Infant-directed speech supports phonetic category learning in English and Japanese

Across the first year of life, infants show decreased sensitivity to phonetic differences not used in the native language [Werker, J. F., & Tees, R. C. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behaviour and Development, 7, 49-63]. In an artificial language learning manipulation, Maye, Werker, and Gerken [Maye, J., Werker, J. F., & Gerken, L. (2002). Infant sensitivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination. Cognition, 82(3), B101-B111] found that infants change their speech sound categories as a function of the distributional properties of the input. For such a distributional learning mechanism to be functional, however, it is essential that the input speech contain distributional cues to support such perceptual learning. To test this, we recorded Japanese and English mothers teaching words to their infants. Acoustic analyses revealed language-specific differences in the distributions of the cues used by mothers (or cues present in the input) to distinguish the vowels. The robust availability of these cues in maternal speech adds support to the hypothesis that distributional learning is an important mechanism whereby infants establish native language phonetic categories.     

Subjective Well-Being of Bullied Children in Indonesia

This study aimed to explore sibling bullying and school bullying across three age groups (8, 10, and 12 years old) in Indonesia (N = 21,002; 49.44% boys, 50.56% girls) and how these bullying actions (physical, psychological, verbal) affect children’s subjective well-being. The study used data from the third wave of Children’s Worlds Survey, which was conducted in West Java Province. Bullying actions were measured by reported frequency of experiencing being bullied by siblings and other children during the last month. Subjective well-being (SWB) was measured using the Children’s Worlds Subjective Well-Being Scale (CW-SWBS). Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Being hit by siblings displayed significant effects on the CW-SWBS for Grades 6 and 2, while being called unkind names by siblings showed significant effects in the three grades. Being hit by other children at school did not display a significant effect on the CW-SWBS for Grades 2 and 4, and only a low level of significance for Grade 6. Being left out by children in class showed significant effects for all grades. Being called unkind names by children at school displayed significant effects for Grades 2 and 4 and was non-significant for Grade 6. Many Indonesian children who are victims of bullying seem to have adapted to physical bullying to maintain their level of SWB through buffers (behaviour and good relationships). The incidence of bullying in Indonesian children is very worrying and it must be taken into account by parents and teachers that these children may be at risk, although they remain passive to the situation in apparently a conformist way, by reporting rather high SWB scores.

     

Peer violence in the School Environment and Its Relationship with Subjective Well-Being and Perceived Social Support Among Children and Adolescents in Northeastern Brazil

The general aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between peer violence in the school environment (bullying), subjective well-being and perceived social support from the perspective of 910 children and adolescents in Years 6 and 7 of primary school (M = 11.90 years old; SD = 1.21). The participants were taken from 27 primary schools—both state-run and private, urban and rural—in Cearà state (Brazil). The following instruments were used: the Peer Victimization and Aggression Scale (EVAP); the Social Support from Family and Friends Scale (SSA); an index of satisfaction with different developmental contexts (home, school, neighbourhood); and as indicators of subjective well-being, three scales (Single item on Overall Life Satisfaction, Personal Well-Being Index School Children, Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale). Results indicated that aggression and victimization behaviours correlated negatively with the three well-being indicators used, while social support and satisfaction with different developmental contexts correlated positively. When considering type of involvement in bullying, victims, perpetrators and perpetrator–victims all scored lower on subjective well-being than those not involved in bullying. A model is also presented that explains 42 % of well-being. Understanding how bullying relates to well-being and how social support and favourable developmental contexts can act as protective factors are particularly important when designing public policies aimed at intervening in violence prevention and promoting well-being in childhood and adolescence.     

Bouncing Back from Failure: Entrepreneurial Resilience and the Internationalisation of Subsequent Ventures Created by Serial Entrepreneurs

This paper examines the impact over international propensity of past negative entrepreneurial experience for those who re-enter into entrepreneurial activity; referred to as resilient serial entrepreneurs. We first hypothesise on the effects over entrepreneurial re-entry that such negative past experience may have and highlight the link between the past entrepreneurial experience of resilient entrepreneurs and their subsequent propensity towards international markets. Building on insights from the generative experiential learning process of entrepreneurial activity and from cognition theories, we propose that resilient entrepreneurs who re-enter business despite having faced negative entrepreneurial experiences in the past benefit from enriched cognitive schemas leading them to greater export propensity. The proposed hypotheses are tested on a unique sample drawn from a Spanish adult population survey. Results from the sequential deductive triangulation analysis reveal that practical experience is an essential prerequisite for entrepreneurial learning, and that the resilience of those with negative entrepreneurial experience induces the generative entrepreneurial learning especially suitable for subsequent internationally oriented ventures.     

Instruction Modes for Motor Control Skills Acquisition: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

The objective was to compare two different instruction modes used to teach patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP) to perform a lumbar motor control task. The three intervention instruction modes used were: common verbal explanation of a motor task based on a motor control therapeutic exercise (MCTE-control group), MTCE instructed using motor imagery (MI) and MCTE instructed using tactile feedback (TF). The main outcome measure was lumbar motor control of the neutral position test. Forty-eight patients with CLBP were randomly allocated into three groups of 16 patients per group. The MI strategy was the most effective mode for developing the motor control task in an accurate and controlled manner, obtaining better outcomes than TF or verbal instruction.