Relationships between cognitive and behavioral measures of executive function in children with brain disease.

This study addressed the clinical and construct validity of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. (BRIEF: Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000), a questionnaire designed to tap behavioral aspects of executive functions in children. BRIEF profiles in early treated phenylketonuria (PKU; n=44), early treated hydrocephalus (n=45), frontal focal lesions (n=20) and controls (n=80) were examined. Clinical validity was supported through significant between-group comparisons, especially between the frontal focal lesion group and other groups. To examine construct validity, raw scores on cognitive executive function measures including the Contingency Naming Test (CNT), Rey Complex Figure (RCF), Tower of London (TOL), and Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), were correlated with BRIEF scale scores. Few significant correlations were found, indicating cognitive and behavioral measures appear to tap different constructs within the executive function domain. A dissociation was found between behavioral and cognitive impairments in the frontal as opposed to PKU and hydrocephalus groups. This is discussed in relation to underlying pathology, the cognitive measures used, and possible limitations in the BRIEF's usefulness for measuring behavioral executive dysfunction in groups only mildly affected by neurological compromise.     

Reduced Sense of Coherence Due to Neuroticism: Are Transcendent Beliefs Protective Among Catholic Pastoral Workers?

In this study, we examined a third variable effect on the relationship of personality traits, especially neuroticism and the salutogenetic concept sense of coherence. Specifically, we were interested in the moderating role of religious trust (RT) and transcendence perception operationalized as daily spiritual experiences (DSE) on the aforementioned relationship among religious individuals. We applied a cross-sectional study among a sample of 8594 pastoral workers using standardized questionnaires. Multiple regression and moderator analysis displayed the relationships between big five personality variables and sense of coherence. Neuroticism was identified as a negative predictor to sense of coherence, indicating impairment on this psychological resource. RT and DSE appear to function as moderators that buffer the negative effects of neuroticism on sense of coherence among religious persons. This is an interesting finding because people with expressions of neurotic personality tendencies often struggle to find helpful methods of coping and may find a helpful resource in the concepts studied here.     

Psychoanalytic education in the twenty-first century: a syllabus for all seasons

I am suggesting that psychoanalytic training facilities restructure their curriculum to include opposing views, in an effort to avoid the inevitable disintegration of the field at large. Without a sense of requirement for any particular viewpoint, I have suggested the model of class modules, usually based around three differing positions, be applied in as many classes as possible. This method enhances the very nature of psychoanalysis while it extends the educational provenance of each separate institute, and specifically each teacher of psychoanalysis. In so doing, candidates across the board will feel and think in a more collegial manner, and may find that learning psychoanalysis is to learn something new and exciting.     

The Influence of Traditional Male Initiation (Lebollo) on School Discipline: Educators’ Perspectives

This study explores the influence of traditional male initiation on school discipline. Eight educators teaching in township schools in Bloemfontein, South Africa, were purposefully selected to take part in a focus-group interview. The results from a content analysis indicate that initiates may exacerbate disciplinary problems at schools and that certain types of misbehavior may be attributed to initiation schools. The study found that initiation schools might perpetuate gender inequalities, patriarchy, gangsterism, and criminality. Recommendations on how to deal with disciplinary problems arising from initiates’ behavior are made.     

Rapid acquisition of bias in signal detection: dynamics of effective reinforcement allocation

We investigated changes in bias (preference for one response alternative) in signal detection when relative reinforcer frequency for correct responses varied across sessions. In Experiment 1, 4 rats responded in a two-stimulus, two-response identification procedure employing temporal stimuli (short vs. long houselight presentations). Relative reinforcer frequency varied according to a 31-step pseudorandom binary sequence and stimulus duration difference varied over two values across conditions. In Experiment 2, 3 rats responded in a five-stimulus, two-response classification procedure employing temporal stimuli. Relative reinforcer frequency was varied according to a 36-step pseudorandom ternary sequence. Results of both experiments were analyzed according to a behavioral model of detection. The model was extended to incorporate the effects of current and previous session reinforcer frequency ratios on current-session performance. Similar to findings with concurrent schedules, effects on bias of relative reinforcer frequency were highest for the current session. However, carryover from reinforcer ratios of previous sessions was evident. Generally, the results indicate that bias can come under control of frequent changes in relative reinforcer frequency in both identification and classification procedures.     

How does cognition evolve? Phylogenetic comparative psychology

Now more than ever animal studies have the potential to test hypotheses regarding how cognition evolves. Comparative psychologists have developed new techniques to probe the cognitive mechanisms underlying animal behavior, and they have become increasingly skillful at adapting methodologies to test multiple species. Meanwhile, evolutionary biologists have generated quantitative approaches to investigate the phylogenetic distribution and function of phenotypic traits, including cognition. In particular, phylogenetic methods can quantitatively (1) test whether specific cognitive abilities are correlated with life history (e.g., lifespan), morphology (e.g., brain size), or socio-ecological variables (e.g., social system), (2) measure how strongly phylogenetic relatedness predicts the distribution of cognitive skills across species, and (3) estimate the ancestral state of a given cognitive trait using measures of cognitive performance from extant species. Phylogenetic methods can also be used to guide the selection of species comparisons that offer the strongest tests of a priori predictions of cognitive evolutionary hypotheses (i.e., phylogenetic targeting). Here, we explain how an integration of comparative psychology and evolutionary biology will answer a host of questions regarding the phylogenetic distribution and history of cognitive traits, as well as the evolutionary processes that drove their evolution.     

Eye movements and brain electric potentials during reading

The development of theories and computational models of reading requires an understanding of processing constraints, in particular of timelines related to word recognition and oculomotor control. Timelines of word recognition are usually determined with event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded under conditions of serial visual presentation (SVP) of words; timelines of oculomotor control are derived from parameters of eye movements (EMs) during natural reading. We describe two strategies to integrate these approaches. One is to collect ERPs and EMs in separate SVP and natural reading experiments for the same experimental material (but different subjects). The other strategy is to co-register EMs and ERPs during natural reading from the same subjects. Both strategies yield data that allow us to determine how lexical properties influence ERPs (e.g., the N400 component) and EMs (e.g., fixation durations) across neighboring words. We review our recent research on the effects of frequency and predictability of words on both EM and ERP measures with reference to current models of eye-movement control during reading. Results are in support of the proposition that lexical access is distributed across several fixations and across brain-electric potentials measured on neighboring words.