A review of methods in the study of attention in autism

Atypical attention, while not a diagnostic feature, is common in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The study of these atypicalities has recently gained in both quantity and quality, due in part to an increased focus on attentional atypicalities as one of the earliest signs of ASD in infancy. A range of attentional processes and components have been investigated, and the methods used are varied, from Posner-type paradigms, to the more recent use of eye-movement recording and change-detection techniques. This methodological complexity is one factor in the production of conflicting evidence on the topic of attention in ASD. This review uses a focus on methodology to clarify the literature to date and provide a resource for researchers wishing to study attention in ASD. Other factors that have contributed to the current discrepancies in findings are discussed, particularly the role of individual and group differences within the population of people with ASD.     

The role of intermittent food in the induction of attack in pigeons

The present experiments evaluated whether transitions in reinforcer probability are necessary to induce attack in pigeons. In Experiment I, three of six pigeons exposed to response-contingent constant-probability food schedules and a photograph of a conspecific as a target exhibited sustained postreinforcement attack on the target. The postreinforcement pattern of attack developed over the course of the experiment and was accompanied by a reduction in the rate of postreinforcement key pecking and an increase in the postreinforcement pause in key pecking. These effects on key pecking resulted in unprogrammed variations in the probability of reinforcement which may have been responsible for the induction of attack. In Experiment II, the attack-inducing properties of a constant-probability response-independent food schedule were compared to a periodic food schedule matched for overall rate of food delivery and to a no-food condition. In addition to attack, the spatial location of the subjects was monitored during each interfood interval. The periodic and aperiodic food schedules generated very different patterns of spatial location. Postfood attack was induced by both food schedules, although the constant-probability schedule induced attack in fewer birds. The no-food condition was not effective in inducing attack in any birds. These experiments indicate that intermittent food schedules without reductions in reinforcer probability are sufficient to induce attack in some pigeons, although not as effective as schedules with transitions in reinforcer probability.     

Prejudicial Expressions in Defense of Adolescent Masculine Identities in Interaction

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the efficacy of a fine-grained, discursive-narrative approach in the investigation of the use of prejudicial expressions in defense of emerging masculine identities in conversational interaction. The processes of masculinity construction by an adolescent, Kev, who used a prejudicial expression to bring a pejorative ‘small’ story to a climax, are examined in detail. Although immediate interlocutor responses were subdued and subtle, an explicit delayed response is followed-up by a repositioning of Kev as an ‘undesirable other,’ to which Kev constructs another small story as a counter-response. It is argued such an interactional approach to prejudice illuminates actors’ social-action goals in real time and could lead to the formulation of more sensitive interventions.     

Implementation of training programs in self-regulated learning strategies in Moodle format: results of a experience in higher education

This paper tests the efficacy of an intervention program in virtual format intended to train studying and self-regulation strategies in university students. The aim of this intervention is to promote a series of strategies which allow students to manage their learning processes in a more proficient and autonomous way. The program has been developed in Moodle format and hosted by the Virtual Campus of the University of Oviedo. The present study had a semi-experimental design, included an experimental group (n=167) and a control one (n=206), and used pretest and posttest measures (self-regulated learning strategies' declarative knowledge, self-regulated learning macro-strategy planning-execution-assessment, self-regulated learning strategies on text, surface and deep learning approaches, and academic achievement). Data suggest that the students enrolled in the training program, comparing with students in the control group, showed a significant improvement in their declarative knowledge, general and on text use of learning strategies, increased their deep approach to learning, decreased their use of a surface approach and, in what concerns to academic achievement, statistically significant differences have been found in favour of the experimental group.     

