Evidence for a non-lexical influence on children's auditory repetition of familiar words

This paper examines evidence for a nonlexical influence on children's repetition of real words. We investigate the extent to which two computational models of auditory repetition can simulate the performance of 68 children aged between 5 and 11?years-old when they are attempting to repeat familiar words. Both computational accounts were derived from Foygel and Dell's (J Mem Lang 43:182-216, 2000) semantic-phonological model of picture-naming. Results showed that a dual-route model in which a lexical and a nonlexical route work together to repeat familiar words (Hanley et?al. in Cogn Neuropsychol 21:147-158, 2004) provided an accurate simulation of children's repetition, whereas Foygel and Dell (J Mem Lang 43:182-216, 2000) single lexical-route model under-predicted performance. The only exception was the repetition performance of 5?year-old children, which was over-predicted by the dual-route model. It is argued that at 5?years of age, some children have available both a lexical and a nonlexical repetition route but the output of the two routes does not summate when real words are being repeated. Some young children may lack the attentional skills that would enable them to co-ordinate the activity of the lexical and nonlexical repetition routes.     

Cross-sectional and Longitudinal associations in coping strategies and physical health outcomes among HIV-Positive youth

This study assessed whether coping styles had an influence on physical health outcomes either concurrently or longitudinally in a sample of HIV-positive youth. Coping styles were characterized as positive, passive, depressive withdrawal, and escapist. A cross-sectional latent variable analysis (N = 279) assessed associations among environmental stress, self-esteem, social support, coping styles, AIDS symptoms, and CD4 count. A more restricted longitudinal analysis (N = 174) tested associations among earlier environmental stress, self-esteem, coping styles, and AIDS symptoms at follow-up. CD4 count was not associated with coping styles in the cross-sectional analysis. Concurrent AIDS symptoms were significantly predicted by depressive withdrawal and environmental stress. A passive coping style modestly predicted more AIDS symptoms longitudinally. Correlates of perceived health and well-being of persons with HIV/AIDS are important to investigate in addition to more objective measures such as CD4 count that may not be amenable to change through coping style interventions alone.     

Brain potentials during language production in children and adults: An ERP study of the English past tense

The current study examines the neural correlates of 8-to-12-year-old children and adults producing inflected word forms, specifically regular vs. irregular past-tense forms in English, using a silent production paradigm. ERPs were time-locked to a visual cue for silent production of either a regular or irregular past-tense form or a 3rd person singular present tense form of a given verb (e.g., walked/sang vs. walks/sings). Subsequently, another visual stimulus cued participants for an overt vocalization of their response. ERP results for the adult group revealed a negativity 300–450 ms after the silent-production cue for regular compared to irregular past-tense forms. There was no difference in the present form condition. Children’s brain potentials revealed developmental changes, with the older children demonstrating more adult-like ERP responses than the younger ones. We interpret the observed ERP responses as reflecting combinatorial processing involved in regular (but not irregular) past-tense formation.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Crisis resolution and home treatment teams (CRHT) are integral to acute psychiatric services. This survey quantifies staff burnout using the MBI-HSS (Maslach Burnout Inventory) and notes sources of stress and satisfaction before (2012) and after (2013) service transformation of a CRHT in Leeds into a single point of access, with home treatment devolved to community teams. Moderate to high Burnout scores were observed over the study period, with a rise in the mean depersonalisation score from 5.8 to 7.2 over the study period. Contact with colleagues; work with patients and variety of work emerged as rewarding while themes of suicide and violence were most linked with stress, with clinicians reporting self-doubt in the face of difficult clinical decisions. Clinicians positively rated a weekly psychoanalytic reflective practice group. A pictorial representation of qualitative results uses psychoanalytic theory inconceptualising ‘skins’ around various aspects of the clinical setting, which then become semipermeable in response to a patient in crisis when clinicians feel poorly supported by the changing organisation.     

Unknow Thyself: Apophaticism, Deconstruction, and Theology after Ontotheology

This essay investigates the relationship between post-structuralist thought and apophaticism, arguing via Pseudo-Dionysius and Meister Eckhart that theology at its most negative eludes logocentric determinations by disabling the two lynchpins of ontotheology. These are the self-determined "self" and the conceptually domesticated "God"; by unhinging the self as epistemologically constituted, the apophatic voyage destroys the mutually-reinforcing cogito and causa sui . It is ultimately suggested that the complete abandonment of "self" and "God", prefigured by negative theology and now provoked by post-structuralist critique, might enable their transformed restoration as relational, conditioning the possibility of an anti-ontotheological theology.