Francesco Lopes
Relations between family interactions in the Pic-Nic-Game and Theory of Mind in five years old children.
Authors
Francesco Lopes (University of Lausanne)
France Frascarolo (University of Lausanne)
Child’s cognitive and emotional development is linked to the quality of family functioning. High quality of family functioning can allow members to interact in secure and potentially flexible ways permitting them to communicate emotions and to share knowledge and intentions. These relational processes are hypothesized to promote the development of child’s theory of mind competences. The goal of the research we will present is to test the links between family functioning and development of child theory of mind competences in children aged 5 years. In order to achieve this goal, we use the Pic-Nic-Game, a new observational tool for assessment of interactions in family, and Theory of Mind tasks. The population consists of 31 middle class volunteer families composed by mother, father and their child, French speaking, non referred clinically. In the Pic-Nic-Game, family is requested to pretend play having a pic-nic using material and toys. They are invited to prepare and have the meal all together, to take the time to play and to clean up at the end. The play lasts approximately 15 minutes. An observational based coding system was developed in order to assess 9 five point Likert dimensions of family interactions. Correlations show links between family dimensions (coparental, marital, good set-limits, and family warmth) and child's False-Belief-task performances. Implication for child development, research limits and future investigations will be discussed.
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Alexandra M. Freund
Memory bias for age-related information in younger and older adults
Authors
Alexandra M. Freund (University of Zurich)
Age is a powerful dimension guiding perception and judgment of self and others, as well as behavior. This paper addresses the question if information is particularly salient when related to one’s own age as reflected in a respective memory bias. Study 1 used an incidental memory paradigm, where pictures of faces of younger or older adults were paired with pictures of objects. As expected, older adults remembered more objects presented with older faces than with younger faces. Younger adults, however, did not show any memory bias. In study 2, the same pattern of results was revealed using a word-list-learning paradigm. Study 3 used a more difficult memory task. Here, participants first had to learn newly created names supposedly typical for young or older adults. These names were then paired with pictures of objects. In an incidental cued recall task, participants had to list the object presented along with a name. Both, younger and older adults performed very poorly in this task. Under this difficult condition, both younger and older adults showed a bias for information related to their own age group. The memory bias in this study cannot be explained with familiarity (all names were new) or with preference for names related to one’s own age group. Results will be discussed with regard to the possible function of the salience of age-related information.
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Tobias Brosch
That baby caught my eye...Attentional modulation by biologically relevant stimuli
Authors
Tobias Brosch (University of Geneva)
David Sander (University of Geneva)
Klaus R. Scherer (University of Geneva)
An alternative to the view that during evolution the human brain has specialized to preferentially attend to threat-related stimuli is to assume that all classes of stimuli that have high biological significance are prioritized by the attention system. Appraisal theories of emotion predict that increased allocation of attention to highly relevant stimuli or events, independently of their valence, will lead to enhanced processing of the event and trigger synchronized changes in the autonomic, motor and motivational system to prepare adaptive responses. Young offspring is a prototypical biologically relevant stimulus, as it is related to the continuity of the species. We examined whether the baby schema as described by Lorenz captures attention in the dot probe task. Our results confirm attentional capture by photos of human infants. The magnitude of the attentional modulation was highly correlated with subjective arousal ratings of the photos, which might reflect the synchronization of the attentional and the autonomic system in response to the stimulus. In a second experiment, ERPs were recorded during a dot probe task using threat-related stimuli and infant faces as cues. Results show highly similar attentional modulations as indicated by a boosting of the P1 towards the respective target. Our data support the notion that a common evaluative process may be responsible for the emotional modulation of selective attention to both negatively and positively valent stimuli.
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Paolo Ghisletta
Cognitive performance and survivorship in the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old: Application of a multivariate joint longitudinal + survival model
Authors
Paolo Ghisletta (University of Geneva)
This work aims at further elucidating theoretical and methodological issues germane to predicting age at death from cognitive performance in old age. A sample of 529 individuals aged between 80-85 years at study inception has been assessed up to five times within the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old. Cognitive assessment included a task of perceptual speed (Cross Out) and one of verbal fluency (Category-fruits). Analyses included multivariate multilevel longitudinal models, survival models, and, combining the two, multivariate joint longitudinal + survival models and were applied to estimate (a) the sample average linear change trajectory on each cognitive task, (b) individual deviations (in terms of level of and change in performance) around the average trajectory of each task, (c) the relationships between individual performance in speed and fluency, and finally (d) survivorship from cognitive performance, controlling for age, sex, overall health, sociobiographic status, and sensory functioning. Results revealed (a) the existence of individual variations in overall level and (negative) linear change in both cognitive variables and (b) their differential predictability of survival, both with and without statistical control for covariates. In the final multivariate model, only level performance in fluency, initial age, and general health status predicted survival (whereas change in cognition and level in speed where not predictive).
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Beate Ditzen
Self Reported Relationship Quality over the Course of the Menstrual Cycle
Authors
Beate Ditzen (Emory University School of Medicine (USA))
Markus Heinrichs (University of Zurich)
Ulrike Ehlert (University of Zurich)
Relationship quality was shown to predict not only the stability of the relationship, but individual health and longevity in humans. Conversely, studies on attachment motivation during the course of the menstrual cycle imply that relationship quality itself might be influenced by biological factors.
We investigated if self reported relationship quality depended on the menstrual cycle stage, and if this influence was mediated through mood and hormonal contraceptives (HC) in women.
In a prospective design over the course of four weeks, we asked 60 women to weekly evaluate their relationship quality, mood, and to provide information about HC, relationship criteria and their menstrual cycle status. Menstrual cycle phases (luteal phase, menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulatory phase) were assigned based on the onset of the last period.
Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) of the data shows a significant increase in relationship quality from the luteal phase to the ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle. This time effect was not influenced by mood or HC.
Our data indicate an important influence of the menstrual cycle phase on relationship quality in both normally cycling women and women using HC. Cognitive and endocrine factors that might mediate this relationship will be discussed during the presentation.
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