Theory of mind and its relationship with executive functions and emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder

Impaired social cognition has been claimed to be a mechanism underlying the development and maintenance of borderline personality disorder (BPD). One important aspect of social cognition is the theory of mind (ToM), a complex skill that seems to be influenced by more basic processes, such as executive functions (EF) and emotion recognition. Previous ToM studies in BPD have yielded inconsistent results. This study assessed the performance of BPD adults on ToM, emotion recognition, and EF tasks. We also examined whether EF and emotion recognition could predict the performance on ToM tasks. We evaluated 15 adults with BPD and 15 matched healthy controls using different tasks of EF, emotion recognition, and ToM. The results showed that BPD adults exhibited deficits in the three domains, which seem to be task‐dependent. Furthermore, we found that EF and emotion recognition predicted the performance on ToM. Our results suggest that tasks that involve real‐life social scenarios and contextual cues are more sensitive to detect ToM and emotion recognition deficits in BPD individuals. Our findings also indicate that (a) ToM variability in BPD is partially explained by individual differences on EF and emotion recognition; and (b) ToM deficits of BPD patients are partially explained by the capacity to integrate cues from face, prosody, gesture, and social context to identify the emotions and others' beliefs.     

Using a group game increases preschoolers' step count

Children should engage in at least 60 min of physical activity daily to develop or maintain healthy habits (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021a). Previous research suggests that contingent attention is a powerful tool for increasing moderate to vigorous physical activity. In this study, the researchers examined the effects of a group game on steps per minute at recess in an inclusive classroom with preschoolers. The researcher taught the game called the T-Rex game in which the game rules (chasing students who were moving) involved contingencies for natural attention to follow moderate to vigorous physical activity. The results showed a functional relation between step count and the group game in which students engaged in higher step counts when the group game was in place than during baseline. These findings extend other work by demonstrating that contingent attention embedded in group games can increase step count.     

All else being equal: Are men always higher in social dominance orientation than women?

The belief in the gender invariance of many traits is a view that dominates much of psychology. In social psychology, this position is clearly represented by social dominance theory and the construct of social dominance orientation (SDO) where it is argued that, all else being equal, men will be higher in SDO than women. In other domains, though, these assumptions are being questioned, and researchers are arguing for a gender similarities hypothesis. The argument is that men and women are more similar than different, and where there are effects for gender, these are small. In this investigation, men and women are compared under similar cultural (Study 1), ideological, (Study 2) and status (Study 3) contexts to examine whether, all else being equal, men really are higher in SDO than women. In an additional study (Study 4), a meta‐analysis is conducted aggregating the effect sizes of the previous studies. Results demonstrated either no effect for gender or an interaction between gender and the relevant social context and only a small effect size of gender—findings that disconfirm the ceteris paribus assumption of social dominance theory. In conclusion, the implications of the findings for understanding gender effects in social psychology are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cues to intention: the role of movement information

Body movement provides a rich source of cues about other people’s goals and intentions. In the present research, we investigate how well people can distinguish between different social intentions on the basis of movement information. Participants observed a model reaching toward and grasping a wooden block with the intent to cooperate with a partner, compete against an opponent, or perform an individual action. In Experiment 1, a temporal occlusion procedure was used as to determine whether advance information gained during the viewing of the initial phase of an action allowed the observers to discriminate across movements performed with different intentions. In Experiment 2, we examined what kind of cues observers relied upon for the discrimination of intentions by masking selected spatial areas of the model (i.e., the arm or the face) maintaining the same temporal occlusion as for Experiment 1. Results revealed that observers could readily judge whether the object was grasped with the intent to cooperate, compete, or perform an individual action. Seeing the arm was better than seeing the face for discriminating individual movements performed at different speeds (natural-speed vs. fast-speed individual movements). By contrast, seeing the face was better than seeing the arm for discriminating social from individual movements performed at a comparable speed (cooperative vs. natural-speed individual movements, competitive vs. fast-speed individual movements). These results demonstrate that observers are attuned to advance movement information from different cues and that they can use such kind of information to anticipate the future course of an action.     

A parametric analysis of errors of commission during discrete-trial training

We investigated the effects of systematic changes in levels of treatment integrity by altering errors of commission during error-correction procedures as part of discrete-trial training. We taught 3 students with autism receptive nonsense shapes under 3 treatment integrity conditions (0%, 50%, or 100% errors of commission). Participants exhibited higher levels of performance during perfect implementation (0% errors). For 2 of the 3 participants, performance was low and showed no differentiation in the remaining conditions. Findings suggest that 50% commission errors may be as detrimental as 100% commission errors on teaching outcomes.     

Early Maternal Spatial Support for Toddlers and Math Skills in Second Grade

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to investigate whether maternal spatial support during two types of joint manipulative toy play tasks with 2-year-old children was longitudinally associated with math screening test scores in second grade. The interaction between spatial support and maternal education was explored as well. We also investigated predictions of a teacher rating of math performance at second grade, although these effects were less robust. Data were drawn from BONDS (The Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study), a longitudinal study of Norwegian children and their families. Participants were a subsample of 932 mothers and their 2-year-olds. Mothers were asked to help their children solve both a puzzle task and a shape-color sorting task. Mothers’ spatial support included spatial language, gestures, and placement of objects. Results showed that higher levels of spatial support during mother-child interaction tasks at 2 years of age was significantly associated with fewer math difficulties in second grade. This was the case for a puzzle task (a task associated with spatial visualization skills), but not for a shape-color sorting task (a task associated with shape and color feature discriminations). Conclusions are drawn with respect to the importance of identifying optimal parental spatial strategies associated with better math outcomes. These findings on parental facilitation of spatial skills during joint early play may be useful for future training interventions directed at parents of children at risk for poor math skills.     

A Duality for Involutive Bisemilattices

Studia Logica - We establish a duality between the category of involutive bisemilattices and the category of semilattice inverse systems of Stone spaces, using Stone duality from one side and the...     

Storage and retrieval of addition facts: The role of number comparison

It is proposed that arithmetical facts are organized in memory in terms of a principle that is unique to numbers—the cardinal magnitudes of the addends. This implies that sums such as 4 + 2 and 2 + 4 are represented, and searched for, in terms of the maximum and minimum addends. This in turn implies that a critical stage in solving an addition problem is deciding which addend is the larger. The COMP model of addition fact retrieval incorporates a comparison stage, as well as a retrieval stage and a pronunciation stage. Three tasks, using the same subjects, were designed to assess the contribution of these three stages to retrieving the answers to single-digit addition problems. Task 3 was the addition task, which examined whether reaction times (RTs) were explained by the model; Task 1 was a number naming task to assess the contribution of the pronunciation stage; Task 2 was a magnitude comparison task to assess the contribution, if any, of the comparison stage. A regression equation that included just expressions of these three stages was found to account for 71% of the variance. It is argued that the COMP model fits not only the adult RT data better than do alternatives, but also the evidence from development of additional skills.