Spanish Applications of Luria's Assessment Methods

Luria's neuropsychology has been particularly influential in the Spanish-speaking world. Its impact is observed with regard to not only assessment, but also rehabilitation, and, especially, neuropsychological theorization. In this article, Luria's approach to neuropsychological assessment is examined. A distinction between Luria's neuropsychological tests and Luria's neuropsychological approach is introduced. It is pointed out that, according to Luria, the specific tests used in the neuropsychological assessment are secondary; the theory supporting the neuropsychological testing is of primary importance. The development of neuropsychology in the Spanish-speaking world is briefly presented, and the use of Luria's neuropsychological assessment procedures in Latin America and Spain is analyzed. Finally, neo-Lurianism in the Spanish-speaking world is considered.     

Neuropsychological assessment in illiterates : II. Language and praxic abilities

A basic neuropsychological examination of language and praxic abilities was administered to extreme educational groups (100 illiterates and 100 professionals). Subjects were matched according to sex and age (16-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, and 56-65). The following tasks were included: language comprehension, phonological discrimination, naming (objects, figures, and body parts), repetition of words, verbal fluency, calculation, buccofacial and ideomotor praxis, finger alternating movements, meaningless movements, cancellation task, coordinated movements with both hands, and motor impersistence tasks. All the differences between the two educational groups were statistically significant. Two of the eight language tests (phonological discrimination and naming figures) and three of the seven praxic tests (buccofacial praxis, coordinated movements, and cancellation task) showed differences between age groups with a better performance in the younger groups. Calculation tasks and ideomotor praxis showed differences between sexes with a better performance in males. Influence of educational factors in performing routine neuropsychological tests is analyzed.     

Marital crisis and the trigenerational context: A model of short-term therapy

This article demonstrates a therapeutic technique used with dysfunctional couples or couples undergoing a divorce crisis which systematically incorporates both families of origin (FOS) in the treatment. The theoretical basis consists in seeing the perturbances of the conjugal couple as coming from a trigenerational context consisting of the confluence of both FOS with their set style of relating. The therapeutic aim is the definition of the relationship within the nuclear family system (NFS) and both FOSs. The technique consists of five scheduled sessions that incorporate alternatively both FOSs without the presence of the other spouse. The style of the intervention owes much to contributions of the systemic school of family therapy, especially those of strategic therapy and the Milan school. Ad hoc modifications are made for work with the FOSs.Adapted from an article published inTerapia Familiar (1986), volume 15, Buenos Aires, and reprinted by permission.     

When are puppies receptive to emotion-induced human chemosignals? The cases of fear and happiness

Animal Cognition - We report an observational, double-blind, experimental study that examines the effects of human emotional odors on puppies between 3 and 6 months and adult dogs...     

Facilitating supervisees’ developing competence through supervisory conversation

Research on assessing supervisees’ professional development (PD) has been primarily focused on formal end-point, summative evaluations. Little attention has been given to the role that routine supervisory conversations play in formative PD evaluations. This study takes a situated/dialogical approach to explore how PD evaluations are locally proposed, recognized, transacted, and conversationally accomplished in the conversations of actual supervision practice. Informed by ethnomethodology, we discursively analyzed episodes of supervisory sessions selected by supervisory dyads, which they regarded as significant to the supervisee’s PD. We describe and exemplify five conversational Practices by which supervisory dyads brought about shared evaluations vis-à-vis the supervisee’s PD, through supervisory conversations.     

Dynamic accountability in clinical training and supervision: Three orienting ideals

Despite the growing interest on making clinical practice accountable, research on how specific components of professional competence are relevant in actual training/supervision practice is as yet unspecified. This study explores this dynamic aspect of professional supervision. Three supervisory dyads, composed by an experienced supervisor and a doctoral counseling psychology student were used in the study. A qualitative, ethnomethodology-informed design was used to discursively analyze 16 significant episodes (SEs) in actual supervision meetings. This was complemented by 16 follow-up interviews. Three interpretative repertoires – ‘ideals’ – influencing participants’ accounting practices were identified: efficacy, responsiveness, and authenticity. The article discusses how structural (competency-based) and dynamic (practice-based) approaches to accountability can be combined to guide the appraisal of relevant professional competencies.     

