Face scanning distinguishes social from communication impairments in autism

How closely related are the social and communicative impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? Recent findings in typically developing children suggest that both types of impairment are highly heritable but have only moderate behavioural and genetic overlap. So far, their respective roles in social perception are poorly understood. Here we show that when looking at other people’s faces, children with ASD who are better at socio‐emotional behaviours than non‐verbal communication look more at the eyes, while those with the opposite profile look more at the mouth (Study 1). For the mouth area, a similar pattern was observed for inverted faces, suggesting that information from this area is perceived on a featural basis. In Study 2, we found that when shown a person performing manual actions, ‘eye‐lookers’ from Study 1 tended to look most at the face of the actor, while ‘mouth‐lookers’ from Study 1 tended to look at the action itself (hand/objects). This result was found in both ASD and typical development. In Study 3, the main finding in Study 1 was replicated in a new sample. Taken together, we interpret these results as supporting the view that the neural systems underlying socio‐emotional versus non‐verbal communication skills are separable, a finding that has important theoretical and clinical implications. The results also suggest that a similar differentiation of looking behaviour may operate in normal development.     

It just felt right: The neural correlates of the fluency heuristic

Simple heuristics exploit basic human abilities, such as recognition memory, to make decisions based on sparse information. Based on the relative speed of recognizing two objects, the fluency heuristic infers that the one recognized more quickly has the higher value with respect to the criterion of interest. Behavioral data show that reliance on retrieval fluency enables quick inferences. Our goal with the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to isolate fluency-heuristic-based judgments to map the use of fluency onto specific brain areas that might give a better understanding of the heuristic’s underlying processes. Activation within the claustrum for fluency heuristic decisions was found. Given that claustrum activation is thought to reflect the integration of perceptual and memory elements into a conscious gestalt, we suggest this activation correlates with the experience of fluency.     

Matching the message source to attitude functions: Implications for biased processing

A study was conducted to examine the hypothesis that matching (vs. mismatching) the source of a persuasive message to the functional basis of recipients’ attitudes may lead to positively biased processing. Under conditions conducive to effortful processing, high and low self-monitors were presented with a persuasive message ascribed to a source that either matched or mismatched the functional basis of their attitudes (i.e., an expert source for low self-monitors and an attractive source for high self-monitors). The message content was either unambiguous strong, unambiguous weak, or ambiguous. As predicted, given an ambiguous message biased processing led to more agreement when the source matched (vs. mismatched) attitude functions. In contrast, an unambiguous strong message led to more agreement than an unambiguous weak message regardless of source matching (unbiased processing). Results are discussed with respect to the role of the activation and use of heuristics in biased processing.     

Western esotericism: Towards an integrative model of interpretation

Despite the fact that during the last fifteen years we have witnessed the emergence of a research field of ‘Western esotericism’, scholars are still far from agreeing on definitions of ‘esotericism’. For an academic ‘field’, however, that wants to establish international networks and to bring together scholars from various research areas and disciplines, it is highly desirable to provide an interpretational framework in which these different studies find their place. The main argument of this article is that such common ground can be found only when esotericism is seen not as a selection of historical ‘currents’, however defined, but as a structural element of Western culture. After reviewing the most influential approaches to Western esotericism, this article identifies two dimensions of an esoteric discourse: claims of higher knowledge and ways of accessing this ‘truth’. To these dimensions can be added certain world views that are typically involved in there discourses. The interpretative model proposed here aims at critically addressing basic aspects of Western self-understanding including the rhetorics of rationality, science, enlightenment, progress and absolute truth. It postulates that conflicts of religious world views, identities and forms of knowledge lie at the heart of Western cultural history.     

Telefonische Nachuntersuchungen bei postpartaler Depression

Interviews over the telephone with mothers with and without postnatal depressive symptoms are reported. Advantages and disadvantages of interviews by telephone are discussed. Especially in cases of long distance to the home of a client, telephone interviews have economic and logistic advantages. If there are special questions (e.g. depression), telephone interviews seem to be widely accepted by the people.     

