Usage frequencies of complement-taking verbs in Spanish and English: Data from Spanish monolinguals and Spanish—English bilinguals

Verb bias, or the tendency of a verb to appear with a certain type of complement, has been employed in psycholinguistic literature as a tool to test competing models of sentence processing. To date, the vast majority of sentence processing research involving verb bias has been conducted almost exclusively with monolingual speakers, and predominantly with monolingual English speakers, despite the fact that most of the world’s population is bilingual. To test the generality of competing theories of sentence comprehension, it is important to conduct cross-linguistic studies of sentence processing and to add bilingual data to theories of sentence comprehension. Given this, it is critical for the field to develop verb bias estimates from monolingual speakers of languages other than English and from bilingual populations. We begin to address these issues in two norming studies. Study 1 provides verb bias norming data for 135 Spanish verbs. A second aim of Study 1 was to determine whether verb bias estimates remain stable over time. In Study 2, we asked whether Spanish—English speakers are able to learn verb-specific information, such as verb bias, in their second language. The answer to this question is critical to conducting studies that examine when, during the course of sentence comprehension, bilingual speakers exploit verb information specific to the second language. To facilitate cross-linguistic work, we compared our verb bias results with those provided by monolingual English speakers in a previous norming study conducted by Garnsey, Lotocky, Pearlmutter, and Myers (1997). Our Spanish data demonstrated that individual verbs showed significant similarities in their verb bias across the 3 years of data collection. We also show that bilinguals are able to learn the biases of verbs in their second language, even when immersed in the first language environment. Appendixes A–C, containing the bilingual norms discussed in the article, may be downloaded from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Absence of effect of the change of food context in the activity-based anorexia phenomenon in rats

The goal of this study was to analyse how the context in which animals remain during the period of access to food modulates the development of activity-based anorexia in rats. For this purpose, the effect of changing the context of the activity period and the eating period was measured in terms of body weight loss, reduction in food intake and increase in physical activity. A 2 yen 2 factorial design was implemented, by having or not having access to a running wheel, and by being exposed or not exposed to a context change. Results showed that exposure to different contexts for the wheel and for the food did not affect weight loss, food intake or activity levels. These results are in line with the theoretical position of Epling and Pierce (1992) that activity is induced by the food restriction regime.     

From residential care to school: peer relationships at school of minors in residential care

In this study, peer relationships of minors in residential care in a school context are analysed, both from the perspective of the peers and the teachers. Using a sociometric test and an evaluation protocol for teachers in 50 classrooms, a sample of 60 minors in care is compared to a normative sample of 843 minors. The results show that minors in residential care have a higher rate of rejection by their classmates in academic activities, but not for leisure ones. Furthermore, in comparison with the normative sample, they are more frequently described with negative adjectives. There is a high level of agreement between the peer evaluation and that of the teachers in the most visible aspects in the classroom. The implications of these results for the improvement of the adjustment of this group are discussed.     

Strategies of clinical hypothesis testing

This research examines whether Psychology students, when they test clinical hypotheses, follow either confirmatory or disconfirmatory reasoning strategies. Two hundred and six psychology students, divided in four groups, participated. One group received information about the probability that the hypothesis was correct by means of verbal labels, and another group, by means of numerical expressions. An additional group received the information that getting a precise diagnosis was clinically important. In a last group, diagnostic tests allowed them to increase certainty about the hypothesis. Results show a partial use of confirmatory strategies because, although participants did not seek confirming information, they indeed avoided collecting disconfirming information. When the information increased certainty about the hypothesis, confirmatory strategies became more likely. Neither the increase in the task importance nor the numerical expression of the likelihood that the hypothesis was correct seemed to affect the testing strategy used.     

Graphical representation fosters discovery in the 2-4-6 task

In the 2-4-6 rule discovery task, reasoners seek to discover a rule that governs the arrangement of three numbers (or triple). The to-be-discovered rule is “ascending numbers”. Upon being given the triple 2-4-6 as an initial example, however, reasoners tend to formulate algebraically specific hypotheses. Traditionally, this task is conducted primarily from an internal representation of the triples and candidate hypotheses. More recently, substantial representational effects have been demonstrated wherein an external representation of the dimensions of the problem space facilitated successful rule discovery. In the two experiments reported here, an interactive graphical representation was created by concurrently plotting each triple produced by the participants. In Experiment 1, participants who performed the task with this external representation were more likely to discover the rule than were a group of control participants. Experiment 2 replicated the effect but also assessed participants' hypotheses for each triple generated. Results indicated that a graphical representation of the triples fostered the development of hypotheses that were less constrained by the implied algebraic specificity of the initial triple.     

