Preschool Children’s Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Mother–Child,Father–Child and Teacher–Child Relationships

Prosocial behavior is considered an important dimension of positive development. Although previous research suggests the quality of children’s early relationships may influence prosocial behaviors, the specific contributions of mother, father and teacher to children’s prosocial behavior have been less examined. This is a cross-sectional study that investigates (a) the combined associations between mother–, father– and teacher–child relationships, and prosocial behavior in 168 children aged 36–72 months, and (b) the mediating role of the teacher–child relationship in the association between the parent–child relationship and prosocial behavior. Results suggested a positive link between the quality of relationships with early caregivers and children’s prosocial behavior. The quality of both father– and teacher–child relationships were found to have a direct association with children’s prosocial behavior. The quality of the mother–child relationship was indirectly linked to children’s prosocial behavior, via the teacher–child relationship. Results suggesting connections between multiple relational contexts were discussed based on the notion of internal working models proposed by attachment theory. Mothers’ and fathers’ contributions to children’s prosocial behavior were also discussed considering differences on relational styles and changing roles of mothers and fathers from dual-earner families.     

Orthographic neighborhood structure and lexical access

An experiment addressed whether lexical decision response latency and error rate are influenced by orthographic neighborhood structure. It was found that words with several higher-frequency neighbors were responded to more slowly and less accurately than words with fewer higher-frequency neighbors, even though the stimulus words were matched oh number of neighbors, word frequency, neighborhood frequency, number of higher-frequency neighbors, word length, and number of syllables. The results indicate that frequency is a relative effect dependent on the structure of the neighborhood. A word at the bottom of its neighborhood will be affected by the lexical representations of its higher-frequency neighbors. However, a word at the top of its neighborhood does not appear to be affected by the lexical representations of its neighbors.Preparation of this report was supported by a University Foundation Research Grant and an Affirmative Action Faculty Development Award from San Jose State University, to Laree Huntsman. The authors thank Brian Cronk, Katherine Lemkuil, Joseph Tajnai, Ruzica Udovicic, and Michael Weinborn for their assistance with stimuli development, Nadirah Ihsan and Jeffrey Limon for their assistance with data collection, and especially Guy Woffmdin for his invaluable programming assistance.     

Shock intensity and signaled avoidance responding

Five rats were submitted to a signaled free-operant avoidance contingency. Throughout the experiment, shock intensity was varied from 0.1 to 8.0 mA, with shock duration constant at 200 milleseconds. Results indicate: (a) an all-or-none effect of shock intensity on response and shock rates, on percentage of shocks avoided, and on frequency of occurrence of responding during the preshock stimulus; and (b) no systematic effect of shock intensity on stimulus control, measured either by the percentage of stimulus presentations accompanied by a response or by the percentage of responses that occurred during those preshock stimuli. Such results indicate that for each subject there is a minimum shock intensity necessary to establish and maintain avoidance responding; intensities higher than this minimum value have little or no effect on responding (with an upper limit for those strong intensities with a general disruptive effect on behavior).     

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS AND TREATMENT OF EYE POKING

In four studies we analyzed the eye poking of a youth with profound disabilities. In Study 1, a functional analysis showed that eye poking occurred during the no-attention condition, but not during demand, attention, or recreation conditions. The analysis did not identify socially mediated variables involved in the maintenance of eye poking; rather, eye poking may have been maintained by consequences produced directly by the response. In Study 2 we had the student wear goggles to prevent potential reinforcement from finger—eye contact. The results of Study 2 indicated that eye-poking attempts were reduced when the student wore goggles. We then tested in Study 3 the effects of two alternative topographies of stimulation. Study 3 demonstrated that eye poking was reduced when a video game was provided as a competing source of visual stimulation, and that music was less effective in reducing eye poking. In Study 4, a contingency analysis using the video game was conducted in an attempt to (a) reduce the frequency of eye poking and (b) study whether the video game functioned as a reinforcer. The results of Study 4 demonstrated substantive reductions in the frequency of eye poking, and suggested that the video game served as a reinforcer.     

