Influence of socioeconomic status on rhythm perception in children with and without dyslexia
Nathania Davis, Vishal Thakkar, John Solorzano Restrepo, Abby Engelhart, Tracy Centanni
Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129

Development of strong reading skills takes years of practice and instruction, but such skills are critical for future success academically, vocationally, and in everyday life. In spite of the early start to reading instruction in the United States, up to 15 percent of children fail to learn to read and approximately 21 percent of adults meet the Department of Education’s criteria for low English literacy (NCES, 2014). One risk factor for poor reading outcomes is the child’s socioeconomic status (SES). Previous research has demonstrated a significant and positive relationship between children’s SES and their reading abilities, such that children from more advantaged backgrounds develop better reading skills (Bowey, 1995), (Corso, 2016). Interestingly, reading skills may also be correlated with rhythm perception. Children who struggle to read also appear to struggle in the ability to detect slight changes in rhythmic patterns (Overy et al., 2003). It is currently unknown why these two skills are related and whether SES impacts the development of rhythm perception. The goal of the current study was to examine the SES-rhythm relationship among typically developing children (TD) and those with dyslexia (DYS). Data were collected from 36 TD children and 25 DYS children. Children completed a series of virtual reading assessments and information about the child’s history and home environment was collected from the parents. Children then completed a rhythm matching task (Dolloghan and Campbell, 1998) in which they heard two patterns and reported whether they were the same or different. Early analyses suggest that SES and rhythm processing are not significantly related. We discuss the implications of these findings on the development of rhythm-based interventions for children who are at risk for lower reading skills.

Delay of gratification refers to the ability to wait for a preferred reward over an immediate reward. For children, this ability serves as an important predictor of future outcomes (e.g., Mischel et al., 1989). Previous studies have identified several strategies that children utilize in order to delay gratification and most research points to cognitive processes as the key strategy for aiding in children’s ability to delay gratification. However, a newer body of research with adults suggests that emotions, such as gratitude, might be manipulated, and thus might serve as a constructive strategy for delaying gratification (DeSteno et al., 2011). This study is the first to examine whether positive emotions influence a child’s ability to delay gratification.

Four and five-year-old children (n = 74) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions - pride, gratitude, and control - and completed a drawing task prior to the delay of gratification task. In the pride group, children completed a drawing and then were given praise. In the gratitude group, children were instructed to draw something they were thankful for and then describe it when they finished. In the control group, children were given a single black crayon and asked to draw 5 lines and given no feedback. Children were then told they could have more of a preferred reward if they waited for 15 minutes in their chair, but to ring the bell if they wanted to stop and have less of the reward (e.g., marshmallows, goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, etc.). The total amount of time they waited was recorded. In additional, the frequency of performing various behaviors was coded. These included distraction (looking away from the reward), verbal (talking about the reward v. talking about other things), and interacting with the reward (touching, smelling, tasting, eating).

The three groups did not differ on any demographic characteristics (child age, child gender, ethnicity, household income, parent education). There were no significant differences between groups on the amount of time they delayed gratification, F(2, 72)=2.07, p=.13. Children in the praise (M=17.42, SD=7.18) and gratitude groups (M=16.92, SD=8.34) engaged in significantly greater amounts of distraction, F(2,72)=4.30, p=.017, compared to the control group (M=11.48, SD=8.18).

Research with adults has shown that positive emotions play an important role in delaying gratification. The current study provides evidence that this is also true for younger children. Although all groups of children performed equally well with respect to the time they waited, there were important differences in the types of strategies they used. Focusing attention away from the source of temptation is generally found to be an effective strategy and one that translates across situations. For example, distracting oneself during an anger-eliciting situation is also effective in reducing negative emotions. Therefore, teachers and parents should consider implementing interventions that focus on teaching children to generate positive emotions when encountering potentially challenging situations.

Alcohol consumption is a pervasive element of today’s culture with serious individual and social consequences. Consequently, understanding the effects of alcohol on behavior and the brain is vital to unpack the motivation for drinking and potentially help treat individuals with alcohol use disorder. This experiment utilized a rat model of voluntary alcohol consumption using a high (66%) concentration of ethanol. Traditionally, it has been thought that rats reject such high concentrations of alcohol. However, it has been repeatedly demonstrated in our lab that rats will drink such high concentrations of alcohol at a rate equal to water and will even work to have access to alcohol as a reward. In this study, rats were given access to either 66% ethanol or water in their home cages for 1-hour sessions. After some of these sessions, rats were placed in the open field chamber to assess locomotor activity and blood was drawn to measure blood alcohol content. After a final consumption session, brains were extracted to investigate differences in brain activity in specific regions of the brain. The results showed that after 66% alcohol consumption rats had increased activity in the periphery of the open field chamber, increased blood alcohol concentration, and increased brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, insular cortex, and nucleus accumbens. All together, these results suggest that rats will consume high concentrations of alcohol and find such concentrations rewarding.

