La comunicación no verbal en la mediación familiar

[ES] El trabajo que presentamos intenta aportar que la Comunicación no Verbal puede ser un instrumento a tener en cuenta en el proceso de la comunicación en su conjunto y donde se intenta medir, a través de un cuestionario (CUVALECORME), la valoración de la comunicación no verbal como herramienta de trabajo en la mediación familiar. Para la elaboración y desarrollo de este estudio, hemos conformado un marco teórico-conceptual con la aportación de diferentes autores que han tratado y analizado el lenguaje corporal. Citamos entre otros, a Parkinson (2005), Mehabian (1972), Cabana (2003), Günter (1995), Pinazu y Musitu (1993), Mucchiello (1998), Berlo (1969), Watzlawick (1974), Polaino y Martínez (1990) y Hervés (1998). Los resultados obtenidos muestran, a pesar de las limitaciones teóricas y metodológicas, una línea de trabajo que nos permiten señalar posturas a favor de la Valoración de la Comunicación no Verbal como Herramienta de Trabajo en la Mediación Familiar. De dichos resultados destacamos el obtenido en el total de niveles de valoración del CUVALECORME, donde el 78,9% de opinión consideran a la Comunicación no Verbal como una Herramienta de Trabajo en la Mediación Familiar, frente a un porcentaje del 21,1% de opiniones desfavorables.

Profesores y mediación familiar como alternativa para una mejor adaptación de los niños/as ante el divorcio

[ES] El trabajo que presentamos describe la actuación de los profesores de infantil y primaria con los padres y madres cuando detectan cambios de conducta en sus alumnos a raíz del divorcio y analizar si dicha actuación puede ser considerada como mediación familiar. Se trata de un estudio de tipo descriptivo transcultural que se interesa en las diferencias de actuación entre los profesores que viven en la isla de Gran Canaria donde la mediación familiar ha tenido mayor impulso y los que viven en México donde la mediación familiar comienza a desarrollarse. Los resultados del estudio indican que la actuación de los profesores/as es fundamental ya que suelen detectar antes que los padres y madres los cambios de conducta que representan riesgo para los menores y son quienes generalmente toman la iniciativa de comunicarse con la familia. El/la profesor/a para optimizar su actuación mediadora, ha de entrevistarse con ambos padres en común o por separado cuidando siempre la figura del padre ausente en la entrevista; Explorar la situación familiar sin que los padres se sientan juzgados, ni sientan que se toma partido por uno de ellos; Utilizar técnicas para facilitar la comunicación de manera que sean los padres los protagonistas en la construcción de los acuerdos que favorezcan a sus hijos/as. La actuación de los profesores como mediadores informales puede ser quizá la única ayuda profesional accesible para muchos padres/madres no sólo en caso de divorcio.

Las relaciones de poder en parejas multiculturales y sus efectos en el contexto familiar

[ES] En este artículo se presentan los resultados de una investigación que tuvo como primer objetivo conocer las relaciones de poder con carácter cultural que suelen presentar las parejas mixtas intraeuropeas. Además, quisimos comprobar si existe un cambio en dichas relaciones con la llegada del primer hijo. El segundo objetivo de la investigación se centró en conocer los efectos que estas relaciones de poder ejercen en el contexto conyugal y familiar.

Becoming visually familiar

Automatic face recognition has been mainly tackled by matching a new image to a set of previously computed identity models. The literature describes approximations where those identity models are based on a single sample or a set of them. However, face representation keeps being a topic of great debate in the psychology literature, with some results suggesting the use of an average image. In this paper, instead of restricting our system to a fixed and precomputed classifier, the system learns iteratively based on the experience extracted from each meeting.

La governance della società di capitale a base familiare: "Protocolo Familiar" e Patti di Famiglia

Family businesses have acquired a very specific gravity in the economy of occidental countries, generating most of the employment and the richness for the last ages. In Spain Family Businesses represent the 65% about the total of enterprises with 1,5 million companies. They give employment to 8 million people, the 80% of the private employment and develop the 65% of the Spanish GNP (Gross National Product). Otherwise, the family business needs a complete law regulation that gives satisfaction to their own necessities and challenges. These companies have to deal with national or international economic scene to assure their permanency and competitiveness. In fact, the statistics about family companies have a medium life of 35 years. European family businesses success their successor process between a 10 and 25%. It’s said: first generation makes, second generation stays, third generation distributes. In that sense, the Recommendation of the European Commission of December 7º 1994 about the succession of the small and medium companies has reformed European internal orders according to make easier successor process and to introduce practices of family companies’ good government. So, the Italian law, under the 14th Law, February 2006, has reformed its Covil Code, appearing a new concept, called “Patto di famiglia”, wich abolish the prohibition as laid dwon in the 458 article about successors’ agreements, admitting the possibility that testator guarantees the continuity of the company or of the family society, giving it, totally or in part, to one or various of its descendents. On other hand, Spain has promulgated the 17th Royal Decree (9th February 2007), that governs the publicity of family agreements (Protocolos familiars). These “protocolo familiar” (Family Agreement) are known as accord of wills, consented and accepted unanimously of all the family members and the company, taking into account recommendations and practices of family company’s good government.

