Of Seeds and Sprouts: Defilement and its Attachment to the Life-stream in the Sarvāstivāda H[rdot]daya Treatises

The notions of selflessness (anātmaka) and karman are two key concepts in Buddhist philosophy. The question how karman functions with respect to the rebirth of a worldling who is, actually, devoid of a self, was a major philosophical issue in early Buddhist doctrine. Within the Sarvāstivāda school, the Vaibhā[sdot]ikas became the representative of an interpretation of this problem that hinges on the notion of ‘possession’ (prāpti). Their theory was contradicted by the Sautrāntikas, whose interpretation is based on the notion of ‘seed’ (bīja). The Sarvāstivāda H[rdot]daya treatises, compiled in a time period spanning from the beginning of the common era to the fourth century AD, i.e. the period of the rise of the Sautrāntika school, are a particularly interesting set of works, as they reflect the gradual development of these two major theories.     

Effects of category learning on the stimulus selectivity of macaque inferior temporal neurons

Primates can learn to categorize complex shapes, but as yet it is unclear how this categorization learning affects the representation of shape in visual cortex. Previous studies that have examined the effect of categorization learning on shape representation in the macaque inferior temporal (IT) cortex have produced diverse and conflicting results that are difficult to interpret owing to inadequacies in design. The present study overcomes these issues by recording IT responses before and after categorization learning. We used parameterized shapes that varied along two shape dimensions. Monkeys were extensively trained to categorize the shapes along one of the two dimensions. Unlike previous studies, our paradigm counterbalanced the relevant categorization dimension across animals. We found that categorization learning increased selectivity specifically for the category-relevant stimulus dimension (i.e., an expanded representation of the trained dimension), and that the ratio of within-category response similarities to between-category response similarities increased for the relevant dimension (i.e., category tuning). These small effects were only evident when the learned category-related effects were disentangled from the prelearned stimulus selectivity. These results suggest that shape-categorization learning can induce minor category-related changes in the shape tuning of IT neurons in adults, suggesting that learned, category-related changes in neuronal response mainly occur downstream from IT.     

A longitudinal and multi-method examination of interest–occupation congruence within and across time

Remarkably little research has addressed change and stability in person–environment fit across time. The objective of the current study was to address this gap in the literature by investigating Holland interest–occupation congruence across time for a sample of college alumni (N = 167) that were tracked during the first third of their professional career. Congruence was examined in all its complexity, including a repeated assessment of both occupations and interests, the use of objective (O*NET) and subjective (self-report) environment assessment methods, and adopting sophisticated congruence calculation methods (i.e., Euclidean distance and profile correlation). This resulted in a total of 12 interest–occupation comparisons within and across time that could be related to general and career specific well-being. The results first indicated moderate levels of stability in interests and occupations across the 15-year time interval, yet also with room for change. Congruence analyses indicated significant interest–occupation fit at the beginning of the career and 15 years later, with the magnitude of congruence slightly varying depending on which occupation assessment and which congruence method was used. Profile correlation congruence did not change over time in absolute terms and evidenced relative stability. Euclidean distance indices had little relative stability over time but did manifest some absolute changes in levels of congruence. Finally, job change moderated the association between interest–occupation congruence and life satisfaction in such a way that higher levels of satisfaction were reported only when little job change was present.     

Civic Knowledge of High School Students in Israel: Personal and Contextual Determinants

Past research on civic education suggests that students' performance is largely influenced by individual socioeconomic background and motivational factors. There has been little attention to the effects of school and classroom ideological and social attributes, such as the socioeconomic make-up of the school or classroom, or how interested in politics are a student's classmates. The results of the present study support the contention that contextual effects play a vital role in determining students' civic knowledge scores. Analysis of Israeli 11^th graders' performance on the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) civic knowledge test shows that while individual backgrounds and motivations play a significant role, school and classroom contexts greatly contribute to civic knowledge acquisition.     

Optimism, stress, life satisfaction, and job burnout in restaurant managers

Researchers have suggested that dispositional optimism is related to both stress and stress outcomes. However, the nature of this relationship has not fully been explained. The authors contributed to a better understanding of this relationship by evaluating dispositional optimism, stress, overall life satisfaction, and job burnout in a sample of restaurant managers. Results indicated that stress and job burnout were significantly related; however, their relationship was not moderated by dispositional optimism, as would be suggested by the results of past research. The diminished personal accomplishment dimension of job burnout mediated the relationship between optimism and life satisfaction. Also, stress significantly impacted perceptions of diminished personal accomplishment and life satisfaction.     

Mindfulness in Iran and the United States: Cross-Cultural Structural Complexity and Parallel Relationships with Psychological Adjustment

In theory, mindfulness has a role to play in resolving intercultural conflicts. This suggestion rests upon the relatively untested presumption that mindfulness operates similarly across cultures. In a test of this presumption, university students from two countries that are often in conflict at the governmental level, Iran (N = 723) and the United States (N = 900), responded to the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown and Ryan Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4):822–848, 2003), along with an array of other psychological measures. This Mindfulness Scale displayed structural complexities in both societies, but a measurement invariant subscale was nevertheless identified. Similar cross-cultural evidence of concurrent validity was obtained in relationships with wide-ranging measures of adjustment. Nonsignificant linkages with Public Self-Consciousness and Self-Monitoring demonstrated discriminant validity in both societies. These data identified mindfulness as a cross-culturally similar psychological process that could plausibly have a role in resolving intercultural conflicts.     

Predicting school adjustment from motor abilities in kindergarten

The present study assessed the relations between basic motor abilities in kindergarten and scholastic, social, and emotional adaptation in the transition to formal schooling. Seventy‐one five‐year‐old kindergarten children were administered a battery of standard assessments of basic motor functions. A year later, children's adjustment to school was assessed via a series of questionnaires completed by the children and their class teachers. The results indicate that in addition to the already documented association between visual–motor integration and academic achievement, other motor functions show significant predictive value to both scholastic adaptation and social and emotional adjustment to school. The results further suggest a better prediction of scholastic adaptation and level of disruptive behaviour in school when using an aggregate measure of children's ability in various motor domains than when using assessments of singular motor functions. It is concluded that good motor ability may serve as a buffer to the normative challenges presented to children in the transition to school. In contrast, poor motor ability emerges as a vulnerability factor in the transition to formal schooling. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do maternal stress and home environment mediate the relation between early income‐to‐need and 54‐months attentional abilities?

Using Ecological Systems Theory and stage sequential modelling procedures for detecting mediation, this study examined how early developmental contexts impact preschoolers' performances on a measure of sustained attention and impulse control. Data from 1273 European‐American and African‐American participants in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care were used to identify the potential mediators of the relation between early household income‐to‐need (INR) and 54‐month impulsivity and inattention. Exploratory analyses were also conducted to determine whether the relationships between early income, home environment, parenting stress, and the outcome variables differ for African‐American versus European‐American‐American children. We found modest support for the study hypothesis that 36‐month home environment quality mediated the INR/attention relationship. INR accounted for more home environment score variance and home environment accounted for more Impulsivity score variance for African‐American children. Home environments were related to inattention in the European‐American, but not African‐American, group. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.