Lästererfahrungen, Körperbild und Körpergewicht bei jungen Erwachsenen

Background

Negative comments (teasing) on weight and body image in adolescence might predict body dissatisfaction, overweight and eating disorders in adulthood. This study investigated 134 nursing students for a relationship between a history of teasing, body image and weight.

Materials and methods

Subjects with a body mass index (BMI)>?25 kg/m² reported more teasing compared with normal subjects whereas those with a BMI<?20 kg/m² showed lower values compared with normal or overweight subjects. Teasing questionnaire values correlated with aspects of negative body image. The BMI was predicted by factors age (p?=?0.001), sex (p?=?0.016) and teasing subscale weight (p?=?0.001).

Conclusions

It is remarkable that low teasing experience was associated with low weight, which might point to underweight as protective factor against teasing; however, the cross-sectional design of this study precludes direct causal inferences.     

Towards a bio-psycho-social model of autobiographical memory

Self-awareness and identity are important cornerstones of thinking in social psychology. On the basis of current knowledge and theories from the social, cultural, and biological sciences, this paper attempts to outline an integrative approach to the phenomena of memory and reminiscence. Reference to psycho-dynamic argumentation is made in addition, where appropriate. The central topic to our argumentation is autobiographical memory, which we analyse according to evolutionary, neuroscientific, and cultural findings. The emotional context and the ontogenetic development of reminiscences (or memories directly relating to one's own self) provide the preliminary framework for an integrated view which includes interactions between the life span, brain development, the social and cultural environment, and genetic predispositions.     

Lifespan trends of autobiographical remembering: Episodicity and search for meaning

Autobiographical memories of older adults show fewer episodic and more non-episodic elements than those of younger adults. This semantization effect is attributed to a loss of episodic memory ability. However the alternative explanation by an increasing proclivity to search for meaning has not been ruled out to date. To test whether a decrease in episodicity and an increase in meaning-making in autobiographical narratives are related across the lifespan, we used different instructions, one focussing on specific episodes, the other on embedding events in life, in two lifespan samples. A continuous decrease of episodic quality of memory (memory specificity, narrative quality) was confirmed. An increase of search for meaning (interpretation, life story integration) was confirmed only up to middle adulthood. This non-inverse development of episodicity and searching for meaning in older age speaks for an autonomous semantization effect that is not merely due to an increase in interpretative preferences.     

A pilot study of urinary peptides as biomarkers for intelligence in old age

Intelligence is an important indicator of physical, mental and social well-being. In old age, intelligence is also associated with a higher quality of life and better health. Heritability studies have shown that there are strong genetic influences, yet unknown, on intelligence, including in old age. Other approaches may be useful to investigate the biological foundations of intelligence differences. Proteomics is a proven technique in revealing biomarkers for certain illnesses. In this pilot study, forty individuals were selected as the cognitive extremes from over 750 people in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (age ~ 72 years) based on their high and low intelligence scores, as measured by a general cognitive ability factor. Urine samples were used as a stable, reliable and abundant source of proteins. Using capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE-MS) technology, the proteome of the high and low intelligence groups was determined. Data were calibrated and matched against the human urinary database, to enable comparative assessment. At a nominal significance level (P < 0.05), there were several candidate proteins for association with intelligence, including a zinc finger protein (ZNF653) that has been associated with cognitive deficits, and complement C3 and collagen fragments that have been associated with Alzheimer's disease. Results are preliminary, do not survive multiple testing correction, and require validation. This pilot study shows the potential of this novel proteomics approach, and its applicability to understanding the biological foundations of intelligence differences.     

Typical performance measures of emotion regulation and emotion perception and frontal EEG asymmetry in an emotional contagion paradigm

In order to replicate and extend previous observations of validity of the self-reported habitual regulation of one’s affect and the perception of other people’s emotions, prefrontal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry was recorded during and after social-emotional stimulation. After stimulation with other people’s vocal expression of anxiety, individuals with lower scores on emotion regulation did not show recovery of asymmetry changes but even increased changes in the direction that had been adopted during the stimulation. Whether this was to the right or to the left depended on their scores on emotion perception. Participants high on perception showed the expected changes to the right during the anxiety stimulation (indicating increased withdrawal motivation) and to the left during the cheerfulness stimulation (indicating increased approach motivation), whereas individuals low on perception showed the opposite pattern. During the anxiety stimulation, participants low on perception only showed the unexpected change to the left if they were also low on regulation. Individual differences in regulation did not play a role when participants were confronted with other people’s laughter. The findings demonstrate the validity of the self-report measures by using EEG measures, and moreover support the usefulness of differentiated and process-oriented approaches in the field of trait emotional intelligence.     

