Body image, shape, and volumetric assessments using 3D whole body laser scanning and 2D digital photography in females with a diagnosed eating disorder: preliminary novel findings

We piloted three-dimensional (3D) body scanning in eating disorder (ED) patients. Assessments of 22 ED patients (including nine anorexia nervosa (AN) patients, 12 bulimia nervosa (BN) patients, and one patient with eating disorder not otherwise specified) and 22 matched controls are presented. Volunteers underwent visual screening, two-dimensional (2D) digital photography to assess perception and dissatisfaction (via computerized image distortion), and adjunctive 3D full-body scanning. Patients and controls perceived themselves as bigger than their true shape (except in the chest region for controls and anorexia patients). All participants wished to be smaller across all body regions. Patients had poorer veridical perception and greater dissatisfaction than controls. Perception was generally poorer and dissatisfaction greater in bulimia compared with anorexia patients. 3D-volume:2D-area relationships showed that anorexia cases had least tissue on the torso and most on the arms and legs relative to frontal area. The engagement of patients with the scanning process suggests a validation study is viable. This would enable mental constructs of body image to be aligned with segmental volume of body areas, overcoming limitations, and errors associated with 2D instruments restricted to frontal (coronal) shapes. These novel data could inform the design of clinical trials in adjunctive treatments for eating disorders.     

Grey parrot number acquisition: The inference of cardinal value from ordinal position on the numeral list

A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) had previously been taught to use English count words ("one" through "sih" [six]) to label sets of one to six individual items (Pepperberg, 1994). He had also been taught to use the same count words to label the Arabic numerals 1 through 6. Without training, he inferred the relationship between the Arabic numerals and the sets of objects (Pepperberg, 2006b). In the present study, he was then trained to label vocally the Arabic numerals 7 and 8 ("sih-none", "eight", respectively) and to order these Arabic numerals with respect to the numeral 6. He subsequently inferred the ordinality of 7 and 8 with respect to the smaller numerals and he inferred use of the appropriate label for the cardinal values of seven and eight items. These data suggest that he constructed the cardinal meanings of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" from his knowledge of the cardinal meanings of one through six, together with the place of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" in the ordered count list.     

Development of adolescents' peer crowd identification in relation to changes in problem behaviors

This 5-wave longitudinal study, which included 1,313 Dutch adolescents, examined the development of peer crowd identification in relation to changes in problem behaviors. Adolescents from 2 age cohorts annually reported their identification with 7 peer crowds and their levels of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Univariate latent growth curve analyses revealed declines (i.e., "Hip Hoppers" and "Metal Heads") or declines followed by stabilization (i.e., "Nonconformists") in identification with nonconventional crowds and increases (i.e., "Elites" and "Brains") or declines followed by stabilization (i.e., "Normals" and "Jocks") in identification with conventional crowds. Multivariate latent growth curve analyses indicated that stronger and more persistent identifications with nonconventional crowds were generally associated with more problem behaviors throughout adolescence. In contrast, stronger and more persistent identifications with conventional crowds were generally associated with fewer problem behaviors throughout adolescence with the notable exception of Brains, who showed a mixed pattern. Though characterized by fewer externalizing problems, this group did report more anxiety problems. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

The effects of a responsive parenting intervention on parent-child interactions during shared book reading

This study examined mother-child shared book reading behaviors before and after participation in a random-assignment responsive parenting intervention called Play and Learning Strategies (PALS) that occurred during infancy (PALS I), the toddler-preschool (PALS II) period, or both as compared with a developmental assessment (DAS) intervention (DAS I and/or II). The efficacy of PALS was previously demonstrated for improving mother and child behaviors within play contexts, everyday activities, and standardized measures of child language. We hypothesized that PALS effects would generalize to influence maternal and child behaviors during a shared reading task even though this situation was not a specific focus of the intervention and that this would be similar for children who varied in biological risk. Participation in at least PALS II was expected to have a positive effect due to children's increased capacity to engage in book reading at this age. Four groups of randomized mothers and their children (PALS I-II, PALS I-DAS II, DAS I-PALS II, DAS I-II) were observed in shared reading interactions during the toddler-preschool period and coded for (a) mother's affective and cognitive-linguistic supports and (b) child's responses to maternal requests and initiations. Support was found for significant changes in observed maternal and child behaviors, and evidence of mediation was found for the intervention to affect children's behaviors through change in maternal responsiveness behaviors. These results add to other studies supporting the importance of targeting a broad range of responsive behaviors across theoretical frameworks in interventions to facilitate children's development.     

