Attenuation of change blindness in children with autism spectrum disorders

Change blindness refers to the difficulty most people find in detecting a difference between two pictures when these are presented successively, with a brief interruption between. Attention at the site of the change is required for detection. A number of studies have investigated change blindness in adults and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Some have produced evidence that people with ASD find changes to social stimuli harder to detect and changes to non‐social stimuli easier to detect, relative to comparison participants. However, other studies have produced entirely contradictory findings. There is a need for consistency in methodology to aid understanding of change blindness and attentional processes in ASD. Here, we replicate a change blindness study previously carried out with typically developing (TD) children and adults and with adults with ASD. Results reveal attenuated change blindness for non‐social stimuli in children with ASD relative to TD norms. Our results are interpreted, alongside others' findings, as potentially indicative of a complex relationship between different influences on attention over time.     

Parteilichkeit und Erkenntnis

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Lesbian Identities: An Examination of Sexual Behavior and Sex. Role Attribution as Related to Age of Initial Same-Sex Sexual Encounter

To investigate some of the differences among lesbians proposed by Ponse (1978), 43 self-defined lesbians were interviewed and administered questionnaires. Three groups were distinguished on the basis of age of initial lesbian sexual experience, and those in the earliest and latest age groups were compared. Group 1 lesbians engaged in same-sex sexual relations prior to age 17 (perhaps before the establishment of their personal identity), were more sexually active at an earlier age, see themselves as having more stereotypic masculine traits, and define themselves as exclusively homosexual. Group 2 lesbians did not engage in same-sex sexual relations until after the age 20, were typically emotionally involved heterosexually prior to defining themselves as lesbians, and may be somewhat bisexual in activity. Both groups see themselves as being high in stereotypic feminine traits and have fairly active heterosexual histories. The heterogeneous nature of the "coming out" process for lesbians and its implications for future research are discussed.     

Symptoms of Depression Among Caribbean Women and Caribbean-Canadian Women

This study compared an immigrant sample of Caribbean-Canadian women ( n = 20) and a sample of women living in the Caribbean ( n = 20) on the following variables: dominant domain of meaning (defined as that aspect of the participant's life from which she derives primary meaning for her sense of self); self-silencing (defined as the tendency to silence one's thoughts and feelings; Jack, 1991); and symptoms of depression. Results revealed that the Caribbean women were more likely to report relational domains of meaning as primary ( e.g. , family, friendships, intimate relationships), while the Caribbean-Canadian women were more likely to report domain of self-nurturance as primary ( e.g. , career goals, spirituality). Furthermore, univariate analysis revealed that the Caribbean-Canadian women reported higher levels of self-silencing and depressive symptoms, and derived less meaningfulness from their primary domains of meaning compared to the Caribbean women. These findings suggest that the immigrant experience may be a factor in women's emotional well-being.     

Evidence for the Phase Transition from Rule I to Rule II on the Balance Scale Task

A central and recurrent theme in developmental psychology is the question whether development proceeds continuously or discontinuously. This question is difficult to answer because the two types of development may be hard to distinguish. To investigate whether change is discontinuous, one requires a formal model for discontinuous development. Such a model should provide operational, empirical criteria to investigate the nature of development. The cusp model, which is derived from catastrophe theory, is a formal model of discontinuity that provides such criteria. Eight criteria, so-called catastrophe flags, can be derived from the model. Some of these flags are predicted in other models of discontinuity, but others, notably hysteresis, are unique to catastrophe theory. In the present research, it is tested whether the transition from Rule I to Rule II on the balance scale task proceeds discontinuously. The present research centers around five catastrophe flags: bimodality, inaccessible region, sudden jump, divergence, and hysteresis. Two experiments are reported. In Experiment 1, a paper-and-pencil version of the balance scale task was administered to 314 children who were 6 to 10 years old. In Experiment 2, an adapted version of the test was administered to 302 children who were 6 to 10 years old. Bimodality, inaccessible region, hysteresis, and sudden jump were clearly observed. Divergence was not observed. The presence of four of the five flags strongly supports the hypothesis that the transition from Rule I to Rule II is discontinuous.