Family Cultures in The Context of Migration and Ageing

Intergenerational family relations are embedded in family cultures which influence how families regulate their relations over the whole life span with regard to key issues, such as autonomy and relatedness, or support exchange and reciprocity, and which may vary inter- and intraculturally. Migrant families undoubtedly face a special situation as values and expectations from the culture of origin and from the host cultural context might differ. Not much is known yet about how migrant families adapt their family cultures to the host cultural context. The present article will focus on aspects of intergenerational family regulation by taking into account family cultures of migrant compared to non-migrant families in a life span perspective. We will illustrate our theoretical outline by presenting first results from the IRMA-study comparing Luxembourgish and Portuguese immigrant families living in Luxembourg. We focus on issues of family cohesion, enmeshment and normative expectations regarding adult children’s support for their ageing parents, by drawing both on quantitative questionnaire as well as qualitative interview data. Implications for the experience of ambivalence and conflicts as well as well-being of family members from both generations will be discussed.     

Listeners feel the beat: Entrainment to English and French speech rhythms

Can listeners entrain to speech rhythms? Monolingual speakers of English and French and balanced English–French bilinguals tapped along with the beat they perceived in sentences spoken in a stress-timed language, English, and a syllable-timed language, French. All groups of participants tapped more regularly to English than to French utterances. Tapping performance was also influenced by the participants’ native language: English-speaking participants and bilinguals tapped more regularly and at higher metrical levels than did French-speaking participants, suggesting that long-term linguistic experience with a stress-timed language can differentiate speakers’ entrainment to speech rhythm.     

Legal aspects of the risks raised by nanotechnologies in the field of medicine

The major breakthroughs achieved in nanotechnologies open new avenues in the field of healthcare--aid to diagnosis, upgrading medical treatment efficacy, development of regenerative medicine--but they are also associated with risks, hence the increasing need of legislation. So far very little research work has been conducted on this technology whose applications are still limited and whose potential hazards are not yet clearly apprehended. The more and more frequent uses of nanoparticles in medical imaging and in current research projects dealing with tissue engineering or RFID raises the following question: is the current legislative framework relevant in light of the specificities of nano-objects? The challenge is twofold: the legal approach must encompass the nanometric element itself as a "legal object" but it must include the use of nanotechnologies and their final aims. There is still some degree of uncertainty concerning the innocuity of nanoparticles so that the use of nanoelements in aid to medical diagnosis and in clinical trials must take into account and anticipate the potential harmful effects on patients and on biomedical research teams. But due to the fact that a clear understanding of nanoparticles as specific objects with new features is still missing, the existing regulations on chemical substances, medicinal products, medical devices or cosmetics do not seem to be appropriate. So considering nanoparticles as "singular" legal objects is a prerequisite requiring an approach based on the precautionary principle. Misusing nanotechnologies in the medical field is also a cause for great concern. Threats on individual freedom and on private life as well as on human identity are real and they raise recurring questions. The possible deviations in the use of these techniques, the temptations to "trespass the limits" are also common to info technologies and to biotechnologies but the threats triggered by the nanotechnologies are enhanced by the possibilities offered by the nanometric size and the expected convergence of these different technologies. One should refer to leading guiding principles in order to solve the future conflicts between the different sets of values, especially in the medical field by always remembering the Hippocratic oath "primum non nocere, deinde curare"     

Response time accuracy in Apple Macintosh computers

The accuracy and variability of response times (RTs) collected on stock Apple Macintosh computers using USB keyboards was assessed. A photodiode detected a change in the screen’s luminosity and triggered a solenoid that pressed a key on the keyboard. The RTs collected in this way were reliable, but could be as much as 100 ms too long. The standard deviation of the measured RTs varied between 2.5 and 10 ms, and the distributions approximated a normal distribution. Surprisingly, two recent Apple-branded USB keyboards differed in their accuracy by as much as 20 ms. The most accurate RTs were collected when an external CRT was used to display the stimuli and Psychtoolbox was able to synchronize presentation with the screen refresh. We conclude that RTs collected on stock iMacs can detect a difference as small as 5–10 ms under realistic conditions, and this dictates which types of research should or should not use these systems.     

