Teleological Reasoning in 4-Month-Old Infants: Pupil Dilations and Contextual Constraints

Four-month-old infants were presented with feeding actions performed in a rational or irrational manner. Infants reacted to the irrational feeding actions by dilating their pupils, but only in the presence of rich contextual constraints. The study demonstrates that teleological processes are online at 4 months of age and illustrates the usefulness of pupil dilations as a measure of social cognitive processes early in infancy

Verbal and nonverbal memory in school-aged children born to opioid-dependent mothers

Background: The potential long-term developmental effects of prenatal methadone and buprenorphine exposure during pregnancy are still largely unknown. Aims: We investigated memory function in school-aged children of women enrolled in opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) during pregnancy. Study design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study. Subjects: Participants included 41 children (aged 9–11 years), 20 of which had histories of prenatal methadone or buprenorphine exposure. Outcome measures: Verbal and non-verbal memory function was assessed using four subtests from the Test of Memory and Learning - Second edition (TOMAL-2). Results: The OMT group scored lower on both the two non-verbal as well as the two verbal memory tasks, all p-values <.05. Group differences remained for three out of the four subtests after controlling for general IQ. Including maternal tobacco use during pregnancy increased the explanatory power of the model, R2 change of 0.07, p = .04. Conclusions: Children prenatally exposed to methadone or buprenorphine had significantly lower memory performance, however, this association may in part be explained by maternal tobacco use during pregnancy. Consequently, smoking cessation programs should be systematically integrated into opioid maintenance therapy programs for pregnant women.publishedVersio

Look Who's Talking: Pre-Verbal Infants’ Perception of Face-to-Face and Back-to-Back Social Interactions

Four-, 6-, and 11-month old infants were presented with movies in which two adult actors conversed about everyday events, either by facing each other or looking in opposite directions. Infants from 6 months of age made more gaze shifts between the actors, in accordance with the flow of conversation, when the actors were facing each other. A second experiment demonstrated that gaze following alone did not cause this difference. Instead the results are consistent with a social cognitive interpretation, suggesting that infants perceive the difference between face-to-face and back-to-back conversations and that they prefer to attend to a typical pattern of social interaction from 6 months of age

Developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on young children's event memory and false reports.

The present study investigated developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on children’s memory and suggestibility. Three- and 5-year-olds were singly or repeatedly interviewed about a play event by a highly biased or control interviewer. Children interviewed once by the biased interviewer after a long delay made the most errors. Children interviewed repeatedly, regardless of interviewer bias, were more accurate and less likely to falsely claim that they played with a man. In free recall, among children questioned once after a long delay by the biased interviewer, 5-year-olds were more likely than were 3-year-olds to claim falsely that they played with a man. However, in response to direct questions, 3-year-olds were more easily manipulated into implying that they played with him. Findings suggest that interviewer bias is particularly problematic when children’s memory has weakened. In contrast, repeated interviews that occur a short time after a to-be-remembered event do not necessarily increase children’s errors, even when interviews include misleading questions and interviewer bias. Implications for developmental differences in memory and suggestibility are discussed

Affective decision-making in children prenatally exposed to opioids

Although opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) is currently recommended for pregnant opioid-dependent women, potential effects on children’s long-term development are still largely unknown. The current study assessed the long-term cognitive development of children born to women in OMT. Particularly, children’s decision-making performance was assessed with a child-friendly version of the Iowa Gambling Task. Using a prospective longitudinal design, a cohort of children was followed from birth to middle childhood. Data were collected in Norway between 2005 and 2017. Participants included 41 children (aged 9–11 years), 20 of whom had histories of prenatal methadone or buprenorphine exposure. Background data were collected from personal interviews and medical records in 2005–2006. Children’s affective decision-making was assessed in 2016–2017. Results showed no main effect of group on the net scores in the gambling task, F(1, 39) = 1.44, p = 0.24, η2 = 0.04, demonstrating no group differences in decision-making performance. A main effect of group was found on sensitivity to punishment, with children in the control group choosing the doors with the infrequent, but high punishment more often compared to children in the OMT group, F(1, 39) = 4.90, p = 0.03, η2 = 0.11. No main effect of group on decision-making speed was found, although results showed a significant interaction effect between group and gain, F(1, 8,194) = 4.09, p = 0.04, η2 = 0.001. Children prenatally exposed to opioids were found to have normal decision-making performance on an affective decision-making task and were able to consider future consequences when making decisions

