Attachment, depression, and fear of death in older adults: The roles of neediness and perceived availability of social support

This study investigated individual differences in depression and fear of death in older adulthood in the context of attachment theory. The roles of neediness and perceived availability of social support were examined. Participants were 113 Israeli older adults (aged 69–85) who were all in good health and functioning well. Social support was found to moderate the association between a low positive other-dimension (PO) of attachment and fear of death. Neediness mediated the relationships between a low positive self-dimension (PS) of attachment and depression. Findings are discussed within the framework of Bowlby’s distinction between attachment and dependency.     

Measuring children's regulation of emotion-expressive behavior

Emotion regulation has become a pivotal concept in developmental and clinical research. However, the measurement of regulatory processes has proved extremely difficult, particularly in the context of within-subject designs. Here, we describe a formal conceptualization and a new experimental procedure, the Balloons Game, to measure a regulatory component of emotion-expressive behavior. We present the internal consistency and stability of the indices derived from the Balloons Game in a sample of 121 kindergarten children. External validation against measures that have been associated with emotion regulation processes is also provided. The findings suggest that the Balloons Game provides a reliable tool for the study of regulation of emotion expression in young children.     

Suicidality as a function of impulsivity, callous-unemotional traits, and depressive symptoms in youth

Suicidality represents one of the most important areas of risk for adolescents, with both internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety) and externalizing-antisocial (e.g., substance use, conduct) disorders conferring risk for suicidal ideation and attempts (e.g., Bridge, Goldstein, & Brent, 2006). However, no study has attended to gender differences in relationships between suicidality and different facets of psychopathic tendencies in youth. Further, very little research has focused on disentangling the multiple manifestations of suicide risk in the same study, including behaviors (suicide attempts with intent to die, self-injurious behavior) and general suicide risk marked by suicidal ideation and plans. To better understand these relationships, we recruited 184 adolescents from the community and in treatment. As predicted, psychopathic traits and depressive symptoms in youth showed differential associations with components of suicidality. Specifically, impulsive traits uniquely contributed to suicide attempts and self-injurious behaviors, above the influence of depression. Indeed, once psychopathic tendencies were entered in the model, depressive symptoms only explained general suicide risk marked by ideation or plans but not behaviors. Further, callous-unemotional traits conferred protection from suicide attempts selectively in girls. These findings have important implications for developing integrative models that incorporate differential relationships between (a) depressed mood and (b) personality risk factors (i.e., impulsivity and callous-unemotional traits) for suicidality in youth.     

Effects of prone and supine positions on sleep state and stress responses in preterm infants

Aim

The purpose of the study is to assess the influence of prone or supine position on sleep states and on withdrawal and approach reactions of preterm infants.

Methods

Thirty-two preterm infants from Meir Medical Center, Israel, mean post menstrual age 30.37 ± 2.57, mean birth weight 1250 g ± 313.86, participated in the study. Infants were studied during 48 h. Positions (prone and supine) were alternated every 3-4 h after feedings. Sleep states were assessed by Actigraph measurement and by two daily 30-min Naturalistic Observations of Newborn Behavior (NONB) to confirm sleep states and for recording the behavioral reactions (approach and withdrawal).

Results

In the prone position there were more approach reactions as compared to withdrawal reactions (p < .001) while in the supine position, the approach and withdrawal reactions were comparable. In the prone position more sleep patterns (deep sleep, light sleep, drowsy) were observed as opposed to more awake patterns (quiet awake, active awake and agitated fussy) that were seen in the supine position.

Conclusions

Clinical implications encourage placing the preterm infant in the prone position while in the NICU. This enables important achievements such as longer periods of quality sleep, and production of adaptive self-regulatory reactions.     

