Applying Research Domain Criteria to the study of emotion dysregulation in infancy and early childhood

Emotion regulation is a principal task of early development. The failure to develop effective emotion regulation skills is associated with behavioural, academic, psychological and socioemotional difficulties. Although researchers have studied emotion regulation for decades, work on emotion dysregulation—defined as the inability to maintain emotional control, engage with the environment or recover from distress in a developmentally appropriate manner—is rare and there are discrepancies in its conceptualisation among very young samples. While some scientists refer to emotion dysregulation as if it were a discrete concept, it may be more accurately depicted as a multidimensional system of developmental processes. The National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) is a framework that allows researchers to track dysfunction across multiple areas of analysis and may be an ideal system for exploring the multidimensional nature of infant emotion dysregulation. In this paper, we draw on empirical studies to describe how the RDoC framework can be used to support studies of emotion dysregulation in infancy. This proposed model can also serve as a roadmap for future researchers to follow to generate the evidence base for a multidimensional conceptualisation of infant emotion dysregulation and its underlying mechanisms.     

Classifying Muslims: Contextualizing Religion and Race in the United Kingdom and Germany

Since the late 20th century, public discourse in Muslim-minority countries has centered around the question of how to classify Muslims. In this paper, we compare the state, academic, and self-classification of Muslims in two countries: the United Kingdom and Germany. We propose that the historical experience of anti-Semitism makes religion a more salient master category to understand Muslims in Germany, while the history of both anti-Semitism and anti-Black racism largely resulting from colonial domination means that religion together with race are master categories used to understand Muslims in the United Kingdom. Through this multilayered ethnographic and historical analysis, we challenge taken-for-granted assumptions in both the political and academic milieu about what it means to be Muslim, emphasizing the importance of the interplay between sociopolitical categories and self-identifications.     

Changes in Multidigit Synergies and Their Feed-Forward Adjustments in Multiple Sclerosis

The authors explored the changes in multidigit synergies in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) within the framework of the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis. The specific hypotheses were that both synergy indices and anticipatory synergy adjustments prior to the initiation of a self-paced quick action would be diminished in the patients compared to age-matched controls. The MS patients and age-matched controls (n = 13 in both groups) performed one-finger and multifinger force production tasks involving both accurate steady-state force production and quick force pulses. The patients showed significantly lower maximal finger forces and a tendency toward slower force pulses. Enslaving was increased in MS, but only in the lateral fingers (index and little). Indices of multifinger synergies during steady-state force production were lower in MS, mainly due to the lower amount of intertrial variance that did not affect total force. Anticipatory synergy adjustments were significantly delayed in MS. The results show that MS leads to significant changes in multidigit synergies and feed-forward adjustments of the synergies prior to a quick action. The authors discuss possible contributions of subcortical structures to the impaired synergic control.     

Why metaphors make good insults: perspectives,presupposition, and pragmatics

Metaphors are powerful communicative tools because they produce ‘framing effects’. These effects are especially palpable when the metaphor is an insult that denigrates the hearer or someone he cares about. In such cases, just comprehending the metaphor produces a kind of ‘complicity’ that cannot easily be undone by denying the speaker’s claim. Several theorists have taken this to show that metaphors are engaged in a different line of work from ordinary communication. Against this, I argue that metaphorical insults are rhetorically powerful because they combine perspectives, presupposition, and pragmatics in the service of speech acts with assertoric force.     

Memory for Textual Conflicts Predicts Sourcing When Adolescents Read Multiple Expository Texts

This study investigated whether memory for conflicting information predicted mental representation of source-content links (i.e., who said what) in a sample of 86 Norwegian adolescent readers. Participants read four texts presenting conflicting claims about sun exposure and health. With differences in gender, prior knowledge, and interest controlled for, and with self-reported critical reading strategies also included in a multiple regression analysis, it was found that the better participants remembered that the texts presented conflicting claims on the issue, the more likely they were to include source-content links in their mental representations of the texts.     

Reevaluating the potency of the memory conformity effect

Witnesses sometimes report event details that are acquired solely from another witness. We reevaluated the potency of this memory conformity effect. After viewing a crime video, some participants learned about nonwitnessed details via discussion (dyad group), reading another participant’s report (read group), or watching another version of the video (both-video group). In Experiment 1, these participants often reported nonwitnessed details, but on a source-judgment test most details were attributed primarily to the actual source rather than to the video. In addition, the dyad group was not more likely than the read or both-video groups to report nonwitnessed details. Participants in Experiment 2 were explicitly discouraged from providing details that were remembered from the secondary source only. These postwarning instructions substantially reduced the memory conformity effect, and a dyad group was not more likely than a read group to report nonwitnessed details. Encouraging source monitoring at test can reduce the negative consequences of co-witness collaboration.     

The development of hand preference in children: The effect of task demands and links with manual dexterity

Lateralisation of hand preference and manual dexterity are known to develop over childhood, while in adulthood strength of hand preference has been shown to interact with extrinsic task demands. Some evidence exists to suggest that strength of hand preference and motor skill may be related. In the current study a handedness inventory, midline crossing (QHP) and peg-moving tasks were used to investigate: (1) the development of hand preference between 4 and 11 years; (2) whether extrinsic task demands affect strength of hand preference, and (3) whether strength of hand preference was associated with manual dexterity. Younger children (4–5 years) showed weak hand preference in comparison to older children (8–11 years), and extrinsic task demands influenced willingness to cross the body’s midline with the preferred hand. Age and peg-moving speed were associated with midline crossing in certain task conditions. Overall, results suggest a coupling between manual dexterity and brain maturation in typical development.