Mexican American Adolescents’ Cultural Orientation, Externalizing Behavior and Academic Engagement: The Role of Traditional Cultural Values

This study of 598 7th grade students of Mexican origin examined the role of traditional cultural values as a mediator of the effects of immigrant status, Mexican cultural orientation and Anglo cultural orientation on adolescent externalizing behavior and academic engagement. Immigrant status of adolescents and their maternal caregivers uniquely predicted increased Mexican cultural orientation and decreased Anglo cultural orientation, and both Mexican and Anglo cultural orientation related positively to adolescents’ endorsement of traditional cultural values. Endorsement of traditional cultural values related, in turn, to decreased externalizing behaviors and increased academic engagement and these findings were replicated across adolescent and teacher report of these two outcomes. Tests of mediation provided further evidence to support these pathways. Findings support the central importance of traditional cultural values as a protective resource that explains why immigrant youth exhibit fewer externalizing problems and increased academic engagement when compared to their second and third generation peers.     

Interpersonal relations as a source of risk of mobbing in the local police

Social relations in the workplace are one of the main sources of risk for the onset of mobbing. In this work, we analyzed, through the perceived social climate, the influence of interpersonal relations on the characterization of the processes of mobbing, in a sample of local police (N = 235). In particular, the policemen and women's opinions of the quality of the personal relations among the group members and the treatment they receive from the command posts were assessed. The results of the study show that the development of guidelines of social interaction based on discrimination and abuse of authority are predicting variables of mobbing in this group.     

7～9岁儿童失言理解与执行功能的关系

为了说明学龄儿童心理理论与执行功能的关系,研究采用失言理解、威斯康星卡片分类和汉诺塔任务分别考察了90名7—9岁儿童的心理理论和执行功能。结果表明,失言理解与抑制-转换能力相关显著（r=0．34,P〈0．01）,但是与计划能力相关不显著（r=0．06,P〉0．05）。在控制年龄后,失言理解与抑制-转换能力的相关仍然显著（r=0．29,P〈0．05）。研究结果说明,学龄儿童心理理论与执行功能的相关模式与学龄前儿童完全一致,提示心理理论与执行功能的相关关系从学龄前延续到了学龄阶段。     

The Family Life and Adjustment of Hmong American Sons and Daughters

We examined gender differences in intergenerational family conflict and its associations with psychological and academic adjustment using a United States sample of 121 Hmong American first-year college students. Hmong women and men reported similar levels of family conflict. Family conflict was related to psychological distress, above and beyond neuroticism. Gender moderated the relationship between family conflict and substance usage and academic performance. For Hmong college men, higher family conflict was associated with lower rates of smoking and higher rates of completing the first year of college. For Hmong college women, higher family conflict was associated with greater likelihood of alcohol consumption in their lifetime.     

Customer Satisfaction and Switching Barriers: Effects on Repurchase Intentions,Positive Recommendations,and Price Tolerance1

The current article attempts to extend previous research by testing the effects of customer satisfaction and 2 types of switching barriers—negative and positive—on key manifestations of attitudinal loyalty (repurchase intentions, positive recommendations, and price tolerance). The work also studies whether the effect of customer satisfaction is linear or nonlinear. Finally, the paper analyzes whether switching barriers moderate the relative strength of the customer satisfaction/attitudinal loyalty relation. To this end, a total of 554 private mobile‐phone customers were surveyed. The distinction between negative and positive switching barriers is important to draw theoretical and managerial implications.     

Common toads (Bufo arenarum) learn to anticipate and avoid hypertonic saline solutions

Toads (Bufo arenarum) were exposed to pairings between immersion in a neutral saline solution (i.e., one that caused no significant variation in fluid balance), followed by immersion in a highly hypertonic saline solution (i.e., one that caused water loss). In Experiment 1, solutions were presented in a Pavlovian conditioning arrangement. A group receiving a single neutral-highly hypertonic pairing per day exhibited a greater conditioned increase in heart rate than groups receiving either the same solutions in an explicitly unpaired fashion, or just the neutral solution. Paired toads also showed a greater ability to compensate for water loss across trials than that of the explicitly unpaired group. Using the same reinforcers and a similar apparatus, Experiment 2 demonstrated that toads learn a one-way avoidance response motivated by immersion in the highly hypertonic solution. Cardiac and avoidance conditioning are elements of an adaptive system for confronting aversive situations involving loss of water balance.     