A Structural Model for Adjustment to Aging among Older Women in Breast Cancer Remission

This study aims to build a structural model to explore the predictors of adjustment to aging (AtA) reported by older women in breast cancer remission. A community-dwelling sample of 771 older women in breast cancer remission aged between 75 and 98 years answered a questionnaire to determine socio-demographic (age, income, marital status, education, household, and living setting), and health-related characteristics (self-reported functional limitations and disabilities, time since remission, other type of cancer, breast reconstruction, perceived health, recent disease and medication). Several measures were employed to assess AtA, sense of coherence and subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling was used to explore a structural model of the self-reported AtA, encompassing all variables. Significant predictors of AtA are self-reported disability (β = .404; p < .001), time since remission (β = .371; p < .001), perceived health (β = .257; p < .001), other type of cancer (β = .231; p < .001), breast reconstruction (β = .153; p = .008), marital status (β = .141; p < .001), sense of coherence (β = .140; p < .001), and living setting (β = .139; p = .006). These variables accounted for 84.3% of the variability of AtA. Self-reported disability and time since remission were the strongest predictors of AtA. Our findings suggest that health care interventions with older women in breast cancer remission still living in the community may benefit from clearly including these predictors of AtA, as they are relevant for promoting older women’ s aging well.

     

Getting less than their fair share: Maltreated youth are hyper‐cooperative yet vulnerable to exploitation in a public goods game

Human cooperative behavior has long been thought to decline under adversity. However, studies have primarily examined perceived patterns of cooperation, with little eye to actual cooperative behavior embedded within social interaction. Game‐theoretical paradigms can help close this gap by unpacking subtle differences in how cooperation unfolds during initial encounters. This study is the first to use a child‐appropriate, virtual, public goods game to study actual cooperative behavior in 329 participants aged 9–16 years with histories of maltreatment (n = 99) and no maltreatment (n = 230) while controlling for psychiatric symptoms. Unlike work on perceived patterns of cooperation, we found that maltreated participants actually contribute more resources to a public good during peer interaction than their nonmaltreated counterparts. This effect was robust when controlling for psychiatric symptoms and peer problems as well as demographic variables. We conclude that maltreatment may engender a hyper‐cooperative strategy to minimize the odds of hostility and preserve positive interaction during initial encounters. This, however, comes at the cost of potential exploitation by others.     

Combining mixture distribution and multidimensional IRTree models for the measurement of extreme response styles

Personality constructs, attitudes and other non-cognitive variables are often measured using rating or Likert-type scales, which does not come without problems. Especially in low-stakes assessments, respondents may produce biased responses due to response styles (RS) that reduce the validity and comparability of the measurement. Detecting and correcting RS is not always straightforward because not all respondents show RS and the ones who do may not do so to the same extent or in the same direction. The present study proposes the combination of a multidimensional IRTree model with a mixture distribution item response theory model and illustrates the application of the approach using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). This joint approach allows for the differentiation between different latent classes of respondents who show different RS behaviours and respondents who show RS versus respondents who give (largely) unbiased responses. We illustrate the application of the approach by examining extreme RS and show how the resulting latent classes can be further examined using external variables and process data from computer-based assessments to develop a better understanding of response behaviour and RS.     

Comparing memory skill maintenance across the life span: preservation in adults, increase in children

The authors examined life-span differences in the maintenance of skilled episodic memory performance by assessing 100 individuals (10 -11, 12-13, 21-26, and 66-79 years old) 11 months after termination of an intensive multisession mnemonic training program (Y. Brehmer, S.-C. Li, V. Müller, T. von Oertzen, & U. Lindenberger, 2007). Skill maintenance was tested in 2 follow-up sessions, the first without and the second with mnemonic reinstruction. Younger and older adults' average performance levels were stable across time. In contrast, both younger and older children's memory performance improved beyond originally attained levels. Older adults' performance improved from the first to the second follow-up session, presumably profiting from instruction-induced skill reactivation. Results suggest that (a) skill maintenance is largely intact in healthy older adults, (b) older adults need environmental support to fully reactivate their former skill levels (cf. F. I. M. Craik, 1983), and (c) children adapt a skill learned 11 months ago to their increasing cognitive capabilities.     

Kombination von Settings und Verfahren in der Psychotherapie

Literature research and own clinical experiences confirm the significance of a combined use of settings and methods in the area of inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy. For inpatient treatment, the combined use of methods, such as individual psychotherapy, group therapy, creative therapies, and sport, are an essential part of the treatment. In outpatient treatment, the regulations of the German insurance do not permit such combinations. Nevertheless, they occur and are often proactively initiated by the patients. The various combined use of psychotherapy and psychotropics is very well studied, but also the combination of settings, i.e. supplementary inpatient treatment, day treatment, and outpatient treatment have to be considered. While administering their therapies, psychotherapists should keep in mind possibly concurrently ongoing treatments as well as former therapies and their effects on the patients. With the exception of combinations with psychotropic treatment, there exist almost no empirical data in this important field.