Supporting Japanese Mothers of Children with ADHD: Cultural Adaptation of the New Forest Parent Training Programme

International practice guidelines recommend medication and behavioral intervention as evidenced‐based treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Currently in Japan, the availability of non‐pharmacological interventions for ADHD is limited. We report the results of a pilot and a proof‐of‐concept study for a new behavioral intervention for Japanese mothers of children with ADHD. The pilot study delivered a standard six‐session behavioral intervention and two parent‐support sessions. Participants approved the group format and requested additional support to change parenting practices and behavioral strategies targeting ADHD symptoms. For the proof‐of‐concept study, the intervention was revised to include five sessions of pre‐intervention support followed by six sessions of the New Forest Parent Training Programme (NFPP), an evidence‐based intervention for ADHD. The revised intervention, NFPP‐Japan, was associated with reductions in the mothers’ reports of children's ADHD symptoms and aggression, more effective parenting practices, and reduced parenting stress. The pilot and proof‐of‐concept studies indicate that it is possible to successfully modify Western behavioral interventions for Japanese mothers and to justify a randomized controlled trial evaluation of the NFPP‐Japan, which is currently underway.     

Four Principles of Evolutionary Pragmatics in Jacob's Philosophy of Modern Biology

The French molecular biologist François Jacob outlined a theory of evolution as tinkering. From a methodological point of view, his approach can be seen as a biologic specification of the relation between laws, describing coherently the dynamics of a system, and contingent boundary conditions on this dynamics. From a semiotic perspective, tinkering is a pragmatic concept well-known from the information-theoretic anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss. In idealized contrast to an engineer, the tinkerer has to accept the concrete restrictions on his material resources as only gradually changeable constraints on his projects. Jacobian biopragmatics examines evolution as a biologic analogue to human tinkering devoid of any projecting subjectivity. To validate this analogy, four basic principles concerning main formal aspects of evolutionary objects, agents, histories, and consistency criteria are proposed.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Recognition-induced forgetting does not occur for temporally grouped objects unless they are semantically related

Recent evidence has shown that practice recognizing certain objects hurts memories of objects from the same category, a phenomenon called recognition-induced forgetting. In all previous studies of this effect, the objects have been related by semantic category (e.g., instances of vases). However, the relationship between objects in many real-world visual situations stresses temporal grouping rather than semantic relations (e.g., a weapon and getaway car at a crime scene), and temporal grouping is thought to cluster items in models of long-term memory. The goal of the present study was to determine whether temporally grouped objects suffer recognition-induced forgetting. To this end, we implemented a modified recognition-induced forgetting paradigm in which the objects were temporally clustered at study. Across four experiments, we found that recognition-induced forgetting occurred only when the temporally clustered objects were also semantically related. We conclude by discussing how these findings relate to real-world vision and inform models of memory.     

Focusing and Expressive Arts Therapy as a Complementary Treatment for Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

This pilot study (N = 18) explored the effectiveness of focusing and expressive arts therapies intervention on the quality of life of women with breast cancer. The format was a 2-day (7 hours per day) retreat/support group in which complementary treatments (focusing, writing, art, and movement) were provided in an intensive format. Our hypothesis was that an integrated approach of multimodal expressive arts therapy would result in improvements in several measures of the participants' qualities of life. There was a 6-week post-group follow-up telephone interview, during which several participants reported positive results. This suggests that the intervention was beneficial.     

Close interpersonal proximity modulates visuomotor processing of object affordances in shared,social space

Research suggests that the human brain codes manipulable objects as possibilities for action, or affordances, particularly objects close to the body. Near-body space is not only a zone for body-environment interaction but also is socially relevant, as we are driven to preserve our near-body, personal space from others. The current, novel study investigated how close proximity of a stranger modulates visuomotor processing of object affordances in shared, social space. Participants performed a behavioural object recognition task both alone and with a human confederate. All object images were in participants’ reachable space but appeared relatively closer to the participant or the confederate. Results revealed when participants were alone, objects in both locations produced an affordance congruency effect but when the confederate was present, only objects nearer the participant elicited the effect. Findings suggest space is divided between strangers to preserve independent near-body space boundaries, and in turn this process influences motor coding for stimuli within that social space. To demonstrate that this visuomotor modulation represents a social phenomenon, rather than a general, attentional effect, two subsequent experiments employed nonhuman joint conditions. Neither a small, Japanese, waving cat statue (Experiment 2) nor a metronome (Experiment 3) modulated the affordance effect as in Experiment 1. These findings suggest a truly social explanation of the key interaction from Experiment 1. This study represents an important step toward understanding object affordance processing in real-world, social contexts and has implications broadly across fields of social action and cognition, and body space representation.     

