Facilitation and disruption of lateralized syllable processing by unattended stimuli in the opposite visual field

The influence of lateralized unattended stimuli on the processing of attended stimuli in the opposite visual field can shed light on the nature of information that is transferred between hemispheres. On a cued bilateral task, participants tried to identify a syllable in the attended visual field, which elicits a left hemisphere (LH) advantage and different processing strategies by the two hemispheres. The same or a different syllable or a neutral stimulus appeared in the unattended field. Transmission of unattended syllable codes between hemispheres is symmetric, as revealed by equal interference for the two visual fields. The LH is more accurate than the RH in encoding unattended syllables, as indicated by facilitation in the left but not right visual field and a greater frequency of identifiable intrusions into the left than right field. However, asymmetric encoding strategies are different for attended and unattended syllables.     

Psychoanalysis and Diplomacy: Part I. Individual and Large Group Identity

Starting with Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysts have written on a variety of topics relating to the diplomatic and political realms; but thus far their contributions primarily have been theoretical in nature, and have offered little of practical use to most diplomats and politicians. Various psychoanalytic theories have been applied, resulting in diverse conceptualizations: Wars are inevitable because of our inherent aggressive drives; a nation-state serves a maternal function for its members; certain large groups exhibit behaviors similar to those of adolescents. Yet these ideas do not significantly help us understand day-to-day events around the world, practical political issues, or international relations and diplomatic decisions.     

Parental Divorce,Parental Religious Characteristics,and Religious Outcomes in Adulthood

Parental divorce has been linked to religious outcomes in adulthood. Previous research, however, has not adequately accounted for parental religious characteristics, which may render the association spurious and/or moderate the relationship. Many studies also do not consider subsequent family context, namely, whether one's custodial parent remarries. Using pooled data from three waves of the General Social Survey, we examine the nature of the relationships among parental divorce, subsequent family structure, and religiosity in adulthood. Growing up in a single‐parent family—but not a stepparent family—is positively associated with religious disaffiliation and religious switching and negatively associated with regular religious service attendance. Accounting for parental religious characteristics, however, explains sizable proportions of these relationships. In fact, after accounting for parental religious affiliation and service attendance, growing up with a single parent does not have a significant effect on religious service attendance. Parental religiosity also moderates the relationship between growing up with a single parent and religious service attendance: being raised in a single‐parent home does have a negative effect on religious service attendance among adults who had two religiously involved parents. There is modest evidence of this moderating relationship for other religious outcomes. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Bearing the unbearable: ancestral transmission through dreams and moving metaphors in the analtyic field

Abstract: This paper explores how untold and unresolved intergenerational trauma may be transmitted through unconscious channels of communication, manifesting in the dreams of descendants. Unwitting carriers for that which was too horrific for their ancestors to bear, descendants may enter analysis through an unconscious need to uncover past secrets, piece together ancestral histories before the keys to comprehending their terrible inheritance die with their forebears. They seek the relational containment of the analytic relationship to provide psychological conditions to bear the unbearable, know the unknowable, speak the unspeakable and redeem the unredeemable. In the case of ‘Rachael’, initial dreams gave rise to what Hobson (1984) called ‘moving metaphors of self’ in the analytic field. Dream imagery, projective and introjective processes in the transference‐countertransference dynamics gradually revealed an unknown ancestral history. I clarify the back and forth process from dream to waking dream thoughts to moving metaphors and differentiate the moving metaphor from a living symbol. I argue that the containment of the analytic relationship nested within the security of the analytic space is a necessary precondition for such healing processes to occur.     

Changes in colour and location as cues of generative transmission in perception of causality

Observers viewed modified launching effect displays containing a spatial gap between the final location of the launcher (a black square) and the initial location of the target (a black outline square with a white interior). In some conditions, a set of stationary objects (black outline squares with white interiors) filled the spatial gap, and these objects began changing colour upon contact from the launcher. The colour changes could involve all gap objects turning black, the first gap object turning dark grey and subsequent gap objects turning successively lighter grey, or first gap object turning light grey and subsequent gap objects turning successively darker grey. The colour changes could move from the launcher to the target or from the target to the launcher. The gap objects could also remain unchanged. Participants rated whether the launcher caused subsequent motion of the target and how much force the launcher imparted to the target. The sequence of colour changes, and the sequence of locations in which colour changes occurred, influenced ratings; sequences of colour changes consistent with the idea that influence of the launcher was transmitted across gap objects to the target resulted in higher ratings. Implications for visual perception of causality are discussed.     

