Influence of breastfeeding and iron status on mental and psychomotor development during the first year of life.

Breastfeeding (BF) confers numerous benefits on the developing infant in both the short and the long term including psychological development, but there are multiple other factors that must be taken into account when these relationships are studied. To analyse how breastfeeding during the first 4 months of life affects infant mental and psychomotor development (MPD) at 6 and 12 months in a group of healthy infants from a Mediterranean Spanish city considering many important potential confounds. This is a longitudinal study conducted on infants from birth until the age of 12 months. A total of 154 healthy infants were evaluated by Paediatric Unit of Sant Joan University Hospital in Reus, Spain. Type of feeding, clinical history, anthropometry, iron status and mental and psychomotor development were assessed and analysed. At 4 months, 24% of infants received BF and 26% received mixed feeding (MF). Multiple Linear Regression models were applied adjusting for potential prenatal, perinatal and postnatal confounds showing that infants who received BF for at least four months presented higher psychomotor development index (PDI) at 6 and at 12 months of age. Also, gestational age and BMI at 6 m were associated positively with PDI at 6 m, and haemoglobin levels at 12 m and birth height were associated with PDI and MDI at 12 m (respectively).In conclusion, after the adjustment of important potential confounds, BF during at least four months and adequate infant iron status are related to better psychomotor development during the first year. No associations were found between BF and mental development.     

Functional Equivalence of Sleep Loss and Time on Task Effects in Sustained Attention

Research on sleep loss and vigilance both focus on declines in cognitive performance, but theoretical accounts have developed largely in parallel in these two areas. In addition, computational instantiations of theoretical accounts are rare. The current work uses computational modeling to explore whether the same mechanisms can account for the effects of both sleep loss and time on task on performance. A classic task used in the sleep deprivation literature, the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT), was extended from the typical 10‐min duration to 35 min, to make the task similar in duration to traditional vigilance tasks. A computational cognitive model demonstrated that the effects of time on task in the PVT were equivalent to those observed with sleep loss. Subsequently, the same mechanisms were applied to a more traditional vigilance task—the Mackworth Clock Task—providing a good fit to existing data. This supports the hypothesis that these different types of fatigue may produce functionally equivalent declines in performance.     

Romantic jealousy and implicit and explicit self-esteem

Research on romantic jealousy and self-esteem mostly relies on the measurement of explicit (i.e., conscious, deliberate) aspects, without taking recent developments of the measurement of implicit (i.e., automatic) aspects into account. In this study (N = 154), we applied several measures of romantic jealousy and self-esteem (explicit, implicit), finding sex-specific as well as measurement-specific effects. Men (but not women) higher in jealousy had lower explicit self-esteem, whereas women (but not men) higher in jealousy had higher implicit self-esteem, but only when using the Implicit Association Test (whereas not the Initial Preference Task) for measuring implicit self-esteem. Individuals with damaged (i.e., low explicit and high implicit) self-esteem were more jealous than those with fragile (i.e., high explicit and low implicit) self-esteem. This differential effect was due to higher implicit self-esteem among women, whereas lower explicit self-esteem among men. These novel findings not only add to the expanding literature on romantic jealousy research, but also to research on self-esteem discrepancies.     

‘Women are Bad at Math,but I'm Not,am I?’ Fragile Mathematical Self‐concept Predicts Vulnerability to a Stereotype Threat Effect on Mathematical Performance

The present research reports the results of three studies showing that individuals with a fragile self‐concept in the domain of performance are particularly vulnerable to stereotype threat effects. Specifically, women who explicitly described themselves as rather mathematical but whose implicit self‐concepts contradicted these claims were vulnerable to stereotype threat effects on mathematical performance. This effect was robust across three studies, independent of the subtleness or content of the stereotype threat manipulation. Additionally, it was shown that the effect was mediated by anxious worrying (Study 3). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

行政职业能力倾向测验:历史、现状与未来研究

经过二十多年的发展,行政职业能力倾向测验已经成为公务员考试中不可缺少的测评工具之一。在实践发展中,行测内外部的变化引发了许多研究问题。然而,现有研究的广度和深度都较为有限。为了提高行测的科学化水平,该文指出未来亟需从以下方面开展研究:(1)借鉴认知诊断理论对各个题型进行研究;(2)测量结构的确立;(3)分级分类考试的架构设计;(4)新题型开发;(5)分数合成;(6)试题公平性等。     

Temporal pattern of pre-shooting psycho-physiological states in elite athletes: A probabilistic approach

Objective

The IZOF-based probabilistic approach provides a methodology to study within-individual patterns of a performer's states. So far, the time course of physiological data before performance have not been investigated within the probabilistic methodology framework. The purpose of this study was to examine the value of the probabilistic approach in the assessment of the time course of physiological indicators of arousal/activation and vigilance during the period preceding the shot, in comparison with the performance-based method.

