Two Egocentric Sources of the Decision to Vote: The Voter's Illusion and the Belief in Personal Relevance

The decision to vote in a national election requires a choice between serving a social good and satisfying one's self-interest. Viewed as a cooperative response in a social dilemma, casting a vote seems irrational because it cannot have a discernible effect on the electoral outcome. The findings of two studies with undergraduate samples suggest that some people vote not because they set aside self-interest, but because they expect their own behaviors to matter. Two psychological processes contribute to this belief: the voter's illusion (the projection of one's own choice between voting and abstention to supporters of the same party or candidate), and the belief in personal relevance (the belief that one's own vote matters regardless of its predictive value for the behavior of others). The rationality of these two egocentric mechanisms depends on the normative framework invoked. Their relevance for actual voting behavior is indicated by their ability to account for four types of variation in turnout rates.     

Stuck on semantics: Processing of irrelevant object-scene inconsistencies modulates ongoing gaze behavior

People have an amazing ability to identify objects and scenes with only a glimpse. How automatic is this scene and object identification? Are scene and object semantics—let alone their semantic congruity—processed to a degree that modulates ongoing gaze behavior even if they are irrelevant to the task at hand? Objects that do not fit the semantics of the scene (e.g., a toothbrush in an office) are typically fixated longer and more often than objects that are congruent with the scene context. In this study, we overlaid a letter T onto photographs of indoor scenes and instructed participants to search for it. Some of these background images contained scene-incongruent objects. Despite their lack of relevance to the search, we found that participants spent more time in total looking at semantically incongruent compared to congruent objects in the same position of the scene. Subsequent tests of explicit and implicit memory showed that participants did not remember many of the inconsistent objects and no more of the consistent objects. We argue that when we view natural environments, scene and object relationships are processed obligatorily, such that irrelevant semantic mismatches between scene and object identity can modulate ongoing eye-movement behavior.     

Children's understanding of belief as a normative concept

The variety of accounts of theory of mind development, arising from distinct theoretical perspectives, have focused on children's causal-explanatory views on the mind and have not developed accounts of children's normative judgments of the mental domain. This review maintains that such a focus is unfortunate and leaves our understanding of belief as a concept incomplete. First, by presenting an alternative framework that treats belief as a normative concept, this account discusses the central importance of children's understanding of epistemic justification and their appreciation of the normative significance of others’ reasons for belief. Next, this review of the relevant theory of mind literature proposes a new way of thinking about the findings of various domains in this field and gives particular attention to prior work on false belief, origins or sources of belief, and the distinctions between fantastical and epistemic states. On the basis of this review, it is concluded that in order to accurately assess the development of the concept of belief, further research is required on children's views of how beliefs ought to be formed, their evaluation of justified and unjustified believers, and the notions of duty or responsibility they associate with epistemic agents.     

Predictors of the Peer Acceptance of Children with Diabetes: Social Behavior and Disease Severity

Objective. Investigated illness severity (medical control, disease impact, obviousness) and social behavior style as predictors of the peer acceptance of children with diabetes. Method. Sixty-five children (10–12.5 years old) with diabetes and their parents, teachers, and physicians participated. Physician ratings and laboratory tests indicated medical control. Parents and children reported disease impact and teachers rated disease obviousness. Children and teachers rated social behavior. Teachers reported peer acceptance. Results. Consistent with hypotheses, favorable social behavior positively predicted acceptance and disease impact negatively predicted acceptance; medical control did not relate to acceptance. Disease obviousness and social behavior interacted to predict acceptance. Children with more obvious disease were not stigmatized by unfavorable social behavior. Conclusions. Aspects of disease severity and social behavior influence peer acceptance and may be appropriate predictors and targets for remediation of peer problems.     

A Quantitative Meta-analysis of Olfactory Dysfunction in Epilepsy

Neuropsychology Review - Olfactory dysfunction in epilepsy is well-documented in several olfactory domains. However, the clinical specificity of these deficits remains unknown. The aim of this...     

