An experimental approach was created for the comparative investigation of the cognitive abilities of the glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens) in their natural habitat. The territoriality of gulls during the breeding period and the fact that the gulls inhabiting the territory of the Komandorsky Reserve are practically not in fear of humans allowed us to work with individually recognized birds directly at their nest sites inside the colony. The possibility of using this approach to investigate their cognitive abilities was demonstrated on 24 gulls, in particular, to investigate their abilities for relative size generalization. The first experiment illustrated that the gulls are able to learn to discriminate two pairs of stimuli according to the feature: ‘larger’ or ‘smaller’. They were then given a test to transfer the discriminative rule in which novel combinations of the same stimuli were used. The gulls successfully coped with only a few of these tests. In the next experiment the birds were taught to discriminate four pairs of similar stimuli. The majority of the birds coped with the tests to transfer the discriminative rule both to the novel combinations of familiar stimuli, and also to the novel stimuli of the familiar category (items of different colour and shape). However, none of the birds transferred the discriminative rule to stimuli of a novel category (sets differing by number of components). Thus, in their ability to generalize at a preconceptual level gulls are more comparable with pigeons, whereas large-brained birds (crows and parrots), are capable of concept formation.

Despite the existence of numerous studies that examined the relationship between working memory capacity and performance in complex cognitive tasks, it remains unclear whether this capacity is domain specific or domain general. In addition, the available empirical evidence is somewhat contradictory. In this work we have studied the role of verbal working memory capacity in a non-verbal task – mental image rotation. If this capacity were domain specific it would be expected that high and low verbal span participants would obtain similar results in the mental rotation task. We have found that this is not the case as the high span participants performed better in terms of both speed and accuracy. Moreover, these differences depended on the processing component of the mental rotation task: the higher the processing requirements the higher the differences as a function of the working memory capacity. Therefore, the evidence presented here supports the domain general hypothesis.

The study presented in this paper aimed to investigate the pattern of semantic priming effects, under masked and unmasked conditions, in the lexical decision task, manipulating type of semantic relation and associative strength. Three different kinds of word relations were examined in two experiments: only-semantically related words [e.g., codo (elbow)-rodilla (knee)] and semantic/associative related words with strong [e.g., mesa (table)-silla (chair) and weak association strength [e.g., sapo (toad)-rana (frog)]. In Experiment 1 a masked priming procedure was used with a prime duration of 56 ms, and in Experiment 2, the prime was presented unmasked for 150 ms. The results showed that there were masked priming effects with strong associates, but no evidence of these effects was found with weak associates or only-semantic related word pairs. When the prime was presented unmasked, the three types of relations produced significant priming effects and they were not influenced by association strength.

A method to analyze the role of familiarity in recognizing pictures of everyday scenes is introduced. The idea is to manipulate two within-subjects conditions: an experimental condition where the scenes repeat perceptual information (e.g. buildings and/or vehicles) and a control condition. The results show the two conditions did not differ in terms of hit rates, but in the experimental condition there were significantly fewer false alarms, yielding better results, which supports the findings of past research studies that have used verbal materials. This perceptual facilitation was maintained throughout a week-long retention interval. Finally, a detailed analysis of this facilitation shows it was due to a significant reduction in false alarms on know judgments, emphasizing familiarity's role in explaining this effect.

It would be reasonable to expect that our previous experience regarding a stimulus that predicts harm would make the subsequent identification of that stimulus easier when harm happens again. Forty-eight volunteers were submitted to both phases of this sequence of events: learning of the predictive relationship and later priming. A face with neutral expression (CS+) was paired with a moderately aversive electric shock and another (CS−) with a neutral tone. Subsequently, these two faces, as well as other known and new faces, were presented for familiarity judgments. Both the CS+ and the CS− faces were preceded by an aversive stimulus (aversive prime) in one occasion and by a neutral stimulus (neutral prime) in another. The familiarity judgment regarding the CS+ was faster after the aversive prime than after the neutral prime, but there was no difference regarding the CS−. The differential effect of the aversive prime over the CS+ and the CS− showed a significant but small correlation with the differential skin conductance response to CS+ and CS− (signal learning), and with the differential evaluation of those stimuli in terms of like-dislike (evaluative learning). The scope of these results, as well as the usefulness of this methodological model, is discussed.

