Semantic dementia and persisting Wernicke's aphasia: linguistic and anatomical profiles

Few studies have directly compared the clinical and anatomical characteristics of patients with progressive aphasia to those of patients with aphasia caused by stroke. In the current study we examined fluent forms of aphasia in these two groups, specifically semantic dementia (SD) and persisting Wernicke’s aphasia (WA) due to stroke. We compared 10 patients with SD to 10 age- and education-matched patients with WA in three language domains: language comprehension (single words and sentences), spontaneous speech and visual semantics. Neuroanatomical involvement was analyzed using disease-specific image analysis techniques: voxel-based morphometry (VBM) for patients with SD and overlays of lesion digitized lesion reconstructions in patients with WA. Patients with SD and WA were both impaired on tasks that involved visual semantics, but patients with SD were less impaired in spontaneous speech and sentence comprehension. The anatomical findings showed that different regions were most affected in the two disorders: the left anterior temporal lobe in SD and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus in chronic WA. This study highlights that the two syndromes classically associated with language comprehension deficits in aphasia due to stroke and neurodegenerative disease are clinically distinct, most likely due to distinct distributions of damage in the temporal lobe.     

Effect of early intervention on social interaction between mothers and preterm infants at 12 months of age: a randomized controlled trial

In a randomized controlled trial at 12-months of age, the effect of the Mother Infant Transaction Program was tested on social interaction between mothers and moderately and late preterm infants with gestational age ≥ 30.0 and <36 weeks. Ninety-three play sessions were videotaped and coded, 46 mothers-infants in the intervention group and 47 mothers-infants in the control group. The intervention mothers scored higher on maternal sensitivity/responsiveness (p = .05). Being a first-time mother was a moderator that enhanced the effects of the intervention. First-time mothers were more sensitive/responsive to their infant's cues (p = .01), and the dyads evinced higher level of synchrony (p = .02) as compared with experienced mothers. More positive mood was observed among their infants (p = .04). The findings suggest that the intervention contributes to better mother-infant interactions in moderately and late preterm infants of first-time mothers.     

On turning a blind eye and a deaf ear: society's response to the use of torture

The present paper undertakes an individual and group psychoanalytic examination of what happens to the citizens of a society that not only condones but authorizes torture. Drawing on the experiences of countries like those in Latin America during the period of the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, South Africa during the apartheid years, the Nazi era in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, and Eastern Europe in the Communist era, the author focuses on the denial that was necessary to maintain daily life. At the same time, such denial and its accompanying "compartmentalization" produced a citizenry that was both blind and deaf to the practices and ultimately supported the dangerous hypocrisy of the respective political regimes. The impact of such "blindness" and "deafness" to the use of torture and abrogation of basic civil rights on the psychological life of individuals and society is examined for its parallels to our current times within the United States.     

Evaluating the generalizability of a fear deficit in psychopathic African American offenders

Laboratory studies of psychopathy have yielded an impressive array of etiologically relevant findings. To date, however, attempts to demonstrate the generalizability of these findings to African American psychopathic offenders have been largely unsuccessful. The fear deficit has long been regarded as the hallmark of psychopathy, yet the generalizability of this association to African American offenders has not been systematically evaluated. In this study, we used an instructed fear paradigm and fear-potentiated startle to assess this deficit and the factors that moderate its expression in African American offenders. Furthermore, we conceptualized psychopathy using both a unitary and a two-factor model, and we assessed the constructs with both interview-based and self-report measures. Regardless of assessment strategy, results provided no evidence that psychopathy relates to fear deficits in African American offenders. Further research is needed to clarify whether the emotion deficits associated with psychopathy in European American offenders are applicable to African American offenders.     

词频、可预测性及合理性对目标词首次注视位置的影响

采用三项实验分别考察了目标词的词频、可预测性和合理性对读者眼动模式的影响。结果显示:(1)词频、可预测性和合理性对目标词语的凝视时间和总注视时间都有显著影响,但在首次注视时间上主效应不显著;(2)词频和可预测性不影响目标词的跳读率和再注视概率,而合理性对目标词的再注视概率产生显著的影响;(3)远注视点眼跳倾向于将首次注视位置着落于目标词的开端部位,而近注视点眼跳倾向于将首次注视着落于目标词的中央部位;词频、可预测性和合理性均不影响首次注视位置。     

Effects of task difficulty on sibling teaching in middle childhood

Teaching styles were investigated in 28 middle‐class sibling dyads (older sibling M age = 8.2 yrs; younger sibling M age =5.11 yrs) using two sets of block design tasks (five easy; five hard). Older siblings employed a greater number of strategies (i.e. physical demonstrations, scaffolding, corrective feedback) in the hard than in the easy tasks, thus demonstrating the ability to adjust teaching strategies according to task difficulty. Teachers also employed more frequent strategies when learners were younger indicating that they may be sensitive to developmental differences. In the hard tasks, learners responded positively to teacher guidance, but were also more likely to reject the teacher's help, perhaps demonstrating responsibility for their own learning. Findings are discussed in light of current social‐cognitive approaches highlighting the important roles of both teacher and learner during episodes of sibling teaching in middle childhood. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mothers' insightfulness regarding their children's internal worlds: The capacity underlying secure child–mother relationships

This article introduces a new method to assess mothers' insightfulness regarding their children's inner world. Maternal insightfulness involves the capacity to see things from the child's point of view, and is based on insight into the child's motives, a complex view of the child, and openness to new information about the child. Insightfulness is seen as the capacity underlying positive parenting and providing the context for secure child–parent attachment. In the assessment of insightfulness mothers view video segments of their interactions with their children and are subsequently interviewed regarding their children's and their own thoughts and feelings during the segments. This article describes how the maternal interviews are coded and provides vignettes of both insightful and noninsightful mothers. Empirical findings supporting the validity of the insightfulness assessment are reviewed, and the implications for children's development are discussed. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Resilience-Based Intervention with Underserved Children: Impact on Self-Regulation in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Schools

Resilience and emotion regulation are crucial for optimal psychosocial functioning in children. This study assessed whether a group-based intervention, the Resilience Builder Program (RBP), improved student report of emotion regulation when administered in elementary schools. Sixty-seven students aged 9–12 years (M = 10.50, SD =.74; 82.1% male, 98.5% ethnic/racial minority) were randomly assigned to receive the RBP intervention immediately or following a semester delay. Participants reported their emotional control using the How I Feel scale. Students who received the RBP reported a significant increase in their emotional control and a significant decrease in negative emotion compared to those students in the delayed treatment sample who had not yet received the intervention. Further, students indicated a strongly positive perception of the therapy.     

Economic cycles as a source of social influence on individuals

The current review summarizes emerging research in psychology and associated disciplines showing that the economic cycles exert social influence on individuals across a range of psychological domains. Most research on social influence focused on how factors in the proximal environment impact individuals, while influences emanating from the state of the economy as a whole received far less attention. I review the development of different intellectual traditions examining social influence to explain the relative lack of attention to economic cycles and position emerging work on the topic relative to past research. I then review research on how economic cycles influence individuals by focusing on influences relevant to intraindividual, interpersonal, and intergroup processes. A review of this work shows that the understanding of core phenomena of interest to social psychology (e.g., attributions, altruism, and racial tensions) can be meaningfully extended by studying the complex interplay between the economic system and the psychology of individuals embedded within it. This stream of research also uncovers mechanisms through which economic cycles generate or amplify problems for the broader society, which I propose is both the key reason why more work on the topic is needed as well as the key direction for future work.