Neuropsychological correlates of evocative multimodal speech: The combined roles of fearful prosody, visuospatial attention, cortisol response, and anxiety

"Does your baby watch TV?": The associations between at-home TV watching and laboratory challenge cortisol are different for young infants and their mothers

This longitudinal study examined associations between at-home TV watching and the biological stress response (cortisol) during a laboratory infant cognitive challenge task in 240 3- and 5-month infants and their mothers. Cortisol levels were lower in mothers of 5-month-old infants whose infants were exposed to TV at home, compared to mothers of infants that were not TV-exposed. Cortisol patterns were different across three laboratory sampling intervals for 3-month-old infants as a function of TV watching, revealing a sharp increase in laboratory cortisol only for infants who were exposed to TV at home. In contrast, there was no effect of TV exposure in 5-month-old infants' cortisol. Infant temperament and demographic measures were included as control variables in regression models to predict maternal and infant cortisol. At 3 months, for the T3 cortisol sampling interval, and at 5 months across all three sampling intervals, maternal cortisol levels were significantly predicted by infant TV exposure after accounting for variance due to these control variables. Our findings show the strong influence of the infant TV-exposure factor in the biological stress response of mothers of young infants, and suggest that infant TV exposure may influence self-regulation in 3-month-old infants.

Neurodidactics of Languages: Neuromyths in Multilingual Learners

From the perspective of neuroscience applied to education and the teaching of foreign languages, this exploratory study analyzes the beliefs and conceptions about the functioning of the brain and language learning in students enrolled in Education degrees at the Melilla campus of the University of Granada. The sample consisted of 397 participants. The data collection was carried out by means of a questionnaire designed for this purpose, consisting of questions related to the context and linguistic background of the respondents and to educational neuromyths regarding language learning. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 27 statistical software, and univariate and bivariate analyses were carried out according to the three grouping dimensions: (a) brain functioning, (b) multiple intelligences and learning styles, and (c) language learning. The results indicate the prevalence of neuromyths related to general concepts, which determine the learning comprehension. This corroborates the findings of research studies in other contexts. Although the participants do not show a prevalence of neuromyths regarding foreign language learning, presumably due to their experiences in multilingual contexts, which constitutes the main contribution of this study.