Development and Validation of a Short-Form Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale: Me as a Parent Scale (MaaPs-SF)

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Higher levels of self-reported parenting self-efficacy have been associated with positive parent–child relationships, parental mental health and child...     

Linking patterns of infant eye movements to a neural network model of the ventral stream using representational similarity analysis

Little is known about the development of higher-level areas of visual cortex during infancy, and even less is known about how the development of visually guided behavior is related to the different levels of the cortical processing hierarchy. As a first step toward filling these gaps, we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to assess links between gaze patterns and a neural network model that captures key properties of the ventral visual processing stream. We recorded the eye movements of 4- to 12-month-old infants (N = 54) as they viewed photographs of scenes. For each infant, we calculated the similarity of the gaze patterns for each pair of photographs. We also analyzed the images using a convolutional neural network model in which the successive layers correspond approximately to the sequence of areas along the ventral stream. For each layer of the network, we calculated the similarity of the activation patterns for each pair of photographs, which was then compared with the infant gaze data. We found that the network layers corresponding to lower-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in younger infants than in older infants, whereas the network layers corresponding to higher-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in older infants than in younger infants. Thus, between 4 and 12 months, gaze becomes increasingly controlled by more abstract, higher-level representations. These results also demonstrate the feasibility of using RSA to link infant gaze behavior to neural network models. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/K5mF2Rw98Is     

Processing complex graphemes in handwriting production

Recent studies on handwriting production and neuropsychological data have suggested that orthographic representations are multilevel structures that encode information on letter identity and order, but also on intermediate-grained processing units such as syllables and morphemes. This study on handwriting production examined whether orthographic representations also include a graphemic-processing level. French adults wrote words containing an embedded one-, two-, or three-letter grapheme (e.g., a in clavier, ai in prairie, ain in plainte) on a digitizer. The results for letter duration revealed that the timing of movement processing depends on grapheme length (e.g., the duration of a for one-letter graphemes was shorter than that for two-letter graphemes, which, in turn, was shorter than that for three-letter graphemes). Two- and three-letter graphemes start to be processed before we start to write them. The results therefore revealed that orthographic representations also encode information on grapheme complexity.     

Stressful life events and suicidal behaviour in countries with different development levels: Nicaragua,El Salvador,Chile and Spain

This paper presents a study conducted on 709 Latin American undergraduates from four countries with different development levels (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile and Spain). The intention of this paper is to value the differences in the number and characteristics of stressful life events (SLE) suffered by the participants. Another purpose is to confirm the relation between SLE and suicidal conduct in Spanish cultural contexts, through the study of a multicultural sample of Spanish‐speaking university students, and finally, to isolate the SLE that allow predicting a later suicidal conduct to a greatest extent. The information was collected by means of a self‐applied questionnaire. The results indicate a greater presence of SLE among those who live in countries with lower development levels and among those who have attempted committing suicide. It is observed that the fact of having suffered certain SLE—physical or sexual mistreatment, excessive alcohol or drug consumption and having left home during childhood or adolescence—aid in the prediction of later suicidal conducts in the studied samples. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speeded induction under uncertainty: The influence of multiple categories and feature conjunctions

When people are uncertain about the category membership of an item (e.g., Is it a dog or a dingo?), research shows that they tend to rely only on the dominant or most likely category when making inductions (e.g., How likely is it to befriend me?). An exception has been reported using speeded induction judgments where participants appeared to use information from multiple categories to make inductions (Verde, Murphy, &; Ross, 2005). In two speeded induction studies, we found that participants tended to rely on the frequency with which features co-occurred when making feature predictions, independently of category membership. This pattern held whether categories were considered implicitly (Experiment 1) or explicitly (Experiment 2) prior to feature induction. The results converge with other recent work suggesting that people often rely on feature conjunction information, rather than category boundaries, when making inductions under uncertainty.     

Is it the symptom or the relation to it? Investigating potential mediators of change in acceptance and commitment therapy for psychosis

Cognitive and behavioral interventions have been shown to be efficacious when used as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy for psychotic disorders. However, little previous research has investigated potential mediators of change in psychological treatments for psychosis. Acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies do not focus on directly reducing the psychotic symptoms themselves, but instead attempt to alter the patient's relationship to symptoms to decrease their negative impact. The current study examined this issue with data from a previously published randomized trial comparing brief treatment with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) versus treatment as usual for hospitalized patients with psychotic symptoms (Gaudiano & Herbert, 2006a). Results showed that the believability of hallucinations at posttreatment statistically mediated the effect of treatment condition on hallucination-related distress. Hallucination frequency did not mediate outcome. The current study is a first step toward understanding the potential mechanisms of action in psychological treatments for psychosis.     

Changes in proposed mechanisms of action during an acceptance-based behavior therapy for generalized anxiety disorder

Based on the theory that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is maintained through a reactive and fused relationship with one's internal experiences and a tendency towards experiential avoidance and behavioral restriction, an acceptance-based behavior therapy (ABBT) was developed to specifically target these elements. Since ABBT has been shown to be an efficacious treatment in previous studies, the current study focuses on proposed mechanisms of change over the course of therapy. Specifically, the current study focuses on session-by-session changes in two proposed mechanisms of change: acceptance of internal experiences and engagement in meaningful activities. Overall, clients receiving ABBT reported an increase in the amount of time spent accepting internal experiences and engaging in valued activities. Change in both acceptance and engagement in meaningful activities was related to responder status at post-treatment and change in these two proposed mechanisms predicted outcome above and beyond change in worry. In addition, change in acceptance was related to reported quality of life at post-treatment.     

The Relationship Between Overeducation and Job Satisfaction Among Young Spanish Workers: The Role of Salary,Contract of Employment,and Work Experience

The increase of education in younger generations and the relative scarcity of qualified jobs available for them makes overeducation of young employees a social issue. We explored the relationships between overeducation and job satisfaction (extrinsic, intrinsic, social facet), as well as the direct and moderating role of salary, contract of employment, and work experience in these relationships using hierarchical regression analyses. Data were collected from a sample of 643 young Spanish employees. As expected, there were negative relationships between overeducation and all 3 satisfaction facets. Moreover, high work experience emerged as a moderating factor that buffered the negative effect of overeducation on extrinsic satisfaction. Contract of employment and salary did not moderate these relationships.