Sensorimotor synchronization: Motor responses to regular auditory patterns

Subjects (N = 32) were asked to synchronize a motor response with tones in auditory patterns. These patterns were created from six tones and six intertone intervals of equal duration. The pitch of the first tone differed from the others. It was found that subjects used three types of timing in their motor response: (1) the first intertone interval was prolonged and the second interval was shortened, (2) the second intertone interval was prolonged and the first interval was shortened, and/or (3) the first interval and the second interval were of approximately the same length. The prolongation of the fifth interval was observed during all three types of timing. The results are explained using the concept of suprasegmental control of timing, which explains a prolongation of intervals at critical control point of the patterns. The occurrence of three different strategies of timing is discussed in connection with similar principles in musical performance.     

TRAINING CONSERVATION OF QUANTITY (LIQUIDS) IN WEST AFRICAN (BAOULE) CHILDREN

A developmental ‘lag’ is found in the Conservation of Quantity (Liquids) in a sample of 73 rural, schooled Baoulé children (Ivory Coast, West Africa) aged 7 to 14 years. This study was designed to investigate if this ‘lag’ could be reduced or bridged through training and whether it could be attributed to differences in ‘performance’ or in ‘competence’. A sub-sample of 28 children aged 7 to 9 years was divided into two matched groups, one being trained for Conservation of Liquids and the other for Class Inclusion (Lavallée and Dasen in press). Statistically significant training effects were observed, which generalized to other concrete operational concepts and remained stable over at least one month. Since no ‘actualization’ or very fast learning occurred, the ‘lag’ was attributed to differences in competence; the training was sufficient to bridge the developmental lag.     

The social origins of male dominance

Writings in psychoanalytic theory and social science that discuss the basis of men's motive to dominate women are reviewed. Both men's fear and envy of women and men's tenuous masculine identity arise from the exclusive early mother-child tie. It is suggested that an important step in altering the development of the motive underlying male dominance would be to have men, as well as women, care for infants. The possibility of greater equality in the family and in the economy is discussed.This article represents a considerable expansion of the first part of a paper entitled Sex Role Development and Sex Discrimination: A Theoretical Perspective by Jean Stockard, Miriam M. Johnson, Joan Acker, and Marion Goldman, presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco in 1975. We wish to thank Joan Acker and Marion Goldman for the earlier discussions we had with them which led to this article.     

A different form of agraphia: Syntactic writing errors in patients with motor speech and movement disorders

Three patients are described who displayed syntactic writing errors in combination with a motor speech disturbance and impaired motor limb function. Two of the patients had bulbar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Agraphia appeared when verbal communication was no longer possible. Autopsy in one patient disclosed only lesions consistent with ALS. The third patient had palilalia and chorea and, although not aphasic, his written language showed persistent syntactic errors. We hypothesize that the agraphia in these patients occurred because of the combination of disordered feedback from the motor speech apparatus and limbs.     

Losing My Religion as a Natural Experiment: How State Pressure and Taxes Led to Church Disaffiliations between 1940 and 2010 in Germany

The sociological literature has produced a remarkably consistent picture of the quantitative patterns of religious disaffiliations in Western countries. This article argues, and demonstrates, that strong changes in a social context may lead individuals to disaffiliate rapidly, leading to very different aggregate effects from those in the “western model.” We use the unique situation of the separation of Germany from 1949 to 1989 and its subsequent reunification as a “natural experiment” to show just how much the relationships routinely found can be disrupted under changed conditions. The state socialist “treatment” affected religious disaffiliations in East Germany profoundly as it (a) made disaffiliations 10 times more probable in the East than in the West in the 1950s and 1960s, (b) shielded East German church members from factors that led to mass disaffiliations in the West in the late 1960s and early 1970s, (c) reversed the education‐disaffiliation link in the East, thus making disaffiliation more likely among the less educated, and (d) led to an especially strong increase in disaffiliations in the East right after the reunification     

Bidirectional Links Between Teachers’ Disciplinary Practices,Students’ Peer Status,and Students’ Aggression in Kindergarten

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - This study examined bidirectional links between teachers’ disciplinary practices (punitive and educational), students’ peer status in...     

Empirical Evidence for Extended Cognitive Systems

We present an empirically supported theoretical and methodological framework for quantifying the system-level properties of person-plus-tool interactions in order to answer the question: “Are person-plus-tool-systems extended cognitive systems?” Nineteen participants provided perceptual judgments regarding their ability to pass through apertures of various widths while using visual information, blindfolded wielding a rod, or blindfolded wielding an Enactive Torch—a vibrotactile sensory-substitution device for detecting distance. Monofractal, multifractal, and recurrence quantification analyses were conducted to assess features of person-plus-tool movement dynamics. Trials where people utilized the rod or Enactive Torch demonstrated stable “self-similarity,” or indices of healthy and adaptive single systems, regardless of aperture width, trial order, features of the participants’ judgments, and participant characteristics. Enactive Torch trials exhibited a somewhat greater range of dynamic fluctuations than the rod trials, as well as less movement recurrence, suggesting that the Enactive Torch allowed for more exploratory movements. Findings provide support for the notion that person-plus-tool systems can be classified as extended cognitive systems and a framework for quantifying system-level properties of these systems. Implications concerning future research on extended cognition are discussed.     

Tool acceptance and acceptability: insights from a real tool use activity

Cognitive Processing - The issue of tool adoption has been the subject of many investigations, which focus either on acceptability (evaluating intention to use, a priori) or acceptance (evaluating...