Depressive symptoms and use of perspective taking within a communicative context

Objective: The ability to take the perspective of one's conversational partner is essential for successful communication. We assessed whether individuals who report high levels of depressive symptoms have more difficulty with navigating this interpersonal task. Method: Undergraduate students participated in a computerised communication task that, on some trials, required perspective taking (N=125). Results: When participants were grouped according to their self-reported depressive symptoms, the “dysphoric group” (BDI ≥ 16, n=37) showed more errors than a “non-dysphoric group” (BDI ≤ 10, n=56) on trials requiring participants to use the perspective of the speaker, but not on control trials where perspective taking was not required. The dysphoric group demonstrated slower response times overall. Conclusions: Individuals with moderate to high levels of depressive symptoms are more challenged by using a speaker's perspective to interpret statements.     

The Needle in the Haystack

Summary

Despite the significant damages in sexual abuse cases, the plaintiff's ability to collect the money awarded in settlement or judgment is often precluded by the limited financial resources of the defendant(s). In this chapter, practicing attorney Julian Hubbard introduces the basics of individual and corporate insurance coverage and reviews the development of very limited coverage in sexual abuse cases in statutory and case law. While direct coverage for sexual abuse injuries is as rare as a “needle in a haystack,” indirect coverage can be found in some cases, especially those in which the acts of negligent individuals other than the perpetrator facilitated the abuse and thus the plaintiff's injuries. After an overview of relevant insurance issues and law, Mr. Hubbard delineates a practical model for research and legal strategies to ensure reaching any available insurance coverage, and explores the benefits and drawbacks of drawing on administrative resources to help pay for survivors' medical and mental health care.     

In the Spirit of William James

In this essay, I identify several ways in which James Dittes extended the spirit of William James in his writings on psychology of religion. Like James, Dittes gave minimal attention to psychological theory and God-talk. Both authors located their reflections on religion within a philosophical, as well as a psychological, perspective. Both employed a discourse that was personalist, pluralist, and pragmatist. In the last section, I briefly note some of the ways in which Dittes moved beyond William James in the spirit of William James.     

Balancing Effort and Information Transmission During Language Acquisition: Evidence From Word Order and Case Marking

Across languages of the world, some grammatical patterns have been argued to be more common than expected by chance. These are sometimes referred to as (statistical) language universals. One such universal is the correlation between constituent order freedom and the presence of a case system in a language. Here, we explore whether this correlation can be explained by a bias to balance production effort and informativity of cues to grammatical function. Two groups of learners were presented with miniature artificial languages containing optional case marking and either flexible or fixed constituent order. Learners of the flexible order language used case marking significantly more often. This result parallels the typological correlation between constituent order flexibility and the presence of case marking in a language and provides a possible explanation for the historical development of Old English to Modern English, from flexible constituent order with case marking to relatively fixed order without case marking. In addition, learners of the flexible order language conditioned case marking on constituent order, using more case marking with the cross‐linguistically less frequent order, again mirroring typological data. These results suggest that some cross‐linguistic generalizations originate in functionally motivated biases operating during language learning.     

特需医疗服务供方意向调查分析

剖析目前特需医疗服务供方所存在的主要问题,初步探讨在我国发展特需医疗服务适宜的承担主体。采用个别访谈和问卷调查的方法对来自不同性质的医院的医护人员和医院管理人员进行了意向调查。结果显示,医院发展特需医疗服务并不是解决医务人员收入问题的有效手段;公立医院发展特需医疗服务势必会对其普通医疗服务带来负面影响。建议在确保大部分公立医院只提供普通医疗服务的基础上,由私立医院和一部分公立医院作为特需医疗服务的承担机构。     

A clean self reduces bribery intent

The present research aimed at investigating the effect of physical cleanliness on bribery intent and the moderating role of personal need for structure (PNS) on this relationship. In Study 1, we used questionnaires to establish the correlation between bodily cleanliness and bribery intent. In Study 2, we examined the effect by priming sense of self‐cleanliness. Study 3 was conducted outside a public bath to test our finding that physical purity decreases bribery intent again; we further found that individuals with high PNS showed no reduction in bribery intent even after cleaning themselves. We thus connected physical cleanliness with the corruption field and improved our understanding of its underlying moderating mechanism.     

