The ontogeny of serial-order behavior in humans (Homo sapiens): representation of a list

The authors trained 3-, 4-, 7-, and 10-year-old children and adults (Homo sapiens) on a nonverbal serial-order task to respond to 5 items in a specific order. Knowledge of each item's sequential position was then examined using pairwise and triplet tests. Adults and 7- and 10-year-olds performed at high levels on both tests, whereas 3- and 4-year-olds did not. The latency to respond to the first item of a test pair or triplet was linearly related to that item's position in the training series for the 7- and 10-year-olds and adults, but not for the 3- and 4-year-olds. These data suggest that older children and adults, but not younger children, developed a well-integrated internal representation of the serial list.     

Association of serotonin transporter promoter gene polymorphism with violence: relation with personality disorders, impulsivity, and childhood ADHD psychopathology

There is evidence that disturbances in central serotonin (5-HT) function have a role in impulsive aggression, violence, and criminality. A deletion/insertion polymorphism within the 5-HT transporter (5-HTT) promoter gene (5-HTT gene-linked polymorphic region, 5-HTTLPR) is thought to be associated with several psychopathological phenotypes related to disturbed impulse control, anxiety and depression. This study examined the association of the 5-HTTLPR with violent behavior in a sample of 153 male Caucasians referred for a forensic psychiatric examination. We found a significant excess of the short (s) allele and the s/s genotype in patients characterized by recurrent and overt physical violent behavior. This genetic variance explained 5% of the variance of violent behavior. When controlled for the impact of several psychopathologies related to violent behavior, this association was observed in individuals with a history of childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related symptoms, but not presenting with personality disorder or increased impulsiveness. In conclusion, the results (i). suggest an association between serotonergic dysfunction and violent behavior, (ii). provide evidence for an-at least partial-genetic regulation of violent behavior in a subgroup of male offenders, and (iii). suggest a significant role for 5-HT transporter functionality for violent behavior.     

A diffusion model analysis of the effects of aging in the lexical-decision task

The effects of aging on response time (RT) are examined in 2 lexical-decision experiments with young and older subjects (age 60-75). The results show that the older subjects were slower than the young subjects, but more accurate. R. Ratcliff s (1978) diffusion model provided a good account of RTs, their distributions, and response accuracy. The fits show an 80-100-ms slowing of the nondecision components of RT for older subjects relative to young subjects and more conservative decision criterion settings for older subjects than for young subjects. The rates of accumulation of evidence were not significantly different for older compared with young subjects (less than 2% and 5% higher for older subjects relative to young subjects in the 2 experiments).     

The associative memory deficit of older adults: further support using face-name associations

Previous studies have established an associative deficit hypothesis (Naveh-Benjamin, 2000), which attributes part of older adults' deficient episodic memory performance to their difficulty in creating cohesive episodes. In this article, the authors further evaluate this hypothesis, using ecologically relevant materials. Young and old participants studied name-face pairs and were then tested on their recognition memory for the names, faces, and the name-face pairs. The results extend the conditions under which older adults exhibit an associative deficit. They also show that reduced attentional resources are not the sole mediator of this deficit.     

Multiply controlled verbal operants: an analysis and extension to the picture exchange communication system

This paper presents Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior as a framework for understanding language acquisition in children with autism. We describe Skinner's analysis of pure and impure verbal operants and illustrate how this analysis may be applied to the design of communication training programs. The picture exchange communication system (PECS) is a training program influenced by Skinner's framework. We describe the training sequence associated with PECS and illustrate how this sequence may establish multiply controlled verbal behavior in children with autism. We conclude with an examination of how Skinner's framework may apply to other communication modalities and training strategies.     