Research conducted in academic contexts suggests a moderating effect of impulsive behavior on the relationship between aptitude and achievement. According to these studies, intelligence scores being equal, higher levels of impulsivity have an adverse effect on achievement (Helmers, Young, & Pihl, 1995; Vigil-Colet & Morales-Vives, 2005; Zeidner, 1995). The present study aims to contrast the aforementioned moderator effect in the context of a discriminant learning task, carried out under a fixed-ratio 3 reinforcement schedule. To that end, an impulsive behavioral pattern was identified in a sample of 1,600 participants' task execution based on response rate and latency. Said pattern was consistent and stable across several trials and can be ascribed to subjects' interactive style (Hernández, 2000). The observed interaction effect supports the hypothesis that impulsivity has a moderating effect on the aptitude-achievement relationship, highlighting how it impacts achievement differentially depending on the subject's level of aptitude.

Among the ongoing attempts to enhance cognitive performance, an emergent and yet underrepresented venue is brought by hemoencefalographic neurofeedback (HEG). This paper presents three related advances in HEG neurofeedback for cognitive enhancement: a) a new HEG protocol for cognitive enhancement, as well as b) the results of independent measures of biological efficacy (EEG brain maps) extracted in three phases, during a one year follow up case study; c) the results of the first controlled clinical trial of HEG, designed to assess the efficacy of the technique for cognitive enhancement of an adult and neurologically intact population. The new protocol was developed in the environment of a software that organizes digital signal algorithms in a flowchart format. Brain maps were produced through 10 brain recordings. The clinical trial used a working memory test as its independent measure of achievement. The main conclusion of this study is that the technique appears to be clinically promising. Approaches to cognitive performance from a metabolic viewpoint should be explored further. However, it is particularly important to note that, to our knowledge, this is the world's first controlled clinical study on the matter and it is still early for an ultimate evaluation of the technique.

Neuropsychological assessment reveals that certain cognitive changes that take place during the neural development process may be associated with biopsychosocial issues. A substantial body of research has focused on cognitive development in children and adults, but few such studies have been carried out on adolescents. Therefore, research into the processing of neuropsychological functions in adolescents, taking into account the role of major socio-cultural factors such as school type (public vs. private), is highly relevant. The present study sought to assess whether differences in neuropsychological development exist between adolescent students of public (government-funded) and private schools. A total of 373 grade-matched students between the ages of 12 and 18, 190 from public schools and 183 from private schools, took part in the study. All subjects had no self-reported neurologic or psychiatric conditions and sensory disorders. The NEUPSILIN Brazilian Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Battery was administered to this sample. Comparison of mean scores (one-way ANCOVA with socioeconomic score and age as covariates) showed that adolescents attending private schools generally outperformed their public-school peers in tasks involving sustained attention, memory (working and visual), dictated writing, and constructional and reflective abilities. We conclude that school type should be taken into account during standardization of neuropsychological assessment instruments for adolescent and, probably, child populations.

The aim of this study was to evaluate if children with Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) exhibit a general deficit in magnitude representations or a specific deficit in the connection of symbolic representations with the corresponding analogous magnitudes. DD was diagnosed using a timed arithmetic task. The experimental magnitude comparison tasks were presented in non-symbolic and symbolic formats. DD and typically developing (TD) children showed similar numerical distance and size congruity effects. However, DD children performed significantly slower in the symbolic task. These results are consistent with the access deficit hypothesis, according to which DD children's deficits are caused by difficulties accessing magnitude information from numerical symbols rather than in processing numerosities per se.

Executive Control is required to deal with novel situations or when an action plan is needed. This study aimed to highlight the executive attention deficits of patients with frontal lobe damage. To do so, the ANT-I task (Attention Network Test-Interactions) was administered for the first time to a group of 9 patients with frontal damage caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a matched control group. This task made it possible to measure the three attentional networks proposed by Posner and Dehaene (1994) and their interactions. Results on the alerting and orienting networks did not show any significant differences between the groups. However, a significant effect of group on the executive control network was observed. In addition, participants' personality was assessed with a clinical inventory (the Millon Personality Inventory) that showed a significant positive correlation between borderline personality disorder and the conflict index. These results suggest that frontal lobe damage causes an exclusive impairment in the conflict resolution network that is related to personality traits characterized by a lack of behavioral control. More research will be necessary to study this causal relationship.