Advantage of dichromats over trichromats in discrimination of color-camouflaged stimuli in humans

This study investigated whether 12 participants with color-vision deficiency had superior visual discrimination of color-camouflaged stimuli shown on a computer screen compared with 12 participants with normal trichromatic vision. Participants were asked to distinguish a circular pattern from other patterns in which textural elements differed from the background in orientation and thickness. In one condition, stimuli were single-colored, green or red; in the other condition, stimuli were color camouflaged with a green and red mosaic overlaid onto the pattern. Color-vision deficient participants selected the correct stimuli in the color-camouflaged condition as quickly as they did in the single-colored condition. However, normal color-vision participants took longer to select the correct choice in the color-camouflaged condition than in the single-colored condition. These results suggest that participants with color-vision deficiency may have a superior visual ability to discriminate the color-camouflaged stimuli.     

Holism in Cartesianism and in Today's Philosophy of Physics

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a more balanced judgement than the widespread impression that the changes which are called for in today's philosophy of physics and which centre around the concept of holism amount to a rupture with the framework of Cartesian philosophy of physics. I argue that this framework includes a sort of holism: As a result of the identification of matter with space, any physical property can be instantiated only if there is the whole of matter. Relating this holism to general relativity, I maintain that this holism cannot be directly applied to today's philosophy of physics consequent upon the failure of geometrodynamics. I show in what respect precisely the holism in quantum physics amounts to a revision of the holism within Cartesianism. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Individual Differences in the Interpretation of Commitment in Argumentation

The present study explored several dispositional factors associated with individual differences in lay adult’s interpretation of when an arguer is, or is not, committed to a statement. College students were presented with several two-person arguments in which the proponent of a thesis conceded a key point in the last turn. Participants were then asked to indicate the extent to which that concession implied a change in the proponent’s attitude toward any of the previous statements in the argument. Participants designated as ‘liberal’ used the concession to infer substantial change in commitment to earlier statements in the argument. A group designated as ‘conservative’ were reluctant to make any such inferences. A discriminant analysis indicated that variables assessing participants’ attitudes toward argument as well as their cognitive and communication styles jointly predicted their liberal or conservative status. The discriminant function and follow-up group comparisons indicated that liberals were more likely than conservatives to engage in argument. This included a greater tendency to use argument as a source of knowledge. Liberals also employed a more sophisticated message design logic than conservatives on a communication task. The groups did not clearly differ with respect to participants’ implicit theory of argument, though trends were present that merit attention in future research. Implications of these findings for future research on lay interpretations of commitment are discussed.     

Modulation of distraction in ageing

A cueing paradigm was employed to examine modulation of distraction due to a visual singleton. Subjects were required to make a saccade to a shape‐singleton target. A predictive location cue indicated the hemifield where a target would appear. Older adults made more anticipatory saccades than younger adults, and were less accurate for making an eye movement in the vicinity of a target. However, younger and older adults likewise benefited from the cue; distraction was reduced when the distractor singleton appeared in an uncued hemisphere. The ability to compensate for problems with distraction in older and younger adults through use of the precue suggests that attention to a general region of space, rather than a specific location, may be enough to modulate distraction.     

Individual differences in psychophysiological responsiveness in laboratory tests of deception

The study examined the interrelationship of a number of measures of electrodermal activity under varying degrees of task demand and their relationship to differential electrodermal responding to critical questions in either a card test (n=126) or a mock agent test (n=84) of deception. The data indicated two dimensions of electrodermal responsiveness: one, a reactivity dimension, related predominantly to differences in base level, and the other, a lability dimension, related to differences in response frequency. A third dimension reflecting differences in the extent to which the electrodermal system was the most responsive relative to other systems was not independent of the second. Both the reactivity and lability dimensions related to indices of differential responding in the laboratory tests of deception, with the second increasing the predictive power of the first. The results were interpreted in terms of two-factor theories of the orienting response relevant to the physiological detection of deception.     

