Choral Inclination: Coming Together as the World Falls Apart

Philosophia - What drives bodies together? What inclines them towards one another? What keeps these bodies inclined towards each other as the world around them continues to fall apart? In this...     

Effects of Parent Emotion Socialization on the Neurobiology Underlying Adolescent Emotion Processing: A Multimethod fMRI Study

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Parents’ emotion socialization (ES) practices impact socioemotional development throughout adolescence. Little is known, however, regarding...     

Social Norms and Engagement in Protective Health Behaviors Among Rural Health Providers

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects for individuals and healthcare systems in the United States. Increasing and sustaining...     

Development and Validation of a Short-Form Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale: Me as a Parent Scale (MaaPs-SF)

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Higher levels of self-reported parenting self-efficacy have been associated with positive parent–child relationships, parental mental health and child...     

Linking patterns of infant eye movements to a neural network model of the ventral stream using representational similarity analysis

Little is known about the development of higher-level areas of visual cortex during infancy, and even less is known about how the development of visually guided behavior is related to the different levels of the cortical processing hierarchy. As a first step toward filling these gaps, we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to assess links between gaze patterns and a neural network model that captures key properties of the ventral visual processing stream. We recorded the eye movements of 4- to 12-month-old infants (N = 54) as they viewed photographs of scenes. For each infant, we calculated the similarity of the gaze patterns for each pair of photographs. We also analyzed the images using a convolutional neural network model in which the successive layers correspond approximately to the sequence of areas along the ventral stream. For each layer of the network, we calculated the similarity of the activation patterns for each pair of photographs, which was then compared with the infant gaze data. We found that the network layers corresponding to lower-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in younger infants than in older infants, whereas the network layers corresponding to higher-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in older infants than in younger infants. Thus, between 4 and 12 months, gaze becomes increasingly controlled by more abstract, higher-level representations. These results also demonstrate the feasibility of using RSA to link infant gaze behavior to neural network models. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/K5mF2Rw98Is     

Common functional principal components analysis: a new approach to analyzing human movement data

In many human movement studies angle-time series data on several groups of individuals are measured. Current methods to compare groups include comparisons of the mean value in each group or use multivariate techniques such as principal components analysis and perform tests on the principal component scores. Such methods have been useful, though discard a large amount of information. Functional data analysis (FDA) is an emerging statistical analysis technique in human movement research which treats the angle-time series data as a function rather than a series of discrete measurements. This approach retains all of the information in the data. Functional principal components analysis (FPCA) is an extension of multivariate principal components analysis which examines the variability of a sample of curves and has been used to examine differences in movement patterns of several groups of individuals. Currently the functional principal components (FPCs) for each group are either determined separately (yielding components that are group-specific), or by combining the data for all groups and determining the FPCs of the combined data (yielding components that summarize the entire data set). The group-specific FPCs contain both within and between group variation and issues arise when comparing FPCs across groups when the order of the FPCs alter in each group. The FPCs of the combined data may not adequately describe all groups of individuals and comparisons between groups typically use t-tests of the mean FPC scores in each group. When these differences are statistically non-significant it can be difficult to determine how a particular intervention is affecting movement patterns or how injured subjects differ from controls. In this paper we aim to perform FPCA in a manner allowing sensible comparisons between groups of curves. A statistical technique called common functional principal components analysis (CFPCA) is implemented. CFPCA identifies the common sources of variation evident across groups but allows the order of each component to change for a particular group. This allows for the direct comparison of components across groups. We use our method to analyze a biomechanical data set examining the mechanisms of chronic Achilles tendon injury and the functional effects of orthoses.     

The dynamical structure of handball penalty shots as a function of target location

We used principal components analysis (PCA) to investigate variations in the dynamical structure of handball penalty shots as a factor of target location and phase of shot. Participants completed a total of 10 successful shots to each of four target locations in the handball goal. Three dimensional movement time series data were analyzed. Also, data were analyzed across three temporally distinct time windows in line with the evolving kinematic chain. Statistical analyses were undertaken to determine differences across target locations. There were no significant differences between dynamical structures as a factor of target or phase. Covariance between time evolutions as a factor of target reduced in line with the ranking of the component. When shots were analyzed as three distinct time windows, only the low time evolution covariances suggested differences between targets in any time window. Our findings show that the dynamical structure underpinning the handball penalty shot does not differ greatly across locations. However, the time evolution of principal components suggests there are some variations in dynamics which may differentiate shot direction.     

Suicide, schizophrenia, and schizoid-type psychosis: role of life events and childhood factors

The first objective was to identify the provoking events of suicide in patients with schizophrenia or schizoid-type disorder, and to assess the humiliation component of these events. The second objective was to verify if quality of care during childhood is a vulnerability factor for suicide in patients with schizophrenia or schizoid-type psychosis. Thirty-three cases of suicide with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoid-type psychosis were compared with 34 living patients with a similar diagnosis. The psychological autopsy method was used. The assessments were made with the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Axis I mental disorders, the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule, and the Child Experiences and Child Abuse Interview. The suicide group (SG) experienced more often a recent severe event, usually of a humiliation nature, than the control group (CG). It also experienced more severe events associated with aggressive behavior or with psychiatric impairment. Contrary to expectations, the CG had worse scores than the SG for quality of care during childhood. In conclusion, suicide in schizophrenia is related both to environmental stress and to psychiatric impairment.     

The impact of the nature of relationships on perceived burdensomeness and suicide ideation in a community sample of older adults

Older adults die by suicide at very high rates, and previous research indicates that perceived burdensomeness may contribute to deaths by suicide. In this study, the impact of the nature of relationships on perceived burdensomeness and suicide ideation was examined. Results indicated that older adults' perceptions of burden on younger generations were associated with greater overall perceived burdensomeness and suicide ideation when compared to the older adults' own or older generations. Thus, clinicians should examine general perceived burdensomeness as well as the types of relationships the older adult perceives himself or herself to be a burden on.     

Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality

Social dominance theory (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) contends that institutional-level mechanisms exist that reinforce and perpetuate existing group-based inequalities, but very few such mechanisms have been empirically demonstrated. We propose that gendered wording (i.e., masculine- and feminine-themed words, such as those associated with gender stereotypes) may be a heretofore unacknowledged, institutional-level mechanism of inequality maintenance. Employing both archival and experimental analyses, the present research demonstrates that gendered wording commonly employed in job recruitment materials can maintain gender inequality in traditionally male-dominated occupations. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated the existence of subtle but systematic wording differences within a randomly sampled set of job advertisements. Results indicated that job advertisements for male-dominated areas employed greater masculine wording (i.e., words associated with male stereotypes, such as leader, competitive, dominant) than advertisements within female-dominated areas. No difference in the presence of feminine wording (i.e., words associated with female stereotypes, such as support, understand, interpersonal) emerged across male- and female-dominated areas. Next, the consequences of highly masculine wording were tested across 3 experimental studies. When job advertisements were constructed to include more masculine than feminine wording, participants perceived more men within these occupations (Study 3), and importantly, women found these jobs less appealing (Studies 4 and 5). Results confirmed that perceptions of belongingness (but not perceived skills) mediated the effect of gendered wording on job appeal (Study 5). The function of gendered wording in maintaining traditional gender divisions, implications for gender parity, and theoretical models of inequality are discussed.