Maternal-Related Predictors of Self-Regulation Among Low-Income Youth

The association between self-regulation and various adaptive outcomes has become a topic of growing interest to researchers. Yet, there is not much research on predictors of self-regulation in children. Using a cross-sectional design and an array of psychometrically sound scales and measures from multiple informants, this study examined whether maternal characteristics, namely maternal mental health, substance abuse, parenting practices, and child monitoring predicted self-regulation in children. Participants included a culturally diverse group of 155 youths (ages 8–17) and their mothers, all of whom were part of a larger investigation of low-income families in a mid-sized Northeastern city in the United States. Results showed that maternal substance abuse, parenting practices and parental monitoring independently predicted children’s self-regulation, accounting for 23% of the variance. Additional analyses indicated that parenting practices may partly mediate the effect of maternal mental health on children’s self-regulation. Implications for intervention and practice, especially those aimed to mitigate the detrimental effects of maternal mental health problems on children’s self-regulation, are discussed. Further research, both longitudinal and experimental, is warranted in order to extend this line of investigation.     

Snakes, spiders, guns, and syringes: how specific are evolutionary constraints on the detection of threatening stimuli?

In three experiments, the efficiency in detecting fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant visual stimuli are compared. A visual search paradigm is used where participants are presented with matrices of different sizes (4 objects/9 objects) and must determine whether all objects are taken from the same category or whether there is a discrepant one. Results from all experiments were consistent with the threat-superiority effect. Participants were quicker when the target was threatening than when it was not. Other indicators confirmed that the detection of threatening targets involves more efficient processes (reduced slopes, absence of position effects). A crucial aspect of these experiments was the comparison of evolutionary-relevant (snakes, spiders, etc.) and modern (guns, syringes, etc.) threats. The threat-superiority effect was repeatedly found for both types of target. Stronger effects were sometimes observed for modern than for evolutionary-relevant threats. The implications for evolutionary explanations of the effect of fear on visual attention are discussed.     

Short-term and long-term memory deficit following intracarotid Amytal injection: Further support for the memory consolidation hypothesis

To test the three main hypotheses of the human amnesic syndrome (encoding, consolidation, retrieval), we designed an original protocol for memory assessment under Amytal that included, in addition to a retrograde memory measure, both short-term and long-term anterograde memory measures. Twenty epileptic patients with SEEG-confirmed unilateral temporal lobe foci were given right and left injections on successive days. Only the long-term memory measure for material presented under Amytal was significantly related to the presence of a temporal contralateral epileptogenic focus, even if it was assessed when the hemisphere had completely recovered from the effect of Amytal. Short-term memory deficits were observed equally often after injections ipsilateral and contralateral to the epileptogenic focus, and no retrograde amnesia was observed. These results are consistent with the consolidation hypothesis.     

Effets comportementaux et attitudinaux d’une procédure de Pied-dans-la-porte en entreprise

The present research investigates attitudinal and behavioral effects of a Foot-in-the-door paradigm (Freedman & Fraser, 1966), adapted to a company world. Moreover, it measures the impact of a variable whose integration to the paradigm has been discussed (Joule and Beauvois, 1998; Joule, Py & Bernard, 2004) although its effect has not been experimentally demonstrated: Action Identification (Vallacher and Wegner, 1985). Results show a response rate to the target request and a mean of affective commitment to the organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990) higher in the F.I.T.D. condition, particularly when the level of action identification is taking into account. Results are discussed in terms of commitment theory and action identification theory.     

Metacognition and low achievement in mathematics: The effect of training in the use of metacognitive skills to solve mathematical word problems

The central question underlying this study was whether metacognition training could enhance the two metacognition components—knowledge and skills—and the mathematical problem-solving capacities of normal children in grade 3. We also investigated whether metacognitive training had a differential effect according to the children's mathematics level. A total of 48 participants took part in this study, divided into an experimental and a control group, each subdivided into a lower and a normal achievers group. The training programme took an interactive approach in accordance with Schraw's (1998 Schraw, G. 1998. Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26: 113–125. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) recommendation and was carried out over five training sessions. Results indicated that children in the training group had significantly higher post-test metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive skills, and mathematical problem-solving scores. In addition, metacognitive training was particularly beneficial to the low achievers. Thus metacognitive training enabled the low achievers to make progress and solve the same number of problems on the post-test as the normal achievers solved on the pre-test.     

The influence of an emotional processing strategy on visual threat detection by police trainees and officers

Threat detection is an important skill for police officers, but few studies have examined the impact of processing strategies on this ability. The first aim of our study was to compare the visual detection of threatening and neutral targets in 38 police trainees and 53 police officers. The other aims were to examine the effect of emotional or semantic strategies on this process and the effect of psychopathological symptoms. In a visual search task, participants had to detect a threatening or neutral target among neutral distractors. Participants answered a question used to induce a more emotional or semantic processing strategy. Results revealed that threatening targets were detected faster than neutral ones. This effect was enhanced with an emotional processing strategy but unaffected by symptoms. Processing strategy also had led to faster reaction time overall. This study shows that inducing processing strategies can influence threat detection in police trainees and officers.     

Speech rate as a sticky switch: a multiple lesion case analysis of mutism and hyperlalia

Though it has long been known on the basis of clinical associations and serendipitous observation that speech rate is related to mood and psychomotor baseline, it is less known that speech rate is also related to libido and to immune function. We make the case for a bipolar phenomenon of "psychic tonus," encompassing all these dimensions. The elated, agitated, libidinal, immunofacilitated, and talkative pole is an "approach" disposition primarily activated by the normal left hemisphere-especially, though not exclusively, its frontal lobe. The dejected, lethargic, delibidinized, immunosuppressed, and mute pole is an "avoidance" disposition primarily activated by the normal right hemisphere-especially, though not exclusively, its frontal lobe. In support of this proposed model, we present new evidence, via meta-analysis of previously published single lesion case reports, of a highly significant association between right hemisphere lesions and non-aphasic hyperlalia, and between left hemisphere lesions and non-aphasic mutism.     

Reasoning about emotional and neutral materials. Is logic affected by emotion?

In two experiments, we investigated whether people reason differently when they reason about emotional and neutral contents. We gave participants a conditional reasoning task ("If p, then q") and varied the emotionality of the items used as p and q. Participants were asked to draw inferences based on these statements. In Experiment 1, we compared statements including preexisting emotional and neutral words. In Experiment 2, we experimentally manipulated the emotionality of initially neutral words using classical conditioning. In both experiments, emotionality affected participants' responses. They were more likely to draw invalid inferences in response to emotional compared with neutral statements.