Measuring emotional intelligence in English and in the native language of students in South Africa

800 students in Grades 9 and 11 from schools in the Sekhukhuneland, Nebo, and Apel regions of the Limpopo Province of South Africa completed the English and the Pedi version of the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory in 2004 after the test was translated into Pedi language. Although there was some consistency between the answers to the same item in the two languages, it was low in general. Nuance differences in meaning probably contributed to the low consistency.     

Latent timing in human conditioned avoidance

Four experiments explored signal timing in human conditioned avoidance. Participants received discrimination training with different duration signals that announced the outcome (S+) or not (S-). Temporal discrimination and superposition of performance to S+ signals of different length (3, 6, or 9 s) was found both in within-subjects (Experiment 1a) and between-subjects (Experiment 1b) designs. S- signals also produced a temporal discrimination and superposition effect during a single test trial conducted after the meaning of the signals was reversed through instructions. Experiments 2a and 2b replicated these results in a situation in which (a) the durations of the S+ and S- signals were different (4.5 or 9 s) to prevent any temporal generalization between them (Experiment 2a), and (b) only S- signals were presented during training, precluding developing of inhibition to S- (Experiment 2b). These results show that participants time both S+ and S- signals in human conditioned avoidance, and they further suggest that the timing of a cue is independent of reinforcement.     

Developmental coordination disorder: exploration of a cerebellar hypothesis

This study explored the hypothesis of a specific cerebellar dysfunction in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD): motor adaptation. The performance of a group of children with DCD (3 girls and 6 boys) was compared to that of a control group (5 girls and 6 boys) on a measure of motor adaptation, the prism adaptation test (PAT). Children were between 6 years 11 months and 11 years 10 months of age. Between-group differences were only found for PAT variables related to throwing accuracy, the DCD group being more variable and less accurate than the control group. While no between-group differences were found for the adaptation variables, individual data analysis revealed that only three children in the DCD group obtained normal adaptation variables. While these findings do not confirm the hypothesis of a cerebellar dysfunction, they also do not refute it. It is possible that the poor throwing accuracy of the DCD group masked the findings for some of the PAT variables. Further exploration of the function of the cerebellum among children with DCD is needed.     

Teachers' knowledge, misconceptions, and lacks concerning Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

This study was designed to analyze the knowledge, misconceptions, and lacks about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a sample of 193 teachers, as a replication of the study carried by Sciutto, Terjesen and Bender in 2000. Teachers completed the Knowledge of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (KADDS) (Spanish version), adapted by the authors of this research, to measure knowledge of ADHD in three content areas: general knowledge, symptoms/diagnosis, and treatment. Results indicated an average of correct responses of 31.67, 63.88 and 40.46% in general knowledge, symptoms/diagnosis and treatment, respectively. Teachers displayed significantly more knowledge in the Symptoms/Diagnosis scale than in the other scales. Their knowledge correlated positively with: years of experience with hyperactive children, number of hyperactive pupils in their classrooms, and level of perceived self-efficacy. These findings are consistent with those obtained by Sciutto and colleagues.     

Tactile sensitivity of children: effects of frequency, masking, and the non-Pacinian I psychophysical channel

Tactile perception depends on the contributions of four psychophysical tactile channels mediated by four corresponding receptor systems. The sensitivity of the tactile channels is determined by detection thresholds that vary as a function of the stimulus frequency. It has been widely reported that tactile thresholds increase (i.e., sensitivity decreases) as a function of age. However, there is controversial evidence with regard to the progressive loss of sensitivity starting from childhood. In this study, the tactile thresholds of children (n=9, ages 7-11 years) were measured and compared with the thresholds of young adults (n=11, ages 21-27 years). The stimuli consisted of sinusoidal bursts of mechanical displacements, which were applied to the left index fingertips of the participants by using a cylindrical probe (base area=0.126 cm2) without a contactor surround. Absolute thresholds were measured at frequencies of 2, 10, 40, 100, 250, and 500 Hz without masking. The absolute thresholds decreased at high frequencies and were similar to data from the literature except for some discrepancy because of methodological differences. In addition, the threshold of the non-Pacinian I channel was measured at 40 Hz by elevating the thresholds of the Pacinian channel by forward masking. The effects of forward masking in children were similar to results in young adults. In conclusion, there were no significant differences between the tactile thresholds of children and those of young adults at key frequencies: 40 Hz for the Pacinian and non-Pacinian I channels and 250 Hz for the Pacinian channel. These findings contradict the hypothesis that there is gradual loss of tactile sensitivity starting from childhood to early adulthood. The loss of sensitivity due to aging probably is more abrupt and occurs at a later age.     