Women’s breast-feeding meanings in the context of mother-to-child transmission of HIV

This study explored infant feeding practice meanings of HIV-positive mothers. Informants were eight black South African mothers (age range 18–29 years) enrolled in a mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) prevention programme. In-depth interviews on factors that influence exclusive breast-feeding were conducted with the mothers. Thematic analysis of the data yielded meanings around practices of knowledge contestation with health care providers and family, work demands, and personal preferences. Moreover, successful breast-feeding by mothers with HIV status may depend on addressing contradictory messages by health workers on infant feeding and community and family pressure to mix-feed the infant children.     

谣言传播的情境、内容、传播者与受众特征及相关认知神经科学研究

什么样的谣言更容易获取信任、得到传播？面对谣言,为何有人理性批判,有人则毫不犹豫地点“赞”、转发？这是大众和研究者们共同关注的问题。本文主要从情境、内容特征、传播者与受众特征这三个维度论述了影响谣言传播的因素。从情境特征来看,谣言在模糊且具有潜在威胁的情境中更易传播,封闭的舆论场也助长了谣言传播;从内容特征来看,包含适当情绪内容、针对特定对象的谣言更易得到传播;从传播者与受众特征来看,一方面,可靠消息源会增强人们的传播意愿;另一方面,受众的认知局限、人格特质、动机、价值观等,均可能造成认知偏差或歪曲,助长谣言传播。以往研究多采用问卷调查法,今后需要更多严格控制变量的实验研究,从行为和神经层面深入探讨谣言传播的机制。最后,社交媒体数据采集与分析技术的发展,尤其是计算传播学等交叉学科的发展,为谣言传播研究提供了新的思路和方法。     

留守妇女与儿童焦虑的代际传递:有调节的中介效应

基于发展系统论和社会提供论构建的有调节的中介模型,对322名留守、323名非留守母子进行为期半年共两次的追踪测查,考察家庭（母亲心理控制）、学校（教师支持）和同伴（朋友支持）系统对焦虑代际传递的影响机制。结果发现：（1）心理控制对留守、非留守母子焦虑的代际传递均起部分中介作用;（2）留守母子焦虑代际传递的中介效应受教师支持的调节,随教师支持水平的提高,中介效应变得不再显著;（3）留守、非留守母子焦虑代际传递的直接效应受朋友支持的调节,随朋友支持水平的提高,直接效应变得不再显著。未来研究可聚焦于母亲、教师、同伴的视角打破留守母子焦虑的代际传递。     

THE TEXTURE OF TRAUMATIC ATTACHMENT: PRESENCE AND GHOSTLY ABSENCE IN TRANSGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION

Work on the transgenerational transmission of trauma refers to unspoken stories across generations, but the actual mode of transmission has remained somewhat mysterious. Utilizing examples from her own life, the author illustrates how attachment patterns are a primary mode of transmission of trauma. When trauma revisits a person transgenerationally through dysregulated and disrupted attachment patterns, it is within the child's empathic attunement and search for a parental bond that the mode of transmission can be found. This will become the texture of traumatic attachment: how it feels to this child to feel connected to the parent.     

Word Meanings Evolve to Selectively Preserve Distinctions on Salient Dimensions

Words refer to objects in the world, but this correspondence is not one‐to‐one: Each word has a range of referents that share features on some dimensions but differ on others. This property of language is called underspecification. Parts of the lexicon have characteristic patterns of underspecification; for example, artifact nouns tend to specify shape, but not color, whereas substance nouns specify material but not shape. These regularities in the lexicon enable learners to generalize new words appropriately. How does the lexicon come to have these helpful regularities? We test the hypothesis that systematic backgrounding of some dimensions during learning and use causes language to gradually change, over repeated episodes of transmission, to produce a lexicon with strong patterns of underspecification across these less salient dimensions. This offers a cultural evolutionary mechanism linking individual word learning and generalization to the origin of regularities in the lexicon that help learners generalize words appropriately.