Naming and categorization in young children: v. manual sign training

Following pre-training with everyday objects, 8 children aged from 2 to 4 years learned to produce one manual sign (fists placed one above the other, in front of body) to one stimulus and an alternative manual sign (shoulders touched with ipsilateral hands) to the other stimulus, with each of three pairs of different arbitrary wooden shapes (Set 1). The six stimuli then were presented in category match-to-sample tests, which all subjects passed. Three of the children were next trained to produce the manual signs (denoted as fist/shoulder) for an additional six arbitrary stimuli, Set 2. All 3 children went on to pass category match-to-sample tests for Set 2, and for Set 1 and Set 2 combined. In the final experimental phase, 2 of the children were trained, for one of the six stimulus pairs, to produce the vocal tact "zag" to one stimulus and "vek" to the other. Both children showed category transfer of these vocalizations in test trials with each of the remaining five stimulus pairs, and all the stimuli combined in a 12-stimulus array. In line with Horne and Lowe's (1996) naming account, manual sign naming was found to be as effective as vocal naming in establishing arbitrary stimulus categorization, measured in terms of category sorting and transfer of function. The findings also have implications for the training of verbal repertoires in people with learning disabilities.     

Personal Spiritual Values and Quality of Life: Evidence from Chinese College Students

Values are guiding principles in our life. While some studies found spiritual values to be “healthier,” Sagiv and Schwartz (Eur J Soc Psychol 30:177–198, 2000) showed that people holding non-spiritual values were higher on affective well-being. We examined the predictive power of these two types of values with a longitudinal data set collected from Chinese students mainly in Hong Kong. Structural equation modeling revealed that spiritual values (as well as family income) positively predicted quality of life a year later. Non-spiritual, self-enhancement values, did not show any association. Results suggest that developing spiritual values may promote well-being through enabling individuals to find meaning and purpose in life.     

Connaissances et contrôle exécutif : deux facteurs cognitifs de protection contre le vieillissement de la mémoire épisodique ?

In this study we refer to Craik and Bialystok's model distinguishing the “knowledge” (cultural learning experience that forms the basis for knowledge of the world) and the “executive control” (set of operations that control and regulate cognitive performance) as two main factors susceptible accounting for the age-related negative effects on the cognitive functioning, and for a possible age-related protective effect. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the possible protective effect of these two factors on the age-related decline in a cued-recall task. Four age groups of participants (20–39 years, 40–59 years, 60–74 years and 75–90 years) were administered with a word-stem cued-recall test to assess episodic memory, a “vocabulary” sub-test of the WAIS-R to assess knowledge and a reading span test to assess control. Results showed an age-related effect on the episodic memory, the control performance and the knowledge measure, indicating that performance decreases with age. A GLM analysis revealed a positive effect of the knowledge and the control factors on the cued-recall performance, and interaction between age and the knowledge factor resulting from a positive effect of the knowledge level only for the youngest group of participants (20–39 years). Furthermore, results revealed an interaction between age and the control factor, indicating a positive effect of the control level for the two oldest groups of participants (60–74 years and 75–90 years). These results suggest that, contrary to the knowledge, the control factor could be an effective protection against the age-related negative effects on the episodic memory.     

Does priming with awareness reflect explicit contamination? An approach with a response-time measure in word-stem completion

The present experiment investigates the involvement of awareness in functional dissociations between explicit and implicit tests. In the explicit condition, participants attempted to recall lexically or semantically studied words using word stems. In the implicit condition, they were instructed to complete each stem with the first word which came to mind. Subjective awareness was subsequently measured on an item-by-item basis. As voluntary retrieval strategies are known to be time consuming, the time taken to complete each stem was recorded. In the explicit task, semantically studied words were associated with higher levels of recall and faster response times than lexically studied words. By contrast, in the implicit task, these effects failed to reach significance, although deep encoding made the contents of memory more accessible to awareness. As expected, performance was slower in the explicit than in the implicit task, but in the latter condition, times to produce old words with and without awareness were comparable, and both of these responses were produced more quickly than control words. This finding suggests that although participants may become aware in implicit paradigms, they do not adopt voluntary retrieval strategies.     

Warmth,spatial proximity,and social attachment: The embodied perception of a social metaphor

Recent experiments in embodied social cognition suggest a fundamental link between physical warmth and social affiliation. Findings from two experiments support the hypothesis that physical warmth serves as a symbolic cue signaling the close proximity of a source of affiliation. In Experiment 1, participants perceived a warm object as being physically closer than a cold object. In Experiment 2, being primed with warmth led participants to display higher levels of self-reported social affiliative motivation. In both studies, effects were moderated by individual differences in attachment style; priming effects were pronounced among those low in attachment avoidance and those high in attachment anxiety. These findings contribute to a growing literature suggesting deep connections between perception, physical experience, and social cognition.     

Attachment,perceptions of care and caregiving to romantic partners and friends

Across two studies, we examined the extent to which adults' caregiving responses reflect the quality of care received from their attachment figures. Study 1 showed that romantic caregiving reflected the quality of perceived parental and partner care. Moreover, perceived partner care mediated the link between parental care and romantic caregiving, suggesting that one's parental care affects the type of care one seeks or receives from partners, which in turn affects one's romantic caregiving. This describes a possible process for the intergenerational transmission of caregiving styles. Romantic attachment anxiety was associated with compulsive caregiving to partners. Study 2 examined causal mechanisms by priming a representation of perceived peer care and examining its effect on caregiving responses. As hypothesized, caregiving responses reflected the quality of primed peer care and were associated with attachment orientation. Findings provide evidence that individuals mentally represent the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of the care‐seeker and the caregiver during interactions and both influence one's caregiving to partners and friends. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Childhood abuse and neglect and cognitive flexibility in adolescents

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with diminished executive functioning in children and adults; however, there is a relative paucity of study of executive function in adolescents exposed to CM. Yet, executive dysfunction in adolescence may have important adverse consequences including increased vulnerability to risky behaviors and impaired school functioning. This study investigates the relationship between self-reported CM and an executive function, cognitive flexibility, in adolescents without identified psychiatric disorders. Effects of physical and emotional, abuse and neglect, maltreatment subtypes were explored. Thirty adolescents ages 12-17 years, 50% females, completed the retrospective self-report Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Correlational analyses assessed the relationship between WCST perseverative error scores norm-referenced for age and education with CTQ total scores. The relationship with nonperseverative errors, as well as with physical and emotional abuse and neglect CM subscores, were explored. Total CTQ scores showed significant associations with perseverative errors on the WCST, but not with nonperseverative errors. Significant associations with perseverative errors were seen for physical abuse and physical neglect among the CTQ subscales. The results suggest both physical abuse and physical neglect are associated with diminished cognitive flexibility in adolescents. These effects were detected in adolescents without identified psychiatric diagnoses suggesting the importance of considering executive dysfunction in adolescents exposed to CM who may not meet diagnostic criteria for an Axis I disorder and that tests of perseverative errors, such as those of the WCST, may be sensitive indicators of this dysfunction.     

Murakami,Connoisseur of Uncertainty: Commentary on Paper by Thomas Rosbrow

My discussion embroiders around Thomas Rosbrow's view of Murakami as a “trauma analyst.” I highlight the ways in which Murakami's writing reflects his keen sensitivity to existential uncertainty and how he seems to understand trauma, much as I do, as a shattering experience that destroys the certainties that organize psychological life and generates efforts at self restoration. Although I share Rosbrow's view that “After the Quake” depicts a character's awakening from the dissociative manifestations of trauma, I spell out how my perspective on this process differs from his.