The infant ‘motoric’ dream: where mothers' eye and scientist meet

One hundred twenty women were asked about their ideas on infants' dream. Two interviews were undertaken, before birth and 1 month after birth. The majority of women (both before and after birth) responded that infants dream. The reasons why they attributed dreaming to infants changed from before birth to after birth. At one month, these reasons were based on infant movements and behaviours, factors also taken into consideration by sleep researchers. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sentences with Strong Psychological Impact in Psychotherapy: Research in Progress

After a brief exposition of Elementary Pragmatic Model about changes in dyadic interactions, the validity and clinical usefulness of the model was evaluated with a newly created test, called SISCI-Sentences. This test is composed of 90 Sentences with strong psychological impact. Administration of this test to non-clinical and clinical participants produced statistically significant differences between the choices of participants in the two groups. Implications of these results for the use of these Sentences in the course of psychotherapy are discussed.

Yawning frequency and distribution in preterm and near term infants assessed throughout 24-h recordings

Yawning has been observed in foetuses and preterm infants. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and the 24 h distribution of yawning in preterm infants.Twelve low-risk infants between 31 and 40 weeks of post-conceptional age (PCA) were continuously video-recorded for 24 h in their incubator. Spontaneous yawning was defined as opening of the mouth to its full extension in a dramatic stretch movement.The results showed that the rate of yawning across the 24-h period was 1.10/h. The highest incidence of yawns was in the waking motility pattern when compared to active sleep or quiet sleep motility patterns.Between 31 and 40 weeks, yawn incidence significantly decreased mainly during the day. The marked decrease in yawn frequency with age may be related to the development of circadian and homeostatic control of sleep and wake.     

Transfer of training for two ball-throwing tasks

The effects of training overhand ball throws to enhance underhand ball-throwing accuracy were studied with 921 Italian high school pupils (575 girls, M age = 16.5 yr., SD = 1.3; 346 boys, M = 16.5 yr., SD = 1.2) ages 14 to 18 years. A standardized test (10 underhand tennis-ball throws into the floor area delimited by an 80-cm radius wooden hoop lying on the floor 9 m from the standing pupil) was performed and scored. An Experimental group (435 girls, M age = 16.5 yr., SD = 1.3; 204 boys, M age = 16.5 yr., SD = 1.2) was randomly selected to participate in 10 weekly training periods. The set included 10 overhand throws of a rubber bouncing ball (14.5 cm diameter, weight 240 g) into a basketball hoop from 5 standardized positions (in front of the basketball hoop; at 45 degrees, 90 degrees on the right and on the left of the basketball hoop) at a distance of 4.40 m. The underhand test was repeated for both groups. On the average, boys obtained higher test scores than girls of the same age. Older adolescents had higher mean scores than younger adolescents. After 10 weeks, boys and girls of all ages improved. Mean differences between sessions were significant for the Experimental group (Student t test, p < .01). In Session 2, consistent differences between Experimental and Control groups were also found (Student t test, p < .05).     

Information Completeness in Nelson Algebras of Rough Sets Induced by Quasiorders

In this paper, we give an algebraic completeness theorem for constructive logic with strong negation in terms of finite rough set-based Nelson algebras determined by quasiorders. We show how for a quasiorder R, its rough set-based Nelson algebra can be obtained by applying Sendlewski’s well-known construction. We prove that if the set of all R-closed elements, which may be viewed as the set of completely defined objects, is cofinal, then the rough set-based Nelson algebra determined by the quasiorder R forms an effective lattice, that is, an algebraic model of the logic E ₀, which is characterised by a modal operator grasping the notion of “to be classically valid”. We present a necessary and sufficient condition under which a Nelson algebra is isomorphic to a rough set-based effective lattice determined by a quasiorder.