Bilingual vocabulary size and lexical reading in Italian

In the present study we investigated how the vocabulary size of English–Italian bilinguals affects reading aloud in Italian (L2) modulating the reader's sensitivity to lexical aspects of the language. We divided adult bilinguals in two groups according to their vocabulary size (Larger — LV, and smaller — SV), and compared their naming performance to that of native Italian (NI) readers. In Experiment 1 we investigated the lexicality and word frequency effects in reading aloud. Similarly to NI, both groups of bilinguals showed these effects. In Experiment 2 we investigated stress assignment – which is not predictable by rule – to Italian words. The SV group made more stress errors in reading words with a non-dominant stress pattern compared to the LV group. The results suggest that the size of the reader's L2 lexicon affects the probability of correct reading aloud.     

Pride and physical activity: Behavioural regulations as a motivational mechanism?

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between fitness-related pride and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). A secondary aim was to examine behavioural regulations consistent with organismic integration theory (OIT) as potential mechanisms of the pride-MVPA relationship.

Design: This study used a cross-sectional design.

Methods: Young adults (N = 465; M_age = 20.55; SD_age = 1.75 years) completed self-report instruments of fitness-related pride, motivation and MVPA.

Results: Both authentic and hubristic fitness-related pride demonstrated a moderate positive relationship with MVPA, as well as positive associations to more autonomous regulations. Behavioural regulations mediated the relationship between both facets of pride and MVPA with specific indirect effects noted for identified regulation and intrinsic motivation.

Conclusion: Overall, these findings demonstrate the association between experiencing fitness-related pride and increased engagement in MVPA. The tenability of OIT was also demonstrated for offering insight into explaining the association between pride and physical activity engagement.     

Relationships of smiling and flirtation to aggression and 2D:4D, a prenatal androgen index

Smiling has been reported to be a signal of submission/lower status, or a sign of cooperation. In the present study, use of smiling and flirtation to "make people receptive to my ideas" was conceptualized as mild aggression, since it is mildly manipulative of the perception of others as to one's internal emotional status. For 91 participants (55 female, 36 male), use of smiling and flirtation to make others receptive to one's ideas were associated with relational aggression and a more male-typical (smaller) right 2D:4D finger length ratio. The only significant relationship in the male sample alone was the relationship between smiling and relational aggression. In the female sample alone, use of smiling and flirtation to "make people receptive to my ideas" was associated with a more male-typical 2D:4D finger length ratio pattern, and there was a trend for flirtation to be associated with greater physical aggression. Both 2D:4D and physical aggression have been associated with higher prenatal androgen level. It is concluded that deliberate smiling and flirtation are mild forms of relational aggression, and are related to prenatal androgenic activity in a manner similar to physical aggression. These findings are discussed in terms of the different evolutionary strategies of men and women to control their social environments.     

“Symbol formation and the embodied self: A microgenetic case-study examination of the transition to symbolic communication in scribbling activities from 14 to 31 months of age”

In this article, a theoretical account for the early formation and production of graphic symbols is presented, along with an illustrative microgenetic case study that focuses on those key mechanisms related to the progressive formation of complex graphic schemata and on the underlying emerging transitions in the signifier-signified relation. This account proposes that the development of symbolic graphic functioning follows a series of recursive loops between action and production that gradually enable the fundamental distinction between instrumental action and perceived intentional production. Scribbling dynamics via mirroring processes push the child’s primary reactive space to be converted into the child’s interactive experiential space and in turn mapped on and gradually transformed to the “secondary-pictorial,” communicative/expressive space, which also controls its manifestation. Scribbling, then, may be the underlying basis for the emergence of the first “symbolic articulation” of an embodied action representation—“natural-symbol,” of the self and the world/other. These first undifferentiated “natural” symbols (i.e., image schemata), mostly seen as superfluous or motor devices to drawing, stand as the cornerstones of drawing symbolic development, since they function as the “missing” link between action, production, perception, visual representation, and symbol formation. In other words, scribbling, by its embodied anchor that substitutes the event/object, sustains the ability to coordinate action representations so as to become “schematized” reciprocally, initiating in turn conscious control and self-referential intentionality.     

