Are genetically informed designs genetically informative? Comment on McGue, Elkins, Walden, and Iacono (2005) and quantitative behavioral genetics

M. McGue, I. Elkins, B. Walden, and W. G. Iacono presented the findings from a twin study examining the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the developmental trajectories of parent-adolescent relationships. From a behavioral genetics perspective, this study is well conceptualized, is well implemented, and raises some interesting developmental questions. Yet, the classic twin methodology and heritability estimates obfuscate the dynamic gene-ecology transactions that underlie these social developmental trajectories. There is a growing divide between the findings of quantitative behavioral genetics, with its foundational estimate of a statistical genetic influence, and developmental molecular genetics. This comment provides a brief overview of this divide and its implications for the findings of McGue et al. as well as quantitative behavioral genetics more broadly.     

Anthropology,Ontology, and the Possibility of Post-Mortem Repentance

Abstract: This essay considers the question of conversion unto repentance, as an act of cognition and volition, by the separated soul in the post-mortem state. It primarily explicates and interrogates Thomas Aquinas's various attempts to rule out this possibility for the damned. Since Thomas's arguments for such impossibility feature his commitment to the radical immateriality of the human soul—and, like it, the angelic spirit—the essay highlights the ontological and moral tensions within that account. The case is thus made for the ontological, logical, and moral inconsistencies of his position, in pursuit of a more holistic anthropology across the soul's various states and a more rationally and coherent eschatology—namely, an affirmation of the irreducible mutability of the created soul on its way towards likeness to God, perhaps, if not certainly, towards universal salvation.     

Assessing alexithymia and related emotional ability constructs using multiple methods: interrelationships among measures

This study examined relationships among various measures of emotional ability reflecting different methods of assessment: self-report, clinical interview, collateral report, and emotion-relevant performance. On 140 young adults, the authors assessed self-reported alexithymia, emotional approach coping, and trait metamood skills; observer-reported alexithymia; interviewer-rated alexithymia; emotional awareness in response to vignettes; and emotional intelligence test performance. There were moderate magnitude correlations among the self-report measures, but correlations among other measures were relatively low. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a 3-factor model in which explicit self, implicit self, and explicit other measures were differentiated. These emotional ability measures do not form a unitary construct but differ as a function of the person providing the information and whether the measure is explicit or implicit.     

Signal clarity: an account of the variability in infant quantity discrimination tasks

Infants have shown variable success in quantity comparison tasks, with infants of a given age sometimes successfully discriminating numerical differences at a 2:3 ratio but requiring 1:2 and even 1:4 ratios of change at other times. The current explanations for these variable results include the two‐systems proposal – a theoretical framework that suggests that there are multiple systems at play and that these systems do not communicate early in infancy, leading to failure in certain numerical comparisons. An alternative proposal is that infants may be attending to continuous extent dimensions in these tasks rather than number per se. However, neither of these two main proposals is independently capable of accounting for the previously published data. Recently the Signal Clarity Hypothesis was proposed to account for and predict the variability (Cantrell & Smith, 2013). According to this hypothesis, infants’ variable success may be understood from a framework of statistical learning taken together with the signal‐to‐noise ratio generated by control procedures in habituation tasks. Here we test specific predictions made by the Signal Clarity Hypothesis. Across four experiments assessing 9‐month old discriminations of small and large sets (2 vs. 4 and 3 vs. 4), we demonstrate that infant success can be predicted by this novel approach and, further, that infants may discriminate smaller ratios of change than previously believed (3:4 numerical change and 2:3 cumulative area change).     

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Perceived Relationship Safety as Predictors of Dyadic Adjustment: A Test of Mediation and Moderation

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive value of PTSD symptoms and perceived relationship safety on dyadic adjustment. Participants included 390 individuals who were in a committed romantic relationship. Data were gathered from two populations; clients of a university-based family therapy clinic (n = 132), and community respondents to an announcement on a large university's electronic bulletin board (n = 258). Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of mediation, as well as multiple group analysis to test for moderation by setting (clinical vs. community) and gender. Results indicated that perceived relationship safety fully mediated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and dyadic adjustment. Gender moderated the relationships in the model, but no differences were found between the clinical and community samples. Findings suggest the importance of addressing experiences of safety and security in relationships, as these may be of particular importance for those who have experienced trauma.     

Infants' understanding of actions performed by mechanical devices

Recent research suggests that 9-month-old infants tested in a modified version of the A-not-B search task covertly imitate actions performed by the experimenter. The current study examines whether infants also simulate actions performed by mechanical devices, and whether this varies with whether or not they have been familiarized with the devices and their function. In Experiment 1, infants observed hiding and retrieving actions performed by a pair of mechanical claws on the A-trials, and then searched for the hidden toy on the B-trial. In Experiment 2, infants were first familiarized with the experimenter and the claws but not their function. In Experiment 3, infants were familiarized with the function of the claws. The results revealed that search errors were at chance levels in Experiments 1 and 2, but a significant proportion of the infants showed the A-not-B error in Experiment 3. These results suggest that 9-month-old infants are less likely to simulate observed actions performed by mechanical devices than by human agents, unless they are familiarized with the function of the devices so that their actions are perceived as goal-directed.     

