Cognitive abnormalities and cerebral perfusion defects in a community-dwelling cohort of elderly men with MMSE within the normal range

Objectives: Mini Mental State Examination’s (MMSE’s) sensitivity in its upper level is questioned, hence we investigated cognitive abnormalities and defects in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in elderly with MMSE scores ≥24.

Methods: One hundred and four men at age 81 with MMSE scores ≥24 (mean 28.4 ± 1.7), no dementia or stroke, were examined with neuropsychological test battery, and their rCBF was estimated using ^99mTc-HMPAO SPECT.

Results: MMSE was very sparsely correlated with rCBF. Instead, visuo-spatial tests were correlated with rCBF in parietal and occipital lobe, verbal tests with rCBF in frontal and temporal-parietal lobes, and most of all between Digit Symbol and all rCBF regions, especially in subcortical gray and white matter. In a cluster of low achievers, test of Synonyms, followed by Digit Symbol and Benton test, had highest discriminatory importance. Low achievers had generalized rCBF changes especially in subcortical areas. Only lower scores on two MMSE items, figure drawing and calculation, could discriminate the clusters.

Conclusion: A substantial number of octogenarian men with MMSE ≥ 24p have widespread rCBF changes corresponding to a decreased speeded performance and verbal capacity.     

Parent–child relationships and offspring’s positive mental wellbeing from adolescence to early older age

We examined parent-child relationship quality and positive mental well-being using Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development data. Well-being was measured at ages 13–15 (teacher-rated happiness), 36 (life satisfaction), 43 (satisfaction with home and family life) and 60–64 years (Diener Satisfaction With Life scale and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale). The Parental Bonding Instrument captured perceived care and control from the father and mother to age 16, recalled by study members at age 43. Greater well-being was seen for offspring with higher combined parental care and lower combined parental psychological control (p < 0.05 at all ages). Controlling for maternal care and paternal and maternal behavioural and psychological control, childhood social class, parental separation, mother’s neuroticism and study member’s personality, higher well-being was consistently related to paternal care. This suggests that both mother–child and father–child relationships may have short and long-term consequences for positive mental well-being.     

The influence of second language proficiency on bilingual parallel language activation in Hindi–English bilinguals

We investigated the spontaneous activation of phonologically related words in high and low proficient Hindi–English bilinguals during spoken word processing in an eye-tracking study. Participants listened to spoken words in L1/L2 and looked at a display (consisting of line drawings of phonological cohort of the translation equivalent of the spoken word and unrelated distractors). Both the groups were quick in orienting their attention towards the competitor with the onset of the spoken word. Furthermore, high proficient bilinguals showed higher and earlier activation of the competitor compared to low proficient bilinguals. Cross-language activations were higher in the L2–L1 direction for both the groups. The results strongly suggest language non-selective access of translation in Hindi–English bilinguals in both language directions. We discuss the results with regard to the predictions of the bilingual language processing models and the effect of language proficiency on conceptual access during listening in bilinguals.     

Learning phonetic categories by tracking movements

We explore in this study how infants may derive phonetic categories from adult input that are highly variable. Neural networks in the form of self-organizing maps (SOMs; ) were used to simulate unsupervised learning of Mandarin tones. In Simulation 1, we trained the SOMs with syllable-sized continuous F(0) contours, produced by multiple speakers in connected speech, and with the corresponding velocity profiles (D1). No attempt was made to reduce the large amount of variability in the input or to add to the input any abstract features such as height and slope of the F(0) contours. In the testing phase, reasonably high categorization rate was achieved with F(0) profiles, but D1 profiles yielded almost perfect categorization of the four tones. Close inspection of the learned prototypical D1 profile clusters revealed that they had effectively eliminated surface variability and directly reflected articulatory movements toward the underlying targets of the four tones as proposed by . Additional simulations indicated that a further learning step was possible through which D1 prototypes with one-to-one correspondence to the tones were derived from the prototype clusters learned in Simulation 1. Implications of these findings for theories of language acquisition, speech perception and speech production are discussed.     

Regrets in the East and West: Role of intrapersonal versus interpersonal norms

Regrets are stronger following atypical than following normal behaviour. No studies have tested this effect for both intrapersonal normality (consistency within a person) and interpersonal normality (consistency between people) simultaneously. The present research examined whether the impact of violating the two kinds of normality on regret varies across cultures, using a manipulation of mutability crossed with that of norm violation. Among Korean participants (but not Americans) the impacts of mutability on regret were stronger when the intrapersonal rather than the interpersonal norm was violated, which was interpreted in terms of the greater collectivist emphasis in Korea than in the USA.     