Family Consulting: A New Role for Therapists

A new model for psychological practice entitled, "Family Consulting" is proposed. It is defined as a long-term, intermittent approach to working with families based on a developmental/non-pathological perspective. The specific format of intervention is described in detail. A brief review of the life-span perspective of development, the family life-cycle literature, and object relations family therapy, which serve as the building blocks of the model is provided. The role that family consulting can play in today's managed mental health care environment is discussed.     

The role of multiple-exemplar training and naming in establishing derived equivalence in an infant

The conditions under which symmetry and equivalence relations develop are still controversial. This paper reports three experiments that attempt to analyze the impact of multiple-exemplar training (MET) in receptive symmetry on the emergence of visual-visual equivalence relations with a very young child, Gloria. At the age of 15 months 24 days (15m24d), Gloria was tested for receptive symmetry and naming and showed no evidence of either repertoire. In the first experiment, MET in immediate and delayed receptive symmetrical responding or listener behavior (from object-sound to immediate and delayed sound-object selection) proceeded for one month with 10 different objects. This was followed, at 16m25d, by a second test conducted with six new objects. Gloria showed generalized receptive symmetry with a 3-hr delay; however no evidence of naming with new objects was found. Experiment 2 began at 17m with the aim of establishing derived visual-visual equivalence relations using a matching-to-sample format with two comparisons. Visual-visual equivalence responding emerged at 19m, although Gloria still had not shown evidence of naming. Experiment 3 (22m to 23m25d) used a three-comparison matching-to-sample procedure to establish visual-visual equivalence. Equivalence responding emerged as in Experiment 2, and naming emerged by the end of Experiment 3. Results are discussed in terms of the history of training in bidirectional relations responsible for the emergence of visual-visual equivalence relations and of their implications for current theories of stimulus equivalence.     

The Prospects for Prospect Theory: An Empirical Evaluation of International Relations Applications of Framing and Loss Aversion

International relations theorists have tried to adapt prospect theory to make it relevant to the study of real-world decision-making and testable beyond the constraints of the laboratory. Three experiments with undergraduate samples were conducted in an effort to clarify the advantages and limitations of prospect theory as adapted to explain political behavior. The first experiment tested hypotheses regarding the impact of prospect framing on group polarization, but these were only weakly supported. The second and third experiments examined alternative adaptations of the concept of framing; the results suggest that the political science expansion of the concept of framing may, under certain conditions, produce clear and robust preference reversals.     

Are human bodies represented differently from other objects? Experience shapes object representations

This study investigated the cognitive organization of the human body representation and its relationship to other object representations. It addressed whether (1) all objects and their parts were organized similarly, (2) animate objects and their parts were organized differently from inanimate objects and their parts, and (3) the human body was organized differently from all other objects. The relations among the parts of three exemplar objects (human body, bear, and bicycle) were examined. Participants performed a series of sorting tasks using stimulus cards illustrating various part and part combinations of these objects; the cards were constructed so that the same strategies could be used to categorize all three objects. Dissimilarity data were analysed using multidimensional scaling techniques. Results indicated that the human body was organized differently from the other objects, and that categorization did not follow the animate–inanimate distinction. Although animate objects were represented more on their visual characteristics and inanimate objects were represented more on functional characteristics, the human body was represented on its ability to perform actions. Representations of the other objects suggested that their organization was embodied in that they appear to be shaped by how the human body interacts, or doesn't interact, with the object.     