Some problems in the study of differences in cognitive processes

To test whether groups differ in a particular ability, researchers often compare their performance on two tasks: an experimental task that is sensitive to the ability of interest and a control task that measures other influences on the experimental task. A group difference will be reflected in a differential deficit, a greater difference between groups in experimental task performance than in control task performance. Before concluding from such a result that the groups differ in the ability of interest, three methodological problems must be faced. First, a differential deficit may be an artifact of task differences in discriminating power. That is, the experimental task may be more sensitive than the control task to group differences in abilities other than the one of interest. Second, a differential deficit may be an artifact of group differences in familiarity with the stimuli or the task. Third, a group difference in one ability may be due to a difference in some other ability that is more, or less, general than the first. These problems affect research in a number of areas, including cognitive development, psychopathology, learning disabilities, and the theory of intelligence. We discuss some possible solutions to these problems.     

Contextual influences in the resolution of ambiguity in anxiety

The effect of contextual information on the resolution of ambiguity was investigated in a group of individuals awaiting dental treatment and a group of control individuals. Participants heard threat/neutral, neutral/neutral and positive/neutral homophones while being simultaneously presented with a context word that was consistent with one of the two meanings of the homophone. Participants then made a lexical decision task on a target word that was one of the two alternate spellings of the homophone. We found that the dental group was more sensitive to context for all types of homophones, and there was no evidence for mood congruency. It also appeared that there might have been an element of mood regulation in the dental group, as they were slower to respond to the emotional targets overall. Our results show that sensitivity to context in state anxiety is a robust phenomenon and one that generalises to naturally occurring anxious moods.     

A process of mourning in the life and in the analysis of an adolescent

Abstract

This paper concerns the subject of “loss”, and the way “loss” is dealt with. A loss occurs which may be related to a real object - such as the death of a loved one - or to anything else which may represent a lost object, such as a stage or a function lost in life. Thus in adolescence, one has to face the loss of an infantile state.

Being alive, growing up, developing oneself presupposes losses and gains. One loses something in order to gain something else. This paper attempts to examine the subject, both in its theoretical and clinical aspects. In its theoretical aspect, I bring forward the points of view of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion, concerning loss and how one deals with it.

In its clinical aspect, I present the case of an adolescent who, already in the process of having to face up to the loss of an infantile state - as happens to every adolescent - is obliged also to face the death of a loved one. Besides, the process of analysis itself presupposes that a person, in order to develop psychologically, has to face other losses, such as that of one's omnipotence, that of one's idealised objects, etc. Therefore, I am presenting for examination a situation in which a particular person deals with his losses in the light of the analytical transference.     

Age-related effects in the marking of old objects in visual search

Two studies were performed to examine potential age-related differences in visual marking. Visual marking is a limited capacity process that enhances visual search through the inhibition of old objects. In Experiment 1, young and old adults performed three different search conditions: a full-element baseline, a half-element baseline, and a gap condition in which they searched through displays similar to the full-element baseline condition but with half of the letters presented before and the other half of the letters and the target presented after a 1000-ms gap. Both old and young adults displayed search slopes in the gap condition that were equivalent to slopes obtained in the half-element condition, suggesting that they were able to successfully inhibit the old letters. In Experiment 2, old and young adults also performed in three different visual search conditions but in this case with targets defined either by a form difference or by a conjunction of form and color. Both old and young adults showed a reduced slope in the gap as compared to the conjunction condition, suggesting inhibition of the old objects. The data are discussed in terms of age-related differences in the top-down control of attention in visual search.     

Christians and Muslims in search of common ground in Malaysia

According to its constitution, Malaysia is a federation and a secular state. But due to the special position given to the Malays, who usually adhere to Islam, Islam is declared to be the ‘official’ religion in the federation — although not necessarily in all of its member states, which differ in their ethnic and religious composition. The federal constitution generally guarantees religious freedom, but it provides that the propagation of other faiths among Malays and Muslims may be prohibited by law. In recent years, however, the Christians together with the other non‐Muslims feel a growing restriction of their freedom while the federal government pursues a policy of creating a common ‘Malaysian culture’ oriented towards Malay, and thus Islamic, values. This would change the open and pluralistic character of Malaysia — which is more than just peninsular Malaya — substantially and carry the danger of compartmentalizing society.     

