Electrophysiological indices of memory for temporal order in early childhood: implications for the development of recollection

The ability to recall contextual details associated with an event begins to develop in the first year of life, yet adult levels of recall are not reached until early adolescence. Dual‐process models of memory suggest that the distinct retrieval process that supports the recall of such contextual information is recollection. In the present investigation, we used both behavioral and electrophysiological measures to assess the development of memory for contextual details, as indexed by memory for temporal order, in early childhood. Results revealed age‐related improvements in memory for temporal order despite similar levels of memory for the individual items themselves. Furthermore, this pattern of recall was associated with specific components in the electrophysiological response. Consistent with electrophysiological research in adults, distributed, positive‐going activity late in the waveform was associated with increases in recall of contextual details and the development of recollective processes.     

Determining risk in pediatric research with no prospect of direct benefit: time for a national consensus on the interpretation of federal regulations

United States federal regulations for pediatric research with no prospect of direct benefit restrict institutional review board (IRB) approval to procedures presenting: 1) no more than "minimal risk" ( section sign 45CFR46.404); or 2) no more than a "minor increase over minimal risk" if the research is commensurate with the subjects' previous or expected experiences and intended to gain vitally important information about the child's disorder or condition ( section sign 45CFR46.406) (DHHS 2001). During the 25 years since their adoption, these regulations have helped IRBs balance subject protections with the pursuit of scientific knowledge to advance children's welfare. At the same time, inconsistency in IRB application of these regulations to pediatric protocols has been widespread, in part because of the ambiguity of the regulatory language. During the past decade, three federally-charged committees have addressed these ambiguities: 1) the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee (NHRPAC) (Washington, DC), 2) the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on the Ethical Conduct of Clinical Research Involving Children (Washington, DC); and 3) the United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Committee for Human Research Protections (SACHRP) (Washington, DC). The committees have reached similar conclusions on interpretation of language within regulations section sign section sign 45CFR46.404 and 406; these conclusions are remarkably consistent with recent international recommendations and those of the original National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1977) report from which current regulations are based. Drawing on the committees' public reports, this article identifies the ethical issues posed by ambiguities in regulatory language, summarizes the committees' deliberations, and calls for a national consensus on recommended criteria.     

The Processing of Non-canonically Ordered Constituents in Long Distance Dependencies by Pre-school Children: a Real-time Investigation

Four experiments were performed which had the goal of determining how and when young children acquire the ability to understand long distance dependencies. These studies examined the operations underlying the auditory processing of non-canonically ordered constituents in object-relative sentences. Children 4–6 years of age and an adult population participated in the study, which employed a cross modal picture priming methodology to determine when constituents in a non-canonical position are reactivated during ongoing sentence comprehension. The results support the view that even very young children have the same structural processing reflex seen in adults. Namely, children re-activate a non-canonically positioned (fronted) direct object NP immediately at the post-verb gap site during sentence processing.     

Trajectories and predictors of indirect aggression: results from a nationally representative longitudinal study of Canadian children aged 2-10

The purposes of this study were to model the development of indirect aggression among a nationally representative sample of 1,401 Canadian children aged 4 at T2, 6 at T3, 8 at T4 and 10 at T5, and to examine predictors of trajectory group membership from T1 (age 2) child, familial, and parenting variables. Using a semi-parametric group-based modeling approach, two distinct trajectories were identified: "increasing users" comprising of 35% of the sample and "stable low users" comprising of 65% of the sample. Using logistic regression analyses to distinguish these two groups, we found that for girls, more frequent, increasing use of indirect aggression was associated with prior prosocial and physically aggressive behavior, low SES and low parental social support at age 2. For boys, increasing use of indirect aggression was associated with prior parenting issues at age 2-inconsistency and less positive parent-child interactions. Although this study provides unique information regarding the early development of indirect aggression and its predictors, more longitudinal research is needed to fully understand its development.     

