Rehearsal strategies during motor-sequence learning in old age: execution vs motor imagery

Motor imagery and action-based rehearsal were compared during motor sequence-learning by young adults (M = 25 yr., SD = 3) and aged adults (M = 63 yr., SD = 7). General accuracy of aged adults was lower than that of young adults (F(1,28) = 7.37, p =.01) even though working-memory capacity was equivalent in the two groups. Motor imagery and rehearsal by action increased accuracy in both age groups, compared with minimization of opportunity for rehearsal (F(1,28) = 30.95, p < .001), but no interaction was found with age group, which suggests that young and aged adults were equally capable of motor imagery and action-based rehearsal. It was assumed that differences in performance between young and aged participants related to the formation of mental representations of sequences and integration of new elements into these representations rather than the capacity for motor imagery or rehearsal by action per se. The current study was exploratory and involved a relatively small sample of 15 participants per age group. Caution must be taken when considering the results.     

Big Five personality dimensions in Italian and Dutch adolescents: A cross-cultural comparison of mean-levels, sex differences, and associations with internalizing symptoms

In the present cross-national comparison, self-reported Big Five personality data on large samples of Dutch (N = 1521) and Italian (N = 1975) adolescents were employed. Results suggest that the personality of Dutch and Italian adolescents can be described by the same Big Five traits, but that these might have slightly different meanings to the Dutch and Italian adolescent respondents. Supplementary analyses uncovered that sex differences are largest among Italian adolescents. Further comparisons reveal subtle cross-national differences in personality-psychopathology relationships, with stronger associations of Emotional Stability with depression for Italian when compared to Dutch adolescents. Results underscore that cross-national comparisons of personality may be alluring to use in research, however the findings of these comparisons should be interpreted with caution.     

Self-Reported Psychopathic Traits in Children: Their Stability and Concurrent and Prospective Association with Conduct Problems and Aggression

The current study investigated the 18-month stability of self-reported psychopathic traits measured through the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory–Child Version (YPI-CV) and their concurrent and prospective associations with conduct problems and aggression in a sample of 9–12 year olds (n = 159, 52% boys) from the community. Self-reported psychopathy scores were moderately to highly stable and traits were positively related to conduct problems both concurrently and at follow-up, the latter even after controlling for initial levels of conduct problems. Higher self-reported psychopathic traits were also related to higher reactive, but particularly proactive aggression at follow-up. Finally, children with persistently high levels of psychopathic traits exhibited higher levels of conduct problems and proactive aggression at follow-up than those with unstable or stable low psychopathic traits.     

Visuospatial Neglect - a Theory-Informed Overview of Current and Emerging Strategies and a Systematic Review on the Therapeutic Use of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation

Neuropsychology Review - Visuospatial neglect constitutes a supramodal cognitive deficit characterized by reduction or loss of spatial awareness for the contralesional space. It occurs in over 40%...     

Loss of Information in Estimating Item Parameters in Incomplete Designs

In this paper, the efficiency of conditional maximum likelihood (CML) and marginal maximum likelihood (MML) estimation of the item parameters of the Rasch model in incomplete designs is investigated. The use of the concept of F-information (Eggen, 2000) is generalized to incomplete testing designs. The scaled determinant of the F-information matrix is used as a scalar measure of information contained in a set of item parameters. In this paper, the relation between the normalization of the Rasch model and this determinant is clarified. It is shown that comparing estimation methods with the defined information efficiency is independent of the chosen normalization. The generalization of the method to other models than the Rasch model is discussed. In examples, information comparisons are conducted. It is found that for both CML and MML some information is lost in all incomplete designs compared to complete designs. A general result is that with increasing test booklet length the efficiency of an incomplete design, compared to a complete design, is increasing, as is the efficiency of CML compared to MML. The main difference between CML and MML is seen in the effect of the length of the test booklet. It will be demonstrated that with very small booklets, there is a substantial loss in information (about 35%) with CML estimation, while this loss is only about 10% in MML estimation. However, with increasing test length, the differences between CML and MML quickly disappear.     

Children’s Gender Identity in Lesbian and Heterosexual Two-Parent Families

This study compared gender identity, anticipated future heterosexual romantic involvement, and psychosocial adjustment of children in lesbian and heterosexual families; it was furthermore assessed whether associations between these aspects differed between family types. Data were obtained in the Netherlands from children in 63 lesbian families and 68 heterosexual families. All children were between 8 and 12 years old. Children in lesbian families felt less parental pressure to conform to gender stereotypes, were less likely to experience their own gender as superior and were more likely to be uncertain about future heterosexual romantic involvement. No differences were found on psychosocial adjustment. Gender typicality, gender contentedness and anticipated future heterosexual romantic involvement were significant predictors of psychosocial adjustment in both family types.