Sentence comprehension and production in children with cochlear implants: Errorless procedures and equivalence-based instruction

Research supports equivalence-based instruction (EBI) and matrix training for increased listening and speaking skills in children with cochlear implants (CI). We incorporated errorless procedures to optimize the EBI and evaluated the effects on the auditory comprehension and verbal responding at-sentences level in six CI children who were readers and showed inaccurate tacting. Subject-verb-object sentences were arranged in two matrices; diagonal combinations were trained and evaluated non-diagonal combinations. EBI included stimulus fading and exclusion to directly teach the dictated sentence-picture matching; written-sentences construction upon dictation also was taught. Probes assessed the derived stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response relations. All participants learned the auditory-visual discriminations and the exclusion resulted in fewer errors than on a stimulus fading procedure. Five participants formed equivalence classes and increased verbal responding to equivalent stimuli, especially pictures tacting. They also showed recombinative generalization for both matrices. Professionals can incorporate errorless procedures to EBI for improving sentence comprehension, tacting, and productivity in CI children.     

Use of anvils by the Great Kiskadee (Aves,Tyrannidae): a description based on citizen science data

Animal Cognition - The use of anvils to strike prey is a behavior observed in some species of birds around the world. Here, I investigated the use of anvils by the Great Kiskadee (Pitangus...     

The impact of customer engagement on customer happiness

Previous studies have found relationships between variables that predict happiness and engagement. While this suggests that engagement is a basis for generating customer happiness, the literature does not provide sufficient confirmatory evidence. Thus, the effects of different engagement intensities remain unclear. Focusing on conditions related to the Starbucks brand, this study analyzed how (1) passive and active engagement impacted customer happiness and (2) happiness impacted word of mouth (WOM) and purchase intention. Data were collected through an online survey among 802 Peruvian customers, all of whom were recruited via non-probabilistic sampling. Because two exogenous variables were considered formative (i.e., customer engagement and customer happiness), a partial least-squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used for the analysis. In sum, engagement (both passive and active) significantly and positively impacted customer happiness, which then positively impacted WOM and purchase intention. Given that engagement is associated with variables that are broadly related to happiness, this study makes new contributions by (i) clarifying how customer engagement can generate customer happiness, (ii) identifying differences between active and passive engagement, and (iii) adding evidence for use in the debate on the purpose of marketing and traditional practices such as engagement. As discussed in the paper, these findings have theoretical and practical implications for brand managers.     

Temperament and behaviour problems in children: A multilevel analysis of cross-cultural differences

Early temperament attributes have been linked to emerging behaviour problems and significant long-term consequences; however, these relations are rarely examined cross-culturally. The present study addresses this gap, employing multilevel modelling to explain within- and between-culture variances with respect to temperament predicting a spectrum of behaviour problems across 14 nations from the Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium (JETTC). A total of 865 children between 17 and 40 months, with approximately equal age distribution across this developmental period and about equivalent representation of genders, were recruited from 14 nations. Greater negative emotionality was associated with more internalizing problems, whereas higher surgency and effortful control predicted fewer internalizing difficulties. Controlling for age and gender, temperament explained significant within- and between-culture variances in internalizing and externalizing problems (at the broad-band and fine-grained levels), as well as sleep problems. For internalizing difficulties, temperament accounted for more between-culture variance. In contrast, for externalizing difficulties, temperament accounted more for how individuals within the same culture differed from their same-culture counterparts. The within-culture findings suggest universal patterns of temperament-problem relations, informing cultural adaptation of interventions; between-culture findings enhance understanding of the implications of the cultural niche for normative behaviour and adjustment.     

One-year prediction of cognitive decline following cognitive-stimulation from real-world data

Clinical evidence based on real-world data (RWD) is accumulating exponentially providing larger sample sizes available, which demand novel methods to deal with the enhanced heterogeneity of the data. Here, we used RWD to assess the prediction of cognitive decline in a large heterogeneous sample of participants being enrolled with cognitive stimulation, a phenomenon that is of great interest to clinicians but that is riddled with difficulties and limitations. More precisely, from a multitude of neuropsychological Training Materials (TMs), we asked whether was possible to accurately predict an individual's cognitive decline one year after being tested. In particular, we performed longitudinal modelling of the scores obtained from 215 different tests, grouped into 29 cognitive domains, a total of 124,610 instances from 7902 participants (40% male, 46% female, 14% not indicated), each performing an average of 16 tests. Employing a machine learning approach based on ROC analysis and cross-validation techniques to overcome overfitting, we show that different TMs belonging to several cognitive domains can accurately predict cognitive decline, while other domains perform poorly, suggesting that the ability to predict decline one year later is not specific to any particular domain, but is rather widely distributed across domains. Moreover, when addressing the same problem between individuals with a common diagnosed label, we found that some domains had more accurate classification for conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Down syndrome, whereas they are less accurate for Alzheimer's disease or multiple sclerosis. Future research should combine similar approaches to ours with standard neuropsychological measurements to enhance interpretability and the possibility of generalizing across different cohorts.     

Psychosocial job strain and productivity in human service workers: A test of the demand-control-support model

The aim of the study was to test the main and interactive effects of the key dimensions of the demand-control-support model in predicting levels of strain (specifically emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and job dissatisfaction) and feelings of productivity and competency (personal accomplishment) in a multi-occupational sample of human service workers (N = 813). Controlling for demographics, negative affectivity (NA), and quadratic terms, structural equation analyses showed some support for the additive iso-strain hypothesis: jobs combining high demands, low control and low support produced the lowest levels of satisfaction in workers. High demands and low supports only were associated with high depersonalization, and high emotional exhaustion. Support was also found for the additive active learning hypotheses: jobs combining high demands and high control produced the highest levels of personal accomplishment. The study supports job redesign interventions for improving worker well-being and productivity.     

The Demand-Control Model: Specific Demands, Specific Control, and Well-Defined Groups

The purpose of this study was to test the Demand-Control Model (DCM), accompanied by three goals. Firstly, we used alternative, more focused, and multifaceted measures of both job demands and job control that are relevant and applicable to today's working contexts. Secondly, this study intended to focus on particular demands in human services work and to incorporate these demands in the DCM. Finally, this occupation-based study investigated relatively large well-defined subgroups compared to a total sample. Workers from five human service sectors (n = 2,485) were included in a cross-sectional survey (i.e., health care, transport, bank/insurance, retail trade, and warehouse). Results showed that job demands and job control are able to show several interaction effects on employee well-being and health, but only in specific occupational groups. In conclusion, the current findings provide renewed empirical support for the view that high-strain jobs (high demand, low control) are conducive to ill health (i.e., emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic health complaints). Further, it appears that active jobs (high demands, high control) give rise to positive outcomes (i.e., job challenge, job satisfaction).