“What matters to us”: The portrait values questionnaire to measure couple values

No previous studies have analyzed values as qualities of relational microsystems, such as the romantic couple. Based on Schwartz's Theory of Human Values, this study examines the psychometric properties of the Portrait Couple Values Questionnaire (PCVQ). It measures four couple value dimensions: conservation, openness to change, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence. Five hundred and forty-six Italian respondents (54.1% women), aged 41.52 years (SD = 7.19; range 23–63) and having a couple relationship, have filled in an anonymous online questionnaire. The results show the good psychometric properties of the PCVQ. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis Magnifying Glass Strategy shows good indexes of fit for each value dimension, except for the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) for openness to change, thus confirming that the PCVQ measures the four values with satisfactory internal consistency. The Multidimensional Scaling results, by showing a Stress-1 index of 0.07, confirm the circular structure of values because the four value dimensions are in the position predicted by Schwartz's model. Participants' personal and couple values are highly but not perfectly correlated, suggesting that couple values are a related but distinct construct compared to personal values. This study's contribution lies in introducing an innovative construct into the literature on values and couples, proposing a scale to assess it.     

On maximal intermediate predicate constructive logics

We extend to the predicate frame a previous characterization of the maximal intermediate propositional constructive logics. This provides a technique to get maximal intermediate predicate constructive logics starting from suitable sets of classically valid predicate formulae we call maximal nonstandard predicate constructive logics. As an example of this technique, we exhibit two maximal intermediate predicate constructive logics, yet leaving open the problem of stating whether the two logics are distinct. Further properties of these logics will be also investigated.Presented by H. Ono     

Post-stroke depression: Main phenomenological clusters and their relationships with clinical measures

Objectives: To investigate the principal psychopathological dimensions of post-stroke depression (PSD) through the assessment of the factorial structure of the Post-Stroke Depression Rating Scale (PSDRS). Methods: We enrolled ninety-eight subjects with PSD, who underwent the PSDRS, MMSE and Barthel Index. Information about demographic, clinical, and neuroanatomical factors was collected. Results: The factor analysis extracted three factors accounting for 63.4% of the total variance, and identified as: 1) "Depressive and Anxious Symptoms" (DAS); 2) "Lack of Emotional Control" (LEC); 3) "Reduced Motivation" (RM). On multivariate statistics, DAS severity was predicted by previous history of mood disorders and Barthel Index; LEC severity was predicted by Barthel Index; RM severity was predicted by age. Conclusions: The PSDRS displayed a reliable factor structure that agreed with previous interpretation of PSD. In particular, core depressive symptoms seem to be related to premorbid personality and functional status, whereas apathy/anhedonia may be connected to brain aging.     

Multi-stage mental process for economic choice in capuchins

We studied economic choice behavior in capuchin monkeys by offering them to choose between two different foods available in variable amounts. When monkeys selected between familiar foods, their choice patterns were well-described in terms of relative value of the two foods. A leading view in economics and biology is that such behavior results from stimulus-response associations acquired through experience. According to this view, values are not psychologically real; they can only be defined a posteriori. One prediction of this associative model is that animals faced for the first time with a new pair of foods learn to choose between them gradually. We tested this prediction. Surprisingly, we find that monkeys choose as effectively between new pairs of foods as they choose between familiar pairs of foods. We therefore, propose a cognitive model in which economic choice results from a two-stage mental process of value-assignment and decision-making. In a follow-up experiment, we find that the relative value assigned to three foods in sessions in which we tested them against each other combine according to transitivity.     

A Proof-theoretical Analysis of Semiconstructive Intermediate Theories

In the 80's Pierangelo Miglioli, starting from motivations in the framework of Abstract Data Types and Program Synthesis, introduced semiconstructive theories, a family of large subsystems of classical theories that guarantee the computability of functions and predicates represented by suitable formulas. In general, the above computability results are guaranteed by algorithms based on a recursive enumeration of the theorems of the whole system. In this paper we present a family of semiconstructive systems, we call uniformly semiconstructive, that provide computational procedures only involving formulas with bounded complexity. We present several examples of uniformly semiconstructive systems containing Harrop theories, induction principles and some well-known predicate intermediate principles. Among these, we give an account of semiconstructive and uniformly semiconstructive systems which lie between Intuitionistic and Classical Arithmetic and we discuss their constructive incompatibility.     