Learning at a distance II. Statistical learning of non-adjacent dependencies in a non-human primate

In earlier work we have shown that adults, infants, and cotton-top tamarin monkeys are capable of computing the probability with which syllables occur in particular orders in rapidly presented streams of human speech, and of using these probabilities to group adjacent syllables into word-like units. We have also investigated adults' learning of regularities among elements that are not adjacent, and have found strong selectivities in their ability to learn various kinds of non-adjacent regularities. In the present paper we investigate the learning of these same non-adjacent regularities in tamarin monkeys, using the same materials and familiarization methods. Three types of languages were constructed. In one, words were formed by statistical regularities between non-adjacent syllables. Words contained predictable relations between syllables 1 and 3; syllable 2 varied. In a second type of language, words were formed by statistical regularities between non-adjacent segments. Words contained predictable relations between consonants; the vowels varied. In a third type of language, also formed by regularities between non-adjacent segments, words contained predictable relations between vowels; the consonants varied. Tamarin monkeys were exposed to these languages in the same fashion as adults (21 min of exposure to a continuous speech stream) and were then tested in a playback paradigm measuring spontaneous looking (no reinforcement). Adult subjects learned the second and third types of language easily, but failed to learn the first. However, tamarin monkeys showed a different pattern, learning the first and third type of languages but not the second. These differences held up over multiple replications, using different sounds instantiating each of the patterns. These results suggest differences among learners in the elementary units perceived in speech (syllables, consonants, and vowels) and/or the distance over which such units can be related, and therefore differences among learners in the types of patterned regularities they can acquire. Such studies with tamarins open interesting questions about the perceptual and computational capacities of human learners that may be essential for language acquisition, and how they may differ from those of non-human primates.     

On Imagination: Reconciling Knowledge and Life,or What Does “Gregory Bateson” Stand for?

This article presents a reading of Gregory Bateson's oeuvre, focusing on his interest in the representational gap between map and territory, and its importance in the development of his redefinition of the concept of "mind," his new discipline called "ecology of ideas," and a methodology congruent to it based on the logics of metaphor. Inquiries on three initial stories from different domains allow the use of homologies between form and content in the article. This reading of Bateson's oeuvre stresses his questioning (like Derrida's) of the metaphysics of presence on which Western philosophy has been mostly based, and of the central role of imagination as a balancing factor for a family therapy that he both contributed to and saw with reservations.     

The importance of parents and other caregivers to the resilience of high-risk adolescents

Relationships between 43 high-risk adolescents and their caregivers were examined qualitatively. Parents and other formal and informal caregivers such as youth workers and foster parents were found to exert a large influence on the behaviors that bolster mental health among high-risk youth marginalized by poverty, social stigma, personal and physical characteristics, ethnicity, and poor social or academic performance. Participants' accounts of their intergenerational relationships with caregivers showed that teenagers seek close relationships with adults in order to negotiate for powerful self-constructions as resilient. High-risk teens say they want the adults in their lives to serve as an audience in front of whom they can perform the identities they construct both inside and outside their homes. This pattern was evident even among youth who presented as being more peer-than family-oriented. The implications of these findings to interventions with caregivers and teens is discussed.     

The vulnerability cycle: working with impasses in couple therapy

In this article, we propose the vulnerability cycle as a construct for understanding and working with couples' impasses. We expand the interactional concept of couples' reciprocal patterns to include behavioral and subjective dimensions, and articulate specific processes that trigger and maintain couples' entanglements. We consider the vulnerability cycle as a nexus of integration in which "vulnerabilities" and "survival positions" are key ideas that bring together interactional, sociocultural, intrapsychic, and intergenerational levels of meaning and process. The vulnerability cycle diagram is presented as a tool for organizing information. We suggest a therapeutic approach for deconstructing couples' impasses and facilitating new patterns through deliberate modes of questioning, a freeze-frame technique, stimulation of calmness and reflection, separating present from past, and elicitation of alternative meanings, behaviors, empathy, and choice. This approach encourages the therapist and couple to work collaboratively in promoting change and resilience.     

Are there biological programming effects for psychological development? Findings from a study of Romanian adoptees

Associations between experiences and outcomes could be due to (a) continuation of adversity or (b) organismic changes, including experience-expectant and experience-adaptive developmental programming. The adoption into British families of children who had been reared in profoundly depriving institutions in Romania presented an opportunity to test mechanisms. Romanian children reared from infancy in very depriving institutions for periods up to 42 months were compared with 52 nondeprived UK-born children placed into adoptive families before the age of 6 months. The results at 6 years of age showed substantial normal cognitive and social functioning after the provision of family rearing but also major persistent deficits in a substantial minority. The pattern of findings suggests some form of early biological programming or neural damage stemming from institutional deprivation, but the heterogeneity in outcome indicates that the effects are not deterministic.