Cross-cultural differences in cognitive development: attention to relations and objects

Growing evidence indicates a suite of generalized differences in the attentional and cognitive processing of adults from Eastern and Western cultures. Cognition in Eastern adults is often more relational and in Western adults is more object focused. Three experiments examined whether these differences characterize the cognition of preschool children in the two cultures. In Experiment 1, 4-year-olds from the two cultures (N=64) participated in a relational match-to-standard task in two conditions, with simple or richly detailed objects, in which a focus on individual objects may hurt performance. Rich objects, consistent with past research, strongly limited the performance of U.S. children but not Japanese children. In Experiment 2, U.S. and Japanese 4-year-olds (N=72) participated in a visual search task that required them to find a specific object in a cluttered, but organized as a scene, visual field in which object-centric attention might be expected to aid performance and relational attentional pattern may hinder the performance because of relational structure that was poised by the scene. U.S. children outperformed Japanese children. In Experiment 3, 4-year-olds from both cultures (N=36) participated in a visual search task that was similar to Experiment 2 but with randomly placed objects, where there should not be a difference between the performance of two cultures because the relational structure that may be posed by the scene is eliminated. This double-dissociation is discussed in terms of implications for different developmental trajectories, with different developmental subtasks in the two cultures.     

Do infants recognize the Arcimboldo images as faces? Behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopic study

Arcimboldo images induce the perception of faces when shown upright despite the fact that only nonfacial objects such as vegetables and fruits are painted. In the current study, we examined whether infants recognize a face in the Arcimboldo images by using the preferential looking technique and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). In the first experiment, we measured looking preference between upright and inverted Arcimboldo images among 5- and 6-month-olds and 7- and 8-month-olds. We hypothesized that if infants perceive the Arcimboldo images as faces, they would prefer the upright images to the inverted ones. We found that only 7- and 8-month-olds significantly preferred upright images, suggesting that they could perceive the Arcimboldo images as faces. In the second experiment, we measured hemodynamic responses using NIRS. Based on the behavioral data, we hypothesized that 7- and 8-month-olds would show different neural activity for upright and inverted Arcimboldo images, as do adults. Therefore, we measured hemodynamic responses in 7- and 8-month-olds while they were looking at upright and inverted Arcimboldo images. Their responses were then compared with the baseline activation during the presentation of individual vegetables. We found that the concentration of oxyhemoglobin increased in the left temporal area during the presentation of the upright images compared with the baseline during the presentation of vegetables. The results of the two experiments suggest that (a) the ability to recognize the upright Arcimboldo images as faces develops at around 7 or 8 months of age and (b) processing of the upright Arcimboldo images is related to the left temporal area of the brain.     

Referral by clergy who counsel older adults

The purpose of this cross sectional study of clergy (N?=?493) was to examine the likelihood of referral to formal mental health providers by those clergy who counsel older adults. Responding clergy completed a brief questionnaire that included information on the amount of counselling they do with older adults, the Attitudes towards Older Adults and Mental Illness (AOAMI) scale, their relationships with mental health professionals, their knowledge of resources for referring people for additional help, and basic demographic data, such as race, age, years in the clergy, and education level. In logistic regression analysis, respondents with more education, those who felt less prepared to provide counselling, and those with more positive attitudes based on the AOAMI indicated that they were more likely to refer, and no differences were found based on their denominational affiliation race, relationships with mental health professionals, or knowledge of resources for referring people for additional help. We believe that public-private partnerships should be formed to help clergy recognise when referrals are appropriate, and to help improve relationships between clergy and mental health professionals.     

Unique contribution of semantic representations to immediate memory: an individual-differences approach

Studies have reported dissociations between the contributions of semantic and phonological representations to immediate remembering, found through experimental manipulations as well as specific clinical cases. Also, some studies based on the analysis of individual differences reported that a semantic cued recall task has a variance unshared with the immediate memory tasks which tap the contribution of phonological representations. However, another study suggested that cued recall performance could reflect a wider ability to cluster information by category. Furthermore, no studies of individual differences have investigated the unique semantic contribution in the visual domain. Therefore, the present study used specific immediate recognition memory tasks that have been used to investigate the semantic contribution in the verbal and visual domains. The results demonstrate the unshared variance that reflects the semantic contribution in both the verbal and the visual domain, and some commonality in these variances across the domains.     

