Mental rotation as a mediator for sex-related differences in visualization

This study was designed to analyze whether Mental Rotation (MR) played a role as a mediating variable for sex-related differences in Visualization (VZ). Two psychometric tests measuring MR and VZ were applied to a representative sample of 309 males and 390 females in their last year of high school. Three non-zero correlations between sex and MR, sex and VZ, and MR and VZ were found, and the effect of sex on VZ was eliminated when MR was introduced as a covariable. When three subgroups of different VZ ability were made by dividing up the VZ distribution by the first and third quartiles, sex-differences were only found for the high-scorers group, for which previous results were replicated. Results clearly indicate that MR is a plausible mediator variable for sex differences in VZ when such differences do exist. Theoretical, methodological and practical consequences of these results are discussed.     

Comment on "personality organization as an aspect of back pain in a medical setting".

The methodology and results of a recent investigation by Louks, Freeman, and Calsyn (1978) are reviewed. It is demonstrated that the results may have been confounded by inappropriate experimental procedures. Regardless of the methodological deficiencies associated with the experimental procedures, the results do not provide adequate support for the continued differentiation of individual low back pain patients with respect to the etiology of their pain. It is suggested that psychologists may best contribute to the assessment and treatment of individual pain patients by developing actuarial rules regarding the pain-related behavioral characteristics shared by members of various patient subgroups and the specific treatments to which subgroup members best respond.     

Morningness-eveningness and health-related quality of life among adolescents

Accumulating evidence suggests that evening-type adolescents are exposed to a number of determinants that might have a negative impact on their health condition. Given that few studies have investigated the association between chronotype and quality of life measures in large samples of adolescents, the aim of this study was to assess the relationship between morningness-eveningness and health-related quality of life among 1600 adolescents (aged 12-16 years). Adolescents completed the Ve?u et Santé Per?ue de L'adolescent (VSP-A) and the Morningness-Eveningness Scale for Children (MESC). Girls and older adolescents reported worse health indicators and were more evening oriented. Evening-type adolescents obtained lower scores on vitality, physical and psychological well-being, body image, relations with parents, relations with teachers, school work and global health scale.     

A STIMULUS CONTROL PROCEDURE TO DECREASE MOTOR AND VOCAL STEREOTYPY

A changing criterion design was used to examine the effects of two stimuli (a green card and a red card), conditioned via discrimination training, on reducing motor and vocal stereotypy in a youngster with autism while he looked at books. During discrimination training, motor and vocal stereotypy was not interrupted in the presence of a green stimulus, but was interrupted in the presence of a red stimulus using manual guidance and appropriate behavior was reinforced. After the participant demonstrated successful discrimination of the stimuli (i.e., the absence of stereotypy in the presence of a red stimulus and the engagement in stereotypy in the presence of a green stimulus), intervention began. During intervention, upon meeting criterion for latency to engage in motor and vocal stereotypy in the presence of the red stimulus for a target duration, the participant was provided access to the green stimulus, which signaled that motor and vocal stereotypy would not be interrupted. The criterion latency to engage in stereotypy in the presence of the red stimulus was systematically increased. Simultaneously, the duration of access to the green stimulus was systematically decreased. The red and green stimuli were faded from poster boards to colored 10 × 10 cm cards, and stimulus control was generalized to the participant's classroom and to a community setting (i.e., public library). Results are discussed in terms of discrimination training as a useful intervention for reducing motor and vocal stereotypy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electrophysiological correlates of the composite face illusion: Disentangling perceptual and decisional components of holistic face processing in the human brain

When the bottom halves of two faces differ, people’s behavioral judgment of the identical top halves of those faces is impaired: they report that the top halves are different, and/or take more time than usual to provide a response. This behavioral measure is known as the composite face effect (CFE) and has traditionally been taken as evidence that faces are perceived holistically. Recently, however, it has been claimed that this effect is driven almost entirely by decisional, rather than perceptual, factors ( Richler, Gauthier, Wenger, & Palmeri, 2008). To disentangle the contribution of perceptual and decisional brain processes, we aimed to obtain an event-related potential (ERP) measure of the CFE at a stage of face encoding ( Jacques & Rossion, 2009) in the absence of a behavioral CFE effect. Sixteen participants performed a go/no-go task in an oddball paradigm, lifting a finger of their right or left hand when the top half of a face changed identity. This change of identity of the top of the face was associated with an increased ERP signal on occipito-temporal electrode sites at the N170 face-sensitive component (∼160 ms), the later decisional P3b component, and the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) starting at ∼350 ms. The N170 effect was observed equally early when only the unattended bottom part of the face changed, indicating that an identity change was perceived across the whole face in this condition. Importantly, there was no behavioral response bias for the bottom change trials, and no evidence of decisional biases from electrophysiological data (no P3b and LRP deflection in no-go trials). These data show that an early CFE can be measured in ERPs in the absence of any decisional response bias, indicating that the CFE reflects primarily the visual perception of the whole face.     

