Looking versus seeing: Strategies alter eye movements during visual search

Visual search can be made more efficient by adopting a passive cognitive strategy (i.e., letting the target “pop” into mind) rather than by trying to actively guide attention. In the present study, we examined how this strategic benefit is linked to eye movements. Results show that participants using a passive strategy wait longer before beginning to move their eyes and make fewer saccades than do active participants. Moreover, the passive advantage stems from more efficient use of the information in a fixation, rather than from a wider attentional window. Individual difference analyses indicate that strategies also change the way eye movements are related to search success, with a rapid saccade rate predicting success among active participants, and fewer and larger amplitude saccades predicting success among passive participants. A change in mindset, therefore, alters how oculomotor behaviors are harnessed in the service of visual search.     

Pathways to Success for Psychologists in Academic Health Centers: From Early Career to Emeritus

Careers in academic health centers (AHCs) come with a unique set of challenges and rewards. Building a stable and rewarding career as a psychologist in an AHC requires the efforts of a whole team of players and coaches. This paper outlines the characteristics of AHCs and the general skills psychologists need to thrive in this type of setting. Advice specific to each stage of career development (early, mid, and late) is offered, highlighting the themes of coaching and teamwork that are critical to success in an AHC.     

Dialogical mindfulness in supervision role-play

Aims: This exploratory pilot study investigated Mindfulness-based Role-play (MBRP) supervision to find out how therapists would experience the approach, and to what extent they would find it useful, particularly in relation to empathy toward clients. Method: Thirteen therapists participated in a workshop, introducing mindfulness and MBRP supervision, and subsequently had one individual MBRP supervision session. Data collection and analysis: Qualitative data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and analysed with regard to participants' supervision experiences by means of a modified version of the Consensual Qualitative Research method. Findings: Participants predominantly had positive emotional and cognitive responses to their supervision experiences. The main supervision outcomes were empathy with the client's emotional experience, enhanced awareness of functioning as a therapist, and thoughts about how to proceed in therapy. A subset of participants also reported observed effects in therapy with clients. Conclusions: Even taking into account the methodological limitations of the study, these findings are promising and suggest that further research into the MBRP supervision approach is warranted.     

Parents’ differential susceptibility to the effects of marital quality on sensitivity across the first year

The current investigation examined the differential susceptibility of parents to the effects of marital quality on changes in parenting. We predicted that parents who were high on the personality constructs Negative Affect and Constraint would be more susceptible to the effects of marital quality on their level of sensitivity. Sensitivity was assessed at 3.5 and 13 months for both mothers and fathers during a triadic interaction. Consistent with the differential susceptibility theory, results suggested that when mothers were high on Negative Affect and when fathers were high on Constraint, their marital quality was associated with changes in sensitivity. This investigation suggests that personality factors may create “vulnerabilities” in parents that make them differentially susceptible to the effects of the family environment on parenting.     

一种对动物学习记忆能力突变筛查的新途径

本文详细描述了一种全自动化的行为检测方案.在自然饲养环境/检测环境(24/7)中,我们测量了小鼠针对两个给食器中获得食物的比例与它们在相应给食器停留时长的比例进行匹配的精确性与准确性.该方案是对传统条件性习得(trials-to-acquisition)行为测验设备的改进,可以检测动物时间间隔能力的精确性与准确性,对定时目标选择的相关概率的效果,以及记忆一天中从不同给食器中获得食物次数的精确性与准确性.该压缩系统避免了在整个实验过程中对小鼠的持握操作,可忽略实验者/技术员的实验操作时间,而且可以递送小鼠置入实验环境后,7～9个实验日中全部3组实验流程产生的大量结果.其中,第一个实验流程为单个24小时周期内完成的时间匹配能力的筛查,它对动物的时间、空间估计能力的记忆机制进行精确检测.因此,该系统允许在有限的实验空间、较短的实验周期内,对大量的实验小鼠进行有可能存在的学习记忆能力缺陷进行大规模筛查.此外,该系统运行所依赖的软件可以在公共开放平台获得.     

Therapeutic Implications of Pharmacotherapy: Current Trends and Ethical Issues

The use of psychotropic medications (pharmacotherapy) in conjunction with psychotherapy is regarded as the standard of care for many mental health disorders. Counselors, therefore, need to be knowledgeable about psychopharmacology to monitor its impact on the therapeutic relationship and on client outcome. Discussed are potential ethical dilemmas with pharmacotherapy interventions, case studies demonstrating proper support of pharmacotherapy with diverse clientele, and critical elements of master's level training in psychopharmacology.     

Racism or Sexism? Attributional Ambiguity and Simultaneous Membership in Multiple Oppressed Groups1

This study examines short‐term psychological effects of prejudice attributions on African American women. Black female college students (N= 112) imagined themselves in an audiotaped scenario in which White male students made negative evaluations of them. Participants completed self‐report measures of psychological stress and state self‐esteem after they rated the likely contributions of various causal attributions to the negative evaluations. Attributions included personal characteristics of the participant and classmates, as well as 3 kinds of prejudice: racism, sexism, and ethgender prejudice (the interaction of racism and sexism). Attributions to racism and ethgender prejudice predicted increased stress and decreased state social self‐esteem. Results contradict assertions that prejudice attributions are self‐protective and imply that prejudice might involve internal and external causal dimensions.     

The moderating effect of private self-consciousness on the stability of vocational interests

This study investigated the potential moderating effect of private self-consciousness on the stability of vocational interest inventory scores and profiles. We hypothesized that participants higher in private self-consciousness would have more stable interest scores and profiles on the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, Fritzsche, & Powell, 1994) across a 12-week time interval than would participants lower in private self-consciousness. Results revealed that private self-consciousness did moderate the stability of SDS Enterprising interest scores. Contrary to our hypothesis, private self-consciousness did not moderate the stability of the other five SDS interest scores or SDS interest profile stability.     

What the family brings: gathering evidence for strengths-based work

Families attending child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) services are often assumed to have problems in key areas such as communication, belonging/acceptance and problem-solving. Family therapy is often directed towards addressing these difficulties. With increasing emphasis in family therapy and human services fields over the last decade on identifying and building from strengths, a different starting point has been advocated. This paper describes a large survey of the self-reported pre-therapy functioning of children and families using a public CAMH service (n=416). Before commencing family therapy parents identified family strengths across a range of key areas, despite the burden of caring for children with moderate to severe mental health problems. This evidence supports theoretical and clinical work that advocates a strengths perspective, and highlights how resilience framed in family (and social) rather than individual terms enables a greater appreciation of how strengths may be harnessed in therapeutic work.