Psychological consequences of collective violence in childhood: the case of Monterrey,Mexico / Consecuencias psicológicas de la violencia colectiva en la niñez: el caso de Monterrey,México

Abstract

During the last years, different types of violence have severely damaged Mexico. In this paper we examine the consequences that violence could have in children, one of the most vulnerable segments of society. In short, we predict that exposure to any type of violence will lead to higher depression and that this could be explained through the effects of violence on childhood well-being. Our hypothesis was supported in two studies, showing that exposure to street violence (Study 1, N = 607) and exposure to collective violence (Study 2, N = 172) can increase childhood depression. Moreover, in both studies, this effect was explained by the decrease of childhood well-being caused by violence exposure. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Psychometric properties of a revised Spanish 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale adaptation in multiple sclerosis patients

There have been a small number of investigations of alexithymia in multiple sclerosis (MS) using the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). However, the TAS-20 factor structure has not yet been evaluated in a MS patient sample, and earlier Spanish translations of this instrument require some improvement. We aimed to evaluate the factorial validity and reliability of an improved Spanish translation of the TAS-20 (the TAS-20-S). The TAS-20-S was completed by 221 MS patients. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the fit of six different factor models. Internal consistency and retest reliability coefficients were also computed. The correlated three-factor model and the higher-order factor model made up of Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Difficulty Describing Feelings, and Externally Oriented Thinking achieved the best fit. Alpha coefficients ranged between .87 and .67; mean inter-item correlations ranged between .48 and .20; and retest correlations after 6 months ranged between .61 and .52. A high degree of alexithymia was present in 18.1% of the sample. Reliability and the traditional three-factor structure were demonstrated for the TAS-20-S, which can now be recommended for assessing an aspect of emotional processing in MS patients.     

Age slowing down in detection and visual discrimination under varying presentation times

The reaction time has been described as a measure of perception, decision making, and other cognitive processes. The aim of this work is to examine age‐related changes in executive functions in terms of demand load under varying presentation times. Two tasks were employed where a signal detection and a discrimination task were performed by young and older university students. Furthermore, a characterization of the response time distribution by an ex‐Gaussian fit was carried out. The results indicated that the older participants were slower than the younger ones in signal detection and discrimination. Moreover, the differences between both processes for the older participants were higher, and they also showed a higher distribution average except for the lower and higher presentation time. The results suggest a general slowdown in both tasks for age under different presentation times, except for the cases where presentation times were lower and higher. Moreover, if these parameters are understood to be a reflection of executive functions, these findings are consistent with the common view that age‐related cognitive deficits show a decline in this function.     

The willingness of medical students to use Facebook as a training channel for professional habits: the case of influenza vaccination

The low acceptance of influenza vaccination by both medical students and healthcare workers (HCWs) signals the need for innovative strategies. We administered an anonymous questionnaire to 410 University of Barcelona medical students who were asked about using the Internet to find information on influenza vaccination of HCWs and about their willingness to use technical and informal Facebook pages as an information channel on this topic. Of the 410 participants, 74.1 percent were female and 58.3 percent were in the first preclinical 3-year university cycle. A total of 7.6 percent participants reported using the Internet for queries on influenza vaccination, 89.8 percent reported that they were Facebook users, and 275 (67.1 percent) would accept an invitation from the technical or informal Facebook pages. The technical Web site would be actively followed by 77, or by 30.0 percent of those who would accept the invitation and the informal site by 116 (43.6 percent of those who would accept). The marked willingness to use Facebook to obtain information on the influenza vaccination of HCWs potentially opens a new window in health education: social networks could be used to help create professional habits. Students would be more likely to engage with this type of Facebook page if the contents were informal rather than highly technical.     

Retroactive interference in short-term memory and the word-length effect

Two experiments investigated the possibility that the word-length effect in short-term memory (STM) is a consequence of long words generating a greater level of retroactive interference than shorter words. In Experiment 1, six-word lists were auditorily presented under articulatory suppression for immediate serial reconstruction of only the first three words. These three words were always drawn from a single set of middle-length words, whereas the last three positions were occupied by either short or long interfering words. The results showed worse memory performance when the to-be-remembered words were followed by long words. In Experiment 2, a recent-probes task was used, in which recent negative probes matched a target word in trial n-2. The results showed lower levels of proactive interference when trial n-1 involved long words instead of short words, suggesting that long words displaced previous STM content to a greater extent. By two different experimental approaches, therefore, this study shows that long words produce more retroactive interference than short words, supporting an interference-based account for the word-length effect.     

Some Uses of Logic in Rigorous Philosophy

This paper is concerned with the use of logic to solve philosophical problems. Such use of logic goes counter to the prevailing empiricist tradition in analytic circles. Specifically, model-theoretic tools are applied to three fundamental issues in the philosophy of logic and mathematics, namely, to the issue of the existence of mathematical entities, to the dispute between first- and second-order logic and to the definition of analyticity.