Effects of stimulus color, pattern, and practice on sex differences in mental rotations task performance.

Redundant color information improved performance for both sexes on the Shepard Mental Rotations Task (MRT; Shepard & Metzler, 1971). Absolute score gains for women were larger than those for men; therefore, relative improvement was greater. Substantial practice effects, also favoring women, were apparent in both studies. Study 1 showed that redundant color improved performance by 0.25 SD. Study 2 demonstrated that redundant black-and-white pattern information did not have any effect; a second visuospatial channel, redundant color, was a critical factor in improving scores of men and women on difficult mental rotations tasks.     

Stress Sensitization and Adolescent Depressive Severity as a Function of Childhood Adversity: A Link to Anxiety Disorders

The goal of the present study was to determine whether exposure to adversity in childhood contributes to a differential threshold at which stressful life events provoke depressive reactions in adolescence. In addition, to address empirical and conceptual questions about stress effects, the moderating effect of anxiety disorder history was also explored. This examination was conducted in a sample of 816 children of depressed and nondepressed mothers, who were followed from birth to age 15. Information on adversities experienced in childhood was collected both from mothers during the first five years of their youth's life and from the youths themselves at age 15, and included information on the mother's relationship with her partner, maternal psychopathology, as well as youth-reported abuse. Results indicated that youths with both greater exposure to adversity in childhood and a history of an anxiety disorder displayed increased depressive severity following low levels of episodic stress compared to youths with only one or neither of these risk factors. The results are speculated to reflect the possibility that early anxiety disorders associated with exposure to adversity in childhood may be a marker of dysregulated stress responses, and may help to account for the comorbidity of depression and anxiety in some individuals.     

On the same page: Exploring the link between cross-level leadership fit and innovation

Combining theoretical insights from both the leadership and innovation literature, we examine the role of cross-level leadership fit or similarity in leadership styles at the firm and unit levels and its relationship with innovation outcomes at the unit level. Hypotheses are formed indicating that transformational leaders enable exploration and transactional leaders facilitate exploitation. Results from a multifirm, multiunit, multisource study indicate that exploration is enhanced when transformational leaders are present at both the firm and unit levels, whereas exploitation is enhanced when transactional leaders are present at both the firm and unit levels. Results suggest that leadership similarity is an important multilevel antecedent to unit-level outcomes. Further, high-performance work systems serve as situational enhancers that strengthen the effects of cross-level leadership fit on unit-level innovation outcomes.     

A critical commentary on follow-up studies and “desistance” theories about transgender and gender-nonconforming children

ABSTRACT

Background: It has been widely suggested that over 80% of transgender children will come to identify as cisgender (i.e., desist) as they mature, with the assumption that for this 80%, the trans identity was a temporary “phase.” This statistic is used as the scientific rationale for discouraging social transition for pre-pubertal children. This article is a critical commentary on the limitations of this research and a caution against using these studies to develop care recommendations for gender-nonconforming children.

Methods: A critical review methodology is employed to systematically interpret four frequently-cited studies that sought to document identity outcomes for gender-nonconforming children (often referred to as “desistance” research).

Results: Methodological, theoretical, ethical, and interpretive concerns regarding four “desistance” studies are presented. The authors clarify the historical and clinical contexts within which these studies were conducted to deconstruct assumptions in interpretations of the results. The discussion makes distinctions between the specific evidence provided by these studies versus the assumptions that have shaped recommendations for care. The affirmative model is presented as a way to move away from the question of, “How should children's gender identities develop over time?” toward a more useful question: “How should children best be supported as their gender identity develops?”

Conclusion: The tethering of childhood gender diversity to the framework of “desistance” or “persistence” has stifled advancements in our understanding of children's gender in all its complexity. These follow-up studies fall short in helping us understand what children need. As work begins on the 8th version of the Standards of Care by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, we call for a more inclusive conceptual framework that takes children's voices seriously. Listening to children's experiences will enable a more comprehensive understanding of the needs of gender-nonconforming children and provide guidance to scientific and lay communities.     

