Telling tales in school: extended contact interventions in the classroom

Extended contact has demonstrated its effectiveness in promoting more positive intergroup attitudes among children in previous experimental research. The current project evaluates the use of extended contact interventions involving story‐telling in two novel school settings: the United States (N = 213) and Italy (N = 222) among children aged 5–12 years. Findings indicate support for the effectiveness of the interventions in these two locations among younger minority and majority children but call into question the durability of positive outcomes. Applications and implications are discussed.     

Improving academic attitudes among ethnic minority youth at risk for early school leaving: the interactive effects of cross‐group friendships and ethnic identity

A growing body of research suggests that positive interethnic experiences enhance academic attitudes among ethnic minority youth. A number of studies also show that minority youth with an achieved ethnic identity have better academic attitudes and performance. Integrating these literatures, we aim to verify the combined effects of cross‐group friendships and ethnic identity on academic attitudes among a sample of youth at risk for early school leaving. The results showed that cross‐group friendships had a positive impact on academic attitudes for minority youth, but not for majority youth. However, individual levels of ethnic identity moderated these effects, which held true for minority youth with higher levels of ethnic identity. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Paraconsistent Informational Logic

We introduce a Paraconsistent Informational Logic that formalizes the idea of conjectures which are acceptable as to the quality and the variety of the information that they convey with respect to a given theory T, even if they are classically inconsistent with T. The work constitutes an extension of a previously developed Informational Logic for classical frameworks, where a new notion of logical entropy measure H on formulas and on proofs plays a central role.     

The presence of the third party: systemic therapy and transference analysis

While today many therapists try to integrate different therapeutic models, it does not seem easy to define the specific clinical features of each model. In this article, the practice of systemic individual therapy is compared to the psychoanalytic practice of transference analysis. The relevant distinction is found in the different use of third parties within the therapeutic frame. In systemic therapy, the third party is 'presentified' within the therapeutic dialogue, which becomes centred on external relationships, while in transference analysis the third party is subsumed to the therapeutic (transferential) relationship, which is considered the core of therapy. The practical consequences of those two different 'technologies of the self' are discussed.     

Varieties of BL-Algebras III: Splitting Algebras

Studia Logica - In this paper we investigate splitting algebras in varieties of logics, with special consideration for varieties of BL-algebras and similar structures. In the case of the variety of...     

A Longitudinal Study of Parental Depressive Symptoms and Coparenting in the First 18 Months

Although the negative impact of postpartum depression on parenting behaviors has been well established—albeit separately—for mothers and fathers, the respective and joint impact of both parents' mood on family‐group interactive behaviors, such as coparenting support and conflict behaviors between the parents, have not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the association between parental depressive symptoms and coparenting behaviors in a low‐risk sample of families with infants, exploring reciprocity between the variables, as well as gender differences between mothers and fathers regarding these links. At 3 (T1), 9 (T2), and 18 months postpartum (T3), we assessed both parents' depressive symptoms with a self‐report questionnaire and observed coparenting support and conflict during triadic mother–father–child interactions. The results revealed that higher maternal depressive symptoms at T1 were associated with lower support at T1 and T2. Conflict at T3 was associated with higher maternal depressive symptoms at T3 and, more surprisingly, with less depressive symptoms in mothers at T2 and fathers at T3. Cross‐lagged associations suggested that parental depressive symptoms were more likely to influence coparenting than the reverse. Moreover, maternal depressive symptoms were more likely to be linked to coparenting behaviors than were paternal depressive symptoms. These results confirm that parental—mostly maternal—depressive symptoms, even of mild intensity, may jeopardize the development of healthy family‐level relations, which previous research has shown to be crucial for child development.     

