The statistical signature of morphosyntax: A study of Hungarian and Italian infant-directed speech

Does statistical learning (Saffran, Aslin, &; Newport, 1996) offer a universal segmentation strategy for young language learners? Previous studies on large corpora of English and structurally similar languages have shown that statistical segmentation can be an effective strategy. However, many of the world’s languages have richer morphological systems, with sometimes several affixes attached to a stem (e.g. Hungarian: iskoláinkban: iskolá-i-nk-ban school.pl.poss1pl.inessive ‘in our schools’). In these languages, word boundaries and morpheme boundaries do not coincide. Does the internal structure of words affect segmentation? What word forms does segmentation yield in morphologically rich languages: complex word forms or separate stems and affixes? The present paper answers these questions by exploring different segmentation algorithms in infant-directed speech corpora from two typologically and structurally different languages, Hungarian and Italian. The results suggest that the morphological and syntactic type of a language has an impact on statistical segmentation, with different strategies working best in different languages. Specifically, the direction of segmentation seems to be sensitive to the affixation order of a language. Thus, backward probabilities are more effective in Hungarian, a heavily suffixing language, whereas forward probabilities are more informative in Italian, which has fewer suffixes and a large number of phrase-initial function words. The consequences of these findings for potential segmentation and word learning strategies are discussed.     

Eye tracking, strategies, and sex differences in virtual navigation

Reports of sex differences in wayfinding have typically used paradigms sensitive to the female advantage (navigation by landmarks) or sensitive to the male advantage (navigation by cardinal directions, Euclidian coordinates, environmental geometry, and absolute distances). The current virtual navigation paradigm allowed both men and women an equal advantage. We studied sex differences by systematically varying the number of landmarks. Eye tracking was used to quantify sex differences in landmark utilisation as participants solved an eight-arm radial maze task within different virtual environments. To solve the task, participants were required to remember the locations of target objects within environments containing 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 landmarks. We found that, as the number of landmarks available in the environment increases, the proportion of time men and women spend looking at landmarks and the number of landmarks they use to find their way increases. Eye tracking confirmed that women rely more on landmarks to navigate, although landmark fixations were also associated with an increase in task completion time. Sex differences in navigational behaviour occurred only in environments devoid of landmarks and disappeared in environments containing multiple landmarks. Moreover, women showed sustained landmark-oriented gaze, while men's decreased over time. Finally, we found that men and women use spatial and response strategies to the same extent. Together, these results shed new light on the discrepancy in landmark utilisation between men and women and help explain the differences in navigational behaviour previously reported.     

System of Spheres-based Multiple Contractions

We propose a new class of multiple contraction operations — the system of spheres-based multiple contractions — which are a generalization of Grove’s system of spheres-based (singleton) contractions to the case of contractions by (possibly non-singleton) sets of sentences. Furthermore, we show that this new class of functions is a subclass of the class of the partial meet multiple contractions.     

Prioritized and Non-prioritized Multiple Change on Belief Bases

In this article we explore multiple change operators, i.e., operators in which the epistemic input is a set of sentences instead of a single sentence. We propose two types of change: prioritized change, in which the input set is fully accepted, and symmetric change, where both the epistemic state and the epistemic input are equally treated. In both kinds of operators we propose a set of postulates and we present different constructions: kernel changes and partial meet changes.     

The mediational role of perceived stress in the relation between optimism and burnout in competitive athletes

Burnout has been highlighted as an important issue, not only in occupational settings but also among athletes. Optimists appear to be more resistant to burnout, which might be partly explained by lower levels of stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between optimism and burnout symptoms in 217 athletes (139 males and 78 females, aged 16 to 19 years), while also examining stress as a mediator in this relationship. The results showed that optimism had a significant negative relationship with both stress and burnout. Mediation analyses indicated that perceived stress fully mediated the links between optimism and two symptoms of burnout, emotional/physical exhaustion and sport devaluation, and partly mediated the link between optimism and a third symptom, reduced sense of accomplishment. The findings indicate that individual factors, such as optimism, may play an important role in the development of burnout by virtue of their association with stress. Future research should, therefore, investigate the longitudinal effects of optimism on stress and burnout.     

