Sustained vs. transient cognitive control: Evidence of a behavioral dissociation

This study assessed whether two well known effects associated with cognitive control, conflict adaptation (the Gratton effect) and conflict context (proportion congruent effects), reflect a single common or separate control systems. To test this we examined if these two effects generalized from one kind of conflict to another by using a combined-conflict paradigm (involving the Simon and Spatial Stroop tasks) and manipulating the proportion of congruent to incongruent trials for one conflict (Simon) but not the other (Spatial Stroop). We found that conflict adaptation effects did not generalize, but the effect of conflict context did. This contrasting pattern of results strongly suggests the existence of two separate attentional control systems, one transient and responsible of online regulation of performance (conflict adaptation), the other sustained and responsible for conflict context effects.     

Psychometric Properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-Preschool Revision (APQ-Pr) in 3 Year-Old Spanish Preschoolers

Parenting practices should be assessed and taken into account at an early age, since it is well documented that they are strongly related to children’s development. This study provides data on the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire for Preschool children (APQ-Pr). A community sample of 622 (310 boys and 312 girls) 3 year-old children and their parents, participated in the study. Data were obtained from parents’ reports and correspond to a semi-structured diagnostic interview and self-report questionnaires evaluating parenting and children’s psychological states. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor solution: positive parenting, inconsistent parenting and punitive parenting. These scales scores showed moderate to good internal consistence (omega values ranged from .54 to .86). Inconsistent parenting scores achieved the strongest associations with external measures of psychopathology, especially for externalizing and conduct problems, as well as for functional impairment, the poorest associations being for the positive parenting scores. Results support the validity of the Spanish APQ-Pr, which is potentially a useful measure for the study of parenting practices regarding preschool children and their relation to conduct problems.     

Children's activities and their meanings for parents: a mixed-methods study in six Western cultures

Theoretical perspectives and research in sociology, anthropology, sociolinguistics, and cultural psychology converge in recognizing the significance of children's time spent in various activities, especially in the family context. Knowing how children's time is deployed, however, only gives us a partial answer to how children acquire competence; the other part must take into account the culturally constructed meanings of activities, from the perspective of those who organize and direct children's daily lives. In this article, we report on a study of children's routine daily activities and on the meanings that parents attribute to them in six Western middle-class cultural communities located in Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United States (N = 183). Using week-long time diaries kept by parents, we first demonstrate similarities as well as significant differences in children's daily routines across the cultural samples. We then present brief vignettes--"a day in the life" --of children from each sample. Parent interviews were coded for themes in the meanings attributed to various activities. Excerpts from parent interviews, focusing on four major activities (meals, family time, play, school- or developmentally related activities), are presented to illustrate how cultural meanings and themes are woven into parents' organization and understanding of their children's daily lives. The results of this mixed-method approach provide a more reliable and nuanced picture of children's and families' daily lives than could be derived from either method alone.     

公共卫生的责任主体缺位是众多医学伦理问题产生的根源

我国的卫生、医疗服务系统近年来产生了大量严重的伦理问题,引起了国内外广泛的关注.通过对大量材料的归类、分析,找出我国众多严重伦理问题产生的主要根源是公共卫生责任主体的缺位.解决的主要措施是:加快卫生母法的建立;政府对"公共性"卫生服务责任到位,扭转卫生工作严重的市场化和趋利化倾向;彻底改变医疗费用的"后付制"和"第三方付费制",实行政府正向投入;改变当前在疾病预防和初级卫生保健投入方面过于细化的分级财政体制;制止药品广告和虚假的医疗广告;加大控制政府公立医院建设的成本和降低医院运行费用的工作,严格收费价格纪律等.     

医疗卫生产业组织研究与卫生政策

产业组织理论是经济学的重要分支之一,卫生经济的发展需要借鉴它的手段和方法,需要研究医疗卫生产业组织的相关问题.农村新型合作医疗的建立和发展,城市医疗卫生服务体系的再造,都离不开医疗卫生产业组织研究.市场,特别是非完全竞争的医疗服务市场,它的市场结构、市场主体行为和市场绩效之间内在的本质联系,是卫生政策能够发生应有效力的作用点.     

树立急救白金1O分钟理念,提高社区猝死抢救成功率

探讨建立社区急救体系提高猝死抢救成功率,比较国际与我国的急救现状、分析建立社区急救体系的保障因素、建立大众与社区急救流程、分析"急救白金十分钟"抢救的时效性规律.提出建立社区以家庭为个体急救单位、单元有志愿者、大楼设置救护小组、社区内建立自救站的大众急救网络;在其中组织多层面的大众急救宣传的培训;设置醒目的急救器械;设置社区内的急救流程.社区医院的建设需要政府的大力支持,要努力提高急救人员素质、建立长期培训和准入制度、高危人群筛查、建立对讲呼叫通讯网络、配备急足够的急救器材.最终建立和达到社会范畴的"急救白金十分钟"的时效性理想.     

The use of prosodic cues in language discrimination tasks by rats

Recent research with cotton-top tamarin monkeys has revealed language discrimination abilities similar to those found in human infants, demonstrating that these perceptual abilities are not unique to humans but are also present in non-human primates. Specifically, tamarins could discriminate forward but not backward sentences of Dutch from Japanese, using both natural and synthesized utterances. The present study was designed as a conceptual replication of the work on tamarins. Results show that rats trained in a discrimination learning task readily discriminate forward, but not backward sentences of Dutch from Japanese; the results are particularly robust for synthetic utterances, a pattern that shows greater parallels with newborns than with tamarins. Our results extend the claims made in the research with tamarins that the capacity to discriminate languages from different rhythmic classes depends on general perceptual abilities that evolved at least as far back as the rodents. Electronic Publication