Selective spatial attention and length representation in normal subjects and in patients with unilateral spatial neglect

The aim of this study was to assess whether perceptual representation along the horizontal axis is affected by hemispace position of the stimulus or by orienting attention to one side. Ten control subjects and 10 right brain damaged patients with left unilateral spatial neglect (USN) were asked to bisect lines of five lengths in three space positions (left, center, right) and under three cueing conditions (no cue, left cue, right cue). Normal controls showed significant displacement of bisection opposite to the side of hemispace presentation and toward the side of cueing. USN patients showed a bisection error toward the right end which increased with lines placed in the left hemispace and decreased with lines placed in the right hemispace and when attention was oriented toward the left side. We conclude that (1) In absence of cues normal subjects tend to overestimate the portions of space closer to their body midline; (2) both normal and USN patients tend to overestimate portions of space that they direct their attention to; (3) USN patients' performance without cueing is consistent with an attentional shift toward the right hemispace implying a gradient of overestimation of the right-most portions of space. A common neural substratum for directing attention and space representation can explain these findings.     

“Motority” in three functional domains of word meaning

This article deals with relations between mental motor evoking capacity (motority, Putnoky, 1975a, b) and the sensory and affective connotations, as well as certain denotations, of words. Sensory connotation is indexed by degree of visual auditory, and tactual imagery, as assessed on a 7-point scale, while affective connotation is indexed by the usual three factors tapped by the semantic differential. The aspect of denotation used here is the abstractness value of words, also based on rating by scales. The general conclusions about motority are as follows: (1) the finding that its sensory connotations are mainly via theauditory modality of imagery, and especially in correlation with abstract words, suggests that it has a specific function that may have originated in the processing of heard language; (2) it correlates with thepotency andactivity factors of affective connotation, which suggests the existence of a nonspecific function or component in it; (3) correlations with abstractness reflect that motority must have a denotative function or component, especially in case of abstract verbal stimuli. On the basis of the results, motority is supposed to play a regulative role at higher levels of the organization of word meaning in particular.Computation of SD data was carried out under the direction and according to the programming of Professor William H. May in the Center for Comparative Psycholinguistics (Director: Charles E. Osgood), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with support provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH 07705) and National Science Foundation (NSF GS 360 and 2012-X).     

Mothers' and Fathers' Internal State Language with Their Young Children: An Examination of Gender Differences During an Emotions Task

The current study examined gender differences in mothers' and fathers' internal state language (ISL), children's use of ISL, and whether ISL was related to parents' ratings of the children's social skills. Fifty‐seven (28 boys, 29 girls) toddler/preschool children (M age = 32.5 months, SD = 5.38 months) were observed separately with their mothers and fathers in their homes while they discussed pictures of children's facial expressions of emotions. Parents completed a questionnaire concerning their child's social–emotional behaviours (i.e. BASC‐2). Parents used more ISL with sons compared with daughters, and sons used more ISL with mothers than with fathers. No overall differences were found between mothers' and fathers' ISL. Children's social skills as rated by mothers were predicted by mothers' ISL comments, whereas children's social skills as rated by fathers were predicted by children's age and fathers' ISL clarifications. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cyber peers’ influence for adolescent consumer in decision‐making styles and online purchasing behavior

Nowadays, there is a boom in online purchasing, especially by adolescents. In fact, scholars and marketers alike have long noticed the emergence of adolescent consumers and their consumption behaviors. This research aims at exploring the effect of adolescent decision‐making styles on online purchasing behavior, with peer influence as a moderating variable. An online questionnaire survey was conducted on 2,419 adolescents and further verified by regression analysis and analysis of covariance. Adolescents with planned purchase behaviors can be considered as rational consumers, in that they do not care about fashion, or recreational, hedonistic shopping consciousness, but rather focus on brand, price value, and high quality. Indeed, adolescent purchase decision making can be strengthened by peer influence.     

Distancing the present self from the past and the future: Psychological distance in anxiety and depression

Humans show a systematic tendency to perceive the future as psychologically closer than the past. Based on the clinical hypothesis that anxiety would be associated more with future threat life events, whereas depression with past loss events, here we explored whether people with anxiety- and depression-related personality traits perceive differently the psychological distance of temporal events. Results showed that the common tendency to perceive the future as psychologically closer than the past is exaggerated in individuals with anxiety-related personality traits, whereas this asymmetry drastically shrinks in individuals with depression-related personality traits. Beyond substantiating the hypothesis that the past and the future are differently faced by people with depression- and anxiety-related personality traits, the present findings suggest that temporal orientation of one’s self may be greatly altered in anxiety and depression.     

