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The model examines the looking-learning behavior of infants as young as 6 weeks through one year of age, through 4,800 simulations at various points in development involving multiple stimuli and tasks. As would be expected, most infants introduced to new objects tend to look at them to gather information about them; once they do, they are “biased” to look away from them in search of something new

an infant will linger on something that’s being shown to it for the first time as it learns about it, and that the “total looking time” will decrease as the infant becomes more familiar with it.

infants who don’t spend a sufficient amount of time studying a new object—in effect, failing to learn about it and to catalog that knowledge into memory—don’t catch on as well, which can affect their learning later on.

Sammy Perone, a post-doctoral researcher in psychology at the UI and corresponding author on the pape

To examine why infants need to dwell on objects to learn about them, the researchers created two different models. One model learned in a "responsive" world: Every time the model looked away from a new object, the object was jiggled to get the model to look at it again. The other model learned in a "nonresponsive" world: when this model looked at a new object, objects elsewhere were jiggled to distract it. The results showed that the responsive models“learned about new objects more robustly, more quickly, and are better learners in the end,

infants can familiarize themselves with new objects, and store them into memory well enough that when shown them again, they quickly recognized them

“if that’s the case, we can manipulate and change what the brain is doing” to aid infants born prematurely or who have special needs, Perone adds.

Extensive and unusual loss of memory pertaining to personal information another feature of DID

Differential diagnosis generally involves ruling out the effects of chemical substances and medical (as opposed to psychological) conditions. When evaluating children, it is also important to ensure that symptoms are distinguishable from imaginary play (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

In clinical populations, the estimated prevalence of DID ranges from 0.5 to 1.0% (Maldonado, Butler, & Spiegel, 2002). In the general population, estimates of prevalence are somewhat higher, ranging from 1-5% (Rubin & Zorumski, 2005). Females are more likely to receive a diagnosis of DID, at a ratio of 9:1 (Lewis-Hall, 2002

High percentages of individuals with DID have comorbid diagnoses of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorde

DID commonly have a previous diagnosis of Schizophrenia. However, this most likely represents a misdiagnosis rather than comorbidity, du

Other possible comorbid disorders involve substance abuse, eating disorders, somatoform disorders, problems of anxiety and mood, personality disorders, psychotic disorders, and organic mental disorders (ISSD, 2005), OCD, or some combination of conversion and somatoform disorder

Other factors influencing a poor prognosis include remaining in abusive situations, involvement with criminal activity, substance abuse, eating disorders, or antisocial personality features

the average age of diagnosis is thirt

One study found that the risk of developing a dissociative disorder (DD) increased seven times with a child’s exposure to trauma.

Dissociative Identity Disorder is linked to childhood abuse in 95-98% of the cases

Studies on genetic factors contributing to DID present mixed findings. However, one study involving dyzogotic and monozygotic twins found that considerable variance in experiences of pathological dissociation could be attributed to both shared and non-shared environmental experiences, but heritability appeared to have no effect (Waller & Ross, 1997).

Treatment most commonly follows a framework of “1) safety, stabilization and symptom reduction, 2) working directly and in depth with traumatic memories, and 3) identity integration and rehabilitation” (p. 89).

A study involving 280 outpatient participants (98% DID diagnosis) from five different races (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Other) demonstrated the effectiveness of a similar five-phase model in reducing symptoms of dissociation.

McNally, a professor in the Department of Psychology

In addition to raising the public profile of the disorder, the book also marked the first suggestion that alternate personalities were created as a way to wall off traumatic memories of physical or sexual abuse, and that those memories could be recovered with the help of a therapist.

The idea at the time was that the mind locks these memories away, but with the help of a therapist, and through hypnosis or the use of drugs like Sodium Pentothal, these memories could become accessible,

Called a “concealed information task,” the test’s goal is ostensibly simple: identify words as they flash on a computer screen. If one of a small set of randomly selected “target” words appears, press yes. For all other words, press no. The catch, McNally said, is that while many of the words hold no meaning for the patients, a small subset of the non-target words are taken from two autobiographical questionnaires patients fill out at the start of the test — one while inhabiting one personality, the second in another.

