DATE: April 09, 2025 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Emotional intelligence helps children become better readers

URL: https://www.psypost.org/emotional-intelligence-helps-children-become-better-readers/

Children who are better at recognizing and managing emotions tend to become better readers over time—but how does that connection work? A new longitudinal study published in Learning and Individual Differences offers an in-depth look at how emotional intelligence contributes to reading comprehension in children, and how this relationship differs depending on the type of text and a child’s family background. The researchers found that emotional intelligence predicted later reading comprehension in both narrative and non-narrative texts, and that this connection was shaped by vocabulary, word reading, and, for non-narrative texts only, working memory.

The researchers conducted this study to better understand how emotional development contributes to academic outcomes—specifically, reading comprehension. While much past research has focused on the importance of language and cognitive skills like vocabulary and memory, fewer studies have examined how non-cognitive skills such as emotional intelligence might influence children’s reading ability.

Emotional intelligence includes the ability to understand, manage, and use one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. These emotional skills are increasingly seen as important not only for mental health and social relationships, but also for learning and academic success. The researchers also aimed to explore whether these effects might vary depending on the type of reading material—narrative stories versus informational texts—and whether children’s socioeconomic background plays a role in shaping these relationships.

To investigate these questions, the research team tracked a group of 689 Chinese children starting in the third grade (average age 9.2 years) and followed them through fifth grade, collecting data in three waves over two years. The study included nearly equal numbers of boys and girls and drew from a range of family income and education backgrounds. At the start of the study (wave 1), the researchers assessed each child’s emotional intelligence using a questionnaire that measured self-awareness, emotional regulation, and ability to understand others’ emotions. They also measured non-verbal intelligence and reading comprehension.

A year later (wave 2), the children completed a series of tests designed to assess vocabulary knowledge, word reading, and working memory. Vocabulary was measured by having students define a set of two-character Chinese words, and word reading was assessed by asking students to read aloud from a list. Working memory was measured through digit span tasks, which required children to repeat a sequence of numbers forward and backward.

In the final year (wave 3), the students again completed reading comprehension tests, which included both narrative texts (such as stories) and non-narrative texts (such as informational or expository passages). The researchers then analyzed whether emotional intelligence in third grade predicted reading comprehension in fifth grade, and whether vocabulary, word reading, or working memory explained that connection.

The researchers found that emotional intelligence at age 9 was significantly linked to reading comprehension at age 11, even after controlling for early reading ability, intelligence, and gender. This relationship held true for both narrative and non-narrative texts, but the pathways connecting emotional intelligence to reading comprehension differed slightly between the two types of text.

For both text types, word reading and vocabulary knowledge served as important stepping stones. Children with higher emotional intelligence in third grade tended to have stronger word reading and vocabulary knowledge in fourth grade, which in turn predicted better reading comprehension in fifth grade. The effects were statistically significant, though modest, with word reading showing a standardized effect size of 0.04 for both narrative and non-narrative texts, and vocabulary showing effects of 0.03 for narrative and 0.02 for non-narrative texts.

However, working memory only played a role when it came to non-narrative texts. Emotional intelligence at age 9 was associated with stronger working memory at age 10, which then predicted better comprehension of non-narrative texts at age 11. This suggests that emotional skills may help children process and remember the more abstract, structured information found in non-narrative texts. Interestingly, working memory did not serve as a bridge between emotional intelligence and narrative comprehension, possibly because stories are more familiar and easier to follow, placing fewer demands on memory.

The researchers also found that family socioeconomic status significantly influenced these relationships. For children from low-income or less-educated families, emotional intelligence had a stronger impact on vocabulary, word reading, and working memory than it did for their higher-income peers.

In other words, emotional intelligence mattered more for academic outcomes among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is consistent with the “shift-and-persist” model, which suggests that children from lower-income families may rely more heavily on internal emotional strengths to navigate challenges and succeed academically.

Interestingly, the study also found that for narrative texts, word reading played a larger role in reading comprehension for children from high-income families compared to those from low-income families. One possible explanation is that children from more advantaged homes may already have exposure to narrative texts and storytelling from an early age, so their comprehension depends more on how quickly and accurately they can decode the words. In contrast, children from less advantaged homes may face multiple barriers to comprehension—less exposure to books, fewer reading strategies, and weaker word reading skills—so no single factor has an outsized influence.

Although the study offers valuable insights, the authors acknowledge several limitations. One concern is the reliance on self-reported emotional intelligence, which can be biased, especially in younger children. Future studies could strengthen measurement by incorporating teacher or caregiver assessments and observational methods. Additionally, the researchers did not examine other possible mediators, such as attention, listening comprehension, or anxiety, which may also connect emotional intelligence to reading performance. Finally, while the findings point to differences between narrative and non-narrative reading, more work is needed to understand how these genres engage different skills and strategies.

