Clinical validation of the trait and state versions of the Food Craving Questionnaire

This is the first study to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait (FCQ-T), and Food Craving Questionnaire-State (FCQ-S) measures using a clinically heterogeneous sample of eating disorder patients (N = 177) recruited from seven different outpatient eating disorder treatment centers in Spain. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) corroborated the factor structures of the FCQ-T and FCQ-S. The measures' scores and their factor-derived scale-scores yielded internal consistency reliability indexes that ranged from adequate to excellent. The measures were predictive of eating disorder symptoms. As expected, the FCQ-T was more strongly associated with eating disorder psychopathology than the FCQ-S. The results replicated the psychometric properties of the FCQ-T and FCQ-S in eating disorder populations and could become useful tools in clinical and research settings.     

Between the frontier and the network: Notes for a metapsychology of freedom2

The author examines the paradigm of the frontier and encounters the establishment of the paradigm of the network, a tendency that currently runs through diverse fields of thought. The network is not proposed as a globalising structure that would neutralise what is different, but as integration based on preservation of what is plural and its transformations. The author moves between these two paradigms in psychoanalytic metapsychology and clinical practice. The concept of frontier is intrinsic to the entire theory: repression, which separates the unconscious from the preconscious, the barrier against stimuli, the delimitation of spaces and agencies. But psychoanalysis is also a precursor of the paradigm of the network, with its concepts of unconscious, free association and evenly suspended attention. She points out that it is psychoanalysis that, in the area of scientific thought, subverts the radical split between subjects and their objects of observation, through the concepts of transference and countertransference, thus inaugurating a revolutionary theory of knowledge. This perspective can later be seen as a forerunner of changes in other disciplines. This text legitimises the contribution of psychoanalysis to thinking and knowledge, as well as the potential of a therapeutic method that provides the tools for crossing frontiers, unknotting and weaving networks, operating in the face of risks of pathological consolidations, thus holding to its unavoidable commitment to freedom.     

Lesions of the dorsal subiculum and the dorsal hippocampus impaired pattern separation in a task using distinct and overlapping visual stimuli

The contribution of the dorsal subiculum (DS) and of the dorsal hippocampus (DH) to memory for distinct and overlapping visual stimuli was examined. Rats with selective lesions of the DS or the DH were compared to sham-operated rats on a delayed matching-to-place task guided by distal visual cues in a modified radial-arm maze. Overlapping distal visual cues could be perceived from three arm entrances (adjacent arms) and a unique set of distal cues were more likely to be seen from the other two arm entrances (distinct arms). Rats with DS lesions were impaired on trials with baited adjacent arms, but not on trials with baited distinct arms. Rats with DH lesions were impaired on both types of trials. These results suggest that the DS and the DH are necessary for pattern separation and that they may have different contributions to memory.     

Orthographic vs. phonologic syllables in handwriting production

French children program the words they write syllable by syllable. We examined whether the syllable the children use to segment words is determined phonologically (i.e., is derived from speech production processes) or orthographically. Third, 4th and 5th graders wrote on a digitiser words that were mono-syllables phonologically (e.g. barque = [baRk]) but bi-syllables orthographically (e.g. barque = bar.que). These words were matched to words that were bi-syllables both phonologically and orthographically (e.g. balcon = [bal.kõ] and bal.con). The results on letter stroke duration and fluency yielded significant peaks at the syllable boundary for both types of words, indicating that the children use orthographic rather than phonological syllables as processing units to program the words they write.     

Responsibility Attribution And Helping Behaviour In The Ash Wednesday Bushfires

The theoretical and empirical literature on the attribution of responsibility and helping behaviour suggests that a causal relationship exists between the perception of a victim's responsibility for his or her distress and the observer's willingness to help. This relationship was examined in a study of the attributions Victorians made and the amount of help (donations) given to the victims of the Ash Wednesday bushfires. The survey responses of 372 subjects indicated that although many people attributed a considerable degree of responsibility to the victims, attributions were unrelated to subsequent helping behaviour. Instead, helping was mediated by feelings of personal obligation to lend assistance and feelings of sympathy for the victims. It is argued that attribution theory may not be relevant to serious situations where norms for helping are highly salient.     