Adult Attachment Orientations and College Student Distress: The Mediating Role of Problem Coping Styles

In this study, the authors examined relations among adult attachment orientations, maladaptive problem coping styles, and a composite measure of current distress within a sample of 55 undergraduates (17 men, 38 women). Results indicated that each adult attachment orientation and each problem coping style measure was related in expected directions to students' distress. In addition, problem coping styles largely mediated the impact of insecure adult attachment orientations on distress. Implications of our findings to advancing an attachment theory‐informed perspective on college student coping, distress, and intervention are discussed.     

Young Adults' Perceptions and Memories of a Televised Woman Hero

One hundred and thirty-nine young adults viewed one of three episodes of a television program about a female action hero titled Xena: Warrior Princess. Programs varied in portrayals of Xena's shadow, the dark but also life-preserving facet of the personality. Participants of both genders who had higher levels of traditionally masculine personality characteristics were most likely to perceive Xena as a role model. Men were more likely than women to perceive Xena as a role model when she was portrayed with very little male shadow. Story themes describing women's heroic roles involved using your mind, not the sword, as well as the value of compassion during conflicts, themes that are in keeping with traditional feminine values. The results suggest that viewer acceptance of heroic qualities in women depends on viewer characteristics as well as program themes that include valued feminine qualities. Implications for portrayals of heroic women characters are discussed.     

Comparison of Single Unit Responses to Tone, Light, and Compound Conditioned Stimuli during Rabbit Classical Eyeblink Conditioning

Unit recordings and lesion studies have implicated the cerebellum as an essential site for the acquisition and maintenance of the conditioned eyeblink response. The current study looked at the neural characteristics of conditioned stimulus (CS) processing in the interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum after training New Zealand white rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in one of two conditioning paradigms: (a) compound conditioning (CMP), a compound CS consisting of light and tone paired with an air puff unconditioned stimulus (US); or (b) stimulus compounding (ALT), alternating blocks of tone CS and light CS trials paired with the air puff US. Single unit responses were recorded during five sessions after the animals had reached an asymptotic level of responding. Animals were tested for behavioral and neural responses to CS alone trials that included tone alone, light alone, and compound tone-light trials. For the CMP group, the compound CS elicited 80 to 90% conditioned eyeblink responses (CRs), whereas the individual tone and light CSs elicited only 40 to 50% CRs. For the ALT group, all three CSs (tone, light, and compound) elicited very high levels of responding of at least 80% CRs. For the CMP group, there were roughly equal numbers of cells responding to all of the CSs. This includes cells that responded exclusively to one, and only one, of the three stimuli and also those cells that responded to combinations of two or more. Cells from the ALT group were far more likely to respond exclusively to only one of the CSs. Both the behavioral and physiological results suggest that the compound tone-light stimulus was processed as a distinct stimulus, separate from the component tone and light. These results are discussed in the context of multisensory processing.     

The Wind Chilled the Spectators, but the Wine Just Chilled: Sense, Structure, and Sentence Comprehension

Anticipation plays a role in language comprehension. In this article, we explore the extent to which verb sense influences expectations about upcoming structure. We focus on change of state verbs like shatter , which have different senses that are expressed in either transitive or intransitive structures, depending on the sense that is used. In two experiments we influence the interpretation of verb sense by manipulating the thematic fit of the grammatical subject as cause or affected entity for the verb, and test whether readers' expectations for a transitive or intransitive structure change as a result. This sense-biasing context influenced reading times in the postverbal regions. Reading times for transitive sentences were faster following good-cause than good-theme subjects, but the opposite pattern was found for intransitive sentences. We conclude that readers use sense-contingent subcategorization preferences during on-line comprehension.     

What readers bring to the processing of fictional texts

Research on text processing has generally focused on the types of inferences that all readers draw in common. Our research examines aspects of processing that depend on the particular relation of the reader to the text. Students read fictional stories that contained weak and unsupported assertions and that were set either at their own school or at another school. We expected that they would be prompted to process the story information thoroughly enough to reject the assertions only if they were familiar with the story setting. Consistent with this expectation, the results showed that the away-school story, but not the home-school story, had a significant impact on students’ beliefs. These results support the view that readers must actively construct disbelief when processing fictional information.