Parenting in Hawaii: Three cultural groups at the beach

This study shows systematic differences in parenting behaviour across three cultural groups in Hawaii. Japanese-, Caucasian- and Hawaiian-American parents (N =149) are observed as they interact with their young children at the beach. The observed families come to the beach in different groupings. Hawaiian groups are the largest, many consisting of five or more people. Most Japanese families resemble the ‘typical’ nuclear family: two parents and one or two children. More Caucasian and Hawaiian parents come to the beach alone with their children than do Japanese-American parents. Parents in the three groups spend their time differently. Japanese-American parents focus almost exclusively on their children. They play with, watch or take care of them for most of the observed time. They rarely engage in solitary activities, such as reading or sunbathing, or in social activities, such as talking with each other. Caucasian parents engage in solitary activities more frequently. They encourage children to entertain and care for themselves. Hawaiian parents interact extensively with other adults, and Hawaiian children play among themselves without prompting. The Hawaiian parents interact less frequently with their children than do parents in the other groups. These findings are discussed in terms of cultural differences in views of the parenting role, the range of people socializing children and childrearing emphases on independence vs dependence, aloneness vs social involvement and innovation vs imitation.     

‘What's New?’ at the Dinner Table: Family Dynamics During Mealtimes in Two Cultural Groups in Hawaii

This study shows systematic differences in how parents structure mealtime discourse in two cultural groups in Hawaii. Fifty-nine families were videotaped during week-day evening meals at home. Thirty of the families were middle-class Japanese-American (JA) families; 29 were middle-class Caucasian-American (CA) families. Evening meals in the Caucasian-American homes in this sample are clear-cut events. Families sit at tables and talk throughout the meal. Children are encouraged to describe their experiences, wishes, plans and perceptions. Parents cue children to focus on distinctive aspects of their realities, to talk about ‘what's new’, or unfamiliar to the audience. Evening meals in the Japanese-American homes are less focused on formal discussion. Half the families watch television while eating; others play games, cook, listen to music, talk on the phone or play with babies or pets during dinner. JA family members talk to each other less and structure their discourse differently. Rather than report on distinct, individual experiences, JA family members co-narrate and comment on what they are collectively doing. The observed differences are related to cultural differences in construals of self and other. The cultural importance of being able to clearly communicate individual realities across separate beings is seen in the CA mealtimes. Appreciation of smooth, group process and coordinated belonging is seen in the JA evening meals.     

Context, not conflict, drives cognitive control

Theories of cognitive control generally assume that perceived conflict acts as a signal to engage inhibitory mechanisms that suppress subsequent conflicting information. Crucially, an absence of conflict is not regarded as being a relevant signal for cognitive control. Using a cueing, a priming, and a Simon task, we provide evidence that conflict does not have this unique signal status: Encountering a conflict does not lead to behavioral adjustments on subsequent conflict trials, whereas encountering a nonconflict trial does lead to behavioral adjustments on subsequent nonconflict trials. We propose that this apparent role-reversal can be explained by a mechanism that responds to both the presence and the absence of conflict, down-regulating the visuomotor system following conflict, and up-regulating it following nonconflict.     

Amnesic effect of GMP depends on its conversion to guanosine

Extracellular guanine-based purines, namely the nucleotides GTP, GDP, GMP and the nucleoside guanosine, exert important neuroprotective and neuromodulator roles in the central nervous system, which may be related to inhibition of the glutamatergic neurotransmission activity. In this study, we investigated GMP effects on mice inhibitory avoidance performance and the dependence on its conversion to guanosine for such effect, by using the ecto-5'-nucleotidase specific inhibitor AOPCP. We also investigated if this conversion occurs in the central nervous system or peripherally, and if guanosine and GMP affect nociception by the tail-flick test. I.p. GMP or guanosine (7.5 mg/kg) or i.c.v. GMP (480 nmol) pretraining administration was amnesic for the inhibitory avoidance task. I.c.v. AOPCP (1 nmol) administration completely reversed the amnesic effect of i.c.v. GMP, but not of i.p. GMP, indicating that peripheral conversion of GMP to guanosine is probably relevant to this effect. AOPCP alone did not interfere with the performance. Furthermore, tail-flick measurement was unaffected by i.p. GMP and guanosine, suggesting that the amnesic effect of both purines was not due to some antinociceptive effect against the footshock used in the task. All these data together, in accordance to those previously observed in studies involving glutamate uptake and seizures reinforce the idea that guanosine is the specific extracellular guanine-based purines effector and indicate that its conversion occurs not only in the central nervous system but also peripherally.     

Eye movements during mental rotation of nonmirrored and mirrored three-dimensional abstract objects

Eye movements were recorded while participants (N = 56) rotated mirrored and nonmirrored abstract, three-dimensional object pairs into different orientations to assess whether there were oculomotoric differences in fixation switches between mirrored and nonmirrored objects and how an object's plane and depth angle affected visual processing. Compared to other studies, especially depth rotation tasks were responsible for a difference in the sum of fixation switches. This difference seemed to be caused by an increase in incongruent fixation switches, while congruent ones remained stable. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.