Spatial problem solving and functional relations

Three experiments investigated the role of object knowledge on participants' ability to solve a spatial arrangement problem. The task was to rearrange six real-world three-dimensional objects so that their relative locations agreed with a given set of rules. The aim of the experiments was to tease out the relative extent to which object association, orientation, and object-specific functional relations affect performance on arrangement tasks. When the problem was presented vertically (objects arranged in piles), participants solved functional canonical versions of the problem significantly quicker than functional non-canonical versions both between (Experiments 1a and 2), and within subjects (Experiment 3). When the arrangement problem was presented horizontally (objects arranged flat in two rows), no significant differences in solution times were found between conditions (Experiments 1b and 2). Overall the results provide evidence for the importance of object-specific functional relations as a predictor of the solution time of spatial arrangement problems, although some differences were noted between single and multiple presentation of problems when specific rules within problems were rotated. The importance of functional information in memory as a constraint on the building of mental models and problem spaces is discussed.     

Development of a Brief Motivational Enhancement Intervention for Intimate Partner Violence in Alcohol Treatment Settings

The current studies were a manual development study and a small pilot study of a 90-minute motivational enhancement style intervention to address intimate partner violence in alcohol-treatment-seeking men. Analyses of feedback provided during manual development suggest participants (a) liked the intervention, (b) reported behavior change intentions, and (c) found the feedback compelling. Findings from the pilot study suggest the intervention might be superior to referral only in increasing short-term help-seeking and lead to marginally significant enhancements in motivation and self-reported intimacy. Help-seeking and motivation findings were associated with medium-large to large effect sizes. At 3- and 6-month follow-up, both groups showed improvements in self-reported alcohol outcomes, anger, and verbal and physical aggression. These findings support further research on this intervention.     

Development of a Brief Motivational Enhancement Intervention for Intimate Partner Violence in Alcohol Treatment Settings

The current studies were a manual development study and a small pilot study of a 90-minute motivational enhancement style intervention to address IPV in alcohol treatment-seeking men. Analyses of feedback provided during manual development suggest participants: (a) liked the intervention, (b) reported behavior change intentions, and (c) found the feedback compelling. Findings from the pilot study suggest the intervention may be superior to referral only in increasing short-term help-seeking and lead to marginally significant enhancements in motivation and self-reported intimacy. Help-seeking and motivation findings were associated with medium-large to large effect sizes. At 3- and 6-month follow-up, both groups showed improvements in self-reported alcohol outcomes, anger, and verbal and physical aggression. These findings support further research on this intervention.     

The body-inversion effect

Researchers argue that faces are recognized via the configuration of their parts. An important behavioral finding supporting this claim is the face-inversion effect, in which inversion impairs recognition of faces more than nonface objects. Until recently, faces were the only class of objects producing the inversion effect for untrained individuals. This study investigated whether the inversion effect extends to human body positions, a class of objects whose exemplars are structurally similar to each other. Three experiments compared the recognition of upright and inverted faces, houses, and body positions using a forced-choice, same/different paradigm. For both reaction time and error data, the recognition of possible human body postures was more affected by inversion than the recognition of houses. Further, the recognition of possible human body postures and recognition of faces showed similar effects of inversion. The inversion effect was diminished for impossible body positions that violated the biomechanical constraints of human bodies. These data suggest that human body positions, like faces, may be processed configurally by untrained viewers.     

Selective storage and maintenance of an object’s features in visual working memory

It has been shown that we have a highly capacity-limited representational space with which to store objects in visual working memory. However, most objects are composed of multiple feature attributes, and it is unknown whether observers can voluntarily store a single attribute of an object without necessarily storing all of its remaining features. In this study, we used a masking paradigm to measure the efficiency of encoding, and neurophysiological recordings to directly measure visual working memory maintenance while subjects viewed multifeature objects and were required to remember only a single feature or all of the features of the objects. We found that measures of both encoding and maintenance varied systematically as a function of which object features were task relevant. These experiments show that individuals can control which features of an object are selectively stored in working memory.     

