Is Structure Dependence an Innate Constraint? New Experimental Evidence From Children's Complex‐Question Production

According to Crain and Nakayama (1987) , when forming complex yes/no questions, children do not make errors such as Is the boy who smoking is crazy? because they have innate knowledge of structure dependence and so will not move the auxiliary from the relative clause. However, simple recurrent networks are also able to avoid such errors, on the basis of surface distributional properties of the input ( Lewis & Elman, 2001 ; Reali & Christiansen, 2005 ). Two new elicited production studies revealed that (a) children occasionally produce structure‐dependence errors and (b) the pattern of children's auxiliary‐doubling errors (Is the boy who is smoking is crazy?) suggests a sensitivity to surface co‐occurrence patterns in the input. This article concludes that current data do not provide any support for the claim that structure dependence is an innate constraint, and that it is possible that children form a structure‐dependent grammar on the basis of exposure to input that exhibits this property.     

Decision framing in judgment aggregation

Judgment aggregation problems are language dependent in that they may be framed in different yet equivalent ways. We formalize this dependence via the notion of translation invariance, adopted from the philosophy of science, and we argue for the normative desirability of translation invariance. We characterize the class of translation invariant aggregation functions in the canonical judgment aggregation model, which requires collective judgments to be complete. Since there are reasonable translation invariant aggregation functions, our result can be viewed as a possibility theorem. At the same time, we show that translation invariance does have certain normatively undesirable consequences (e.g. failure of anonymity). We present a way of circumventing them by moving to a more general model of judgment aggregation, one that allows for incomplete collective judgments.     

青少年的气质与烟酒使用:交互效应检验

考察气质(意志控制、愤怒挫折、感觉寻求)对青少年烟酒使用的主效应,气质与教养方式(权威、专制、纵容)对烟酒使用的交互效应以及气质间的交互效应.采用随机整群抽样的方法,选取660名青少年为被试,匿名完成气质问卷、教养方式问卷和烟酒使用问卷.结果显示:(1)在控制了性别、年龄、社会经济地位后,气质对青少年烟酒使用具有预测作用,低意志控制、高愤怒挫折、高感觉寻求正向预测烟酒使用;(2)教养方式调节部分气质因素与烟酒使用的关系,具体为:权威和专制教养缓冲感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险缓冲模型;纵容教养增强感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险增强模型;(3)气质内部在影响青少年烟酒使用时也存在交互作用,愤怒挫折增强感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险增强模型.因此,烟酒使用是气质与教养方式及气质间交互作用的产物.     

Exposure to Parental Cigarette Smoking and Child Problem Behaviors: A Longitudinal Study

This study examined exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), a major public health problem. ETS has been found to be associated with an increased risk of adverse health effects in children. This study utilizes data from a community-based, longitudinal investigation examining the relation between children’s exposure to ETS and later internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors. Interviews were administered to a representative community sample of participants from two New York State counties in 1983, with subsequent interviews in 1985–1986, 1992, 1997, and 2002–2003 (when the participants’ mean age was 32). Data was collected on various personality and behavioral characteristics of the participants, and on internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors demonstrated by their children. Results indicated that children’s exposure to ETS was associated with an increased risk for both internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors. This relationship was maintained despite control on a number of parental psychosocial risk factors (e.g., demographic variables, personality and behavioral attributes) that have been found to be associated with both parental cigarette smoking and behavior problems among children. These data, which indicate an association between exposure to ETS and internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors among children, support public health policies to further restrict children’s exposure to ETS.     

Testing for selectivity in the dependence of random variables on external factors

Random variables A and B, whose joint distribution depends on factors (x,y), are selectively influenced by x and y, respectively, if A and B can be represented as functions of, respectively, (x,S_A,C) and (y,S_B,C), where S_A,S_B,C are stochastically independent and do not depend on (x,y). Selective influence implies selective dependence of marginal distributions on the respective factors: thus no parameter of A may depend on y. But parameters characterizing stochastic interdependence of A and B, such as their mixed moments, are generally functions of both x and y. We derive two simple necessary conditions for selective dependence of (A,B) on (x,y), which can be used to conduct a potential infinity of selectiveness tests. One condition is that, for any factor values x,x^′ and y,y^′,

s_xy≤s_xy^′+s_x^′y^′+s_x^′y,     

A Speeded Item Response Model with Gradual Process Change

An item response theory model for dealing with test speededness is proposed. The model consists of two random processes, a problem solving process and a random guessing process, with the random guessing gradually taking over from the problem solving process. The involved change point and change rate are considered random parameters in order to model examinee differences in both respects. The proposed model is evaluated on simulated data and in a case study. The research reported in this paper was supported by IAP P5/24 and GOA/2005/04, both awarded to Paul De Boeck and Iven Van Mechelen, and by IAP P6/03, awarded to Iven Van Mechelen. Yuri Goegebeur’s research was supported by a grant of the Danish Natural Science Research Council.     

Treatment of urethral catheter dependence: A case study of intervention in the interdisciplinary geriatric setting

This case report describes the assessment and treatment of a 69-year-old male medical patient with urethral catheter dependence. Assessment revealed an anxiety/phobic component to the dependence and hypothesized detrusor muscle deconditioning. Retraining of the bladder and desensitization to the anxiety-provoking situation were achieved by exposure to decatheterization in the context of a supportive adult day health care setting. Interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and psychology were associated with successful functional, social, and psychological outcomes.A psychology intern at the Portland VA Medical Center at the time the study was conducted.     

The Psychology of Dependence Between Landlord and Sharecropper in Northeastern Brazil

Contrasting beliefs and attitudes held by sharecroppers and their landlord on a fazenda in Northeastern Brazil reveal a tendency to split one another into positively and negatively idealized images. Sharecroppers who ambivalently seek patronage construct good vs. bad landlords/patrons. The landlord, defensive about envy and hostility among sharecroppers, constructs good vs. bad tenants/workers. Theory from the Kleinian school of psychoanalysis concerning envy, splitting, and idealization provides a framework for interpreting ethnographic case materials.     

Experimental evaluation of a modular approach to mobilizing antitobacco influences of peers and parents

The experimental evaluation of two components of a community intervention to prevent adolescent tobacco use are described. Youth antitobacco activities (e.g., peer quizzes, sidewalk art, poster and T-shirt giveaways, etc.) and family communications activities (pamphlets to parents and student quizzes of parents) were evaluated in two time-series experiments, each of which was conducted in two experimental and one control community. Students in Grades 6 and 8 and their parents were assessed in a series of four phone surveys in the first experiment and six phone surveys in the second. Implementation of the youth antitobacco and family communications activities led to significantly greater exposure of young people to antitobacco information. They led to increases in parent and youth knowledge about tobacco use and more negative attitudes toward tobacco. In Experiment 2, youths in intervention communities had significantly lower rated intentions to smoke. The findings suggest the value of a modular approach to community interventions for influencing the social context relevant to the onset of adolescent tobacco use.     

成瘾药物心理依赖及复发的脑机制研究

围绕学习、记忆、情绪及应激等心理因素与复发的关系,应用阿片类物质心理依赖研究条件性位置偏爱,条件性位置厌恶,Morris水迷宫量化觅药动机模型,行为及条件性行为敏感化等多种动物行为模型,从情绪相关学习、记忆在成瘾行为中的作用,不同神经核团与神经递质系统活动性的改变,应激相关因素易化的成瘾易感性,自然奖赏与成瘾药物奖赏相关记忆的比较研究等方面,对应激与记忆相关的吗啡心理依赖及复发的脑机制进行了系列研究