We hypothesized that generic noun phrases ("Bears climb trees") would provide important input to children's developing concepts. In three experiments, four-year-olds and adults learned a series of facts about a novel animal category, in one of three wording conditions: generic (e.g., "Zarpies hate ice cream"), specific-label (e.g., "This zarpie hates ice cream"), or no-label (e.g., "This hates ice cream"). Participants completed a battery of tasks assessing the extent to which they linked the category to the properties expressed, and the extent to which they treated the category as constituting an essentialized kind. As predicted, for adults, generics training resulted in tighter category-property links and more category essentialism than both the specific-label and no-label training. Children also showed effects of generic wording, though the effects were weaker and required more extensive input. We discuss the implications for language-thought relations, and for the acquisition of essentialized categories.Much of children's knowledge about the world is obtained not through direct experience but through the testimony of others (Gelman, 2009;Gergely & Csibra, 2006;Harris & Koenig, 2006). For example, many scientific concepts (shape of the earth, evolution), religious concepts (qualities of the supreme being, reincarnation beliefs), social concepts (caste, nationality), and conventions (appropriate school attire, meaning of traffic lights) cannot be discovered by a child wholly on his or her own, but require interacting with others. It has long been observed that language is a primary means of transmitting information from one generation to the next, and thus of guiding thought (Bowerman & Levinson, 2001;Gentner & Goldin-Meadow, 2003; Vygotsky, 1934 Vygotsky, /1962. In the present paper, we consider the role of one particular aspect of language, that of generic noun phrases.Generic noun phrases (e.g., "Bears climb trees"; see Gelman, 2004) potentially provide an important source of information to children's developing concepts, in that they refer directly to kinds of things. Consider the distinction between "this bear climbs trees" and "bears climb trees". The former (non-generic) refers to a present, perceptible object (a single bear), whereas the latter (generic) refers to an abstract category (bears in general). One can learn all sorts of things about individuals by inspecting them on one's own, for example, by observing a single bear climbing a tree; one cannot so easily learn about kinds without the input and guidance of others. For example, one cannot directly observe 'bears,' as a category, climbing trees.Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be disco...

uicide is the tenth most common cause of death in the United States. 1 The annual age-adjusted rate of suicide mortality in the United States is 11.8 per 100 000, 1 and the rate of nonfatal lifetime serious suicide attempts is approximately 1800 per 100 000. 2,3 Although a substantial proportion of the research on suicide has focused on the connection between psychiatric disorders and suicide, 4-7 a small, but growing, body of literature suggests that chronic pain is associated with suicidal behaviors. 8 Several studies have demonstrated a link between chronic pain and suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts, while controlling for concomitant psychiatric disorders in population-based 9-13 and clinical 14-16 samples. Fewer studies have examined the relationship between pain and suicide death. In one of the first studies evaluating this relationship, Fishbain and colleagues 17 presented 3 case studies of individuals who were seen in a pain clinic and had died by suicide. They hypothesized that patients who attend pain clinics were at substantially elevated risk for suicide relative to the general population. Several subsequent studies 18-22 have found significant associations between some measures of pain and an increased risk of suicide death; however, each study had 1 or more key limitations, including use of a nonrepresentative sample, rudimentary assessments of pain, incomplete adjustment for psychiatric factors, or, in the psychological autopsy study, 21 the potential for recall IMPORTANCE There are limited data on the extent to which suicide mortality is associated with specific pain conditions. OBJECTIVE To examine the associations between clinical diagnoses of noncancer pain conditions and suicide among individuals receiving services in the Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. DESIGN Retrospective data analysis.

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Individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) are at high risk of suicidal behaviors, highlighting the need for an improved understanding of potentially influential factors. One such domain is self-efficacy to manage suicidal thoughts and impulses. The study provides psychometric data about the Self-Efficacy to Avoid Suicidal Action (SEASA) scale within a sample of adults seeking SUD treatment (N=464). Exploratory factor analysis supported a single self-efficacy construct. Lower SEASA scores, or lower self-efficacy, were reported in those with more severe suicidal ideation and those with more suicide attempts, providing evidence for convergent validity. Implications of measuring self-efficacy in the context of suicide risk assessment are discussed.