The effects of distributional learning on rats' sensitivity to phonetic information

During the first year of life, infants show decreased sensitivity to phonetic differences not used in their native language and increased sensitivity to the differences that are used. It has been shown that this change in speech perception is a function of the distributional properties of the input. The present study explores whether the mechanism responsible for the developmental changes regarding the organization of phonetic categories is a general mechanism shared with other animals. The results demonstrate that the distributional exposure to a phonetic continuum affects the subsequent discrimination of these phonemes in rats, indicating that the ability to use distributional cues to change the phonetic category structure extends beyond humans.     

Reconsidering Life Domains that Contribute to Subjective Well-Being Among Adolescents with Data from Three Countries

Several theoretical models and testing procedures are presented with the aim of identifying the most relevant items and domains to include in a model for evaluating adolescents’ subjective well-being, above and beyond those usually included in adults’ scales. Data were collected in three countries based on a list of 30 items regarding adolescents’ satisfaction with different domains or facets of life. Responses to these 30 items (including Personal Well-Being Index and Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale items) have been analysed by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis using different Structural Equation Models (SEM) on a pooled sample comprising 5,316 twelve to sixteen-year-olds from Spain, Brazil and Chile. Several models have shown good enough fit statistics. A model using 14 items shows excellent fit statistics and is conceptually coherent. However, the inclusion or non-inclusion of items related to satisfaction with religion or spirituality results in both advantages and disadvantages when comparing the alternative models analysed. The relevance of including these items may therefore depend on the socio-cultural context where data are collected and their inclusion makes cross-country comparison more statistically challenging. The 14-item model has also been tested using multigroup SEM in order to check comparability of data among the three countries. All things considered, multigroup models have shown good fit with constrained loadings, but not with constrained loadings and intercepts, suggesting we can compare correlations and regressions among countries, but not means. Additional multigroup SEM with the five age groups available from the pooled sample have demonstrated that responses—and means—are comparable across different age groups during early adolescence.     

Psychometric analysis of the AF5 multidimensional scale of self-concept in a sample of adolescents and adults in Catalonia

The aim of this study is to carry out a psychometric study of the AF5 scale in a sample of 4.825 Catalan subjects from 11 to 63 years-old. They are students from secondary compulsory education (ESO), from high school, middle-level vocational training (CFGM) and from the university. Using a principal component analysis (PCA) the theoretical validity of the components is established and the reliability of the instrument is also analyzed. Differential analyses are performed by gender and normative group using a 2 x 6 factorial design. The normative group variable includes the different levels classified into 6 sub-groups: university, post-compulsory secondary education (high school and CFGM), 4th of ESO, 3rd of ESO, 2nd of ESO and 1st of ESO. The results indicate that the reliability of the Catalan version of the scale is similar to the original scale. The factorial structure also fits with the original model established beforehand. Significant differences by normative group in the four components of self-concept explored (social, family, academic/occupational and physical) are observed. By gender, significant differences appear in the component of physical self-concept, academic and social but not in the family component.     

Testing the Relationship Between Parents’ and Their Children’s Subjective Well-Being

Casas et al. (J Happiness Stud 9(2):197–205, 2008) found no significant relationship between paired answers given by parents and their 12–16-year-old children (N?=?266) for a single-item scale on overall life satisfaction (OLS). However, a significant, but low (.19) parent–child relationship did appear for the PWI multi-item scale. Overall, children reported higher subjective well being than parents. In this article, we present the results obtained from confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using more scales and a bigger sample (N?=?1,250) of paired parents and children. The study uses three multiple-item scales: the PWI, the SWLS and the BMSLSS, and six single-item scales: the OLS, two items from Russell’s scale on core affects, one on overall happiness, Fordyce’s happiness item and the optional item of the BMSLSS on overall life satisfaction. Separate CFA for each of the 3 multi-item scales showed good fit statistics. In order to check comparability between parents and children, we tested equal loading and intercept constraints. The models with restricted loadings fit only for the PWI and BMSLSS, but none of the models with restricted intercepts fit. Therefore, it was only possible to estimate two factor correlations for parents and their children, both very low (.16 for the PWI, .18 for BMSLSS), and it was not possible to compare factor means. When correlating scores from the 6 single-item scales for parents and children, they were all found to be significant but very low. As regards items from the multiple-item scales for parents and children many correlations are positive and significant, although very low, but others are non significant. The means of some items were substantially higher for children than for parents. For some items, differences were minor, non-significant or even reversed. All of the results suggest that parents’ well-being is very weakly related to their own children’s well-being, in spite of socialization, common material welfare and genetic influences. However, one outstanding result is that in our Catalan sample, parents’ well-being seems to have a greater influence on their female child’s well-being than on their male child’s.     