Background: Adolescent depression and anxiety has adverse effects if not treated, such as substance abuse, educational underachievement, teen pregnancy, social isolation, and suicidal ideation (Kamin et al. 2014). The possible reoccurrence of these disorders further emphasizes the need for early identification and diagnosis for teens. Although the prevalence of adolescent depression is high, many adolescents do not receive mental health services, such as talk therapy or medication. One possibility is that parents are not correctly identifying their child’s depressive and anxiety symptoms and may dismiss symptoms as being normative adolescent behavior. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether parents of adolescents were able to accurately identify symptoms of depression and anxiety in hypothetical adolescents and the extent to which their accuracy predicted their ability to identify symptoms in their adolescent. Ethnic differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic parents were also examined.

Methods: Eighty-one mother-adolescent dyads participated in the current study (23% Hispanic). Dyads completed a series of surveys and clinical interviews in a laboratory setting. Adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Child Depression Inventory (CDI) and Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED), which were completed by the mothers and adolescents. Mothers were presented with a series of vignettes which described the behaviors of hypothetical adolescents. Five of the vignettes described symptoms of anxiety and depression in male and female adolescents. After reading each vignette mothers were asked to identify the symptoms and whether they thought the adolescent had a problem and needed help. Responses were coded by trained research assistants (currently in progress) and a score reflecting the proportion of symptoms correctly identified will be calculated.

Analysis Plan: Separate discrepancy scores (mother v. child report) for child depressive and anxiety symptoms will be calculated. Higher discrepancy scores suggest that mothers and adolescents do not agree on the level of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Next, separate simple regressions will be performed to determine the extent to which mothers’ symptom identification accuracy on the vignettes predicts the discrepancy score. Any necessary covariates (e.g., child gender, age, etc.) will be included. Finally, parent ethnicity (Hispanic v. non-Hispanic) will be added as a moderator to determine whether the aforementioned relationship differs by ethnicity.

Implications:
These findings have essential implications for early identification in children who are at risk or may become depressed. Parents who are not able to see depressive symptoms early in their own children may never be able to give their child the help they desperately need. Equipping parents with the right information on depressive and anxiety symptoms is vital for early intervention to occur. Identifying possible ethnic differences will help as cultural differences can be a factor in early intervention. Parents can then be guided in better understanding their children’s individual signs and symptoms and be able to intervene before it is too serious. Overall this information will help more adolescents receive treatment as parents will be understanding of their own potential bias with their children.

Life history theory provides an evolutionary framework to explain why individuals from different ecologies (i.e., living environments) employ different strategies and behaviors to solve their adaptive problems. Research using life history theory consistently finds that individuals from harsh ecologies that are scarce, unpredictable, and high in morbidity risk are more likely to engage in fast life strategies (e.g., accelerated reproduction, impulsive behavior). In contrast, individuals from benign ecologies that are abundant, predictable, and low in morbidity are more likely to engage in slow life strategies (e.g., delayed reproduction, delayed gratification). Without the nuanced understanding of how living environments and socioeconomic status (SES) influences adaptive behaviors, one might perceive fast life strategies and behaviors as poor decision-making. Our first study, therefore, seeks to examine whether individuals from low SES backgrounds are more understanding of fast behaviors compared to those of high SES. The results supported our hypothesis, revealing that people from low SES neighborhoods were more likely to rate fast behaviors as wise and moral compared to people from high SES neighborhoods. Additionally, in our second study, we investigated whether having knowledge or cues of ecological contexts alters people’s perceptions of behaviors originating from those ecologies. The results revealed that people are more perceptive of behaviors that they consider congruent and adaptive to the subject's environment. Specifically, fast behaviors were rated as more wise and moral in harsh ecologies than in benign ecologies, while slow behaviors were rated as more wise and moral in benign ecologies compared to harsh. Overall, our findings indicate that having insight into one’s ecology significantly influences how people view that individual’s behaviors and life strategies.