First and second language in the brain: Neuronal correlates of language processing and spelling strategies

This study explores oscillatory brain activity by means of event-related synchronization and desynchronization (%ERS/ERD) of EEG activity during the use of phonological and orthographic-morphological spelling strategies in L2 (English) and L1 (German) in native German speaking children. EEG was recorded while 33 children worked on a task requiring either phonological or orthographic-morphological spelling strategies. L2 processing elicited more theta %ERS than L1 processing (particularly at bilateral frontal and right posterior parietal sites) which might suggest a stronger involvement of semantic encoding and retrieval of the less familiar L2. The highest level of theta %ERS was revealed for the orthographic-morphological strategy in L2 which might indicate a more intense way of lexical retrieval compared to the phonological strategy in L2 and the orthographic-morphological strategy in L1. Analyses moreover revealed that phonological processing (both in L1 and L2) was associated with comparatively strong left-hemispheric %ERD in the upper alpha frequency band.     

A Dyadic View of Support in Marriage: The Critical Role of Men’s Support Provision

This study examined how sensitive support provision and receipt were related to marital outcomes in a sample of 57 happily married, middle-class couples from the Midwestern U.S. To assess how observed supportive behaviors may be differentially associated with self-reported support satisfaction, marital love, and marital conflict for men and women, we utilized a series of Actor Partner Interdependence Models (APIM). This dyadic approach revealed significant gender differences regarding how the supportive role enacted (i.e., provider versus recipient) contributed considerably to marital outcomes. Specifically, husbands’ sensitive support provision significantly predicted both spouses’ support satisfaction. Additionally, husbands’ sensitive support provision was significantly associated with wives’ marital love. Wives’ reported conflict was predicted by the combination of both providing and receiving sensitive support. For husbands’ outcomes, husbands’ own sensitive support provision was most critically associated with their reporting greater love and less conflict. These findings reveal notable gender differences as men’s ability to provide sensitive support was critical not only to their wives’ marital outcomes, but to their own as well. Our results build upon and extend the literature implicating the importance of examining gender differences in supportive interactions in marriage. Moreover, our findings suggest that simultaneous consideration of spousal support receipt and provision is critical when seeking to understand how support is related to marital outcomes for men and women.     

Neural correlates of stimulus response and stimulus outcome shifting in healthy participants and MS patients

Introduction

Adaptation to changing situations can be mediated by two strategies: (1) Evaluation of a response and (2) Evaluation of outcome values in relation to objects. Previous studies indicate that response shifting is associated with a network comprising the left frontal cortex and parietal cortex connected by the superior longitudinal fascicle, whereas outcome evaluation is associated with a network consisting of the orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala and uncinate fascicle. However, these studies rarely compared both kinds of adaptation directly and existing fMRI studies with healthy subjects are not informative about the role of the two fiber systems.

Methods

We analyzed stimulus response shifting and stimulus outcome shifting in two studies, one fMRI-study on healthy participants and one study on patients with MS involving structural MRI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Voxel Based Morphometry, Ventricular volumetry). Two tasks were used, identical in presentation but different in instruction, controlling for effects of lower level processing. In the SRS task, participants had to perform a “Go” or “NoGo” response depending on a stimulus change: if the stimulus remained the same, they had to continue with the former type of response, if it changed they had to adapt their response pattern. In the SOS task they had to perform a “Go” response only if the presented stimulus corresponded to that of an internal alternating series.

Results

fMRI findings showed that SRS is related to a bilateral parietal-premotor network. In the left hemisphere the prefrontal cortex was also involved. SOS was lateralized to the right hemisphere, particularly to the anterior temporal pole and amygdala, and the inferior parietal cortex. MS patients impaired on this task suffered from lesions in the right uncinate fascicle and showed an enlarged right frontal lateral ventricle.

Conclusion

With physically identical tasks, a functional neuronal segregation can be demonstrated for stimulus response shifting (bilateral activations with a focus in the left prefrontal cortex) and stimulus outcome shifting (right anterior temporal lobe and right supramarginal gyrus).     

Social Anxiety,Social Skills and Expectancy/ Cost of Negative Social Events

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between social anxiety, social skills and estimated cost as well as expectancy of negative social/non-social events. One hundred and twenty-six students (half males and half females) filled in the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI), the Social Skills Inventory (SSI), and measures of expectancy and estimated cost of negative social and non-social events. Social anxiety was negatively correlated with self-reported social skills. Further, social anxiety was strongly related to both expectancy and estimated cost of negative social, as opposed to non-social, events. Social skills were related to expectancy, but not to estimated cost of negative social events. Finally, the correlation between social anxiety and expectancy of negative social events disappeared when social control (measured with a subscale of SSI) was partialized out of the relationship, whereas the correlation between social anxiety and estimated cost of negative social events did not. Potential therapeutic implications are discussed.     

Eating Patterns Described by a Group of Treatment Seeking Overweight Women and Normal Weight Women

There has been a good deal of research on thought suppression in clinical and social psychology during the past 15 years. Thought suppression refers to attempts to keep certain thoughts out of consciousness. While the idea promises to shed light on various psychopathological processes, research has in many ways been inconclusive. The main focus of this review is on the relevance of thought suppression for our understanding of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Drawing on the literature the review attempts to point out where research should be heading and to suggest to the clinician what lessons could be learnt.     

Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Attractiveness

The human face communicates an impressive number of visual signals. Although adults' ratings of facial attractiveness are consistent across studies, even cross-culturally, there has been considerable controversy surrounding attempts to identify the facial features that cause faces to be judged attractive or unattractive. Studies of physical attractiveness have attempted to identify the features that contribute to attractiveness by studying the relationships between attractiveness and (a) symmetry, (b) averageness, and (c) nonaverage sexually dimorphic features (hormone markers). Evolutionary psychology proposes that these characteristics all pertain to health, suggesting that humans have evolved to view certain features as attractive because they were displayed by healthy individuals. However, the question remains how single features that are considered attractive relate to each other, and if they form a single ornament that signals mate quality. Moreover, some researchers have recently explained attractiveness preferences in terms of individual differences that are predictable. This article briefly describes what is currently known from attractiveness research, reviews some recent advances, and suggests areas for future researchers' attention.     

The Delay Hypothesis: The Manifestation of Media Effects Over Time

A between‐participants experiment (N = 147) tested for the presence of a delayed effect following exposure to an episode of a legal drama that contained false information. Participants were more likely to endorse false beliefs if they were queried two weeks after watching the program rather than immediately following exposure. The relationship between time and false belief endorsement was found to be moderated by perceived reality of the program. Consistent with the delay hypothesis, those who perceived the legal drama to be unrealistic following exposure had significantly higher false belief scores at Time 2.