Psychology

According to Fitts’ Law, the time (MT) to move to a target is a linear function of the logarithm of the ratio between the target’s distance and width. Although Fitts’ Law accurately predicts MTs for direct movements, it does not accurately predict MTs for indirect movements, as when an obstacle intrudes on the direct movement path. To address this limitation, Jax et al. (2007) added an obstacle-intrusion term to Fitts’ Law. They accurately predicted MTs around obstacles in two-dimensional (2-D) workspaces, but their model had one more parameter than Fitts’ Law did and was merely descriptive. In this study, we addressed these concerns by turning to the mechanistic, posture-based (PB) movement planning model. The PB-based model accounted for almost as much MT variance in a 3-D movement task as the model of Jax et al., with only two parameters, the same number of parameters as in Fitts’ Law.

Precise left-hand movements take longer than right-hand movements (for right-handers). To quantify how left-hand movements are affected by task difficulty and phase of movement control, we manipulated the difficulty of repetitive speeded aiming movements while participants used the left or right hand. We observed left-hand costs in both initial impulse and current control phases of movement. While left-hand cost during the initial impulse phase was small, left-hand cost during the current control phase varied from 10 to 60 ms, in direct proportion to the movement's difficulty as quantified by Fitts' law (0.77 \ R 2 \ 0.99, across three experiments). In particular, in comparison with a difficult task for the right hand (Fitts' ID R = 6.6), the left hand's task would have to be made easier by 0.5 bits (ID L = 6.1) to be performed as quickly. The left-hand cost may reflect the time required for callosal transfer of information between the left and right hemispheres during the current control phase of precision left-hand movements or reflect movement control differences in the current control phase of movement that are inherent to the hemispheres. Overall, the present results support multiphase models of movement generation, in which separate specialized processes contribute to the launching and completion of precision hand movements.

Neurophysiology and neuroimaging evidence shows that the brain represents multiple environmental and body-related features to compute transformations from sensory input to motor output. However, it is unclear how these features interact during goal-directed movement. To investigate this issue, we examined the representations of sensory and motor features of human hand movements within the left-hemisphere motor network. In a rapid event-related fMRI design, we measured cortical activity as participants performed right-handed movements at the wrist, with either of two postures and two amplitudes, to move a cursor to targets at different locations. Using a multivoxel analysis technique with rigorous generalization tests, we reliably distinguished representations of task-related features (primarily target location, movement direction, and posture) in multiple regions. In particular, we identified an interaction between target location and movement direction in the superior parietal lobule, which may underlie a transformation from the location of the target in space to a movement vector. In addition, we found an influence of posture on primary motor, premotor, and parietal regions. Together, these results reveal the complex interactions between different sensory and motor features that drive the computation of sensorimotor transformations.

In the face of a pressing need for expanded attachment research programs and attachment informed interventions in Latin America, a research network was established: Red Iberoamericana de Apego: RIA (Iberian-American Attachment Network). The purpose of RIA is to promote human development and well being, informed by attachment theory, centering on research, and with implications for public policies, education, and intervention. We report the proceedings of the second meeting of RIA held in Panama City, Panama, in February 2010. As part of this meeting, RIA sponsored the first Latin-American attachment conference. Proceedings of the conference are described, as are future goals of this new organization.

The present study examines two childhood markers of self-regulation, ego control and ego resiliency, as promotive factors for the development of global adjustment and as risk factors for the development of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in a high-risk sample. Teachers and observers rated ego control and ego resiliency when participants (n ¼ 136) were in preschool and elementary school. Ratings showed evidence for convergent and discriminant validity and stability over time. Ego resiliency, but not ego control, emerged as a powerful predictor of adaptive functioning at ages 19 and 26, as well as internalizing and externalizing problems at 16, 23, 26, and 32 years. We interpret these findings as evidence that flexibility and adaptability-measured with ego resiliency-may reduce risk and promote successful adaptation in low socioeconomic status (SES) environments.

In this paper, I propose a roadmap for the integration of culture in developmental psychopathology. This integration is pressing because culture continues to be somewhat disconnected from theory, research, training, and interventions in developmental psychopathology, thus limiting our understanding of the epigenesis of mental health. I argue that in order to successfully integrate culture into developmental psychopathology, it is crucial to (a) study cultural development, (b) consider both individual-level and social-level cultural processes, (c) examine the interplay between culture and biology, and (d) promote improved and direct cultural assessment. I provide evidence in support of each of these guidelines, present alternative conceptual frameworks, and suggest new lines of research. Hopefully, that these directions will contribute to the emerging field of cultural development and psychopathology, which focuses on the elucidation of the cultural processes that initiate, maintain,...

