Association Learning with Own‐ and Other‐race Faces in three‐ and six‐month old infants – A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study assessed 133 Caucasian German infants at 3 and 6 months of age to investigate the influence of own‐race and other‐race faces as visual stimuli on association learning in the visual expectation paradigm (VExP). The study is related to the findings on the other‐race‐effect (ORE) which is said to emerge at 6 months of age. Caucasian faces were used as stimuli of a familiar ethnic category, whereas African faces were used as stimuli of an unfamiliar ethnic category. There was no significant difference between the two stimulus classes in infants' reaction time (RT) to stimulus shifts at 3 months. At 6 months of age, infants' RT decreased significantly in the Caucasian faces condition but not in the African faces condition. These results indicate that the processing of other‐race versus own‐race faces by the age of 6 months, which is also the relevant age for the onset of the ORE, has an important influence on the performance on the VExP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Infant Contingency Learning in Different Cultural Contexts

Three‐month‐old Cameroonian Nso farmer and German middle‐class infants were compared regarding learning and retention in a computerized mobile task. Infants achieving a preset learning criterion during reinforcement were tested for immediate and long‐term retention measured in terms of an increased response rate after reinforcement and after a 24‐h delay compared with baseline. It was hypothesized that infants from both cultural communities would acquire the contingency between own motion and mobile movement, as they similarly experience contingent responses in social interactions. Nso infants were assumed to show a higher learning rate related to their advanced gross motor development, whereas German infants were expected to show a higher baseline because of culture‐typical motor handling promoting a high level of activity (i.e. lying supine). Results showed immediate and long‐term retention in infants from both cultural contexts, as well as a higher baseline for German infants. Although the learning rate was higher for Cameroonian infants, logistic regression revealed that learning was not related to gross motor development but depended on the level of baseline response. Thus, contingency learning was shown in different cultural environments, and the level of baseline activity coined by culture‐specific motor handling turned out to influence learning within the mobile task. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Little Prince – an introduction to spirituality: a moving experience in religious education for primary school children in a secularised world

In our research the right of the child for spiritual development is central. Grimmitt’s distinction in ‘teaching in’, ‘about’ and ‘from religion’ is extended with the concept of ‘teaching for’ – a concept that connects religion with children’s attitude of wondering as an ‘ontological calling’ in their life. The question whether a non-religious story can function as a rich learning environment for ‘teaching for’, is explored in a ‘picture voice’-research design. In a small pilot study with four children in primary school age an episode of the story of The Little Prince was presented as a ‘rich learning environment’. We conclude from this pilot that the narration of a non-religious story, together with the child’s drawing of the story’s ‘critical incident’ and a subsequent conversation (‘picture voice’) functions as a stepping stone for the development of spirituality.     

Think globally: cross-linguistic variation in electrophysiological activity during sentence comprehension

This paper demonstrates systematic cross-linguistic differences in the electrophysiological correlates of conflicts between form and meaning (“semantic reversal anomalies”). These engender P600 effects in English and Dutch (e.g. [Kolk et al., 2003] and [Kuperberg et al., 2003]), but a biphasic N400 - late positivity pattern in German (Schlesewsky and Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2009), and monophasic N400 effects in Turkish (Experiment 1) and Mandarin Chinese (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 revealed that, in Icelandic, semantic reversal anomalies show the English pattern with verbs requiring a position-based identification of argument roles, but the German pattern with verbs requiring a case-based identification of argument roles. The overall pattern of results reveals two separate dimensions of cross-linguistic variation: (i) the presence vs. absence of an N400, which we attribute to cross-linguistic differences with regard to the sequence-dependence of the form-to-meaning mapping and (ii) the presence vs. absence of a late positivity, which we interpret as an instance of a categorisation-related late P300, and which is observable when the language under consideration allows for a binary well-formedness categorisation of reversal anomalies. We conclude that, rather than reflecting linguistic domains such as syntax and semantics, the late positivity vs. N400 distinction is better understood in terms of the strategies that serve to optimise the form-to-meaning mapping in a given language.     

