This study examined the relation of language to the development of a cultural self. Bilingual children ages 8-14 from Hong Kong (N = 125) were interviewed in either English or Chinese. They recalled autobiographical events and described themselves, and indicated their agreement with Chinese interdependent versus Western independent values. Children interviewed in English provided more elaborate and self-focused self-descriptions and memory accounts and endorsed more strongly Western values, compared with children interviewed in Chinese. Furthermore, the endorsement of a cultural belief system mediated the effect of language on self-concept, which, in turn, mediated the effect of language on autobiographical memory. These findings offer new insight into the dynamic relations between language, culture, and the self.

Relations between Asian American parental value orientations and children's self-identity in the domains of achievement and relationship were examined. Sixty-nine Asian American youths (15 males) of East Asian origin (51 Chinese, 18 Koreans) interviewed their parents (30 fathers) for their life stories as first-generation Asian Americans. They also told their life stories as secondgeneration Asian Americans. Fathers and mothers upheld Confucian values, which were associated with children's autonomous sense of self in achievement domain and relational sense of self in relationship domain. Furthermore, fathers and mothers had differential influences on children's self-identity, and sons and daughters responded differently to parental value socializations. Findings are discussed with respect to parent-child relationships and continuity of ethnic values in contemporary Asian American families.

No abstract

The hippocampus of patients with schizophrenia displays aberrant excess neuronal activity which affects cognitive function. Animal models of the illness have recapitulated the overactivity in the hippocampus, with a corresponding regionally localized reduction of inhibitory interneurons, consistent with that observed in patients. To better understand whether cognitive function is similarly affected in these models of hippocampal overactivity, we tested a ketamine mouse model of schizophrenia for cognitive performance in hippocampal- and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)-dependent tasks. We found that adult mice exposed to ketamine during adolescence were impaired on a trace fear conditioning protocol that relies on the integrity of the hippocampus. Conversely, the performance of the mice was normal on a delayed response task that is sensitive to mPFC damage. We confirmed that ketamine-exposed mice had reduced parvalbumin-positive interneurons in the hippocampus, specifically in the CA1, but not in the mPFC in keeping with the behavioral findings. These results strengthened the utility of the ketamine model for preclinical investigations of hippocampal overactivity in schizophrenia.

Research on autobiographical remembering has shown the intertwined relationship between the self and memory. Very little is known about the role of the self in the anticipation of the future. To investigate the association, European American (N=61) and Chinese (N=60) college students each reported two past autobiographical events and anticipated two future events, and described themselves in the past, present, and future. The results from a content analysis found that, regardless of culture, the future self and events were more positive and socially oriented than the past self and events. In general, European Americans provided more positive events and self-descriptions than Chinese. Men showed more personal focus in both experiences and self-descriptions than women at all time epochs. Importantly, independent of culture and gender, the self rather than the past events predicted the valence and personal focus of future events. These findings offer new insights into the dynamic relations between the self and episodic thinking.