Number-of-translation norms for Dutch—English translation pairs: A new tool for examining language production

We collected number-of-translation norms on 562 Dutch-English translation pairs from several previous studies of cross-language processing. Participants were highly proficient Dutch—English bilinguals. Form and semantic similarity ratings were collected on the 1,003 possible translation pairs. Approximately 40% of the translations were rated as being similar across languages with respect to spelling/sound (i.e., they were cognates). Approximately 45% of the translations were rated as being highly semantically similar across languages. At least 25% of the words in each direction of translation had more than one translation. The form similarity ratings were found to be highly reliable even when obtained with different bilinguals and modified rating procedures. Number of translations and meaning factors significantly predicted the semantic similarity of translation pairs. In future research, these norms may be used to determine the number of translations of words to control for or study this factor. These norms are available at http://www.talkbank.org/norms/tokowicz/.     

Bearing the unbearable: ancestral transmission through dreams and moving metaphors in the analtyic field

Abstract: This paper explores how untold and unresolved intergenerational trauma may be transmitted through unconscious channels of communication, manifesting in the dreams of descendants. Unwitting carriers for that which was too horrific for their ancestors to bear, descendants may enter analysis through an unconscious need to uncover past secrets, piece together ancestral histories before the keys to comprehending their terrible inheritance die with their forebears. They seek the relational containment of the analytic relationship to provide psychological conditions to bear the unbearable, know the unknowable, speak the unspeakable and redeem the unredeemable. In the case of ‘Rachael’, initial dreams gave rise to what Hobson (1984) called ‘moving metaphors of self’ in the analytic field. Dream imagery, projective and introjective processes in the transference‐countertransference dynamics gradually revealed an unknown ancestral history. I clarify the back and forth process from dream to waking dream thoughts to moving metaphors and differentiate the moving metaphor from a living symbol. I argue that the containment of the analytic relationship nested within the security of the analytic space is a necessary precondition for such healing processes to occur.     

Involvement of the rat anterior cingulate cortex in control of instrumental responses guided by reward expectancy

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a critical role in stimulus-reinforcement learning and reward-guided selection of actions. Here we conducted a series of experiments to further elucidate the role of the ACC in instrumental behavior involving effort-based decision-making and instrumental learning guided by reward-predictive stimuli. In Experiment 1, rats were trained on a cost-benefit T-maze task in which they could either choose to climb a barrier to obtain a high reward (four pellets) in one arm or a low reward (two pellets) in the other with no barrier present. In line with previous studies, our data reveal that rats with quinolinic acid lesions of the ACC selected the response involving less work and smaller reward. Experiment 2 demonstrates that breaking points of instrumental performance under a progressive ratio schedule were similar in sham-lesioned and ACC-lesioned rats. Thus, lesions of the ACC did not interfere with the effort a rat is willing to expend to obtain a specific reward in this test. In a subsequent task, we examined effort-based decision-making in a lever-press task where rats had the choice between pressing a lever to receive preferred food pellets under a progressive ratio schedule, or free feeding on a less preferred food, i.e. lab chow. Results show that sham- and ACC-lesioned animals had similar breaking points and ingested comparable amounts of less-preferred food. Together, the results of Experiment 1 and 2 suggest that the ACC plays a role in evaluating how much effort to expend for reward; however, the ACC is not necessary in all situations requiring an assessment of costs and benefits. In Experiment 3 we investigated learning and reversal learning of instrumental responses guided by reward predictive stimuli. A reaction time (RT) task demanding conditioned lever release was used in which the upcoming reward magnitude (five vs. one food pellet) was signalled in advance by discriminative visual stimuli. Results revealed that rats with ACC lesions were able to discriminate reward magnitude-predictive stimuli and to adapt instrumental behavior to reversed stimulus-reward magnitude contingencies. Thus, in a simple discrimination task as used here, the ACC appears not to be required to discriminate reward magnitude-predictive stimuli and to use the learned significance of the stimuli to guide instrumental behavior.     

Is Workplace Harassment Hazardous to Your Health?

We examined cross-sectional and lagged effects of sexual harassment (SH) and generalized workplace harassment (GWH) on incidence of self-reported illness, injury, or assault in a sample of over 1,500 university employees. SH and GWH, but not other job stressors, were related to increased odds of illness, injury, or assault. This was true when SH, GWH, and illness, injury, or assault were measured at the same time point, as well as when SH and GWH were measured in year prior to illness, injury, or assault.The data presented here are part of an ongoing longitudinal study of workplace harassment conducted at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Illinois at Chicago. This research was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grants AA09989 and AA13332). Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, April 2004, Chicago, Illinois. The data were collected by the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago.     

Sekundäre Traumatisierung

During the past several years there has been a growing interest in the negative effects that therapy may have on therapists. Of special interest is a phenomenon called secondary traumatization, which can arise while working with traumatized clients. As yet it has not been verified that secondary traumatization consists of posttraumatic symptoms and leads to clinically significant distress. In an exploratory study 21 therapists were interviewed who declared that they had experienced an incident of this form of work-related stress. The presented study reveals that in fact such a ?vicarious“ traumatization can arise, even without direct contact to the original trauma. It consists of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-like symptoms, but in severe cases it can also manifest itself in symptoms which are far beyond the typical PTSD spectrum. Conditions for the development of secondary traumatization are high empathic ability and dissociative processing of the trauma material by the therapist.     

Perceptions of date and stranger rape: A difference in sex role expectations and rape-supportive beliefs

The sex role expectations and rape-supportive beliefs which are differentially applied to date and stranger rape were assessed. A sample of 62 college females and 33 males read one of three rape scenarios which varied according to the victim-perpetrator relationship (steady dating partners/acquaintances on a first date/strangers). Then participants rated the extent to which several sex role expectations and rape-supportive attitudes were applicable to the assault. MANOVAS and univariate ANOVAS showed that females' and males' perceptions of date rape, more than stranger rape, incorporated sex role expectations and that rape-supportive beliefs, primarily of males, were stronger in relation to steady date than first date or stranger rape. These findings are discussed in the context of the sex role analysis of rape.This research was supported by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation Grant #1171-000-22-00215-35-760. The author thanks Laurin Hafner for his help with the data analysis.