Imaginary Companions in Childhood: What Can Prospective Longitudinal Research Tell Us About Their Fate by Adolescence?

Do adolescents remember imaginary companions (ICs) from early childhood? Researchers interviewed 46 adolescent participants in a prospective longitudinal study about their ICs from early childhood (age 5½). The existence of one or more ICs was documented in early childhood for 48% of children (G. Trionfi & E. Reese, 2009). At age 16, most adolescents had forgotten their early childhood ICs: Only 5 of the 23 participants who had early childhood ICs recalled those ICs later. Eight participants who had forgotten their early childhood ICs recalled a later IC, and four participants who did not have an IC at age 5 ½ reported one by age 16. Ten of the 23 participants who had early childhood ICs claimed never to have had an IC. Girls were more likely to recall their early childhood ICs. Retrospective reports of ICs in adolescence or later life may be unreliable for investigating differences between those with and without imaginary companions. Those with ICs may not be a homogenous group, with some creating ICs throughout childhood and some desisting from this behavior in early childhood. Findings indicate that both the remembering and forgetting of ICs has potential to illuminate cognitive and creative processes surrounding both memory and imagination.     

Phthalic acid amygdalopetal lesion of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis induces reversible memory deficits in rats

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is extensively implicated in emotional learning and memory. The current study investigated the contribution of cholinergic afferents to the BLA from the nucleus basalis magnocellularis in influencing aversive learning and memory. Sprague-Dawley rats were given permanent unilateral phthalic acid (300 ng) lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis and were chronically implanted with cannulas aimed at the ipsilateral BLA. Lesioned rats showed a pronounced inhibitory avoidance task retention deficit that was attenuated by acute posttraining infusions of the muscarinic cholinergic agonist oxotremorine (4 ng) or the indirect agonist physostigmine (1 microg) into the BLA. Continuous multiple-trial inhibitory avoidance training and testing revealed that lesioned rats have a mild acquisition deficit, requiring approximately 1 additional shock to reach the criterion, and a pronounced consolidation deficit as indicated by a shorter latency to enter the shock compartment on the retention test. Because lesioned rats did not differ from sham-operated controls in performance on a spatial water maze task or in shock sensitivity, it is not likely that the memory impairments produced by the phthalic acid lesions are due to any general sensory or motor deficits. These findings suggest that the dense cholinergic projection from the nucleus basalis magnocellularis to the BLA is involved in both the acquisition and the consolidation of the aversive inhibitory avoidance task.     

The effect of mother–infant skin-to-skin contact on infants’ response to the Still Face Task from newborn to three months of age

The effect of mother–infant skin-to-skin contact on infants’ developing social expectations for maternal behavior was investigated longitudinally over infants’ first 3 months. Infants with and without skin-to-skin contact engaged with their mothers in the Still Face Task at ages 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. Infants with skin-to-skin contact began responding to changes in their mothers’ behavior with their affect at 1 month; infants without skin-to-skin contact did so at 2 months. At 3 months, infants with skin-to-skin contact increased their non-distress vocalizations during the still face phase, suggesting social bidding to their mothers. Skin-to-skin contact accelerated infants’ social expectations for their mothers’ behavior and enhanced infants’ awareness of themselves as active agents in social interactions.     

Rape Myth Acceptance: A Comparison of Military Service Academy and Civilian Fraternity and Sorority Students

Although both the military and fraternities have been theorized to be characterized by norms and attitudes that serve to legitimize violence against women, no previous work has examined the potential similarity and differences in rape-supportive beliefs of these 2 environments or the people drawn to them. Further, the belief systems of women within these organizations have received little attention. As such, the current study sought to serve as an initial exploration of the rape-supportive belief systems of people drawn to these groups. Participants were recruited from students entering 2 military service academies (U.S. Military Academy, n = 1,169, 1,003 men, 166 women; U.S. Naval Academy, n = 1,916, 1,551 men, 365 women) and fraternities and sororities at a Midwestern university (n = 393, 188 men, 205 women). All participants completed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale–Short Form. Consistent with previous findings related to gender, men were more accepting of rape myths than women. Further, there was more variability in the levels of rape myth acceptance among military service academy and fraternity men than among military service academy and sorority women. Although across all groups the women expressed significantly lower levels of rape myth acceptance than the men, women and men from the United States Military Academy were more closely aligned in their beliefs than women and men from the other samples. Implications for sexual assault prevention education are discussed.     

Semantic Degradation and Lexical Access in Age-Related Naming Failures

This study investigated the impaired lexical access and semantic degradation hypotheses as two potential explanations of naming failures in normal aging. Naming responses on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and Action Naming Test (ANT) were analyzed across three test sessions for 39 adults from three age groups (50s, 60s, and 70s). Failures to name before and after cues were classified as either impaired access if failures occurred at an earlier test session followed by successful naming at a later test session or semantic degradation if naming was successful at an earlier test session followed by failures at a later test session. The results indicated that on both the BNT and ANT all age groups produced more naming failures attributed to impaired access than to semantic degradation. However, for object naming, the failures showed significantly more semantic degradation for people in their 70s compared to the younger age groups. By contrast, for action naming, semantic degradation was negligible, possibly masked by a ceiling effect, and the only age-difference result that approached significance indicated that adults in their 70s produced more naming failures attributed to impaired access than adults in their 50s.     

Naming ability across the adult life span

Abstract

Longitudinal performance on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) was evaluated in 53 normal subjects aged 30 to 79 who were each tested three times over a 7-year span. Naming performance showed a significant decline over time that was greatest for the oldest subjects. These results confirm that decline in naming is a real phenomenon in normal aging that cannot be attributable primarily to cohort effects. We conclude that the changes in naming ability across the life span reflect more than simply a breakdown in lexical retrieval and that perceptual and semantic processing may be implicated.     

The Effects of Bromides on Certain Psychological Test Performances

In a study of motor conflict resolution, 20 Ss in each of two groups, designated as high drive (HD) and low drive (LD) according to scores on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, had to resolve approach-approach (AP-AP), avoidance-avoidance (AV-AV), and double approach-avoidance (DAP-AV) conflicts. The HD group took significantly longer to resolve all three conflicts than did the LD group; however, resolution time for both drive groups did not differ for the AV-AV and DAP-AV conflicts, but was significantly faster for the AP-AP conflict. It was concluded that manifest anxiety was inversely related to performance in complex conflict situations, and several areas of follow up research were indicated.     

Preschoolers' Inhibition in Their Home: Relation to Temperament

Researchers assessed 58 preschoolers' reactions to an unfamiliar person and unfamiliar objects in their familiar home environment. Children participated in a 30-min procedure designed to elicit behavioral inhibition, including (a) a free-play period with a stranger present, (b) a structured interaction with the stranger, and (c) uncertainty-eliciting tasks. Behaviors representing the child's reactions toward the mother, stranger, and novel objects were coded. Mothers completed a temperament scale. Preschoolers exhibited behaviors indicative of inhibition toward unfamiliar social and nonsocial stimuli; behaviors remained stable across increasingly intrusive episodes. The approach/withdrawal component of temperament was related to behavioral inhibition. Individual differences in mood did not appear to be related to differences in inhibition. Parent reported temperament was related to researcher-observed behaviors.