Deficit in phonological processes: a characteristic of the neuropsychological profile of children with NF1

Learning disabilities are one of the most frequent complications of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) in children. Studies of the effects of the neurocognitive deficit on academic performance are relatively rare, owing to the small size of the populations concerned. However, research is needed to develop effective rehabilitation programs. In the present study, we explored the impact of a possible phonological deficit on the reading abilities of children with NF1. A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted in France on two groups of 75 children with or without NF1 aged 8–12 years, matched for age, sex, handedness, and reading level. All participants underwent a neuropsychological evaluation to assess their general cognitive level, reading skills, phonological processes, visuoperceptual abilities, and attentional capacity. Phonological skills were assessed by means of two phonological awareness tasks and one short-term memory task. In the group of children with NF1, 41% had reading difficulties. Phonological processes were impaired in this group, compared with the children without NF1. Similar differences were found for a phoneme deletion task after adjustment for reading difficulties, IQ level, and visuoperceptual abilities. Phonological awareness, but not phonological short-term memory, was impaired in children with NF1, and not just those whose reading was impaired. Results suggest that children with NF1 have a phonological awareness deficit, whatever their reading level. Identification of reduced phonological skills may warrant the implementation of a specific rehabilitation program before early reading difficulties emerge.     

The emotional body and time perception

We examined the effects of emotional bodily expressions on the perception of time. Participants were shown bodily expressions of fear, happiness and sadness in a temporal bisection task featuring different stimulus duration ranges. Stimulus durations were judged to be longer for bodily expressions of fear than for those of sadness, whereas no significant difference was observed between sad and happy postures. In addition, the magnitude of the lengthening effect of fearful versus sad postures increased with duration range. These results suggest that the perception of fearful bodily expressions increases the level of arousal which, in turn, speeds up the internal clock system underlying the representation of time. The effect of bodily expressions on time perception is thus consistent with findings for other highly arousing emotional stimuli, such as emotional facial expressions.     

Investigating the Relationships Between Mobility Behaviours and Indicators of Subjective Well-Being Using Smartphone-Based Experience Sampling and GPS Tracking

People interact with their physical environments every day by visiting different places and moving between them. Such mobility behaviours likely influence and are influenced by people's subjective well-being. However, past research examining the links between mobility behaviours and well-being has been inconclusive. Here, we provide a comprehensive investigation of these relationships by examining individual differences in two types of mobility behaviours (movement patterns and places visited) and their relationship to six indicators of subjective well-being (depression, loneliness, anxiety, stress, affect, and energy) at two different temporal levels of analysis (two-week tendencies and daily level). Using data from a large smartphone-based longitudinal study (N = 1765), we show that (i) movement patterns assessed via GPS data (distance travelled, entropy, and irregularity) and (ii) places visited assessed via experience sampling reports (home, work, and social places) are associated with subjective well-being at the between and within person levels. Our findings suggest that distance travelled is related to anxiety, affect, and stress, irregularity is related to depression and loneliness, and spending time in social places is negatively associated with loneliness. We discuss the implications of our work and highlight directions for future research on the generalizability to other populations as well as the characteristics of places. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Neuropsychological status of French children with developmental dyslexia and/or developmental coordination disorder: Are both necessarily worse than one?

Developmental dyslexia (DD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) co-occur frequently, raising the underlying question of shared etiological bases. We investigated the cognitive profile of children with DD, children with DCD, and children with the dual association (DD + DCD) to determine the inherent characteristics of each disorder and explore the possible additional impact of co-morbidity on intellectual, attentional, and psychosocial functioning. The participants were 8- to 12-year-olds (20 DD, 22 DCD, and 23 DD + DCD). Cognitive abilities were assessed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and the Continuous Performance Test – Second Edition (CPT-II) and behavioral impairments were evaluated by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). No differences were found between the three groups on attention testing (CPT-II) or psychosocial characteristics (CBCL), but a higher percentage of DD + DCD children had pathological scores on psychosocial scales. Significant between-group differences were observed on Processing Speed Index scores and the block design and symbol search subtests, where DD children fared better than DCD children. No significant differences were evident between the co-morbid vs. the pure groups. Our results clearly show significant differences between children with DD only and children with DCD only. In particular, visuo-spatial disabilities and heterogeneity of intellectual profile seem to be good markers of DCD. However, it should be noted that despite these distinct and separate characteristics, a common cognitive profile (weaknesses and strengths) is likely shared by both neurodevelopmental disorders. Surprisingly, concerning co-morbidity, DD + DCD association is not associated with a decrease in intellectual or attentional capacities.     

