Report from the UK and Eire Association of Genetic Nurses and Counsellors (AGNC) Supervision Working Group on Genetic Counselling Supervision

The Association of Genetic Nurses and Counsellors (AGNC) is the professional organisation which represents genetic counsellors and genetic nurses in the United Kingdom (UK) and Eire. The AGNC recognises that genetic counselling supervision is instrumental to the practice, training and registration of genetic counsellors in the UK. The AGNC formed a Supervision Working Group, whose terms of reference were to collate information on supervision and create a list of ‘best practice’ recommendations for its genetic counsellor members. This report delivers the findings from the Supervision Working Group and has been peer reviewed by the AGNC membership in the UK and Eire and ratified by the AGNC Committee. It offers a working definition of genetic counselling supervision, gives an overview of some of the literature on supervision and concludes with practice recommendations. Group Authorship: AGNC Supervision Working Group Membership of the AGNC Supervision Working Group     

The neural basis of cognitive control: Response selection and inhibition

The functional neuroanatomy of tasks that recruit different forms of response selection and inhibition has to our knowledge, never been directly addressed in a single fMRI study using similar stimulus–response paradigms where differences between scanning time and sequence, stimuli, and experimenter instructions were minimized. Twelve right-handed participants were scanned on two standard cognitive control tasks, a stimulus–response incompatibility task, and a response inhibition task. A compound trial design allowed comparison of preparing to inhibit an upcoming automatic response to wholly inhibiting an automatic response. Furthermore, inhibiting an automatic response to perform an alternative task-relevant response was compared to wholly inhibiting an automatic response. No differences were found in prefrontal activity when preparing to inhibit an automatic response was compared to wholly inhibiting an automatic response, suggesting a mostly common network. The left inferior frontal gyrus was found to be commonly recruited during both tasks when controlled responses were required, likely due to its role in response selection. In contrast, the right inferior frontal gyrus was found to be more involved when task demands were stronger for response inhibition. Our results are largely consistent with models of cognitive control that postulate that separate psychological constructs, such as response selection and inhibition, are related processes largely served by a common prefrontal network. This prefrontal network is recruited to a greater or lesser extent depending on specific task demands.     

Book reviews

Long, J. and Baddeley, A. Attention and performance IX. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1981. Pp 643. ISBN 0-89859-156-2. £30.

Cutler, A. and Ladd, D. R. (Eds.). Prosody: Models and measurements. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 1983. Pp. ix + 159. ISBN 3-540-12428-4. $24.

Wood, G. Cognitive psychology: A skills approach. Monterey, Cal.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. 1983. Pp. 352. ISBN 0-534-01262-0.

Engelkamp, J. and Zimmer, H. D. Dynamic aspects of language processing: Focus and presupposition. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 1983. Pp. 102. ISBN 3-540-12433-0

K. Rayner (Ed.). Eye movements in reading: Perceptual and language processes. New York: Academic Press. 1983. pp. xxi + 526. ISBN 0-12-583680-5. £34.40.

Lass, N. J., McReynolds, L. V., Northern, J. L. and Yoder, D. E. (Eds.). Speech, language and hearing. Philadelphia: WB Saunders Co. 1982. Vol I: Normal processes. (ISBN 0-7216-5641-2, pp. 422, $26.50.) Vol II: Pathologies of speech and language. (ISBN 0-7216-5642-0, pp. 368, $24.50.) Vol III: Hearing disorders. (ISBN 0-7216-5643-9, pp. 238, $22.50.)

Singleton, W. T. (Ed.). The body at work: Biological ergonomics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1982. Pp. 430. ISBN 0-521-24087-5. £32.50.

Magill, R. A. (Ed.). Memory and control of action. Amsterdam: North-Holland. 1983. Pp. 395. ISBN 0-444-86559-4. $53.25.

Hewstone, M. (Ed.). Attribution theory: Social and functional extensions. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1983. Pp. 256. ISBN 0-631-13322-4. Hardback £25.00; paperback £9.50.

Ellis, A. W. Reading, writing and dyslexia: A cognitive analysis. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984. Pp. 147. ISBN 0-86377-002-9. Hardback £12.95. Paperback £5.95.     

Book reviews

Jacknedoff, R. (1985). Semantics and cognition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, Pp. 283. ISBN 0-262-60013-7. £ 9.95.

Lakoff, g. (1987). Women, fire and dangerous things : What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago, IL.: Chicago University Press. Pp. 624. ISBN 0-266-46803-8. £19.95.

Longuet-Higgins, H. C. (1987). Mental processes : Studies in cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Pp. 424. ISBN 0-262-12119-0. £22.50.

Nowakowska, M. (1986). Cognitive sciences: Basic problems, new perspectives, and implications for artificial intelligence. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Pp. 379. ISBN 0-12-522620-9. £44.50.

Winograd, T. & Flores, F. (1986). Understanding computers and cognition: A new foundation for design. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Pp. 207. ISBN 0-89391-050-3. £23.

Weisberg, R. W. (1986). Creativity: Genius and other myths. New York:W. H.Freeman and company. Pp. 169. ISBN 0-1767-1769-7. £9.95.

Bosshardt, H. R. S. G (1986). Perspektiven auf Sprache. Berlin : Walter de Gruyter. Pp. 326. ISBN 3-11-010068-1. DM134.00.     

Narrative Process Coding System in Marital and Family Therapy: An Intensive Case Analysis of the Formation of a Therapeutic System

The aim of this study is to investigate whether the method (Narrative Processes Coding System) for studying the narrative sequences of individual psychotherapy developed by Angus and Hardtke (1994) can be applied in a family therapeutic process. According to the results narrative process coding system adds new dimensions and gives new depth in the narrative understanding of family therapeutic process. In micro-analytic interactional level it shows the complicated interactions between narration, plot, and narrative process type.     

Visual awareness of objects and their colour

At any given moment, our awareness of what we 'see' before us seems to be rather limited. If, for instance, a display containing multiple objects is shown (red or green disks), when one object is suddenly covered at random, observers are often little better than chance in reporting about its colour (Wolfe, Reinecke, & Brawn, Visual Cognition, 14, 749-780, 2006). We tested whether, when object attributes (such as colour) are unknown, observers still retain any knowledge of the presence of that object at a display location. Experiments 1-3 involved a task requiring two-alternative (yes/no) responses about the presence or absence of a colour-defined object at a probed location. On this task, if participants knew about the presence of an object at a location, responses indicated that they also knew about its colour. A fourth experiment presented the same displays but required a three-alternative response. This task did result in a data pattern consistent with participants' knowing more about the locations of objects within a display than about their individual colours. However, this location advantage, while highly significant, was rather small in magnitude. Results are compared with those of Huang (Journal of Vision, 10(10, Art. 24), 1-17, 2010), who also reported an advantage for object locations, but under quite different task conditions.