Culture is a fuzzy concept without fixed boundaries, meaning different things according to situations. To address this issue, I introduce a p-model to understand culture as a system of people, places, and practices, for a purpose such as enacting, justifying, or resisting power. People refers to population dynamics, social relations, and culture in groups. Places refers to ecological dynamics, institutional influences, and culture in contexts. Practices refers to participatory dynamics, community engagement, and culture in action. Power refers to forcing others into compliance (power-over people), controlling access to spaces (power-in places), and behaving as desired (power-to practice). I use racism to illustrate the p-model and suggest applications in theory, research, and practice in developmental sciences.

The goal of this study was to examine how aspects of self-regulation and negative emotionality predicted children's cooperative and prosocial behavior concurrently and longitudinally using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Mothers completed measures of children's temperamental proneness to negative emotionality and self-regulation at 54 months. Teachers and parents completed measures of children's cooperative and prosocial behavior at 54 months, first grade, and third grade. A latent profile analysis of the temperamental variables revealed four profiles of children: those high in regulation and low in negative emotionality, those moderate in regulation and moderate in negative emotionality, those low in regulation and high in negative emotionality, and finally those who were very low in regulation but high in anger emotionality. Generally, children with profiles that were high or moderate in terms of regulation and low or moderate in terms of negative emotionality were rated as the most prosocial and cooperative. Children with profiles that were less well regulated and who were high in negative emotionality (particularly anger proneness) were rated as less cooperative and prosocial by parents and teachers.

Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important context in which children construct socioemotional understanding, longitudinal evidence is lacking. The goal of this study was to examine longitudinally the links between the quality of reminiscing at 42 months and children's subsequent socioemotional development at 48 months. At 42 months, mothers and children reminisced about a past negatively-valenced emotional event. These conversations were coded for maternal elaboration, the children's contribution and engagement, and the degree to which meaning was co-constructed by the dyad. At 42 and 48 months, children took part in laboratory measures of socioemotional development. Whereas there were few links between concurrent reminiscing quality and sociomoral development, aspects of reminiscing quality at 42 months (including children's engagement and the dyad's co-construction of meaning) were related to children's emotional understanding, empathy, representations of relationships, and moral-self at 48 months. This study provides some of the first longitudinal evidence that reminiscing conversations are linked with children's subsequent sociomoral understanding.

This longitudinal study highlights the role of specific parenting behaviors in specific contexts when predicting moral development in children of varying temperament types. A sample of mother-child dyads took part in a competing demands task involving differing "do" and "don't" contextual demands when the child was 2 years of age. Child temperament was also assessed at this time, yielding inhibited, exuberant, and low-reactive temperament groups. Children's moral behavior was assessed at 5.5 years of age. Models examining the interaction of temperament and mother behaviors in each context indicated that mother's reasoning/explanation and ignoring in the "do" context predicted later moral behavior in inhibited children, whereas redirection and commands in the "don't" context predicted moral behavior in exuberant children. Keywords Temperament; parent-child relationships; moral development The role of temperament in moral development has received increasing attention from researchers hoping to clarify the means through which children internalize moral values. Kochanska (1991, 1993; Kochanska & Aksan, 2006) laid the groundwork for this line of research, suggesting that temperament impacts moral development through its differential influence on emotional and behavioral control components of conscience. Conscience may be viewed as a multifaceted self-regulatory system encompassing moral emotion, behavior, and cognition (Kochanska & Aksan, 2006). The development of conscience, i.e., the development of self-regulatory processes that promote moral thought, emotion, and behavior, is a major contributor to children's moral development. Emotionally, children may behave morally in order to avoid "affective discomfort," i.e., guilt or anxiety in reference to perceived wrongdoing. Behavioral self-regulation allows children to inhibit certain responses and produce others to the service of rule-compliant behavior, reflecting a willingness to behave consistently with external expectations (

Research suggests that temperamental approach-withdrawal is subject to parenting influences, but few studies have explored how specific parenting behaviors and contextual novelty contribute to the observed pattern of effects. The present study examined associations between infant temperamental approach, mother behavior while introducing novel objects (12 months) and temperamental approach-withdrawal in toddlerhood (18 months) in a sample of 132 infants (68 males). Maternal positive affect predicted more toddler approach-withdrawal for high-approach infants and maternal stimulation predicted less toddler approach-withdrawal for low-approach infants; however, these patterns varied with intensity of novelty in both parenting and toddler outcome contexts. Thus, maternal behavior may lead to stronger associations between earlier and later measures of approach-withdrawal; however, these effects are tied to contexts of measurement.

Individuals with secure attachments to parents and peers are less likely to be bullies and victims of bullying. The current study examined the interplay between gender, parent attachment, and peer attachment as factors related to roles (bullying involvement, defending a victim, and outsider) during bullying. One-hundred forty-eight adolescents (M age = 15.68) completed surveys about parent and peer attachment and roles during bullying. Findings indicated that females were less likely than males to be involved in bullying and were more likely than males to defend a victim or be an outsider (ps < .05). Greater attachment security to parents and peers was associated with greater involvement in bullying and less defending of victims (ps < .05). Additionally, a significant three-way interaction demonstrated that greater peer attachment security predicted less bullying involvement for those with lower parent attachment security (p < .05), but not for those with higher parent attachment security (p > .05). However, this was only true for males (p < .01). These results indicate that having a secure attachment to peers may be a potential protective factor against bullying involvement for males with insecure attachments to parents. Future research should examine the possible mechanisms involved in the association between attachment and bullying, such as empathy, aggression, or social information processing. Keywords attachment; bullying; parents; peers; gender There were no potential conflicts of interest for the current study. All procedures were approved by the University's Institutional Review Board, and all participants gave their informed consent.