Delayed detection of tonal targets in background noise in dyslexia

Individuals with developmental dyslexia are often impaired in their ability to process certain linguistic and even basic non-linguistic auditory signals. Recent investigations report conflicting findings regarding impaired low-level binaural detection mechanisms associated with dyslexia. Binaural impairment has been hypothesized to stem from a general low-level processing disorder for temporally fine sensory stimuli. Here we use a new behavioral paradigm to address this issue. We compared the response times of dyslexic listeners and their matched controls in a tone-in-noise detection task. The tonal signals were either Huggins Pitch (HP), a stimulus requiring binaural processing to elicit a pitch percept, or a pure tone-perceptually similar but physically very different signals. The results showed no difference between the two groups specific to the processing of HP and thus no evidence for a binaural impairment in dyslexia. However, dyslexic subjects exhibited a general difficulty in extracting tonal objects from background noise, manifested by a globally delayed detection speed.     

Courage in the development of self in women

The author discusses the development of self in women, explores the role of courage inherent in this movement, and, employing existentialist notions of courage as authenticity, explicates how these notions may lead to the development of a stronger sense of self. Notes as well that this development of self entails a dangerous complexity and that pastoral care providers will want to aid women in holding together both autonomy and connection.     

Factors in the assessment of suicidality in youth

Suicide remains a leading cause of death among youth, and suicide ideation and behavior are relatively common in both normal and clinical populations. Clinicians working with young people must assess for the presence of suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, and other risk factors, in order to determine the level of risk. This paper provides the clinician with a summary of risk factors for youth suicide, as well as providing standardized terminology to enhance assessment of suicidal ideation and behavior.     

The role of goal-directed behavior in intention attribution in children

In this study, we addressed the question of the nature of the information needed by 13-month-old infants to understand another agent's intentions. In two experiments, an experimenter was either unable or unwilling to give a toy to an infant. Importantly, an implement (a gutter in which the toy could roll down toward the infant) was used to make the experimenter's behavior as similar as possible in the two conditions. When the experimenter remained still in both conditions, infants did not behave differently according to the experimenter's intentions, suggesting that they did not infer them. By contrast, in a second experiment, where the experimenter performed an action directed toward the gutter in both conditions, the infants looked away from the experimental setting more often and longer in the unwilling condition than in the unable condition. They also looked more toward the experimenter in the unable condition than in the unwilling condition. Therefore, we conclude that an agent's intentional attitude can already be inferred by a 13-month-old provided that this intention is concretely shown through a goal-directed action.     

Involvement of the hippocampal CA3-region in acquisition and in memory consolidation of spatial but not in object information in mice

This study investigates the implication of the hippocampal CA3-region in the different phases of learning and memory in spatial and non-spatial tasks. For that purpose, we performed focal injections of diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC) into the CA3-region of the dorsal hippocampus. The DDC chelates most of the heavy metals in the brain which blocks selectively and reversibly the synapses containing heavy metals, i.e., the mossy fibres synaptic buttons and synapses of the dendrites of pyramidal cells. The effects of temporal inactivation of the CA3-region was examined in a non-associative task, the spatial open-field, designed to estimate the ability of mice to react to spatial changes, and in the object recognition task, designed to estimate the ability of mice to identify a familiar object. The results show that DDC induced a specific impairment on learning and memory consolidation in the spatial open-field but had no effect on recall in this task. In the object recognition task, DDC did not induce any impairment in the different phases of learning and memory. These data demonstrate that the hippocampal CA3-region is specifically implicated in spatial information processing and seems to be involved not only in acquisition but also in consolidation of spatial information.     

Perception of clicks in music

Subjects were asked to judge the position of a click that occurred during a short piece of music. Clicks were, on average, judged to be later than their actual position. The click and the music were presented through headphones to different ears, and the clicks were judged to be significantly later if they arrived at the right ear rather than at the left. There was also a significant tendency for clicks to be attracted to phrase boundaries in the music. These last two results are similar to those from experiments with a click during speech, but the late judgments of a click in music contrast with the early judgments of a click in speech.