Quality of Life in Patients with Recurrent Vasovagal or Unexplained Syncope: Influence of Sex, Syncope Type and Illness Representations

Health-related quality of life (QoL) is reduced in patients with recurrent vasovagal (VVS) or unexplained (US) syncope. Little is known regarding these patients’ QoL as pertains to their capacity to attain their life goals. Factors influencing QoL, such as sex, syncope type and illness representations have not been studied. Our objective is to examine the relationship between illness representations and QoL, as well as possible sex and syncope type differences. One hundred and four patients undergoing tilt-table testing (TTT) for recurrent syncope were interviewed one month before TTT, using questionnaires. Data were analysed using ANCOVAs, a-priori Helmert contrasts for illness representations, and regressions. Patients with US had a poor QoL compared to those with VVS [F(1, 91) = 10.46; p < 0.01], particularly in men (p < 0.01). Patients with higher perceived syncope severity showed an impoverished QoL relative to those with less severe perceptions [F(1, 91) = 5.47; p < 0.05]. A hierarchical regression revealed that illness representations mediate the impact of lifetime number of syncope on QoL. In conclusion, QoL is reduced in these patients, and is influenced by illness representations. Helping patients change their perceptions about their syncope may be an efficient way to promote QoL.     

Family sessions as part of child psychological assessment: goals, techniques, clinical utility, and therapeutic value

Including a family session in a child assessment can significantly advance the assessor's and parents' understanding of the child's problems and enhance the likelihood that parents will follow through on recommendations after the assessment. A family session allows the assessor to observe the child in the family context, test systemic hypotheses, better understand the meaning of individual test results, and try out possible interventions. A family session may also help parents see systemic aspects of their child's problems, help the child feel less blamed, foster positive experiences among family members, and offer the family a glimpse of family therapy. We describe methods and techniques for structuring family sessions and offer guidance on preparing for and conducting such sessions depending on one's case conceptualization. Detailed case examples illustrate each technique and demonstrate the immediate and subsequent impact of family sessions as well as their therapeutic value. We also address common clinical and pragmatic issues.     

The Zuni Life Skills Development Program: a school/community-based suicide prevention intervention

The Zuni Life Skills Development Program, an effective community-initiated and high-school-based suicide prevention intervention, is featured. Development and evaluation of this intervention are followed by note of the specific challenges associated with stabilizing the program. A more tribally diverse, culturally-informed model entitled the American Indian Life Skills Development Curriculum is then presented to illustrate a hybrid approach to the cultural tailoring of interventions. This curriculum is broad enough to address concerns across diverse American Indian tribal groups yet respectful of distinctive and heterogeneous cultural beliefs and practices. Finally, we reflect upon issues in community-based research that emerged during this collaboration.     

Empathic deficits and alexithymia in trauma-related impulsive aggression

Our long term interest is to develop a developmental model of impulsive aggression based on a confluence of social, psychological and biological features. This approach incorporates neurobiological research, which has identified language processing deficits as a unique characteristic of impulsive aggressors and extends it to include emotional deficits. As an initial test of this hypothesis, we examined whether empathy and alexithymia were associated with impulsive aggression. Regressions were performed to explore the associations among impaired empathy, alexithymia, impulsive aggression, verbal and physical general aggression. Among impulsive aggressive veterans (n = 38) recruited from a VA trauma clinic, alexithymia predicted impulsive aggression and empathic deficits predicted verbal aggression. Neither emotional awareness deficit predicted general physical aggression in this middle-aged sample. Results suggested that empathic deficits were associated with general verbal aggression, but alexithymia was uniquely associated with impulsive aggression. Consideration of alexithymia in impulsive aggression has implications for its etiology, prevention and treatment. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.