Probing the strength of infants' preference for helpers over hinderers: two replication attempts of Hamlin and Wynn (2011)

Several studies indicate that infants prefer individuals who act prosocially over those who act antisocially toward unrelated third parties. In the present study, we focused on a paradigm published by Kiley Hamlin and Karen Wynn in 2011. In this study, infants were habituated to a live puppet show in which a protagonist tried to open a box to retrieve a toy placed inside. The protagonist was either helped by a second puppet (the “Helper”), or hindered by a third puppet (the “Hinderer”). At test, infants were presented with the Helper and the Hinderer, and encouraged to reach for one of them. In the original study, 75% of 9-month-olds selected the Helper, arguably demonstrating a preference for prosocial over antisocial individuals. We conducted two studies with the aim of replicating this result. Each attempt was performed by a different group of experimenters. Study 1 followed the methods of the published study as faithfully as possible. Study 2 introduced slight modifications to the stimuli and the procedure following the guidelines generously provided by Kiley Hamlin and her collaborators. Yet, in our replication attempts, 9-month-olds’ preference for helpers over hinderers did not differ significantly from chance (62.5% and 50%, respectively, in Studies 1 and 2). Two types of factors could explain why our results differed from those of Hamlin and Wynn: minor methodological dissimilarities (in procedure, materials, or the population tested), or the effect size being smaller than originally assumed. We conclude that fine methodological details that are crucial to infants’ success in this task need to be identified to ensure the replicability of the original result

A review of spatial downscaling of satellite remotely sensed soil moisture

Satellite remote sensing technology has been widely used to estimate surface soil moisture. Numerous efforts have been devoted to develop global soil moisture products. However, these global soil moisture products, normally retrieved from microwave remote sensing data, are typically not suitable for regional hydrological and agricultural applications such as irrigation management and flood predictions, due to their coarse spatial resolution. Therefore, various downscaling methods have been proposed to improve the coarse resolution soil moisture products. The purpose of this paper is to review existing methods for downscaling satellite remotely sensed soil moisture. These methods are assessed and compared in terms of their advantages and limitations. This review also provides the accuracy level of these methods based on published validation studies. In the final part, problems and future trends associated with these methods are analyzed

PTPA variants and impaired PP2A activity in early-onset parkinsonism with intellectual disability

The protein phosphatase 2A complex (PP2A), the major Ser/Thr phosphatase in the brain, is involved in a number of signalling pathways and functions, including the regulation of crucial proteins for neurodegeneration, such as alpha-synuclein, tau and LRRK2. Here, we report the identification of variants in the PTPA/PPP2R4 gene, encoding a major PP2A activator, in two families with early-onset parkinsonism and intellectual disability. We carried out clinical studies and genetic analyses, including genome-wide linkage analysis, whole-exome sequencing, and Sanger sequencing of candidate variants. We next performed functional studies on the disease-associated variants in cultured cells and knock-down of ptpa in Drosophila melanogaster. We first identified a homozygous PTPA variant, c.893T&gt;G (p.Met298Arg), in patients from a South African family with early-onset parkinsonism and intellectual disability. Screening of a large series of additional families yielded a second homozygous variant, c.512C&gt;A (p.Ala171Asp), in a Libyan family with a similar phenotype. Both variants co-segregate with disease in the respective families. The affected subjects display juvenile-onset parkinsonism and intellectual disability. The motor symptoms were responsive to treatment with levodopa and deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus. In overexpression studies, both the PTPA p.Ala171Asp and p.Met298Arg variants were associated with decreased PTPA RNA stability and decreased PTPA protein levels; the p.Ala171Asp variant additionally displayed decreased PTPA protein stability. Crucially, expression of both variants was associated with decreased PP2A complex levels and impaired PP2A phosphatase activation. PTPA orthologue knock-down in Drosophila neurons induced a significant impairment of locomotion in the climbing test. This defect was age-dependent and fully reversed by L-DOPA treatment. We conclude that bi-allelic missense PTPA variants associated with impaired activation of the PP2A phosphatase cause autosomal recessive early-onset parkinsonism with intellectual disability. Our findings might also provide new insights for understanding the role of the PP2A complex in the pathogenesis of more common forms of neurodegeneration.</p

L’éveil du mensonge

Dès leur troisième année, les tout jeunes enfants manifestent des capacités cognitives qui devraient leur permettre de savoir mentir. Ils se représentent les croyances d’autrui, ils savent ce qu’est une représentation fausse de la réalité, et ils sont capables de manipuler autrui à l’aide de messages erronés. Malgré cela, il semble qu’ils soient avant tout des menteurs d’occasion, qui se saisissent des possibilités de tromper surtout lorsqu’ils y sont fortement incités par les circonstances sociales. Vers quatre ans, les enfants se mettent à mentir de manière beaucoup plus systématique. Selon l’hypothèse défendue dans cet article, ce développement du mensonge autour de quatre ans est lié à l’émergence d’un sens de la tromperie : le mensonge, qui n’était jusqu’alors qu’une capacité, devient un objet d’intérêt stratégique. Nous suggérons que le nouvel environnement social où se trouvent plongés les enfants commençant à vivre avec leurs pairs pourrait contribuer à expliquer ce changement.The awakening of liars Young children in their third year show surprising cognitive capacities that should help them know how to lie. They represent other people’s beliefs, they know what it is for a representation to be false, and they are able to manipulate others with inaccurate messages. In spite of all this, they seem to be nothing more than opportunity liars: they do not seize the occasion to deceive others, unless prompted to do so by social circumstances. This paper defends an hypo-thesis according to which the emergence of lies around four years is linked to the rise of a new sense of deceit. Lying, which so far had been nothing but a capacity, becomes a matter of strategic concern. The new social environment where children of this age having to live with their peers, are plunged, might help explain this change

The pragmatic role of trust in young children’s interpretation of unfamiliar signals

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Percentage of Successes (Comparison to Chance by One-sample WSRT) on the Test Question, Memory of Behaviour, and Memory of Representation in the False Assertion Task and in the False Belief Task of Study 3.

<p>Percentage of Successes (Comparison to Chance by One-sample WSRT) on the Test Question, Memory of Behaviour, and Memory of Representation in the False Assertion Task and in the False Belief Task of Study 3.</p

Percentage of Successes (Comparison to Chance, One-sample WSRT) on the First-Order and Second-Order Falsity Tasks of Study 4.

<p>Percentage of Successes (Comparison to Chance, One-sample WSRT) on the First-Order and Second-Order Falsity Tasks of Study 4.</p