Communicative development in Swedish children 16-28 months old: the Swedish early communicative development inventory--words and sentences

To describe the development of words and sentences in Swedish children 16-28 months old, 900 parental reports on 336 children were analyzed. Subjects were randomly selected from the national birth register, and there was a response rate of 88%. The assessments were made using the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory--words and sentences (SECDI--w&s). Age-based norms for productive vocabulary, pragmatic skills, grammar skills, and maximum length of utterance (MaxLU) were determined. We describe the development of feedback morphemes, semantic categories, and single words and tasks. Correlation across measures was significant, and especially strong between vocabulary size and grammar skills. Optimized positive predictive values were high for 25 to 28 month predictions (71%-88%), and vocabulary scores were found to be of particular predictive importance. No significant gender differences were detected. The clinical relevance of the instrument is discussed.     

用“你”表述物体的功能会抑制成因对归类的影响

已有研究显示物体的成因等变量会影响人造物概念的分类;但这种影响的中介变量为何,基于设计和基于用途的理论有不同的假设。实验采用物体自由命名任务,在陈述物体的功能时,操纵角色词的类型（旁观者“有人”和使用者“你”）,比较被试对物体的命名在领域水平的分类倾向。结果发现,呈现“旁观者”角色词时,呈现或不呈现物体自然形成的成因故事会造成不同的分类倾向;但是在呈现“使用者”角色词时,成因故事对分类倾向的影响消失了。提示物体的功能是成因和分类的中介变量,支持基于用途的人造物分类模型     

One-year-olds’ understanding of nonverbal gestures directed to a third person

We investigated whether infants comprehend others’ nonverbal communicative intentions directed to a third person, in an ‘overhearing’ context. An experimenter addressed an assistant and indicated a hidden toy's location by either gazing ostensively or pointing to the location for her. In a matched control condition, the experimenter performed similar behaviors (absent-minded gazing and extended index finger) but did not communicate ostensively with the assistant. Infants could then search for the toy. Eighteen-month-old infants were skillful in using both communicative cues to find the hidden object, whereas 14-month-olds performed above chance only with the pointing cue. Neither age group performed above chance in the control condition. This study thus shows that by 14–18 months of age, infants are beginning to monitor and comprehend some aspects of third party interactions.     

What are the benefits of having a village? Effects of allomaternal care on communicative skills in early infancy

This study investigates whether exposure to allomaternal care (AMC—care for infants from individuals other than the mother) improves rates of communicative behaviors during late infancy by providing more opportunities to practice communicating with varied caregivers. Data were collected from 102 typically-developing infants aged 13–18 months and their mothers. AMC variables were collected using a current care questionnaire, structured 14-day diary, and longitudinal interview. Communicative behaviors were assessed through post hoc microcoding of in-lab administrations of the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS), as well as additional microcoding of the Bayley III Screening Cognitive Subtest. Demographic covariates were also included. For each communicative behavior, backward model selection was used to determine the best fitting linear regression model. Results suggested that rates of turn-taking decreased with Household AMC (p < 0.008), but increased with two or more siblings present at home (p < 0.01). Conversely, rates of spontaneous giving increased with Household AMC (p < 0.003) regardless of the presence of siblings. Notably, exposure to more AMC was neither helpful nor harmful for many of the tested communicative behaviors, although the number of siblings present was significantly related to rates of following commands, as well as pointing and reaching. Ultimately, this study suggests that household level experiences with AMC, rather than formalized care, impact the development of some communicative behaviors during late infancy.