How Widespread is Graphology in Personnel Selection Practice? A case study of a job market myth

Graphology is allegedly widely used in personnel selection in Europe. This is a myth: a widespread but false belief. We explored this myth in five studies. Study 1 established that job ads rarely require handwritten letters. Study 2 showed that handwritten letters serve multiple purposes but are seldom used for handwriting analysis. In Study 3, job market actors overestimated the frequency with which handwritten letters are subjected to graphological analysis. In Study 4, we showed experimentally that people expect graphology to be used when job ads require submission of a handwritten letter. Study 5 showed that advice books may transmit the myth. The myth may foster tolerant attitudes toward graphology, thereby facilitating its persistence in selection practice.     

Impact of comparisons with out‐group members on women's self‐esteem: Role of the stereotypical connotation of the performance context

Although upward comparisons may threaten people's self‐esteem, research has argued that this is not the case if the comparison other is an out‐group member. To protect their self‐esteem individuals would dismiss upward comparison information involving out‐group members as not being self‐relevant. We suggest that use of this self‐protective strategy is dependent on the stereotypical connotation of the performance context. Women's self‐esteem would suffer from upward out‐group comparisons on a male‐labelled task but not on a female one because the assumed expertise of women in the latter domain would allow them to reject the comparison information. To test this hypothesis, female participants were led to believe that they were Z‐types group members in comparison with X‐types group members. After doing a test presumably designed to assess either their verbal‐spatial ability (male‐labelled task) or their sociorelational expressiveness (female‐labelled task), they were exposed to bogus information on the performance of three other individuals who were always described as X‐types group members (out‐group members). These out‐group members had performed either better (upward comparison) or worse (downward comparison) than the participants themselves. Supporting the hypothesis, women who had been confronted with the superior performance of out‐group members on the male‐labelled task reported lower self‐esteem than those confronted with the superior performance of out‐group members on the female‐labelled task. When women perform a stereotypically female task, upward comparisons with out‐group members do not decrease their self‐esteem, suggesting that women are in a position to protect their self‐esteem by dismissing the self‐relevance of such comparisons. The assumed expertise of women as a function of the stereotypical gender connotation of the performance context could explain such results. The influence of the social division of gender roles on women's social identity is discussed. La littérature suggère que les comparaisons ascendantes menacent L'estime de soi des individus, sauf lorsque ces comparaisons se déroulent avec des membres d'un exogroupe. En effet, les individus se protègeraient de telles comparaisons en ne les estimant pas pertinentes. Toutefois, nous suggérons que L'utilisation d'une telle stratégie d'auto‐protection dépend de la connotation stéréotypique du contexte de performance. Ainsi, L'estime de soi des femmes serait affaiblie par des comparaisons ascendantes avec des membres d'un exogroupe uniquement si ces dernières portent sur un domaine stéréotypiquement perçu comme masculin et non sur un domaine stéréotypiquement perçu comme féminin. Pour tester cette hypothèse, des participantes sont conduites à croire qu'en tant que membres du groupe des types‐Z elles vont être comparées aux membres du groupe des types‐X. Après avoir réalisé un test supposé évaluer soit leur capacité spatio‐verbale (tâche à connotation masculine) soit leur expressivité socio‐relationnelle (tâche à connotation féminine), elles reçoivent de L'information fictive sur la performance de trois autres individus, toujours présentés comme des membres du groupe des types‐X (exogroupe). Ces trois personnes ont soit mieux réussi (comparaisons ascendantes) soit moins bien réussi (comparaisons descendantes) que les participantes. Conformément à L'hypothèse, les femmes confrontées à de meilleures performances des membres de L'exogroupe présentent une estime de soi plus faible uniquement lorsqu'elles ont réalisé une tâche à connotation masculine. Quand les femmes réalisent une tâche stéréotypiquement féminine, les comparaisons ascendantes avec des membres de L'exogroupe ne diminuent pas leur estime de soi, ce qui suggère que les femmes sont alors capables de protéger leur estime de soi en rejetant ces comparaisons comme non‐pertinentes. L'expertise supposée des femmes en fonction de la connotation sexuelle stéréotypique du contexte de performance pourrait expliquer de tels résultats. La discussion porte ainsi sur L'influence de la division sociale des rôles de genre sur L'identité sociale des femmes. La literatura de investigación sugiere que las comparaciones ascendentes amenazan la auto estima de las personas, a menos que con quien se comparen no sea miembro de su mismo grupo. Para proteger su auto estima, los individuos rechazarían las comparaciones ascendentes con personas ajenas a su grupo por considerarlas irrelevantes para sí mismos. Se sugiere que el uso de esta estrategia de auto protección depende de la connotación estereotipada del contexto en el que se desempeñe la persona. La auto estima de las mujeres sufrirá sólo si se comparan ascendentemente contra alguien, perteneciente a un grupo ajeno al propio, que se desempeñe en un dominio percibido como masculino, pero no en dominios percibidos como femeninos. Para someter a prueba esta hipótesis, se hizo creer a las participantes que eran miembros de un grupo tipo Z que se comparaba con los miembros de un grupo tipo X. Una vez que se habían sometido a una prueba presuntamente diseñada para evaluar, ya fuera la habilidad verbal‐espacial (tarea percibida como masculina) o su expresividad en las relaciones sociales (tarea percibida como femenina), se expusieron a información falsa acerca del rendimiento de otros tres individuos a quienes se describía como miembros del grupo tipo X (grupo ajeno al propio). Estos miembros externos al grupo de la participante habían tenido un rendimiento, ya fuera mejor (comparación ascendente) o peor (comparación descendente) que ésta. La hipótesis recibió apoyo, las mujeres confrontadas con un rendimiento superior de miembros ajenos a su grupo en la tarea percibida como masculina manifestaron menor auto estima que aquéllas confrontadas con un rendimiento superior de miembros ajenos a su grupo en la tarea percibida como femenina. Cuando las mujeres desempeñan una tarea percibida como femenina, las comparaciones ascendentes con miembros de grupos ajenos no disminuyen su auto estima, lo que sugiere que se protegen al rechazar la importancia de tales comparaciones. La supuesta pericia de las mujeres en función de la connotación sexual estereotipada del contexto en el que se desempeñan podría explicar tales resultados. Se discute la influencia de la división social de los roles de género sobre la identidad social de las mujeres.     

