Reductions in anxiety and improvements in teaching associated with cue-controlled relaxation training

This study examined the efficacy of cue-controlled relaxation, taught in three 2-hour workshops, in reducing the anxiety of two elementary school teachers. Anxiety was measured using direct observation of external behavior and self-report of internal states; and the effects of anxiety reduction on selected teaching behaviors were also examined. Following training, both teachers exhibited significant reductions in motoric manifestations of anxiety and in some self-reported internal states. Both teachers showed significant increases in rewarding behavior, and they reduced disapproving behavior to zero on most days. Even though results were not maintained following the treatment program, this study demonstrated that training in the self-management of stress and tension can significantly affect the anxiety and teaching behaviors of teachers.     

Computer tomographic localization, lesion size, and prognosis in aphasia and nonverbal impairment.

Computerized tomography scans (80) were used to localize infarcts in 70 patients. Twenty-three aphasics were scanned within 35 days from onset, 39 beyond a year, and 18 were nondominant cases. Aphasics were also grouped according to test scores obtained within 35 days of scan. Chronic global aphasics have larger lesions than persisting Broca's aphasics. The area of persisting Broca's aphasia is similarly anterior but larger than that of recovered motor aphasia. Anomic aphasics evolve from Broca's and Wernicke's types with differing localization. Lesion size correlated with severity and recovery, and comprehension among the subtests.     

Influence of dominance on the development of play fighting in pairs of male Syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)

In the highly social rat, male juvenile and adult subordinates initiate more playful contacts with dominant pairmates than vice versa. This study examined the effect of dominance on playful contacts in the relatively asocial golden hamster. Pairs of male hamsters were reared together from weaning, and their play was filmed in the juvenile (28-36 days) and the young adult (60-70 days) stages of development. By the adult stage, it became clear that one pairmate was dominant over the other. The dominant pairmate launched all aggressive attacks (i. e., bites to the lower flanks and rump), and the subordinate pairmate performed all the submissive gesturing (e. g., tail up submissive posture). Playful contact, which in this species involves gentle nibbling of the posterior cheeks, was more frequently launched by the dominant than by the subordinate. This was not only true at the adult stage, but also at the juvenile stage, before dominance-subordination relationships were sharply polarized. Therefore, it would appear that in the relatively asocial hamster, the subordinates tend to avoid playful contact with dominants. This is markedly different to rats, where the subordinates actively seek out and engage dominants in play. This contrast further supports our hypothesis that subordinate male rats use play as a means of maintaining familiarity with dominants. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Relations between maternal power-assertive parenting and adjustment in Chinese children: A longitudinal study

This 1-year longitudinal study examined relations between maternal power-assertive parenting and children's social, academic and psychological adjustment in China. Participants were 316 elementary school children (mean age = 11 years, 153 boys). Maternal power-assertive parenting was assessed using children's self-reports. Data on children's social and school adjustment were obtained from peer evaluations and teacher ratings. In addition, children completed measures of loneliness and depression. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that whereas maternal power-assertive parenting was only related to later academic adjustment, children's adjustment in socioemotional and academic domains contributed to the prediction of later maternal power-assertive parenting. The results were discussed in the Chinese context.     

Novel metaphors appear anomalous at least momentarily: evidence from N400

This study addresses a central question in perception of novel figurative language: whether it is interpreted intelligently and figuratively immediately, or only after a literal interpretation fails. Eighty sentence frames that could plausibly end with a literal, truly anomalous, or figurative word were created. After validation for meaningfulness and figurativeness, the 240 sentences were presented to 11 subjects for event related potential (ERP) recording. ERP's first 200 ms is believed to reflect the structuring of the input; the prominence of a dip at around 400 ms (N400) is said to relate inversely to how expected a word is. Results showed no difference between anomalous and metaphoric ERPs in the early window, metaphoric and literal ERPs converging 300-500 ms after the ending, and significant N400s only for anomalous endings. A follow-up study showed that the metaphoric endings were less frequent (in standardized word norms) than were the anomalous and literal endings and that there were significant differences in cloze probabilities (determined from 24 new subjects) among the three ending types: literal > metaphoric > anomalous. It is possible that the low frequency of the metaphoric element and lower cloze probability of the anomalous one contributed to the processes reflected in the early window, while the incongruity and near-zero cloze probability of the anomalous endings produced an N400 effect in them alone. The structure or parse derived for metaphor during the early window appears to yield a preliminary interpretation suggesting anomaly, while semantic analysis reflected in the later window renders a plausible figurative interpretation.