Effects of verbal information on fear-related reasoning biases in children

The present study made an attempt to induce fear-related reasoning biases by providing children with negative information about a novel stimulus. For this purpose, non-clinical children aged 9-12 years (N = 318) were shown a picture of an unknown animal for which they received either negative, ambiguous, positive, or no information. Then children completed a series of tests for measuring various types of reasoning biases (i.e., confirmation bias and covariation bias) in relation to this animal. Results indicated that children in the negative and, to a lesser extent, the ambiguous information groups displayed higher scores on tests of fear-related reasoning biases than children in the positive and no information groups. Altogether, these results support the idea that learning via negatively tinted information plays a role in the development of fear-related cognitive distortions in youths.     

Typical and atypical development of basic numerical skills in elementary school

Deficits in basic numerical processing have been identified as a central and potentially causal problem in developmental dyscalculia; however, so far not much is known about the typical and atypical development of such skills. This study assessed basic number skills cross-sectionally in 262 typically developing and 51 dyscalculic children in Grades 2, 3, and 4. Findings indicate that the efficiency of number processing improves over time and that dyscalculic children are generally less efficient than children with typical development. For children with typical arithmetic development, robust effects of numerical distance, size congruity, and compatibility of ten and unit digits in two-digit numbers could be identified as early as the end of Grade 2. Only the distance effect for comparing symbolic representations of numerosities changed developmentally. Dyscalculic children did not show a size congruity effect but showed a more marked compatibility effect for two-digit numbers. We did not find strong evidence that dyscalculic children process numbers qualitatively differently from children with typical arithmetic development.     

Impact of the 1998 football World Cup on suicide rates in France: results from the national death registry

Our objective was to determine whether the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in 1998 had a short-term impact on the number of suicides in France. Exhaustive individual daily data on suicides from 1979 to 2006 were obtained from the French epidemiological center on the medical causes of death (CepiDC-INSERM; France). These data were analyzed using the seasonal ARIMA model. The overall effect of the World Cup was tested together with potential specific impact on days following the French team games. Between 11th June and 11th July, a significant decline of 95 suicides was observed (-10.3%), this effect being the strongest among men and people aged between 30 and 44. A significant decrease was also observed for the days following French team games (-19.9%). Our results are in favor of an effect of nationwide sport events on suicidal behaviors and are consistent with other studies. Many of the theories explaining the relationship between sports and suicide are related to sense of belongingness and social integration, highlighting the importance of social link reinforcement in suicide prevention.     

Emotion processing and regulation in women with morbid obesity who apply for bariatric surgery

Emotional eating, the tendency to eat when experiencing negative affect, is prevalent in morbid obesity and may indicate that ways to deal with emotions are disturbed. Our aim was to compare emotion processing and regulation between 102 women with morbid obesity who apply for bariatric surgery and 102 women from the general population (control group) and to examine in the group with morbid obesity the association of emotion processing and regulation with emotional eating. The group with morbid obesity reported higher scores on difficulty identifying feelings (alexithymia, p?=?0.002) and suppression of emotions (p?=?0.003) than the control group. In the women with morbid obesity, more negative affect and a higher difficulty identifying feelings were correlated with more emotional eating (r?=?0.36 and r?=?0.35, p?相似文献   

Does marriage protect older people from distress? The role of equity and recency of bereavement

The association between marital status and distress was examined in a largely neglected group, namely older people (65 and older; N = 1,649). In this 2-wave study, married persons were less distressed than single persons, but perceived equity within the marriage and recency of bereavement qualified these findings. Married persons who felt inequitably treated were more distressed than persons who had always been single. Married persons reported less distress than recently (= 2 years ago) widowed persons, but only equitably treated married persons reported less distress than persons widowed for more than 2 years. Increased distress between the 2 waves occurred in recently widowed persons, and there was a decrease in distress in persons who were widowed shortly before the 1st wave. No gender effects were found.     

Effects of object asymmetry on visual attention

Unilateral neglect has been demonstrated relative to the intrinsic left side of objects, even when presented in the preserved hemispace. These results have been interpreted as evidence of an object-centered reference frame. In the present study, neurologically normal individuals were presented with letter stimuli having distinguishing features to the right (R) or left (J) of their intrinsic midline, shown in normal and mirror parity, and in six angle rotations. RTs confirmed that participants rotated the letters to the upright to decide parity: such rotation would align the object-centered and viewer-centered frames of reference, suggesting that not controlling for mental rotation would confound this effect. In addition, a dot, presented lateral to the main letter stimulus, resulted in quicker parity decisions when on the maximally-informative side of the letter. Together, the results suggest that apparent object-centered neglect may arise from the combined effects of mental rotation and within-object information asymmetries.     

A Topological Model of Epistemic Intentionality

Beyond their linguistic and rhetorical uses, the mental epistemic verbs to knowand to believe reveal a basic conceptual system for human intentionality and the theory of representational mind. Numerous studies, particularly in the field of child development, have been devoted to the conditions under which knowledge and belief are acquired. Upstream of this empirical approach, this paper proposes a topological model of the conceptual structure underlying the linguistic use of to know and to believe. A cusp model of catastrophe theory is chosen to model the formation of epistemic states. Its main characteristic is considering to believe as an intermediate state which lacks stability and presents the delayed effect of hysteresis. The attribution of mental states to the other (viewpoint of the third person) is obtained by the crossing of first and third person knowledge and belief, which gives rise to new categories (to know if and to falsely believe) and closes the system. Another merging of the beliefs of persons A and B, using the butterfly catastrophe, provides a model of interpersonal belief appreciated by an independent observer along a potential evolving from agreement to disagreement. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Comparing 5/7 and 2/9: Adults can do it by accessing the magnitude of the whole fractions

This study investigated adults' ability to compare the magnitude of fractions without common components (e.g., 5/7 and 3/8), and the representation accessed in that process. We hypothesized that the absence of common components would enhance access to the magnitude of the fractions (i.e., a holistic representation) rather than a direct comparison of the numerators or the denominators. This hypothesis was tested in four between-subject conditions. Two types of experimental pairs were used that differed in the congruity of the magnitude of the denominator and the magnitude of the fraction. Each type of experimental pair was presented either alone or with filler pairs that introduced variability into the congruity of the components. In all four conditions, accuracy was above chance and the effect of the distance between the fractions on response times was significant, indicating an access to the magnitude of the fractions. Nevertheless, the variability of the congruity of the components had also a significant effect on performance, suggesting that the relative magnitude of the components was also processed. In conclusion, the representation of the fraction magnitude is hybrid, rather than purely holistic, in a magnitude-comparison task on fractions without common components.     

Firstborns' disadvantage in kinship detection

The ability to assess genetic ties is critical to defining one's own family and, in a broader context, to understanding relationships in groups of strangers. To recognize younger siblings as such, human firstborns can rely on the perinatal association of the mother with her new baby. Later-borns, who cannot rely on such an association, will by necessity actuate alternate strategies, such as recognition of facial clues set aside by firstborns. The effects of such differential early experiences deserve consideration; the development of matching abilities may be used throughout an individual's lifetime to detect other kinship types outside the family. In simple cognitive tasks based on matching face pictures, later-borns surpassed firstborns in detecting kinship among strangers; this pattern was found in populations of different ages and in two countries. This birth-order effect contrasts with the traditional cognitive advantage of firstborns. Inclusive fitness theory explains how early life history promotes specific strategies that can, in turn, permanently enhance human performance in certain domains.