Does adolescent heavier alcohol use predict young adult aggression and delinquency? Parallel analyses from four Australasian cohort studies

While the association between heavy alcohol consumption and aggression has been well documented, the causal direction of this association, particularly at a population level, is disputed. A number of causal sequences have been proposed. First, that aggression leads to heavy alcohol use. Second, that heavy alcohol use leads to aggression. Third, that the association between alcohol use and aggression is due to confounding by (a) sociodemographic variables or (b) delinquency. We report here data from four Australasian prospective longitudinal studies of adolescents, to assess the temporal sequence of heavy drinking and aggression over the period from adolescence to young adulthood. The four cohort studies provide a total sample of 6,706 persons (Australian Temperament Project, n = 1701; Christchurch Health and Development Study, n = 931; Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, n = 2437; Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study, n = 1637). We use multinomial logistic regression to determine whether early adolescent aggression predicts subsequent age of onset of heavy episodic drinking (HED), after adjustment for concurrent sociodemographic factors and delinquency. We then consider whether HED predicts subsequent aggression, after adjusting for past aggression, concurrent delinquency, and a range of confounders. There are broadly consistent findings across the four cohort studies. Early aggression strongly predicts subsequent HED. HED predicts later aggression after adjustment for prior aggression and other confounders. Policies that alter population levels of alcohol consumption are likely to impact on levels of aggression in societies where HED linked to aggression is more common.     

The differential role of phonological and distributional cues in grammatical categorisation

Recognising the grammatical categories of words is a necessary skill for the acquisition of syntax and for on-line sentence processing. The syntactic and semantic context of the word contribute as cues for grammatical category assignment, but phonological cues, too, have been implicated as important sources of information. The value of phonological and distributional cues has not, with very few exceptions, been empirically assessed. This paper presents a series of analyses of phonological cues and distributional cues and their potential for distinguishing grammatical categories of words in corpus analyses. The corpus analyses indicated that phonological cues were more reliable for less frequent words, whereas distributional information was most valuable for high frequency words. We tested this prediction in an artificial language learning experiment, where the distributional and phonological cues of categories of nonsense words were varied. The results corroborated the corpus analyses. For high-frequency nonwords, distributional information was more useful, whereas for low-frequency words there was more reliance on phonological cues. The results indicate that phonological and distributional cues contribute differentially towards grammatical categorisation.     

Inferential Transitions

This paper provides a naturalistic account of inference. We posit that the core of inference is constituted by bare inferential transitions (BITs), transitions between discursive mental representations guided by rules built into the architecture of cognitive systems. In further developing the concept of BITs, we provide an account of what Boghossian [2014] calls ‘taking’—that is, the appreciation of the rule that guides an inferential transition. We argue that BITs are sufficient for implicit taking, and then, to analyse explicit taking, we posit rich inferential transitions (RITs), which are transitions that the subject is disposed to endorse.     

Fatigue following Paediatric Acquired Brain Injury and its Impact on Functional Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Fatigue is a commonly reported sequela following an acquired brain injury (ABI), and can have a negative impact on many areas of a child’s life. However, there is minimal research that focuses on fatigue specifically, and so factors such as its occurrence, duration, and impact on functioning remain uncertain. This systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the research to date, bringing together a number of studies with a focus on paediatric ABI and fatigue. Terms were searched in relevant databases (PsycInfo, Medline, CINAHL), and articles were included or excluded based on specified criteria. Of the 1177 papers identified in the original search, a total of 9 papers met inclusion criteria, and were categorised as traumatic brain injury (TBI; n?=?4), meningitis and meningococcal disease (n?=?2), brain tumours (n?=?2), and mixed ABI group (n?=?1). Key findings suggest that fatigue is a problem encountered by a significant proportion of patients in all the studies reviewed, and often occurred regardless of the cause; fatigue was also associated with poor academic achievement, limited physical activity, and social and emotional problems. Injuries of greater severity were associated with higher levels of fatigue and worse outcomes. Several management options were suggested, though their efficacy was not reported. Future research is required with a suggested focus on using multiple time points to better understand the trajectories of fatigue following childhood ABI, and to build an evidence base to determine which management options are most suitable.