Objectives-There is limited research investigating whether maternal behaviors exhibited during non-feeding contexts play a role in the development of obesity, and whether this association varies based on children's emerging regulatory skills. The objective of this study was to investigate interactions between maternal behaviors and toddler regulation predicting child BMI z-scores (BMIZ) at 4.5 years. Subjects/Methods-Infant-mother dyads (n = 108) participated in laboratory visits when the child was 18 months and 4.5 years of age. Maternal interactive behaviors (i.e., positive responsiveness, gentle control) were coded from recordings of free play and clean-up tasks with their toddlers. Toddler regulation was assessed via an observational task, experimenter ratings, and parent ratings. Child and mother length/height and weight measurements were recorded and used to calculate child BMIZ and maternal BMI, respectively. Results-After controlling for covariates, two significant interactions emerged between maternal behaviors and toddler regulation predicting BMIZ at 4.5 years. First, an interaction of positive responsiveness during free play and toddler regulation demonstrated that greater positive responsiveness significantly related to lower child BMIZ for toddlers with poor regulation. Second, an interaction of gentle control during clean-up and toddler regulation indicated that greater gentle control was associated with lower BMIZ for toddlers with lesser regulatory abilities, but higher BMIZ for well-regulated toddlers. No significant main effects emerged for maternal interactive behaviors or toddler regulation. Conclusions-These results suggest that associations between maternal behaviors and child BMIZ may depend on toddlers' emerging regulatory abilities. Maternal responsiveness during free play and gentle control during clean-up appear to protect against weight gain, especially for toddlers with lower regulatory abilities. However, greater levels of gentle control may have adverse effects on BMIZ for well-regulated toddlers. These results suggest that both parenting and Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:

This study examined longitudinal, temperament-specific relations between parenting qualities in two interactive contexts and behavioral measures of child self-regulation and conscience. Mothertoddler interactions were observed for maternal gentle control and mutual positivity and responsiveness (MPR) when children were 18 months old (sample N=134, 53% male, 92% non-Hispanic White). Child temperament was also assessed, yielding exuberant, inhibited, and average-approach temperament groups. Children's behavioral self-regulation and conscience were assessed at 4.5 years of age. Mother gentle control in a free play related to poorer later behavioral self-regulation for children in the average-approach group, whereas gentle control in a clean-up related to better behavioral self-regulation in the exuberant group. MPR during the clean-up related to better conscience in the inhibited group. These results provide further support for temperament-and context-specific relations between different parenting qualities and children's later regulatory skills, which may inform the development of more effective temperament-based parenting interventions.

Objectives Infants are predisposed to reject bitter tastes in order to prevent the ingestion of toxic substances. Thus, some infants may respond to bitter flavors with a physiological response consistent with how they respond to environmental threat, with implications for their behavior. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is an index of parasympathetic regulation of the heart, which decreases in response to challenging or threatening stimuli (i.e., RSA withdrawal), allowing the individual to engage in a fight or flight response (Porges, 2007). Here, we examined whether RSA withdrawal (RSAW) was associated with infants’ behavioral reactions to bitter green vegetable purées. Methods Infants/toddlers (n = 106; 57 males) tasted a familiar food (rice cereal) and a novel food (kale purees) offered by their caregivers (94% mothers) during a laboratory visit. Trained coders watched video recordings to tally infants’ rejections (e.g., head turns, spoon swatting) and rate their degree of acce...

We examined whether and how the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) interacts with adverse life events to predict maternal sensitivity directly and indirectly via emotion regulation. The sample included 207 (105 European American, 102 African American) mothers and their children (52% female). Sensitive maternal behavior was rated and aggregated across five stress-free and stressinducing tasks when children were about 2 years old, when mothers also retrospectively reported on their adverse life experiences and transitions throughout childhood from birth to age 20. When children were about 1year old, mothers reported on their difficulties with emotion regulation. Results from path analysis indicated that mothers who carried the long allele of DRD4 and experienced more adverse life events were less sensitive in interactions with their children. These mothers were also more likely to have difficulties with emotion regulation, which in turn predicted lower maternal sensitivity. These effects were significant above and beyond the effects of maternal education, coherence of mind, race, and infants' DRD4 genotype, and did not vary for African American and European American mothers. Results suggest that genetic predispositions modify the effects of maternal experience of adverse life events on maternal sensitivity and that emotion regulation serves as one mechanism by which genetic factors and gene-environment interactions affect maternal behavior.