Correction to: Bilingualism Is Associated with a Delayed Onset of Dementia but Not with a Lower Risk of Developing it: a Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses

Neuropsychology Review - The original version of this article unfortunately contained the following mistakes.     

Absence of Ankle Stiffening While Standing in Focus and Cognitive Task Conditions in Older Adults

Abstract

Research suggests that an external focus or cognitive task may improve postural control. Removing attention from movement production may promote automaticity, or the tasks may promote ankle stiffening. To investigate these two theories, twenty older adults stood while performing baseline standing, internal focus, external focus, and two cognitive tasks. Changes in postural control occurred in external focus and cognitive task conditions compared to baseline and internal focus, while no change occurred in cocontraction indices. This suggests that an external focus and cognitive task can improve postural control in older adults. Since no change occurred in cocontraction indices across conditions, this suggests that stiffening cannot explain these changes. Instead, changes could be due to automaticity of sway.     

Viewing Cognitive Conflicts as Dilemmas: Implications for Mental Health

The idea that internal conflicts play a significant role in mental health has been extensively addressed in various psychological traditions, including personal construct theory. In the context of the latter, several measures of conflict have been operationalized using the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT). All of them capture the notion that change, although desirable from the viewpoint of a given set of constructs, becomes undesirable from the perspective of other constructs. The goal of this study is to explore the presence of cognitive conflicts in a clinical sample (n = 284) and compare it to a control sample (n = 322). It is also meant to clarify which among the different types of conflict studied provides a greater clinical value and to investigate its relationship to symptom severity (SCL-90-R). Of the types of cognitive conflict studied, implicative dilemmas were the only ones to discriminate between clinical and nonclinical samples. These dilemmas were found in 34% of the nonclinical sample and in 53% of the clinical sample. Participants with implicative dilemmas showed higher symptom severity, and those from the clinical sample displayed a higher frequency of dilemmas than those from the nonclinical sample.     

Is Moral Theory Harmful in Practice?—Relocating Anti-theory in Contemporary Ethics

In this paper I discuss the viability of the claim that at least some forms of moral theory are harmful for sound moral thought and practice. This claim was put forward by e.g. Elisabeth Anscombe (1981(1958)) and by Annette Baier, Peter Winch, D.Z Phillips and Bernard Williams in the 1970’s–1980’s. To this day aspects of it have found resonance in both post-Wittgensteinian and virtue ethical quarters. The criticism has on one hand contributed to a substantial change and broadening of the scope of analytic moral philosophy. On the other hand it is, at least in its most strongly anti-theoretical formulations, now broadly considered outdated and—to the extent that it is still defended—insensitive to the changes that have occurred within the field in the last 20–30 years. The task of this paper is to relocate the anti-theoretical critique into the field of analytic ethics today.     

Emotion Regulation: Antecedents and Well-Being Outcomes of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression in Cross-Cultural Samples

Habitual emotional state is a predictor of long-term health and life expectancy and successful emotion regulation is necessary for adaptive functioning. However, people are often unsuccessful in regulating their emotions. We investigated the use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in 489 university students in Norway, Australia, and the United States and how these strategies related to measures of well-being (affect, life satisfaction, and depressed mood). Data was collected by means of selfadministered questionnaires. The major aims of the study were to begin to explore the prevalence of use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression across gender, age and culture, possible antecedents of emotion regulation strategies, and the influence of emotion regulation upon well-being. Results showed that the use of emotion regulation strategies varied across age, gender and culture. Private self-consciousness (self-reflection and insight) was found to be a central antecedent for the use of cognitive reappraisal. Use of emotion regulation strategies predicted well-being outcomes, also after the effect of extraversion and neuroticism had been controlled for. Generally, increased use of cognitive reappraisal predicted increased levels of positive well-being outcomes, while increased use of expressive suppression predicted increased levels of negative well-being outcomes.