Design

Longitudinal assessment of psycho-physiological data and performance outcomes was conducted on eight elite pistol shooters in a controlled setting.

Methods

Each participant performed 60 air-pistol shots in 2 sessions. Skin conductance level and cardiac activity were recorded. Affective states intensity was evaluated on a modified 11-point Borg scale. Affect, HR and SC level were evaluated with a Performance-based approach and a Probabilistic method, and results compared at an individual level.

Results

Findings showed the higher effectiveness of the probabilistic method to analyse physiological parameters (skin conductance and heart rate) and to describe the physiological mechanisms associated with shooters’ performance.

Conclusions

The probabilistic method better discerned the contribution of arousal/activation and vigilance to optimal and non-optimal performance in elite shooters, thereby providing a sharper representation of the temporal pattern of performers' states before shooting. From an applied perspective, we believe that the probabilistic approach can help athletes become aware of the subtle variations occurring in their psychophysical states during the preparatory period preceding the shot and not only at the moment of shot release.     

内隐联想测验“内隐性”的可控性研究

在许多社会科学研究中,社会称许性会对研究的效度产生不良影响。研究者希望能得到被试的真实态度和反应,从而极力避免这种社会称许性偏见。内隐测量工具的一个主要目的是让研究者能够获得未加任何粉饰的态度测量结果从而消除和避免自我表现和社会称许性。本文通过四个实验考察了内隐联想测验的可掩饰性、掩饰的持久性、掩饰的条件化和IAT经验的迁移性,结果显示：（1）被试可以通过一定的反应策略来掩饰其真实的内隐态度,从而使所测得的个体内隐态度和群体内隐态度失真,典型的反应策略是均衡相容和不相容任务的反应速度;（2）内隐联想测验的可掩饰性需以先前的IAT经验为基础,且IAT经验无需属于相同的测验范畴,对IAT原理的掌握将有助于被试成功地实施掩饰;（3）内隐联想测验的可掩饰性具有一定的时效性,先前的IAT经验越久远,则成功掩饰的可能性越低;总之,内隐联想测验并不能彻底避免社会称许性。     

The role of optimism in patients with tinnitus and in patients with hearing impairment

Abstract

Optimism was investigated in a sample of audiology clinic patients, consisting of one group of tinnitus sufferers (N = 30) and one group of hearing impaired subjects not experiencing tinnitus (N = 44). Optimism was measured by the Life Orientation Test (LOT). In the tinnitus group the LOT correlated significantly with measures of tinnitus related distress and in the hearing impaired group with measures of disability and emotional reactions due to the hearing impairment. Cronbach's alphas for the measures used were generally high. Principal components analysis of the LOT confirmed earlier findings by showing two separate factors; one with the positively worded LOT items reflecting the presence of optimism and one with the negatively worded LOT items reflecting the presence of pessimism. The results indicate that dispositional optimism is an usable concept in research with audiological samples, and that optimism is related with tinnitus distress and experienced disability and emotional reactions due to hearing impairment. Further research should investigate the possible role of personality factors in tinnitus and hearing impairment.     

PERFORMANCE ON THE TEST OF MEMORY MALINGERING IN A MIXED PEDIATRIC SAMPLE

Performance on the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) was evaluated in a sample of 100 consecutively referred 6 to 16–year-old children with a wide range of clinical diagnoses. In the complete sample, 97 children met actuarially defined criteria for sufficient effort on the TOMM. Two children were correctly identified as providing suboptimal effort and only one case was a possible false positive. Performance on the second trial of the TOMM did not vary with gender, ethnicity, parental occupation, performance on an independent memory test, or length of coma. Although younger children tended to be somewhat less efficient on the TOMM than older children, more than 90% of children in the 6-8 years range met criteria originally developed for adults for sufficient effort on the TOMM. It is concluded that the TOMM is a potentially useful measure of effort in the clinical neuropsychological evaluation of school-age children.     

An Examination of Lexical and Sublexical Reading Skills in Children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an inherited neurocutaneous disorder associated with a high frequency of cognitive and learning difficulties. Based on discrepancies between IQ and academic achievement, approximately 17% of children with NF1 have been classified as having reading impairments. In this study, the lexical and sublexical reading skills of children with NF1 (n = 30) were examined using the Castles' Word/Non-Word Test (modified version), together with measures of neuropsychological functioning and academic achievement. Twenty children (67%) demonstrated deficits in one or more reading subskills, with 75% of these meeting criteria for phonological dyslexia and 20% classified with mixed dyslexia. These findings indicate that a large proportion of children with NF1 may be characterized by a specific difficulty with the sublexical procedure, suggesting a difficulty employing spelling-to-sound rules to assemble a pronunciation when reading. In line with previous studies, the present findings also suggest that discrepancy-based methods may not be sufficiently sensitive to identify children who experience reading difficulties.