Repetition priming in simple addition depends on surface form and typicality

Repetition priming and recognition memory for numbers were measured in four experiments using single-digit addition. Results of the first two experiments indicate that when numbers were presented as number words and dot configurations, preexposure of the same problem in the same notation produced greater reaction-time benefit than did preexposure of the same problem in Arabic-digit notation. In contrast, when numbers were presented as Arabic digits, preexposure of the same problem in Arabic digit, number word, and dot notation produced the same amount of priming. In the third experiment, priming was shown to be greatest, for all three notations, when the task performed on preexposure trials (addition or multiplication) matched the task performed on repetition trials (addition). Results of the fourth experiment, measuring recognition memory, were comparable to the priming results in the sense that memory was superior when notation matched across repetitions if the test involved number words and dot configurations but not Arabic digits. These data are interpreted in terms of models of numerical cognition, and they support the hypothesis that the influence of surface form on repetition priming depends on the typicality of the input for the task.     

The verbal label: Mediator or classifier?

Three experiments on the role of verbal labels and perceptual cues in concept attainment are reported. Ss were kindergarten and second-grade upper-middle-class children. The results indicated that when Ss learned to associate two labels (or two perceptual cues) with each stimulus no positive transfer resulted, despite the fact that one of the labels (or cues) was relevant to solution. When one label only (or one perceptual cue) was associated with each stimulus, substantial positive transfer was observed. The effects of verbal labeling and perceptual cuing were identical.On the basis of these finding the authors reject the hypothesis that labels give rise to representational responses which act as mediators, and instead propose a new hypothesis, that labels and perceptual cues facilitate performance because they facilitate the division of the stimulus set into subsets which are correlated with the response systems the subjects are expected to learn.     

Postpartum feeding attitudes, maternal depression, and breastfeeding in Barbados

Maternal feeding attitudes, maternal moods and infant feeding practices during the first 6 months postpartum were assessed in 226 healthy, well-nourished Barbadian mother-infant dyads. Factor analysis of the feeding attitudes questionnaire resulted in six independent factors. The belief that breastfeeding was better than bottle-feeding was associated with higher family income, more information seeking behavior and older maternal age at the time of her first pregnancy. Women who believed that breastfeeding was better at 7 weeks postpartum were also more likely to breastfeed at concurrent and later ages, up to 6 months postpartum. This belief was also associated with less maternal depression at 7 weeks and 6 months. The association between feeding attitudes and actual feeding practices was significant even after correcting for maternal moods and other background variables. Conversely, after controlling for feeding attitudes, maternal mood at 7 weeks was still significantly associated with infant feeding practices at 6 months. Thus, feeding attitudes and maternal moods were closely linked, but each contributed independently and uniquely to different aspects of breastfeeding, especially at 6 months. These findings suggest that early intervention addressing maternal feeding attitudes, may improve the extent of breastfeeding and the health of children in this setting.     

Building Interdisciplinary/Intersectoral Research Partnerships for Community-Based Mental Health Research with Older Minority Adults

Community-based research often brings investigators from different disciplinary backgrounds together with community representatives to conduct research on topics of mutual concern. This paper describes a case example that illustrates an interdisciplinary/intersectoral study of depression and barriers to mental health care among older adults and illustrate the factors central to implementing a successful research partnership. It will address the following conditions that facilitate and challenge interdisciplinary/intersectoral research: (1) achieving commonality of purpose in study design and research and referral approaches; (2) ensuring the ability to develop, field-test and implement psychometrically rigorous and culturally and qualitatively appropriate instruments; (3) building effective management structures for interdisciplinary/intersectoral research partnerships; and (4) identifying, training and supporting qualified researchers to carry out a mental health study with older ethnically diverse adults. The paper concludes with strengths and limitations of the approach.     

The paradox of group-based guilt: modes of national identification, conflict vehemence, and reactions to the in-group's moral violations

The authors examined the relationships between 2 modes of national identification (attachment to the in-group and the in-group's glorification) and reactions to the in-group's moral violations among Israeli students. Data were collected during a period of relative calm in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as during a period of great intensification of this conflict. As expected, in Study 1, the 2 modes of identification had contrasting relationships with group-based guilt: Attachment was positively related whereas glorification was negatively related to group-based guilt for in-group's past infractions. Glorification suppressed the attachment effect but not vice versa. Both relationships were mediated by the use of exonerating cognitions. In Study 2, group-based guilt for the in-group's current wrongdoings was increased by priming critical rather than conventional attachment to the in-group, suggesting a causal effect of mode of identification on the experience of negative group-based emotions.