Children's understanding of idioms and theory of mind development

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis according to which theory of mind competence was a prerequisite to ambiguous idioms understanding. We hypothesized that the child needs to understand that the literal interpretation could be a false world representation, a false belief, and that the speaker's intention is to mean something else, to correctly process idiomatic expressions. Two kinds of ambiguous idioms were of interest: decomposable and nondecomposable expressions (Titone & Connine, 1999). An experiment was designed to assess the figurative developmental changes that occur with theory of mind competence. Five-, 6- and 7-year-old children performed five theory of mind tasks (an appearance-reality task, three false-belief tasks and a second-order false-belief task) and listened to decomposable and nondecomposable idiomatic expressions inserted in context, before performing a multiple choice task. Results indicated that only nondecomposable idiomatic expression was predicted from the theory of mind scores, and particularly from the second-order competences. Results are discussed with respect to theory of mind and verbal competences.     

The effect of aging in recollective experience: the processing speed and executive functioning hypothesis

This study was designed to investigate the effects of aging on consciousness in recognition memory, using the Remember/Know/Guess procedure (Gardiner, J. M., & Richarson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and Knowing. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press.). In recognition memory, older participants report fewer occasions on which recognition is accompanied by recollection of the original encoding context. Two main hypotheses were tested: the speed mediation hypothesis (Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 3, 403–428) and the executive-aging hypothesis (West, R. L. (1996). An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 272–292). A group of young and a group of older adults took a recognition test in which they classified their responses according to Gardiner, J. M., & Richarson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and Knowing. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press. remember-know-guess paradigm. Subsequently, participants completed processing speed and executive function tests. The results showed that among the older participants, R responses decreased, but K responses did not. Moreover, a hierarchical regression analysis supported the view that the effect of age in recollection experience is determined by frontal lobe integrity and not by diminution of processing speed.     

The influence of action perception on object recognition: a developmental study

Two experiments explored the existence and the development of relations between action representations and object representations. A priming paradigm was used in which participants viewed an action pantomime followed by the picture of a tool, the tool being either associated or unassociated with the preceding action. Overall, we observed that the perception of an action pantomime can facilitate the recognition of a corresponding tool. Experiment 1 was based on a naming task and was conducted with 9- to 12-year-old children and a group of young adults. While substantial priming effects were obtained for all age groups, they were especially important for the youngest participants. Smaller priming effects were obtained in Experiment 2, using a categorization task and conducted on 5- to 11-year-old children and young adults, but again the results suggest that these action priming effects diminish with increasing age. Implications of these results for the organization and development of conceptual knowledge are discussed.