Synergistic effects of pain and alcohol use in relation to depressive and anxiety symptoms among Latinos in primary care

Although past work has shown that alcohol use co-occurs with anxiety/depression among Latinos, little work has examined the variables that qualify such associations. The present investigation sought to address whether pain severity (i.e. pain intensity and/or pain-related disability, respectively) moderated relations between hazardous drinking and depressive/anxious arousal symptoms among an economically disadvantaged Latino sample recruited from a primary care medical setting. Participants included 253 adult Latinos (M_age = 38.5 years, SD = 10.8; 86.6% female) who attended a community-based primary care clinic. There was a significant interaction of hazardous drinking with pain intensity in relation to depressive symptoms and significant interactions of hazardous drinking and pain-related disability in relation to depressive and anxious arousal symptoms. Hazardous drinking was associated with more severe depressive/anxious arousal symptoms only when pain intensity/disability was high. This is the first study to demonstrate the moderating role of pain intensity and disability in associations between hazardous drinking and anxiety/depression among Latinos in a primary care medical setting.     

The Multi-Stimulus Box: An innovative learning device for the comparative study of object perception and recognition with various types of stimuli

In this article, we report the construction of a novel type of automated learning device for exploring a broad range of issues in animal visual cognition. The testing box (Multi-Stimulus Box, or MSB) we describe is an experimental chamber that enables the flexible presentation of various stimulus types while providing control over incidental cues to the greatest possible extent. Among the stimuli that can be presented are photographs, real objects, and even holograms. The MSB allows for comparative research across different stimulus qualities and species, and is thus a promising tool for advancing our understanding of the role of stimulus qualities for animals' perception, discrimination, and categorization of objects.     

Program Extraction from Normalization Proofs

This paper describes formalizations of Tait's normalization proof for the simply typed λ-calculus in the proof assistants Minlog, Coq and Isabelle/HOL. From the formal proofs programs are machine-extracted that implement variants of the well-known normalization-by-evaluation algorithm. The case study is used to test and compare the program extraction machineries of the three proof assistants in a non-trivial setting.     

Retelling everyday emotional events: condensation, distancing, and closure

Narratives of emotional experiences are widely assumed to reflect how well the speaker has coped with them. Some cross-sectional studies have suggested that well-being and absence of psychopathology correlate with more elaborate and coherent narratives of negative events. Other studies, on the other hand, suggest that retelling and coping render narratives shorter, more cognitive, and explicitly evaluative. To test this latter hypothesis, 30 young women narrated five events eliciting anger, sadness, anxiety, pride and happiness from the past week, and retold the same events three months later. After three months, narratives contained fewer attempts to solve the complication, and evaluations became more global and impersonal. Negative narratives were framed better and re-evaluated positively. Unexpectedly, narrative clauses did not decrease, nor did evaluations shift from past to present. Ways to better differentiate effects of memory and retelling from mere effects of coping are suggested.     

Experiential Activities in Family Therapy: Perceptions of Caregivers and Youth

Novel and creative therapeutic modalities have been developed in an effort to increase motivation in family therapy for adolescents and families. Many of these approaches incorporate experiential activities or “family play”, which provides a supplemental approach to traditional talk therapy. Incorporating experiential activities into family therapy sessions has been shown to increase engagement and enhance participation in therapy. Therefore, to understand how families view experiential activities within family therapy, we interviewed nineteen adolescents (age 12–17) and their parents/caregivers who were receiving family therapy augmented with experiential activities. We asked a series of open-ended questions to understand the families’ experiences concerning how they initially felt about participating in family therapy and their perceptions of the experiential activities. The activities involved experiential interactions and skill-building exercises that elicited active participation from all family members and encouraged further discussions. Topics of these activities focused on problem areas the family had identified, such as anger management, problem-solving, improving communication, substance use, expressing feelings, coping, etc. Results showed that most caregivers and youth found the experiential activities helpful in creating positive family interactions and developing communication skills. Caregivers and adolescents noted that the activities increased their desire to participate in family therapy sessions and they were more motivated to engage in the treatment process. Clinicians using the methods discussed in this intervention should be aware of the study’s limitations. Implications for clinical practice and research are discussed.     

Psychometric properties of the Spanish Human System Audit Short-Scale of transformational leadership

The aim of this research is to examine the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Human System Audit transformational leadership short-scale (HSA-TFL-ES). It is based on the concept of Bass developed in 1985. The HSA-TFL is a part of the wider Human System Audit frame. We analyzed the HSA-TFL-ES in five different samples with a total number of 1,718 workers at five sectors. Exploratory Factor Analysis corroborated a single factor in all samples that accounted for 66% to 73% of variance. The internal consistency in all samples was good (alpha = .92 - .95). Evidence was found for the convergent validity of the HSA-TFL-ES and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. These results suggested that the HSA-TFL short-scale is a psychometrically sound measure of this construct and can be used for a combined and first overall measurement.     

EEG theta phase coupling during executive control of visual working memory investigated in individuals with schizophrenia and in healthy controls

In healthy humans, it has been shown that executive functions are associated with increased frontal-midline EEG theta activity and theta phase coupling between frontal and posterior brain regions. In individuals with schizophrenia, central executive functions are supposed to be heavily impaired. Given that theta phase coupling is causally involved in central executive functions, one would expect that patients with an executive function deficit should display abnormal EEG theta synchronization. We therefore investigated executive functioning in 21 healthy controls and 21 individuals with schizophrenia while they performed a visuospatial delayed match to sample task. The task required either high executive demands (manipulation of content in working memory [WM]) or low executive demands (retention of WM content). In addition, WM load (one vs. three items) was varied. Results indicated higher frontal theta activity for manipulation processes than for retention processes in patients with schizophrenia, as compared with healthy controls, independently of WM load. Furthermore, individuals with schizophrenia revealed a reduction in theta phase coupling during early stages of the delay period for retention, as well as for manipulation processes at high-WM loads. Deviations in theta phase coupling in individuals with schizophrenia were mainly characterized by aberrant fronto-posterior connections, but also by attenuated posterior connections during manipulation of high-WM load. To conclude, fronto-parietal theta coupling seems to be substantially involved in executive control, whereas frontal theta activity seems to reflect general task demands, such as deployment of attentional resources during WM.     

Consciousness is not a property of states: A reply to Wilberg

According to Rosenthal's higher-order thought (HOT) theory of consciousness, one is in a conscious mental state if and only if one is aware of oneself as being in that state via a suitable HOT. Several critics have argued that the possibility of so-called targetless HOTs—that is, HOTs that represent one as being in a state that does not exist—undermines the theory. Recently, Wilberg (2010) has argued that HOT theory can offer a straightforward account of such cases: since consciousness is a property of mental state tokens, and since there are no states to exhibit consciousness, one is not in conscious states in virtue of targetless HOTs. In this paper, I argue that Wilberg's account is problematic and that Rosenthal's version of HOT theory, according to which a suitable HOT is both necessary and sufficient for consciousness, is to be preferred to Wilberg's account. I then argue that Rosenthal's account can comfortably accommodate targetless HOTs because consciousness is best understood as a property of individuals, not a property of states.