The role of action effects in 12-month-olds' action control: a comparison of televised model and live model

The present study investigated differences in infant imitation after watching a televised model and a live model and addressed the issue of whether action effects influence infants’ action control in both cases. In a 2 × 2 design, 12-month-old infants observed a live or a televised model performing a three-step action sequence, in which either the 2nd or the 3rd action step was combined with an acoustical action effect. We assumed that infants would use the observed action-effect relations for their own action control in the test phase afterwards. Even though results exhibited differences in the absolute amount of imitation between the two demonstration groups, both groups showed similar result patterns regarding the action effect manipulation: infants imitated the action step that was followed by a salient action effect more often and mostly as the first target action, emphasizing the important role of action effects in infants’ action control.     

Using the past to predict the future

This research addressed three issues. First, we examined whether retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) and judgments of learning (JOLs) assess memory differently. Second, we examined the relative accuracy of JOLs and RCJs at predicting future recall performance. Third, we examined whether making JOLs improves subsequent recall better than making RCJs or making no metacognitive judgment. Results suggest that RCJs and JOLs are both based on retrievability, but that participants use their memory differently when making JOLs. RCJs were more accurate than JOLs at predicting future recall for some subsets of items, but the reverse was true for other subsets of items. Finally, eventual recall performance was facilitated when participants made JOLs but not when they made RCJs, suggesting that the JOL task helps to improve people's learning of the items.     

LSD response in Eysenckian trait types identified by polypredictive CFA

The four personality type combinations derived from high and low extraversion () and high and low neuroticism () have been related to response patterns composed of three symptoms (affective disturbances, thinking disturbances, and blackouts) scored as present (+) or absent (−) after a single oral dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD-25. Hypotheses for expected response patterns for each personality group were derived from a data set obtained by Kohnen and Lienert (1987). Significance of associations was tested by two strategies of polyprediction configural frequency analysis (CFA): multiple uniprediction and biprediction CFA. Both strategies yielded a significant hyperpresentation of all three symptoms present in E+N+ (hysterics), merely thinking disorders in dysthymics (E−N+), merely affective symptoms in E+N− (stable extraverts), and merely blackouts in N−E− (stable introverts). Authors tried to relate these symptoms to Kretschmer's temperament types and could afterwards show by a chessboard modification of prediction CFA, that by applying two combined hypotheses for two personality types each, the significance of the predicted associations could be increased.     

Interference and Facilitation in Spoken Word Production: Effects of Morphologically and Semantically Related Context Stimuli on Picture Naming

We report two picture–word interference experiments investigating conceptual and lexical activation, and response selection, in speaking. We varied stimulus onset asynchrony to investigate potential fine-grained activation and competition effects. Morphologically related existing and pseudoword adjectives, as well as associatively related adjectives, served as context stimuli in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, we focused on semantic interference by using morphologically related and unrelated subordinates of the target concept as context stimuli. Morphologically complex pseudowords were also included as context stimuli. Pseudowords should not interfere, given that they have no lexical or conceptual representation. We consistently obtained facilitation with all morphologically related context stimuli, irrespective of their lexical status. We argue that effects originate at the word-form level, and discuss how our results may help decide among the many explanations of semantic interference in picture naming.     

Children's left parietal brain activation during mental rotation is reliable as well as specific

Some recent evidence suggests that mental rotation of characters in children aged 7 or 8 years might be lateralized to the left parietal hemisphere. An alternative statement exists, however, the finding might be completely unspecific for mental rotation but either be simply a function of task difficulty or a consequence of the use of characters as stimuli. To test these alternatives, ERPs of 24 second graders were measured twice: (a) during mental rotation with characters as stimuli and orientations of 30°, 90°, or 150° and (b) during memory scanning with characters as stimuli and set sizes of 1, 2, or 3 letters. In both cases, an amplitude modulation was found. The effect of mental rotation as a function of character orientation turned out to be lateralized to the left parietal hemisphere. The effect of memory scanning as a function of set size, however, turned out to be completely non-lateralized. Thus, children's left hemisphere activation during mental rotation is reliable as well as specific.     

Individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning: A multidimensional view

The relationship between individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning was investigated in a sample of young adults. Verbal and spatial working memory, resistance to interference, negative priming, and task‐switching measures were used to assess three executive functioning dimensions: updating, inhibition, and shifting. An additional index of basic psychomotor speed was added to this cognitive battery. According to the multidimensional interaction model of anxiety proposed by Endler (1997), state (cognitive–worry and autonomic–emotional) and trait (related to social evaluation, physical danger, ambiguous situations, and daily routines) anxiety were assessed in this evaluation context. Results indicated that shifting and inhibition (negative priming) efficiency were negatively related to state (cognitive–worry) and trait (related to social evaluation) anxiety. However, there was a relative advantage of subjects higher in social evaluation apprehensions in their memory updating performance. The results are consistent with several predictions of the attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007), and are relevant for research regarding the interaction of situational, personality, and cognitive functioning dimensions.     

The nature of rhyme processing in preliterate children

Background. Rhyme awareness is one of the earliest forms of phonological awareness to develop and is assessed in many developmental studies by means of a simple rhyme task. The influence of more demanding experimental paradigms on rhyme judgment performance is often neglected. Addressing this issue may also shed light on whether rhyme processing is more global or analytical in nature. Aims. The aim of the present study was to examine whether lexical status and global similarity relations influenced rhyme judgments in kindergarten children and if so, if there is an interaction between these two factors. Sample. Participants were 41 monolingual Dutch-speaking preliterate kindergartners (average age 6.0 years) who had not yet received any formal reading education. Method. To examine the effects of lexical status and phonological similarity processing, the kindergartners were asked to make rhyme judgements on (pseudo) word targets that rhymed, phonologically overlapped or were unrelated to (pseudo) word primes. Results. Both a lexicality effect (pseudo-words were more difficult than words) and a global similarity effect (globally similar non-rhyming items were more difficult to reject than unrelated items) were observed. In addition, whereas in words the global similarity effect was only present in accuracy outcomes, in pseudo-words it was also observed in the response latencies. Furthermore, a large global similarity effect in pseudo-words correlated with a low score on short-term memory skills and grapheme knowledge. Conclusions. Increasing task demands led to a more detailed assessment of rhyme processing skills. Current assessment paradigms should therefore be extended with more demanding conditions. In light of the views on rhyme processing, we propose that a combination of global and analytical strategies is used to make a correct rhyme judgment.     

Synaesthetic perception of colour and visual space in a blind subject: an fMRI case study

In spatial sequence synaesthesia (SSS) ordinal stimuli are perceived as arranged in peripersonal space. Using fMRI, we examined the neural bases of SSS and colour synaesthesia for spoken words in a late-blind synaesthete, JF. He reported days of the week and months of the year as both coloured and spatially ordered in peripersonal space; parts of the days and festivities of the year were spatially ordered but uncoloured. Words that denote time-units and triggered no concurrents were used in a control condition. Both conditions inducing SSS activated the occipito-parietal, infero-frontal and insular cortex. The colour area hOC4v was engaged when the synaesthetic experience included colour. These results confirm the continued recruitment of visual colour cortex in this late-blind synaesthetes. Synaesthesia also involved activation in inferior frontal cortex, which may be related to spatial memory and detection, and in the insula, which might contribute to audiovisual integration related to the processing of inducers and concurrents.     

Resource-Building Processes Across Life Domains: Father-Child Interactions as Starting Points for Resource Caravans

Journal of Happiness Studies - In two studies, we examined preconditions of resource-building processes between family and work. Focusing on positive father-child interactions, we investigated...