When one of those personally relevant words — such as a best friend’s name, favorite food, or favorite sport — appears on screen, McNally said, most patients’ first impulse is to press the yes button. Within moments, however, they realize the word doesn’t appear on the target list, and they eventually give the “correct” answer by pressing no.

All participants showed a nearly identical lag for words that were relevant to their alternate personalities, McNally said, suggesting that the information wasn’t locked away in a separate identity.

considered to be multifactorially inherited

Multifactorial inheritance means that "many factors"

where a combination of genes from both parents, in addition to unknown environmental factors, produce the trait or condition

factors are usually both genetic and environmental

Often, one gender (either males or females) is affected more frequently than the other in multifactorial traits

means that one gender is more likely to show the problem

Slightly more males develop schizophrenia in childhood, however, by adolescence schizophrenia affects males and females equally.

Although schizophrenia affects men and women equally, symptoms in men generally begin earlier than in women

schizophrenia first appears in men during their late teens or early 20s

women, schizophrenia often first appears during their 20s or early 30s.

schizophrenia affects 2.7 million Americans

child born into a family with one or more schizophrenic family member has a greater chance of developing schizophrenia than a child born into a family with no history of schizophrenia.

chance for a sibling to also be diagnosed with schizophrenia is 7 to 8 percen

If a parent has schizophrenia, the chance for a child to have the disorder is 10 to 15 percen

Risks increase with multiple affected family members.

Distorted perception of reality (i.e., difficulty telling dreams from reality) Confused thinking (i.e., confusing television with reality) Detailed and bizarre thoughts and ideas Suspiciousness and/or paranoia (fearfulness that someone, or something, is going to harm them) Hallucinations (seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not real such as hearing voices telling them to do something) Delusions (ideas that seem real but are not based in reality) Extreme moodiness Severe anxiety and/or fearfulness Flat affect (lack of emotional expression when speaking) or inability to manage emotions Difficulty in performing functions at work and/or school Exaggerated self-worth and/or unrealistic sense of superiority of one's self Social withdrawal (severe problems in making and keeping friends ) Disorganized or catatonic behavior (suddenly becoming agitated and confused, or sitting and staring, as if immobilized) Odd behaviors

The symptoms of schizophrenia are often classified as positive (symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, and bizarre behavior), negative (symptoms including flat affect, withdrawal, and emotional unresponsiveness), disorganized speech (including speech that is incomprehensible), and disorganized or catatonic behavior (including marked mood swings, sudden aggressive, or confusion, followed by sudden motionlessness and staring).

diagnosed by a psychiatrist

Specific treatment for schizophrenia will be determined by your physician based on: Your age, overall health, and medical history Extent of the disease Your tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies Expectations for the course of the disease Your opinion or preference

Types of treatment that may be helpful to an individual with schizophrenia may include: Medications (also called psychopharmacological management; to reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia), including the following: Neuroleptics--a specialized class of medications used to treat schizophrenia. Neuroleptics are used primarily to treat the pervasive, intrusive, and disturbing thoughts of a person with schizophrenia. They are designed to help minimize the severity of delusions and hallucinations the individual is experiencing. Antipsychotic medications--medications that act against the symptoms of psychotic illness, but do not cure the illness. However, these medications can reduce symptoms or reduce the severity of symptoms; a specialized class of medications used to treat schizophrenia. Individual and family psychotherapy (including cognitive and behavioral therapy) Specialized educational and/or structured activity programs (i.e., social skills training, vocational training, speech and language therapy) Self-help and support groups

Preventive measures to reduce the incidence of schizophrenia are not known at this time

Jason Babcock is the founder of Positive Science, a New York company that has developed eye-tracking devices over the last decade

John Franchak, a doctoral student at NYU and leader of the project

infants would be looking at their mothers constantly because that was common knowledge within [the field of] social cognition with infants." But in a room full of toys scattered everywhere and obstacles to climb on and crawl on, the infants only looked toward their mothers about half the time.  And even if they did look at their mothers, they looked at their mothers' faces only about 15 percent of the time.

toddlers almost always look directly at the object when reaching for it.

