P300 stimulus sequence effects in children and adults

Immediate memory capability for 12 children (8 years) and 12 adults (21 years) was assessed electrophysiologically by using P300 event-related brain potential (ERP) stimulus sequences. These were derived from an auditory discrimination paradigm in which participants detected target stimuli in a series of target (T) and standard (S) tones that were varied by randomly presenting one of four sequence patterns (SSSS, TTTT, TTTS, SSST). Short-term memory capability was assessed behaviorally by recall performance of a 20-word list. Children and adults showed virtually identical P300 amplitude sequence patterns, such that for both groups component size increased systematically as the discrepancy between standard and target stimuli increased across sequence patterns. P300 latency evinced similar, albeit weaker, stimulus sequence effects, with children having longer component peak latencies. Memory recall performance was substantially weaker for the children than for adult participants, especially for recency effects. The findings suggest that immediate memory for stimulus sequences is fully developed in young children, although long-term memory is not.     

Morphological priming: Dissociation of phonological, semantic, and morphological factors

Previous experiments based on a masked-priming paradigm revealed robust morphological priming effects induced by two derivational morphemes in Hebrew: the root and the verbal pattern. However, considering the special characteristics of the masked-priming paradigm, the possible contributions of phonological and/or semantic factors to these morphological effects could not be firmly assessed. In the present study, the role of these factors in morphological priming was examined, using cross-modal presentation. Experiment 1 revealed that priming between morphologically related words in Hebrew is determined by higher level linguistic characteristics and cannot be reduced to phonological overlap. Experiment 2 confirmed that morphological priming occurs in Hebrew even when primes and targets are not semantically related but, nevertheless, increases with semantic similarity. The results support the claim that morphological priming cannot be accounted for by considering semantic and phonological factors alone, and they exemplify the potential of using both masked and cross-modal priming to examine morphological processing.     

The Dead Baby

The ghosts of Nazi history haunted my work with a German patient. The burnt landscape of the unresolved tragedy between Nazis and Jews saturated our work with transgenerational excess of unspeakable violence. My patient came to discover that she has not been able to avoid reenacting a horrific cycle of crime and punishment. Together we struggled to maintain solidarity and narrate history despite a pull towards reenacting an international tribune. The case brings to the fore the challenge of maintaining an ongoing analytic space and subjective sovereignty when powerful collective issues flood the field. When such a space is created, psychoanalytic work has the potential to join the forces that mend history.     

Personal and communal resilience in communities exposed to missile attacks: Does intensity of exposure matter?

Based on the salutogenic model, this study aimed to examine the role of personal and communal resiliency in reducing individuals’ psychological distress when facing intensive missile attacks. We examined the relationships between these resources and psychological distress in communities which were exposed to different intensities of attacks. Data was gathered via anonymous self-report questionnaires from 843 adults during the period from one week to one month after intensive attacks in southern Israel. Questionnaires included demographic data as well as sense of coherence (SOC), community resiliency and psychological distress. Differences in levels of resiliency and distress were found among the groups with different ‘exposure levels’. Moreover, only personal resilience SOC explained psychological distress in the entire population, while community resiliency had no effect. Results are discussed on the basis of the salutogenic model with implications for developments of interventions with populations who are exposed to differing intensities of missile attacks.     

Help Wanted and Help Received by Israeli Divorced Custodial Fathers

Comparing the help wanted and sought and the help received by 42 divorced custodial fathers with that wanted and sought and received by a matched group of 32 divorced custodial mothers, this paper investigates whether men who have assumed the traditionally female gender task of child care continue to adhere to the traditional male help-seeking and help-receiving patterns. Findings show that they do. Single custodial fathers both want and receive less help from own kin, friends, and ex-spouse's kin than do single custodial mothers, and are less prone to seek professional help. On the other hand, both groups seek and receive the most help from a new partner, followed by own kin, friends, and ex-spouse's kin.     

Perceptual organization without perception. The subliminal learning of global contour

A critical step in visual perceptual processing is integrating local visual elements into contours so that shapes can be derived from them. It is often assumed that contour integration may reflect hardwired coding of low-level visual features. In this study, we present novel evidence indicating that integration of local elements into contours can be learned subliminally, despite being irrelevant to the training task and despite the local properties of the display varying randomly during training. Learning occurred only when contours were consistently paired with task-relevant targets--echoing the findings of previous studies on subliminal learning of low-level features. Our data indicate that task-irrelevant, exposure-based learning extends beyond local low-level visual features and may play a critical role at multiple levels of visual perceptual organization.     

Semantic asymmetries are modulated by phonological asymmetries: Evidence from the disambiguation of homophonic versus heterophonic homographs

The present study investigated cerebral asymmetries in accessing multiple meanings of two types of homographs: homophonic homographs (e.g., bank) and heterophonic homographs (e.g., tear). Participants read homographs preceded by either a biasing or a non-biasing sentential context and performed a lexical decision on lateralized targets presented 150 ms after onset of the sentence-final ambiguous prime. Targets were either related to the dominant or the subordinate meaning of the preceding homograph or were unrelated to it. In the case of homophonic homographs – our results converge with previous findings: both activation and selection processes are faster in the LH than in the RH. Importantly, however, in the case of heterophonic homographs – opposite asymmetries were found. These results suggest that semantic asymmetries are modulated by phonology. They are discussed in the context of a model of functional architecture of reading in the two hemispheres in which orthography, phonology and semantics are fully interconnected in the LH, whereas in the RH, orthography and phonology are not directly connected, such that phonological processes are mediated by semantics.     

Youth from Fundamentalist Societies: What are Their Attitudes Toward War and Peace and Their Relations with Anxiety Reactions?

Journal of Religion and Health - The present study was conducted during “Protective Edge,” a long-lasting military operation between the State of Israel and Hamas in Gaza, during which...     

The ‘Parent Circle’ Peace Education Program: Does it Make Any Change?

This study evaluated a peace education program facilitated by the ‘parents circle family forum.’ The program aims to expose Jewish and Palestinian-Arab adolescents to personal stories of bereavement as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One hundred and sixty-four Jewish twelfth-grade adolescents from schools throughout Israel filled out questionnaires before the start of the educational program, and 135 Jewish adolescents filled out the same questionnaire up to a week after it ended. Questionnaires included empathy, anger, and legitimacy toward ‘self’ and ‘others’ narratives. Results indicate that, overall, there were not any significant differences before and after the educational program with regard to adolescents’ attitudes toward ‘self’ and ‘others’ narratives. However, when examining differences between subgroups in Israeli society, significant differences between ‘secular’ and ‘traditional’ adolescents emerged. The attitudes of secular adolescents favored narratives of the ‘others,’ while the attitudes of the traditional adolescents favored the ‘self’ narratives. After the program, these differences diminished, meaning that the program had a different impact on each subgroup. The traditional adolescents became more favorable to the ‘others’ narratives, while the secular adolescents became more favorable to their own narratives. Results are discussed on the basis of the theoretical foundation of psychological impacts of intractable conflicts.