Rigidity in social and emotional memory in the R6/2 mouse model of Huntington's disease

Four experiments were conducted to examine social and emotional memory in the R6/2 transgenic mouse model of Huntington’s disease. First, R6/2 mice were tested in a social transmission of food preference task where they had to acquire a preference for a flavoured food (acquisition) and subsequently to learn a preference for a different flavour (shifted reinforcement). R6/2 mice performed well in the acquisition trial. However, they were impaired in the shifted reinforcement trial and perseverated on the first preference learned. Second, mice were trained in an inhibitory avoidance paradigm, with either one or two footshocks delivered during the training. WT mice given one footshock showed retention levels lower than those of mice trained with two footshocks. By contrast, there was no difference in retention levels of R6/2 mice given either one or two footshocks. Third, mice were tested in an active avoidance task that paired a mild footshock with a warning light. R6/2 mice had a strong age-dependent deficit in this task. Finally, mice were tested in a conditioned taste aversion task that paired a saccharine solution with a nausea-inducing agent (LiCl). R6/2 mice displayed normal aversion, however this was not extinguished following repeated exposure to saccharine solution alone. Our data show that while R6/2 mice have functional hippocampus-based memory, they have deficits in striatum-based memory skills. Further, social and emotional memories appear to be encoded in a rigid way that is not influenced by subsequent learning or by arousal levels.     

Teacher preference, peer rejection, and student aggression: A prospective study of transactional influence and independent contributions to emotional adjustment and grades

This study assessed the importance of teacher preference of individual students, relative to peer rejection and student aggression, as an independent predictor of children's emotional adjustment and grades. First, a longitudinal, cross-lagged path analysis was conducted to determine the patterns of influence among teacher preference, peer rejection, and student aggression. Then, parallel growth analyses were examined to test whether lower initial and declining teacher preference, beyond the influence of initial level and change in peer rejection and student aggression, predicted change in loneliness, depression, social anxiety, and grades. Social adjustment, emotional adjustment, and academic adjustment were assessed in the fall and spring of two consecutive school years with 1193 third-grade students via peer-, teacher-, and self-report instruments as well as school records. In the cross-lagged path analysis, reciprocal influence over time between teacher preference and peer rejection was found, and student aggression predicted lower teacher preference and higher peer rejection. In the growth analyses, initial and declining teacher preference were independent predictors of increasing loneliness and declining grades. Discussion focuses on the relevance of the results within a transactional model of school adaptation.     

Experimental analysis of preschool playmate preferences as a function of smiles and sex

Differential emotions theory (DET) (The face of emotion. Appleton‐Century‐Crofts: East Norwalk, CT, 1971) posits that the smile functions in part to communicate and/or reflect social affiliation and plays an important role in children's social development. While children's positive emotion expressions have received attention from peer relations researchers in observational studies and within correlational designs, there is almost no experimental evidence for the impact of the smile. Building on existing studies, the present study examined DET predictions within an experimental design. More specifically, we examined the impact smiles have on lower‐income preschool children's nominations for preferred playmates. Both boys and girls tended to nominate unfamiliar playmates who smiled. Additionally, some evidence suggested that preference for smiling playmates seemed more critical to girls' than boys' social functioning. Unlike among boys, teachers rated girls who exhibited a greater preference for smiling playmates as higher in social competence. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BETWEEN PHYSICALISM AND MENTALISM: PHILIP CLAYTON ON MIND AND EMERGENCE

Abstract. Philip Clayton's work on emergence is a valuable contribution to the fields of religion, science, and philosophy. I focus on three narrow but extremely important areas of Clayton's work. First, Clayton deems that Terrence Deacon's emergence theory is difficult to accept because it is constructed from thermodynamics, thereby rendering it unable to address phenomenological issues. I examine Deacon's theory and show that development from a physics base is warranted. Furthermore, Clayton does not convincingly demonstrate that such a constructive approach is necessarily incapable of attending to mental phenomena or offer an alternative that explains the causal power of a physically nonconstructible mental realm. Second, I argue that Clayton's notion of emergentist supervenience for comprehending the mental/physical relation is unnecessarily redundant and problematic in relation to causal power. Third, I explore Clayton's alternative use of agent causation to make sense of mental properties having causal power in the world. His effort to resolve emergence difficulties by appealing to phenomenology receives primary attention. Clayton's use of emergence theory is an important contribution to the religion‐and‐science community, and I encourage further dialogue on the exchange that Clayton commences.     

