The deterioration and mobilization effects of trauma on social support: childhood maltreatment and adulthood military violence in a Palestinian community sample

OBJECTIVES: To show that exposure to childhood maltreatment deteriorates, whereas exposure to adulthood military violence mobilizes social support; second, to show that associations between traumatic events and mental health problems are mediated through social support and, subsequently, adulthood military violence is associated with low level and childhood maltreatment with high level of mental health symptoms; third, to explore whether the moderating (protecting) effect of sufficient and satisfactory social support would differ among victims of childhood maltreatment and adulthood military violence. METHOD: The participants were a random-sample of Palestinian men and women (n=585) of 16-60 years of age. Exposure to military violence in adulthood was assessed by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ_I), and to childhood maltreatment by a 13-item questionnaire developed for the study. A Social Network Schedule was applied to assess the function, source, and satisfaction with social support, and the Revised SCL90-R Symptoms Checklist to assess mental health symptoms. RESULTS: Findings supported our hypothesis that exposure to childhood maltreatment was associated with low levels of social support, whereas exposure to adulthood military violence was associated with high levels of social support. Contrary to our second hypothesis, both childhood maltreatment and adulthood military violence were associated with high levels of mental health symptoms. Finally, high level and satisfactory social support moderated the association between exposure to military violence in adulthood and mental health symptoms, but not between childhood maltreatment and mental health symptoms. CONCLUSION: The findings emphasize that the nature of trauma, that is, whether familial or political, determines the availability of protective resources versus vulnerability, which should be considered when tailoring interventions to trauma victims.     

Within-group relationships and lack of social enhancement during object manipulation in captive Goffin’s cockatoos (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cacatua goffiniana</Emphasis>)

Different types of social relationships can influence individual learning strategies in structured groups of animals. Studies on a number of avian species have suggested that local and/or stimulus enhancement are important ingredients of the respective species’ exploration modes. Our aim was to identify the role of enhancement during object manipulation in different social contexts. We used focal observations to identify a linear dominance hierarchy as well as affiliative relationships between individuals in a group of 14 Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana, formerly goffini). Thereafter, in an unrewarded object choice task, several pairs of subjects were tested for a possible influence of social enhancement (local vs. stimulus) in three conditions: dominance, affiliation, and kinship. Our results suggest strong individual biases. Whereas previous studies on ravens and kea had indicated that enhancement in a non-food-related task was influenced by the social relationship between a demonstrator and an observer (affiliated – nonaffiliated), we found no such effects in our study group. In this context, Goffin’s cockatoos’ object learning seems to take place more on an individual level, despite their generally high motivation to manipulate nonfood items.     

Word-Decoding Deficits in Norwegian: The Impact of Psycholinguistic Marker Effects

The effects of regularity, frequency, lexicality, and granularity on single word reading in Norwegian children with dyslexia and control children matched for age and reading level were examined. The reading impaired children showed the same pattern of performance as younger children matched for reading level on most tasks except for the fact that they worse at nonword reading. The findings are discussed against different theoretical models of reading.     

Students’ formative assessment perceptions,feedback use and mathematics performance in secondary schools in Tanzania

This study investigates the impact of secondary school students’ perceptions of mathematics teachers’ formative assessment practices and feedback delivery on their feedback use, and mathematics performance. The sample consisted of 2767 Form 3 (Grade 11) students from 48 secondary schools in Tanzania. Surveys and focus group discussions were used to measure students’ perceptions of formative assessment, feedback delivery, and feedback use. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) of survey data showed that students’ perceptions of the quality of teacher feedback delivery and perceived scaffolding positively predicted students’ feedback use whereas perceived monitoring negatively predicted feedback use. In turn, students’ feedback use positively predicted their mathematics performance to a small extent. Content analysis of focus group discussions illustrated that most students valued their mathematics teacher’s assessment practices. The findings imply that in Sub-Saharan African educational systems the quality of teacher feedback delivery and promotion of student feedback use can improve students’ mathematics performance.     

