Using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy to assess social information processing in poor urban Bangladeshi infants and toddlers

Children living in low‐resource settings are at risk for failing to reach their developmental potential. While the behavioral outcomes of growing up in such settings are well‐known, the neural mechanisms underpinning poor outcomes have not been well elucidated, particularly in the context of low‐ and middle‐income countries. In this study, we measure brain metabolic responses to social and nonsocial stimuli in a cohort of 6‐ and 36‐month‐old Bangladeshi children. Study participants in both cohorts lived in an urban slum and were exposed to a broad range of adversity early in life including extreme poverty, malnutrition, recurrent infections, and low maternal education. We observed brain regions that responded selectively to social stimuli in both ages indicating that these specialized brain responses are online from an early age. We additionally show that the magnitude of the socially selective response is related to maternal education, maternal stress, and the caregiving environment. Ultimately our results suggest that a variety of psychosocial hazards have a measurable relationship with the developing social brain.     

Adaptation of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning for use among infants aged 5‐ to 24‐months in rural Gambia

Infants in low‐resource settings are at heightened risk for compromised cognitive development due to a multitude of environmental insults in their surroundings. However, the onset of adverse outcomes and trajectory of cognitive development in these settings is not well understood. The aims of the present study were to adapt the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) for use with infants in a rural area of The Gambia, to examine cognitive development in the first 24‐months of life and to assess the association between cognitive performance and physical growth. In Phase 1 of this study, the adapted MSEL was tested on 52 infants aged 9‐ to 24‐months (some of whom were tested longitudinally at two time points). Further optimization and training were undertaken and Phase 2 of the study was conducted, where the original measures were administered to 119 newly recruited infants aged 5‐ to 24‐months. Infant length, weight and head circumference were measured concurrently in both phases. Participants from both phases were split into age categories of 5–9 m (N = 32), 10–14 m (N = 92), 15–19 m (N = 53) and 20–24 m (N = 43) and performance was compared across age groups. From the ages of 10–14 m, Gambian infants obtained lower MSEL scores than US norms. Performance decreased with age and was lowest in the 20–24 m old group. Differential onsets of reduced performance were observed in the individual MSEL domains, with declines in visual perception and motor performance detected as early as at 10–14 months, while reduced language scores became evident after 15–19 months of age. Performance on the MSEL was significantly associated with measures of growth.     

Associations Between Gender Segregation and Gender Identity in College Students

We investigated associations between gender segregation and the two traditions of gender identity identified by Wood and Eagly (2015): gender-typed personality traits and gender reference group identity. We also investigated whether one of these traditions was associated with gender segregation to a greater extent than the other. Our sample consisted of 73 male (and 93 female undergraduate students aged 18–24 attending a university in the northeastern United States of America. In support of our hypotheses we found that male and female college students reported a greater proportion of same-gender than cross-gender friends and that gender segregation was negatively associated with femininity for male college students and positively associated with gender reference group identity for male and female college students. In addition, as hypothesized, we found that gender reference group identity was associated with gender segregation to a greater extent than gender-typed personality traits. That gender segregation is associated with gender reference group identity to a greater extent than gender-typed personality traits supports a multifaceted model of gender, and it highlights the importance of considering different traditions of gender identity in gender research (Mehta 2015; Wood and Eagly 2015).     

分离遗传与环境对儿童发展的影响：介绍一个新颖的研究方法

本文介绍一个可以用于研究遗传与环境互动的新颖方法。此研究收集了上千个4~10岁儿童的数据。这些儿童的出生都借助于不同的辅助受孕技术（Assisted Reproductive Technologies）,包括试管婴儿、精子捐赠、卵子捐赠、胚胎捐赠及代孕技术。本项目通过妇科（助孕）医院收集被试的行为数据,包括家庭互动、养育方式、父母婚姻质量、家庭成员的心理健康及经济状况等。本文选择性地介绍一些分析的结果,以彰显这种设计在分离遗传和产前产后环境对儿童发展的贡献。首先,我们比较了“助孕”儿童与“自然孕”儿童在父母冲突、父母对子女敌意以及儿童抑郁症状之间关系的异同。其次,我们比较了这两组儿童在父母抑郁症状、家庭关系质量以及儿童抑郁症状之间关系的异同。再次,本文介绍了这一可分离遗传与环境因素的研究设计。最后,我们讨论了这一设计对发展心理病干预及预防的意义     

Errorless Learning in the Rehabilitation of Memory Impairment: A Critical Review

This review considers the origins of the errorless learning (EL) concept, its application in memory rehabilitation, the evidence for its effectiveness, and the theoretical basis for the observed findings. The evidence suggests that EL offers valuable benefits for at least some people with memory impairments when teaching certain types of tasks. However, the benefits are not evident for all groups, some findings are equivocal, and there are some limitations associated with this approach. We discuss methodological issues impacting on these mixed findings, consider which theoretical explanations might account for the findings regarding benefits and limitations of EL, and comment on the implications for rehabilitation practitioners of the current state of evidence in this area.     

Expertise in Deception Detection Involves Actively Prompting Diagnostic Information Rather Than Passive Behavioral Observation

In a proof‐of‐concept study, an expert obtained 100% deception‐detection accuracy over 33 interviews. Tapes of the interactions were shown to N = 136 students who obtained 79.1% accuracy (Mdn = 83.3%, mode = 100%). The findings were replicated in a second experiment with 5 different experts who collectively conducted 89 interviews. The new experts were 97.8% accurate in cheating detection and 95.5% accurate at detecting who cheated. A sample of N = 34 students watched a random sample of 36 expert interviews and obtained 93.6% accuracy. The data suggest that experts can accurately distinguish truths from lies when they are allowed to actively question a potential liar, and nonexperts can obtain high accuracy when viewing expertly questioned senders.