Bilingual language processing after a lesion in the left thalamic and temporal regions. A case report with early childhood onset.

This case study concerns an 18-year-old bilingual girl who suffered a radiation lesion in the left (dominant) thalamic and temporal region when she was 4 years old. Language and memory assessment revealed deficits in auditory short-term memory, auditory word comprehension, nonword repetition, syntactic processing, word fluency, and confrontation naming tasks. Both languages (English and Dutch) were found to be affected in a similar manner, despite the fact that one language (English) was acquired before and the other (Dutch) after the period of lesion onset. Most of the deficits appear to be related to verbal (short-term) memory dysfunction. Several hypotheses of subcortical involvement in memory processes are discussed with reference to existing theories in this area.     

Rearing practices and impulsivity/hyperactivity symptoms in relation to inflated responsibility and obsessive‐compulsive symptoms

Smári, J., Rúrik Martinsson, D., & Einarsson, H. (2010). Rearing practices and impulsivity/hyperactivity symptoms in relation to inflated responsibility and obsessive‐compulsive symptoms. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 392–397. The aim of the study was to investigate potential precursors of inflated responsibility (responsibility attitudes) and obsessive‐compulsive (OCD) symptoms. It was argued that both parental overprotection and impulsivity, separately and in interaction with each other, contribute to inflated responsibility and OCD symptoms. In a large sample of young adults (N = 570), self‐report measures of OCD symptoms (OCI‐R), responsibility attitudes (RAS), anxiety/depression (HADS), rearing practices (EMBU), present and past impulsivity/hyperactivity symptoms (IMP/HY) were administered. Overprotection as well as IMP/HY were found to predict OCD symptoms as well as inflated responsibility. Finally, a significant interaction was found between IMP/HY and overprotection with regard to both OCD symptoms and inflated responsibility. This effect reflected that IMP/HY was more strongly related to OCD symptoms and responsibility in people who had not been overprotected than in people who had been. Conversely overprotection was related to OCD symptoms and responsibility in people low but not in people high in IMP/HY. The results seem to indicate that the inadequacy between offer and need for parental control may play a role in the development of OCD symptoms.     

Paragrammatic speech without a comprehension deficit? A case report

In this article we present a case report of a patient, who had a peculiar pattern of language use following a stroke. The two most prominent features were language switches during spontaneous speech in the first months postonset, when the patient mixed English, German, and French words and utterances into his mother tongue (Dutch); clearly disturbed speech output, showing signs of word-finding problems and paragrammatism but hardly any paraphasias, while at the same time no evidence of a language disturbance could be obtained with standard clinical aphasia tests.     

Well-being and Need for Support of Adolescents with a Chronically Ill Family Member

This study investigates whether there are differences in the well-being, need for help and use of support services between adolescents with and without a chronically ill or disabled family member. It also examines the role played by the type of illness, the relationship to the family member and the nature and intensity of the help provided by the adolescent. A Dutch sample of 1581 adolescents (average age 14.6?years) completed a questionnaire in 2010 about mental health problems, pro-social behavior, need for and use of support and the illness of family members and any care tasks performed by the respondent. Young people with a sick family member had more mental health problems than their counterparts without a chronically ill family member. They also reported a greater need for and use of help and support. Performing domestic tasks was found to be a predictor for overall mental health problems. The intensity of the help given was related to the need for help by the adolescent. It is concluded that growing up with a chronically ill family member and spending a lot time performing (domestic) tasks are risk factors for adolescent mental health problems and adolescents’ need for help. Special attention is warranted for those who need support but who do not translate that need into reality by seeking help.     

Sociometric Status and Social Drinking: Observations of Modelling and Persuasion in Young Adult Peer Groups

Because young adult drinking occurs primarily in peer groups, this should be taken into account when studying influences on drinking behaviour. This paper aimed to assess influences on drinking by observing existing peer groups in a naturalistic setting. We first analysed the basic levels at which two types of influence take place. The first, modelling (imitating others' drinking), was found to significantly influence individual drinking, whereas for the second one, persuasion (drinking resulting from others offering drinks), no predictions were found. Subsequently, we examined whether peer group members' sociometric status in the group affected the amount of influence and persuasion exerted and received. No indications were found that sociometric status had an impact on influence in alcohol consumption within a drinking situation. Features and weaknesses of the study are discussed.     

Pink Noise in Language Production: A Nonlinear Approach to the Multilingual Lexicon

Most theories of (second) language processing are based on component-dominant models that assume linear relationships between linguistic factors affecting language production and language comprehension. In this contribution we argue that in the wake of current nonlinear approaches to cognition, language processing must be seen in terms of interaction-dominant dynamics manifested in 1/f scaling relations. Our study showed that increased experience in second language use leads to scaling relations that more and more tend toward pink noise. Moreover, our data tentatively show that intensive immersion in a second-language context leads to steeper spectral slopes in response time series of that same language. These findings demonstrate the significant contribution of nonlinear analyses to the study of real-time language processing in multilinguals.     

The bilingual lexicon: Modality effects in processing

In this article the effects of modality on the processing in the bilingual lexicon will be explored. Therefore, two parallel repetition priming experiments were conducted, an auditory and a visual one. The subjects were Dutch-English bilinguals. They had to perform a lexical decision task. There were two types of stimuli: cognates and noncognates. The results indicated that there are no processing differences between the auditory and the visual modalities. Furthermore, in both experiments interlingual repetition priming was found for both cognates and noncognates. The implications of these results for the influence of the factor proficiency level are discussed.