The acquisition of phonetic categories in bilingual infants: new data from an anticipatory eye movement paradigm

Contrasting results have been reported regarding the phonetic acquisition of bilinguals. A lack of discrimination has been observed for certain native contrasts in 8-month-old Catalan-Spanish bilingual infants (Bosch & Sebastián-Gallés, 2003a), though not in French-English bilingual infants (Burns, Yoshida, Hill & Werker, 2007; Sundara, Polka & Molnar, 2008). At present, the data for Catalan-Spanish bilinguals constitute an exception in the early language acquisition literature. This study contributes new findings that show that Catalan-Spanish bilingual infants do not lose the capacity to discriminate native contrasts. We used an adaptation of the anticipatory eye movement paradigm (AEM; McMurray & Aslin, 2004) to explore this question. In two experiments we tested the ability of infants from Catalan and Spanish monolingual families and from Catalan-Spanish bilingual families to discriminate a Spanish-Catalan common and a Catalan-specific vowel contrast. Results from both experiments revealed that Catalan-Spanish bilingual infants showed the same discrimination abilities as those shown by their monolingual peers, even in a phonetic contrast that had not been discriminated in previous studies. Our results demonstrate that discrimination can be observed in 8-month-old bilingual infants when tested with a measure not based on recovery of attention. The high ratio of cognates in Spanish and Catalan may underlie the reason why bilinguals failed to discriminate the native vowels when tested with the familiarization-preference procedure but succeeded with the AEM paradigm.     

Structural generalizations over consonants and vowels in 11-month-old infants

Recent research has suggested consonants and vowels serve different roles during language processing. While statistical computations are preferentially made over consonants but not over vowels, simple structural generalizations are easily made over vowels but not over consonants. Nevertheless, the origins of this asymmetry are unknown. Here we tested if a lifelong experience with language is necessary for vowels to become the preferred target for structural generalizations. We presented 11-month-old infants with a series of CVCVCV nonsense words in which all vowels were arranged according to an AAB rule (first and second vowels were the same, while the third vowel was different). During the test, we presented infants with new words whose vowels either followed or not, the aforementioned rule. We found that infants readily generalized this rule when implemented over the vowels. However, when the same rule was implemented over the consonants, infants could not generalize it to new instances. These results parallel those found with adult participants and demonstrate that several years of experience learning a language are not necessary for functional asymmetries between consonants and vowels to appear.     

Kinship Foster Care from the Perspective of Quality of Life: Research on the Satisfaction of the Stakeholders

A quality of life studies perspective has guided the design and implementation of research on kinship care as a placement resource within the child protection system in Catalonia (Spain). This research was carried out gathering the points of view of the three main stakeholders: kinship caregivers, children who are placed in extended family and practitioners of the EAIAs (Childhood and Adolescence Interdisciplinary Care Teams). Satisfaction involved in kinship care has been explored. In this article the main stakeholders’ satisfaction with kinship care is presented, and on the other hand, children’s satisfaction with life as a whole and with five specific domains in life is analysed: Education received from their caregiver, their school, their friends, their time enjoyment and their health. As expected, practitioners show the lowest evaluations with this kind of service. Surprisingly, evaluations by children referred to kinship care and to education received by caregivers are higher than those in the normative population aged 12–16 in relation to their own natural family. The findings show implications for practice and they imply challenges for quality-of-life research.     

Intellectual, mnemonic, and frontal functions in dementia with Lewy bodies: A comparison with early and advanced Parkinson's disease

Both Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) share a common neuropathological marker, the presence of Lewy bodies in brain stem and basal forebrain nuclei. DLB, in addition, is associated with Lewy bodies in the neocortex, and, in it's more common form, with Alzheimer-type pathological markers, particularly amyloid plaques. Published neuropsychological studies have focused on the differential profiles of DLB and Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, it is presently unclear whether DLB should be classified as a variant of AD or PD. In the present study we compare a healthy age-matched control group with three groups of patients, one with DLB, and two with PD. One of the PD groups was early in the course (PD-E) and the second, more advanced group (PD-A), was matched on severity of cognitive impairment with the DLB group. The results show that DLB was associated with a different pattern of neuropsychological impairment than the PD-A group, particularly in tests believed to be mediated by prefrontal cortical regions.     

Satisfaction with Spirituality, Satisfaction with Religion and Personal Well-Being among Spanish Adolescents and Young University Students

Young people in Catalonia are studied in order to better understand differences between satisfaction with spirituality and satisfaction with religion. Results suggest a reactive position on the part of most Spanish youngsters towards traditional religion; they consider it not very important either for their well-being or to give a sense of meaning to their own lives. While the importance given to spirituality is clearly higher, the concept seems to have several very different interpretations among young people. The discussion underlines the importance of discovering young people’s own points of view in order to understand the meaning they give to religion and spirituality in the context of an ever more rapidly changing society. The implications for future research and practice are discussed.