A controlled clinical comparison of attention performance in children with ADHD in a virtual reality classroom compared to standard neuropsychological methods.

In this initial pilot study, a controlled clinical comparison was made of attention perforance in children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a virtual reality (VR) classroom. Ten boys diagnosed with ADHD and ten normal control boys participated in the study. Groups did not significantly differ in mean age, grade level, ethnicity, or handedness. No participants reported simulator sickness following VR exposure. Children with ADHD exhibited more omission errors, commission errors, and overall body movement than normal control children in the VR classroom. Children with ADHD were more impacted by distraction in the VR classroom. VR classroom measures were correlated with traditional ADHD assessment tools and the flatscreen CPT. Of note, the small sample size incorporated in each group and higher WISC-III scores of normal controls might have some bearing on the overall interpretation of results. These data suggested that the Virtual Classroom had good potential for controlled performance assessment within an ecologically valid environment and appeared to parse out significant effects due to the presence of distraction stimuli.     

Temporal distribution of favourite books, movies, and records: differential encoding and re-sampling

The reminiscence bump is the effect that people recall more personal events from early adulthood than from childhood or adulthood. The bump has been examined extensively. However, the question of whether the bump is caused by differential encoding or re-sampling is still unanswered. To examine this issue, participants were asked to name their three favourite books, movies, and records. Furthermore,they were asked when they first encountered them. We compared the temporal distributions and found that they all showed recency effects and reminiscence bumps. The distribution of favourite books had the largest recency effect and the distribution of favourite records had the largest reminiscence bump. We can explain these results by the difference in rehearsal. Books are read two or three times, movies are watched more frequently, whereas records are listened to numerous times. The results suggest that differential encoding initially causes the reminiscence bump and that re-sampling increases the bump further.     

Emergence of intra verbal antonyms in children with pervasive developmental disorder

In the type of intraverbal that consists of saying the opposite of a word, two intraverbals are related to one another because the response form of each intraverbal functions as part of a discriminative stimulus for the other (e.g., "cold" in response to "name the opposite of hot," and vice versa). Moreover, the contextual cue "Name the opposite of--" is the same in the two intraverbals. The purpose of the present research was to explore a procedure designed to promote emergence of intraverbals of this type. Two children with pervasive developmental disorder learned pairs of intraverbals. Thereafter, they were tested for emergence of intraverbals with reversed stimulus-response functions. Results indicate that, although the participants did not initially show emergence of intraverbals with reversed stimulus-response functions, repeated cycles of probing and teaching facilitated emergence of these relations.     

“On the Move” or “Staying Put”: Locomotion,Need for Closure,and Reactions to Organizational Change1

Four studies conducted in various organizations in Italy, employing contemporaneous and longitudinal designs, tested hypotheses relating 2 personality constructs—need for cognitive closure ( Kruglanski & Webster, 1996 ) and locomotion tendency ( Higgins, Kruglanski, & Pierro, 2003 ; Kruglanski et al., 2000 )—to individuals’ ability to successfully cope with organizational change. Across diverse organizational settings, populations studied, types of organizational change implemented, and measures of coping with change, we found that need for closure was negatively related, and locomotion tendency was positively related, to coping with change. We also found that the negative relation between need for closure and coping was attenuated where organizational climate is supportive of change, and that degree of successful coping with change determines post‐change work attitudes.     

Work-family conflict: experiences and health implications among immigrant Latinos

Work-family conflict research has focused almost exclusively on professional, White adults. The goal of this article was to expand the understanding of culture and industry in shaping experiences and consequences of work-family conflict. Using in-depth interview data (n = 26) and structured survey data (n = 200) from immigrant Latinos employed in the poultry processing industry, the authors evaluated predictions drawn from emerging models emphasizing the influence of cultural characteristics such as collectivism and gender ideology on work-family conflict. Results indicated that immigrant Latinos in poultry processing experienced infrequent work-to-family conflict; both the level and the antecedents of work-to-family conflict differed by gender, with physical demands contributing to greater conflict for women but not men. In addition, there was little evidence that work-family conflict was associated with health in this population. These results demonstrate how traditional models of work-family conflict need to be modified to reflect the needs and circumstances of diverse workers in the new global economy.     

Emotion recognition and expression in young obese participants: preliminary study

This study of the presence of alexithymic characteristics in obese adolescents and preadolescents tested the hypothesis of whether they showed impaired recognition and expression of emotion. The sample included 30 obese young participants and a control group of 30 participants of normal weight for their ages. Stimuli, 42 faces representing seven emotional expressions, were shown to participants who identified the emotion expressed in the face. The Level of Emotional Awareness Scale was adapted for children to evaluate their ability to describe their emotions. Young obese participants had significantly lower scores than control participants, but no differences were found in recognition of emotion. The lack of words to describe emotions might suggest a greater prevalence of alexithymic characteristics in the obese participants, but the hypothesis of a general deficit in the processing of emotional experiences was not supported.     

The role of context in object recognition

In the real world, objects never occur in isolation; they co-vary with other objects and particular environments, providing a rich source of contextual associations to be exploited by the visual system. A natural way of representing the context of an object is in terms of its relationship to other objects. Alternately, recent work has shown that a statistical summary of the scene provides a complementary and effective source of information for contextual inference, which enables humans to quickly guide their attention and eyes to regions of interest in natural scenes. A better understanding of how humans build such scene representations, and of the mechanisms of contextual analysis, will lead to a new generation of computer vision systems.     

Enabling Interactive Exploration of Cultural Heritage: An Experience of Designing Systems for Mobile Devices

Interaction design of mobile systems is a complex activity because it requires considering new usability and user experience aspects in order to exploit the peculiar characteristics of mobile devices, such as their pervasive and ubiquitous nature. This paper discusses issues about designing, developing and evaluating mobile systems. Italy has a rich cultural heritage, and the focus in this study is on the design of systems that enable interactive exploration of historical sites, not only for enhancing the user experience but also for learning purposes. The experience of the researchers at the Interaction, Visualisation and Usability lab, University of Bari, Italy, in designing a mobile learning system, called Explore!, which supports young students learning ancient history during a visit to archaeological parks, is reported. The evaluation of Explore! through systematic field studies shows that the adopted approach is able to transform the visit to archaeological parks into a more complete and culturally rich experience.     

The Perfect Mix: Regulatory Complementarity and the Speed-Accuracy Balance in Group Performance

ABSTRACT— In this research, we varied the composition of 4-member groups. One third of the groups consisted exclusively of "locomotors," individuals predominantly oriented toward action. Another third of the groups consisted exclusively of "assessors," individuals predominantly oriented toward evaluation. The final third of the groups consisted of a mix of locomotors and assessors. We found that the groups containing only locomotors were faster than the groups containing only assessors, and the groups containing only assessors were more accurate than the groups containing only locomotors. The groups containing a mix of assessors and locomotors were as fast as the groups containing only locomotors and as accurate as the groups containing only assessors. These results echo findings at the individual level of analysis, and suggest that the testing and action components of operating systems independently contribute to performance both intra- and interpersonally.