Tracking irregular morphophonological dependencies in natural language: evidence from the acquisition of subject-verb agreement in French

This study examines French-learning infants’ sensitivity to grammatical non-adjacent dependencies involving subject-verb agreement (e.g., le/les garçons lit/lisent ‘the boy(s) read(s)’) where number is audible on both the determiner of the subject DP and the agreeing verb, and the dependency is spanning across two syntactic phrases. A further particularity of this subsystem of French subject-verb agreement is that number marking on the verb is phonologically highly irregular. Despite the challenge, the HPP results for 24- and 18-month-olds demonstrate knowledge of both number dependencies: between the singular determiner le and the non-adjacent singular verbal forms and between the plural determiner les and the non-adjacent plural verbal forms. A control experiment suggests that the infants are responding to known verb forms, not phonological regularities. Given the paucity of such forms in the adult input documented through a corpus study, these results are interpreted as evidence that 18-month-olds have the ability to extract complex patterns across a range of morphophonologically inconsistent and infrequent items in natural language.     

Externalizing behavior trajectories: The role of parenting, sibling relationships and child personality

Based on longitudinal multilevel modeling and using a multi-informant strategy, this study examines trajectories of externalizing problem behavior (EPB) in childhood as predicted by parental behavior (absolute level of parenting [ALP] and parental differential treatment [PDT]), parental self-efficacy (PSE), child personality and sibling relationships. Besides main effects, several interactions were tested. The effects of changes in parenting on changes in EPB were also examined. A total of 119 families from the French-speaking area of Belgium rearing a child (3- to 5-year-olds at the onset of the study) referred for EPB were studied. The effects of both level-of and changes-in mothers' ALP were partially confirmed, but for fathers, only ALP was predictive. There were some significant interactions between ALP and PDT for both parents. Mothers' PSE explained some variance in EPB, additional to that explained by the parenting measures. Some parenting by personality and by sibling relationship interactions were found.     

Making up for lost opportunities: the protective role of downward social comparisons for coping with regrets across adulthood

Two longitudinal studies showed that if adults confront low opportunities to overcome regrets, downward social comparisons can exert self-protective functions across the adult life span, irrespective of age (Study 1 N = 104 young and older adults, Study 2 N = 51 older adults). Both studies found that downward relative to upward social comparisons were associated with improvements in participants' positive (but not negative) affect, if they perceived low as opposed to high opportunities to overcome regrets. Moreover, Study 2 showed that this beneficial effect on change in positive affect mediated the experience of fewer cold symptoms over time. Supplemental analyses further indicated that the mechanism linking social comparison processes and opportunities with positive (but not negative) affect was associated with the capacity for goal reengagement. In addition, these analyses showed that the obtained effects were largely unrelated to the severity of regret-related consequences and thus ruled out an alternative explanation of the findings.     

Short-term memory effects of an auditory biofeedback on isometric force control: is there a differential effect as a function of transition trials?

The aim of the present study was to investigate memory effects, force accuracy, and variability during constant isometric force at different force levels, using auditory biofeedback. Two types of transition trials were used: a biofeedback-no biofeedback transition trial and a no biofeedback-biofeedback transition trial. The auditory biofeedback produced a low- or high-pitched sound when participants produced an isometric force lower or higher than required, respectively. To achieve this goal, 16 participants were asked to produce and maintain two different isometric forces (30 ± 5% and 90 N ± 5%) during 25 s. Constant error and standard deviation of the isometric force were calculated. While accuracy and variability of the isometric force varied according to the transition trial, a drift of the force appeared in the no biofeedback condition. This result suggested that the degradation of information about force output in the no biofeedback condition was provided by a leaky memory buffer which was mainly dependent on the sense of effort. Because this drift remained constant whatever the transition used, this memory buffer seemed to be independent of short-term memory processes.     

LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF LABELING A RAPE EXPERIENCE

Research has found that approximately half of women who report an experience that meets the legal definition of rape do not label it rape. It has been assumed that labeling the experience as rape is necessary and beneficial for recovery; however, conflicting findings have been reported. In the present study, a longitudinal design was utilized to examine the long-term consequences of being a rape victim and of labeling the experience as rape. Assessments were obtained at two time points approximately 10 months apart from females in their first year of college. Participants were classified as nonvictims, victims who labeled the experience as rape, or victims who did not label the experience as rape. Results showed that there were negative effects of being raped, such as more psychological distress and increased alcohol use; however, few differences were found at either assessment based on rape victims' labeling of the experience.