Visual attention to emotion in depression: facilitation and withdrawal processes

Attentional biases for sadness are integral to cognitive theories of depression, but do not emerge under all conditions. Some researchers have argued that depression is associated with delayed withdrawal from, but not facilitated initial allocation of attention toward, sadness. We compared two types of withdrawal processes in clinically depressed and non-depressed individuals: (1) withdrawal requiring overt eye movements during visual search; and (2) covert disengagement of attention in a modified cueing paradigm. We also examined initial allocation of attention towards emotion on the visual search task, allowing comparison of withdrawal and facilitation processes. As predicted, we found no evidence of facilitated attention towards sadness in depressed individuals. However, we also found no evidence of depression-linked differences in withdrawal of attention from sadness on either task, offering no support for the theory that depression is associated with withdrawal rather than initial facilitation of attention.     

Domain‐specific and domain‐general precursors of mathematical achievement: A longitudinal study from kindergarten to first grade

Background. Many contributing factors, both domain specific and domain general, influence children's performance in school achievement. Aims. This research aims to verify the importance of kindergarten measures of cognitive abilities and numerical competence in the role of predicting mathematical school achievement at the end of first grade. Sample and Methods. A total of 70 children (38 females and 32 males) took part in the study. We tested the children at the beginning of their last year of kindergarten (time 1) on the following cognitive abilities: IQ, phonology, counting skills, verbal short‐term memory, visuo‐spatial short‐term memory, working memory, and processing speed. Then, we tested the same children at end of their last year of kindergarten (time 2) on a measure of numerical competence and at the end of their first year of primary school (time 3) on a test of math achievement. Results. Path analysis models revealed the direct influence of working memory and processing speed on predicting numerical competence in pre‐schoolers and the influence of processing speed and verbal IQ on predicting math achievement in first graders. Moreover, this study found a direct link between numerical competence and math achievement. Conclusions. Both domain‐specific and domain‐general factors contribute to determining math achievement at the end of first grade.     

The distance effect in numerical memory-updating tasks

Two experiments examined the role of numerical distance in updating numerical information in working memory. In the first experiment, participants had to memorize a new number only when it was smaller than a previously memorized number. In the second experiment, updating was based on an external signal, which removed the need to perform any numerical comparison. In both experiments, distance between the memorized number and the new one was manipulated. The results showed that smaller distances between the new and the old information led to shorter updating times. This graded facilitation suggests that the process by which information is substituted in the focus of attention involves maintaining the shared features between the new and the old number activated and selecting other new features to be activated. Thus, the updating cost may be related to amount of new features to be activated in the focus of attention.     

Disambiguating Information and Memory Resources in Children’s Processing of Italian Relative Clauses

We investigated the role of number agreement on verb and of animacy in the comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in 51 monolingual Italian-speaking children, mean age 9:33, tested through a self-paced listening experiment with a final comprehension question. A digit span test and a listening span test were also administered to examine the role of memory in comprehension. Subject relative clauses were easier to comprehend than object relative clauses; animacy of the relative clause head improved comprehension of object relative clauses; memory, as measured by the digit span test, modulates comprehension of object relative clauses, both with animate and inanimate heads, as shown in response accuracy. Although all children process number agreement morphology on the verb, only some perform a correct reanalysis, as shown by the accuracy measures. We argue that number agreement disambiguation is particularly taxing for children, as it provides a negative symptom in the sense of Fodor and Inoue (J Psycholinguist Res 29(1):25–36, 2000) and reanalysis requires them to hold two dependencies in memory.     

Are intelligence and creativity really so different? : Fluid intelligence, executive processes, and strategy use in divergent thinking

Contemporary creativity research views intelligence and creativity as essentially unrelated abilities, and many studies have found only modest correlations between them. The present research, based on improved approaches to creativity assessment and latent variable modeling, proposes that fluid and executive cognition is in fact central to creative thought. In Study 1, the substantial effect of fluid intelligence (Gf) on creativity was mediated by executive switching, the number of times people switched idea categories during the divergent thinking tasks. In Study 2, half the sample was given an effective strategy for an unusual uses task. The strategy condition interacted with Gf: people high in Gf did better when given the strategy, consistent with their higher ability to maintain access to it and use it despite interference. Taken together, the findings suggest that divergent thinking is more convergent than modern creativity theories presume.     