Critical stages in mental development: Childhood breath holding spells (BHS)

The authors present the first part of a study on children with BHS (Breath Holding Spells) syndrome. These children were chosen in order to examine a “pathological” situation in infancy that was as close as possible to a “normal” one, and in which obvious somatic symptoms were associated with emotional states. Children with BHSS are not considered to have serious psychological disturbances, even if they are constantly referred to as intolerant of separation, stubborn, oppositional, or easy to temper tantrum. A reduced ability to tolerate frustration is evident in these children both from the patients' history and clinical observation. Parents usually relate BHS to situations in which the child is denied something or gets scolded. The children were observed during three sessions, both with and without the mother, according to a grid used at our Center. Patients are presented to illustrate certain recurrent features in play and interaction with mother. The data suggest that these children stagnate in an area of incomplete mental representation; something makes them oscillate between two states; in one of them, the mental representation of the object and of the bond with it is possible; in the other, the mental representation of the separation, which entails the recognition of the object, is felt as dangerous.     

Culture and the distinctiveness motive: constructing identity in individualistic and collectivistic contexts

The motive to attain a distinctive identity is sometimes thought to be stronger in, or even specific to, those socialized into individualistic cultures. Using data from 4,751 participants in 21 cultural groups (18 nations and 3 regions), we tested this prediction against our alternative view that culture would moderate the ways in which people achieve feelings of distinctiveness, rather than influence the strength of their motivation to do so. We measured the distinctiveness motive using an indirect technique to avoid cultural response biases. Analyses showed that the distinctiveness motive was not weaker-and, if anything, was stronger-in more collectivistic nations. However, individualism-collectivism was found to moderate the ways in which feelings of distinctiveness were constructed: Distinctiveness was associated more closely with difference and separateness in more individualistic cultures and was associated more closely with social position in more collectivistic cultures. Multilevel analysis confirmed that it is the prevailing beliefs and values in an individual's context, rather than the individual's own beliefs and values, that account for these differences.     

Are the inhibitory and faciliatory effects during retrieval of semantically related items present in amnestic mild cognitive impairment?

Prefrontal functions subserve inhibition control for retrieval of semantically related items inducing forgetting 19 a-MCI patients and 29 controls underwent neuropsychological evaluation and retrieval-practice paradigm (RPP) to estimate baseline remember (BR), retrieval-induced facilitation (FAC) and retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). A-MCI patients underwent also 3 T-MRI to assess relationship between regional grey matter (rGM) volumes and RPP indexes Behaviourally, RIF and FAC were both observed controls, while RIF only was observed in a-MCI patients. In patients but not in controls, RIF was associated with cognitive efficiency and FAC with memory performance. Patients showed also associations between BR and rGM volumes in the precuneus, no association was found between rGM volumes and RIF and FAC. A-MCI patients did not benefit from repeated practice during retrieval of studied items, which is likely due to their memory disorder. In contrast, patient cognitive efficiency would drive retrieval suppression of interfering stimuli.     

Impact of Family Efficacy Beliefs on Quality of Family Functioning and Satisfaction with Family Life

The present study tested with 142 families a structural model of the interplay of perceived dyadic and collective forms of efficacy within the interdependent family system, and how these different forms of efficacy are structurally related to quality of family functioning and satisfaction with family life. Dyadic parent–child efficacy, dyadic spousal efficacy, and filial efficacy were linked to family satisfaction through the mediating impact of collective family efficacy. A high sense of collective family efficacy was accompanied by open family communication and candid disclosure by adolescents of their activities outside the home. Collective family efficacy contributed to parents' and adolescents' satisfaction with their family life both directly and through its impact on quality of family functioning. An alternative structural model in which quality of family functioning affects the different forms of perceived family efficacy and family satisfaction provided a poorer fit to the data.