A Review of Preclinical Studies to Understand Fear During Adolescence

The most rapid physical and psychological growth occurs during adolescence, a period of transition from childhood to adulthood when the incidence of anxiety disorder peaks in humans. Human and animal studies suggest that dramatic changes in prefrontal cortical areas during adolescence are responsible for such prevalence of anxiety. Only recently, however, has the relationship between prefrontal immaturity and differential fear processing across adolescence been directly and systematically examined. Such progress is largely due to the culmination of rodent studies that delineated the fear learning, expression, and inhibition neural circuitry, and preclinical studies that provided avenues for translation. This article summarises those initial findings on the circuitry of fear inhibition, and describes in detail the new findings on adolescent fear inhibition that highlight the prefrontal cortex as a key, unrefined brain region that may govern adolescent vulnerability to anxiety disorders. Specifically, adolescent rodents have been demonstrated to be impaired in inhibiting learned fear responses following fear extinction due to prefrontal immaturity, a discovery that was shortly after replicated in adolescent humans (at least the behavioural component). Our desire for this article is to acquaint both research and clinical psychologists with the neural circuitry of fear learning and extinction, turn the attention to developmental work, and facilitate translation of preclinical rodent findings in humans.     

The Wise Thinking and Acting Questionnaire: The Cognitive Facet of Wisdom and its Relation with Memory, Affect, and Hope

Wisdom is a topic that holds much promise as geropsychologists turn their attention to the positive facets of aging. This study aimed at (a) examining the construct validity of a new scale for measuring the cognitive facet of wisdom, and (b) analyzing the relations between wisdom and demographic factors, hope, affect, and memory. The participants of the main sample were 446 adults, aged 20–80?years. For the validation of the scale, a second sample (N?=?89) was used; it comprised two subsamples of 37 older adults and 52 young adults. The Wise Thinking and Acting Questionnaire (WITHAQ) was used along with measures of hope, state affect and memory abilities. Ardelt’s 3D-WS was used for validation purposes. A three-factor structure of the WITHAQ with interrelations between the factors was confirmed, reflecting practical wisdom, integrated dialectical thinking, and awareness of life uncertainty, respectively. The relations between the WITHAQ, 3D-WS, and the measure of hope were in the predicted direction. The interaction of age and education predicted the three factors of the WITHAQ positively. Pearson correlations showed that the three factors were differentially associated with affect and memory.     

The Lost Parents' Perspective on Parental Alienation Syndrome

This study examined five alienated fathers' and one alienated mother's perception of parental alienation syndrome (PAS). The data were collected via semistructured, open-ended interview questionnaires to determine if there were shared characteristics among alienated families, common issues in the marital conflicts that contributed to the marriage dissolution, the nature of the participants reports of alienation, similarities in the experience of alienation, and what things a lost parent might do differently. The findings are discussed along with limitations of the study.     

Psychiatric symptoms associated with brain tumors: a clinical enigma

Patients in psychiatric settings may present with medical conditions, such as brain tumors, which may or may not be associated with neurological symptoms. In some cases, patients may only have psychiatric symptoms, such as mood changes (depression or mania), psychotic symptoms, panic attacks, changes in personality, or memory difficulties. Brain tumors may be detected in patients at their first presentation to mental health services or sometimes in patients with well-established psychiatric diagnoses. This article presents the case of a 29-year-old woman who was treated for >4 years for posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality traits, who developed depressive symptoms and memory difficulties. However, she did not develop any major neurological signs or symptoms. Brain imaging showed the presence of a left thalamic tumor, later confirmed as glioblastoma multiforme. She underwent surgical treatment and radiation therapy. With this we show that in some cases, brain tumors can be neurologically silent and only present atypical psychiatric symptoms. We emphasize the need for neuroimaging studies in a patient with atypical changes in mental status, even without neurological signs or symptoms.     

Transnationalism as a motif in family stories

Family stories have long been recognized as a vehicle for assessing components of a family's emotional and social life, including the degree to which an immigrant family has been willing to assimilate. Transnationalism, defined as living in one or more cultures and maintaining connections to both, is now increasingly common. A qualitative study of family stories in the family of those who appear completely "American" suggests that an affiliation with one's home country is nevertheless detectable in the stories via motifs such as (1) positively connotated home remedies, (2) continuing denigration of home country "enemies," (3) extensive knowledge of the home country history and politics, (4) praise of endogamy and negative assessment of exogamy, (5) superiority of home country to America, and (6) beauty of home country. Furthermore, an awareness of which model--assimilationist or transnational--governs a family's experience may help clarify a clinician's understanding of a family's strengths, vulnerabilities, and mode of framing their cultural experiences.     

Political and religious group membership,value priorities and educational values

Value priorities and educational value patterns are explored in respect to university students’ active membership to religious and political groups. The sample was 117 students of the University of Athens, Greece, with 39 of them being active members of Christian Orthodox religious groups, 34 active members of political groups or unions, and 44 students acting as the ‘control’ group, since they were not members of such religious or political groups. Group membership—religious or political—was found to be associated with the systems of value priorities and educational values, with specific value combinations differentiating between religious group membership and political group membership.