The study, “Emotional intelligence and reading comprehension: Examining mediating roles of word reading, vocabulary, and working memory,” was authored by Liyan Yu and Xiuhong Tong.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/emotional-intelligence-helps-children-become-better-readers/

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DATE: April 09, 2025 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: ChatGPT produces accurate psychiatric diagnoses from case vignettes, study finds

URL: https://www.psypost.org/chatgpt-produces-accurate-psychiatric-diagnoses-from-case-vignettes-study-finds/

An examination of ChatGPT’s responses to 100 vignettes of clinical psychiatric cases found that the model performs exceptionally well in producing psychiatric diagnoses from such material. It received the highest grade in 61 vignettes and the second-highest grade in an additional 31. Notably, there were no responses that contained diagnostic errors. The research was published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry.

ChatGPT is an advanced language model developed by OpenAI, designed to understand and generate human-like text based on user input. It is trained on a diverse dataset to handle a wide range of topics. ChatGPT aims to assist users by providing information, facilitating learning, and engaging in thoughtful dialogue.

Shortly after its launch, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing internet application, reaching 1 million users just five days after its release in November 2022. Since then, the user base has grown substantially. Numerous scientific studies have evaluated its capabilities, and ChatGPT often passes assessments that were traditionally the domain of humans—frequently with impressive results. One of its most notable achievements is successfully passing the United States Medical Licensing Examination. In many studies assessing its performance in providing medical advice or interpreting clinical results, ChatGPT has performed on par with—or even better than—human professionals.

Study author Russell Franco D’Souza and his colleagues note that ChatGPT could potentially serve as a valuable AI-based tool for detecting, interpreting, and managing various medical conditions by assisting clinicians in making diagnostic and treatment decisions, particularly in psychiatry. To explore this potential, the researchers conducted a study assessing the performance of ChatGPT 3.5 on 100 psychiatric case vignettes.

The study used clinical case vignettes from 100 Cases in Psychiatry by Barry Wright and colleagues. Each vignette begins with a detailed description of a patient’s symptoms, along with relevant personal and medical history. This is followed by a series of questions designed to guide the reader through the diagnostic process and management planning, encouraging critical thinking and the application of psychiatric knowledge.

The researchers presented ChatGPT with each vignette and recorded its responses. These responses were then evaluated by two experienced psychiatrists who are also faculty members with substantial teaching and clinical backgrounds. Each of the 100 responses was compared to reference answers from the source material and graded based on quality. Grades ranged from A (the highest) to D (indicating an unacceptable response).

Overall, ChatGPT received an A grade for 61 vignettes, a B for 31, and a C for the remaining 8. It did not produce any responses that were considered unacceptable. The model performed best in proposing strategies for managing disorders and symptoms, followed by making diagnoses and considering differential diagnoses.

“It is evident from our study that ChatGPT 3.5 has appreciable knowledge and interpretation skills in Psychiatry. Thus, ChatGPT 3.5 undoubtedly has the potential to transform the field of Medicine and we emphasize its utility in Psychiatry through the finding of our study. However, for any AI model to be successful, assuring the reliability, validation of information, proper guidelines and implementation framework are necessary,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the understanding of potential applications of ChatGPT and large language models in general. However, it remains unclear how much of the materials contained in this book were used in training ChatGPT. ChatGPT has information about the existence of this book with vignettes and can produce quite a few details about it. It remains unknown whether it was included in its training materials, as ChatGPT cannot report on what its training materials are. Results might differ if case descriptions were used from a source completely unknown to ChatGPT.

The paper, “Appraising the performance of ChatGPT in psychiatry using 100 clinical case vignettes,” was authored by Russell Franco D’Souza, Shabbir Amanullah, Mary Mathew, and Krishna Mohan Surapaneni.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/chatgpt-produces-accurate-psychiatric-diagnoses-from-case-vignettes-study-finds/

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DATE: April 09, 2025 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: The neurobiology of trauma: How childhood adversity alters brain development

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-neurobiology-of-trauma-how-childhood-adversity-alters-brain-development/

In 1966, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu introduced extreme policies to increase the country’s birth rate. This led to the widespread abandonment of children, who ended up in orphanages in appalling conditions where they received no care, attention or love. Though tragic, this infamous “natural experiment” has allowed us to learn a great deal about the effects of early-life trauma on the brain.

Research into these children found that many of them had smaller brain volumes, which partially explained their poor cognitive performance. This atrophy was more severe in children who had spent longer in institutions.

Childhood is the most sensitive period for neurodevelopment, but sadly, it can be disrupted in many ways, from abuse or neglect to exposure to war and violence.