Protective effect of supportive family relationships and the influence of stressful life events on adolescent adjustment

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the occurrence of stressful life events and internalizing and externalizing problems, and to analyze longitudinally buffering effects of supportive family relationships. To this end, 100 Spanish adolescents were studied twice, when they were in mid-adolescence (15-16 years) and two years later. They completed questionnaires regarding stressful life events, family relationships, and adolescent adjustment. Results showed that high quality parent-adolescent relationships protected boys and girls against the negative consequences of stressful life events on externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms. The adolescents who enjoyed good relationships with their parents in mid-adolescence did not increase their externalizing problems in late adolescence as consequence of the occurrence of stressful events. However, these stressors did lead to an increase in the number of externalizing problems when the family relationships were of a middle or low quality. These results highlight the important role that supportive family relationships play in the behavioral adjustment of adolescents, protecting them against some negative consequences of stressful life events, and suggest the relevance of supporting parents through resources such as parent education in order to help them to improve their relationships with their adolescents.     

On the evolutionary origins of executive functions

In this paper it is proposed that the prefrontal lobe participates in two closely related but different executive function abilities: (1) "metacognitive executive functions": problem solving, planning, concept formation, strategy development and implementation, controlling attention, working memory, and the like; that is, executive functions as they are usually understood in contemporary neuroscience; and (2) "emotional/motivational executive functions": coordinating cognition and emotion/motivation (that is, fulfilling biological needs according to some existing conditions). The first one depends on the dorsolateral prefrontal areas, whereas the second one is associated with orbitofrontal and medial frontal areas. Current tests of executive functions basically tap the first ability (metacognitive). Solving everyday problems (functional application of executive functions), however, mostly requires the second ability (emotional/motivational); therefore, these tests have limited ecological validity. Contrary to the traditional points of view, recent evidence suggests that the human prefrontal lobe is similar to other primates and hominids. Other primates and hominids may possess the second (emotional executive functions) prefrontal ability, -but not the first (metacognitive executive functions) one. It is argued that metacognitive executive functions are significantly dependent on culture and cultural instruments. They probably are the result of the development and evolution of some "conceptualization instruments"; language (and written language as an extension of oral language) may represent the most important one. The second executive function ability (emotional/motivational) probably is the result of a biological evolution shared by other primates.     

The influence of reduced visual acuity on age-related decline in spatial working memory: an investigation

To investigate the relationship between visual acuity and cognitive function with aging, we compared low-vision and normally-sighted young and elderly individuals on a spatial working memory (WM) task. The task required subjects to memorise target locations on different matrices after perceiving them visually or haptically. The haptic modality was included as a control to look at the effect of aging on memory without the confounding effect of visual deficit. Overall, age and visual status did not interact to affect WM accuracy, suggesting that age does not exaggerate the effects of visual deprivation. Young participants performed better than the elderly only when the task required more operational processes (i.e., integration of information). Sighted participants outperformed the visually impaired regardless of testing modality suggesting that the effect of the visual deficit is not confined to only the most peripheral levels of information processing. These findings suggest that vision, being the primary sensory modality, tends to shape the general supramodal mechanisms of memory.     

The importance of the keyword-generation method in keyword mnemonics

Keyword mnemonics is under certain conditions an effective approach for learning foreign-language vocabulary. It appears to be effective for words with high image vividness but not for words with low image vividness. In this study, two experiments were performed to assess the efficacy of a new keyword-generation procedure (peer generation). In Experiment 1, a sample of 363 high-school students was randomly into four groups. The subjects were required to learn L1 equivalents of a list of 16 Latin words (8 with high image vividness, 8 with low image vividness), using a) the rote method, or the keyword method with b) keywords and images generated and supplied by the experimenter, c) keywords and images generated by themselves, or d) keywords and images previously generated by peers (i.e., subjects with similar sociodemographic characteristics). Recall was tested immediately and one week later. For high-vivideness words, recall was significantly better in the keyword groups than the rote method group. For low-vividness words, learning method had no significant effect. Experiment 2 was basically identical, except that the word lists comprised 32 words (16 high-vividness, 16 low-vividness). In this experiment, the peer-generated-keyword group showed significantly better recall of high-vividness words than the rote method groups and the subject generated keyword group; again, however, learning method had no significant effect on recall of low-vividness words.