Cantankerous creativity: Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and the HEXACO structure of creative achievement

Creativity research has suggested that creative people are low in agreeableness. To explore this issue, we applied the HEXACO model of personality structure, which offers an expanded representation of interpersonal traits, particularly a distinction between Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness. A sample of 1304 adults completed the HEXACO-60 and several measures of creative achievement and activities. Latent variable models found that Agreeableness had no relationship with creativity, but Honesty-Humility did: people lower in Honesty-Humility had higher creativity scores, consistent with past work on arrogance and pretentiousness among creative people.     

Spanish adaptation of the EAS Temperament Survey for the assessment of child temperament

Better understanding of child temperament is essential, as it may predict subsequent development of psychopathology. Questionnaires which have been adapted to Spanish population include a rather restricted age range. The Emotionality Sociability and Activity (EAS) Temperament Survey has been widely used in child temperament genetic research. A Spanish version of the scale was administered to a sample of 229 mothers and to their children at 18 and 42 months of age. Its psychometric features were examined. Results showed accuracy indices akin to that obtained in prior studies. Findings suggest a three-factor structure for the assessment of temperament.     

Motor execution affects action prediction

Previous studies provided evidence of the claim that the prediction of occluded action involves real-time simulation. We report two experiments that aimed to study how real-time simulation is affected by simultaneous action execution under conditions of full, partial or no overlap between observed and executed actions. This overlap was analysed by comparing the body sides and the movement kinematics involved in the observed and the executed action. While performing actions, participants observed point-light (PL) actions that were interrupted by an occluder, followed by a test pose. The task was to judge whether the test pose depicted a continuation of the occluded action in the same depth angle. Using a paradigm proposed by Graf et al., we independently manipulated the duration of the occluder and the temporal advance of the test pose relative to occlusion onset (occluder time and pose time, respectively). This paradigm allows the assessment of real-time simulation, based on prediction performance across different occluder time/pose time combinations (i.e., improved task performance with decreasing time distance between occluder time and pose time is taken to reflect real-time simulation). The PL actor could be perceived as from the front or back, as indicated by task instructions. In Experiment 1 (front view instructions), evidence of action simulation was obtained for partial overlap (i.e., observed and performed action corresponded either in body side or movement kinematics), but not for full or no overlap conditions. The same pattern was obtained in Experiment 2 (back view instructions), ruling out a spatial compatibility explanation for the real-time pattern observed. Our results suggest that motor processes affect action prediction and real-time simulation. The strength of their impact varies as a function of the overlap between observed and executed actions.     

Psychoanalysts Working With Patients Who Have Been Subjected to Torture Due to Socio-Political Circumstances: Possible or Impossible Challenge?

This paper presents some comments about the clinical case treated by two Chilean psychoanalysts in the period of violation of human rights, Isidora and her son Martín. We should recognize the pain of listening as psychoanalysts to this kind of story reopens our own wounds, which reappear again, showing some of the toughest realities in the curtailment of personal freedoms like torture, abuse, and violence, which strip away the subject’s identity and any consideration of their selfhood. All therapists or analysts who work in such a situation, whether or not they have been through similar traumas, will be included, affected, and pierced by the social and cultural context. In these cases, it is not only the patient and her internal world that is being treated, but the analysts as well, as they are not outsiders to the conflict. Analyze patients like this case or similar cases could be a possible or sometimes an impossible challenge?     

The Role of Intimate Exchange in the Link Between Reactive Aggression and Child Depressive Symptoms

Although the link between reactively aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms in childhood has been demonstrated in previous work, few studies have examined how peer factors may influence this association. Examining the role of peers in the link between reactive aggression and depressive symptoms is necessary, as peers have been found to buffer the impact of factors that contribute to depressive symptoms in childhood. Accordingly, we examined whether intimate exchange with a best friend moderated the association between reactive aggression and depression in childhood in a sample of 115 children (aged 5–14; M = 8.88; 87 % minority; 53 % male) who attended a community based summer program. Consistent with expectation, reactive aggression was positively associated with child depressive symptoms whereas proactive aggression was negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Further, the interaction between intimate exchange and reactive aggression was associated with child depressive symptoms. Specifically, the association between reactive aggression and depressive symptoms was weaker when levels of intimate exchange were high. Thus, the current study suggests that close peer relationships may help to buffer the link between reactively aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms. Implications for findings include the need to target friendships to help prevent depressive symptoms for reactively aggressive youth.