Upregulation of hippocampal TrkB and synaptotagmin is involved in treadmill exercise-enhanced aversive memory in mice

Cognitive functions usually involve various synaptic proteins and neurotrophic factors in the hippocampus. However, whether treadmill exercise can improve learning and memory by upregulating some of these molecules remain unraveled. To address this question, male BALB/c mice were divided into control and exercise groups, the latter group went through 4 weeks of treadmill exercise training. At the end of exercise training period, they were either tested for passive avoidance (PA) performance or sacrificed for quantifying the hippocampal levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB, the BDNF receptor), synaptotagmin (a Ca²⁺-dependent synaptic vesicle protein), and SNAP-25 (a presynaptic vesicular fusion protein). Our results showed that treadmill exercise training (1) increased the retention latency without affecting the fear acquisition in the PA test, (2) transiently increased the hippocampal BDNF level at 1, 2, and 4 h after the completion of exercise training, and (3) persistently increased the hippocampal protein levels of full-length TrkB, phosphorylated TrkB and synaptotagmin, but not truncated TrkB or SNAP-25. Moreover, the protein expression level of full-length TrkB or synaptotagmin was positively correlated with PA performance in mice. Finally, inhibition of TrkB signaling by K252a abolished the exercise-facilitated PA performance and upregulation of TrkB and synaptotagmin. Taken together, these data suggest that the upregulation of TrkB and synaptotagmin in the hippocampus contributes to the exercise-facilitated aversive memory.     

An effect size index for comparing two independent alpha coefficients

Since Cronbach proposed the α coefficient in 1951, researchers have contributed to the derivation of its sampling distribution and the testing of related statistical hypotheses. Yet, there has been no research on effect size index relevant to coefficient α to our knowledge. Considering the importance of effect size in understanding quantitative research findings, we therefore developed an effect size index Δ for the comparison of two independent αs with equal test length based on the asymptotic distribution of under the assumptions of normality and compound symmetry. Simulations indicated that the index was applicable when the sample size was at least 100. The robustness of the derived index when the required assumptions were violated was also explored. It is suggested that the index should be applicable in most cases of unequal test lengths and could be extended to non‐normally distributed component scores. Moreover, a small simulation was conducted to explore the behaviour of Δ with correlated errors, a frequently studied situation violating the assumption of compound symmetry. The proposed index was found to be robust unless a large number of highly correlated errors were present in the data.     

The Impact of a Child’s Cancer on the Father’s Relationship with His Spouse in Korea

A father of a child with cancer experiences psychological stress related to his child’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, which may affect his relationship with his spouse. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to how having a child with cancer affects the marital relationship from the perspective of the father. We examined the impact of the child’s cancer on the father’s relationship with his spouse in Korea. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 fathers (mean age?=?41.35 years; SD?=?4.49) of children who were diagnosed with cancer before the age of 19 and were within 5 years of the diagnosis. The mean age of the child with cancer was 9.1 years (SD?=?3.68), and the mean age at diagnosis was 6.4 years (SD?=?4.08). The analysis of the interviews revealed the following four themes (and eight subthemes): conflicts between spouses (lack of father’s participation in caregiving, financial and work-related stress), mental suffering (heartbroken, torn between caregiving and work), change in communication (child-focused communication, avoiding communication), and change in the marital relationship (neglected relationship, new trust built in the relationship). A father’s increased conflict in the marital relationship after his child’s diagnosis of cancer was intensified by his limited involvement in child care and parenting responsibilities. An understanding of the change in the father’s relationship with his spouse can inform the development of a psychosocial intervention that may strengthen a father’s emotional intelligence and resilience, which could improve the marital relationship.     

African American Adolescent-Caregiver Relationships in a Weight Loss Trial

Successful family-based weight loss interventions for African American adolescents are rare. Parent-adolescent interactions supporting adoption of healthier nutrition and physical activity practices are not well understood. African American caregivers' and adolescents' perspectives on how they worked together to achieve weight loss need further exploration. This study describes the relationships experienced by adolescents and caregivers during the 6-month, evidence-based FIT Families weight loss trial and explores differences between families whose adolescents were successful and unsuccessful with weight loss. Exit interviews conducted with 136 adolescents (age 12–16 years; BMI percentile ≥95) and their caregivers (primarily mothers) were taped and transcribed verbatim. Content and thematic analysis was conducted to explore differences between groups stratified by weight loss. Five adolescent-caregiver relationship patterns emerged which describe dyads working together, working alone, working against each other; caregiver support and caregiver working on self. When relationship patterns were compared between groups stratified by weight loss, three themes emerged: motivation, support, and persistence. Families that achieved the greatest weight loss referred more often to working together to reach weight loss goals, attributed their success to adolescent self-motivation, with engaged caregiver support which allowed families to persist in change efforts. Family relationships involving adolescent autonomy, engaged parental support, and persistence despite challenges, clustered differently among adolescents who were successful at weight loss compared to those who were not. Interventionists trained to reinforce effective adolescent-parent interactions will advance behavioral interventions for families who have typically benefited least in prior interventions.