Differences in practices of body stimulation during the first 3 months: Ethnotheories and behaviors of Italian mothers and West African immigrant mothers

This study investigated cultural differences, continuity and change of practices concerning body stimulation in a context of immigration. Parenting behaviors during the interaction with infants at 4, 8 and 12 weeks, and parenting ethnotheories at 12 weeks of first-generation West African immigrant mothers in Italy and autochthonous Italian mothers were compared. A qualitative inspection of ethnotheories using a thematic approach was included. As expected, results showed that immigrant mothers placed more emphasis on motor stimulation and showed longer durations of rhythmic motor and rhythmic tactile behaviors than Italian mothers; the latter placed more emphasis on tactile stimulation than immigrant mothers. The practice of motor stimulation in immigrant mothers was also adapted to values of the new context of life, becoming a positive interaction game with a mutual exchange of positive emotions. Findings express the complexity of a multidimensional process of acculturation.     

Exogenous attention can be counter-selective: onset cues disrupt sensitivity to color changes

In peripheral spatial cueing paradigms, exogenous attentional capture is commonly observed after salient onset cues or with cues contingent on target characteristics. We proposed that exogenously captured attention disrupts the selectivity to target features. We tested this by experimentally emulating the everyday observation that in a viewing situation in which the observer is monitoring a stationary display fort change to occur, the onset of a salient stimulus (onset cue) or a change in a stationary stimulus similar to the expected one (contingent cue) has a distracting effect. As predicted, we found that both types of cues reduced the target detection sensitivity but enhanced the bias to respond in a go-nogo-paradigm. With the onset cue, the sensitivity loss was more pronounced at the side of the cue, whereas the contingent cue affected both sides likewise. Moreover, the effects of the onset cue interacted with the task difficulty: the more selectivity a task required the more immune it was against disruption, but the more likely was a response. We concluded that onset capture disrupts selective attention by adding noise to the processing of the target location. The effects of contingent capture could be explained with cue-target confounding. Finally, we suggest a new model of attentional capture in which exogenous and endogenous components interact in a dynamic way.     

Auditory spatial negative priming: What is remembered of irrelevant sounds and their locations?

The categorization and identification of previously ignored visual or auditory stimuli is typically slowed down—a phenomenon that has been called the negative priming effect and can be explained by the episodic retrieval of response-inadequate prime information and/or an inhibitory model. A similar after-effect has been found in visuospatial tasks: participants are slowed down in localizing a visual stimulus that appears at a previously ignored location. In the auditory modality, however, such an after-effect of ignoring a sound at a specific location has never been reported. Instead, participants are impaired in their localization performance when the sound at the previously ignored location changes identity, a finding which is compatible with the so-called feature-mismatch hypothesis. Here, we describe the properties of auditory spatial in contrast to visuospatial negative priming and report two experiments that specify the nature of this auditory after-effect. Experiment 1 shows that the detection of identity-location mismatches is a genuinely auditory phenomenon that can be replicated even when the sound sources are invisible. Experiment 2 reveals that the detection of sound-identity mismatches in the probe depends on the processing demands in the prime. This finding implies that the localization of irrelevant sound sources is not the inevitable consequence of processing the auditory prime scenario but depends on the difficulty of the target search process among distractor sounds.     

Eye Movements Indicate the Temporal Organisation of Information Processing in Graph Comprehension

Hierarchical graphs (e.g. file system browsers and preference trees) represent objects (e.g. files and folders) as graph nodes and relations between them (e.g. sub‐folder relations) as lines. We investigated the temporal organisation of two processes that are necessary for comprehending such graphs—search for the graph nodes and reasoning about their relation. We tracked eye movements to change graphs while participants interpreted them. In Experiment 1, we masked the graph at a time when search processes had finished but reasoning was hypothetically ongoing. We observed a dramatic deterioration in comprehension compared with unmasked graphs. In Experiment 2, we changed the relation between critical graph nodes after search for them had finished, unbeknownst to participants. Participants mostly based their response on the graph as presented after the change. These results suggest that comprehension processes are organised in a sequential manner, an observation that can potentially be applied to the interactive presentation of graphs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

„Pervasive refusal syndrome“

Pervasive refusal syndrome (PRS), as a new psychiatric disorder among children and adolescents, was first described 1991 by Lask et al. It is characterized by a determined refusal of the child to eat, talk, walk, care for themselves or participate in daily activities. An organic explanation for the symptoms is absent. The observed refusal of functions can be either active or passive. Children also demonstrate a clear resistance to help or treatment. This paper presents a case study that depicts PRS from the therapists’ and the patients’ viewpoint and helpful elements in therapy are evinced from both points of view.     

Eltern und Patienten als Subjekt der Behandlung

Background

There are hardly any alternatives to inpatient treatment for children and adolescents in need of intensive psychiatric treatment. In the randomized study BeZuHG (“behandelt zu Hause gesund werden”, treated at home become healthy), equality of treatments could be shown in the outcome parameters when comparing TAU (inpatient treatment) and the new treatment module BeZuHG (early discharge followed by intensive home treatment enhanced by clinical elements). Patient satisfaction with each treatment module was evaluated at follow-up.

Material and methods

In this study 144 parents and patients of the intervention group (n?=?79) and the control-group (n?=?65) were interviewed after an average of 8 months. Information on expectations, experience with BeZuHG, changes in communication and interaction within the family as well as problem solving strategies (and sustainability of the changes), overall satisfaction and treatment suggestions for modification of the BeZuHG treatment were collected in semistructured telephone interviews.

Results

The following aspects in the BeZuHG treatment were rated as important by parents and patients: support and help with transfer problems, single sessions, a trusting therapeutic relationship as well as treatment setting at home. Enhanced problem solving skills as well as improved family communication were noticed. In the intervention group 70?% would prefer the BeZuHG setting to inpatient care and 46?% in the control group.

Conclusion

The BeZuHG concept is a good and functional alternative to inpatient treatment. Continuity in treatment and therapeutic relationships are essential for successful treatment at home. Positive treatment results within the family as well as the patient remain stable at follow-up after 8 months.     

Psychosomatische Rehabilitation

Besides inpatient and outpatient treatment, rehabilitation represents the third column of the German healthcare system. The goal for the persons concerned is the conservation of activity and participation in the professional and social life. This article shows the importance and development of German psychosomatic rehabilitation in contrast to regular inpatient treatment. It also explains its place in the whole healthcare concept of rehabilitation and the basic principles of sociomedical assessment, followed by practical advice for the indications and the rehabilitation application process. Compared with other countries Germany has a very well-established system of psychosomatic rehabilitation but this resource is often used too late in the course of treatment, mostly not until severe chronification has occurred and in addition there are also problems with points of interaction concerning the subsequent outpatient treatment. The aim of this article is therefore to contribute to an improved cross-linking of the different areas in the healthcare system.     

Useful lies: The twisted rationality of denial

He who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 1:18

The truth will set you free.

John 8:32

Denial, or the habit of treating a real problem as if it were a nonissue, has both rational and irrational features. The interplay between these is best captured by a utilitarian-rationalist framework stretched to its limits. When in denial, people follow what they feel to be in their best interest by minimizing the psychosocial cost of acknowledging their problems. At its core, denial is thus based on a self-interested rationale of pain avoidance and harm minimization. Depending on the characteristics of the issue at hand, some of the effects are deeply ironic. I demonstrate this by starting from the simplest and most beneficial form of denial, before moving on to cases that are more complex and harmful. I also show how people can be liberated from denial when the practice has become counterproductive. Most of the mystery surrounding denial disappears when we accept that it is premised on a twisted kind of rationality.