Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
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    Acquired dyslexia and dysgraphia in Chinese.
    Yin, W ; He, S ; Weekes, BS (Hindawi Limited, 2005)
    Understanding how the mappings between orthography and phonology in alphabetic languages are learned, represented and processed has been enhanced by the cognitive neuropsychological investigation of patients with acquired reading and writing disorders. During the past decade, this methodology has been extended to understanding reading and writing in Chinese leading to new insights about language processing, dyslexia and dysgraphia. The aim of this paper is to review reports of patients who have acquired dyslexia and acquired dysgraphia in Chinese and describe the functional architecture of the reading and writing system. Our conclusion is that the unique features of Chinese script will determine the symptoms of acquired dyslexia and dysgraphia in Chinese.
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    Deep dysgraphia in Turkish.
    Raman, I ; Weekes, BS (Hindawi Limited, 2005)
    Deep dysgraphic patients make semantic errors when writing to dictation and they cannot write nonwords. Extant reports of deep dysgraphia come from languages with relatively opaque orthographies. Turkish is a transparent orthography because the bidirectional mappings between phonology and orthography are completely predictable. We report BRB, a biscriptal Turkish-English speaker who has acquired dysgraphia characterised by semantic errors as well as effects of grammatical class and imageability on writing in Turkish. Nonword spelling is abolished. A similar pattern of errors is observed in English. BRB is the first report of acquired dysgraphia in a truly transparent writing system. We argue that deep dysgraphia results from damage to the mappings that are common to both languages between word meanings and orthographic representations.
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    More human than you: Attributing humanness to self and others
    Haslam, N ; Bain, P ; Douge, L ; Lee, M ; Bastian, B (AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC, 2005-12)
    People typically evaluate their in-groups more favorably than out-groups and themselves more favorably than others. Research on infrahumanization also suggests a preferential attribution of the "human essence" to in-groups, independent of in-group favoritism. The authors propose a corresponding phenomenon in interpersonal comparisons: People attribute greater humanness to themselves than to others, independent of self-enhancement. Study 1 and a pilot study demonstrated 2 distinct understandings of humanness--traits representing human nature and those that are uniquely human--and showed that only the former traits are understood as inhering essences. In Study 2, participants rated themselves higher than their peers on human nature traits but not on uniquely human traits, independent of self-enhancement. Study 3 replicated this "self-humanization" effect and indicated that it is partially mediated by attribution of greater depth to self versus others. Study 4 replicated the effect experimentally. Thus, people perceive themselves to be more essentially human than others.
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    What is life like for young Australians today, and how well are they faring?
    SMART, D ; SANSON, AV (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2005)
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    Women's developmental experiences of living with type 1 diabetes
    Kelly, G ; Lawrence, JA ; Dodds, AE (Institut fuer Klinische Psychologie und Gemeindepsychologie, 2005-01-01)
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    Changing places: the impact of rural restructuring on mental health in Australia
    Fraser, C ; Jackson, H ; Judd, F ; Komiti, A ; Robins, G ; Murray, G ; Humphreys, J ; Pattison, P ; Hodgins, G (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2005-06)
    Significant demographic, social and economic change has come to characterise much of rural Australia, with some authors arguing there are now two sharply differentiated zones, one of growth and one of decline. This restructuring process, which has been similar to other western nations, has had a profound impact upon rural places-socially, economically and physically. Findings from research investigating the relationship between health, place and income inequality suggest that rural 'desertification', which is characterised by decline of the agricultural sector, net population loss and the deterioration of demographic structures, may negatively influence mental health outcomes in these areas. By contrast, the growth in rural areas, which is associated with expanding employment opportunities and the movement of capital and people, may confer positive benefits to mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in mental health and well-being between rural communities experiencing growth and decline as measured by net population change. Utilising a survey methodology, questionnaires were distributed to 20,000 people randomly sampled from the electoral role in rural Australia. We selected four sub-regions from the sample area that were characteristic of areas experiencing population growth and decline in Australia and analysed the results of respondents from these four regions (n = 1334). The analysis provided support for our hypothesis that living in a declining area is associated with poorer mental health status; however, the factors that underpin growth and decline may also be important in influencing mental health. Discussed are the mechanisms by which demographic and social change influence mental health. The findings of this study highlight the diversity of health outcomes in rural areas and suggest that aspects of place in declining rural areas may present risk factors for mental health.
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    Cognitive representations of negotiation
    OLEKALNS, M. ; SMITH, P. ( 2005)
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    Mood effects on eyewitness memory: Affective influences on susceptibility to misinformation
    Forgas, JP ; Laham, SM ; Vargas, PT (ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE, 2005-11)
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    Darwinian grandparenting: preferential investment in more certain kin
    Laham, Simon M. ; Gonsalkorale, Karen ; von Hippel, William (SAGE, 2005)
    Studies on grandparental investment have revealed that mothers’ fathers are emotionally closer to their grandchildren than are fathers’ mothers. In the current study, it was hypothesized that this difference is caused by the fact that fathers’ mothers often have the potential to invest in genetically more certain kin (children through their daughters). To test this hypothesis, 787 participants rated their emotional closeness and exposure to their grandparents and indicated whether they had cousins through paternal and maternal aunts and uncles. Results indicated that participants felt closer to mothers’ fathers than fathers’ mothers only when alternate investment outlets for fathers’ mothers were available. Closeness ratings to fathers’ fathers also were reduced when they had grandchildren through their daughters. Exposure to grandparents revealed a similar pattern of findings but did not show the same sensitivity to the presence of more certain kin and did not appear to account for the closeness ratings.