Simulation studies have shown how Bayesian adaptive estimation methods should be set up for optimal performance. We assessed the extent to which these results hold up for human observers, who are more subject to failure than simulation subjects. Discrimination and detection experiments with two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) tasks were used for that purpose. Forty estimates of the point of subjective equality (PSE, or the 50% correct point on the psychometric function for discrimination) and 32 estimates of detection threshold (the 80% correct point on the psychometric function for detection) were taken for each of four observers with the optimal Bayesian method, while data for fitting the psychometric function Ψ were gathered concurrently with an adaptive method of constant stimuli governed by fixed-step-size staircases. The estimated parameters of the psychometric function served as a criterion for comparison. In the discrimination task, PSEs for each observer were distributed around the independently estimated 50% correct point on Ψ and their variability was occasionally minimally larger than simulation results indicated it should be. In the detection task, the distribution of threshold estimates was consistently above the independently estimated 80% correct point on Ψ and their variability was as expected from simulations. A close analysis of these results suggests that the optimal Bayesian method is affected by growing inattention or fatigue in detection tasks (factors that are not considered in simulations), and limits the practical applicability of Bayesian estimation of detection thresholds.

In the late 1930s, the Institute of Human Relations of Yale University developed a research program on conflict and anxiety as an outcome of Clark Hull's informal seminar on the integration of Freud's and Pavlov's theories. The program was launched at the 1937 Annual Meeting of the APA in a session chaired by Clark L. Hull, and the experiments continued through 1941, when the United States entered the Second World War. In an effort to apply the findings from animal experiments to the war situation, John Dollard and Neal E. Miller decided to study soldiers' fear reactions in combat. As a first step, they arranged interviews with a few veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Taking these interviews as a point of departure, Dollard devised a questionnaire to which 300 former Lincoln brigaders responded. The present paper analyzes the main outcomes of the questionnaire, together with the war experiences reported in the interview transcripts. Our purpose was to evaluate a project which was initially investigated by the FBI because of the communists among the Lincoln ranks, but eventually supported by the American Army, and which exerted great influence on the military psychology of the time.

We examined the memory for central and peripheral information concerning a crime and the acceptance of false information. We also studied eyewitnesses' confidence in their memory. Participants were shown a video depicting a bank robbery and a questionnaire was used to introduce false central and peripheral information. The next day the participants completed a recognition task in which they rated the confidence of their responses. Performance was better for central information and participants registered more false alarms for peripheral contents. The cognitive system's limited attentional capacity and the greater information capacity of central elements may facilitate processing the more important information. The presentation of misinformation seriously impaired eyewitness memory by prompting a more lenient response criterion. Participants were more confident with central than with peripheral information. Eyewitness memory is easily distorted in peripheral aspects but it is more difficult to make mistakes with central information. However, when false information is introduced, errors in central information can be accompanied by high confidence, thus rendering them credible and legally serious.

The research described here investigates the role played by inhibitory processes in the discriminations made by the nervous system of humans and animals between familiar and unfamiliar and significant and nonsignificant events. This research compared the effects of two inhibitory mediators of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA): 1) phenibut, a nonselective agonist of ionotropic GABAA and metabotropic GABAB receptors and 2) gaboxadol a selective agonist of ionotropic GABAA receptors on the process of developing active defensive and inhibitory conditioned reflexes in alert non-immobilized rabbits. It was found that phenibut, but not gaboxadol, accelerates the development of defensive reflexes at an early stage of conditioning. Both phenibut and gaboxadol facilitate the development of conditioned inhibition, but the effect of gaboxadol occurs at later stages of conditioning and is less stable than that of phenibut. The earlier and more stable effects of phenibut, as compared to gaboxadol, on storage in memory of the inhibitory significance of a stimulus may occur because GABAB receptors play the dominant role in the development of internal inhibition during an early stage of conditioning. On the other hand this may occur because the participation of both GABAA and GABAB receptors are essential to the process. We discuss the polyfunctionality of GABA receptors as a function of their structure and the positions of the relevant neurons in the brain as this factor can affect regulation of various types of psychological processes.

The present experiment was designed to assess the hemispheric differences for global and local processing in healthy participants under different conditions of stimuli visibility, by means of varying the size and sparsity. Three different sizes and three different matrixes of hierarchical stimuli were introduced. Stimuli consisted of incomplete squares with one side missing. Participants were asked to carry out an orientation classification task (left/right), indicating the orientation of the square opening either at global or local levels. The results do not support the hemispheric differences for global and local processing, showing the same efficiency of right and left hemispheres for analyzing global and local information. Nevertheless, other results found are consistent with the hypothesis of right hemisphere superiority under degraded stimulus conditions.

Emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) and neutral scenes were presented foveally (at fixation) or peripherally (5.2° away from fixation) as primes for 150 ms. The prime was followed by a mask and a centrally presented probe scene for recognition. The probe was either identical in specific content (i.e., same people and objects) to the prime, or it was related to the prime in general content and affective valence. The probe was always different from the prime in color, size, and spatial orientation. Results showed an interaction between prime location and emotional valence for the recognition hit rate, but also for the false alarm rate and correct rejection times. There were no differences as a function of emotional valence in the foveal display condition. In contrast, in the peripheral display condition both hit and false alarm rates were higher and correct rejection times were longer for emotional than for neutral scenes. It is concluded that emotional gist, or a coarse affective impression, is extracted from emotional scenes in peripheral vision, which then leads to confuse them with others of related affective valence. The underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are discussed. An alternative explanation based on the physical characteristics of the scene images was ruled out.

There is currently a widespread interest in indexing and extracting taxonomic information from large text collections. An example is the automatic categorization of informally written medical or psychological diagnoses, followed by the extraction of epidemiological information or even terms and structures needed to formulate guiding questions as an heuristic tool for helping doctors. Vector space models have been successfully used to this end (Lee, Cimino, Zhu, Sable, Shanker, Ely & Yu, 2006; Pakhomov, Buntrock & Chute, 2006). In this study we use a computational model known as Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) on a diagnostic corpus with the aim of retrieving definitions (in the form of lists of semantic neighbors) of common structures it contains (e.g. “storm phobia”, “dog phobia”) or less common structures that might be formed by logical combinations of categories and diagnostic symptoms (e.g. “gun personality” or “germ personality”). In the quest to bring definitions into line with the meaning of structures and make them in some way representative, various problems commonly arise while recovering content using vector space models. We propose some approaches which bypass these problems, such as Kintsch's (2001) predication algorithm and some corrections to the way lists of neighbors are obtained, which have already been tested on semantic spaces in a non-specific domain (Jorge-Botana, León, Olmos & Hassan-Montero, under review). The results support the idea that the predication algorithm may also be useful for extracting more precise meanings of certain structures from scientific corpora, and that the introduction of some corrections based on vector length may increases its efficiency on non-representative terms.

In a series of studies, in which 19 apparently healthy male volunteers participated, on the basis of a comparative analysis of the bioelectric brain activity and work performance, it is shown that two strategies of adaptation to the factors of monotony are possible. One of them is based on the maintenance of a high quality of activity even at the price of a considerable reduction in the functional state of the brain; the second is based on the maintenance of the functional status of the brain even at the expense of the short-term loss of control over realizable performance. The factor conditioning the long term inability to support continual high quality of performance under the conditions of monotony is a high lability in nervous processes. The resistance to the effects of the factors of monotony is connected, on the other hand, with the low lability of nervous processes with a certain predominance of excitatory processes over inhibiting processes. The electrographic correlates of the development of the state of monotony represent an increase in the EEG of an alert person of the slow spectra (theta and alpha), and also beta-2 waves, as well as a reduction in the intrahemispheric coherence of alpha-waves. These results can be used for the development of control systems for the state of the operators who work in conditions of monotony (pilots, the operators of electric trains, the operators of power plants, including atomic power plants, and others), as well as in the occupational selection of individuals for jobs involving work under such conditions.

Learning to read is one of the most important cognitive milestones in the human social environment. One of the most accepted models explaining such process is the Double-Route Cascaded Model. It suggests the existence of two reading strategies: lexical and sublexical. In the Spanish language there are some contradictions about how these strategies are applied for reading. In addition, there are only a few studies dealing with the analysis of shifts between them, achieving a fluent reading process. In this paper we use a reading task including words and pseudowords for characterizing the cost of shifting between reading strategies in children with developmental dyslexia and normal controls. Our results suggest the presence of both strategies in these two experimental groups. In controls, both strategies become more efficient in correspondence to the increased exposition to written material. However, in children with developmental dyslexia only the lexical strategy exhibits such improvement. Their also point to a low cost for shifting between strategies in controls and a much more significant one in children with developmental dyslexia, differentiating subgroups with distinct shifting patterns.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that affect recognition impairments are associated with genetic liability to schizophrenia. In a group of 55 unaffected relatives of schizophrenia patients (parents and siblings) we examined the capacity to detect facially expressed emotions and its relationship to schizotypal personality, neurocognitive functioning, and the subject's actual emotional state. The relatives were compared with 103 schizophrenia patients and 99 healthy subjects without any family history of psychoses. Emotional stimuli were nine black-and-white photos of actors, who portrayed six basic emotions as well as interest, contempt, and shame. The results evidenced the affect recognition deficit in relatives, though milder than that in patients themselves. No correlation between the deficit and schizotypal personality measured with SPQ was detected in the group of relatives. Neither cognitive functioning, including attention, verbal memory and linguistic ability, nor actual emotional states accounted for their affect recognition impairments. The results suggest that the facial affect recognition deficit in schizophrenia may be related to genetic predisposition to the disorder and may serve as an endophenotype in molecular-genetic studies.

