One-year-olds’ understanding of nonverbal gestures directed to a third person

We investigated whether infants comprehend others’ nonverbal communicative intentions directed to a third person, in an ‘overhearing’ context. An experimenter addressed an assistant and indicated a hidden toy's location by either gazing ostensively or pointing to the location for her. In a matched control condition, the experimenter performed similar behaviors (absent-minded gazing and extended index finger) but did not communicate ostensively with the assistant. Infants could then search for the toy. Eighteen-month-old infants were skillful in using both communicative cues to find the hidden object, whereas 14-month-olds performed above chance only with the pointing cue. Neither age group performed above chance in the control condition. This study thus shows that by 14–18 months of age, infants are beginning to monitor and comprehend some aspects of third party interactions.     

Who I Am Depends on How I Feel: The Role of Affect in the Expression of Culture

ABSTRACT— We present a novel role of affect in the expression of culture. Four experiments tested whether individuals' affective states moderate the expression of culturally normative cognitions and behaviors. We consistently found that value expressions, self-construals, and behaviors were less consistent with cultural norms when individuals were experiencing positive rather than negative affect. Positive affect allowed individuals to explore novel thoughts and behaviors that departed from cultural constraints, whereas negative affect bound people to cultural norms. As a result, when Westerners experienced positive rather than negative affect, they valued self-expression less, showed a greater preference for objects that reflected conformity, viewed the self in more interdependent terms, and sat closer to other people. East Asians showed the reverse pattern for each of these measures, valuing and expressing individuality and independence more when experiencing positive than when experiencing negative affect. The results suggest that affect serves an important functional purpose of attuning individuals more or less closely to their cultural heritage.     

Parental Experiences of Having a Child with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Associations with Clinical Characteristics and Caregiver Adjustment

We examined parental experience of having a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in 62 parent–child dyads. Youth with a primary diagnosis of OCD and their parent(s) were administered the CY-BOCS jointly by a trained clinician. Parents completed several measures about their child’s OCD-related impairment and accommodation, emotional and behavioral functioning, parental distress, caregiver stress, and parental experiences of having a child with OCD. Results indicated that parents of children with OCD are considerably distressed about their child’s condition. As expected, negative parental experiences (e.g., anxiety about child’s condition, uncertainty about their future) were directly related to OCD symptom severity and impairment, as well as child internalizing and externalizing problems, family accommodation of symptoms, and caregiver strain. The presence of emotional resources was negatively related to most outcomes, although some of these relationships did not achieve statistical significance. The presence of internalizing symptoms mediated the relationship between parental experiences and parental distress. Given these findings, addressing parental experiences as part of a family based cognitive-behavioral treatment program for pediatric OCD may help reduce parental distress and improve patient prognosis.     

Does a Gatekeeper Suicide Prevention Program Work in a School Setting? Evaluating Training Outcome and Moderators of Effectiveness

The current study sought to evaluate the suicide prevention gatekeeper training program QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) among school personnel using a non‐equivalent control group design. Substantial gains were demonstrated from pre‐ to post‐test for attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs regarding suicide and suicide prevention. Exploratory analyses revealed the possible moderating effects of age, professional role, prior training, and recent contact with suicidal youth on QPR participants' general knowledge, questioning, attitudes toward suicide and suicide prevention, QPR quiz scores, and self‐efficacy. The need for replication using a more rigorous experimental design in the context of strong community collaboration is discussed.     

Normal aging and the dissociable prototype learning systems

Dissociable prototype learning systems have been demonstrated behaviorally and with neuroimaging in younger adults as well as with patient populations. In A/not-A (AN) prototype learning, participants are shown members of category A during training, and during test are asked to decide whether novel items are in category A or are not in category A. Research suggests that AN learning is mediated by a perceptual learning system. In A/B (AB) prototype learning, participants are shown members of category A and B during training, and during test are asked to decide whether novel items are in category A or category B. In contrast to AN, research suggests that AB learning is mediated by a declarative memory system. The current study examined the effects of normal aging on AN and AB prototype learning. We observed an age-related deficit in AB learning, but an age-related advantage in AN learning. Computational modeling supports one possible interpretation based on narrower selective attentional focus in older adults in the AB task and broader selective attention in the AN task. Neuropsychological testing in older participants suggested that executive functioning and attentional control were associated with better performance in both tasks. However, nonverbal memory was associated with better AN performance, while visual attention was associated with worse AB performance. The results support an interactive memory systems approach and suggest that age-related declines in one memory system can lead to deficits in some tasks, but to enhanced performance in others.     

Social awareness and early self-recognition

Self-recognition by 86 children (14-52months) was assessed using the mirror mark test in two different social contexts. In the classic mirror task condition, only the child was marked prior to mirror exposure (Classic condition). In the social norm condition, the child, experimenter, and accompanying parent were marked prior to the child's mirror exposure (Norm condition). Results indicate that in both conditions children pass the test in comparable proportion, with the same increase as a function of age. However, in the Norm condition, children displayed significantly more hesitation while removing the mark, often touching it without removing it or, if so, promptly putting the mark back onto their forehead. In the Classic condition, only one child showed such hesitation. These results suggest that from the outset, mirror self-recognition can refer to social awareness. This link is interpreted as the trademark of human self-consciousness, a deeply rooted "looking glass" self-awareness.     

Interpersonal Violence and its Association with US Migration Desires and Plans among Youths in Guanajuato, Mexico

This study examined interpersonal physical and sexual violence and its association with desires and plans to migrate to the USA among 500 alternative high school students, aged 14?C17?years, from Guanajuato, Mexico. Two thirds of the youths had ever experienced interpersonal violence, the most common form being physical fights. More youths, and more boys relative to girls, reported wanting to migrate than planning to migrate. Although those who had experienced interpersonal violence were not more likely to want to migrate to the USA, their odds of planning to migrate were 44% greater. Gender did not moderate the effect of interpersonal violence.     

Performance reactivity in a continuous-performance task: Implications for understanding post-error behavior

Although there has been considerable interest in the effects of errors on subsequent performance, relatively few studies have considered the effects of non-error events that contain some performance-relevant information, such as correct performance on critical trials. In the present article, we propose and assess a hypothesis of performance reactivity. In support of this hypothesis, we provide evidence of performance decrements following both incorrect and correct responses but not following performance-irrelevant events. More specifically, in a continuous response task (Sustained Attention to Response Task), we (1) replicate previous findings that errors of commission on rare NOGO trials produce decrements in subsequent performance, and (2) observe that correct withholds to NOGO trials produce decrements in subsequent accuracy relative to task-irrelevant tones. These results corroborate a hypothesis that some error-related effects on subsequent performance are not unique, but are instead a particularly salient version of a more general performance-reactivity effect.