Developments in source monitoring: the role of thinking of others

Adults' source judgments are more accurate when they focus on speakers' emotions than when adults focus on their own emotions. Focusing on speakers may lead to better source memory because it encourages processing of the perceptual characteristics of the source and binding of that information to the content of what is being said. The purpose of the current work was to evaluate whether young children's source memory similarly benefits from this outward encoding focus and whether this effect changes developmentally. In Experiment 1, when 4- and 5-year-olds heard an audiotape of two dissimilar speakers, only the 5-year-olds showed better source memory when asked to adopt an other-focus. In Experiment 2, when 4- and 5-year-olds watched a videotape of two similar speakers, the same pattern was found. However, in Experiment 3, when 4-year-olds watched a videotape of two dissimilar speakers (a more optimal encoding condition in which 5-year-olds showed ceiling performance), 4-year-olds benefited from taking an other-focus during encoding. Overall, the data suggest that the benefit for source memory of focusing on another person develops over the preschool years.     

Couple dynamics of change-resistant smoking: toward a family consultation model

Smoking is North America's leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Although effective cessation treatments exist, their overall effect is modest, and they rarely reach the high-risk, health-compromised smokers who need them most. Surprisingly, despite evidence that marital relationship variables predict the success of cessation efforts, family systems ideas have had little impact on current intervention research. We review and critique the cessation literature from a systemic viewpoint, illustrate two couple-interaction patterns relevant to the maintenance of high-risk smoking, and outline a family-consultation (FAMCON) intervention for couples in which at least one partner continues to smoke despite having heart or lung disease. Taking into account ironic processes and symptom-system fit, FAMCON focuses on the immediate social context of smoking, aiming to interrupt well-intentioned "solutions" that ironically feed back to keep smoking going, and to help clients realign important relationships in ways not organized around tobacco usage. Currently in its pilot-testing phase, FAMCON is an adjunctive, complementary approach designed to include collaboration with primary-care physicians and to make smokers more amenable to other, evidence-based cessation strategies.     

Five commandments for APA

The author delineates 5 rules of scientific review and publishing and argues that these norms need to be upheld even when to do so proves politically difficult. The 5 rules are: (a) Scientific articles should be judged only by their logic and the strength of their evidence; (b) the results of a competent peer review should be accepted; (c) disagreements with scientific articles should be aired in peer reviewed commentaries; (d) efforts to judge scientific articles on the basis of political concerns should be resisted; and (e) the explicit rules and normative expectations of peer review should not be arbitrarily altered.     

Children's use of landmarks: implications for modularity theory

Previous studies have shown that disoriented children use the geometric features of the environment to reorient, but the results have not consistently demonstrated whether children can combine such information with landmark information. Results indicating that they cannot suggest the existence of a geometric module for reorientation. However, results indicating that children can use geometric information in combination with landmark information challenge the modularity interpretation. An uncontrolled variable in the studies yielding conflicting results has been the size of the experimental space. In the present studies, which tested young children in spaces of two different sizes, the size of the space affected their ability to use available landmark information. In the small space, the children did not use the landmark to reorient, but in the large space they did. The ability of children to use landmarks in combination with geometric information raises important questions about the existence of an encapsulated geometric module.     

Sensory sensitivity after acquired brain injury: A systematic review

Patients with acquired brain injury frequently report experiencing sensory stimuli as abnormally under- (sensory hyposensitivity) or overwhelming (sensory hypersensitivity). Although they can negatively impact daily functioning, these symptoms are poorly understood. To provide an overview of the current evidence on atypical sensory sensitivity after acquired brain injury, we conducted a systematic literature review. The primary aim of the review was to investigate the behavioural and neural mechanisms that are associated with self-reported sensory sensitivity. Studies were included when they studied sensory sensitivity in acquired brain injury populations, and excluded when they were not written in English, consisted of non-empirical research, did not study human subjects, studied pain, related sensory sensitivity to peripheral injury or studied patients with a neurodegenerative disorder, meningitis, encephalitis or a brain tumour. The Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for appropriate studies. A qualitative synthesis of the results of the 81 studies that were included suggests that abnormal sensory thresholds and a reduced information processing speed are candidate behavioural mechanisms of atypical subjective sensory sensitivity after acquired brain injury. Furthermore, there was evidence for an association between subjective sensory sensitivity and structural grey or white matter abnormalities, and to functional abnormalities in sensory cortices. However, further research is needed to explore the causation of atypical sensory sensitivity. In addition, there is a need for the development of adequate diagnostic tools. This can significantly advance the quantity and quality of research on the prevalence, aetiology, prognosis and treatment of these symptoms.     

Change and continuity in early spatial development: claiming the “radical middle”

Debate over change and continuity in cognitive development has revolved around questions of qualitative transitions versus quantitative and incremental improvement. Piaget’s stage theory is the best-known example of a change/qualitative transition approach, while both nativism and empiricism have, for very different reasons, taken a continuity/quantitative increment stance. Recent proposals have, however, attempted to transcend this stark dichotomy, in a move that can be termed claiming the “radical middle.” This paper presents two examples of developmental analyses in spatial development. These two transitions are characterizable as either qualitative or quantitative, but are best thought of as both. A position of this kind allows for much more precise answers to practical questions about issues such as sensitive periods than would otherwise be possible.     

The Shape of Things: The Origin of Young Children’s Knowledge of the Names and Properties of Geometric Forms

How do toddlers learn the names of geometric forms? Previous work suggests that preschoolers have fragmentary knowledge and that defining properties are not understood until well into elementary school. The current study investigated when children first begin to understand shape names and how they apply those labels to unusual instances. We tested 25- and 30-month-old children’s (N = 30 each) understanding of names for canonical shapes (commonly encountered instances, e.g., equilateral triangles), noncanonical shapes (more irregular instances, e.g., scalene triangles), and embedded shapes (shapes within a larger picture, e.g., triangular slices of pizza). At 25 months, children knew very few names, including those for canonical shapes. By 30 months, however, children had acquired more shape names and were beginning to apply them to some of the less typical instances of the shapes. Possible mechanisms driving this initial development of shape knowledge and implications of that development for school readiness are explored.     

Rumination in migraine: Mediating effects of brooding and reflection between migraine and psychological distress

Objective: The relationship between migraine and psychological distress has been consistently reported in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. We hypothesised that a stable tendency to perseverative thoughts such as rumination would mediate the relationship between migraine and psychological distress.

Design and Main Outcomes Measures: Self-report questionnaires measuring depressive rumination, current psychological distress and migraine symptoms in two independent European population cohorts, recruited from Budapest (N = 1139) and Manchester (N = 2004), were used. Structural regression analysis within structural equation modelling was applied to test the mediational role of brooding and reflection, the components of rumination, between migraine and psychological distress. Sex, age and lifetime depression were controlled for in the analysis.

Results: Migraine predicted higher brooding and reflection scores, and brooding proved to be a mediator between migraine and psychological distress in both samples, while reflection mediated the relationship significantly only in the Budapest sample.

Conclusions: Elevated psychological distress in migraine is partially attributed to ruminative response style. Further studies are needed to expand our findings to clinical samples and to examine how rumination links to the adjustment to migraine.