Sex segregation in friendships and normative contexts across the life span

Sex segregation (the separation of boys and girls into same-sex groups in their friendships and casual encounters; [Thorne, B., & Luria, Z. (1986). Sexuality and gender in children’s daily worlds. Social Problems, 33, 176–190]), has typically been viewed as a childhood phenomenon. In the present paper, we review research that suggests the phenomenon of sex segregation persists across the life span. We draw from a social-constructionist model to synthesize literature documenting sex segregation in friendships and aspects of individuals’ socio-cultural contexts in childhood, adolescence, and early and later adulthood. We consider developmental continuities in mechanisms that may be associated with sex segregation, including behavioral compatibility, communication styles, third-party resistance to other-sex relationships, and institutional barriers to other-sex relationships. We discuss how these factors may, through a reciprocal process, contribute to and result from sex segregation. Finally, we offer recommendations for future research.     

Cybersecurity and Authentication: The Marketplace Role in Rethinking Anonymity – Before Regulators Intervene

Anonymous speech plays a fundamental role in America’s political history. However, that long tradition of anonymous communications faces an image problem in today’s age of spam, computer viruses, spyware, denial-of-service attacks on websites, and identity theft. The criminals and hackers who perpetrate these insults on the commercial Internet are, for the most part, anonymous; we simply do not know the identities of these bad guys. Yet, the promise of anonymous communications is vital to the preservation of political liberty across the globe. Therefore, how should we regard anonymity in a digital age? And how should we strike the right balance between security and anonymity online? To begin, we should not consider the outlawing of anonymous communications as the answer to today’s cybersecurity threats. Commercial sector “regulation” of anonymity, so to speak, can play a significant role in combating these problems. Increasingly, online authentication has become important to both personal security and to cybersecurity in general. Some recent proposals toward bolstering security have included greater authentication of the source of emails to deal with spam and the requirement that those who conduct transactions online reveal their identities – seeming violations of online culture. Policymakers also want a say in the matter, and as the process unfolds, they might feel increasingly tempted to intervene whenever issues impacting privacy and authentication emerge in debates over telecommunications, intellectual property, biometrics, cybersecurity, and more. Regardless, government should not strip us of our anonymity online. Cybersecurity concerns may instead call for the marketplace – not regulators – to deal with the fact that many threats stem from that very lack of authentication. The inclusion of greater authentication standards into online services by private vendors will lead to their working in concert in unprecedented ways that may draw attention from regulatory and antitrust authorities. But these private, experimental efforts have no implications for political liberty – nor are they anticompetitive. Private solutions are the only real hope we have for decreasing cybersecurity threats, given that previous government efforts to regulate the Internet – for example, outlawing spam in 2004 – have not lived up to expectations. Political anonymity and commercial anonymity are not the same thing, and the distinction requires better appreciation. Over the coming tumultuous period of dealing with online threats, policymakers should allow the experimentation necessary to cope with today’s lack of online authentication to proceed with minimal interference.     

Neurocognitive Functioning in AD/HD,Predominantly Inattentive and Combined Subtypes

The Predominantly Inattentive (PI) and Combined (CB) subtypes of AD/HD differ in cognitive tempo, age of onset, gender ratio, and comorbidity, yet a differentiating endophenotype has not been identified. The aim of this study was to test rigorously diagnosed PI, CB, and typical children on measures selected for their potential to reveal hypothesized differences between the subtypes in specific neurocognitive systems (anterior vs. posterior attentional systems) and processes (arousal vs. activation). Thirty-four CB and 26 PI children meeting full DSM-IV criteria for subtype both in school and at home, without confounding reading disability or emotional disorder, were enrolled along with 20 typically developing children. Neurocognitive functions measured included attention, inhibitory control, working memory, learning, and executive functions. Tasks included the Stroop, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Buschke Selective Reminding Test, ad the Tower of London (TOL), as well as instruments developed by Posner and Sternberg, and tasks assessing the impact on reaction time of [corrected] varying preparatory intervals and stimulus/response complexity. After co-varying for IQ, subtypes differed primarily on measures of impulsivity during tests of vigilance (CPT) and executive function (TOL), with the CB group showing greater impulsivity than both other groups. In addition, the PI group showed worse performance than CB and control groups on the WISC-III Processing Speed Index. Whether analyzed with or without an IQ co-variate, there was no support in the data for hypothesized differences between subtypes in functioning of the anterior vs. posterior attentional systems, nor in involvement of arousal vs. activation processes. The results indicate that the PI and CB subtypes are best differentiated by ratings, observations and tests of cognitive tempo and behavioral impulsivity. Neuropsychological methods have yet to identify critical neuropsychological [corrected] substrates of these differences.     

