PRIMING FROM THE ATTENTIONAL BLINK:

Abstract —When people must detect several targets in a very rapid stream of successive visual events at the same location, detection of an initial target induces misses for subsequent targets within a brief period. This attentional blink may serve to prevent interruption of ongoing target processing by temporarily suppressing vision for subsequent stimuli. We examined the level at which the internal blink operates, specifically, whether it prevents early visual processing or prevents quite substantial processing from reaching awareness. Our data support the latter view. We observed priming from missed letter targets, benefiting detection of a subsequent target with the same identity but a different case. In a second study, we observed semantic priming from word targets that were missed during the blink. These results demonstrate that attentional gating within the blink operates only after substantial stimulus processing has already taken place. The results are discussed in terms of two forms of visual representation, namely, types and tokens.     

Laterality effects in risk preference: A test of portfolio theory

A central assumption in portfolio theory of risk preference is that for games with expected value constant the preference ordering of an individual should exhibit a single peaked preference function. This assumption was tested by determining the level of stochastic transitivity satisfied by triples of pairwise preference proportions among eight gambles. In only a small percentage of cases were the predicted levels of stochastic transitivity not satisfied. It was concluded that the results provided strong support for portfolio theory.     

EFFECT OF SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT ON THE VOCATIONAL OUTCOMES OF PERSONS WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

This paper reports the job placement of 5 males with severe traumatic brain injury. An individual placement model of supported employment was used. All individuals were placed in competitive employment and received staggered intervention over time by trained employment specialists. A multiple baseline design across persons was used to evaluate results. All individuals had been unable to work consistently or at all in competitive work environments. The range of wages was $4.25 to $5.00 per hour with an average of 339 hours of employment specialist intervention time required per case. The major problems experienced by employment specialists were insubordinate and disruptive behaviors as well as other inappropriate social behaviors displayed at the job site.     

Mother-child talk about past emotions: Relations of maternal language and child gender over time

Abstract

Emotional understanding and expression is largely constructed in sociocul-tural contexts; thus examination of the ways in which parents talk about emotions with their young children is critical for understanding emotional socialisation. In this longitudinal research, 18 white, middle-class mothers and their preschool children discussed salient past events when the children were 40, 58, and 70 months of age. Analyses revealed that mothers talked more about emotions and talked about a greater variety of emotions with daughters than with sons. Mothers also focused more on negative emotions with daughters than with sons. Although there were no gender differences between girls and boys at the beginning of the study, by the last phase, girls talked more about emotion and about a greater variety of emotion than did boys and also initiated more emotion-related discussions than did boys. Results are discussed in relation to a growing body of evidence on gender and emotion across the life span.     

Agency,resilience and coping: Exploring the psychosocial effects of goat ownership on orphaned and vulnerable children in Western Kenya

Despite an increase in goat donation programmes geared at orphaned and vulnerable children in sub‐Saharan Africa, the social psychological effects of goat ownership on the lives of these children have yet to be investigated. To shed light on the ways in which goat ownership affects children's psychosocial well‐being, this paper presents a case study of a goat donation programme in Western Kenya, paying particular attention to children's interaction with the goats. Informed by social psychological understandings of resilience and coping, we involved fifteen children (aged 12–17) in this qualitative study, using photographs and written reflections to describe the impact of goat ownership on their lives. The children also created daily routine diagrams and community maps and participated in two group discussions to explore their experiences further. The guardians of two of the participating children were also interviewed. A thematic content analysis of all our data revealed that goat ownership, within this social environment, enabled children to (i) generate income as a result of their participation in goat management, (ii) negotiate social support and (iii) create positive images of self and life – deriving emotional benefits. We conclude that goat ownership provides orphaned and vulnerable children with opportunities for positive social participation and community engagement that can facilitate children's resilience. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rapid reacquisition of native phoneme contrasts after disuse: you do not always lose what you do not use

Infants attune to their birth language during the second half of infancy. However, internationally adopted children are often uniquely required to attune to their birth language, and then reattune to their adoptive language. Children who were adopted from India into America at ages 6-60 months (N = 8) and had minimal further exposure to their birth languages were compared to age-matched American non-adopted controls. Without training, neither group could discriminate a phonemic contrast that occurs in their birth language but not in English. However, after training on the contrast, the adopted group (N = 8) improved significantly and discriminated the contrast more accurately than their non-adopted peers. While English had explicitly replaced the birth language of the adopted sample, traces of early exposure conferred privileges on subsequent learning. These findings are consistent with behavioral and neurophysiological data from animals that have identified some of the mechanisms underlying such a 'retention without further use' phenomenon.     

Neurorobiology and evidence-based biological treatments for substance abuse disorders

Behavioral patterns of addiction include compulsive drug-seeking, persistent abuse of substances despite the often dire consequences on social functioning and physical health, and the high probability of relapse even after prolonged drug-free periods. The recent focus on the biological basis of addiction has provided evidence to support the hypothesis that behavioral manifestations for addiction are influenced by biological factors, and biological factors often produce behavioral changes that can further increase risk. The current understanding of the role of the dopaminergic, glutamatergic, Upsilon-aminobutyric acidergic, and opioid receptor systems in the pathophysiology of addiction as well as the clinical implications of these systems for new and emerging treatments will be discussed. This article will also review the pharmacologic agents used in the treatment of substance abuse disorders and presents evidence-based data for their safety, efficacy, and feasibility of use in different patient populations.