Construction of a depression scale with the Rasch model

This study examines the psychometric properties of a depression questionnaire. The goal was to improve the technical quality of traditional measures of depression in Spanish youth. 310 participants, aged 18-24 years, filled in the self-report questionnaire. The data were analyzed by means of the Rasch model. Results show that model fit, average item reliability (.97), and average person reliability (.88) are high. After deleting four indicators showing misfit and 12 showing sex bias, the resulting scale measures clinical depression objectively. Using this scale, the expected sex-related differences are found.     

Internal structure and standardised scores of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking

The present work sets out to study the internal structure of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and to establish standardised scores that will enable the test to be used in both a diagnostic and educational context. 649 students (319 girls and 330 boys), aged 5 to 12 years from various schools in Murcia and Alicante (SE Spain), took part in the study. The findings suggest that the psychometric characteristics of TTCT are satisfactory, and its internal structure can be attributed to three factors that are responsible for a high percentage of the variance (73.8%). The standardised score tables, which are provided for first time in this context, will be useful in the evaluation of creativity and the identification of students with high intellectual abilities.     

Cross-linguistic assessment of verbal production from a narrative task in Williams Syndrome

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a disorder caused by a delection in chromosome 7, with a cognitive profile characterised by mild to moderate mental deficiency and difficulties in visual-spatial processing, which contrasts with a relative preservation of linguistic functions and narrative production. In this study, verbal performance was analysed in two groups of participants (N = 3), Portuguese and Spanish, genetically diagnosed with WS. Scores were low in Verbal IQ, as in Performance IQ. Narrative performance showed low coherence with respect to structure, process, and content. WS verbal performance was affected and there was no difference between both groups. We could not find any dissociation between cognitive functioning and linguistic production.     

Clamped Corticosterone (B) Reveals the Effect of Endogenous B on Both Facilitated Responsivity to Acute Restraint and Metabolic Responses to Chronic Stress

To determine the effects of both corticosterone (B) and chronic stressors on acute ACTH responses to restraint, young male rats were exposed to streptozotocin-induced diabetes, cold (5-7 degreesC) or intracerebroventricular (icv) neuropeptide Y (NPY) for 5 d and then exposed to restraint within 2 h after lights on. Two groups of rats were studied: intact and adrenalectomized replaced with B pellets that maintained plasma B in the normal mean 24-h range of intact rats. In addition to ACTH and B responses to restraint on d 5, body weight, food intake, fat depots, glucose and other hormones were measured to determine the role of stress-induced elevations in B on energy balance. ACTH responses to restraint were normal in intact rats subjected to diabetes or cold. By contrast, there was no ACTH or B response to restraint in NPY-infused intact rats. All 3 groups of chronically stimulated adrenalectomized rats with clamped B had facilitated ACTH responses to restraint compared to their treatment controls. Overall food intake increased in all groups of stressed rats; however, augmented intake occurred only during the light in intact rats and equally in the light and dark in B-clamped rats. White adipose depot weights were decreased by both diabetes and cold and increased by NPY in intact rats; the decreases with cold and increases with NPY were both blunted and changes in fat stores were not significant in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats. We conclude that: 1. diabetes- and cold-induced facilitation of restraint-induced afferent input to hypothalamic control of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is opposed in intact rats by the elevated feedback signal of B secretion; 2. NPY does not induce facilitation of afferent stress pathways; 3. chronic stimulation of the HPA axis induces acute hyperresponsiveness of hypothalamic neurons to restraint provided that the afferent input of this acute stimulus is not prevented by B feedback; 4. stimulus-induced elevations in B secretion result in day-time feeding; 5. insensitivity of both caloric efficiency and white fat stores to chronic stress in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats results from loss of normally variable B levels.