Since the decade of 1980, the model of stress and coping proposed for the assessment of vulnerability of adoptive families emphasizes that the emotional adjustment of those adopted is moderated by variables such as institutionalization, the manner and age at which the adoption was revealed, the change of first name, and the contact with the biological family. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship of these variables to the perceived parenting style, mood, and self-esteem of the adopted adolescents. Participants in the study were 68 adolescents, between the ages of 14 and 15, adopted during infancy through judicial channels. The adolescents responded to a questionnaire about the history of adoption and to scales of Parenting Styles, Depression and Self-esteem. The main results indicated that the late revelation of adoption and the change of the first name are connected to higher levels of depression and low self-esteem and to more frequent perceptions of negligent or authoritarian parenting style. The contact with the biological family was frequently mentioned among those who perceived their parents as authoritative and presented the best indicator of mood and self-esteem. These findings were discussed in light of the necessity for multidisciplinary actions which can improve the psychological adaptation of the adopting families.

The role of connectives in the comprehension of spontaneous spoken discourse has been investigated by testing the effect of the connective ‘but’ in the realization of causal inferences and the integration of adjacent statements. The role of this connective in the realization of causal inferences has been tested through a judgment task. The role of ‘but’ in the integration of the adjacent statements has been tested through a word monitoring task. The presence of the connective resulted in shorter reaction times for the realization of causal inferences in the judgment task, but it did not result in shorter reaction times for the integration of adjacent statements, as measured by the word monitoring task. These results suggest that listeners are able to make use of connectives to help them create and decide on the existence of causal connections, but not to process and recognize the surface form of the second statement of the pair.

The purpose of the present paper was to study the development of emotional autonomy through adolescence analysing its association with family relationships. The development of emotional autonomy involves an increase in adolescents' subjective sense of his or her independence, especially in relation to parents. From some scholars emotional autonomy is a normative manifestation of the detachment process from parents, however, others point out that detachment from parental ties is not the norm, so high level of adolescent emotional autonomy is the consequence of negative family relationships. In our study a sample of 101 adolescents were followed for 5 years, from early to middle adolescence, and completed questionnaires to measure their emotional autonomy and the quality of their family relationships. Our results showed that over the course of adolescence some dimensions of emotional autonomy increase, meanwhile others decrease, so the global level of emotional autonomy global level remains stable. On the other hand, emotional autonomy is associated with negative family relationships, so emotional autonomy, more than a necessary process to become adult, could be indicating an insecure attachment to parents.

School adjustment is one the greatest challenges in residential child care programs. This study has two aims: to analyze school adjustment compared to a normative population, and to carry out a multi-source analysis (child, classmates, and teacher) of this adjustment. A total of 50 classrooms containing 60 children from residential care units were studied. The “Método de asignación de atributos perceptivos” (Allocation of perceptive attributes; Díaz-Aguado, 2006), the “Test Autoevaluativo Multifactorial de Adaptación Infantil” (TAMAI [Multifactor Self-assessment Test of Child Adjustment]; Hernández, 1996) and the “Protocolo de valoración para el profesorado (Evaluation Protocol for Teachers; Fernández del Valle, 1998) were applied. The main results indicate that, compared with their classmates, children in residential care are perceived as more controversial and less integrated at school, although no differences were observed in problems of isolation. The multi-source analysis shows that there is agreement among the different sources when the externalized and visible aspects are evaluated. These results are discussed in connection with the practices that are being developed in residential child care programs.

