局部表象产生中行为性别差异的神经基础

行为研究发现女性具有更好的局部表象产生能力, 但其神经基础尚不清楚。研究采用事件相关电位技术以及小世界网络分析方法, 探索局部表象产生中性别差异的大脑信息加工基础。结果显示在局部表象产生中, 女性行为反应较男性更快, 表象产生诱发的P300-650平均波幅更小, 且大脑功能网络的平均路径长度更短。深入分析发现, 反应时与脑网络的平均路径长度之间成正相关。该结果意味着低耗高效的大脑信息加工模式是女性具有更好的局部表象能力的神经基础。     

Ageing stereotypes influence the transmission of false memories in the social contagion paradigm

ABSTRACT

These experiments are the first to investigate the impact of confederate accuracy, age, and age stereotypes in the social contagion of memory paradigm. Across two experiments, younger participants recalled household scenes with an actual (Experiment 1) or virtual (Experiment 2), older or younger confederate who suggested different proportions (0%, 33% or 100%) of false items during collaboration. In Experiment 2, positive and negative age stereotypes were primed by providing bogus background information about our older confederate before collaboration. Across both experiments, if confederates suggested false items participants readily incorporated these into their own memory reports. In Experiment 1, when no age stereotype was primed, participants adopted similar proportions of false items from younger and older confederates. Importantly, in Experiment 2, when our older confederate was presented in terms of negative ageing stereotypes, participants reported less false items and were better able to correctly identify the source of those false items.     

The Association between Childhood Abuse and Labor Force Outcomes in Young Adults: Results from the Ontario Child Health Study

We examined the associations between childhood physical and sexual abuse and labor force outcomes in young adults and the possible mediating effects of educational attainment, current mental health, and physical health. Data from the Ontario Child Health Study (N = 1,893), a province-wide longitudinal study were analyzed. Controlling for childhood and demographic variables, severe childhood physical abuse was significantly associated with reduced income with small mediating effects. There was a sex difference in the association between child abuse and employment. Severe childhood physical abuse was significantly associated with lower likelihood of employment only among males; mediators partially reduced this association. Further research is needed to explore the mechanisms linking exposure to child abuse and economic vulnerability in young adults.     

Childhood attachment to parents and frequency of prayer during the college years

This study examines the association between childhood attachment with parents and the frequency of prayer among people raised in Mormon families. Three types of attachment with fathers and mothers – secure, anxious, and avoidant – were measured on a Likert scale. Undergraduate students at a state university in Utah completed questionnaires that included measurements of childhood attachment with parents and frequency of prayer. According to bivariate correlations, frequency of prayer was related to the nature of childhood attachment to parents; according to multiple regression analyses, the correlation between frequency of prayer and childhood attachment was largely, but not entirely, accounted for by other factors involving general frequency of religious activity; finally, these results differed somewhat between men and women. Men who had an avoidant relationship with their mother in childhood prayed less often when they were in college, while for women this association was not statistically significant.     

Bridging the “Great Divide” in Undergraduate Religion: An Experiment in Faculty/Student Collaboration

Undergraduate students today often enroll in introductory religious studies or theology classes because they want the time and space to reflect on their personal spiritual questions. Such a motivation can clash with the faculty's desire to introduce students to rigorous academic study of their field. Barbara Walvoord has proposed four “voices” that students may develop that will assist both student and faculty to cross this “great divide.” This essay explores the ways in which a course based in engaged pedagogical theory and practice – in this case, problem‐based learning – can provide an effective space for students to “find their voices,” take control of their own learning, and fulfill both their own and their professor's expectations.     

Long-term concentrative meditation and cognitive performance among older adults

ABSTRACT

Background: The general consensus that cognitive abilities decline with advancing age is supported by several studies that have reported that older adults perform more poorly on multiple tests of cognitive performance as compared to younger adults. To date, preventive measures against this cognitive decline have been mainly focused on dietary, physical, and lifestyle behaviors which could allow older adults to maintain their cognitive abilities into late life. However, much less stress has been laid on evaluating meditation as a preventive measure in such cases in spite of the fact that the role of meditation on attention has been proved in several studies. In the current study, we extend this preliminary idea, examining the practice of concentrative meditation and the differences in the cognitive performance of older adults who have or have not employed this practice long term. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study comparing the cognitive performance of meditators and non-meditators in the geriatric age group. Twenty (age > 55 years) long-term practitioners of Vihangam Yoga meditation (>10 years of practice) were recruited in the present study and were applied six paper–pencil neuropsychological tests for assessment of short-term memory, perceptual speed, attention, and executive functioning. The tests used were: (1) the Digit Span test, (2) the Stroop Color Word test, (3) the Trailmaking test, (4) the Letter Cancellation Task, (5) the digit symbol substitution test, and (6) the Rule Shift Card Test. All the tests were also applied to 20 age- and education-matched geriatric adults who have not practiced the meditation technique. Results: Vihangam Yogis showed significantly better performances in all these tests of attention (p < .05) except for the digit backward test, where a trend (p = .08) was found in favor of meditators. Conclusion: Long-term Vihangam Yoga meditators have superior cognitive abilities than non-meditators in the old age group. This technique should be studied further for its ability to prevent age-related cognitive decline.     

The influence of functional social support on executive functioning in middle-aged African Americans

ABSTRACT

Social support has a positive influence on cognitive functioning and buffers cognitive decline in older adults. This study examined the relations between social support and executive functioning in middle-aged adults. A community-based sample of African Americans completed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, a measure of functions of social support, and two measures of executive functioning, the Stroop Color and Word Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore the hypothesis that different facets of perceived social support influence performance on measures of executive functioning. After controlling for age, gender, and education, social support facets including belonging support, selfesteem support, appraisal support, and tangible support were significant predictors of Stroop performance. In addition, tangible support significantly predicted WCST performance. These findings add to previous literature on social support and cognition; however, findings for middle-aged adults are unique and suggest that social support has a positive influence on some executive functions in African Americans prior to old age.     

Family Correlates of Adolescent Self-Monitoring and Social Competence

The purpose of this study was to investigate linkages between adolescent self-monitoring, global social competence, and parenting and family environment dimensions of support and encouragement of autonomy. The sample consisted of 233 young women and 199 young men at 2 southwestern universities. The primary measures used were the Family Environment Scale (R. H. Moos, 1981), the Parent Behavior Form (L. Worell & J. Worell, 1974), the revised Self-Monitoring Scale (M. Snyder, 1987), and the Texas Social Behavior Inventory (R. Helmreich, J. Stapp, & C. Ervin, 1974). Findings indicated that family variables are more strongly associated with social competence than with self-monitoring; family support was, overall, a more important ingredient of social competence than was autonomy. Women and men had different patterns of associations among specific variables.     

Dependency and Independence in Young Children

The present study investigated the hypothesis that a positive relation exists between self-concept and moral judgment in young children. In the first experiment 40 kindergarten children between the ages of 5–1 and 6–6 with mental ability scores ranging from 82 to 144 were each administered a self-concept appraisal and a series of Piagetian moral dilemmas. Product-moment correlations and a multiple-regression analysis evaluated the relationship. When the self-concept and moral-judgment scores were collapsed, all of the moral-judgment factors correlated significantly with at least one self-concept factor. A second experiment tested the implications of the first. Eighty-five children between the ages of 5–11 and 8–4 were given the self-concept and moral-judgment measures. An eight-week communications-training session for randomly selected parents of children scoring below the mean on the self-concept measure was held. Posttesting showed no improvement in self-concept for the experimental group. Implications of these experiments are discussed.