2 PM procedure. In addition, rats treated with L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) exhibited low level of risk assessment in Trial2 in relation to the group treated with 0.9% saline, which indicates low level of fear/anxiety during PM re-exposure. The number of entries into the enclosed arms was not changed by any L-NAME treatment, which suggests no bias of the drug treatments on animal locomotor activity. The data suggest that NO synthesis may mediate the fear sensitization process in the PM.     

Does subjective well-being show a relationship between parents and their children?

The relationship between the subjective well-being of parents and their own 12–16-year-old children was explored in a Spanish sample of N = 266 families. A positive relationship was expected due to both a shared environment and the possibility of the genetic transmission of subjective well-being ‘set-points’. A positive significant relationship was found for the summated scale of satisfaction domains forming the Personal Well-being Index, and for the specific domains of health and security for the future. However, no relationship was found for the other five domains that make up this Index or for satisfaction with life as a whole. We conclude while these results provide some evidence for the expected influence of a shared environment, they have failed to provide evidence for high heritability of set-points for subjective well-being.     

Internal structure and standardised scores of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking

The present work sets out to study the internal structure of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and to establish standardised scores that will enable the test to be used in both a diagnostic and educational context. 649 students (319 girls and 330 boys), aged 5 to 12 years from various schools in Murcia and Alicante (SE Spain), took part in the study. The findings suggest that the psychometric characteristics of TTCT are satisfactory, and its internal structure can be attributed to three factors that are responsible for a high percentage of the variance (73.8%). The standardised score tables, which are provided for first time in this context, will be useful in the evaluation of creativity and the identification of students with high intellectual abilities.     

Anton's syndrome following callosal disconnection

Anosognosia for cortical blindness, also called Anton's syndrome, is a rare neurological disorder usually following bilateral lesions to occipital cortices. Neuropsychological, morphological and functional neuroimaging (SPECT and fMRI) findings are reported in a patient who incurred Anton's syndrome after an ischaemic lesion confined to the left occipital lobe involving the corpus callosum. The present case study suggests that Anton's syndrome may also follow from lesions disconnecting the occipital cortices.     

Emotion recognition and expression in young obese participants: preliminary study

This study of the presence of alexithymic characteristics in obese adolescents and preadolescents tested the hypothesis of whether they showed impaired recognition and expression of emotion. The sample included 30 obese young participants and a control group of 30 participants of normal weight for their ages. Stimuli, 42 faces representing seven emotional expressions, were shown to participants who identified the emotion expressed in the face. The Level of Emotional Awareness Scale was adapted for children to evaluate their ability to describe their emotions. Young obese participants had significantly lower scores than control participants, but no differences were found in recognition of emotion. The lack of words to describe emotions might suggest a greater prevalence of alexithymic characteristics in the obese participants, but the hypothesis of a general deficit in the processing of emotional experiences was not supported.     

Telepsychology and Self-help: The Treatment of Fear of Public Speaking

This work presents a self-help, Internet-based telepsychology program for the treatment of public speaking fears. The system is comprised of 3 parts: The assessment protocol gives the patient information about his or her problem (i.e., amount of interference it creates in his or her life, severity, degree of fear and avoidance). The system also includes a structured treatment protocol, organized into separate blocks, reflecting the patient’s progress. This ensures that the patient does not skip any steps in the treatment (something quite common in traditional self-help manuals), which provides more control over the process. The treatment protocol is a cognitive-behavioral program that provides exposure to the feared situation using videos of real audiences. Finally, the control protocol assesses treatment efficacy, not only at closure, but also at every intermediate step. Efficacy data from 12 social phobia patients are presented from pretreatment to posttreatment and at 1-month follow-up. These preliminary data support the efficacy of our telepsychology program for the treatment of fear of public speaking. This is a preliminary work in a promising research path that examines the possibility of using the Internet for the treatment of psychological disorders.     

A survey of women's social representations of aging and rejuvenation

The goal of this work was to analyze the social representations that women of three different age groups had about aging, rejuvenating, and methods of rejuvenation. The research was performed in S?o Paulo between 2004 and 2005. The participants of this research were three groups of women of different ages: 19 to 24 years, 25 to 35 years, and over 60 years. The data were collected by the focus group technique. Data was analyzed using the lexical analysis software ALCESTE 4.5. The main results show a social representation of aging centered on losses and gains. The subjects appraised the possibility of using rejuvenating methods only when it was extremely necessary, because of the health risks that most of them involve. The three groups agreed about natural methods of rejuvenating instead of resorting to invasive methods.