Semantic priming of familiar songs

We explored the functional organization of semantic memory for music by comparing priming across familiar songs both within modalities (Experiment 1, tune to tune; Experiment 3, category label to lyrics) and across modalities (Experiment 2, category label to tune; Experiment 4, tune to lyrics). Participants judged whether or not the target tune or lyrics were real (akin to lexical decision tasks). We found significant priming, analogous to linguistic associative-priming effects, in reaction times for related primes as compared to unrelated primes, but primarily for within-modality comparisons. Reaction times to tunes (e.g., "Silent Night") were faster following related tunes ("Deck the Hall") than following unrelated tunes ("God Bless America"). However, a category label (e.g., Christmas) did not prime tunes from within that category. Lyrics were primed by a related category label, but not by a related tune. These results support the conceptual organization of music in semantic memory, but with potentially weaker associations across modalities.

Neuronal Correlates of Perception, Imagery, and Memory for Familiar Tunes

We used fMRI to investigate the neuronal correlates of encoding and recognizing heard and imagined melodies. Ten participants were shown lyrics of familiar verbal tunes; they either heard the tune along with the lyrics, or they had to imagine it. In a subsequent surprise recognition test, they had to identify the titles of tunes that they had heard or imagined earlier. The functional data showed substantial overlap during melody perception and imagery, including secondary auditory areas. During imagery compared with perception, an extended network including pFC, SMA, intraparietal sulcus, and cerebellum showed increased activity, in line with the increased processing demands of imagery. Functional connectivity of anterior right temporal cortex with frontal areas was increased during imagery compared with perception, indicating that these areas form an imagery-related network. Activity in right superior temporal gyrus and pFC was correlated with the subjective rating of imagery vividness. Similar to the encoding phase, the recognition task recruited overlapping areas, including inferior frontal cortex associated with memory retrieval, as well as left middle temporal gyrus. The results present new evidence for the cortical network underlying goal-directed auditory imagery, with a prominent role of the right pFC both for the subjective impression of imagery vividness and for on-line mental monitoring of imagery-related activity in auditory areas.

Levels-of-processing effects on "remember" responses in recognition for familiar and unfamiliar tunes

We investigated the effect of level-of-processing manipulations on “remember” and “know” responses in episodic melody recognition (Experiments 1 and 2) and how this effect is modulated by item familiarity (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants performed 2 conceptual and 2 perceptual orienting tasks while listening to familiar melodies: judging the mood, continuing the tune, tracing the pitch contour, and counting long notes. The conceptual mood task led to higher d' rates for “remember” but not “know” responses. In Experiment 2, participants either judged the mood or counted long notes of tunes with high and low familiarity. A level-of-processing effect emerged again in participants’ “remember” d' rates regardless of melody familiarity. Results are discussed within the distinctive processing framework.

When that tune runs through your head: A PET investigation of auditory imagery for familiar melodies

The present study used positron emission tomography (PET) to examine the cerebral activity pattern associated with auditory imagery forfamiliar tunes. Subjects either imagined the continuation of nonverbaltunes cued by their first few notes, listened to a short sequence of notesas a control task, or listened and then reimagined that short sequence. Subtraction of the activation in the control task from that in the real-tune imagery task revealed primarily right-sided activation in frontal and superior temporal regions, plus supplementary motor area(SMA). Isolating retrieval of the real tunes by subtracting activation in the reimagine task from that in the real-tune imagery task revealedactivation primarily in right frontal areas and right superior temporal gyrus. Subtraction of activation in the control condition from that in the reimagine condition, intended to capture imagery of unfamiliarsequences, revealed activation in SMA, plus some left frontal regions. We conclude that areas of right auditory association cortex, together with right and left frontal cortices, are implicated in imagery for familiartunes, in accord with previous behavioral, lesion and PET data. Retrieval from musical semantic memory is mediated by structures in the right frontal lobe, in contrast to results from previous studies implicating left frontal areas for all semantic retrieval. The SMA seems to be involved specifically in image generation, implicating a motor code in this process.

Prediction accuracy of young and middle-aged adults in memory for familiar and unfamiliar texts

This study investigated the influence of age, familiarity, and level of exposure on the metamemorial skill of prediction accuracy on a future test. Young (17 to 23 years old) and middle-aged adults (35 to 50 years old) were asked to predict their memory for text material. Participants made predictions on a familiar text and an unfamiliar text, at three different levels of exposure to each. The middle-aged adults were superior to the younger adults at predicting performance. This finding indicates that metamemory may increase from youth to middle age. Other findings include superior prediction accuracy for unfamiliar compared to familiar material, a result conflicting with previous findings, and an interaction between level of exposure and familiarity that appears to modify the main effects of those variables.

Identification of speeded and slowed familiar melodies by younger, middle-aged, and older musicians and nonmusicians

There is a range of tempos within which listeners can identify familiar tunes (around 0.8 to 6.0 notes/s). Faster and slower tunes are difficult to identify. The authors assessed fast and slow melody-identification thresholds for 80 listeners ages 17–79 years with expertise varying from musically untrained to professional. On fast-to-slow (FS) trials the tune started at a very fast tempo and slowed until the listener identified it. Slow-to-fast (SF) trials started slow and accelerated. Tunes either retained their natural rhythms or were stylized isochronous versions. Increased expertise led to better performance for both FS and SF thresholds (r = .45). Performance declined uniformly across the 62-year age range in the FS condition (r = .27). SF performance was unaffected by age. Although early encoding processes may slow with age, expertise has a greater effect. Musical expertise involves perceptual learning with melodies at a wide range of tempos.