A question of stress

Understanding the neurobiological effects of childhood adversity can help us understand and treat its long-term psychological effects. Evidence suggests that these particularly affect the main stress regulation system, known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The activity of this system can be measured through hormones such as cortisol, collectively known as glucocorticoids.

In normal amounts, cortisol helps to mobilise the body to deal with threats or challenges. However, excessive amounts can be harmful – children exposed to war have elevated levels of both cortisol and immunoglobulin-A in their saliva, which also indicates high immune system activity.

Changes in the brain

The imprints of adversity in the brain can also be more localised. One of the areas most sensitive to the effects of stress is the hippocampus, a crucial structure in the formation of memories and spatial orientation, among other functions.

This sensitivity is due to its high concentration of glucocorticoid receptors, the “stress hormones” which are present in high levels in families exposed to war.

The largest and most recent study on the subject reported a 17% reduction in hippocampus size among children exposed to three or more traumatic events compared to those who had suffered none.

The two types of trauma

It is important to note that adversity varies not just in severity, but also in its type. Abuse or mistreatment leads to trauma by commission, while neglect or deprivation leads to trauma by omission.

A 2019 systematic research review found that adversity created by commission – such as physical or sexual abuse or exposure to gender-based violence – affects limbic and paralimbic structures, including the amygdala and insular cortex.

These areas are part of the brain’s “alert system”, and abuse causes them to be constantly overactive. This, in turn, causes extreme reactions to harmless stimuli, as seen in post-traumatic stress disorder.

In contrast, neglect tends to affect the prefrontal areas of the brain, which are responsible for more complex processes such as planning and reasoning. The latter was clearly observed in the aforementioned study of state-fostered children in Romania, where an absence of care resulted in brain atrophy and cognitive deficits.

Different types of adversity can also affect development in opposite ways: a 2018 study found that neglect slows maturation, while maltreatment accelerates it.

Childhood adversity’s genetic footprint

One of the most striking findings of this century is that cicrumstances and environment can change genetic mechanisms. This happens through a process called epigenetics, whereby certain genes are expressed to a greater or lesser extent depending on a person’s surroundings.

Abused children, for instance, have been found to show opposite to expected gene expression (high expression of genes that normally have low activity, and vice versa).

Childhood maltreatment also causes “genetic ageing”: a pattern of genetic expression that is more advanced than usual for a person’s age. This ageing is also associated with greater risk of depressive symptoms.

Another surprising finding is that some epigenetic changes can occur during embryonic development. A study on the tragic Dutch famine of 1944 found that people whose mothers had experienced starvation during early pregnancy showed alterations in the expression of genes related to metabolism.

This explains, in part, their elevated body mass indexes and blood triglycerides compared to siblings who had been luckier and not suffered from starvation while in the womb.

The neurobiology of resilience

It is important not to be defeatist: the brain is highly malleable, and many individuals can overcome early adversity. In psychology, this process is called resilience.

In one of the cohorts of adopted Romanian children, IQ deficits were observed to decrease over the years following foster care until they approached normative levels. In addition, those who were in these institutions for less than six months had, from the outset, normative values for all the variables studied.

Research into resilience is only just starting to reveal the neurobiological and psychosocial factors that mitigate the impact of severe and chronic stress. In some people, this can even enable what is known as post-traumatic growth.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-neurobiology-of-trauma-how-childhood-adversity-alters-brain-development/

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DATE: April 08, 2025 at 11:03AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORG

TITLE: Shingles Vaccine Linked to Lower Dementia Risk

URL: http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=185494&url=https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMibkFVX3lxTFBWZTVuTElSMkZhMktOWncwLU1ERnFDT3hkWXZKYlY1QnQyMlR3Wm5wRjF0N2FDczlXLWNKckJhUmwyR0ZaOW01ZTRtUmlRUktWbUhLYm0xU3VqNHpMbFluN1lUMlFCbWxCV2Uwb2V3?oc=5

Source: Google News - Health

Getting vaccinated against shingles may reduce the risk of developing dementia by 20% over seven years. This conclusion comes from a natural experiment in Wales, where vaccine eligibility was determined by birthdate. Researchers used rigorous statistical methods to separate the effect of the shingles vaccine from other factors. Their findings suggest that routine immunization could play an unexpected role in protecting brain health as we age.

URL: http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=185494&url=https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMibkFVX3lxTFBWZTVuTElSMkZhMktOWncwLU1ERnFDT3hkWXZKYlY1QnQyMlR3Wm5wRjF0N2FDczlXLWNKckJhUmwyR0ZaOW01ZTRtUmlRUktWbUhLYm0xU3VqNHpMbFluN1lUMlFCbWxCV2Uwb2V3?oc=5

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