Social attitudes modulate automatic imitation

In naturalistic interpersonal settings, mimicry or “automatic imitation” generates liking, affiliation, cooperation and other positive social attitudes. The purpose of this study was to find out whether the relationship between social attitudes and mimicry is bidirectional: Do social attitudes have a direct and specific effect on mimicry? Participants were primed with pro-social, neutral or anti-social words in a scrambled sentence task. They were then tested for mimicry using a stimulus-response compatibility procedure. In this procedure, participants were required to perform a pre-specified movement (e.g. opening their hand) on presentation of a compatible (open) or incompatible (close) hand movement. Reaction time data were collected using electromyography (EMG) and the magnitude of the mimicry/automatic imitation effect was calculated by subtracting reaction times on compatible trials from those on incompatible trials. Pro-social priming produced a larger automatic imitation effect than anti-social priming, indicating that the relationship between mimicry and social attitudes is bidirectional, and that social attitudes have a direct and specific effect on the tendency to imitate behavior without intention or conscious awareness.     

How Working With a Helpful Versus Less Helpful Confederate Influences Joint-Action in a Pegboard Task

Actors change their movement strategies to complement a coactor's movements when performing cooperative tasks. To further investigate this topic, the authors designed a pegboard task whereby a participant-confederate pair worked together to move a peg from one side of the board to the other. The authors examined how the experience of working with a helpful confederate versus less helpful confederate influenced the participant's movement behavior. Results provide evidence that participants change their movement behaviors in response to the actions of the confederate. Here the human capacity to act in such a manner exemplifies an individual's ability to utilize his or her own action system to understand others and interact to complete joint action tasks. Individuals appear to adapt their behavior to their experiences, and thus may be helpful in some contexts and less helpful in others.     

The relationship between attention and deferred imitation in 12-month-old infants

Imitation is a frequent behavior in the first years of life, and serves both a social function (e.g., to interact with others) and a cognitive function (e.g., to learn a new skill). Infants differ in their temperament, and temperament might be related to the dominance of one function of imitation. In this study, we investigated whether temperament and deferred imitation are related in 12-month-old infants. Temperament was measured via the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised (IBQ-R) and parts of the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB). Deferred imitation was measured via the Frankfurt Imitation Test for 12-month-olds (FIT-12). Regression analyses revealed that the duration of orienting (IBQ-R) and the latency of the first look away in the Task Orientation task (Lab-TAB) predicted the infants’ imitation score. These results suggest that attention-related processes may play a major role when infants start to imitate.     

Memory by association: Integrating memories prolongs retention by two-year-olds

Recalling one memory often leads to the recollection of other memories that share overlapping features. This phenomenon, spreading activation, was originally documented in studies conducted with verbal adults, and more recently, it has been demonstrated with preverbal infants. Here, we examine the effect of spreading activation on long-term retention by 2-year-olds. Participants were tested in the Visual Recognition Memory (VRM) paradigm and the deferred imitation paradigm. Typically, infants of this age exhibit retention in the VRM paradigm for 24 h, while they exhibit retention in the deferred imitation paradigm for at least 8 weeks. In the present experiment, we paired these tasks together during original encoding and tested infants after an 8-week delay. Two-year-olds exhibited retention in both tasks. That is, when these two tasks initially occurred together – one task that is extremely memorable and one that is not – retrieving the memory of the more memorable task cued retrieval of the less memorable task, extending its longevity.     

唱音障碍的认知神经机制

唱音障碍是“五音不全”的一种表现形式。对唱音障碍的判定依赖于具体的评估方式、测试任务及测量指标。目前来看, 采用多任务、多指标以及相对标准是较为合理的办法。发生于歌唱过程(知觉、感觉运动转换、发声运动控制、记忆)中任一加工阶段的功能缺陷都可能导致唱音障碍, 但感觉运动转换缺陷被认为是唱音障碍的主要成因。最新的MMIA模型在内部模型的基础上描述了感觉运动转换缺陷的具体机制。未来研究一方面应进一步检验并完善当前的MMIA模型, 厘清唱音障碍的认知神经机制, 另一方面应利用现有成果为个体改善和提高自身的音准提供实质性的帮助。     

Dynamics of psychoanalytic supervision: a heuristic model

This paper presents a heuristic model for the dynamics of psychoanalytic supervision. It is not a manual for how to perform supervision, but a model for how to identify and think about the complex elements and forces influencing the supervisory process. The point of departure is that psychoanalysis is a composite craft in which seemingly contrary elements like strict rules and creative intuitions have their place and interact. Several aspects of supervision are discussed: aims, learning processes, teaching methods, relationship, emotional atmosphere and evaluation. Competence is given a pivotal place in the model. The main feature of the model is that these aspects of supervision are all seen as suspended in a field of dynamic tensions between phenomena in real or apparent opposition. One example of this is the tension in the supervisory relationship between supervisor as instructor acting as an authority for the candidate whilst being a mentor fostering autonomy in the candidate. It is argued that related kinds of dynamics characterize several aspects of psychoanalytic supervision and that these tensions are inherent in analytic work. In conclusion a key word picture of the model is presented.     

Sensory empathy and enactment1

The authors propose the concept of sensory empathy which emerges through contact between analyst and patient as they get in touch with an area concerning the primary bond. This area is not so much based on thoughts and fantasies as it is on physical sensations. Sensory empathy has to do with that instrument described by Freud as pertaining to the unconscious of any human, which enables one person to interpret unconscious communications of another person. The authors link this concept to that of enactment precisely because the latter concerns unconscious, early elements that fi nd in the act a fi rst meaningful expression. It involves both analyst and patient. In other words, the authors wish to emphasize the importance of the analytical process maintaining contact with that immense fi eld of human interaction that can be defi ned as primary sensory area and which becomes intertwined with the evolution of affects. Clinical examples are provided to clarify these hypotheses.     

颌面赝复学发展中的整合理念

口腔颌面赝复学是研究和利用人工材料对颌面部缺损进行修复的一门学科,而学科间的交叉和整合则是医学的发展方向。从颌面赝复学的固位方式的改变,材料学的进展和仿真效果的提高等方面论述了各学科新技术与口腔颌面赝复学的整合对口腔颌面赝复学科的促进和发展。     

Mechanisms of change: exploring not only when and what,but also how declarative memory develops

Age‐related changes in representational flexibility are a characteristic feature of declarative memory development. The authors suggest that a qualitative shift in the nature of infants' memory representations accounts for increasing memory flexibility with age. We will argue that a comprehensive theory of declarative memory development must (1) account for the effect of experience on flexibility, (2) be empirically separable from more parsimonious explanations, and (3) propose a mechanism by which the transition takes place. We will argue that a converging‐methods approach is necessary to understand not only when and what develops in declarative memory, but also how developmental change occurs. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.