Acculturation and Cognitive Performance of Migrant Children in The Netherlands

Acculturative strategies and cognitive acculturation were studied among 118 Dutch migrant children (age: 7–12 years). Both an exploratory factor analysis and a Linear Logistic Test Model analysis provided evidence for the bipolar unidimensionality of Berry's four acculturation strategies; integration constituted one pole and assimilation, separation, and marginalization the other. Integration was by far the most popular strategy. Cognitive performance was measured by the Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Test, school report measures, and a computer-assisted choice reaction-time measure. A good fit was found for a structural model that postulated cognitive acculturation as the latent variable linking background measures (i.e. acculturation strategy, second language usage, age, and gender) to the cognitive measures. Relationships between background variables and cognitive performance were stronger in the first than in the second generation. Both older children and children who favour an integration strategy showed a higher degree of cognitive acculturation.     

The Time Course of Grammatical and Phonological Processing During Speaking: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

Motor-related brain potentials were used to examine the time course of grammatical and phonological processes during noun phrase production in Dutch. In the experiments, participants named colored pictures using a no-determiner noun phrase. On half of the trials a syntactic–phonological classification task had to be performed before naming. Depending on the outcome of the classifications, a left or a right push-button response was given (go trials), or no push-button response was given (no-go trials). Lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) were derived to test whether syntactic and phonological information affected the motor system at separate moments in time. The results showed that when syntactic information determined the response-hand decision, an LRP developed on no-go trials. However, no such effect was observed when phonological information determined response hand. On the basis of the data, it can be estimated that an additional period of at least 40 ms is needed to retrieve a word's initial phoneme once its lemma has been retrieved. These results provide evidence for the view that during speaking, grammatical processing precedes phonological processing in time.     

Closing the gaps: developmental psychopathology as a training model for clinical child psychology

Espouses developmental psychopathology as a framework for training our future leaders due to its emphasis on an ecological, transactional lifespan perspective, as well as interdisciplinary bridging and policy focus. This perspective, used as a framework for questioning and thinking about the complex interplay of psychological and social phenomena, provides a method for closing the gaps in training future psychologists as it allows for the development of niche expertise under an umbrella of the broader, ecological perspective. In an increasingly complex world of shrinking mental health dollars and growing severity of mental health problems for families and youth, clinical psychologists are needed more than ever to solve social problems. The current training paradigms in clinical child psychology programs need redirection and clarification for future psychologists to contribute meaningfully to science, practice, and policy. This article provides background in the history and influence of the developmental psychopathology perspective, as well as future implications for doctoral training programs in clinical psychology.     

Motion aftereffect of combined first-order and second-order motion

When, after prolonged viewing of a moving stimulus, a stationary (test) pattern is presented to an observer, this results in an illusory movement in the direction opposite to the adapting motion. Typically, this motion aftereffect (MAE) does not occur after adaptation to a second-order motion stimulus (i.e. an equiluminous stimulus where the movement is defined by a contrast or texture border, not by a luminance border). However, a MAE of second-order motion is perceived when, instead of a static test pattern, a dynamic test pattern is used. Here, we investigate whether a second-order motion stimulus does affect the MAE on a static test pattern (sMAE), when second-order motion is presented in combination with first-order motion during adaptation. The results show that this is indeed the case. Although the second-order motion stimulus is too weak to produce a convincing sMAE on its own, its influence on the sMAE is of equal strength to that of the first-order motion component, when they are adapted to simultaneously. The results suggest that the perceptual appearance of the sMAE originates from the site where first-order and second-order motion are integrated.     

Conditionalization, A New Argument For

Probabilism in epistemology does not have to be of the Bayesian variety. The probabilist represents a person's opinion as a probability function; the Bayesian adds that rational change of opinion must take the form of conditionalizing on new evidence. I will argue that this is the correct procedure under certain special conditions. Those special conditions are important, and instantiated for example in scientific experimentation, but hardly universal. My argument will be related to the much maligned Reflection Principle (van Fraassen, 1984, 1995), and partly inspired by the work of Brian Skyrms (1987).     

Heart Rate Variability and Sustained Attention in ADHD Children

The major goal of the current study was to investigate the association between continuous performance tests (CPTs) and the heart rate variability (HRV) of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children. The HRV, specifically the 0.10-Hz component, may be considered to be a psychophysiological index of effort allocation (motivation): The less effort the subject allocates, the greater the 0.10-Hz component. Results indicated that, compared to controls, ADHD subjects had a greater 0.10-Hz component, which was associated with poor test performance over time. Thus, using a psychophysiological measure, we were able to confirm the clinical concept of ADHD from a motivational perspective.     

The Props are Falling Down and We Want to Make Music: A Narrative Perspective on Organisations in Transition (Violins/Violence in Organisations)

While South African society finds itself in the throes of political changes, therapists working within organisations in transition find themselves challenged by the turbulence of transformation. The authors are a group of therapists attempting to understand, from a narrative perspective, the organisational context within which they work. This paper recounts the processes around the design, implementation, and outcomes of a workshop on this theme. The main body of the paper consists of a letter that was sent to participants after the workshop. The reader is invited to join collaboratively in our reflections so as to continue an open-ended, creative process.     

Using the Short Form-36 with multiple sclerosis patients in five countries: a cross-cultural comparison

Questionnaires measuring health-related quality of life are increasingly used in international studies of medical effectiveness. It is important to know if data from these instruments are comparable across countries. We initiated a collaboration among five research groups--from the USA, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the UK--in the field of health-related quality of life in multiple sclerosis. All groups used the 36-item Short Form Health Survey. The goal of our study was to make a cross-cultural comparison. In the five countries under study the sample size varied from 50 to 134 patients with multiple sclerosis. The survey was completed by a total of 457 patients, who were heterogeneous in relation to age, duration of illness, severity and type of multiple sclerosis. There appeared to be major differences among the samples in scores on each of the eight scales. These findings may be influenced by differences in method of recruitment, demographic and disease-related characteristics, administration, and cultural factors. After having performed a number of analyses, it appeared that the differences were mainly attributable to sampling effects; however, cultural influences could not be excluded.     

Inhibitory motor control in stop paradigms: review and reinterpretation of neural mechanisms.

What is the neurophysiological locus of inhibition when preparation for a manual response is countermanded? This paper evaluates data and models that pertain to inhibitory mechanisms operating in stop paradigms. In a model of De Jong, Coles and Logan (1995), (Strategies and mechanisms in nonselective and selective inhibitory motor control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 3, 498-511), a mechanism for nonselective inhibition operates peripheral to the motor cortex, while a selective mechanism operates at a central cortical level. We argue, however, that a peripheral mechanism of inhibition is incorrectly inferred from inhibition data available to date. Neurophysiological and psychophysiological data suggest that inhibitory processes always involve the cortex, and inhibitory effects are exerted upstream from the primary motor cortex. The prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia are candidate agents of response inhibition, whereas possible sites of inhibition are the thalamus and motor cortex.