Temporal performance in 4-8 year old children. The effect of chronometric information in task execution

The present study explores temporal performance in children between 4 and 11 years of age. In order to optimise the children's performance, verbal instructions and demonstrations were used to specify the temporal requirement of the task. Moreover, specific feedback was given, which indicated the success of a response, or, in case of a mistake, indicated the type of error made. The task was presented in two phases: training and experimental. In the first phase, the child practised until a learning criterion was reached. In the experimental phase, four conditions were defined according to the information provided to the children. In general, the results of the training phase showed an improvement in performance with advancing age. Significant differences were found in children between 7 and 8 years of age, which points to an important transition period. Results of the experimental phase showed a pronounced impact of instructions on the performance of the task and on the strategies used to control timing behaviour. Specifically, the instructions that contained chronometric information caused an impairment in task performance and a change in the strategy used.     

The intergenerational transmission of social exclusion and its detection in early childhood education

In this paper we analyse the relationship between the self-confidence manifested by 3-6 year old in the internal working model (evaluated by interview) and their adaptation to nursery environment observed by their teacher, along with the relationship between these variables and the social-economic disadvantage encountered by the families of the children. The study was carried out with 128 children (64 from families in deprived circumstances and 64 in the contrast group). The results show that children from families with serious problems of exclusion exhibit adaptation deficiencies in all of the assessed factors: competence and empathy, passiveness/isolation and antisocial behavior; in the interview, they also show less frequency of the secure model, and higher frequency in the destructured and avoidant models than in the contrast group. These differences can be interpreted as the origin of the exclusion and destructurisation that characterises the families in question.     

A Bilingual “Neighborhood Club”: Intervening with Children Exposed to Urban Violence

Mental health practitioners have offered relatively little in response to the pervasive community violence faced by many children living in impoverished neighborhoods. The “neighborhood club” is a school-based, short-term, support group designed to assist children with the psychological impact of exposure to community violence. Ten “neighborhood clubs” were conducted in two public elementary schools in Detroit, Michigan. This paper reviews the implementation of a bilingual “neighborhood club,” undertaken to better serve the Spanish-speaking Latino students in a school community. We discuss many of the rewards and challenges of conducting a bilingual, multicultural support group for children and conclude that a bilingual support group provides all children with a model that validates ethnic and cultural diversity while also building empathic bonds based on mutually-reinforcing, common experiences.     

Binding neutral information to emotional contexts: Brain dynamics of long-term recognition memory

There is abundant evidence in memory research that emotional stimuli are better remembered than neutral stimuli. However, effects of an emotionally charged context on memory for associated neutral elements is also important, particularly in trauma and stress-related disorders, where strong memories are often activated by neutral cues due to their emotional associations. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate long-term recognition memory (1-week delay) for neutral objects that had been paired with emotionally arousing or neutral scenes during encoding. Context effects were clearly evident in the ERPs: An early frontal ERP old/new difference (300–500 ms) was enhanced for objects encoded in unpleasant compared to pleasant and neutral contexts; and a late central-parietal old/new difference (400–700 ms) was observed for objects paired with both pleasant and unpleasant contexts but not for items paired with neutral backgrounds. Interestingly, objects encoded in emotional contexts (and novel objects) also prompted an enhanced frontal early (180–220 ms) positivity compared to objects paired with neutral scenes indicating early perceptual significance. The present data suggest that emotional—particularly unpleasant—backgrounds strengthen memory for items encountered within these contexts and engage automatic and explicit recognition processes. These results could help in understanding binding mechanisms involved in the activation of trauma-related memories by neutral cues.     

A simple IBM I/O Selectric typewriter controller

A simple inexpensive IBM I/O Selectric typewriter controller is described. The board plugs into an RS-232 port and enables letter-quality output. Computers with editing capabilities can therefore be used as word processors for as little as $35, about 8 h of labor, and the cost of the typewriter. The controller is a firmware-governed microprocessor, and as a result, it is easily tailored for special applications. Hardware and software are discussed.     

Impoverishment of psychoanalysis. On the decline of psychoanalytic education

Anyone wishing to practice the "impossible profession" must once again overcome the resistances that originally produced the insights of psychoanalysis. Training analysts and institute faculty members pass on their successful as well as their failed attempts to surmount these resistances to the next generation. Herein lies the danger that the quality of training may decline as well as the opportunity to enrich psychoanalytic knowledge.     

In-circuit emulator

A microprocessor-based in-circuit emulator is described. The emulator is for 6802, 6808, and 6809 microprocessors. It does not operate at full bus speed or execute instructions from the target machine. It is designed to be an inexpensive debugging tool for 6800 family microprocessors. It will identify design or construction errors relatively quickly by executing a set of diagnostics from firmware.     

Effects of lifestyles and the Mediterranean diet on elderly people’s quality of life according to gender / Efectos de los estilos de vida y la dieta mediterránea en la calidad de vida en personas mayores en función del género

Abstract

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been associated with certain eating habits, such as the Mediterranean diet (MD) and lifestyles. However, the specific role of gender in this association is not yet known. The objective of this study was to analyse the relationship between the consumption of the MD essential foods and lifestyle (tobacco and alcohol consumption and exercise) with the HRQoL of 340 elderly people aged over 60 living in the Spanish Mediterranean area. The results show a better HRQoL in males. Compared to females, the lifestyles of males include a moderate consumption of alcohol and tobacco in addition to a greater frequency of physical activity. The predictive models of HRQoL were also different between males and females, as the influence of lifestyles and MD were greater in males. These results are clinically useful for the designing of programmes that promote successful ageing as they can be specified for sex.     

Interference between Elementally Trained Stimuli Can Take Place in One Trial

Recent research has shown that the acquisition of a second cue–outcome association can interfere with responding appropriate to a previously acquired association between another cue and the same outcome, even if the two cues had never received compound training (Matute & Pineño, 1998a). This is similar to other results in the paired-associate literature but it is problematic for associative theories of learning because all of them assume that compound training is necessary for cues to interfere with each other. However, given several assumptions, a recent revision of Wagner's (1981) SOP model proposed by Dickinson and Burke (1996) could account for most of the data available on interference between elementally trained cues. According to the modified SOP model, the target cue that is paired with the outcome during Phase 1 could acquire an inhibitory association with the outcome during the Phase 2 trials in which the interfering cue is trained and the target cue is absent. This inhibitory association could be responsible for the weak responding observed to the target cue during testing because it could interfere with the excitatory association acquired during Phase 1. If this is true, interference should be weaker as the number of Phase 2 interfering trials is reduced. However, the three experiments reported here show that interference can occur even when only one interfering trial is given during Phase 2. The results of these experiments, along with other results in the literature, add support to the idea that interference between elementally trained cues occurs during retrieval and that it is not due to the formation of inhibitory associations between an absent cue and the outcome.