The aim of this study is to describe some characteristics of the sexual behavior of adolescents in Spain and to compare these characteristics according to gender, using a cross-sectional survey. Participants were 1.279 male and female adolescents who reported having had sexual intercourse. A questionnaire about sexual behavior was applied at their high schools and during school hours. Data were collected between 2006 and 2007. Mean age at the onset of sexual intercourse was 14.8 years in males and 15.0 years in females. Males and females were different according to the type of partner at the last sexual intercourse: 63.0% of males had a steady partner compared to 90.5% of females (p<0.01). The mean number of sexual partners during the last 12 months was higher in males than in females (M = 2.1 and M = 1.5 partners, for males and females, respectively, p<0.01). 50.0% of males had sexual intercourse under the effects of drugs versus 39.3% of females (p<0.01). STD and HIV prevention programs should be designed considering the differences according to adolescents’ sex.

Since the 1970s there has been a growing interest in analysing sex differences in psychological variables. Empirical studies and meta-analyses have contributed evidence on the differences between male and female individuals. More recently, the gender similarities hypothesis has supported the similarity of men and women in most psychological variables. This study contributes information on women's greater empathic disposition in comparison with men by means of a longitudinal design in an adolescent population. 505 male and female adolescents aged between 13 and 16 years were evaluated at two different moments (grade 2 and grade 3, lower secondary education). They completed the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents by Bryant and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index by Davis. The results confirm a greater empathic response in females than in males of the same age, differences growing with age. The sizes of the effect estimated in the second evaluation (average age 14 years) are large for emotional empathy and medium for cognitive empathy.

The main purpose of the study reported here was to examine the early linguistic predictors of reading (e.g., Knowledge About Print, Listening Comprehension, Receptive Vocabulary, Rapid Naming of Objects and Letters, and Phonological Awareness), for a sample of 77 Spaniards, 48 Latinos, and 30 Gypsies kindergartens (mean age = 5 years 9 months) living in Spain. The relative contribution of ethnic background, neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES), age, and gender was assessed. Findings revealed that ethnic background, neighborhood SES, and age differentially predicted children's pre-literacy skills. The implications of these results for understanding the role played by these demographic and socio-cultural variables in alphabetic literacy acquisition are discussed. The second purpose of this study was to add to the growing literature on the nature of reading challenges in children who are learning to read a transparent orthography-Spanish. Cross-linguistic research between different subtypes of readers will add to understand the impact of language characteristics in reading acquisition. Finally, the present study suggested that early assessment of pre-literacy skills can be a highly effective way to determine the instructional needs of students who are at risk for reading failure before formal reading instruction begins.

Under the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behavior, the objective of this study was to know the gender differences in the variables involved in the use of effective preventive measures in sexual relations against HIV in a sample of university students from Spain and Portugal. Furthermore, it is examined whether these factors produce different predictions concerning the adoption of safe sexual behaviour for young man and women in each country. The sample consisted of 683 university students, 319 Portuguese (64% female and 36% male) from the University of Algarve and 364 Spanish students (51% female and 49% male) from the University of Huelva. Data were obtained by means of a questionnaire. The data revealed that there are gender differences which apply in both countries, highlighting that the young women have more positive attitudes, greater perceived behavioural control and intention of condom use than young men. However, they protect themselves less that their male counterparts: the percentage of females who say using condoms as a contraceptive method is less than the percentage of males, and especially with their steady partners. The results are discussed in relation to gender role norms, to have a steady partner or not, gender relations, the associated meaning to sexual relations for men and women and their implications for the design of sexual educational programmes for them.

In this paper, the relations between academic goals and various indicators that define the quality of the learning process are analyzed. The purpose was to determine to what extent high, moderate, or low levels of academic goals were positively or negatively related to effort regulation, the value assigned to academic tasks, meta-cognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, beliefs about learning control, and management of time and study environment. The investigation was carried out with a sample of 632 university students (70% female and 30% male) and mean age of 21.22 (SD=2.2).The results show that learning goals, or task orientation, are positively related to all the indictors of learning quality considered herein. Although for other kinds of goals—work-avoidance goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals—significant relations were not found with all the indicators, there was a similar tendency of significant results in all cases; the higher the levels of these goals, the lower the levels of the indicators of learning quality.

One hundred and fifty-five mothers of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) completed a semi-structured interview, the Parenting Stress Index Questionnaire (Abidin, 1990), to evaluate parenting stress. The Parenting Scale (Arnold, O'Leary, Wolff & Acker, 1993) was also administered to measure dysfunctional discipline strategies. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model in which the independent variables were the Child's Characteristics and the Socio-Educational Status of his or her family; intermediate variables were Parenting Stress concerning the Child Domain and concerning the Parent Domain; and the dependent variable was Parental Discipline. The results confirm our hypotheses. Interventions in these families should therefore incorporate a component focused on Parenting Stress (in both the Child Domain and the Parent Domain), as a determinant of Parental Discipline.