Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only,Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap

Cybercrime research suggests that, analogous to traditional crime, victims are more likely to be offenders. This overlap could be caused by shared risk factors, but it is unclear if these are comparable to traditional risk factors. Utilizing a high risk sample of computer-dependent cyber-offenders and traditional offenders (N = 535) we compare victimization, offending, and victimization-offending between cybercrime and traditional crime. Cybercrime results show a considerable victim-offender overlap and correlates like low self-control and routine activities partly explain differences in victimization, offending, and victimization-offending. Some cybercrime correlates are related to the digital context, but show similar patterns for cybercrime and traditional crime.     

Inner speech sustains predictable task switching: direct evidence in adults

It has been proposed that inner speech supports task selection in task-switching studies, especially when the need for endogenous control is increased. This has been established through the suppression of inner speech in cognitive-flexibility tasks that leads to poorer performance. The aim of this study is to quantify the role of inner speech in a flexibility task by using surface laryngeal electromyography, which, contrary to previous studies, enables participants to freely verbalise the tasks. We manipulated endogenous and exogenous flexibility in a mathematical switching task paradigm. Experiment 1 shows that inner speech acts as a support for switching and is recruited more often when the tasks are of an endogenous type. The main result of Experiment 2 that language is recruited more for the mixing cost than for the switch cost (regardless of the endogenous factor) extends past findings obtained through articulatory suppression.     

Infant and parent factors associated with early maternal sensitivity: a caregiver-attachment systems approach

We examined variations in maternal sensitivity at 6 months of child age as a function of child negativity and maternal physiology. We expected maternal vagal withdrawal in response to infant negative affect to facilitate the maintenance of sensitivity, but only for mothers of securely attached children. One hundred and forty-eight infant-mother dyads were observed in multiple contexts at 6 months of child age, and associations among maternal and child variables were examined with respect to 12-month attachment quality. Mothers of later securely attached children were more sensitive than mothers of avoidant children. However, sensitivity decreased for all mothers at high levels of infant negative affect. Furthermore, for mothers of avoidant children, vagal withdrawal was associated with sensitivity to child distress. No association was found between vagal withdrawal and sensitivity for mothers of securely attached children. This suggests that mothers of avoidant children may be uniquely challenged by the affective demands of their infants.     

Dreaming without REM sleep

To test whether mental activities collected from non-REM sleep are influenced by REM sleep, we suppressed REM sleep using clomipramine 50mg (an antidepressant) or placebo in the evening, in a double blind cross-over design, in 11 healthy young men. Subjects were awakened every hour and asked about their mental activity. The marked (81%, range 39-98%) REM-sleep suppression induced by clomipramine did not substantially affect any aspects of dream recall (report length, complexity, bizarreness, pleasantness and self-perception of dream or thought-like mentation). Since long, complex and bizarre dreams persist even after suppressing REM sleep either partially or totally, it suggests that the generation of mental activity during sleep is independent of sleep stage.     

Higher Processes in Motor Learning

A linear displacement task was used to study the effects of post-KR verbal activity and the time of its introduction in the learning process on the acquisition of a simple discrete motor task. The temporal occurrence of the interpolated act was systematically varied (3 and 10 sec. immediately following KR). Reading polysyllables during the post-KR delay interval interfered with the learning process. Interference occurred whether the post-KR delay interval lasted 3 or 10 sec.     

Les deux tétraèdres des liaisons logiques interpropositionnelles bivalentes

Sans résuméAllatum est die 21 Februarii 1967     

Coupling kinematics of memory and kinematics of movement: the conditions for a psychological relativity

The organization of spatial and temporal information relative to memory-movement interactions was studied in a recall task. Stimuli consisted of four different configurations of eight dots, presented sequentially. In two configurations, the stimuli were spatiotemporal congruent, with (constant or variable) inter-stimulus distances corresponding to (constant or variable) inter-stimulus time intervals. In the other two configurations, the stimuli were spatiotemporal incongruent, with (constant or variable) inter-stimulus distances not corresponding to (variable or constant) inter-stimulus time intervals. After a learning phase consisting of 20 presentations of the target configuration, participants performed a series of pointing movements to reproduce both spatial and temporal characteristics of the stimulus 60 times in succession without ever re-examining the target configuration. Classically, in incongruent spatiotemporal conditions, the reproduction of, respectively, constant distances or constant time intervals are strongly disturbed by the simultaneous perception of variable inter-stimulus time intervals (Tau effect) or variable distances (Kappa effect). We assume that these spatiotemporal dependencies, which occur when the response relates to one dimension only, crucially depend on the non-integration of motoric aspects in memory.     

Organization of the narrative components in autobiographical speech of anorexic adolescents: A statistical and non-linear dynamical analysis

Family theories of anorexia nervosa point out that patients’ autobiographic speech may reflect internalized family interactions. Our study characterizes the statistical distribution and temporal organization of the narrative components describing personal relationships in anorexic and control subjects. Semantic components related to personal interactions were encoded from life narratives of 14 adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa (restrictive type) and of 13 matched healthy adolescent girls. Speech analysis was performed using both statistical methods and non-linear time-series analysis. Static indices showed an over-representation of family relations and an under-representation of love relations in anorexic patients. Dynamical indices showed the independence between relational systems in anorexic patients. Dynamical analysis reveals that interactional patterns are internalized through the temporal organization of autobiographical speech. Moreover, these results support the existence of a specific temporal organization in anorexic adolescents’ life narratives which express the internalization of stationary family patterns and indicate relative inability to disengage from active previous relational patterns and to create new ones.