Overt and relational aggression and perceived popularity: developmental differences in concurrent and prospective relations

Relations of overt and relational aggression with perceived popularity among children and early adolescents were examined in 2 studies (Ns = 607 and 1,049). Among older youths, positive concurrent relations found between overt aggression and perceived popularity became nonsignificant when relational aggression was controlled, whereas positive associations found between relational aggression and perceived popularity held when overt aggression was controlled. Aggression and perceived popularity were not positively related for the younger participants. The 2nd study also examined the temporal ordering of these relations over 6 months. For older girls, positive relations between relational aggression and perceived popularity were bidirectional. For older boys, relational aggression did not predict increased perceived popularity, but perceived popularity predicted increased relational aggression. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

A pilot study of an intervention for breast cancer survivors and their spouses

Recent studies have shown that interventions that increase breast cancer patients' communication with family members lead to reduced patient distress. In this article, we report on a treatment development and pilot study of an intervention for couples coping with breast cancer. In phase 1 of this study, 10 couples participated in two focus groups that generated ideas and themes for the intervention. In phase 2, we developed and pilot tested our intervention with 48 couples: 12 in a 2-session format, 21 in a 1-session format, and 15 in a non-experimental control group. Our response rate shows that breast cancer patients and spouses were willing to participate and that treatment providers were willing to refer patients and their spouses. The 2-session format showed the most promise for producing positive change in mental health functioning and cancer-related stress.     

Infants' object category formation and use: Real-world context effects on category use in object processing

Three experiments investigated category formation based on real-world encounters with objects and how that category knowledge functioned as a top-down influence on infants' scene processing. 5-month-old infants received various experiences with exemplars of an object category and then were shown a display containing 2 adjacent novel objects, 1 of which was a novel exemplar of the category. If infants recognized this novel exemplar, they could use category information to determine the boundary between the 2 objects. Only infants who experienced object exemplars in situations that closely mimicked everyday infant experiences with objects successfully parsed the display. Results suggest that regularities in the contexts where infants experience similar objects help infants link their experiences and form object categories that can be used to segregate novel scenes. These results shed light on the real-world process of infant knowledge base formation and on how infants use their knowledge base to segment real-world scenes.     

Will Victims Become Aggressors or Vice Versa? A Cross-Lagged Analysis of School Aggression

Peer aggression and victimization are ubiquitous phenomena in schools which warrant the attention of educators and researchers. The high connection between aggression and victimization behooves researchers to look into how the comorbidity of them develops over time. The present study investigated the associations between aggression and victimization over 3 years in early adolescence and whether these associations are moderated by gender and teacher support. Participants were 567 Grade 7, 8 and 9 students (49.38% girls) from 3 schools in Hong Kong. Over the course of study, they were asked to fill in a set of questionnaires that consisted of items related to peer aggression, victimization, and teacher support at 5 time points. Four models of cross-lagged relations between peer aggression and victimization were tested. The results supported a reciprocal model of peer aggression and victimization for both boys and girls although girls engaged in less peer aggression and victimization than boys. Further analyses also revealed that teacher support acted as a suppressor of the reciprocal relations. The present study sheds lights on intervention strategies that may remediate peer aggression and victimization in schools.     

Lateralization of spatial categories: A comparison of verbal and visuospatial categorical relations

Many reports show that spatial relations between and within objects show differences in hemispheric lateralization. Coordinate, metric relations concerning distances are processed with a right-hemisphere advantage, whereas a left-hemisphere advantage is thought to be related to categorical, abstract relations (Kosslyn, 1987). Kemmerer and Tranel (2000) argued that the left-hemisphere advantage for categorical processing might apply only for verbal spatial categories, however, whereas a right-hemisphere advantage is related to visuospatial categories. To test this idea, we examined categorical processing for stimuli in both verbal and visuospatial formats, with a visual half-field, match-to-sample design. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the format of the second stimulus to compare response patterns for both verbal and visuospatial stimuli. In Experiment 2, we varied the expectancy of the format of the second stimulus, allowing for an assessment of strategy use. The results showed that a left-hemisphere advantage was related to verbal stimulus format only, but not in all conditions. A right-hemisphere advantage was found only with a visuospatial expectancy, visuospatial format, and brief interval. The theory we present to explain these results proposes that the lateralization related to basic categorical processing can be strongly influenced by verbal characteristics and, to some extent, by additional coordinate processing. The lateralization measured in such cases does not represent lateralization related purely to categorical processing, but to these additional effects as well. This stresses the importance of careful task and stimulus design when examining categorical processing in order to reduce the influence of those additional processes.