Trust in testimony: children's use of true and false statements

The extent to which young children monitor and use the truth of assertions to gauge the reliability of subsequent testimony was examined. Three- and 4-year-old children were presented with two informants, an accurate labeler and an inaccurate labeler. They were then invited to learn names for novel objects from these informants. The children correctly monitored and identified the informants on the basis of the truth of their prior labeling. Furthermore, children who explicitly identified the unreliable or reliable informant across two tasks went on to demonstrate selective trust in the novel information provided by the previously reliable informant. Children who did not consistently identify the unreliable or reliable informant proved indiscriminate.     

Infants' understanding of false labeling events: the referential roles of words and the speakers who use them

The four studies reported here examine whether 16-month-old infants' responses to true and false utterances interact with their knowledge of human agents. In Study 1, infants heard repeated instances either of true or false labeling of common objects; labels came from an active human speaker seated next to the infant. In Study 2, infants experienced the same stimuli and procedure; however, we replaced the human speaker of Study 1 with an audio speaker in the same location. In Study 3, labels came from a hidden audio speaker. In Study 4, a human speaker labeled the objects while facing away from them. In Study 1, infants looked significantly longer to the human agent when she falsely labeled than when she truthfully labeled the objects. Infants did not show a similar pattern of attention for the audio speaker of Study 2, the silent human of Study 3 or the facing-backward speaker of Study 4. In fact, infants who experienced truthful labeling looked significantly longer to the facing-backward labeler of Study 4 than to true labelers of the other three contexts. Additionally, infants were more likely to correct false labels when produced by the human labeler of Study 1 than in any of the other contexts. These findings suggest, first, that infants are developing a critical conception of other human speakers as truthful communicators, and second, that infants understand that human speakers may provide uniquely useful information when a word fails to match its referent. These findings are consistent with the view that infants can recognize differences in knowledge and that such differences can be based on differences in the availability of perceptual experience.     

Religion, Spirituality, and Health Service Use by Older Hospitalized Patients

Background: Religious and spiritual beliefs and practices are common among medical inpatients, and may impact length of hospital stay (LOS) and other health services (HSU) during hospitalization. Methods: 812 consecutively admitted patients age 50 or over to Duke University Medical Center were assessed. Measures of religiousness and spirituality included religious TV/radio (RTV), self-rated religiousness (SRR), observer-rated spirituality (ORS), and daily spiritual experiences (DSE). The primary outcome was LOS. Results: RTV and SRR predicted longer LOS, whereas ORS and DSE predicted shorter LOS (p 0.05). Effects of RTV onLOS were stronger among women, but explained by worse health status. The effects of DSE on LOS were stronger among non-whites. Among those reporting high DSE, diagnostic tests and total procedures also tended to be less common. Conclusions: Religious activities, attitudes, and spiritual experiences are weak predictors of LOS and HSU during hospitalization. Whether the prediction is positive or negative depends on the religious or spiritual characteristic.     

Lexical encoding of event participant information.

The typical understanding of a short passive sentence like The ship was sunk is that it was sunk by someone. We investigated whether unexpressed agent information is introduced via semantic argument information associated with the lexical representations of verbs, or instead via conceptually derived inferences. We demonstrate, in self-paced reading and eye-monitoring studies, that implicit agents are derived from lexical rather than conceptual sources and that verb argument structure information is accessed as soon as a verb is recognized.     

父母心理控制与小学生的欺负行为:敌意归因和冷酷无情的作用检验

采用班级整群抽样法选取1847名3~6年级小学生（男生987名;平均年龄10.73±1.16岁）及其家长为被试,采用问卷法考察父母心理控制与小学生欺负行为的关系,同时探讨敌意归因和冷酷无情的中介作用。结果发现：（1）父母心理控制显著正向预测小学生的欺负行为;（2）冷酷无情在父母心理控制与小学生欺负行为间的关系中存在中介作用,敌意归因不发挥中介作用;（3）父母心理控制对小学生欺负行为影响的中介机制不存在显著的性别差异和学段差异。本研究结果表明,冷酷无情是父母心理控制影响小学生欺负行为的重要机制,但敌意归因不是。研究者和实践者应注重对欺负者情感加工能力的关注和干预。     

Suicidal behavior among urban,African American young adults

The objectives of the present study were four-fold. First, to determine the lifetime, last year, and 6-month prevalence and demographic correlates of suicidal behavior in a defined population of urban, African American young adults. Second, to determine the degree of mental health service utilization among attempters. Third, to study the comorbidity between mental disorders and suicidal behavior, along with the variation in the numbers and types of psychiatric disorders associated with attempts versus ideation only. Fourth, to examine gender differences in the psychiatric diagnoses associated with attempts and ideation. Data relevant to each of these objectives were gathered through structured interviews of 1,157 economically disadvantaged, African American young adults. Lifetime, last year, and 6-month prevalence rates for attempts were 5.3%, 1.2%, and 0.4%, respectively, whereas the lifetime and 6-month prevalence of ideation were 14% and 1.9%, respectively. Approximately two thirds of those who reported lifetime ideation, and a similar proportion of those who reported lifetime attempts, had a history of at least one lifetime psychiatric disorder. There were no gender differences in terms of the degree of risk for suicidal behavior (ideation or attempts) associated with any of the comorbid psychiatric diagnoses assessed. Despite the severity of most attempts, few attempters received mental health services in their lifetime or at the time of their most recent attempt.     

冠心病的介入治疗——药物洗脱支架还是裸支架？

冠心病的治疗包括多种方式,在强化内科保守治疗的基础上,采用经皮冠状动脉介入治疗既可以改善患者的生活质量又能降低病死率。介入治疗中最重要的方式是支架植入。但应用药物洗脱支架,还是普通金属裸支架一直是近两年来的争论焦点。BASKET-LATE研究的发布,更给药物洗脱支架的应用蒙上了可怕的阴影。就我们现阶段的实际临床应用而言,只要服用足够长的至少双联抗小血板药物治疗,药物洗脱支架的应用还是安全的,而且临床主要心血管事件较裸支架明显降低。     

早产儿预防性应用抗生素的临床决策思路

近年来,随着对滥用抗生素所引起的细菌耐药性和二重感染的认识的逐步深入,预防性应用抗生素在临床上越来越受到限制.但由于早产儿感染的临床隐匿性和易并发严重并发症等特点,预防早产儿感染的发生和进一步的发展,就显得尤为重要.通过对早产儿发生感染的易感因素、感染诱因和临床特点的分析研究,来探讨早产儿临床预防应用抗生素的必要性、合理性及临床决策思路.     

Preschoolers monitor the relative accuracy of informants

In 2 studies, the sensitivity of 3- and 4-year-olds to the previous accuracy of informants was assessed. Children viewed films in which 2 informants labeled familiar objects with differential accuracy (across the 2 experiments, children were exposed to the following rates of accuracy by the more and less accurate informants, respectively: 100% vs. 0%, 100% vs. 25%, 75% vs. 0%, and 75% vs. 25%). Next, children watched films in which the same 2 informants provided conflicting novel labels for unfamiliar objects. Children were asked to indicate which of the 2 labels was associated with each object. Three-year-olds trusted the more accurate informant only in conditions in which 1 of the 2 informants had been 100% accurate, whereas 4-year-olds trusted the more accurate informant in all conditions tested. These results suggest that 3-year-olds mistrust informants who make a single error, whereas 4-year-olds track the relative frequency of errors when deciding whom to trust.