Subliminal priming and effects of hand dominance

In the masked priming paradigm, motor responses to targets are influenced by previously presented subliminal primes, and are guided by facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms that depend on prime-target compatibility/duration. In this study, we evaluate subliminal-driven priming in right- and left-handers during unimanual as well as bimanual tasks. The data from the unimanual tasks confirmed that prime-target compatibility affects performance as a function of prime-target duration. In a bimanual setting, the preferred hand benefitted from facilitation in both handedness groups whereas the non-preferred hand showed a positive priming effect only in left-handers. This denotes that left-handers are more susceptible to response activation of either hand. In addition, inhibitory priming had a stronger effect on the non-preferred than preferred hand, independent of handedness group. Overall, the findings suggest that subliminal-driven mechanisms that assist adaptive motor behavior are sensitive not only to extrinsic (task-related) factors such as prime-target compatibility but also to intrinsic (performer-related) factors such as hand dominance. The data further provide support for handedness-specific effects in motor functions and underline a significant role of hand dominance in the control of bimanual actions.     

Critical Transference in a Case of Severe Epilepsy

In this paper, the author presents a summary of a brief treatment with a young woman, suffering from severe epileptic illness, which describes the mutuality of cross-transferences of deep and intense feelings and the unorthodox way to receive, to take in persons affected with critical phenomena. This treatment was deeply influenced by the traumatic triad, borrowed from Ferenczi: "amnesia, anaesthesia, aboulia," the ways of forgetting (or erasing) the past/the present/the future. The investigation led us to clarify, on the one hand, the incestophilic-or perhaps incestuous-source in the family, and on the other, the burdensome and tragic genealogy and history of each parent. At the end of this short treatment, which took place at a frequency of one session a week (with the patient sitting, standing, lying on the floor; with sometimes severe fits, deliria, threats; bringing of letters, texts, drawings; and a few phone calls), there was an alleviation of the critical phenomena and revival.     

Rejoinder to MacCallum, Edwards, and Cai (2012) and Rindskopf (2012): Mastering a new method

This rejoinder discusses the general comments on how to use Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) wisely and how to get more people better trained in using Bayesian methods. Responses to specific comments cover how to handle sign switching, nonconvergence and nonidentification, and prior choices in latent variable models. Two new applications are included. The first one revisits the Kaplan (2009) science model by considering priors on primary parameters. The second one applies BSEM to the bifactor model that was hypothesized in the original Holzinger and Swineford (1939) study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

A Further Examination of the Distinction Between Dependency-Oriented and Achievement-Oriented Parental Psychological Control: Psychometric Properties of the DAPCS with French-Speaking Late Adolescents

Psychological control refers to parental behaviors that intrude on the psychological and emotional development of the child. In 2010, Soenens et al. proposed a distinction between two domain-specific expressions of psychological control, that is, Dependency-oriented Psychological Control (DPC) and Achievement-oriented Psychological Control (APC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the factor structure, reliability, and convergent validity of the French form of the Dependency-oriented and Achievement-oriented Psychological Control Scale (DAPCS; Soenens et al. in J Pers 78(1):217–256, 2010) in a sample of late adolescents (N?=?291, mean age?=?21.65). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized two-factor solution of the DAPCS for paternal as well as for maternal ratings. Moreover, high indices of internal consistency indicated that both subscales produced reliable scores. Further, convergent validity was confirmed by theoretically consistent associations between the DAPCS’ subscales and well-established assessments of general parenting style dimensions. Finally, results evidenced gender specific patterns supporting the relevance of domain differentiation in the assessment of psychological control. Overall, the results of this study indicated that the French form of the DAPCS might be a useful instrument to assess two domain-specific types of parental psychological control among French-speaking adolescents.