Who Are the Children Most Vulnerable to Social Exclusion? The Moderating Role of Self-Esteem,Popularity, and Nonverbal Intelligence on Cognitive Performance Following Social Exclusion

Social exclusion has a profound emotional impact on children. However, there is still limited and partly conflicting experimental evidence for the possible effect of social exclusion on children’s cognitive performance. In the present study, we tested the possibility that some children are more vulnerable than others to the negative effects of social exclusion on cognitive performance. We selected 4 potential candidates that could moderate the effects of social exclusion: relational self-esteem, peer ratings of popularity, rejection sensitivity and nonverbal intelligence. Individual differences in these 4 potential moderating factors were first assessed in a sample of 318 children (45.6 % females; mean age = 9.92 years). Then, in a subsequent experimental session, the participants were either socially included or excluded using a typical manipulation (i.e., the Cyberball paradigm). Following the manipulation, the children’s cognitive performance was assessed using a logical reasoning test. The results showed that the children with lower scores for relational self-esteem (the bottom 37.46 % of the sample), lower popularity (43.49 %) or weaker nonverbal intelligence (37.80 %) performed worse on the logical reasoning test following social exclusion. Moreover, children with combined low self-esteem, popularity and nonverbal intelligence were the most affected by social exclusion. This study identified factors that make some children more vulnerable to the negative effects of social exclusion. Overall, the present work underscores the value of considering basic cognitive and relational individual differences when developing interventions aimed at preventing the negative effects of social exclusion among children.     

Systemic-Oriented Psychological Counselling for Caregivers of People with Severe Brain Injury: Reflections on a Clinical Case

Severe brain injuries can have dramatic consequences on family life, often changing rules and routines and fostering intense and prolonged caregiving duties. People affected by the injuries have to face relevant restrictions in their activities and a loss of independence. Thus, primary caregivers are often involved in their assistance, which can entail the help for self-care, movements and many activities of daily living. Furthermore, cognitive and behavioural symptoms can complicate communication, disrupt previous relationships and put an additional strain on all family members. Indeed, caregiving relationships take place in wider familial and societal contexts and are obviously influenced by previous characteristic of such relationships, as they were before the onset of the pathological condition. Therefore, a thorough examination of typical emotions, feelings and thoughts that can emerge during caregiving must be paralleled by an ecological and developmental perspective, in order to appraise the complexity of these cases and provide effective interventions. The present work aims to address such topics taking inspiration from a clinical case.     

Prospective memory and intraindividual variability in ongoing task response times in an adult lifespan sample: the role of cue focality

To contribute to the ongoing conceptual debate of what traditional mean-level ongoing task (OT) costs tell us about the attentional processes underlying prospective memory (PM), we investigated costs to intraindividual variability (IIV) in OT response times as a potentially sensitive indicator of attentional processes. Particularly, we tested whether IIV in OT responses may reflect controlled employment of attentional processes versus lapses of controlled attention, whether these processes differ across adulthood, and whether it is moderated by cue focality. We assessed 150 individuals (19–82 years) in a focal and a nonfocal PM condition. In addition, external measures of inhibition and working memory were assessed. In line with the predictions of the lapses-of-attention/inefficient-executive-control account, our data support the view that costs to IIV in OT trials of PM tasks reflect fluctuations in the efficiency of executive functioning, which was related to failures in prospective remembering, particularly in nonfocal PM tasks, potentially due to their increased executive demands. The additional value of considering costs to IIV over and beyond traditional mean-level OT costs in PM research is discussed.     

Recognition of human faces by dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis familiaris</Emphasis>) requires visibility of head contour

Researchers have suggested that dogs are able to recognise human faces, but conclusive evidence has yet to be found. Experiment 1 of this study investigated whether dogs can recognise humans using visual information from the face/head region, and whether this also occurs in conditions of suboptimal visibility of the face. Dogs were presented with their owner’s and a stranger’s heads, protruding through openings of an apparatus in opposite parts of the experimental setting. Presentations occurred in conditions of either optimal or suboptimal visibility; the latter featured non-frontal orientation, uneven illumination and invisibility of outer contours of the heads. Instances where dogs approached their owners with a higher frequency than predicted by chance were considered evidence of recognition. This occurred only in the optimal condition. With a similar paradigm, Experiment 2 investigated which of the alterations in visibility that characterised the suboptimal condition accounted for dogs’ inability to recognise owners. Dogs approached their owners more frequently than predicted by chance if outer head contours were visible, but not if heads were either frontally oriented or evenly illuminated. Moreover, male dogs were slightly better at recognition than females. These findings represent the first clear demonstration that dogs can recognise human faces and that outer face elements are crucial for such a task, complementing previous research on human face processing in dogs. Parallels with face recognition abilities observed in other animal species, as well as with human infants, point to the relevance of these results from a comparative standpoint.