Digging deeper into the link between socio‐cognitive ability and social relationships

In this commentary on ‘Friendlessness and theory of mind: A prospective longitudinal study’ by Fink, Begeer, Peterson, Slaughter, and de Rosnay (Brit. J. Dev. Psychol, 2015; 33, 1–17) we reconsider the link between early mastery of theory of mind (ToM) and social relationships by focusing on connections with other related areas of socio‐cognitive ability such as emotional competence, ToM development across age, and the effect of interventions.     

医患关系中医生沟通能力培训模式的研究进展

从医生沟通能力的视角出发，改善医患关系的相关促进技术主要包括线下课程培训和计算机网络技术的实时交互式模拟训练等形式。其中，线下课程培训是当前医生沟通能力提升的主要促进技术，分别以沟通技能培训Comskil模型和真实工作场所中的医生沟通能力培训周期模型作为理论支撑，形成了针对特殊领域的“告知坏消息”沟通培训课程和处方对话培训课程。线下的课程培训因其在培训时间和培训师能力要求方面的局限性，促使了计算机模拟在医生沟通能力训练上的运用，从而形成了基于计算机的实时交互式模拟训练系统。随着科学技术的发展，未来将会有更多的新技术加入到实时交互式模拟训练中来。     

Introduction What aptitudes,values, and behaviors for an already present future?

Abstract

Evolution, in particular demographic growth, and progress in the world of science and technology, has led to deep‐seated transformations on economic, social and political levels. How are we to teach the young to build the 21st century in the most suitable way? What are the values, what are the aptitudes and behaviors which will enable them to flourish as actors on the stage of a changing, complex and uncertain world?     

Cognitive and psychomotor tests as predictors of on-road driving ability in older primary care patients

This study examined the accuracy with which different cognitive and psychomotor assessment tools were able to predict driving ability among older primary care patients. A cross-sectional study of 50 older drivers (with an average age of 73.1 ± 7.0 years) was conducted. Participants who had been referred by their physicians for psychological assessment following a fitness-to-drive examination underwent both an on-road driving test and a cognitive assessment protocol that included the Senior Drivers Battery (SDB) that is currently administered at the Mobility and Land Transports Institute (MLTI) in Portugal, the Useful Field of View (UFOV) test, the Stroke Drivers Screening Assessment (SDSA), Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R), the Trail Making Test, the Key Search test, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) Vocabulary and Block Design tests. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the performances of the participants on the SDSA, ACE-R, UFOV and SDB were the best predictors of on-road driving. Specific measures of processing speed and divided attention, visuospatial abilities, executive functions, psychomotor speed and global cognitive functioning may be useful for predicting unsafe driving. The practical implications of these findings are discussed with a view to developing new assessment models for determining driving fitness in older adults.     

Cognitive ability and political beliefs in the United States

Recent evidence indicates that cognitive ability has a monotonically positive relation to socially liberal beliefs and some measures of fiscally conservative beliefs, and that it has a non-monotonic relation to other measures of fiscally conservative beliefs. This study examines the relationship between cognitive ability and political beliefs in a recent, nationally representative sample of American adults. It finds that cognitive ability is positively associated with both socially liberal beliefs and fiscally conservative beliefs. The relationships with socially liberal beliefs are monotonically positive. In contrast, some of the relationships with fiscally conservative beliefs are non-monotonic: Americans of highest ability are less fiscally conservative than those of high ability. The association between cognitive ability and a dimension of fiscal conservatism is reduced substantially when controlling for socio-economic position.     

小学低年级儿童汉语语素意识、口语词汇知识对阅读能力的影响:一项追踪研究

以149名小学一年级儿童为被试，进行为期三年的追踪，采用交叉滞后的分析方法考察了儿童汉语语素意识、口语词汇知识与阅读能力的关系。结果发现：（1）儿童汉语语素意识、口语词汇知识、阅读准确性和阅读流畅性在小学1~3年级间有显著增长；（2）控制一般认知能力、语音意识、快速命名后，口语词汇知识在儿童早期的语素意识与后期的阅读能力之间起跨时间点的中介作用。结果表明，儿童早期的语素意识水平能够提高词汇知识获得的效率，进而促进阅读能力的发展。     

Infants’ sense of approximate numerosity: Heritability and link to other concurrent traits

The ability to perceive approximate numerosity is present in many animal species, and emerges early in human infants. Later in life, it is moderately heritable and associated with mathematical abilities, but the etiology of the Approximate Number System (ANS) and its degree of independence from other cognitive abilities in infancy is unknown. Here, we assessed the phenotypic specificity as well as the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the ANS in a sample of 5-month-old twins (N = 514). We found a small-to-moderate but statistically significant effect of genetic factors on ANS acuity (heritability = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.33), but only when differences in numerosity were relatively large (1:4 ratio). Non-verbal ability assessed with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) was found to be heritable (0.47; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.57) and the phenotypic association between ANS acuity and non-verbal ability performance was close to zero. Similarly, we found no association between ANS acuity and general attention during the task. An unexpected weak but statistically significant negative association between ANS acuity and scores on the receptive language scale of the MSEL was found. These results suggest that early ANS function may be largely independent from other aspects of non-verbal development. Further, variability in ANS in infancy seems to, to some extent, reflect genotypic differences in the population.

Highlights

• Assessing 514 infant twins with eye tracking, we found that infants' sense of approximate numerosity is heritable and not positively associated with concurrent attentional, cognitive or motor abilities.
• These results have implications for our understanding of development of mathematical ability and the link between cognitive abilities early in postnatal life.

     

Untangling Intelligence,Psychopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder,and Conduct Problems: A Meta‐analytic Review

Substantial research has investigated the association between intelligence and psychopathic traits. The findings to date have been inconsistent and have not always considered the multidimensional nature of psychopathic traits. Moreover, there has been a tendency to confuse psychopathy with other closely related, clinically significant disorders. The current study represents a meta‐analysis conducted to evaluate the direction and magnitude of the association of intelligence with global psychopathy, as well as its factors and facets, and related disorders (i.e. antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder). Our analyses revealed a small, significant, negative relationship between intelligence and total psychopathy (r = ?.07, p = .001). Analysis of factors and facets found differential associations, including both significant positive (e.g. interpersonal facet) and negative (e.g. affective facet) associations, further affirming that psychopathy is a multidimensional construct. Additionally, intelligence was negatively associated with antisocial personality disorder (r = ?.13, p = .001) and conduct disorder (r = ?.13, p = .001) but positively with oppositional defiant disorder (r = .06, p = .001). There was significant heterogeneity across studies for most effects, but the results of moderator analyses were inconsistent. Finally, bias analyses did not find significant evidence for publication bias or outsized effects of outliers. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology