HRT and everyday memory at menopause: A comparison of two samples of mid-aged women

Research on the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on memory in mid-aged women is equivocal although findings indicate that oestrogen may enhance verbal memory. Mood may mediate the relationship between HRT and memory. This study examined the effect of HRT on mood and everyday memory in two samples of women between ages 40 and 60 years. In the cross-sectional comparison (N = 124), HRT users performed significantly better on tests of everyday and verbal memory. A within-woman comparison of 17 women showed that everyday memory, working memory, and delayed verbal memory improved after 3 months of HRT use. The improvement in memory was not mediated by mood. These results suggest that any effect of HRT on mood may be short-term but that some aspects of everyday memory are enhanced, particularly verbal memory. The development of the everyday memory construct and future investigation are discussed.

Copying actions and copying outcomes: Social learning through the second year

The present work documents how the logic of a model's demonstration and the communicative cues that the model provides interact with age to influence how children engage in social learning. Children at ages 12, 18, and 24 months (n = 204) watched a model open a series of boxes. Twelve-month-old subjects only copied the specific actions of the model when they were given a logical reason to do so- otherwise, they focused on reproducing the outcome of the demonstrated actions. Eighteen-month-old subjects focused on copying the outcome when the model was aloof. When the model acted socially, the subjects were as likely to focus on copying actions as outcomes, irrespective of the apparent logic of the model's behavior. Finally, 24-month-old subjects predominantly focused on copying the model's specific actions. However, they were less likely to produce the modeled outcome when the model acted nonsocially.

Mirror self-recognition beyond the face

Three studies (N=144) investigated how toddlers aged 18 and 24 months pass the surprise-mark test of self-recognition. In Study 1, toddlers were surreptitiously marked in successive conditions on their legs and faces with stickers visible only in a mirror. Rates of sticker touching did not differ significantly between conditions. In Study 2, toddlers failed to touch a sticker on their legs that had been disguised before being marked. In Study 3, having been given 30-s exposure to their disguised legs before testing, toddlers touched the stickers on their legs and faces at equivalent levels. These results suggest that toddlers pass the mark test based on expectations about what they look like, expectations that are not restricted to the face.

Stepping Stones Triple P: A pilot study to evaluate acceptability of the program by parents of a child diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder

The experience of parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in standard parenting programs has not been researched, although anecdotal evidence suggests that they do not find them acceptable. Forty-two parents of children with ASD were asked to view a DVD explaining individual parenting strategies from Stepping Stones, a new branch of the Triple P program targeted specifically at parents of children with disabilities. Parents were asked to rate each strategy for acceptability, usability and behavioural intention, i.e., their intention to use the strategy. Additionally, parental attributions and parental perceived control were explored as possible barriers to positive evaluations of Stepping Stones parenting strategies. A focus group of parents was used to gather more detailed parent response to the program. Parent responses to the program were generally positive and attribution of the child's behaviour to uncontrollable factors was found to predict higher ratings of usability. The results were interpreted within the context of Weiner's attributional theory and the theory of reasoned action. The limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Telling the story of theory of mind: Deaf and hearing children's narratives and mental state understanding

Theory of mind (ToM) was examined in late-signing deaf children in two studies by using standard tests and measures of spontaneous talk about inner states of perception, affect and cognition during storytelling. In Study 1, there were 21 deaf children aged 6 to 11 years and 13 typical-hearing children matched with the deaf by chronological age. In Study 2, there were 17 deaf children aged 6 to 12 years and 17 typical-hearing preschoolers aged 4 to 5 years who were matched with the deaf by ToM test performance. In addition to replicating the consistently reported finding of poor performance on standard false belief tests by late-signing deaf children, significant correlations emerged in both studies between deaf children's ToM test scores and their spontaneous narrative talk about imaginative cognition (e.g. 'pretend'). In Study 2, with a new set of purpose-built pictures that evoked richer and more complex mentalistic narration than the published picture book of Study 1, results of multiple regression analyses showed that children's narrative talk about imaginative cognition was uniquely important, over and above hearing status and talking of other kinds of mental states, in predicting ToM scores. The same was true of children's elaborated narrative talk using utterances that either spelt out thoughts, explained inner states or introduced contrastives. In addition, results of a Guttman scalograrn analysis in Study 2 suggested a consistent sequence in narrative and standard test performance by deaf and hearing children that went from (1) narrative mention of visible (affective or perceptual) mental states only, along with FB failure, to (2) narrative mention of cognitive states along with (1), to (3) elaborated narrative talk about inner states along with (2), and finally to (4) simple and elaborated narrative talk about affective/perceptual and cognitive states along with FIB test success. Possible explanations for this performance ordering, as well as for the observed correlations in both studies between ToM test scores and narrative variables, were considered.

Testing the protracted lexical restructuring hypothesis: The effects of position and acoustic-phonetic clarity on sensitivity to mispronunciations in children and adults

Although developmental increases in the size of the position effect within a mispronunciation detection task have been interpreted as consistent with a view of the lexical restructuring process as protracted, the position effect itself might not be reliable. The current research examined the effects of position and clarity of acoustic-phonetic information on sensitivity to mispronounced onsets in 5- and 6-year-olds and adults. Both children and adults showed a position effect only when mispronunciations also differed in the amount of relevant acoustic-phonetic information. Adults' sensitivity to mispronounced second-syllable onsets also reflected the availability of acoustic-phonetic information. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the lexical restructuring hypothesis. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Toddler subtraction with large sets: further evidence for an analog-magnitude representation of number

Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that toddlers have access to an analog-magnitude number representation that supports numerical reasoning about relatively large numbers. Three-year-olds were presented with subtraction problems in which initial set size and proportions subtracted were systematically varied. Two sets of cookies were presented and then covered The experimenter visibly subtracted cookies from the hidden sets, and the children were asked to choose which of the resulting sets had more. In Experiment 1, performance was above chance when high proportions of objects (3 versus 6) were subtracted from large sets (of 9) and for the subset of older participants (older than 3 years, 5 months; n = 15), performance was also above chance when high proportions (10 versus 20) were subtracted from the very large sets (of 30). In Experiment 2, which was conducted exclusively with older 3-year-olds and incorporated an important methodological control, the pattern of results for the subtraction tasks was replicated In both experiments, success on the tasks was not related to counting ability. The results of these experiments support the hypothesis that young children have access to an analog-magnitude system for representing large approximate quantities, as performance on these subtraction tasks showed a Webers Law signature, and was independent of conventional number knowledge.

Being fit and looking healthy: Young women's and men's constructions of health and fitness

We drew on Foucault's notion of 'practices of the self' to examine how young people take up, negotiate, and resist the imperatives of a public health discourse concerned with the relationships between health, fitness, and the body. We did this through a discussion of the ways young women and men talk about their own and others' bodies, in the context of a number of in-depth interviews conducted for the Life Activity Project, a study of the place and meaning of physical activity in young people's lives, funded by an Australian Research Council Grant. We found that the young women and men in the study engaged the health/fitness discourse very differently: for the young men, health conflated with fitness as an embodied capacity to do physical work; and for the young women, health was a much more difficult and complex project associated with managing and monitoring practices associated with eating and exercise to maintain an 'appropriate' body shape.

Generative acts: Family and community involvement of older Australians

The article adopts a developmental approach to successful human aging by exploring the concept of generativity in relation to a study of older Australians' lived experiences of involvement in the family and community. Qualitative data, collected through focus group interviews, were analyzed interpretively using recent developments in Erikson's theory of generativity as a framework. As a result, the present study contributes an in-depth understanding of the role of generative acts to the lives of older people. The data provide illustrative support for Erikson's contention of a generativity/stagnation crisis in later life. Involvement in the family and community is seen as a productive and generative activity, which promotes a positive experience of aging. Two further emergent themes are also explored. First, the experiences of study participants illustrate the reciprocal and cyclical nature of grand-generativity, and the importance of intergenerational relationships. Finally, the data contribute to our knowledge of cultural generativity, and in particular the passing on of cultural knowledge through narratives and modeling.

Hostile sexism and rape proclivity amongst men

In the current study, we examined the influence of victim type and hostile sexism on men's judgments about an acquaintance rape victim and their self-reported acquaintance rape proclivity. It was predicted that hostile sexism would predict self-reported rape proclivity, but that this relationship would be moderated by victim type. Specifically, it was predicted that participants would report greater proclivity in relation to a victim who appeared not to adhere to traditional gender stereotypes than to a victim who appeared to adhere to such stereotypes. Further, in line with D. Abrams, G. T. Viki, B. Masser, and G. Bohner (2003), it was predicted that the relationship between hostile sexism and rape proclivity would be mediated by perceptions of token resistance by the victim. Results partially supported the hypotheses. Hostile sexism was positively related to rape proclivity, but victim type was not found to moderate the relationship. In addition, perceptions of token resistance were found to mediate the hostile sexism and rape proclivity relationship. The results suggest that, at least in terms of rape proclivity, hostile sexists may not differentiate in their targets for sexual aggression.

Mental playmates: Siblings, executive functioning and theory of mind

This study assessed the theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF) abilities of 124 typically developing preschool children aged 3 to 5 years in relation to whether or not they had a child-aged sibling (i.e. a child aged 1 to 12 years) at home with whom to play and converse. On a ToM battery that included tests of false belief, appearance-reality (AR) and pretend representation, children who had at least 1 child-aged sibling scored significantly higher than both only children and those whose only siblings were infants or adults. The numbers of child-aged siblings in preschoolers' families positively predicted their scores on both a ToM battery (4 tasks) and an EF battery (2 tasks), and these associations remained significant with language ability partialled out. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that independent contributions to individual differences in ToM were made by language ability, EF skill and having a child-aged sibling. However, even though some conditions for mediation were met, there was no statistically reliable evidence that EF skills mediated the advantage of presence of child-aged siblings for ToM performance. While consistent with the theory that distinctively childish interaction among siblings accelerates the growth of both TOM and EF capacities, alternative evidence and alternative theoretical interpretations for the findings were also considered.

Social Vulnerability Scale for older adults: Validation study

The Social Vulnerability Scale (SVS), an informant-report of social vulnerability for older adults, was piloted in a sample of 167 undergraduate students (63 male, 104 female) from the University of Queensland. Participants aged 18 - 53 (M = 25.53 years, SD = 7.83 years) completed the SVS by rating a relative or friend aged ≥50 years (M = 71.65 years, SD = 12.49 years): either someone with memory problems, stroke, dementia, or other neurological condition (n = 85); or a healthy older adult (n = 82). Excellent internal consistency and test - retest reliability were demonstrated, and the SVS effectively differentiated healthy older adults from those with a neurological condition based on proxy ratings of social vulnerability. The SVS is a potentially useful adjunct measure of older adults' capacity to reside independently. 1 *For information on using the Social Vulnerability Scale, email d.pinsker@psy.uq.edu.au or stone@psy.uq.edu.au

The effect of hormone replacement therapy on mood and everyday memory in younger mid-life women

Research on the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on both mood and memory indicates that oestrogen may enhance verbal memory in younger mid-aged women. This study examined the effect of HRT on everyday memory, while accounting for mood changes, in women between ages 40 and 60. A within-subjects comparison of 17 women, showed that mood, everyday memory, working memory, and delayed verbal memory improved after 3 months of HRT use. The improvement in memory was not mediated by mood, but changes in mood were moderated by exercise habits. The results suggest that verbal memory in particular may be enhanced by HRT in this age group, and everyday memory is an important construct to consider in future research.