Rumination, Inhibition and Stress: The Construction of A New Scale for Assessing Emotional Style

Emotional rumination and inhibition were identified in the Emotion Control Questionnaire (ECQ—Roger and Nesshoever 1987; Roger and Najarian 1989) as two relatively independent dimensions of emotional style, and the two measures have subsequently been shown to be important moderator variables in a range of health and forensic settings. Two other dimensions that emerged in the ECQ, labelled aggression control and benign control, have been shown to form part of the extraversion constellation, and the present paper describes the construction and validation of a new scale focusing exclusively on rumination and inhibition. Revised and expanded item pools for the scales were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which endorsed the two-factor structure. The new scales were validated concurrently against related scales in different samples, and were shown to be systematically related to two independent indices of health status.     

Context fear learning specifically activates distinct populations of neurons in amygdala and hypothalamus

The identity and distribution of neurons that are involved in any learning or memory event is not known. In previous studies, we identified a discrete population of neurons in the lateral amygdala that show learning-specific activation of a c-fos-regulated transgene following context fear conditioning. Here, we have extended these studies to look throughout the amygdala for learning-specific activation. We identified two further neuronal populations, in the amygdalo-striatal transition area and medial amygdala, that show learning-specific activation. We also identified a population of hypothalamic neurons that show strong learning-specific activation. In addition, we asked whether these neurons are activated following recall of fear-conditioning memory. None of the populations of neurons we identified showed significant memory-recall-related activation. These findings suggest that a series of discrete populations of neurons are involved in fear learning in amygdala and hypothalamus. The lack of reactivation during memory recall suggests that these neurons either do not undergo substantial change following recall, or that c-fos is not involved in any such activation and change.     

The developmental course of processing speed in children with and without learning disabilities

This study contrasted the development of processing speed in children with and without learning disabilities. We examined whether the same global mechanism presumed to be responsible for the normal developmental improvement in processing speed might also be associated with the processing speed deficiencies observed in children with learning impairments. One hundred and twenty-two children with learning disabilities in reading and/or math and 206 non-disabled community controls participated. There were no differences in relation of age to the development of processing speed for children with and without learning disabilities. We interpreted these results as suggesting that the underlying etiologies for the normal developmental change in processing speed and for the relative deficiencies in processing speed seen among children with learning disabilities were different.     

The haptic oblique effect in the perception of rod orientation by blind adults

The haptic perception of vertical, horizontal, +45° oblique, and +135° oblique orientations was studied in completely blind adults. The purpose was to determine whether the variations of the gravitational cues provided by the arm-hand system during scanning would affect the manifestation of the oblique effect (lower performance in oblique orientations than in vertical-horizontal ones) as they did in blindfolded sighted people (Gentaz & Hatwell, 1996). In blindfolded sighted adults, the oblique effect was reduced or absent when the magnitude of gravitational cues was decreased. If visual experience participated in the haptic oblique effect, we should observe no oblique effect in early blind subjects in the conditions of manual exploration where late blind and blindfolded sighted manifest this effect. The magnitude of gravitational cues was therefore varied by changing gravity constraints, whereas the variability of these cues was varied by changing the plane in which the task was performed: horizontal (low variability) and frontal (high variability). Early and late blind adults were asked to explore haptically a rod and then to reproduce its orientation ipsilateraUy in one of two exploratory conditions in each plane. In the horizontal plane, the oblique effect was absent, whatever the gravity constraints, in both groups (early and late blind subjects). In the frontal plane, the oblique effect was present, whatever the gravity constraints, in both groups. Taken together, these results showed that, in blind people, the variability of gravitational cues played a role in the haptic oblique effect; no effect of previous visual experience was observed.     

Maternal and child utilization of memory strategies

This study sought to examine the mechanisms employed by mothers as they engage in teaching their children to remember the names of characters, how to wrap a gift, and the location of zoo animals. The specific relationships included an examination of mothers’ pre-teaching instructions, mothers’ use of memory strategies, child strategy use and the child’s correct performance. Participants were 25 mothers and their four-year-old preschoolers. Results suggest that maternal preteaching instructions vary in complexity depending on the nature of the information being taught. In addition, mothers employ a variety of task-dependent memory strategies. In contrast to mothers, the children use proportionately fewer strategies than their mothers. However, their use of strategies is effective in helping them recall names, order, and location. Implications for adult guidance in assisting preschoolers with developing regulatory memory skills are discussed.     

Body Dissatisfaction in Women and Men: The Role of Gender-Typing and Self-Esteem

Body dissatisfaction was studied in 589 predominately middle class, European American, college students, classified as masculine-typed, feminine-typed, androgynous, or undifferentiated using the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Body dissatisfaction was defined as the discrepancy between a drawing selected as describing the individual's body and their selection of drawings representing: (1) their ideal body; (2) the body they believed members of their sex preferred; and (3) the body they believed members of the opposite sex preferred. Two separate studies found that women classified as feminine-typed or undifferentiated were more dissatisfied with their bodies than were women classified as masculine-typed or androgynous. Similar results were found for men. Both studies also found that women, regardless of gender-type, had thin ideals and greatly overestimated male preferences for slender female bodies. The theoretical implications of these results for gender schema theory and two other theories of gender typing were discussed. It was concluded that it is unnecessary to appeal to complex theories of gender-mediated socialization in order to explain differences in body dissatisfaction in women or men. Instead, these differences are most parsimoniously understood as the consequences of differences in global self-esteem.