特定句法提示对3－4岁儿童错误信念理解的影响

通过在错误信念任务中,为儿童提供关于错误信念表征的特定句法,考察这种句法理解对儿童的错误信念理解成绩是否有促进作用。124名3-4岁幼儿参加实验,每个年龄组幼儿随机分配到零级提示,一级提示和二级提示等三个句法提示条件组,并完成4个错误信念任务。结果发现,一级提示条件和二级提示条件下的错误信念理解成绩显著高于零级提示条件下的错误信念理解成绩,而一级和二级两种提示条件之间没有显著差异。句法提示对不同的错误信念任务的影响是相同的,对错误信念的预测问题和解释问题的影响模式是一致的。表明对错误信念表征的特定句法提示,有效促进了儿童的错误信念成绩,提示这种句法结构可能有助于儿童的错误信念理解     

Mutation at the TrkB PLC{gamma}-docking site affects hippocampal LTP and associative learning in conscious mice

Previous in vitro studies have characterized the electrophysiological properties and molecular events associated with long-term potentiation (LTP), but as yet there are no in vivo data from molecular-level dissection that directly identify LTP as the biological substrate for learning and memory. Understanding whether the molecular pathways required for learning are also those generating LTP when measured directly on the relevant circuit of a learning animal is clearly important, although so far has proved technically difficult. Here, for the first time, we combine highly defined genetic mouse models with behavior and in vivo recordings. We recorded the activity-dependent changes taking place at the CA3-CA1 synapses during the acquisition and extinction of a simple form of an associative learning task in mice carrying point mutations on specific docking sites of TrkB receptors (trkB(SHC), trkB(PLC)). The learning task consisted of a classical eyeblink conditioning using a trace paradigm. The conditioned stimulus (CS) consisted of a tone and was followed by a periorbital electrical shock as an unconditioned stimulus (US). The US started 500 msec after the end of the CS. We show that a single pulse presented to the Schaffer collateral-commissural pathway during the CS-US interval evoked a monosynaptic field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) at the CA1 pyramidal cells, with a slope linearly related to learning evolution in controls and trkB(SHC) mutants, but the relationship was impaired in trkB(PLC) mice. These data support a link between the PLCgamma-docking site downstream of TrkB and the activity-dependent synaptic changes evoked at the CA3-CA1 synapses during associative learning in conscious mice, and indicate that TrkB PLCgamma-site-activated molecular pathway(s) underlie both associative learning and LTP triggered at the CA3-CA1 synapse.     

The ameliorating effect of oroxylin A on scopolamine-induced memory impairment in mice

Oroxylin A is a flavonoid and was originally isolated from the root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi., one of the most important medicinal herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the ameliorating effects of oroxylin A on memory impairment using the passive avoidance test, the Y-maze test, and the Morris water maze test in mice. Drug-induced amnesia was induced by administering scopolamine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or diazepam (1 mg/kg, i.p.). Oroxylin A (5 mg/kg) significantly reversed cognitive impairments in mice by passive avoidance and the Y-maze testing (P<.05). Oroxylin A also improved escape latencies in training trials and increased swimming times and distances within the target zone of the Morris water maze (P<.05). Moreover, the ameliorating effects of oroxylin A were antagonized by both muscimol and diazepam (0.25 mg/kg, i.p., respectively), which are GABA(A) receptor agonists. Furthermore, oroxylin A (100 microM) was found to inhibit GABA-induced inward Cl(-) current in a single cortical neuron. These results suggest that oroxylin A may be useful for the treatment of cognitive impairments induced by cholinergic dysfunction via the GABAergic nervous system.     

识别名人与陌生人面孔的功能磁共振成像

探讨名人与陌生人身份判断的脑功能。6名被试参加实验,运用功能磁共振技术采集数据,AFNI软件进行统计处理。实验结果显示,名人面孔身份识别主要激活了额颞区和梭状回等,陌生人面孔识别主要激活了脑岛和梭状回。实验表明,熟悉名人面孔与陌生人面孔识别有其不同的区域;都有梭状回的视觉加工,但是激活的程度不同。