This study has three objectives: a) to describe the main differences in the crying patterns produced by the three affective states most closely related to crying: fear, anger and pain; b) to study the adults' accuracy in the recognition of the affective states related to the infant's crying, and c) to analyze the emotional reaction that infant crying elicits in the observers. Results reveal that the main differences appear in the ocular activity and in the pattern of weeping. The infants maintain their eyes open during the crying produced by fear and anger, but in the case of crying provoked by painful stimuli, the eyes remain closed almost all the time. In regard to the pattern of weeping, the crying gradually increase in the case of anger, but the weeping reaches its maximum intensity practically from the beginning in the case of pain and fear. In spite of these differences, it is not easy to know the cause that produces crying in infants, especially in the case of fear or anger. Although observers can't recognize the cause of crying, the emotional reaction is greater when the baby cries in pain than when the baby cries because of fear or anger.

The aim of this study is to characterize profiles of maternal care in a sample of Brazilian mothers, using a culturalbiological perspective. Participants were 315 women who had at least one child younger than six years-old. They were selected from six Brazilian states. In each state, two groups of mothers were studied, one from the capital and one from a small city. They were interviewed and answered scales on allocentrism, social support, adult attachment, and practices of childcare. Mothers' characteristics, the type of context (capital vs. small city), and reported childcare practices were used in a Tree analysis. A Correspondence analysis was performed using the four clusters obtained and mothers' answers regarding their youngest child. Univariate GLM analyses were performed to compare mothers in the four clusters in terms of their scores on the different scales. Four maternal profiles presenting distinctive patterns of association between mothers' characteristics and care practices displayed to the youngest child were identified. We conclude that maternal care is a multi-determined phenomenon and that the method employed in this study can give insights into how the combination of diverse social-biological factors can result in a set of childcare practices.

Although the quality of parent-adolescent emotional bonds has consistently been proposed as a major influence on young adult's psycho-emotional functioning, the precise means by which these bonds either facilitate or impede adaptive coping are not well-understood. In an effort to advance this inquiry, the present study examined interrelationships among measures of parental attachment, emotion regulation processes, and preferred coping strategies within a sample of 942 college freshmen. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test whether the link between attachment to parents and the use of particular coping strategies is mediated by differences in emotion regulation mechanisms. As hypothesized, differences in attachment to parents predicted differences in the use of emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. More specifically, having a close emotional bond, feeling supported in autonomy processes and having (moderately) low levels of separation anxiety toward parents predict more constructive emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. Additionally emotion regulation was found to (partly or totally) mediate the association between attachment and coping.

The present study aims to analyze the relationships between community involvement, perception of family and school climate, and emotional and social problems in adolescents (satisfaction with life, non-conformist social reputation, and school violence). The sample was composed of 1884 (52% boys and 48% girls) adolescents aged from 11 to 17 years old (M = 13.7, SD = 1.4) from the Valencia Community and Andalusia. A structural equation model was calculated to analyze the data. The results indicated that adolescent community involvement was associated with positive perceptions of family and school climate, and school violence. Associations between the variables of the study included in the structural model were also analyzed as a function of gender. The relationship between school climate and social reputation was significant only for boys. Likewise, the association between community involvement and violent behavior was found to be significant only for boys. Finally, the results and their possible implications are discussed.

Many behaviors with lasting health impact are initiated in adolescence. Substance use is one such behavior. To analyse the factors involved in adolescent substance use among Portuguese and Spanish boys and girls, an explanatory model was developed using structural equations modelling. The model proposes that the impact of social contexts (family, friends, classmates and teachers) on substance use (tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs) is mediated by perceptions of well-being (psychological symptoms, well-being and school satisfaction). Data on 1589 Portuguese (mean age = 13.27, SD =. 59) and 4191 Spanish adolescents (mean age= 13.21; SD =.47) who took part in the HBSC/WHO survey were analysed. The model fits the data of each country (CFI >.90; RMSEA < .03) and the majority of the relationships proposed in the model have been as expected for both samples. The relations with a major effect, for both countries, were: the negative effect of family on psychological symptoms and the positive effect of family on subjective well-being; the negative effect of classmates on psychological symptoms; the positive effect of teachers on school satisfaction; the effect of psychological symptoms (negative) and school satisfaction (positive) on well-being; the negative effect of school satisfaction on tobacco and alcohol use; and the positive effect of tobacco on alcohol use, and alcohol use on cannabis. For each of the dependent factors studied (tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs), the levels of explained variance varied between 9% (for tobacco use) and 46% (for alcohol use). Some non-invariant paths were obtained in country comparisons, controlling for gender. In multivariate analyses the paths from tobacco use to cannabis and from alcohol to cannabis were significant, but much stronger for Spanish girls than Portuguese girls.