Internetgest��tzte Nachsorge bei Bulimia nervosa

Based on the knowledge about high relapse rates in bulimia nervosa and the effectiveness of Internet-based prevention programs, a 9-month manualized Internet-based follow-up care program for women with bulimia nervosa after inpatient treatment will be evaluated. A total of 258 women are to be included in the randomized controlled trial and at least 180 women should complete the study. Women will be recruited from 13 psychosomatic hospitals in Germany. Primary outcome is the number of patients without symptoms 9 months after randomization. Data will be collected via self-monitoring diaries as well as a standardized diagnostic interview. Secondary outcomes are the frequency of objective binge episodes and compensatory behavior 9 and 18 months after randomization as well as changes in additional eating disorder symptoms, general psychopathology, self-esteem and impulsiveness 9 and 18 months after randomization.     

“And yet it moves” or why grammar overrides frequency: a reply to Kempen and Harbusch

We show that Kempen and Harbusch's (Cognition (2003) this issue) arguments against our claims cannot be upheld. On the one hand, their alternative account of our data that is based on the availability of constructions with object-experiencer verbs is not compatible with the literature on the processing of these types of sentences in German. Moreover, their allegation that we failed to conduct an accurate corpus count is simply a misreading of our paper. Insofar, the commentary in no way casts doubt on our claim that grammatical regularities override frequency during online comprehension.     

The attenuating effect of mortality salience on dishonest behavior

People are easily tempted to engage in dishonest behavior when an incentive is given and when full anonymity is provided. In the present work, we investigated existential threat as a motivational factor that might reduce dishonest behavior. Research based on terror management theory has found that mortality salience increases the motivation to fulfill salient values of one’s cultural worldview. Assuming the concept of honesty is important to human societies, we hypothesized that mortality salience will reduce dishonest behavior when the concept of honesty is salient. In two experiments, we assessed dishonesty under full anonymity by applying a die-under-the-cup paradigm with the expected value serving as a stochastic baseline for honest behavior. Both experiments provided support for our hypothesis. Given an incentive to cheat, when the concept of honesty was cognitively activated by a word-search puzzle (Study 1) or by the name of the dice game (i.e., “honest game”; Study 2), mortality salient participants showed not only less dishonest behavior but actually honest behavior.

     

The development of preferences for own-race versus other-race faces in 3-, 6- and 9-month-old Caucasian infants

Visual preferences for pairs of African and Caucasian faces were repeatedly assessed in 3-, 6- and 9-month-old Caucasian infants with a preferential looking paradigm. Two different patterns of preference development were found: First, the spontaneous own-race preference at three months reported in the literature tilts to a preference for other-race faces at nine months passing through a null-preference at six months. This replicates the pattern recently reported for Asian infants [Liu et al. (2015). Development of visual preference for own- versus other-race faces in infancy. Developmental Psychology. doi:10.1037/a0038835]. Second, at all three ages fixation time towards Caucasian faces significantly reduces across the consecutive trial presentation. This is a similar effect as in novelty preference studies to occur after a sufficiently long familiarization phase. Both patterns can be explained in terms of an advantaged own-race face processing with the emerging Other-Race-Effect.     

Hypothesis sampling systems among preoperational and concrete operational kindergarten children

Groups of 60 preoperational and 60 concrete operational kindergarten children received stimulus differentiation training either with feedback (experimental groups) or without (control groups), prior to a series of discrimination-learning problems in which a blank-trial probe, used to detect the child's hypothesis, followed each feedback trial. The concrete operational children manifested significantly better performances than the preoperational on seven of eight dependent measures examined. There were also significant differences in favor of the experimental groups on three dependent measures. While the results were generally consistent with predictions derived from Piagetian stage theory, it was suggested that this theory must be elaborated to include a perspective derived from conventional developmental learning theory in order to adequately account for these and other data.