When children choose fantastical events in fiction.

Although stories for children often feature supernatural and fantastical events, children themselves often prefer realistic events when choosing what should happen in a story. In two experiments, we investigated whether 3- to 5-year-olds (total N = 240 from diverse backgrounds) might be more likely to include fantastical events in stories about familiar fantasy characters. In Experiment 1, children saw stories about fantasy or real-world characters (e.g., a mermaid or an ordinary woman) and judged whether they would achieve goals using fantastic or realistic methods. Children were more likely to choose fantastic methods for the fantasy characters, and this tendency was more common in older children. In Experiment 2, children were asked yes/no questions about whether characters could use fantastic, realistic, and unusual methods to achieve goals. Children more often affirmed fantastic methods for fantasy than real-world characters. These findings contrast with previous work suggesting children avoid including fantastic events in fiction and suggest that children use precedent and familiarity to decide what can happen in a story. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Evaluation of an Intergenerational and Technological Intervention for Loneliness: Protocol for a Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Social integration and mental health are vital aspects of healthy aging. However, close to half of Canadians older than 80 years report feeling socially isolated. Research has shown that social isolation leads to increased mortality and morbidity, and various interventions have been studied to alleviate loneliness among older adults. This proposal presents an evaluation of an intervention that provides one-on-one coaching, is intergenerational, provides both educational and socialization experiences, and increases technology literacy of older adults to overcome loneliness. OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the protocol of a randomized, mixed-methods study that will take place in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if an intergenerational technology literacy program can reduce social isolation and depression in older adults via quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. METHODS: This study is a randomized, mixed-methods, feasibility trial with 2 conditions. Older adults in the intervention condition will receive 1 hour of weekly technological assistance to send an email to a family member, for 8 weeks, with the assistance of a volunteer. Participants in the control condition will not receive any intervention. The primary outcomes are loneliness, measured using the University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale, and depression, measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, both of which are measured weekly. Secondary outcomes are quality of life, as assessed using the Older People's Quality of Life-Brief version, and technological literacy, evaluated using the Computer Proficiency Questionnaire-12, both of which will be administered before and after the intervention. Semistructured interviews will be completed before and after the intervention to assess participants' social connectedness, familiarity with technology, and their experience with the intervention. The study will be completed in a long-term care facility in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Significance was set at P<.05. RESULTS: This study was funded in April 2019 and ethical approval was obtained in August 2019. Recruitment for the study started in November 2019. The intervention began in February 2020 but was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The trial will be restarted when safe. As of March 2020, 8 participants were recruited. CONCLUSIONS: Information and communication technology interventions have shown varying results in reducing loneliness and improving mental health among older adults. Few studies have examined the role of one-on-one coaching for older adults in addition to technology education in such interventions. Data from this study may have the potential to provide evidence for other groups to disseminate similar interventions in their respective communities. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/23767.

Who knows what? Preschoolers appreciate the link between ownership and knowledge.

We investigated 4- and 5-year-olds' (N = 194) appreciation of the link between knowledge and ownership. Namely, we asked whether preschoolers appreciate the ways in which owners are typically knowledgeable about artifacts. Experiment 1 revealed that 4- and 5-year-olds view owners as better sources of knowledge about artifacts than those who simply like artifacts. Experiment 2 built on these findings by showing that 5-year-olds appreciate that owners typically have deep knowledge about artifacts and that they can use this appreciation to guide inferences about who owns what. These experiments are some of the first to investigate how children's inferences about knowledge and ownership are intertwined. As such, they have implications for our understanding of early childhood cognition. First, they provide insights into how object-person relations influence judgments of expertise. Second, they extend current understandings of ownership by demonstrating that ownership influences preschoolers' reasoning in other domains (i.e., knowledge) and by showing that preschoolers' theories of ownership extend beyond normative considerations (i.e., ownership rights). Together, these findings lay the groundwork for a new area of work on how ownership influences children's reasoning about knowledge. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Rhomboid-7 and HtrA2/Omi act in a common pathway with the Parkinson's disease factors Pink1 and Parkin.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder caused by loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons, the pathogenetic mechanisms of which remain unclear. Mitochondrial dysfunction, which has long been implicated in sporadic PD, has recently been highlighted as a key pathological cause, particularly with the identification of mutations in the PTEN-induced putative kinase (pink1), parkin and htrA2 (also known as omi) genes that are linked to PD. Studies in Drosophila melanogaster have shown that pink1 and parkin act in a common genetic pathway that maintains mitochondrial integrity, but other upstream or downstream components of this pathway are currently unknown. Using ectopic expression in the Drosophila eye as an assay, we have investigated the involvement of the mitochondrial protease encoded by omi in the Pink1/Parkin pathway and found that it acts genetically downstream of pink1 but functions independently of Parkin. Using the same approach, we also found that Rhomboid-7, a mitochondrial protease not previously implicated in PD, acts as an upstream component of this pathway, and showed that it is required to cleave the precursor forms of both Pink1 and Omi. These data further elucidate the composition of the Pink1 pathway and suggest that regulated intramembrane proteolysis is involved in its regulation.