Competence and performance in belief-desire reasoning across two cultures: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about false belief?

There is a change in false belief task performance across the 3-5 year age range, as confirmed in a recent meta-analysis [Wellman, H. M., Cross, D., & Watson, J. (2001). Meta-analysis of theory mind development: The truth about false-belief. Child Development, 72, 655-684]. This meta-analysis identified several performance factors influencing success, including manipulations that highlight the salience of the initial belief content (such as asking where Sally will look first for the marble). However, because a proportion of variance in performance remained unexplained even when identified performance factors were controlled for, the authors concluded from the standpoint of a 'theory-theory' account that children's improvement is the result of conceptual change. Further, the meta-analysis showed that manipulations such as 'look first' improve performance only in children who are in the older part of the 3-5 year range, and thus plausibly operating with a 'transitional' theory of mind--just on the point of realizing conceptual change. Here, we present three studies systematically investigating the 'look first' manipulation which showed that: (i) the advantage for the look first question can be demonstrated in children across different cultures, (ii) look first has an effect that is additive to the improvement with age; there is no interaction such that older children gain more benefit from younger children, (iii) performance in younger children can be, but is not always, elevated to levels that are statistically above chance. These results challenge the theory-theory account and are discussed in terms of models of belief-desire reasoning in which both conceptual competence and performance factors play central roles.     

Different mechanisms of fear extinction dependent on length of time since fear acquisition

Fear extinction is defined as a decline in conditioned fear responses (CRs) following nonreinforced exposure to a feared conditioned stimulus (CS). Behavioral evidence indicates that extinction is a form of inhibitory learning: Extinguished fear responses reappear with the passage of time (spontaneous recovery), a shift of context (renewal), and unsignaled presentations of the unconditioned stimulus (reinstatement). However, there also is evidence to suggest that extinction is an "unlearning" process corresponding to depotentiation of potentiated synapses within the amygdala. Because depotentiation is induced more readily at short intervals following LTP induction and is not inducible at all at a sufficient delay, it may be that extinction initiated shortly following fear acquisition preferentially engages depotentiation/"unlearning," whereas extinction initiated at longer delays recruits a different mechanism. We investigated this possibility through a series of behavioral experiments examining the recoverability of conditioned fear following extinction. Consistent with an inhibitory learning mechanism of extinction, rats extinguished 24-72 h following acquisition exhibited moderate to strong reinstatement, renewal, and spontaneous recovery. In contrast, and consistent with an erasure mechanism, rats extinguished 10 min to 1 h after acquisition exhibited little or no reinstatement, renewal, or spontaneous recovery. These data support a model in which different neural mechanisms are recruited depending on the temporal delay of fear extinction.     

Different types of environmental enrichment have discrepant effects on spatial memory and synaptophysin levels in female mice

Environmental enrichment paradigms that incorporate cognitive stimulation, exercise, and motor learning benefit memory and synaptic plasticity across the rodent lifespan. However, the contribution each individual element of the enriched environment makes to enhancing memory and synaptic plasticity has yet to be delineated. Therefore, the current study tested the effects of three of these elements on memory and synaptic protein levels. Young female C57BL/6 mice were given 3h of daily exposure to either rodent toys (cognitive stimulation) or running wheels (exercise), or daily acrobatic training for 6 weeks prior to and throughout behavioral testing. Controls were group housed, but did not receive enrichment. Spatial working and reference memory were tested in a water-escape motivated radial arm maze. Levels of the presynaptic protein synaptophysin were then measured in frontoparietal cortex, hippocampus, striatum, and cerebellum. Exercise, but not cognitive stimulation or acrobat training, improved spatial working memory relative to controls, despite the fact that both exercise and cognitive stimulation increased synaptophysin levels in the neocortex and hippocampus. These data suggest that exercise alone is sufficient to improve working memory, and that enrichment-induced increases in synaptophysin levels may not be sufficient to improve working memory in young females. Spatial reference memory was unaffected by enrichment. Acrobat training had no effect on memory or synaptophysin levels, suggesting a minimal contribution of motor learning to the mnemonic and neuronal benefits of enrichment. These results provide the first evidence that different elements of the enriched environment have markedly distinct effects on spatial memory and synaptic alterations.     

Belief-desire reasoning as a process of selection

Human learning may depend upon domain specialized mechanisms. A plausible example is rapid, early learning about the thoughts and feelings of other people. A major achievement in this domain, at about age four in the typically developing child, is the ability to solve problems in which the child attributes false beliefs to other people and predicts their actions. The main focus of theorizing has been why 3-year-olds fail, and only recently have there been any models of how success is achieved in false-belief tasks. Leslie and Polizzi (Inhibitory processing in the false-belief task: Two conjectures. Developmental Science, 1, 247-254, 1998) proposed two competing models of success, which are the focus of the current paper. The models assume that belief-desire reasoning is a process which selects a content for an agent's belief and an action for the agent's desire. In false belief tasks, the theory of mind mechanism (ToMM) provides plausible candidate belief contents, among which will be a 'true-belief.' A second process reviews these candidates and by default will select the true-belief content for attribution. To succeed in a false-belief task, the default content must be inhibited so that attention shifts to another candidate belief. In traditional false-belief tasks, the protagonist's desire is to approach an object. Here we make use of tasks in which the protagonist has a desire to avoid an object, about which she has a false-belief. Children find such tasks much more difficult than traditional tasks. Our models explain the additional difficulty by assuming that predicting action from an avoidance desire also requires an inhibition. The two processing models differ in the way that belief and desire inhibitory processes combine to achieve successful action prediction. In six experiments we obtain evidence favoring one model, in which parallel inhibitory processes cancel out, over the other model, in which serial inhibitions force attention to a previously inhibited location. These results are discussed in terms of a set of simple proposals for the modus operandi of a domain specific learning mechanism. The learning mechanism is in part modular--the ToMM--and in part penetrable--the Selection Processor (SP). We show how ToMM-SP can account both for competence and for successful and unsuccessful performance on a wide range of belief-desire tasks across the preschool period. Together, ToMM and SP attend to and learn about mental states.     