Support for exclusionism as an independent dimension of social dominance orientation in mainland China

Three studies using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided consistent evidence for a three-factor model of the social dominance orientation (SDO) in Mainland China. Support for exclusionism, which was not found in previous research, emerged as an independent SDO factor (Studies 1, 2, and 3). In Study 2, this factor predicted SDO difference between a high status group (managers) and a low status group (entry-level employees). In Study 3, this factor correlated positively with authoritarianism and negatively with altruism. These results provided evidence for the validity of this new SDO factor. The findings are discussed in terms of their relations to China's cultural tradition and contemporary economic development.     

4岁幼儿线条偏好实验研究

本研究采用对偶比较法,对4岁幼儿进行6类常见线条的偏好调查研究,得出以下结果:4岁幼儿线条偏好的顺序依次是:漩涡线、曲线、弧形线、波浪线、折线、直线;男生和女生对线条的偏好没有明显差异;4岁幼儿对不同方向的漩涡线的偏好有明显差异,对不同方向的直线、波浪线、折线、曲线和弧形线的偏好没有明显差异。     

Shift of manual preference in right-handers following unimanual practice

The effect of unimanual practice of the non-preferred hand on manual asymmetry and manual preference for sequential finger movements was evaluated in right-handers before, immediately after, and 30 days following practice. The results demonstrate that unimanual practice induced a persistent shift of manual preference for the experimental task in most participants, but no significant correlation between manual asymmetry and manual preference was detected. These findings are explained by proposing that manual preference is influenced by a task-specific confidence developed from the recent history of differential use of the limbs, in interaction with a generalized confidence on a single hand for performance of motor skills.     

青少年外向/宜人性人格、互联网服务偏好与"网络成瘾"的关系

该研究采用问卷法,以481名中学生为被试,通过无约束结构方程模型分析方法探讨了外向性、宜人性人格特征与互联网服务偏好的交互作用对网络成瘾的影响。研究发现在对网络成瘾的影响上,青少年宜人性人格特征与互联网社交服务偏好存在显著的交互作用,但与互联网娱乐、信息和交易服务偏好的交互作用不显著。外向性人格特征与互联服务偏好不存在显著的交互作用。(1)从平均影响来看,外向性、宜人性、互联网社交、娱乐和交易使用偏好能够正向预测网络成瘾,互联网信息使用偏好对网络成瘾没有显著的预测效果;(2)在宜人性高分组中,互联网社交服务偏好与PIU的正向关系要强于宜人性低分组。斜率检验表明对于低宜人性人格的青少年来说,互联网社交服务偏好不易导致其成瘾,而对高宜人性人格的青少年而言,互联网社交服务偏好反而容易导致其成瘾。     

儿童同伴关系对孤独感的影响

以571名小学三、四、五、六年级的儿童为被试,考察了儿童社会喜好、友谊质量、消极退缩、社交自我知觉与孤独感的关系,检验了不同水平同伴关系变量对孤独感的影响。结果表明,儿童的同伴关系(同伴接纳、友谊质量、社交自我知觉)能显著预测其孤独感体验,其中,处于同伴关系个体水平的社交自我知觉对孤独感的预测作用最大,其次分别为双向关系水平的友谊质量和群体接纳水平的同伴接纳,而处于人际交互水平的消极退缩在控制了其他水平同伴关系变量的影响下,并不能显著预测其孤独感体验。     

青少年的同伴依恋与其互联网使用的关系

青少年期同伴群体的支持逐渐超过了父母的影响.青少年期同伴依恋在青少年认知、情感、人格以及行为的健康发展和社会适应中起着重要作用,拥有亲密的同伴关系的青少年出现情感问题和行为问题的可能性更小,并拥有更健康的青少年期适应能力.该研究采用同伴依恋量表、互联网服务使用状况量表以及青少年病理性互联网使用量表对405名中学生进行了问卷调查.旨在探讨青少年同伴依恋与其互联网使用之间的关系.结果表明: (1)同伴信任与社交和娱乐服务的使用偏好呈负相关,尽管都没有达到统计显著性; (2)同伴沟通可以正向预测青少年对信息、娱乐和社交服务的使用偏好,且都达到显著性水平;还可以通过互联网娱乐服务使用偏好间接预测PIU; (3)青少年与同伴的疏离程度可以正向预测青少年对社交服务的使用偏好,也可以直接正向预测PIU.