How Different Guilt Feelings Can Affect Social Competence Development in Childhood

The authors examined how the two different dimensions of guilt feelings, needed for reparation and fear of punishment, could influence social conduct, such as prosocial and aggressive behaviors, and how they are linked to popularity in childhood. The authors hypothesized a theoretical model that they tested, fitting it with empirical data obtained from a sample of 242 Italian children 9–11 years old. Both dimensions of guilt predict prosocial and aggressive behaviors. Specifically, the feeling of guilt linked to the need for reparation tends to negatively predict aggressive behaviors, and positively predict prosocial behaviors. The feeling of guilt linked to the fear of punishment, on the contrary, tends to positively affect aggressive and negatively affect prosocial conducts in children. These results highlight that the different feelings of guilt can represent a relevant risk or protective factor for the development of social competence in childhood. Limitations, strengths, and further development of the present study are discussed.     

Children's performance in mental rotation tasks: orientation-free features flatten the slope

Studies of the development of mental rotation have yielded conflicting results, apparently because different mental rotation tasks draw on different cognitive abilities. Children may compare two stimuli at different orientations without mental rotation if the stimuli contain orientation-free features. Two groups of children (78 6-year-olds and 92 8-year-olds) participated in an experiment investigating development of the ability to mentally rotate and the ability to recognize and use orientation-free features. Children compared two stimuli, one upright and one rotated, and responded as quickly as possible indicating whether the stimuli were the same or different. The stimuli were either two panda bears or two ice-cream cones with three scoops of ice-cream of different colors. The panda bears were either identical or mirror images. The cones were either identical, mirror images, or non-mirror images. Response times increased linearly as a function of the angle of orientation when stimuli were the same and when the stimuli were mirror images. But response times were much less dependent on angle of orientation for non-mirror image stimuli. Children as young as 6 years recognized orientation-free stimulus features and responded without mentally rotating when the task permitted this strategy.     

Disregarded Conflicting Results with Prior Research: A Case Report in a Leading Biomedical Journal

Bibliographic negligence, i.e. omission of citation of the relevant work of other researchers, is possibly the most common type of research misconduct, leading to unfair loss of priority of authorship and undermining the reward system of science. We report a case of bibliographic negligence which we recently suffered from a leading biomedical journal. The case is discussed in the context of the editorial policy of the journal and of relevant ethical guidelines. Scientific journals should develop codes of conduct for citations. In addition, the implications and consequences of bibliographic negligence deserve thorough investigation.     

The relationship between romantic and prenatal maternal attachment: The moderating role of social support

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between three types of maternal attachment bonds: anxious romantic, avoidant romantic and prenatal. The moderating role of perceived social support is also analysed. Ninety-one pregnant women in or near their thirtieth week of gestation (M = 29.59; SD = 4.57) were recruited, all of whom completed a series of questionnaires to assess the quality of their romantic and prenatal attachment bonds and their levels of perceived social support. The results reveal that both anxious and avoidant romantic attachments were significantly associated with low levels of maternal prenatal attachment. Moreover, the level of social support perceived during pregnancy moderated the relationship between anxious and prenatal attachments but had no effect on avoidant romantic and prenatal attachments. Our discussion of these findings considers the emotional and behavioural characteristics of various forms of insecure romantic attachments. Overall, the data highlight the relevance of the quality of intimate close relationships on maternity experiences and women's caregiving abilities.     

Screening for Psychopathy: Validation of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form with Reference Scores

The current study reports validation results for the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) and its subscales, and for a newly developed PPI-Short Form (PPI-SF) in forensic and non-forensic populations. We also provide criterion reference scores for the PPI and the PPI-SF. In Study 1, we used PPI data from 1,065 participants and supplementary PCL-R data from a subsample of 91 forensic offenders. Mokken scale analysis was used to construct the PPI-SF. In Study 2, PPI-SF and PCL-R data were collected from 60 participants. The study yielded promising but preliminary support for the construct validity of the PPI and the PPI-SF. The PPI-SF is of interest for risk assessment because of its (a) strong relationship with the PCL-R total score and (b) subscales known for their predictive value for violence and criminal recidivism.     

Suppressing natural heuristics by formal instruction: The case of the conjunction fallacy

A basic principle of probability is the conjunction rule, p(B) p(A&B). People violate this rule often, particularly when judgments of probability are based on intensional heuristics such as representativeness and availability. Though other probabilistic rules are obeyed with increasing frequency as people's levels of mathematical talent and training increase, the conjunction rule generally does not show such a correlation. We argue that this recalcitrance is not due to inescapable “natural assessments”; rather, it stems from the absence of generally useful problem-solving designs that bring extensional principles to bear on this class of problem. We predict that when helpful extensional strategies are made available, they should compete well with intensional heuristics. Two experiments were conducted, using as subjects adult women with little mathematical background. In Experiment 1, brief training on concepts of algebra of sets, with examples of their use in solving problems, reduced conjunction-rule violations substantially, compared with a control group. Evidence from similarity judgments suggested that use of the representativeness heuristic was reduced by the training. Experiment 2 confirmed these training effects and also tested the hypothesis that conjunction-rule violations are due to misunderstanding of “B” as “B and not A.” Changes in detailed wording of the propositions to be ranked produced substantial effects on judgment, but the pattern of these effects supported the hypothesis that, for the type of problem used here, most conjunction errors are due to use of representativeness or availability. We conclude that such intensional heuristics can be suppressed when alternative strategies are taught.     

Time perception in severe traumatic brain injury patients: A study comparing different methodologies

In this study, we investigated time perception in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Fifteen TBI patients and 15 matched healthy controls participated in the study. Participants were tested with durations above and below 1 s on three different temporal tasks that involved time reproduction, production, and discrimination tasks. Data variables analyzed included amount of errors, relative errors, and coefficient of variation. Both groups completed a neuropsychological battery that included measures of attention, working memory, and executive functions. Results revealed significant differences between groups on the time reproduction and discrimination tasks, whereas groups showed similar performance on the time production task. Correlation analyses showed involvement of attention, working memory and executive functions on the time reproduction and time discrimination tasks, but there was no involvement on the time production task. These findings suggest that TBI does not impact specific temporal function. Rather, impairments in attention, working memory and executive function abilities may explain lower temporal performance in people with TBI.     

Parental influences on earliest memories

Recently, independent lines of research have indirectly supported the notion that social variables, especially parent–child relationships, have a significant impact on adults’ memories of their early life. In order to directly assess this Italian students were asked to recall as many memories involving parents as they could from before the age of 6 in a 3-minute timed recall task (i.e., memory fluency). They also filled out assessments about parental involvement in their lives as well as the quality of their relationships with their mothers and fathers. We found that, for males, the more involved the parents and the warmer the relationships between sons and both their mothers and their fathers, the more early memories, the more positive early memories, and the more episodic memories men recalled. For women, the warmer the relationship with their mothers, the earlier their earliest memory. Results are discussed in terms of gendered parent–child interactions as well as McAdam's emergent life-story theory.