Anticipatory reaching of seven- to eleven-month-old infants in occlusion situations

The present study examined 7- to 11-month-old infants’ anticipatory and reactive reaching for temporarily occluded objects. Infants were presented with laterally approaching objects that moved at different velocities (10, 20, and 40 cm/s) in different occlusion situations (no-, 20 cm-, and 40 cm-occlusion), resulting in occlusion durations ranging between 0 and 4 s. Results show that except for object velocity and occlusion distance, occlusion duration was a critical constraint for infants’ reaching behaviors. We found that the older infants reached more often, but that an increase in occlusion duration resulted in a decline in reaching frequency that was similar across age groups. Anticipatory reaching declined with increasing occlusion duration, but the adverse effects for longer occlusion durations diminished with age. It is concluded that with increasing age infants are able to retain and use information to guide reaching movements over longer periods of non-visibility, providing support for the graded representation hypothesis (Jonsson &; von Hofsten, 2003) and the two-visual systems model (Milner &; Goodale, 1995).     

Looking out for danger: An attentional bias towards spatially predictable threatening stimuli

Attentional bias to threat is well established, however, the influence of spatial predictability on this attentional bias has never been investigated. Here we investigated how threat affects attentional capture and disengagement when its spatial location is predictable. Using a visual search paradigm, participants were required to identify a target inside one of a variable number of colored circles. One color (Conditioned Stimulus, CS+) was fear-conditioned using an electrocutaneous stimulus at tolerance level. In the experimental group the CS+ was made spatially predictable (occurred more often at one location in the visual display), while this was not the case in the control group. Results showed no complete automatic capture of attention by the CS+, but the experimental group did show more prioritization of the CS+ and less difficulty to disengage from the CS+ than the control group. Of further importance was the finding that the experimental group also attended to the location that was predictive of the CS+, even when no CS+ was presented. Findings are discussed in terms the effects of predictability on anxiety.     

Parenting behaviour as a mediator between young children's negative emotionality and their anxiety/depression

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine observed paternal and maternal control (psychological control and autonomy granting) and support (rejection and emotional warmth) as mediators of the relation between children's negative emotionality at 3.5 years of age and depression and anxiety problems at 4.5 years. For 35 children, 60‐min unstructured parent–child interactions were rated at 4.5 years. Results indicated that maternal rejection mediated the relation between children's negative emotionality and their later anxiety/depression. Higher levels of child negative emotionality predicted more psychological control in mothers, but did not predict any parenting behaviours in fathers. Higher levels of paternal autonomy granting were associated with more child anxiety/depression. Unexpectedly, however, more maternal emotional warmth was related to higher levels of child anxiety/depression. The findings offer new insights to guide future research on the (mediating) role of parenting behaviours in the relation between children's negative emotionality and their internalizing problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Factors associated with traumatic symptoms and internalizing problems among adolescents who experienced a traumatic event

The aim of the present study was to identify factors that are related to the traumatic symptoms and problem behavior among adolescents who experienced the New Years fire in 2001 in Volendam, The Netherlands. Three groups of factors were considered: pre-trauma (personality and coping), trauma-related (physical and emotional proximity to disaster), and post-trauma factors (received social support). Forty-five adolescents completed the questionnaire. Two years after the disaster, these adolescents experienced significant traumatic stress reaction (70% within the clinical range) and showed clinically significant levels of internalizing problems (37%). Pre-trauma, individual factors were identified as the most important predictors of distress, followed by received social support. The indicators of physical and emotional proximity to disaster explained little variance in distress.     

The Shapes of Commitment Development in Emerging Adulthood

Based on a model developed by Kunnen et al. (in: Nurmi (ed) Navigating through adolescence: European perspectives, 2001), we investigated trajectories of commitment development in university students and their relation with well-being, identity style, coping, personality, and ego-development. By means of cluster analysis on individual trajectories, we distinguished different clusters of trajectories in six domains of life. Almost all clusters could be classified according to the identity status theory, either on a moratorium-achieved trajectory (MAMA), or as a stable trajectory in one of the four identity statuses. As expected, clusters with stable strong commitment had highest levels of well-being, and MAMA clusters had highest levels of ego-development. In general, the condition “having no commitments for a prolonged period” was more strongly related to non-optimal outcomes than the condition “no exploration.” This is surprising, given the important role of exploration in identity development. We suggested that having no commitments may affect—probably temporarily—the coping preferences and personality characteristics. Differences between the domains can be interpreted as effects of different societal demands and the social or non-social nature of the domain.     

The estimation of ultrametric and path length trees from rectangular proximity data

A least-squares algorithm for fitting ultrametric and path length or additive trees to two-way, two-mode proximity data is presented. The algorithm utilizes a penalty function to enforce the ultrametric inequality generalized for asymmetric, and generally rectangular (rather than square) proximity matrices in estimating an ultrametric tree. This stage is used in an alternating least-squares fashion with closed-form formulas for estimating path length constants for deriving path length trees. The algorithm is evaluated via two Monte Carlo studies. Examples of fitting ultrametric and path length trees are presented.G. De Soete is Aspirant of the Belgian Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek at the University of Ghent, Belgium. W. S. DeSarbo and J. D. Carroll are Members of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J. G. W. Furnas is Member of Technical Staff at Bell Communications Research, Murray Hill, N.J.     

Avoidance behavior can function as a negative occasion setter

The authors put forward the hypothesis that avoidance learning can result from the fact that participants learn (a) that a stimulus is followed by an unconditioned stimulus (US) when the avoidance behavior is not emitted and (b) that the stimulus is not followed by the US when the avoidance behavior is emitted. As such, avoidance behavior is assumed to function as a negative occasion setter. The results of a contingency judgment experiment involving 65 students showed that avoidance behavior indeed has the unique functional properties of a negative occasion setter (resistance to counterconditioning and selective transfer of modulation).     

The disruptive nature of pain: An experimental investigation

Pain interrupts, distracts and takes effort to ignore. Focusing our research attention upon this central aspect of pain experience, an experimental paradigm is introduced to study the disruptive nature of pain. Healthy volunteers were exposed several times to an electrical pain stimulus and a control stimulus. Tone probes were presented immediately (100 ms) and later on (1500 ms) after pain/control onset, and after pain/control offset (1000 ms). Results clearly showed disruption during pain. This disruptive effect was most marked immediately after onset. No differential results between pain and control conditions were observed later on during the pain experience. These results are interpreted within current cognitive and psychophysiological theories of attention. Emphasis is placed upon the importance of the experimental investigation of the role of attention in pain processing.