Curved saccade trajectories reveal conflicting predictions in associative learning

We report how the trajectories of saccadic eye movements are affected by memory interference acquired during associative learning. Human participants learned to perform saccadic choice responses based on the presentation of arbitrary central cues A, B, AC, BC, AX, BY, X, and Y that were trained to predict the appearance of a peripheral target stimulus at 1 of 3 possible locations, right (R), mid (M), or left (L), in the upper hemifield. We analyzed as measures of associative learning the frequency, latency, and curvature of saccades elicited by the cues and directed at the trained locations in anticipation of the targets. Participants were trained on two concurrent discrimination problems A+R, AC+R, AX+M, X+M and B+L, BC+L, BY+M, Y+M. From a connectionist perspective, cues were predicted to acquire associative links connecting the cues to the trained outcomes in memory. Model simulations based on the learning rule of the Rescorla and Wagner (1972) model revealed that for some cues, the prediction of the correct target location was challenged by the interfering prediction of an incorrect location. We observed that saccades directed at the correct location in anticipation of the target curved away from the location that was predicted by the interfering association. Furthermore, changes in curvature during training corresponded to predicted changes in associative memory. We propose that this curvature was caused by the inhibition of the incorrect prediction, as previously has been suggested with the concept of distractor inhibition (Sheliga, Riggio, & Rizzolatti, 1994; Tipper, Howard, & Houghton, 2000). The paradigm provides a new method to examine memory interference during associative learning.     

The role of personal values and basic traits in perceptions of the consequences of immigration: a three-nation study

Using data from Italy, Spain, and Germany (N= 1,569), this study investigated the role of basic values (universalism and security) and basic traits (openness and agreeableness) in predicting perceptions of the consequences of immigration. In line with Schwartz's (1992) theory, we conceptualized security as having two distinct components, one concerned with safety of the self (personal security) and the other with harmony and stability of larger groups and of society (group security). Structural equation modelling revealed that universalism values underlie perceptions that immigration has positive consequences and group security values underlie perceptions that it has negative consequences. Personal security makes no unique, additional contribution. Multi-group analyses revealed that these associations are invariant across the three countries except for a stronger link between universalism and perceptions of the consequences of immigration in Spain. To examine whether values mediate relations of traits to perceptions of immigration, we used the five-factor model. Findings supported a full mediation model. Individuals' traits of openness and agreeableness explained significant variance in security and universalism values. Basic values, in turn, explained perceptions of the consequences of immigration.     

Probability and surprisal in auditory comprehension of morphologically complex words

Two auditory lexical decision experiments document for morphologically complex words two points at which the probability of a target word given the evidence shifts dramatically. The first point is reached when morphologically unrelated competitors are no longer compatible with the evidence. Adapting terminology from Marslen-Wilson (1984), we refer to this as the word's initial uniqueness point (UP1). The second point is the complex uniqueness point (CUP) introduced by Balling and Baayen (2008), at which morphologically related competitors become incompatible with the input. Later initial as well as complex uniqueness points predict longer response latencies. We argue that the effects of these uniqueness points arise due to the large surprisal (Levy, 2008) carried by the phonemes at these uniqueness points, and provide independent evidence that how cumulative surprisal builds up in the course of the word co-determines response latencies. The presence of effects of surprisal, both at the initial uniqueness point of complex words, and cumulatively throughout the word, challenges the Shortlist B model of Norris and McQueen (2008), and suggests that a Bayesian approach to auditory comprehension requires complementation from information theory in order to do justice to the cognitive cost of updating probability distributions over lexical candidates.     

I haven't thought about this for years! Dating recent recalls of vivid memories

In three studies, we examined memories for previous recall. In Studies 1 and 2, undergraduates were asked whether they had vivid memories about various childhood events. After a one‐hour (Study 1) or 2‐week (Study 2) interval, they completed a second questionnaire containing new, but also previously presented childhood items. Participants estimated how recently they had thought about old and new items. A non‐trivial proportion of recent recalls of vivid childhood memories was dated incorrectly. In Study 3, women with recovered and continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) completed the childhood events questionnaires used in studies 1 and 2. After a one‐hour interval, they indicated how recently they had thought about new, but also previously presented childhood items. Compared to women with continuous CSA memories, women with recovered memories underestimated their prior remembering. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.