Height is a biological factor that can affect how others perceive and behave toward an individual. Clothing, as a non-biological factor, can affect these perceptions of height. In this study we investigated the effect of different professions' clothing on children's perceptions of height. One hundred and eighty primary school students participated in this study and estimated the height of an actor in the clothing of four different professions which differed in terms of prestige. The results of study showed that the difference between the perceived and actual height was larger when participants estimated the height of socially esteemed professions. Also there was no difference between girls' and boys' estimation of different professions' height. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Based on academic goal theory, we compared the goals of visually impaired and sighted students. Participants included 171 students affiliated with ONCE (the National Spanish Organization for the Blind) and 163 sighted students, ranging from 8 to 27 years of age, who responded to the Spanish adaptation (González, Torregrosa, & Navas, 2002) of the goals questionnaire created by Hayamizu, Ito, and Yohiazaki (1989) and Hayamizu and Weiner (1991). Factor analysis indicated that goals varied among these students and that new ones arose in this study; furthermore, the model remained invariable regardless of students' status (visually impaired versus sighted). Cluster analysis revealed three distinct profiles in terms of academic goals, while discriminant function analysis suggested these profiles vary as a function of students' status (visually impaired versus sighted). It seems that visually impaired students hold more learning-oriented academic goals.

The effect of a large scale oil spill disaster on the academic achievement and classroom behavior of children and adolescents who lived on the Galician coast (Spain) is studied from an ecological perspective. 430 participants divided into three age groups of 5, 10, and 15 years of age, were studied. The participants came from three areas differently affected by the disaster. Dependent variables were academic achievement and classroom behavior of the participants after the Prestige disaster. Degree of exposure and other protective or risk factors were investigated as well. Repeated measures ANOVA to assess the main effects of the oil spill and hierarchical regression analyses to assess the contribution of the protective/vulnerability factors were performed.

The results indicate that the effects of the disaster were relatively scarce. Some protective factors accounted for a certain degree of variance of different schoolroom behaviors. These results point to the intervention of protective factors in the adaptation to the disaster.

Previous research has focused on specific forms of self-determined motivation or discrete class-related emotions, but few studies have simultaneously examined both constructs. The aim of this study on 472 undergraduates was twofold: to perform cluster analysis to identify homogeneous groups of motivation in the sample; and to determine the profile of each cluster for emotions and academic achievement. Cluster analysis configured four groups in terms of motivation: controlled, autonomous, both high, and both low. Each cluster revealed a distinct emotional profile, autonomous motivation being the most adaptable with high scores for academic achievement and pleasant emotions and low values for unpleasant emotions. The results are discussed in the light of their implications for academic adjustment.

The goals of this study were to examine the relationship between creativity and personality, to identify what personality variables better predict creativity, and to determine whether significant differences exist among them in relation to gender. The research was conducted with a sample of 87 students at the Universidad Pública de Navarra, Spain. We administered the Creative Intelligence Test (CREA), which provides a cognitive measure for creativity and the Situational Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), which is composed of 15 personality features. Positive and significant correlations between creativity and independence, cognitive control, and tolerance personality scales were found. Negative and significant correlations between creativity and anxious, dominant, and aggressive personalities were also found. Moreover, four personality variables that positively predicted creativity (efficacy, independence, cognitive control, and integrity-honesty) and another four that negatively predicted creativity (emotional stability, anxiety, dominance, and leadership) were identified. The results did not show significant differences in creativity and personality in relation to gender, except in self-concept and in social adjustment. In conclusion, the results from this study can potentially be used to expand the types of features that support creative personalities.