Disentangling similarity judgments from pragmatic judgments: Response to Sloutsky and Fisher (2012)

Sloutsky and Fisher (2012) attempt to reframe the results presented in Noles and Gelman (2012) as a pure replication of their original work validating the similarity, induction, naming, and categorization (SINC) model. However, their critique fails to engage with the central findings reported in Noles and Gelman, and their reanalysis fails to examine the key comparison of theoretical interest. In addition to responding to the points raised in Sloutsky and Fisher's (2012) critique, we elaborate on the pragmatic factors and methodological flaws present in Sloutsky and Fisher (2004) that biased children's similarity judgments. Our careful replication of that study suggests that, rather than measuring the influence of labels on judgments of perceptual similarity, the original design measured sensitivity to the pragmatics of task demands. Together, the results reported in Noles and Gelman and the methodological problems highlighted here represent a serious challenge to the validity of the SINC model specifically and the words-as-features view more generally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Gender Dynamics in Mexican American Families: Connecting Mothers’, Fathers’, and Youths’ Experiences

Study goals were to examine the conditions under which congruent and incongruent patterns of parents’ division of household labor and gender role attitudes emerged, and the implications of these patterns for youth gender development. Questionnaire and phone diary data were collected from mothers, fathers, and youths from 236 Mexican American families living in the southwestern US. Preliminary cluster analysis identified three patterns: Traditional divisions of labor and traditional attitudes, egalitarian divisions of labor and egalitarian attitudes, and an incongruent pattern, with a traditional division of labor but egalitarian attitudes. MANOVAs, and follow-up, mixed- and between-group ANOVAs, revealed that these groups of families differed in parents’ time constraints, socioeconomic resources, and cultural orientations. Mothers in the congruent egalitarian group worked more hours and earned higher incomes as compared to mothers in the congruent traditional and incongruent groups, and the emergence of the incongruent group was grounded in within-family, interparental differences in work hours and incomes. Parents’ patterns of gendered practices and beliefs were linked to their youths’ housework participation, time with mothers versus fathers, and gender role attitudes. Youths in the congruent traditional group reported more traditional gender role attitudes than did youths in the congruent egalitarian and incongruent groups, and gender atypical housework participation and time with parents were only observed in the congruent egalitarian group. Findings demonstrate the utility of a within-family design to understand complex gendered phenomena, and highlight the multidimensional nature of gender and the importance of contextualizing the study of ethnic minorities.     

Developmental change in young children's use of haptic information in a visual task: the role of hand movements

Preschoolers who explore objects haptically often fail to recognize those objects in subsequent visual tests. This suggests that children may represent qualitatively different information in vision and haptics and/or that children’s haptic perception may be poor. In this study, 72 children (2½-5 years of age) and 20 adults explored unfamiliar objects either haptically or visually and then chose a visual match from among three test objects, each matching the exemplar on one perceptual dimension. All age groups chose shape-based matches after visual exploration. Both 5-year-olds and adults also chose shape-based matches after haptic exploration, but younger children did not match consistently in this condition. Certain hand movements performed by children during haptic exploration reliably predicted shape-based matches but occurred at very low frequencies. Thus, younger children’s difficulties with haptic-to-visual information transfer appeared to stem from their failure to use their hands to obtain reliable haptic information about objects.     

Religious Influences on the Reproductive Health Decisions of HIV-Positive Latinas on the Border

The number of HIV-positive Latinas of child-bearing age living on the US–Mexico border is a growing concern. Little is known about how religious beliefs influence the reproductive health decisions of these women in light of disease demands and cultural and religious norms that support high fertility rates and childbearing. Such decisions may be further complicated by the stigma of HIV/AIDS and structural issues related to immigration status and trans-border lives. This paper analyzes extant literature and supports the need for further research so that policy makers and heath and social service providers can develop meaningful and comprehensive reproductive-health related interventions.     

Change in dexterity with sensory awareness training: a randomised controlled trial

The role of sensory awareness in movement control is receiving increasing interest in sports and clinical literature as a feed-forward and feedback mechanism. The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility and effect of training in sensory awareness on dexterity in healthy adults. 29 healthy students were randomly allocated to a single-group, sensory awareness lesson with the dominant hand, the same lesson with the nondominant hand, or to a sham control group. Dexterity measures included the Purdue Pegboard Test, a grip-lift manipulandum, and perceived changes using a questionnaire. The sensory awareness lesson with the dominant hand produced a statistically significant improvement in mean dexterity compared to the control group, but not between the other two pairs of groups. The sensory awareness training paradigm is feasible and a single session improved dexterity in healthy adults.     

Parental Marital Discord and Treatment Response in Depressed Adolescents

Evidence suggests that parental marital discord contributes to the development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children and adolescents. Few studies, however, have examined the association between parental marital discord and youth’s response to treatment. The present study examined the impact of interparental discord on treatment response in a randomized control trial of adolescents with major depression enrolled in the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). Participants were 260 adolescents from two-parent households randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: fluoxetine (FLX), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), their combination (COMB), or placebo (PBO). Logistic regressions revealed that parental marital discord interacted with youth gender and co-morbid oppositionality symptoms to predict group differences in treatment response.