Biological and caregiver correlates of behavioral inhibition

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among measures of behavioral inhibition, physiological reactivity, and caregiver attitudes. Measures comprised of heart rate; survey assessments of caregiver empathy with the child, appropriateness of caregiver developmental expectations of the child, and use of positive discipline techniques; and observational measures of behavioral inhibition were gathered in a laboratory setting on 72, 5–6‐year old children. It was found that heart rate and behavioral inhibition were positively correlated (0.595), whereas behavioral inhibition was negatively correlated with caregiver attitudes of empathy (?0.356), appropriate expectations (?0.366), and use of positive discipline techniques (?0.275). However, there was no correlation between heart rate and caregiver attitudes. These data suggest that physiological reactivity to novel stimuli and caregiver attitudes of empathy, appropriate expectations, and use of positive discipline techniques conjointly influence behavioral inhibition in early childhood. Further, these three caregiver variables accounted for significant variance in children who had high reactive physiological profiles associated with inhibited behavior patterns, but did not display such patterns. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Hello,can you hear me?”: Narratives of online mental health counselling among Filipino adults during the pandemic

Filipinos are often reluctant to seek professional mental health (MH) help. However, literature reveals that online counselling is preferable to face-to-face (F2F) MH services, with the pandemic possibly magnifying technology's anonymity and disinhibiting benefits. To further explore facilitators of online MH help-seeking, this study tapped into the lived stories of Filipino adults who experienced at least one counselling session from March 2020 to March 2022. Among 83 screened respondents, 11 semistructured interviews were transcribed and analysed following Crossley's (2000) method. Findings reveal an overarching online MH counselling narrative composed of three phases and their respective events: (a) Precounselling (Resiliency Narrative versus MH Awareness, Turning Point, and Linking versus Searching); (b) Counselling (Two-way Introduction, Unloading and Untangling, and Decision to Maintain or Terminate); and (c) Postcounselling (Relapse and Journey towards Growth and Advocacy). Three all-encompassing facilitators were embedded throughout the process: Autonomy, Financial Capability, and MH Institutions. Notably, participants attributed their MH help-seeking to autonomy, despite culture and stigma, because of enabling environments that entail heightened MH literacy, positive past experiences with professional MH help, social support and encouragement, and a sense of shared reality. Benefits unique to online counselling were also apparent among participants' narratives, including alleviating geographical boundaries and added financial and personal pressures. Overall, findings posit that Filipino adults consider online counselling as a preferable alternative to F2F counselling, thus necessitating further development and institutional support.     

Is automatic imitation a specialized form of stimulus–response compatibility? Dissociating imitative and spatial compatibilities

In recent years research on automatic imitation has received considerable attention because it represents an experimental platform for investigating a number of interrelated theories suggesting that the perception of action automatically activates corresponding motor programs. A key debate within this research centers on whether automatic imitation is any different than other long-term S-R associations, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility. One approach to resolving this issue is to examine whether automatic imitation shows similar response characteristics as other classes of stimulus-response compatibility. This hypothesis was tested by comparing imitative and spatial compatibility effects with a two alternative forced-choice stimulus-response compatibility paradigm. The stimulus on each trial was a left or right hand with either the index or middle finger tapping down. Speeded responses were performed with the index or middle finger of the right hand in response to the identity or the left-right spatial position of the stimulus finger. Two different tasks were administered: one that involved responding to the stimulus (S-R) and one that involved responding to the opposite stimulus (OS-R; i.e., the one not presented on that trial). Based on previous research and a connectionist model, we predicted standard compatibility effects for both spatial and imitative compatibility in the S-R task, and a reverse compatibility effect for spatial compatibility, but not for imitative compatibility, in the OS-R task. The results from the mean response times, mean percentage of errors, and response time distributions all converged to support these predictions. A second noteworthy result was that the recoding of the finger identity in the OS-R task required significantly more time than the recoding of the left-right spatial position, but the encoding time for the two stimuli in the S-R task was equivalent. In sum, this evidence suggests that the processing of spatial and imitative compatibility is dissociable with regard to two different processes in dual processing models of stimulus-response compatibility.     

Child proportional scaling: Is 1/3 = 2/6 = 3/9 = 4/12?

The current experiments examined the role of scale factor in children's proportional reasoning. Experiment 1 used a choice task and Experiment 2 used a production task to examine the abilities of kindergartners through fourth-graders to match equivalent, visually depicted proportional relations. The findings of both experiments show that accuracy decreased as the scaling magnitude between the equivalent proportions increased. In addition, children's errors showed that the cost of scaling proportional relations is symmetrical for problems that involve scaling up and scaling down. These findings indicate that scaling has a cognitive cost that results in decreasing performance with increasing scaling magnitude. These scale factor effects are consistent with children's use of intuitive strategies to solve proportional reasoning problems that may be important in scaffolding more formal mathematical understanding of proportional relations.