Moderating Effects of Mathematics Anxiety on the Effectiveness of Explicit Timing

Explicit timing is an empirically validated intervention to increase problem completion rates by exposing individuals to a stopwatch and explicitly telling them of the time limit for the assignment. Though explicit timing has proven to be effective for groups of students, some students may not respond well to explicit timing based on factors such as mathematics anxiety. The present study examined the effects of explicit timing on mathematics performance for 81 fourth and fifth graders with differing levels of mathematics anxiety. Students completed more digits correct during explicit timing as compared to baseline and control. Additionally, results indicated there was a significant linear relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance. Students with low and medium mathematics anxiety completed more digits correct with higher accuracy than students with high mathematics anxiety. Lastly, digits correct and accuracy remained consistent during baseline, control, and explicit timing when condition and anxiety level were both considered. Educational professionals must be cognizant not only of academic variables impacting students learning, but also mental health variables, such as mathematics anxiety, in order to provide a comprehensive treatment package capable of ameliorating academic difficulties.     

Relation Between Aggression Exposure During Youth and Later Resting Skin Conductance Levels

Recent research efforts have focused on examining the relationship between environmental and physiological factors to better understand the effect that childhood chronic stress might have on adult health outcomes. This study examines the relation between childhood parental aggression exposure and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), as measured by resting skin conductance levels (SCLs). Participants (N = 155) completed retrospective self-report measures of childhood exposure to interparental aggression and physically aggressive parenting. The 2-way interaction between exposure to physically aggressive parenting and interparental aggression accounted for unique variance in adulthood SCL. Sex differences emerged in this relationship. Results suggest that the type of aggression exposure might play an important role in the relationship between stressors in youth and resting SNS activity in adulthood. Future research areas are identified, including the need to examine plasticity in the SNS depending on the age of experienced aggression and the age of intervention.     

Electronic Visibility Management of Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Identities and Relationships in Young Adulthood

Visibility management is a process the lesbian, gay, and bisexual-identifying (LGB) people use to manage the extent to which they will identify (“out”) themselves in various contexts such as school, work, family, and home-based settings. The purpose of this study then was to explore LGB persons' experiences of electronic visibility in online environments such as social networking sites and the manner in which LGB persons most commonly monitor their electronic visibility as individuals and in couple relationships. Analysis of the survey responses of 61 young adult participants indicated that this sample felt more positive about their identities overall compared with a national sample and that they frequently reported their sexual orientation online, most often on Facebook. In addition, participants reported online disclosure did not have an effect on their relationship satisfaction. Discussion and implications for research and clinical practice are presented.     

Speech and language functions that require a functioning Broca's area

A number of previous studies have indicated that Broca's area has an important role in understanding and producing syntactically complex sentences and other language functions. If Broca's area is critical for these functions, then either infarction of Broca's area or temporary hypoperfusion within this region should cause impairment of these functions, at least while the neural tissue is dysfunctional. The opportunity to identify the language functions that depend on Broca's area in a particular individual was provided by a patient with hyperacute stroke who showed selective hypoperfusion, with minimal infarct, in Broca's area, and acutely impaired production of grammatical sentences, comprehension of semantically reversible (but not non-reversible) sentences, spelling, and motor planning of speech articulation. When blood flow was restored to Broca's area, as demonstrated by repeat perfusion weighted imaging, he showed immediate recovery of these language functions. The identification of language functions that were impaired when Broca's area was dysfunctional (due to low blood flow) and recovered when Broca's area was functional again, provides evidence for the critical role of Broca's area in these language functions, at least in this individual.     

Influences on communicative development at 24 months of age: child temperament, behaviour problems, and maternal factors

Within a longitudinal study using a large representative, community sample of infants recruited at mean age 8 months, we examined influences on infant communication development at 24 months, including child gender, shy temperament, behavioural and emotional problems, and several variables relating to maternal psychosocial health. On most developmental measures girls were in advance of boys and they also showed shyer temperament. Child gender, shy temperament and maternal psychosocial indices were associated with both vocabulary development as measured by the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI), and communication and symbolic development assessed via the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales-Developmental Profile (CSBS) at 24 months. No prediction was found using scores at 8 or 12 months, although moderate stability between measures between 12 and 24 months was evident. Predictors of 24 month outcomes were all concurrently measured variables, and included temperamental shyness, but very little variance in communication outcomes was explained. Children whose mothers were experiencing clinical levels of depression and life difficulties reported more child behavioural problems.