Effects of workshop trainings on evidence-based practice knowledge and attitudes among youth community mental health providers

Enhancing the public health impact of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in usual care settings is a key priority of the National Institute of Mental Health. Longitudinal data from community mental health providers (N = 268) participating in a series of state-sponsored workshops in modular approaches to EBPs for youth are presented. EBP workshop attendance for youth anxiety resulted in increased knowledge for EBPs for anxiety (and not other conditions) and EBP workshop attendance for youth disruptive behaviors resulted in increased knowledge for EBPs for disruptive behaviors (and not other conditions). Providers' tendencies toward incorrectly classifying non-EBP therapies as evidence-based increased over time, suggesting that providers over-generalize the EBP label as a result of attending these types of workshops. Regarding EBP attitudes, most measures of attitudes improved when providers attended a workshop. Additionally, an overly inclusive view of what constitutes an EBP at intake was related to significant decreases in openness to trying EBPs over time, whereas more positive attitudes at intake was related to achieving a more refined view of what constitutes an EBP over the course of attending trainings. Study limitations and implications for implementation of EBPs in usual care settings are discussed.     

Immediate use of prosody and context in predicting a syntactic structure

Numerous studies have reported an effect of prosodic information on parsing but whether prosody can impact even the initial parsing decision is still not evident. In a visual world eye-tracking experiment, we investigated the influence of contrastive intonation and visual context on processing temporarily ambiguous relative clause sentences in Japanese. Our results showed that listeners used the prosodic cue to make a structural prediction before hearing disambiguating information. Importantly, the effect was limited to cases where the visual scene provided an appropriate context for the prosodic cue, thus eliminating the explanation that listeners have simply associated marked prosodic information with a less frequent structure. Furthermore, the influence of the prosodic information was also evident following disambiguating information, in a way that reflected the initial analysis. The current study demonstrates that prosody, when provided with an appropriate context, influences the initial syntactic analysis and also the subsequent cost at disambiguating information. The results also provide first evidence for pre-head structural prediction driven by prosodic and contextual information with a head-final construction.     

Is approximate numerical judgment truly modality-independent? Visual, auditory, and cross-modal comparisons

The numerosity of any set of discrete elements can be depicted by a genuinely abstract number representation, irrespective of whether they are presented in the visual or auditory modality. The accumulator model predicts that no cost should apply for comparing numerosities within and across modalities. However, in behavioral studies, some inconsistencies have been apparent in the performance of number comparisons among different modalities. In this study, we tested whether and how numerical comparisons of visual, auditory, and cross-modal presentations would differ under adequate control of stimulus presentation. We measured the Weber fractions and points of subjective equality of numerical discrimination in visual, auditory, and cross-modal conditions. The results demonstrated differences between the performances in visual and auditory conditions, such that numerical discrimination of an auditory sequence was more precise than that of a visual sequence. The performance of cross-modal trials lay between performance levels in the visual and auditory conditions. Moreover, the number of visual stimuli was overestimated as compared to that of auditory stimuli. Our findings imply that the process of approximate numerical representation is complex and involves multiple stages, including accumulation and decision processes.     

The Early Lives of Highly Creative Persons: The Influence of the Complex Family

Over the last 50 years, theoretical, speculative, and empirical scholarship has examined the influence of early family context on subsequent accomplishments in children of high ability. Building upon 40 years of creativity literature focusing on optimal experience, this exploratory study applied the Complex Family Framework in a systematic analysis of creative adults' recollections of their early family lives. The study identifies evidence of the interplay of Integration and Differentiation, a catalyst for individual optimal experience, in the families of 9 creative exemplars who have made significant contributions to contemporary culture. Five participants represented the Arts and Humanities, three the Social Sciences, and one the Physical Sciences. The study demonstrates the utility of the Complex Family Framework in understanding families' contributions to children's later creative achievement.     

