Modulating effects in learned helplessness of dyadic dominance-submission relations

In this experiment, learned helplessness was studied from an ethological perspective by examining individual differences in social dominance and its influence on the effects of helplessness. Ninety animals were used, 30 randomly selected and 60 selected because of their clear dominance or submission. Each condition (dominant, submissive, and random) was distributed in three subgroups corresponding to the triadic design. The test consisted of an escape/avoidance task. The results showed that the animals in the uncontrollable condition performed worse than those in the controllable and no treatment conditions. Social submission and dominance reduced vulnerability of the subjects against learned helplessness. Submission had a facilitating effect on subsequent learning, independently of whether pretreatment was controllability or uncontrollability. Learned mastery was observed in the submissive condition, because submission benefited the subjects in the controllable condition in comparison with the untreated subjects, and dominance impaired the subjects in the controllable condition.     

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.     

Short- and long-term effects of cannabinoids on the extinction of contextual fear memory in rats

Facilitation of memory extinction by manipulation of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system has been recently studied in several paradigms. Our previous results pointed to facilitation of contextual fear memory extinction by a low dose of a cannabinoid agonist, with a suggestion of short-term effects. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the effects of cannabinoid drugs in the short- and long-term extinction of conditioned fear using an extended extinction protocol. Male Wistar rats were placed in a conditioning chamber and after 3 min received a footshock (1.5 mA, 1 s). On the next day, they received i.p. drug treatment (WIN55212-2 0.25 mg/kg, AM404 10 mg/kg, SR141716 A 1 mg/kg) and were re-exposed to the conditioning chamber for 30 min (extinction training). No-Extinction groups received the same drug treatment, but were exposed for 3 min to the conditioning chamber. A drug-free test of contextual memory (3 min) was performed 7 days later. The cannabinoid agonist WI55212-2 and the inhibitor of eCB metabolism/uptake AM404 facilitated short-term extinction. In addition, long-term effects induced by treatments with WIN55212 and AM404 were completely divergent to those of SR141716A treatment. The present results confirm and extend previous findings showing that the eCB system modulates short-term fear memory extinction with long-lasting consequences.     

Posttraining activation of CB1 cannabinoid receptors in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus impairs object recognition long-term memory

Evidence indicates that brain endocannabinoids are involved in memory processing. However, the participation of CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors in recognition memory has not been yet conclusively determined. Therefore, we evaluated the effect of the posttraining activation of hippocampal cannabinoid receptors on the consolidation of object recognition memory. Rats with infusion cannulae stereotaxically aimed to the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus were trained in an object recognition learning task involving exposure to two different stimulus objects. Memory retention was assessed at different times after training. In the test sessions, one of the objects presented during training was replaced by a novel one. When infused in the CA1 region immediately after training, the non-selective cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN-55,212-2 and the endocannabinoid membrane transporter inhibitor VDM-11 blocked long-term memory retention in a dose-dependent manner without affecting short-term memory, exploratory behavior, anxiety state or the functionality of the hippocampus. The amnesic effect of WIN-55,212-2 and VDM-11 was not due to state-dependency and was completely reversed by co-infusion of the CB1 receptor antagonist AM-251 and mimicked by the CB1 receptor agonist ACEA but not by the CB2 receptor agonists JWH-015 and palmitoylethanolamide. Our data indicate that activation of hippocampal CB1 receptors early after training hampers consolidation of object recognition memory.     

Internalization of values and self-esteem among Brazilian teenagers from authoritative, indulgent, authoritarian, and neglectful homes

The relation between parenting styles and adolescent outcomes was analyzed in a sample of 1,198 15-18-year-old Brazilians. The adolescents were classified into 1 of 4 groups (Authoritative, Authoritarian, Indulgent, and Neglectful) on the basis of their own ratings of their parents on two dimensions: Acceptance/ Involvement and Strictness/Imposition. The adolescents were then contrasted along two different outcomes: (1) priority given to Schwartz Self-transcendence and Conservation values, and (2) level of Self-esteem (appraised in 5 domains: Academic, Social, Emotional, Family, and Physical). Results showed that Authoritative and Indulgent parenting is associated with the highest internalization of Self-Transcendence and Conservation values of teenagers, whereas Authoritarian parenting is associated with the lowest. On the other hand, adolescents with Indulgent parents have equal or higher levels of Self-esteem than adolescents with Authoritative parents, while adolescents raised in Authoritarian and Neglectful homes have the lowest scores in Self-Esteem.     

