Teacher–child interactions: relations with children's self‐concept in second grade

This study examined whether teacher–child interactions characterized by teacher involvement, structure, and autonomy support at the beginning of second grade predicted children's global, academic, social, and behavioural self‐concept at the end of second grade. The study was conducted in 30 second grade classrooms with 570 children and their teachers. Data included teacher reports of teacher–child interactions and child reports of self‐concept. Results showed that, when controlling for the initial level of self‐concept, children's social self‐concept was predicted by teacher involvement, structure, and autonomy support. In addition, teacher autonomy support predicted high academic self‐concept. Finally, these teacher–child interaction characteristics did not contribute to the behavioural and global self‐concept. The results were similar for boys and girls. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

p63在涎腺肿瘤组织研究的思考

通过对p53家族成员p63的结构、机能和在组织发育和肿瘤发生中的作用及其在涎腺肿瘤组织表达的研究的回顾,我们体会到p63分子复杂性所蕴涵的深刻哲学内涵,如其在细胞周期调控和凋亡的作用。这种研究使我们认识到应该用辨证的思维方法去认识分析客观事物。     

Is it typical? The ecological validity of the observation of mother-father-infant interactions in the Lausanne Trilogue Play

The Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) is a widely used laboratory situation designed for the systematic observation of mother-father-infant interactions for clinical and research purposes. Nevertheless, its ecological validity has never been tested. In this exploratory study, 49 primiparous parents with their 3-month-old infants were assessed by questionnaires to determine the extent to which their behaviour in the LTP was typical, that is, representative of everyday interactions. Results show that (a) most of the parents assessed their behaviour as typical and (b) the quality of triadic interactions was linked with parents’ assessment of the typicality of the infant’s behaviour.     

Infant-adult vocal interaction dynamics depend on infant vocal type,child-directedness of adult speech,and timeframe

This study explored the temporal contingencies between infant and adult vocalizations as a function of the type of infant vocalization, whether adult caregivers’ vocalizations were infant-directed or other-directed, and the timescale of analysis. We analyzed excerpts taken from day-long home audio recordings that were collected from nineteen 12- to 13-month-old American infants and their caregivers using the LENA system. Three 5-minute sections having high child vocalization rates were identified within each recording and coded by trained researchers. Infant and adult vocalizations were sequenced and defined as contingent if they occurred within 1 s, 2 s, or 5 s of each other. When using 1 s or 2 s definitions of temporal adjacency, infant vocalizations generally predicted subsequent infant-directed adult vocalizations. A reflexive vocalization (i.e. a cry or a laugh) was the strongest predictor. Likewise, within 1–2 s timeframes, infant-directed adult speech generally predicted infant vocalizations with reflexive vocalizations being particularly predictive. Infant vocalizations predicted fewer subsequent other-directed adult vocalizations and were less likely following other-directed adult vocalizations when considering up to 5 s lags. This suggests an understudied communicative role for infants of non-infant-directed adult speech. These results demonstrate the importance of timescale in studying infant-adult interactions, support the communicative significance of reflexive infant vocalizations and other-directed adult speech in addition to more commonly studied vocalization types, and highlight the challenges of determining direction(s) of influence when using only two-event sequences.     

Relations between dynamics of parent-infant interactions and baseline EEG functional connectivity

Parent-infant interactions are one of the most critical and enduring aspects of infants’ experience. Qualities of parent-infant interactions are related to social-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes, yet how parent-infant interactions shape the functional organization of the brain is only beginning to be understood. Functional connectivity provides information about how brain regions communicate. Patterns of functional connectivity, thus far understudied in infants, have emerged as markers of abnormalities in the organization of the brain in at-risk infants as well as individuals with neurodevelopmetnal and neurodegenerative disorders. The current study sought to inform our understanding of relations between qualities of parent-infant interactions and functional connectivity. We report relations between responsiveness, reciprocity, and emotional tone and functional connectivity in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma in infants ranging from 6 to 11 month of age (N = 51). Results showed frontal-posterior connectivity in theta was inversely related to all three dimensions of parent-infant interactions. Gamma and alpha connectivity were positively associated with responsiveness and emotional tone, respectively. Results are discussed in the context of the experience-dependent nature of brain development, emphasizing how parent-infant interactions might be leveraged to structure early organization of the brain to foster healthy social-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes.     

Thought about actions in social domains: Morality,social conventions,and social interactions

Judgments about actual and hypothetical events were examined. The study, conducted in elementary (first, third, and fifth grades) and junior high (seventh grades) schools, included behavioral observations and assessments of judgments. Observations were conducted of 108 events classified as moral, as conventional, and as mixed type. Participants’ reactions and communications differed by domain of the event. Judgments and justifications of 312 participants in the events showed that they discriminated between the domains on several dimensions. Judgments and justifications corresponded with ones made about comparable hypothetical situations. The study supported the proposition that judgments in the domains of morality and social convention about actual events correspond with judgments about hypothetical situations. It was also found that the domains are associated with the ways children interact socially.     

Do chimpanzees learn reputation by observation? Evidence from direct and indirect experience with generous and selfish strangers

Can chimpanzees learn the reputation of strangers indirectly by observation? Or are such stable behavioral attributions made exclusively by first-person interactions? To address this question, we let seven chimpanzees observe unfamiliar humans either consistently give (generous donor) or refuse to give (selfish donor) food to a familiar human recipient (Experiments 1 and 2) and a conspecific (Experiment 3). While chimpanzees did not initially prefer to beg for food from the generous donor (Experiment 1), after continued opportunities to observe the same behavioral exchanges, four chimpanzees developed a preference for gesturing to the generous donor (Experiment 2), and transferred this preference to novel unfamiliar donor pairs, significantly preferring to beg from the novel generous donors on the first opportunity to do so. In Experiment 3, four chimpanzees observed novel selfish and generous acts directed toward other chimpanzees by human experimenters. During the first half of testing, three chimpanzees exhibited a preference for the novel generous donor on the first trial. These results demonstrate that chimpanzees can infer the reputation of strangers by eavesdropping on third-party interactions.