Developmental dyslexia: the visual attention span deficit hypothesis

The visual attention (VA) span is defined as the amount of distinct visual elements which can be processed in parallel in a multi-element array. Both recent empirical data and theoretical accounts suggest that a VA span deficit might contribute to developmental dyslexia, independently of a phonological disorder. In this study, this hypothesis was assessed in two large samples of French and British dyslexic children whose performance was compared to that of chronological-age matched control children. Results of the French study show that the VA span capacities account for a substantial amount of unique variance in reading, as do phonological skills. The British study replicates this finding and further reveals that the contribution of the VA span to reading performance remains even after controlling IQ, verbal fluency, vocabulary and single letter identification skills, in addition to phoneme awareness. In both studies, most dyslexic children exhibit a selective phonological or VA span disorder. Overall, these findings support a multi-factorial view of developmental dyslexia. In many cases, developmental reading disorders do not seem to be due to phonological disorders. We propose that a VA span deficit is a likely alternative underlying cognitive deficit in dyslexia.     

大小字号的文本对中文读者眼动模式和阅读知觉广度的影响

摘 要 研究以眼动仪为工具,采用移动窗口范式考察不同字号文本对读者阅读知觉广度和眼动模式的影响。实验结果发现,被试阅读大、小字号文本时的阅读知觉广度都是四个字。字号大小不影响读者的阅读知觉广度,但是影响读者的眼动模式。具体表现为：被试阅读小号字文本的平均注视时间、总注视时间比大号字文本长,平均眼跳距离更短,相对眼跳距离（单位为字的个数）更长,注视次数更多。     

中文单字词句的阅读知觉广度*

通过考察中文单字词句的阅读知觉广度来探讨中文阅读的基本加工单元问题。实验采用“呈现随眼动变化”技术——移动窗口范式,记录了20名大学生阅读120个单字词句时的眼动行为,其中实验材料分5种窗口条件呈现。实验结果显示,单字词句的右侧阅读知觉广度为2个单字词,小于以往知觉广度的研究结果。中文阅读的基本加工单元可能是词。     

小学五年级语文学优生与学困生阅读知觉广度的眼动研究

本研究以眼动仪为工具,采用移动窗口范式来考察小学五年级语文学优生和学困生的阅读知觉广度。实验结果发现,小学五年级语文学优生的阅读知觉广度范围为注视字左侧一个汉字到注视字右侧三个汉字,小学五年级语文学困生的阅读知觉广度范围为注视字左侧一个汉字到注视字右侧两个汉字。小学五年级语文学优生的阅读知觉广度比学困生更大。     

绕口令效应对汉语阅读影响的眼动研究

绕口令效应指无论朗读还是默读,绕口令的阅读时间都长于正常句子的阅读时间。本研究采用Eyelink 2000型眼动仪,通过两个实验考察汉语阅读中的绕口令效应及其对知觉广度的影响。实验1结果表明:与阅读非绕口令相比,绕口令的阅读时间和注视次数均显著增加而阅读速度和平均眼跳幅度均显著下降。实验2结果表明:绕口令的知觉广度为注视点右侧1~2个汉字,控制句的知觉广度为注视点右侧2~3个汉字。结果说明汉语中存在绕口令效应,使读者知觉广度变小,阅读效率下降。。     

Verbesserung psychischer Allgemeinfunktionen durch Psychotherapie

Zusammenfassung  Im Rahmen einer bundesweiten Fragebogenuntersuchung, die eine systematische Replikation der 1994 in den USA durchgeführten Consumer-Reports-Study für Deutschland darstellte, wurden mit Hilfe des ins Deutsche übersetzten Originalfragebogens Psychotherapiepatienten, u. a. nach einer Verbesserung der Zielsymptomatik sowie nach Veränderungen unspezifischer psychischer Allgemeinfunktionen, wie Beziehungsfähigkeit, Arbeitsfähigkeit, Fähigkeit zur Stressbewältigung, körperliches Wohlbefinden, Lebensfreude, persönliche Entwicklung, Verständnis für andere, Selbstwertgefühl und Stimmungslage, durch die Behandlung befragt. Bei der Auswertung der Antworten zeigte sich, dass eine psychotherapeutische Behandlung nicht nur zu einer deutlichen Symptombesserung, sondern auch zu einer Besserung dieser unspezifischen psychischen Allgemeinfunktionen führt. Und je länger die Behandlung erfolgt war, desto größer fielen die Besserungsraten aus. Der Vergleich der unterschiedlichen psychotherapeutischen Verfahren offenbarte marginale Unterschiede zwischen Psychoanalyse, tiefenpsychologisch-fundierter Psychotherapie und Verhaltenstherapie.

Grief Ministry as Homecoming: Framing Death from a Korean-American Perspective

Using the personal experience of a “homecoming” funerary journey from the U.S. to Korea, the author probes the cultural construction of familial bonds between the living and the dead in Korean and biblical (Genesis) funeral narratives. This article highlights the cultural differences between American and Korean funeral traditions — that is, (1) dying at a hospital vs. dying at home, (2) embalming vs. sup/yom (washing/binding of the corpse), (3) metal casket vs. wooden coffin, (4) committal vs. banhon (returning of the spirit) – to explore the religious and practical implications of the multicultural grieving process for pastoral care and grief ministry in which death is conceived as returning to the familial, cultural, and spiritual homes.