Commentary: Development of Perception-Action Systems and General Principles of Pattern Formation

Our commentary on this special issue devoted to Developmental Biodynamics: Brain, Body, and Behavior Connections is divided into 3 main sections. The first section is an overview of the individual contributions. 5 major themes are identified: (1) inappropriateness of computational treatments of development and the need for more biologically and physically relevant treatments; (2) significance of tailoring muscular to nonmuscular forces in developing movement coordination; (3) importance of spontaneous movements as exploratory and formative mechanisms; (4) influences of action capabilities on the development of perception capabilities, and vice versa; (5) applications of methods and techniques of nonlinear dynamics to developmental processes. In the second section, we provide a synopsis of current ways of thinking about prototypical developmental processes, namely, pattern formation and pattern differentiation, in various classes of physical and biological systems. It is suggested that efforts to understand the progressive formation and differentiation of patterns in terms of very general principles provide a valuable resource of concepts and methods for students of child development. In the third section, hypotheses about the development of perception-action systems are generated from juxtaposing the themes and conjectures of this special issue with general principles of pattern formation. The hypotheses suggest the possibility of a pattern formation or dynamics approach to child development as an alternative to the conventional approaches emphasizing maturation (nativist), specific learning experiences (empiricist), cognitive stages (Piagetian), and strategies of encoding and retrieval (information processing).     

Individual Differences in Infant Visual Attention: Four-Month-Olds' Discrimination and Generalization of Global and Local Stimulus Properties

Cognitive performance and development is negatively correlated with fixation duration patterns during infancy, and evidence suggests that long-looking infants may process visual information more slowly than short-looking infants. 3 experiments described here tested the possibility that these differences may be due to differential sensitivity to global and local visual information. Infants were administered discrimination and generalization tasks involving global and local information at varying levels of familiarization time. Results indicated that 4-month-olds process visual information in a global-to-local sequence. Both long- and short-looking infants were sensitive to both types of information, although long lookers required additional familiarization time to match the performance of short lookers. Finally, apparent "generalization" of global information at brief familiarization levels was traced to insensitivity to local stimulus properties. The results do not support the hypothesis that long- and short-looking infants are differentially sensitive to global versus local visual information at 4 months of age.     

Goal‐Directed Correlates and Neurobiological Underpinnings of Adolescent Identity: A Multimethod Multisample Longitudinal Approach

This multimethod multisample longitudinal study examined how neurological substrates associated with goal directedness and information seeking are related to adolescents’ identity. Self‐reported data on goal‐directedness were collected across three biannual waves in Study 1. Identity was measured one wave later. Study 1 design and measurements were repeated in Study 2 and extended with structural brain data (nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and prefrontal cortex gray matter volume [PFC]), collected across three biannual waves. Study 1 included 497 adolescents (M_{age T1} = 13.03 years) and Study 2 included 131 adolescents (M_{age T1} = 14.69 years). Using latent growth curve models, goal directedness, NAcc, and PFC volume predicted a stronger identity one wave later. These findings provide crucial new insights in the underlying neurobiological architecture of identity.     

Emeritus professors: Correlates of professional activity in retirement II

Dorfman (1980b) investigated correlates of professional activity in retirement of professors at a major state university who continued to reside in their academic community during the entire year. This follow-up study extends that research to the total population of emeriti by including emeriti who left the University community after retirement and emeriti who continued to live in the University community for part of the year. Interviews were conducted with 113 University of Iowa emeritus professors. There was consistency between level of professional activity during the preretirement career and level of professional activity in retirement for the entire group, with stayers more consistent than leavers. Significant correlates of professional activity in retirement for the entire group included rated importance of consulting and University service, strength of ties to colleagues and professional organizations outside the University, contacts with former students, and perceived rapidity of changes in knowledge in respondents' fields. Multiple regression results showed that the strongest predictors of professional activity in retirement were level of professional activity during the preretirement career and strength of ties to professional organizations outside the University.     

A Case Study of Elementary Science Teaching as Mediated Action: Transformations of Context,Meaning, and Action

The research described in this article is a case study of a fifth grade teacher's (Melissa) efforts to construct a teaching and learning environment within her science teaching. Qualitative research methods were used to examine and analyze Melissa's science teaching practice. Drawing from socio-cultural theories, I argue that her teaching and learning environment was constructed as a form of mediated action through which she articulated and transformed the context, meaning, and action of her science teaching. In particular, she forged links between a number of factors, such as historically recognizable forms of pedagogy, perceptions of her students' socio-economic positions, knowledge of appropriate science teaching, and her experiences in a preservice teacher education program. Through her pedagogical work, the teaching and learning environment was articulated into a complex network of meanings, physical spaces, and concrete actions in which each element transformed the other. I suggest that mediated action is a form of transformation that constitutes context, meaning, and action into a dynamic and constantly-shifting teaching and learning environment. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Practical Introduction to Authoring for Computer-Assisted Instruction. Part 7: Graphic support

Images provide a useful method of presenting information to an audience. In a learning situation the use of pictorial forms can offer a high-bandwidth mechanism for the transfer of information between an instructor and a student. This paper discusses some ways of providing graphic support in a computer-based learning environment and describes some approaches to the provision of authoring facilities that utilize this technique.