Slower Reorientation of Trunk for Reactive Turning while Walking in Hemiparesis Stroke Patients

We examined the behavioral characteristics of reactive turning in hemiplegic stroke patients when they were informed of the turning direction just before turning was required at an unpredictable time. Eleven stroke patients and 20 healthy elderly control people were asked to initiate a turn as soon as a visual cue to inform them of the turning direction was activated unpredictably using a foot switch. Both the segmental reorientation and stepping type when turning 90° while walking were measured. The results indicated preserved segmental reorientation of the head and pelvis in stroke patients. Stroke patients showed delays in pelvic turning but not in head turning. Their delayed pelvic movement might be due to motor dysfunction and the time taken to ensure stability when deciding when to turn.     

A novel lattice correspondence of B19 → B19′ transformation in Ti–Ni–Cu shape memory alloy thin film

In this study, we found a novel lattice correspondence of the B19–B19′ transformation in a Ti–Ni–Cu thin film: (1?1?1)_B19′//(0?0?1)_B19, [0, 1, 1]_B19′//[1?0?0]_B19. Near the coarse precipitate and the grain boundaries, the B19′ martensite forms with the novel lattice correspondence to product the (1?1?1) type I twinning instead of the usual (0?0?1) compound twinning. Crystallographic analyses show that the novel lattice correspondence results from the local stress concentration.     

Informed Consent Revisited: Japan and the U.S.

Informed consent, decision-making styles and the role of patient–physician relationships are imperative aspects of clinical medicine worldwide. We present the case of a 74-year-old woman afflicted with advanced liver cancer whose attending physician, per request of the family, did not inform her of her true diagnosis. In our analysis, we explore the differences in informed-consent styles between patients who hold an “independent” and “interdependent” construal of the self and then highlight the possible implications maintained by this position in the context of international clinical ethics. Finally, we discuss the need to reassess informed-consent styles suitable to the needs of each patient regardless of whether he or she resides in the United States or in Japan.     

The relations among inhibition and interference control functions: a latent-variable analysis

This study used data from 220 adults to examine the relations among 3 inhibition-related functions. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that Prepotent Response Inhibition and Resistance to Distractor Interference were closely related, but both were unrelated to Resistance to Proactive Interference. Structural equation modeling, which combined Prepotent Response Inhibition and Resistance to Distractor Interference into a single latent variable, indicated that 1 aspect of random number generation performance, task-switching ability, and everyday cognitive failures were related to Response-Distractor Inhibition, whereas reading span recall and unwanted intrusive thoughts were related to Resistance to Proactive Interference. These results suggest that the term inhibition has been overextended and that researchers need to be more specific when discussing and measuring inhibition-related functions.     

Normal patterns of déjà experience in a healthy, blind male: challenging optical pathway delay theory

We report the case of a 25-year-old healthy, blind male, MT, who experiences normal patterns of déjà vu. The optical pathway delay theory of déjà vu formation assumes that neuronal input from the optical pathways is necessary for the formation of the experience. Surprisingly, although the sensation of déjà vu is known to be experienced by blind individuals, we believe this to be the first reported application of this knowledge to the understanding of the phenomenon. Visual input is not present in MT, yet the experiences he describes are consistent with reports in the literature of déjà vu occurrence in sighted people. The fact that blind people can experience déjà vu challenges the optical pathway delay theory, and alternative causes are briefly discussed.     

Deterioration of planning ability with age in Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata)

To investigate the ability of aged monkeys to plan and the effect of aging on this ability, performance in a food retrieval task was assessed in aged and younger Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). In this task, the monkeys had to retrieve food items by selecting from a set of 9 holes, each of which contained 1 food item. Results showed that task performance declined significantly with age. All monkeys showed, to a greater or lesser extent, some consistent patterns in their sequence of selecting holes for retrieving the food item. An analysis of these selection patterns indicated that the younger monkeys showed more consistent sequences in selection than the aged monkeys. Furthermore, success in the task performance correlated strongly with higher consistency in the sequence of selecting holes. The authors simulated performance for this task by monkeys without any strategies or plans. The results suggest that the empirical data were far more systematic than the simulated data. Thus, the authors conclude that Japanese monkeys have the ability to plan and that this ability to plan deteriorates with age.