Preventive group psychotherapy for at-risk infants and their mothers

There is increased evidence that infants who receive poor quality social stimulation from their primary caregiver are at risk for later developmental difficulties. This paper describes a preventive intervention for mother-infant dyads exhibiting impaired patterns of social interaction. An impaired relationship with the primary caregiver has been found to be associated with social and emotional deficits in early childhood as well as with significant psychopathology in adulthood. The intervention consisted of group treatment of mothers and their infants. Each group session has 4 subsections which, together, were directed towards improving the mothers' ability to relate in a stimulating and nurturant manner to their children. Types of intervention included didactic instruction, modeling, and interpretation of the infant's behavior. Qualitative data suggested that the group intervention has positive effects on the mother-infant dyads.     

PERSONAL SPACE AMONGST ARABS AND AMERICANS*

Personal space zones were examined amongst Arab and American university students by jointly varying degree of acquaintanceship and sex of subject. Overall, there were few differences between Arab and American males. Arab females, however, showed dramatic differences in comparison to American males and females and to Arab males. Arab females kept male friends very far away relative to female friends. Indeed, male friends were kept almost as far away as male strangers.     

Attributes and roles assigned to characters in children's writing: Sex differences and sex-role perceptions

This research examined the creative writing of 180 elementary school children for evidence of sex difference and sex-role perceptions. Stories were analyzed for frequency of male and female characters, attributes, and roles. Writers were equally divided by sex and into three age groups—grades 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6. Results suggest that the total number of characters, roles, and attributes was equivalent. However, the distribution of male and female characters, roles, and attributes differed with male and female writers. Female writers included significantly more female characters and assigned more attributes and roles to these characters. Nevertheless, in the stories of both male and female writers, there was a predominance of male characters and assignment of attributes and roles to male characters. The findings support the development and implementation of a nonsexist curriculum.     

Woman and athlete: Toward role consistency

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of a general population toward female participation in sports and to replicate a previous study. The two areas investigated were (1) the perception of enhancement or detraction of femininity by girls' participation in athletics, and (2) whether different sports elicited different attitudes towards female participation in athletics. A town in Iowa was sampled. The results indicated that, in general, participation in sports neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. Furthermore, most of the people wanted their daughters to play basketball, even though it neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. The data suggest that traditional, rigid sex-role stereotypes were transcended and the opportunity set was dominant.This study was partially funded by a grant from the University of Iowa Graduate School. Appreciation is expressed to Dr. Eldon Snyder for graciously sharing his instrument and recent work.     

Conditioned and unconditioned caloric compensation: Evidence for self-regulation of food intake in young children

The purpose of these two experiments was to determine (a) whether young children can be responsive to caloric density cues in regulating their food intake, (b) whether such cues can be associatively conditioned to organoleptic cues in foods, and (c) to obtain evidence regarding which of the many cues available are involved as conditioned stimuli. In Experiment 1 participants were eighteen 3- to 5-year-old children, who were seen for a series of pairs of conditioning trials, followed by extinction test trials. Each trial consisted of a two-part snack: approximately 100 ml of a pudding preload (chocolate or vanilla; high or low caloric density) followed after a delay by ad-lib consumption of snack foods (cookies and crackers). In extinction trials, flavors previously paired with high- or low-caloric density preloads during conditioning were presented in isocaloric intermediate density preloads. Results indicated that 14 of 18 children showed unconditioned caloric compensation on the first pair of conditioning trials; 16 of 18 children showed compensation following the second pair of trials, and 12 of these 16 subjects continued to show this consumption pattern during extinction. Consumption was significantly greater following the low calorie paired flavor than following the high calorie paired flavor during extinction. Experiment 2 (N = 10) replicated these findings, and uncorrelating preload and snack food flavors indicated that flavor cues in the preloads can serve as conditioned stimuli. Children showed both initial responsiveness to caloric density and evidence for associative conditioning of food cues to the physiological consequences of eating. These results provide initial evidence for a mechanism allowing the child to learn to anticipate the caloric consequences of familiar foods and regulate food intake accordingly.     

Clauses and the semantic representation of words

When a sentence with more than one clause is processed, words of the first clause become less available for recall or recognition once the clause boundary has been passed. One common interpretation of this observation is that the representation of a given word shifts from a predominantly surface form (e.g., phonological or lexical) to a semantic form, after the clause boundary. Two experiments that test that interpretation are reported. In the first experiment, two-clause spoken sentences were followed by spoken word or picture probes. Pictures were intended to provide a fast semantic match to probed words, but a slow surface match. Although response times exhibited a robust main effect of the clause position of the probe, no interaction with probe type was found. Similar results were obtained in a second experiment that compared pictures with written word probes. The faster response to picture than to word probes in the second experiment indicates that subjects did not covertly name the picture, but made a semantic match (as intended). These observations suggest the following reinterpretation of earlier sentence memory experiments: Words in the most recent clause of a sentence are more available than words in an earlier clause because their semantic representations are more active, not because their surface representations are more active.     

The interaction of pronunciation rules and lexical representations in reading aloud

Two experiments examined the role of pronunciation rules and of lexical information in pronouncing letter strings. In Experiment 1, subjects pronounced pseudowords varying in the strength of the rules needed to pronounce them, as well as in the availability of a lexical model. In Experiment 2, the stimuli were words varying in rule strength and in usage frequency. The pronunciation times from both experiments displayed an interaction between rules and lexical information: When the rules necessary were strong, the relative availability of lexical information was less important than when the rules were weak. The results were discussed with respect to both traditional dual-process models of pronunciation and models proposing the use of lexical analogies.     

Recent stressful life events and young children's school adjustment

A group of 211 first-to fourth-grade children who had experienced one or more recent stressful life events were compared to a demographically matched sample of 211 children who had not experienced such events on measures of school adjustment problems and competencies. Stressful life events were found to be associated with the presence of more serious school adjustment problems and fewer competencies. Those associations were strongest for children who had experienced multiple recent stressful events. The importance of preventive interventions for this at-risk group was emphasized and future research steps in the area were considered.