Toddlers are able to use information from their peripheral vision and still walk very well.

Another interesting finding was that while infants look directly at an obstacle before walking onto or over it, 75 percent of the time they don't always have to.

According to Franchak, down the line it could offer more research applications that could help infants with developmental disorders, medical research and applied research.   

ADHD diagnoses depend on a child's age relative to classmates and the teacher's perceptions of whether the child has symptoms.

ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder for kids in the United States, with at least 4.5 million diagnoses among children under age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, there are no neurological markers for ADHD

Overall, the study found that about 20 percent -- or 900,000 -- of the 4.5 million children currently identified as having ADHD likely have been misdiagnosed.

Piers Steel, a business professor at the University of Calgary, the percentage of people who admitted to difficulties with procrastination quadrupled between 1978 and 2002

Americans waste hundreds of millions of dollars because they don’t file their taxes on time

Harvard economist David Laibson has shown

that American workers have forgone huge amounts of money in matching 401(k) contributions because they never got around to signing up for a retirement plan.

Seventy per cent of patients suffering from glaucoma risk blindness because they don’t use their eyedrops regularly

delaying tough decisions

Piers Steel defines procrastination as willingly deferring something even though you expect the delay to make you worse off.

sixty-five per cent of students surveyed before they started working on a term paper said they would like to avoid procrastinating: they knew both that they wouldn’t do the work on time and that the delay would make them unhappy.

"If you're trying to lose weight, getting enough sleep gives you a fighting chance."

“Once Mischel began analyzing the results, he noticed that low delayers, the children who rang the bell quickly, seemed more likely to have behavioral problems, both in school and at home. They got lower S.A.T. scores. They struggled in stressful situations, often had trouble paying attention, and found it difficult to maintain friendships. The child who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds.” - Jonah Lehrer from his piece in the New Yorker, “Don’t”

“The future is always ideal: The fridge is stocked, the weather clear, the train runs on schedule and meetings end on time. Today, well, stuff happens.” - Hara Estroff Marano in Psychology Today

Interestingly, these results suggest that although almost everyone has problems with procrastination, those who recognize and admit their weakness are in a better position to utilize available tools for precommitment and by doing so, help themselves overcome it. - Dan Ariely, from his book “Predictably Irrational”

absorb the movements that match basic sounds

first birthdays, babies start shifting back to look you in the eye again

University of Iowa psychology professor Bob McMurray, who also studies speech development.

quality face-time with your tot is very important for speech development – more than, say, turning on the latest baby DVD.

Other studies have shown that babies who are best at distinguishing between vowel sounds like "ah" and "ee" shortly before their first birthday wind up with better vocabularies and pre-reading skills by kindergarten.

babies also look to speakers' faces for important social cues about what they're hearing

So he and doctoral student Amy Hansen-Tift tested nearly 180 babies, groups of them at ages 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months. How? They showed videos of a woman speaking in English or Spanish to babies of English speakers. A gadget mounted on a soft headband tracked where each baby was focusing his or her gaze and for how long.

They found a dramatic shift in attention: When the speaker used English, the 4-month-olds gazed mostly into her eyes. The 6-month-olds spent equal amounts of time looking at the eyes and the mouth. The 8- and 10-month-olds studied mostly the mouth.

At 12 months, attention started shifting back toward the speaker's eyes.

at 6 months, babies begin observing lip movement, Lewkowicz says, because that's about the time babies' brains gain the ability to control their attention rather than automatically look toward noise.

Duke University cognitive neuroscientist Greg Appelbaum