Shared caregiving: comparisons between home and child-care settings

The experiences of 84 German toddlers (12-24 months old) who were either enrolled or not enrolled in child care were described with observational checklists from the time they woke up until they went to bed. The total amount of care experienced over the course of a weekday by 35 pairs of toddlers (1 member of each pair in child care, 1 member not) did not differ according to whether the toddlers spent time in child care. Although the child-care toddlers received lower levels of care from care providers in the centers, their mothers engaged them in more social interactions during nonworking hours than did the mothers of home-only toddlers, which suggests that families using child care provided different patterns of care than families not using child care. Child-care toddlers experienced high levels of emotional support at home, although they experienced less prompt responses to their distress signals. Mothers' ages were unrelated to the amounts of time toddlers spent with them, but older mothers initiated more proximity.     

Mothers' and fathers' behaviors toward their 3- to 4-month-old infants in lower, middle, and upper socioeconomic African American families

African American mothers' and fathers' availability, caregiving, and social behaviors toward their infants in and around their homes were examined. Twenty lower, 21 middle, and 21 upper socioeconomic families and their 3- to 4-month-old infants were observed for 4 3-hr blocks between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on 4 different weekdays. With increasing economic resources, children's exposure to multiple caregivers and nonresident fathers declined. Mothers were more available to infants than fathers were, regardless of socioeconomic status. Mothers fed infants more than fathers did, whereas fathers vocalized more and displayed more affection to infants than mothers did when they were examined in proportion to caregiver presence. Mothers and fathers interacted with male and female infants quite similarly, although, in the upper socioeconomic families, fathers of daughters were more available than fathers of sons. Fathers and mothers in the different socioeconomic groups held, displayed affection to, and soothed their infants differently.     

The two sides of perception

by Richard B. Ivry and Lynn C. Robertson, MIT Press, 1998. $55.00 (315 pages) ISBN 0 262 09034 1.     

Neuropsychological contributions to theories of part/whole organization

Recent evidence from neuropsychology has proven useful in defining neural and cognitive subsystems involved in certain cognitive processes such as spatial attention (Posner, Walker, Friedrich, & Rafal, 1984) and imagery (Farah, 1988; Kosslyn, 1986). In this article we discuss neuropsychological evidence that suggests a modular system is responsible for the organization of parts and wholes by the visual system. We review both normal and neuropsychological evidence that suggest that hierarchical organization of objects within objects involves the coordination of at least four separate subsystems, one that emphasizes the global properties of a figure (association with right posterior superior temporal-parietal regions), one that emphasizes the local properties of a figure (associated with left posterior superior temporal-parietal regions), one that controls the distribution of attentional resources to these subsystems (associated with right or left lateral parietal lobe), and one that interconnects global and local properties and relies on the integrity of posterior temporal-temporal pathways.     

Attention in humans and animals: is there a capacity limitation at the time of encoding?

Investigators have suggested that pigeons have a limited capacity input channel and that as a result performance suffers when information load is great. This information overload hypothesis is based on converging findings from experiments using the matching-to-sample paradigm. Fundamental among these findings are that (a) performance improves as sample duration increases, (b) performance is better when the sample contains one relevant feature (elements) than when it contains two (compounds), and (c) this element superiority effect can be reduced by making the relevant feature of compound samples predictable. Experiments 1 and 2 show that these effects occur for humans as well. However, Experiments 3, 4, and 5 show that in humans at least some of these effects do not result from information overload at the time of encoding. Thus, the assertion that these effects do reflect such a limitation in pigeons must be reevaluated.     

The discourse of being ‘triggered’: Uses and meanings among counselling students

Despite the initial understanding of the word ‘triggered’ as relating to the clinical phenomenon of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this language has become a common part of the vernacular today, used by many people to apply to a wide variety of experiences and events. Counselling students are particularly sensitised to trauma, as well as identity politics, and are familiar with trigger warnings at college. They themselves have experienced trauma at high rates. Therefore, we were interested to understand how they might be using the word and interpreting the experience of being ‘triggered’, whether different sources of being triggered are related to emotional reactions, and whether a discourse analysis might indicate how and why the term has become useful and for what other experiences it might be serving as a stand-in. In this mixed-methods study, 79 counselling students from around the country shared their definitions and experiences of being ‘triggered’. Participants completed surveys and wrote narratives, which, via thematic qualitative analysis, were coded into five themes. The quantitative analysis focused on the relationship of feelings to themes and the relationship between anger suppression and coping with each theme. Discourse analysis explored how individuals wrote about responsibility and anger. It was discovered that those who wrote about being triggered from a past sexual assault did not discuss anger, nor the responsibility of others to protect them (as those who wrote about microaggressions did), but positioned themselves as overreactors. Results are discussed with regard to training and practice.     

Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances young children's responses to free-recall prompts in the course of forensic interviews

One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (ages 4-12 years; M = 8.1 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's structured interview protocol, whereas the other children--matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses--were interviewed using standard interview practices. Protocol-guided interviews elicited more information using open-ended prompts and less information using option-posing and suggestive questions than did standard interviews; there were no age differences in the amount of information provided in response to open-ended invitations. In 89% of the protocol interviews, children made their preliminary allegations in response to open-ended prompts, compared with 36% in the standard interviews.