School bonding in children and adolescents: conceptualization,assessment, and associated variables

School bonding refers to the connections that youth have with their schools and various aspects of their academic lives. School bonding may be an important concept in prevention because it has been linked to various developmental and adjustment outcomes. This paper reviews conceptualizations, measurements, and theories of school bonding. Also considered are empirical studies that have linked school bonding to a variety of outcomes (substance use, delinquency, antisocial behavior, self-esteem). The review includes examination of how school bonding serves as a mediator in these relations and, in turn, is moderated by other variables. Despite inconsistencies in conceptualization and measurement, it is concluded that school bonding is an important construct and an appropriate target for intervention. Recommendations are offered regarding future research on school bonding, especially with respect to positive developmental outcomes and examination of variables that might moderate school bonding.     

Prevention of eating disorders and obesity via the internet

Internet technology has been expanding rapidly and has had a dramatic impact on how people communicate, learn and share information. This article presents applications of internet technology to the psychological domain, particularly in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders and obesity. Information regarding advantages and disadvantages of computerized interventions are discussed and several examples of randomized controlled trials with this technology are presented. The studies presented are not meant to be comprehensive of psychological interventions in general, but are examples of computerized applications from the eating disorder and obesity literatures. Ethical considerations and areas for future direction are also discussed.     

Does class size in first grade relate to children's academic and social performance or observed classroom processes?

This study evaluated the extent to which first-grade class size predicted child outcomes and observed classroom processes for 651 children (in separate classrooms). Analyses examined observed child-adult ratios and teacher-reported class sizes. Smaller classrooms showed higher quality instructional and emotional support, although children were somewhat less likely to be engaged. Teachers in smaller classes rated typical children in those classes as more socially skilled and as showing less externalizing behavior and reported more closeness toward them. Children in smaller classes performed better on literacy skills. Larger classrooms showed more group activities directed by the teacher, teachers and children interacted more often, and children were more often engaged. Lower class sizes were not of more benefit (or harm) as a function of the child's family income. First-grade class size in the range typical of present-day classrooms in the United States predicts classroom social and instructional processes as well as relative changes in social and literacy outcomes from kindergarten to first grade.     

Category discriminability, base-rate, and payoff effects in perceptual categorization

The optimality of perceptual categorization performance under manipulations of category discriminability (i.e., d' level), base rates, and payoffs was examined. Base-rate and payoff manipulations across two category discriminabilities allowed a test of the hypothesis that the steepness of the objective reward function affects performance (i.e., the flat-maxima hypothesis), as well as the hypothesis that observers combine base-rate and payoff information independently. Performance was (1) closer to optimal for the steeper objective reward function, in line with the flat-maxima hypothesis, (2) closer to optimal in base-rate conditions than in payoff conditions, and (3) in partial support of the hypothesis that base-rate and payoff knowledge is combined independently. Implications for current theories of base-rate and payoff learning are discussed.     

Infantile sexuality and Freud's legacy

The topic of sexuality and infantile sexuality, though less frequently discussed by psychoanalysis in recent decades, has received renewed attention for some years. The intention of this paper is to share some reflections around the role of infantile sexuality in our thinking, how we encounter it in our work with patients and in clinical material. Through reference to questions put forward by Freud (1905) in Three Essays, this paper takes into consideration some areas of the debate that has developed on the subject of infantile sexuality, starting from Freud's original intuition, including various hypotheses on the genesis of the sexual drive. The author will concentrate on two specific points. Firstly, how infantile sexuality – as a permanent dimension of the subject's existence – unfolds in the relationship and is deeply influenced by it. And that is how in childhood and adolescence, infantile sexuality ushers in parental sexuality – just as, in the case of our patients, infantile sexuality ushers in the analyst's sexuality. The second point pertains to the temporal dimension within which infantile sexuality is inscribed. The hypothesis that the author proposes is that infantile sexuality may be understood in the specific time of psychoanalysis [Nachträglichkeit], distinct and different with respect to the linear, evolutionary dimension.     

Aristotle on Universal Quantification: A Study from the Point of View of Game Semantics

In this paper we provide an interpretation of Aristotle's rule for the universal quantifier in Topics Θ 157^a34–37 and 160^b1–6 in terms of Paul Lorenzen's dialogical logic. This is meant as a contribution to the rehabilitation of the role of dialectic within the Organon. After a review of earlier views of Aristotle on quantification, we argue that this rule is related to the dictum de omni in Prior Analytics A 24^b28–29. This would be an indication of the dictum’s origin in the context of dialectical games. One consequence of our approach is a novel explanation of the doctrine of the existential import of the quantifiers in dialectical terms. After a brief survey of Lorenzen's dialogical logic, we offer a set of rules for dialectical games based on previous work by Castelnérac and Marion, to which we add here the rule for the universal quantifier, as interpreted in terms of its counterpart in dialogical logic. We then give textual evidence of the use of that rule in Plato's dialogues, thus showing that Aristotle only made explicit a rule already implicit in practice, while providing a new interpretation of ‘epagogic’ arguments. Finally, we show how a proper understanding of that rule involves further rules concerning counterexamples and delaying tactics, stressing again the parallels with dialogical logic.     

Auditory orienting of attention: Effects of cues and verbal workload with children and adults

The use of tone cues has an improving effect on the auditory orienting of attention for children as for adults. Verbal cues, on the contrary, do not seem to orient attention as efficiently before the age of 9 years. However, several studies have reported inconsistent effects of orienting attention on ear asymmetries. Multiple factors are questioned, such as the role of verbal workload. Indeed, the semantic nature of the dichotic pairs and their load of processing may explain orienting of attention performance. Thus, by controlling for the role of verbal workload, the present experiment aimed to evaluate the development of capacities for the auditory orienting of attention. Right-handed, 6- to 12-year-olds and adults were recruited to complete either a tone cue or a verbal cue dichotic listening task in the identification of familiar words or nonsense words. A factorial design analysis of variance showed a significant right-ear advantage for all the participants and for all the types of stimuli. A major developmental effect was observed in which verbal cues played an important role: they allowed the 6- to 8-year-olds to improve their performance of identification in the left ear. These effects were taken as evidence of the implication of top-down processes in cognitive flexibility across development.     

Separating perceptual processes from decisional processes in identification and categorization.

Four observers completed perceptual matching, identification, and categorization tasks using separable-dimension stimuli. A unified quantitative approach relating perceptual matching, identification, and categorization was proposed and tested. The approach derives from general recognition theory (Ashby & Townsend, 1986) and provides a powerful method for quantifying the separate influences of perceptual processes and decisional processes within and across tasks. Good accounts of the identification data were obtained from an initial perceptual representation derived from perceptual matching. The same perceptual representation provided a good account of the categorization data, except when selective attention to one stimulus dimension was required. Selective attention altered the perceptual representation by decreasing the perceptual variance along the attended dimension. These findings suggest that a complete understanding of identification and categorization performance requires an understanding of perceptual and decisional processes. Implications for other psychological tasks are discussed.