Psychometric Parameters of the Cyberbullying Attitude Scale in Brazil

This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Cyberbullying Attitude Scale (CBAS) in the Brazilian context. Three empirical studies were conducted for this purpose. Study 1 (N = 202) sought to ascertain the psychometric properties of the CBAS using exploratory factor analysis. Study 2 (N = 211) sought to gather additional evidence regarding the validity and reliability of the CBAS using confirmatory factor analysis. Study 3 (N = 279) aimed to verify the CBAS’s convergent validity. The results revealed that the two-factor structure was the most pertinent. In addition, the CBAS demonstrated convergent validity with other cyberbullying measures, good internal consistency for the Negative Cyberbullying Attitudes factor, and reasonable internal consistency for the General Cyberbullying Characteristics factor. In general, the CBAS appears to be a valid and reliable measure for evaluating attitudes toward cyberbullying.

     

Evaluation of arm dominance by using the mechanomyographic signal

The authors collected and compared mechanomyo-graphic (MMG) signal behavior from the biceps brachii of left and right arms of right-handed men (n = 19) and women (n = 20) who performed isometric contractions at 5 contraction levels. Mean frequency (MF) and RMS values were calculated from the MMG signals that arose from lateral oscillations of muscle fibers. Across genders and arms, RMS values increased with contraction level and MF values decreased with increase in muscle contraction. The authors found no significant difference in those parameters between dominant and nondominant arms. Therefore, summation of muscle twitches obtained from the MMG signal collected in biceps brachii muscle does not reveal any difference between dominant and nondominant arms.     

Relational learning in children with deafness and cochlear implants

This four-experiment series sought to evaluate the potential of children with neurosensory deafness and cochlear implants to exhibit auditory-visual and visual-visual stimulus equivalence relations within a matching-to-sample format. Twelve children who became deaf prior to acquiring language (prelingual) and four who became deaf afterwards (postlingual) were studied. All children learned auditory-visual conditional discriminations and nearly all showed emergent equivalence relations. Naming tests, conducted with a subset of the children, showed no consistent relationship to the equivalence-test outcomes. This study makes several contributions to the literature on stimulus equivalence. First, it demonstrates that both pre- and postlingually deaf children can acquire auditory-visual equivalence relations after cochlear implantation, thus demonstrating symbolic functioning. Second, it directs attention to a population that may be especially interesting for researchers seeking to analyze the relationship between speaker and listener repertoires. Third, it demonstrates the feasibility of conducting experimental studies of stimulus control processes within the limitations of a hospital, which these children must visit routinely for the maintenance of their cochlear implants.     

Verbal categories for classification of spinal postures and their respective angular values registered by photographs and electrogoniometry.

The perception of posture may allow workers to discern sensations associated with physical overload and potential tissue damage. In an occupational context, the classification of body postures in ranges of amplitude has been useful for researchers and ergonomists interested in evaluating the exposure of workers to uncomfortable and potentially harmful postures. In this paper we describe measurements, using photographs and electrogoniometry of the angle of flexion of the trunk and of the thoracolumbar segment, respectively, adopted according to the verbal categories of mild, moderate, and severe flexion, as requested by the experimenter. The results showed no differences between the groups of subjects, but significant differences occurred in the classification of the movement amplitude per verbal categories.     

Compliance, conversion, and category induction

When children hear an object referred to with a label that is moderately discrepant from its appearance, they frequently make inferences about that object consistent with the label rather than its appearance. We asked whether 3-year-olds actually believe these unexpected labels (i.e., conversion) or whether their inferences simply reflect a desire to comply with the considerable experimental demands of the induction task (i.e., compliance). Specifically, we asked how likely children would be to pass an unexpected label on to another person who had not been present during the labeling event. Results showed that children who used an unexpected label as the basis for inference passed that label on to another person about as often as they could remember it. This suggests that children’s label-based inferences do reflect conversion rather than mere compliance.     

Infusion of protein synthesis inhibitors in the entorhinal cortex blocks consolidation but not reconsolidation of object recognition memory

Memory consolidation and reconsolidation require the induction of protein synthesis in some areas of the brain. Here, we show that infusion of the protein synthesis inhibitors anisomycin, emetine and cycloheximide in the entorhinal cortex immediately but not 180 min or 360 min after training in an object recognition learning task hinders long-term memory retention without affecting short-term memory or behavioral performance. Inhibition of protein synthesis in the entorhinal cortex after memory reactivation involving either a combination of familiar and novel objects or two familiar objects does not affect retention. Our data suggest that protein synthesis in the entorhinal cortex is necessary early after training for consolidation of object recognition memory. However, inhibition of protein synthesis in this cortical region after memory retrieval does not seem to affect the stability of the recognition trace.