L2 Word Recognition: Influence of L1 Orthography on Multi-syllabic Word Recognition

L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on the position of an embedded word. The participants were Arabic ESL learners, Chinese ESL learners, and native speakers of English. The task was a word search task, in which the participants identified a target word embedded in a pseudoword at the initial, middle, or final position. The search accuracy and speed indicated that all groups showed a strong preference for the initial position. The accuracy data further indicated group differences. The Arabic group showed higher accuracy in the final than middle, while the Chinese group showed the opposite and the native speakers showed no difference between the two positions. The findings suggest that L2 multi-syllabic word recognition involves unique processes.     

Usage of semantic representations in recognition memory

Meanings of words facilitate false acceptance as well as correct rejection of lures in recognition memory tests, depending on the experimental context. This suggests that semantic representations are both directly and indirectly (i.e., mediated by perceptual representations) used in remembering. Studies using memory conjunction errors (MCEs) paradigms, in which the lures consist of component parts of studied words, have reported semantic facilitation of rejection of the lures. However, attending to components of the lures could potentially cause this. Therefore, we investigated whether semantic overlap of lures facilitates MCEs using Japanese Kanji words in which a whole-word image is more concerned in reading. Experiments demonstrated semantic facilitation of MCEs in a delayed recognition test (Experiment 1), and in immediate recognition tests in which participants were prevented from using phonological or orthographic representations (Experiment 2), and the salient effect on individuals with high semantic memory capacities (Experiment 3). Additionally, analysis of the receiver operating characteristic suggested that this effect is attributed to familiarity-based memory judgement and phantom recollection. These findings indicate that semantic representations can be directly used in remembering, even when perceptual representations of studied words are available.     

Dispositional and situational coping and mental health status of university students

The results of stress coping studies do not clearly demonstrate whether dispositional and situational coping can predict health status or whether dispositional coping can predict situational coping. The present study used structural equation modeling to test proposed directional relationships. 292 Japanese university students completed questionnaires concerning dispositional and situational coping and mental health status. Analysis showed that dispositional coping predicted situational coping for some coping strategies. In women, an increase in dispositional Problem-solving predicted a reduction in mental distress via situational Problem-solving. The results suggest that, only for Problem-solving by women, dispositional coping is related to mental health status, but only through situational coping.     

Constraint on the semantic flexibility in visual statistical learning

We examined whether the expression of visual statistical learning (VSL) is flexible at the superordinate-categorical level. In the familiarization phase, participants viewed a sequence of line drawings. In the test phase, participants observed two test sequences (statistically related triplets versus unrelated foils) that consisted of the same objects as those presented during the familiarization phase (the same condition) or different objects that shared the same categorical information with drawings during the familiarization (the different condition). They then decided whether the first or the second sequence was more familiar. The results of Experiment 1 showed greater familiarity above chance levels for statistically related triplets only in the same condition. In Experiment 2, even where the word stimuli representing each superordinate-level category were included in the test phase (the categorical condition), the results showed VSL only in the same condition. Our findings suggest that the semantic flexibility of VSL is limited to the basic-level category.     

The Current State of Genetic Counseling Before and After Amniocentesis for Fetal Karyotyping in Japan: A Survey of Obstetric Hospital Clients of a Prenatal Testing Laboratory

Pregnant women undergoing prenatal genetic testing should receive genetic counseling so they can make informed decisions. We examined the current state of providing genetic counseling in Japan to pregnant women before they elected amniocentesis for prenatal diagnosis of chromosome abnormalities and after test results were completed, and explored the opportunity for expanding access to certified genetic counselors (CGC) at clinical practices offering amniocentesis. An anonymous survey was mailed to the 298 hospitals that referred amniotic fluid specimens to LabCorp Japan in 2009. Most genetic counseling was provided by the obstetrician alone; 73.8 % (76/103) of pre-amniocentesis, 82.5 % (85/103) if normal results, and 49.4 % (44/89) if abnormal results. Respondents spent limited time in genetic counseling; 57.3 % spent <10 min for pre-amniocentesis, 88.3 % spent <10 min for normal results, and 54.0 % spent <20 min for abnormal results. While 45.8 % indicated that CGC do not have an essential role in clinical practice, responses that supported employment of CGC were more likely to come from hospitals that submitted more than ten specimens annually (p?<?0.0001), university hospitals (p?<?0.0001), and MD geneticists (p?=?0.020). Currently, there is limited genetic counseling available in Japan. This indicates there are opportunities for the employment of CGC to improve the quality of genetic counseling.