Development of social perception: a conversation study of 6-, 12- and 36-month-old children

A conversation is made up of visual and auditory signals in a complex flow of events. What is the relative importance of these components for young children's ability to maintain attention on a conversation? In the present set of experiments the visual and auditory signals were disentangled in four filmed events. The visual events were either accompanied by the speech sounds of the conversation or by matched motor sounds and the auditory events by either the natural visual turn taking of the conversation or a matched turn taking of toy trucks. A cornea-reflection technique was used to record the gaze-pattern of subjects while they were looking at the films. Three age groups of typically developing children were studied; 6-month-olds, 1-year-olds and 3-year-olds. The results show that the children are more attracted by the social component of the conversation independent of the kind of sound used. Older children find spoken language more interesting than motor sound. Children look longer at the speaking agent when humans maintain the conversation. The study revealed that children are more attracted to the mouth than to the eyes area. The ability to make more predictive gaze shifts develops gradually over age.     

Serotonin blockade delays learning performance in a cooperative fish

Animals use learning and memorizing to gather information that will help them to make ecologically relevant decisions. Neuro-modulatory adjustments enable them to make associations between stimuli and appropriate behavior. A key candidate for the modulation of cooperative behavior is serotonin. Previous research has shown that modulation of the serotonergic system spontaneously affects the behavior of the cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus during interactions with so-called ‘client’ reef fish. Here, we asked whether shifts in serotonin function affect the cleaners’ associative learning abilities when faced with the task to distinguish two artificial clients that differ in their value as a food source. We found that the administration of serotonin 1A receptor antagonist significantly slowed learning speed in comparison with saline treated fish. As reduced serotonergic signaling typically enhances fear, we discuss the possibility that serotonin may affect how cleaners appraise, acquire information and respond to client-derived stimuli via manipulation of the perception of danger.     

Racial microaggressions in everyday life: implications for clinical practice

Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. Perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with racial/ethnic minorities. A taxonomy of racial microaggressions in everyday life was created through a review of the social psychological literature on aversive racism, from formulations regarding the manifestation and impact of everyday racism, and from reading numerous personal narratives of counselors (both White and those of color) on their racial/cultural awakening. Microaggressions seem to appear in three forms: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions; this article uses the White counselor--client of color counseling dyad to illustrate how they impair the development of a therapeutic alliance. Suggestions regarding education and training and research in the helping professions are discussed.     

A multilevel model of educational expectations of secondary school students in the United States

Using the Educational Longitudinal Survey of 2002, we investigate variation in factors that contribute to Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White students’ educational expectations. Separate multilevel models demonstrate group variation in student and school-level influences. Academic and school factors explained the most variation in White students’ expectations. School characteristics were least predictive of Black student expectations. For Hispanic students, the overall influence of family socioeconomic status (SES) was explained by school level SES. These results support research on student-level predictors of expectations and present new evidence of school-level predictors. The impact of academic track perceptions on expectations is established, as are the effects of certain experiences and school contexts, especially sports participation and Catholic/private school attendance. A model comparing all four groups supported the separate group models and also revealed that student-level factors have a weaker influence on Asians and high crime neighborhoods inflate the expectations of Hispanics but not similarly situated Black students.     

Anxiety, self-esteem and self-perceived satisfaction as predictors of health: differences between men and women

The main objective of this research is to analyze whether there are differences in physical health between men and women when considering their working situation. Three psychological variables are analyzed (anxiety, self-esteem and satisfaction) as well as several indicators of physical health for different working situations. The results seem to indicate that although women have worse health than men (when the group is analyzed in general), these differences vary when we take into account the working condition of the participants, and the differences even disappear. The psychological variables used in this survey only explain the variance of the subjective indicators of physical health, most of all, the Physiological Anxiety, which is responsible for the highest rate of the explained variance. The psychological variables predict women's physical health more than men's, what seems to indicate that women's physical health is closely related to psychological health.     

The effects of metabolic stress and vagotomy on emotional learning in an animal model of anxiety

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of the blood glucose (BG) level in emotional learning in the elevated plus maze (EPM), an animal model of anxiety. In Experiment 1, male Wistar rats were submitted to different EPM trial lengths (1- or 5-min). Blood samples were withdrawn before and after the maze exploration, through a polyethylene cannula chronically implanted into the jugular vein. In Experiment 2, the animals received either saline or 2-deoxy-D-glucose, a glucoprivic drug (2-DG, 250 or 500 mg kg(-1)) by i.p. route, 30 min before a 5-min EPM exposure and were retested in the maze (Trial1/Trial2 EPM procedure) 24 h later. In an independent group of rats, blood samples were withdrawn 0, 5, 15, and 30 min after 2-DG administration, through the jugular vein, to determine BG. In Experiment 3, the animals underwent a vagotomy and were tested in a Trial1/Trial2 EPM procedure four weeks later. The results showed that rats exploring the EPM for 5 min displayed increased fear and higher hyperglycemia than those exploring the EPM for 1 min. In addition, rats submitted to 5-min EPM Trial1 length displayed higher level of fear on Trial2, as well as higher percentage of shortening of the %Open arm entries and %Open arm time from Trial1 to Trial2, which characterizes the occurrence of emotional learning. In contrast, rats previously vagotomized or treated with 2-DG (500 mg kg(-1)) showed the same level of fear on both EPM trials and a low percentage of shortening, from Trial1 to Trial2, of the %Open arm entries and %Open arm time, indicating poor emotional learning. The data is discussed regarding the role of glycaemia in emotional learning in the EPM.     

Intellectual and cognitive profiles in patients affected by schizophrenia

Intellectual abilities display high heterogeneity in patients with schizophrenia that might depend on the interaction among neurodevelopmental processes, environmental factors and neurocognitive decline. This study aimed to disentangle the interplay between intellectual level, cognitive status and each cognitive domain, with a focus on speed-related abilities, also including pre-morbid factors. In details, by means of cluster analysis, we identified both in global sample of 452 patients affected by schizophrenia and in a subsample with high pre-morbid functioning, different profiles based on current intellectual level and global cognitive status, analysing the distribution of deficits in each cognitive domains between groups. Then, through regression models, we analysed the contribution of speed-related domains and global cognitive profile to each other cognitive function. Considering the whole sample, results highlight three groups (high, medium and low cognitive level), while among patients with high pre-morbid level, the heterogeneity was best captured by two groups (high and medium level). Still, within each group, a small to high percentage of patients achieved normal score in neurocognitive abilities depending on the cluster they belong to. Speed of processing and psychomotor coordination resulted impaired in all clusters, even in patients with high pre-morbid functioning. The regression analyses revealed significant effects of both cognitive profile and speed-dependent domains on the other cognitive abilities. This study confirms, in a large sample, previous data about the heterogeneity of intellectual and neurocognitive functioning in schizophrenia and highlights the main role of speed-dependent neurocognitive functioning, also as an important target of rehabilitation.