Rumination and suicidal ideation: The moderating roles of hope and optimism

The current study aimed to investigate whether the correlation between rumination and suicidal ideation is moderated by the presence of hope and optimism. It was hypothesized that both hope and optimism would moderate (weaken) the relationship between rumination and suicidal ideation. Two hundred and ninety-eight participants completed self-report measures of hope, optimism, rumination (brooding and reflection), and depression. Results demonstrated that both hope and optimism weakened the relationship between rumination and suicidal ideation, as well as the relationships between both subscales of rumination and suicidal thinking. These results were found when controlling for symptoms of depression. Results suggest that a ruminative thinking style may be most harmful when an absence of hope or optimism is also present.     

Infants discriminate manners and paths in non-linguistic dynamic events

Do 14- to 17-month-olds notice the paths and manners of motion events? English- and Spanish-learning infants were habituated to an animated motion event including a manner (e.g., spinning) and a path (e.g., over). They were then tested on four types of events that changed either the manner, the path, both, or neither component. Both English- and Spanish-learning infants attended to changes of manner and changes of path. Thus, infants from two different language communities proved sensitive to components of events that undergird relational term learning.     

A Theological Reflection on Torture and Democracy

Abstract : First, I summarize the major findings of a new comprehensive resource, Torture and Democracy, by Darius Rejali, as corrective for the current state of confusion and concealment in United States with regard to the persistence of torture. Second, I respond theologically to the insights from this scholarship through a) reflection on victims of torture as ‘nonpersons’ in light of theological anthropology, and through exploring the role of Christians in the public square, and b) addressing the problem of sacrificialism.     

How toddlers begin to learn verbs

Any theory of language must account for how children learn verbs, the gateway to grammar. Yet verbs can be difficult to learn. Building on Gentner's 'natural partitions hypothesis' we suggest that, to learn a verb, infants must conceptualize components of events and map verbs in the ambient language onto those components. Although toddlers detect and categorize at least some of the conceptual underpinnings of verb categories, the mapping of verbs onto these representations is not transparent. Mapping is a difficult problem in its own right. The Emergentist Coalition Model that has been used to explain noun learning also begins to explain how children move from perceptual to social and then to linguistic information to link verbs to actions and events.