The number of active sweat glands (PSI, palmar sweat index) in stress caused by blood donation

The number of active sweat glands (PSI), heart rate, systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were assessed every 2 minutes in 109 male blood donors. Three measurements were taken at the beginning (adaptation phase), three later but before blood donation (baseline), one during the venous puncture (phase 3), three thereafter but still during donation (phase 4), and four after removal of the cannula (phase 5). Analysis of variance yielded significant differences between phases; PSI and SBP behaved similarly, decreasing from adaptation to baseline, rising during puncture, and decreasing again thereafter. Mean within-subject correlations between variables were significantly above 0. Between-subjects correlations were significantly negative for PSI and DBP. This is best explained by the influence of age on both variables. Correlations of PSI values as determined by three raters had a mean of 0.90. The study shows that the PSI is a very sensitive indicator of stress that is easily accessible also in field studies.     

Infant emotion and the vocal affect lexicon

The role of the vocal channel of emotion expression in infancy has been neglected in developmental theory. The present review describes the ontogenetic course of vocal emotional expression as exhibited by human and infrahuman primate young and considers its dynamic relationship to the facial and bodily components of expression. The infant's encoding of negative and positive emotion expression is discussed within a developmental framework. In addition, this review assesses the impact of early social influences. It is concluded that early patterns of infant vocal emotional expression are probably biogenetically determined and that there may be certain universal vocal signals. However, data derived from studies of dyadic interaction indicate that the transition from raw affect expression in early infancy to a more modulated pattern later on is a product not only of neuromuscular maturation but of maternal coaching in affective expression as well.     

Large-Scale Assessment of Change in Student Achievement: Dutch Primary School Students’ Results on Written Division in 1997 and 2004 as an Example

This article discusses large-scale assessment of change in student achievement and takes the study by Hickendorff, Heiser, Van Putten, and Verhelst (2009) as an example. This study compared the achievement of students in the Netherlands in 1997 and 2004 on written division problems. Based on this comparison, they claim that there is a performance decline in this subdomain of mathematics, and that there is a move from applying the digit-based long division algorithm to a less accurate way of working without writing down anything. In our discussion of this study, we address methodological challenges that come in when investigating long-term trends in student achievements, such as the need for adequate operationalizations, the influence of the time of measurement and the necessity of the comparability of assessments, the effect of the assessment format, and the importance of inclusion relevant covariates in item response models. All these issues matter when assessing change in student achievement.     

The effect of limb crossing and limb congruency on multisensory integration in peripersonal space for the upper and lower extremities

The present study investigated how multisensory integration in peripersonal space is modulated by limb posture (i.e. whether the limbs are crossed or uncrossed) and limb congruency (i.e. whether the observed body part matches the actual position of one’s limb). This was done separately for the upper limbs (Experiment 1) and the lower limbs (Experiment 2). The crossmodal congruency task was used to measure peripersonal space integration for the hands and the feet. It was found that the peripersonal space representation for the hands but not for the feet is dynamically updated based on both limb posture and limb congruency. Together these findings show how dynamic cues from vision, proprioception, and touch are integrated in peripersonal limb space and highlight fundamental differences in the way in which peripersonal space is represented for the upper and lower extremity.     

Children's activities and their meanings for parents: a mixed-methods study in six Western cultures

Theoretical perspectives and research in sociology, anthropology, sociolinguistics, and cultural psychology converge in recognizing the significance of children's time spent in various activities, especially in the family context. Knowing how children's time is deployed, however, only gives us a partial answer to how children acquire competence; the other part must take into account the culturally constructed meanings of activities, from the perspective of those who organize and direct children's daily lives. In this article, we report on a study of children's routine daily activities and on the meanings that parents attribute to them in six Western middle-class cultural communities located in Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United States (N = 183). Using week-long time diaries kept by parents, we first demonstrate similarities as well as significant differences in children's daily routines across the cultural samples. We then present brief vignettes--"a day in the life" --of children from each sample. Parent interviews were coded for themes in the meanings attributed to various activities. Excerpts from parent interviews, focusing on four major activities (meals, family time, play, school- or developmentally related activities), are presented to illustrate how cultural meanings and themes are woven into parents' organization and understanding of their children's daily lives. The results of this mixed-method approach provide a more reliable and nuanced picture of children's and families' daily lives than could be derived from either method alone.     

Gender differences in a clinical sample of patients with borderline personality disorder

The aim of the study was to investigate gender differences and similarities in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) with respect to Axis I comorbidity, Axis II comorbidity, general psychopathology (Symptom Checklist 90-Revised), and dimensional personality traits (NEO-Personality-Inventory Revised [NEO-PI-R] and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Profile Basic questionnaire [DAPP-BQ]). Fifty-seven men and 114 women with BPD were included in the study. Regarding Axis I and II disorders in an exploratory analysis, men with BPD more often fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for binge eating disorder, antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and conduct disorder in childhood, whereas women had higher frequencies of bulimia nervosa, posttraumatic stress disorder, and panic disorder with agoraphobia. After correcting for multiple tests, only the gender differences in narcissistic and antisocial personality disorder remained significant. In the SCL-90-R profile, no significant gender differences could be identified. In the exploratory analysis of the dimensional personality traits, women showed higher rates on the NEO-PI-R main factors (Neuroticism and Agreeableness) compared to men. In the DAPP-BQ profile, men reached higher sores on the main factor, Dissocial Behavior. When correcting for multiple tests, gender differences still existed for Neuroticism and Dissocial Behavior. Our results argue for gender differences in Axis I and II comorbidity and dimensional personality traits in BPD. However, in general, more similarities than differences were shown in this study.