On the determinants of induction in responding for sucrose when food pellet reinforcement is upcoming

Rats' rates of leverpressing for low-concentration liquid-sucrose reinforcers in the first half of an experimental session increase when food pellet, rather than sucrose, reinforcers will be available in the second half. Experiment 1 determined that this induction effect was the outcome of food pellet reinforcement's increasing response rates, not of continued sucrose reinforcement's decreasing them. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that induction was primarily controlled by the conditions of reinforcement in the current session, not by those in the previous one. Experiment 4 showed little evidence that the induction was the outcome of Pavlovian processes. These results suggest that induction may occur because of processes operating at the level of the entire session. They also provide a link to a seemingly related area of study: contrast effects. Some of the results are consistent with what is known about contrast effects, but there are also several, yet unexplained differences.     

Towards a Social-Structural Model for Understanding Current Disparities in Maori Health and Well-Being

Colonization has resulted in Maori occupying a vulnerable position in New Zealand society. Comparatively poor health, along with complex social and economic problems, is a reflection of this fundamental insecurity. This article aims to put forward a historical and developmental perspective for understanding some of the current health disparities experienced by Maori, by exploring the concepts of historical trauma, loss of land, and alternative theories of development from post-development theory.     

Barriers to Mental Health Care: A 25‐Year Follow‐Up Study of the Orthodox Jewish Community

The current study is a 25‐year follow‐up to a mental health needs assessment in the often overlooked, but rapidly growing, Orthodox Jewish denomination. Results suggest increased acceptance of mental illness and its treatment and satisfaction with quality of care, along with decreased mistrust of the mental health field, belief that religion and psychiatry conflict, and tendency to attach stigmas to psychiatric problems. However, issues of stigma and affordability continue to be obstacles to treatment. El presente estudio es un seguimiento tras 25 años de una evaluación de necesidades de salud mental en la población frecuentemente ignorada, pero en crecimiento rápido, de individuos de denominación judía ortodoxa. Los resultados sugieren una mayor aceptación de enfermedades mentales y sus tratamientos, así como la satisfacción con la calidad de los cuidados, además de una reducción en la desconfianza hacia el campo de la salud mental, la creencia de que existe un conflicto entre religión y psiquiatría, y la tendencia a estigmatizar los problemas psiquiátricos. Sin embargo, problemas relacionados con la asequibilidad y el estigma continúan siendo obstáculos para el tratamiento.     

The Unstructured Clinical Interview

In mental health, family, and community counseling settings, master's‐level counselors engage in unstructured clinical interviewing to develop diagnoses based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM‐IV‐TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Although counselors receive education about diagnosis and the DSM classification system, the majority of them are not specifically trained in clinical interviewing. This article provides information about using the unstructured clinical interview to make a DSM‐IV‐TR diagnosis for adult clients with Axis I and Axis II disorders.     

The effectiveness of function‐based interventions to treat sleep problems,including unwanted co‐sleeping,in children with autism

This study investigated the effectiveness of functional behavioral assessment (FBA)—informed interventions for sleep problems, particularly co‐sleeping, in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Seven children, who exhibited multiple sleep problems including unwanted co‐sleeping, participated. FBA, based on information derived from interviews and parent‐recorded sleep diaries, was used to develop individualized case formulations upon which multicomponent, parent‐implemented interventions were based. These were evaluated using a single‐case, non‐concurrent multiple‐baseline‐across‐participants design. Improvements were observed across all sleep problems, including the elimination of co‐sleeping. Gains were maintained at follow‐up for five out of seven children, though two children did not complete intervention. Parents reported high levels of satisfaction with the program. FBA‐based interventions for sleep problems in children with ASD and their clinical implications are further discussed.     

The Changing Value of Skill Utilisation: Interactions with Job Demands on Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism

Opportunities to learn and apply new skills are generally considered a favourable job characteristic, but can there be too much of a good thing? In this paper, we draw on vitamin and resource perspectives to investigate a more nuanced perspective on where, when and why skill utilisation delivers value as a resource. Specifically, we examine whether skill utilisation exhibits non-linear relationships with job satisfaction and absenteeism in the presence of two different job demands: task workload, which captures the quantitative demands of work, and surface acting, which captures the qualitative demands of work. Using data from 278 hospital employees, we found that surface acting moderated the non-linear relationship between skill utilisation and absenteeism. Specifically, the relationship between skill utilisation and absenteeism became increasingly positive when surface acting was high, but not when surface acting was low. Interestingly, the linear relationship between skill utilisation and job satisfaction was less positive when surface acting was high. Task workload did not interact with skill utilisation to predict employee outcomes. Our findings highlight complexities in the relationship between job resources and demands and show that the value of skill utilisation changes under demanding conditions.