心理差异量对儿童青少年分类活动影响的研究

本研究选择自制的、被试从前未看过的墨渍图为实验材料,探讨心理差异量对分类活动的影响。以４０名１１－２０岁儿童青少年为被试,一方面使用速示仪测量墨渍图之间的心理差异量,一方面要求被试对墨渍图进行自由分类,并说明理由。结果发现：①心理差异量直接影响分类结果。②心理差异量在１１岁、１４岁与１７岁、２０岁之间存在着非常显著的差异（Ｐ〈０．０１）。③分类标准的选择的年龄差异主要表现在分类标准的复杂性方面。     

因果变化模式与因果联结强度在幼儿因果推理中的作用

对93名幼儿进行了五种因果变化模式的因果推理题目的测试。结果表明:(1)在不同的因果变化模式下,被试进行因果推理的成绩存在差异,且在对于这五类题目的掌握上具有一定的顺序。(2)被试在同样因果变化模式题目的表现之间具有较高的相似性,而在因果联结强度相同的题目之间则具有显著的差异。(3)被试对于各题目回答的正确率并不随原因与结果联结次数的增多而提高。(4)即使是在观察到的刺激完全一致的情况下,被试的回答仍会因因果变化模式的差异及主试对于题目解释的不同而存在差别。     

Resistance to change and preference for variable versus fixed response sequences

In Experiment 1, 4 pigeons were trained on a multiple chain schedule in which the initial link was a variable-interval (VI) 20-s schedule signalled by a red or green center key, and terminal links required four responses made to the left (L) and/or right (R) keys. In the REPEAT component, signalled by red keylights, only LRLR terminal-link response sequences were reinforced, while in the VARY component, signalled by green keylights, terminal-link response sequences were reinforced if they satisfied a variability criterion. The reinforcer rate for both components was equated by adjusting the reinforcer probability for correct REPEAT sequences across sessions. Results showed that initial- and terminal-link responding in the VARY component was generally more resistant to prefeeding, extinction, and response-independent food than responding in the REPEAT component. In Experiment 2, the REPEAT and VARY contingencies were arranged as terminal links of a concurrent chain and the relative reinforcer rate was manipulated across conditions. For all pigeons, initial-link response allocation was biased toward the alternative associated with the VARY terminal link. These results replicate previous reports that operant variation is more resistant to change than operant repetition (Doughty & Lattal, 2001), and show that variation is preferred to repetition with reinforcer-related variables controlled. Behavioral momentum theory (Nevin & Grace, 2000) predicts the covariation of preference and resistance to change in Experiments 1 and 2, but does not explain why these aspects of behavior should depend on contingencies that require repetition or variation.     

Age differences in cognitive performance: A study of cultural differences in Historical Context

Ethnicity and cultural experience can affect neuropsychological performance, but they are rarely assessed in historical context. Attention measures are considered strongly biologically determined and therefore potentially culture‐fair. In this study, we assessed the cross‐cultural equivalence of Spanish and English versions of the Trail Making Test (TMT; Reitan, 1958, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 8, 271–276) and the Brief Test of Attention (BTA; Schretlen et al., 1996, The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 10, 80–89) in two large samples of Americans (N = 203) and Spaniards (N = 213), divided into younger and older subgroups. The older Spaniards lived under Franco's political regime (1936–1975), whereas the Americans never experienced such repression. Overall, TMT performance was culture‐sensitive, whereas BTA performance was not. However, when both groups were stratified by age, cultural differences in TMT performance were restricted to older participants, suggesting that historical experience across generations might have contributed to the observed differences in cognitive performance. Even such basic cognitive processes as attention, working memory, and resource sharing might be shaped to some degree by historical experiences that contribute to cultural differences.     

Intergenerational Religious Mobility in Contemporary China

This study illustrates intergenerational religious mobility with the case of Chinese society. Using the quasi‐symmetric log‐linear model to separate structure mobility from exchange mobility, we examine the variation in religious identities between the reform era generation and their parents. Structure mobility results suggest that the encompassing social reform over the past decades in China has encouraged the structural growth of Islam and Christianity across generations, but traditional Chinese religions bear remarkable intergenerational disadvantages. Moreover, religious nones are growing across generations, at least relative to traditional Chinese religions. Exchange mobility findings indicate that individuals whose parents follow traditional Chinese religions are very likely to “convert” to Christianity. However, children of religious nones do not necessarily remain irreligious, possibly undermining the structural advantages of religious nones in the future. Finally, a comparison between cohort and period effects drives us to conclude that the major social force underpinning the revival of Chinese religion in the reform era is generational replacement instead of an increasingly religious transition of “old” generations.