Expressed emotion and sociocultural moderation in the course of schizophrenia

This study examined whether the sociocultural context moderates the relationship between families' expressed emotion (EE) and clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. In a sample of 60 Mexican American caregivers and their ill relatives, we first assessed whether EE and its indices (criticism, emotional overinvolvement [EOI], and warmth) related to relapse. Second, we extended the analysis of EE and its indices to a longitudinal assessment of symptomatology. Last, we tested whether bidimensional acculturation moderated the relationship between EE (and its indices) and both relapse and symptom trajectory over time. Results indicated that EOI was associated with increased relapse and that criticism was associated with increased symptomatology. Additionally, as patients' Mexican enculturation (Spanish language and media involvement) decreased, EE was increasingly related to relapse. For symptomatology, as patients' U.S. acculturation (English language and media involvement) increased, EE was associated with increased symptoms longitudinally. Our results replicate and extend past research on how culture might shape the way family factors relate to the course of schizophrenia.     

Verisimilitude and belief change for nomic conjunctive theories

In this paper, we address the problem of truth approximation through theory change, asking whether revising our theories by newly acquired data leads us closer to the truth about a given domain. More particularly, we focus on “nomic conjunctive theories”, i.e., theories expressed as conjunctions of logically independent statements concerning the physical or, more generally, nomic possibilities and impossibilities of the domain under inquiry. We define both a comparative and a quantitative notion of the verisimilitude of such theories, and identify suitable conditions concerning the (partial) correctness of acquired data, under which revising our theories by data leads us closer to “the nomic truth”, construed as the target of scientific inquiry. We conclude by indicating some further developments, generalizations, and open issues arising from our results.     

Hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults: the HAROLD model

A model of the effects of aging on brain activity during cognitive performance is introduced. The model is called HAROLD (hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults), and it states that, under similar circumstances, prefrontal activity during cognitive performances tends to be less lateralized in older adults than in younger adults. The model is supported by functional neuroimaging and other evidence in the domains of episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, perception, and inhibitory control. Age-related hemispheric asymmetry reductions may have a compensatory function or they may reflect a dedifferentiation process. They may have a cognitive or neural origin, and they may reflect regional or network mechanisms. The HAROLD model is a cognitive neuroscience model that integrates ideas and findings from psychology and neuroscience of aging.     

Cueing the interpretation of a Necker Cube: a way to inspect fundamental cognitive processes

The term perceptual bistability refers to all those conditions in which an observer looks at an ambiguous stimulus that can have two or more distinct but equally reliable interpretations. In this work, we investigate perception of Necker Cube in which bistability consists of the possibility to interpret the cube depth in two different ways. We manipulated the cube ambiguity by darkening one of the cube faces (cue) to provide a clear cube interpretation due to the occlusion depth index. When the position of the cue is stationary the cube perceived perspective is steady and driven by the cue position. However, when we alternated in time the cue position (i.e. we changed the position of the darkened cube face) two different perceptual phenomena occurred: for low frequencies the cube perspective alternated in line with the position of the cue; however for high frequencies the cue was no longer able to bias the perception but it appears as a floating feature traveling across the solid with the cube whole perspective that returns to be bistable as in the conventional, bias-free, case.     

Adoptive versus Mixed Families: Child Adjustment,Parenting Stress and Family Environment

Recent research in adoption has considered the factors and processes that underlie the adjustment of children and families. However, little research has been conducted on certain types of adoptive families, specifically on families with both adoptive and biological children often designated as mixed families. This subject is addressed by the present study which also analyzes the association between the type of adoptive family and children’s outcomes—prosocial and problem behavior—parenting stress and the relational family environment. It also examines whether children’s gender, age at adoption and the number of children in the home moderate these effects. 102 parents of adoptive children (ACF) 33 parents of both adoptive and biological children (ABCF) and 102 parents of biological children (BCF) participated in the study. Target-children were aged from 6 to 12 years. The Portuguese versions of the SDQ-P, PSI-SF and FES (Interpersonal Relationship dimension) were used. Results showed that the type of adoptive family—ACF and ABCF—significantly explained the variance of children’s behavioral problems and parenting stress. The child’s gender was shown to moderate the relationship between ACF parents and their perception of child’s prosocial behavior. The results give relevant clues as to the importance of distinct outcomes in adoptive families—ACF and ABCF—compared to families with only biological children and should, therefore, be a resource for professionals involved in the adopters’ suitability assessment and adoption intervention.     

Do parents and children know each other? A study about agreement on personality within families

The relationships between self-report and observer-rating versions of personality questionnaires within families in the Spanish cultural context were studied. In the first sample, 336 couples rated the personality of one of their children. The children also assessed their own personality. Goldberg's adjectives were administered. In the second sample, 120 university students rated the personality of their parents. Both parents also assessed their own personality. In this case, Goldberg's adjectives and the NEO-PI-R were administered. Results replicate the level of agreement found in other cultural contexts. Correlations were around .40, and the effect size of the mean differences was not large. Children were more accurate than parents, larger agreement coefficients were found for the NEO-PI-R than for Goldberg's adjectives in Sample 2, especially for the Openness factor, and no substantial role for the sex variable was found in either sample. Implications and limitations of the present study are discussed.