Rate it again: Using the wisdom of many to improve performance evaluations

Much research shows that judgmental estimation could be improved by combining estimates from independent judges as well as within judges. These results have been obtained mostly with judgments about matters of fact, that is, for which there are objective truth criteria. In the present research, we extend these findings to performance evaluations. In a controlled field study, expert judges provided evaluations of a large number of essays written by college applicants taking college entrance tests. The judges were asked to evaluate each essay twice—on two occasions, a week apart. This design allowed us to assess the benefits of two methods of combining evaluations: within rater and across raters. Accuracy gains were obtained with both methods. Although the within‐rater combinations yielded fewer gains than the across‐rater ones, they were still appreciable in comparison with the across rater ones. Our findings extend the class of judgments to which the “wisdom of many” could be applied. These findings are potentially applicable to performance evaluations in social, educational, and employment settings.     

Imaging brain plasticity during motor skill learning

The search for the neural substrates mediating the incremental acquisition of skilled motor behaviors has been the focus of a large body of animal and human studies in the past decade. Much less is known, however, with regard to the dynamic neural changes that occur in the motor system during the different phases of learning. In this paper, we review recent findings, mainly from our own work using fMRI, which suggest that: (i) the learning of sequential finger movements produces a slowly evolving reorganization within primary motor cortex (M1) over the course of weeks and (ii) this change in M1 follows more dynamic, rapid changes in the cerebellum, striatum, and other motor-related cortical areas over the course of days. We also briefly review neurophysiological and psychophysical evidence for the consolidation of motor skills, and we propose a working hypothesis of its underlying neural substrate in motor sequence learning.     

Sleep patterns and sleep disruptions in kindergarten children

Assessed sleep patterns and sleep disruptions in kindergarten children and investigated the relation between sleep measures derived from objective and subjective evaluation methods. The sleep patterns of 59 normal kindergarten children (mean age = 5.5 years) were monitored for 4 to 5 consecutive nights by means of activity monitors (actigraph) and by means of parental daily sleep logs. The correlation between the actigraphic measures and the daily parental logs indicated that parents were accurate reporters of sleep schedule measures. However, parents were less accurate in assessing sleep quality measures, significantly underestimating the number of night-wakings and overestimating the quality of their children's sleep. Fragmented sleep was found, by means of activity monitoring, in 41% of the children.     

The Role of Unconditional Parental Regard in Autonomy‐Supportive Parenting

Two studies explored the role of parents’ unconditional positive regard (UCPR) as perceived by adolescents and young adults in promoting the effectiveness of specific parenting practices that may support offspring's academic autonomous motivation. Study 1 tested the hypothesis that UCPR predicts rationale‐giving and choice‐provision practices and, at the same time, moderates their relations with adolescents’ autonomous motivation. Study 2 replicated the association between UCPR and the parental practices, and further explored the role of parents’ authenticity as an antecedent of UCPR and parental autonomy support. Study 1 included 125 adolescents and Study 2 considered 128 college‐students and their mothers. The offspring reported on their perceptions of their mothers and on their autonomous motivation, and the mothers reported on their sense of authenticity. Both studies found consistent associations between UCPR and parenting practices that may support autonomous motivation. Moreover, Study 1 demonstrated that the rationale giving and choice provision were more strongly related to adolescents’ autonomous motivation when adolescents perceived mothers as high on UCPR. Finally, Study 2 demonstrated that mothers’ authenticity predicted UCPR, which in turn was related to autonomy‐supportive parenting. Findings support the assumption that parents’ autonomy‐supportive practices are more effective when accompanied by UCPR.     

Differences in attentional involvement underlying the perception of distinctive and typical faces

Differences in human faces can be evaluated along a continuum that ranges from 'distinctive' to 'typical.' We examined processing differences between distinctive and typical faces by two attentional tasks that induce attentional blink (AB). Given that AB is believed to reflect temporal or capacity limits of attention, stimuli that survive AB are believed to be associated with greater processing efficiency. In a change-detection task, participants were required to detect changes in the two pairs of faces that were presented in rapid succession. Changes involving the distinctive face of a pair were more likely to be detected than those involving a typical face. In a face-identification task, distinctive faces embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream were identified with a greater accuracy than typical faces. Together, our results suggest that distinctive faces are associated with greater processing efficiency and may be explained in terms of perceptual salience, a stimulus dimension known to attract attention.