Visual processing of coherent rotation in the central visual field: an fMRI study

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine the brain areas that process coherent motion. To reduce the activity related to eye-movement planning and self-motion perception, rotation was used as coherent motion and the stimulus was restricted to the central visual field. Coherent rotation relative to incoherent random-dot motion resulted in consistent activation in the superior parietal lobule (SPL), in the lateral occipital gyrus (presumptive kinetic occipital region, KO), and in the fusiform gyrus (FG). The main novel finding in present study is the bilateral SPL activation, which has not been found in any previous study contrasting coherent and incoherent motion. It is suggested that the SPL activation is related to form-from-motion processing. The stimulus modification that prevented abrupt appearances of dots at the borders of the stimulus field increased the strength of rolling disk-like percept of the coherent stimulus. This perception of form may also be at least partly responsible for the activation in KO and FG. With this explanation, our three consistent activation areas are in line with previous findings. Furthermore, these results demonstrate that even delicate changes in some stimulus aspects can lead to significant changes in the activation of the brain.     

Creating an Evangelical self: an analysis of narratives of conversion to Evangelicalism in post-Soviet St Petersburg

In this article I analyse the narratives of conversion to Evangelical churches in St Petersburg by inquiring how Russians engage with the Evangelical churches and how they construct a meaningful conversion identity. My analysis shows how the social and political changes of post-Soviet Russia are experienced in religious terms and whether they have social implications that are reflected in identity-building as both Russian and Evangelical. Individual identity always reflects time and place, and the social and societal context in which an individual lives. Through this route I also broaden the understanding of Russian societal attitudes towards present-day ‘religious dissidents’. My research is based on 19 thematic interviews and participant observations in church meetings in St Petersburg between 2006 and 2009. Most of the interviewees belonged to communities that could be categorised as neo-Pentecostal. The study revealed that both a personal religious quest, especially during the societal turmoil that existed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the influence of friends or relatives were significant impulses for conversion. The resources sustaining the conversion as an ongoing process are communal, but also involve an individual self-improvement project within the construction of a new Evangelical self.     

Shared reading interaction in families with and without genetic risk for dyslexia: implications for toddlers’ language development

Shared reading represents a unique context for language learning. Little is known, however, about the quality of shared reading and its developmental implications in families with reading disabilities. In the present study, these questions were addressed in the context of a longitudinal follow‐up. Maternal interactional behaviors and children's participation in a book reading situation were analyzed at 14 months of age in a subsample involving 39 mothers who were diagnosed as reading disabled and had a familial background of reading difficulties (the RD group) and 89 normally reading mothers (the NR group) and their children. Information on the children's concurrent and subsequent vocabulary comprehension and production was obtained at 14 and 18 months. The results indicated that the children who displayed a high interest and engagement in shared reading at 14 months had more advanced language skills 4 months later. Also found was support for a link between maternal strategies and children's subsequent vocabulary comprehension and production. In accordance with the literature, maternal activation was more strongly related to the children's language development than the mere describing of the elements in the book. No differences emerged between the NR and RD groups in the frequencies of maternal interactional behaviors, children's participation in shared reading, or their language skills at this early age; maternal orienting of the children's attention was, however, found to be positively related to later language development in the NR group, while in the RD group the association was negative. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Timing of Early Maternal Mental Health and Child Cortisol Regulation

Maternal mental health problems can negatively impact children's physiological stress regulation. Yet, little is known of their long‐term effects, especially related to the timing of maternal symptoms. We examined how maternal mental health problems during pregnancy versus in the early postpartum period predict children's cortisol levels and diurnal patterns at 10–12 years. Participants were a selection (N = 102) of an original sample of 805 Finnish families, who were followed from the second trimester of pregnancy (T1) to child's age of 2 months (T2) and 12 months (T3), and again at child's age of 10–12 years (T4). Based on the timing of psychological distress and depressive symptoms (T1–T3), the mothers could be assigned to three distinct mental health trajectory groups: mothers with prenatal mental health problems (n = 15), mothers with early postpartum mental health problems (n = 15) and mothers without mental health problems (n = 72). Children's cortisol (T4) was measured by saliva samples through five within‐1‐day assessments. The results show that maternal prenatal mental health problems predicted a relatively steep increase of child cortisol from awakening to 1 h later, indicating an intensified cortisol awakening response (CAR). Mothers' early postpartum mental health problems instead predicted a reduced CAR. Both maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health problems thus predicted children's later stress regulation, but in unique ways. We discuss the specific roles of direct biochemical effects during pregnancy and postpartum mother–infant interaction quality as modifiers of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Religious themes in the Soviet press in 1989

Abstract

The Orthodox Church has become a visible institution in postsoviet Russia. The relationship between the church and state has been of current interest among researchers studying postcommunist religious and societal transformations. Many peculiarities of the relationship between church and state can be traced to both the prerevolutionary and the Soviet traditions. This article examines Orthodox monarchism in Russia today. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews and on observations in a few Orthodox parishes in St Petersburg in 2005 and 2006, and the article thus gives voice to the views of the ‘unofficial’ church, represented by local believers, on the state system. I analyse Orthodox monarchism in the frame of reference of the deprivatisation of religion and discuss how religion matters in the present-day construction of solidarity and national identity under Russian societal transformation.     

Change‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviour: An interactive product of openness to change values,work unit identification,and sense of power

Due to the increased frequency of organizational changes, predicting employees’ voluntary involvement in the development of organizational practices and individual work is of particular importance in organizational psychology. This study focused upon change‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as an expression of openness to change values, and also upon psychological factors that can moderate the value–behaviour relationship. We propose that personal values, group identification, and a sense of power interact in predicting change‐oriented OCB of employees. One hundred and eighty‐four employees rated their values, their identification with the work unit and their sense of power. In line with our predictions, the results showed that openness to change values and work unit identification interacted positively in predicting supervisor‐rated change‐oriented OCB in workers with a high sense of power, but not in workers with a low sense of power. This finding suggests that workers who have a high sense of power and are highly identified with the work unit tend to pursue their openness to change values in a way that contributes to the organization. The authors further conclude that an interactive approach, rather than one of direct effect, is advantageous when studying values as antecedents to change‐oriented OCB.     

Stable same‐sex friendships with higher achieving partners promote mathematical reasoning in lower achieving primary school children

This study was designed to investigate friend influence over mathematical reasoning in a sample of 374 children in 187 same‐sex friend dyads (184 girls in 92 friendships; 190 boys in 95 friendships). Participants completed surveys that measured mathematical reasoning in the 3rd grade (approximately 9 years old) and 1 year later in the 4th grade (approximately 10 years old). Analyses designed for dyadic data (i.e., longitudinal actor‐partner interdependence model) indicated that higher achieving friends influenced the mathematical reasoning of lower achieving friends, but not the reverse. Specifically, greater initial levels of mathematical reasoning among higher achieving partners in the 3rd grade predicted greater increases in mathematical reasoning from 3rd grade to 4th grade among lower achieving partners. These effects held after controlling for peer acceptance and rejection, task avoidance, interest in mathematics, maternal support for homework, parental education, length of the friendship, and friendship group norms on mathematical reasoning.