Psychological differences of patients and relatives according to post-transplantation anxiety

The aim of this investigation is to analyze the psychological differences of patients and their relatives according to the formers' post-transplantation anxiety. We used two groups of participants: transplant patients (n = 166) and close relatives (n = 166). Four questionnaires were applied: a Psychological Survey (to both groups), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Quality of Life Questionnaire (to the transplant patients), and the Leeds Scales for the Self-Assessment of Anxiety and Depression (to the relatives). Participants were assessed twice: post-Intensive Care Unit (ICU; when patients were moved from the ICU to the Transplantation Unit) and post-hospital (one year after transplant). Results showed that high anxiety in patients just after organ transplant was related to an increase of anxiety and depression symptoms both in patients and relatives one year after transplant; it was also related to a decrease in the quality of life of these patients.     

Behavioral problems in adolescents raised by their grandparents

This research analyzes, for the first time using a Spanish sample, the behavioral problems of adolescents in the custody of their grandparents. The sample consisted of 68 adolescents (31 boys and 37 girls, with a mean age of 13.7 years) in the custody of 54 grandparents with an average age of 65.9 years for the grandfathers, and 63.6 years for the grandmothers. The instrument employed was the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 2001). The results indicate that the majority of both boys and girls can be classified within the normal range on scales of internal behavior, external behavior and total behavioral problems. When gender and age differences were analyzed, it was found that boys had more behavioral problems than girls on scales of incompliance with rules and external behavior. Meanwhile, it was shown that older adolescents had more somatic problems, as well as more behavioral problems, as measured by both the internal scale and total scale of the CBCL, than the younger participants.     

Writing self-efficacy changes after cognitive strategy intervention in students with learning disabilities: the mediational role of gender in calibration

This study examines the mediational role of gender in the effects of two patterns of cognitive and self-regulatory strategy interventions in the writing self-efficacy calibration of students with learning disabilities (LD). 121 5th and 6th Primary grade students with LD (43 girls and 78 boys), ranging in age from 10 to 12 years old were randomly allocated either to one of the experimental intervention groups, (n=48, 19 girls and 29 boys), and followed a intervention program based on the Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model, or they received training based on the Social Cognitive Model of Sequential Skill Acquisition (n=31, 15 girls and 26 boys), or alternatively they were allocated to the ordinary instruction group (n=32, 9 girls and 23 boys). Writing performance was assessed using two types of writing evaluation: a reader-based score concerned with structure, coherence and quality, and a text based score regarding productivity, coherence and structure. Writing self-efficacy beliefs were also assessed using a self-report scale including eight items about the students' confidence in completing a writing task and to gain specific writing skills. The results suggest that the miscalibration of writing self-efficacy in girls with LD was significantly modified to a more realistic calibration of their writing competence after experimental intervention. However, the findings do not confirm the same clear statement for boys.     

Unless reasoning

We report the results of two experiments investigating conditional inferences from conditional unless assertions, such as Juan is not in León unless Nuria is in Madrid. Experiments 1 and 2 check Fillenbaum's hypothesis about the semantic similarity of unless with if not and only if assertions; both also examine inferential endorsements (Experiment 1) and endorsements and latencies (Experiment 2) of the four logically equivalent conditional formulations: if A then B, if not-B then not-A, A only if B and notA unless B. The results of these experiments show the similarity of unless and only if confirming that the representation of both conditionals from the outset probably include two possibilities directionally oriented from B to A; results also confirm the especial difficulty of unless assertions. The implications of the results are discussed in the context of recent psychological and linguistic theories of the meaning of unless.     

Lipreading in the prelingually deaf: what makes a skilled speechreader?

Lipreading proficiency was investigated in a group of hearing-impaired people, all of them knowing Spanish Sign Language (SSL). The aim of this study was to establish the relationships between lipreading and some other variables (gender, intelligence, audiological variables, participants' education, parents' education, communication practices, intelligibility, use of SSL). The 32 participants were between 14 and 47 years of age. They all had sensorineural hearing losses (from severe to profound). The lipreading procedures comprised identification of words in isolation. The words selected for presentation in isolation were spoken by the same talker. Identification of words required participants to select their responses from set of four pictures appropriately labelled. Lipreading was significantly correlated with intelligence and intelligibility. Multiple regression analyses were used to obtain a prediction equation for the lipreading measures. As a result of this procedure, it is concluded that proficient deaf lipreaders are more intelligent and their oral speech was more comprehensible for others.