Infants’ understanding of everyday social interactions : a dual process account

Six- and 12-month-old infant’s eye movements were recorded as they observed feedingactions being performed in a rational or non-rational manner. Twelve-month-olds fixatedthe goal of these actions before the food arrived (anticipation); the latency of these gazeshifts being dependent (r = .69) on infants life experience being feed. In addition, 6- and12-month-olds dilated their pupil during observation of non-rational feeding actions. Thiseffect could not be attributed to light differences or differences in familiarity, but wasinterpreted to reflect sympathetic-like activity and arousal caused by a violation of infant’sexpectations about rationality. We argue that evaluation of rationality requires less experiencethan anticipations of action goals, suggesting a dual process account of preverbalinfants’ everyday action understanding

Average change in pupil size.

<p>Measured from baseline to test block, separate for the rational and irrational conditions of the unconstrained and constrained contexts. Error bars represent SE and the horizontal line represent conditions that significantly differ from each other.</p

Women’s Conception in Anna’s Brigaderes Prose (until 1915)

Bakalaura darbā „Sievietes koncepcija Annas Brigaderes prozā (līdz 1915. gadam)” raksturota Annas Brigaderes literārās darbības izteikta īpatnība – interese par sievietes garīgo pasauli un viņas vērtību sistēmu. Sieviešu raksturi rakstnieces daiļradē sistematizēti kā mātes, uzticīgas mīlētājas, sievas, māsas un baudītājas tipi, kas darbā raksturoti ar zīmīgiem prozas tekstiem. Rakstnieces ētiskais ideāls vistiešāk orientēts uz māti un viņas garīgo pasauli. Uzmanība pievērsta rakstnieces ētiskuma dominantei, reliģiskā tendējumā uzsverot ticības un lūgšanas nozīmi sievietes morālajā izvēlē un rīcībā. Brigaderiskās sievietes koncepcijas pamatā ciešanas un pārdzīvojumi, kas rodas iemīļotā cilvēka dēļ. Brigaderes daiļrade vispārināta kā īpaša orientācija uz sievietes tēlojuma dominanti, saskatot tieši sievišķajā nozīmīgas vispārcilvēciskas vērtības.Bachelor’s thesis „Women’s conception in Anna’s Brigaderes prose (until 1915)” it is characterized Anna’s Brigadere’s peculiarity of her literar working – interest about woman’s spiritual world and her value system. Characters of women in her literary works are arranged as mother’s, faithful lover’s, wife’s, sister’s and of a woman who likes to enjoy types. All these types are characterized by texts of prose. The moral ideal of writer is oriented to a mother and to her mental world. The attention is turned to moral of a writer, in a mental way making an accent to belief and prayer in life of a woman. In the base of Brigadere’s woman’s conception is pain and suffering caused by a man who this woman loves. Creation of Brigadere is generalized as a special orientation to a woman, specially in feminism it is well to see important global values

Verbal and nonverbal memory in school-aged children born to opioid-dependent mothers

Background: The potential long-term developmental effects of prenatal methadone and buprenorphine exposure during pregnancy are still largely unknown. Aims: We investigated memory function in school-aged children of women enrolled in opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) during pregnancy. Study design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study. Subjects: Participants included 41 children (aged 9–11 years), 20 of which had histories of prenatal methadone or buprenorphine exposure. Outcome measures: Verbal and non-verbal memory function was assessed using four subtests from the Test of Memory and Learning - Second edition (TOMAL-2). Results: The OMT group scored lower on both the two non-verbal as well as the two verbal memory tasks, all p-values <.05. Group differences remained for three out of the four subtests after controlling for general IQ. Including maternal tobacco use during pregnancy increased the explanatory power of the model, R2 change of 0.07, p = .04. Conclusions: Children prenatally exposed to methadone or buprenorphine had significantly lower memory performance, however, this association may in part be explained by maternal tobacco use during pregnancy. Consequently, smoking cessation programs should be systematically integrated into opioid maintenance therapy programs for pregnant women