Understanding Youth Smoking Behavior Through Modeling the Smoking Decision Process: Lessons Learned From a Developing Country1

The prevalence of youth smoking is well reported in the literature. However, most research so far has been conducted in developed countries, leaving the incidence of youth smoking in developing and less developed countries unexplored and to the mercy of the tobacco industry. The present study forms a prototype called the smoking decision process model on youth smoking behavior, which draws from existing literature. Through this model, researchers, health practitioners, and anti‐smoking activist groups in various parts of the developing world can acquire a more holistic view of the factors behind youth smoking behavior in their respective societies and, in turn, focus on the most appropriate means to combat smoking. A case study application of the model is presented in this study, involving Cypriot youth 12 to 18 years of age.     

Word reading practice reduces Stroop interference in children

Stroop interference is thought to index reading automaticity and is expected to increase with reading practice and to decrease with improved color naming. We investigated the effects of practice in word reading and color naming on interference in 92 adults and 109 children in Grades 4–5. For children, interference was reduced after reading practice with color words. In neither group was interference affected by practice in color naming of neutral stimuli. These findings are consistent with a direct negative relationship between reading ability and interference and challenge the automaticity account in favor of a blocking mechanism whereby interference is determined by the delay to inhibit the reading response rather than by the efficiency of color naming.     

Beyond Single-Mindedness: A Figure-Ground Reversal for the Cognitive Sciences

A fundamental fact about human minds is that they are never truly alone: all minds are steeped in situated interaction. That social interaction matters is recognized by any experimentalist who seeks to exclude its influence by studying individuals in isolation. On this view, interaction complicates cognition. Here, we explore the more radical stance that interaction co-constitutes cognition: that we benefit from looking beyond single minds toward cognition as a process involving interacting minds. All around the cognitive sciences, there are approaches that put interaction center stage. Their diverse and pluralistic origins may obscure the fact that collectively, they harbor insights and methods that can respecify foundational assumptions and fuel novel interdisciplinary work. What might the cognitive sciences gain from stronger interactional foundations? This represents, we believe, one of the key questions for the future. Writing as a transdisciplinary collective assembled from across the classic cognitive science hexagon and beyond, we highlight the opportunity for a figure-ground reversal that puts interaction at the heart of cognition. The interactive stance is a way of seeing that deserves to be a key part of the conceptual toolkit of cognitive scientists.     

Emotional and behavioural problems in children dealing with maternal breast cancer: a literature review

ABSTRACT

A significant number of breast cancer survivors are living with their minor children. In this review we investigated the impact of maternal breast cancer on children. A literature search conducted through PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library and CINAHL yielded 26 relevant studies, which documented a variety of effects. Evidence has been presented that dealing with maternal breast cancer can cause uncertainty, anxiety and depression in children, but may also lead to enhanced social and academic performance. The risk of problems in these children is reported to be associated with both low parental affective responsiveness and excessive parental involvement. Internalising child problems were shown to be linked with maternal depression and family dysfunction, and externalising problems with family dysfunction and communication problems. Some of these problems may be modified by interventions for supporting these families, which should be designed to include both parents and children, and also the healthcare personnel.