Neurodevelopmental model of long-term outcomes of adult survivors of childhood brain tumors

Childhood brain tumors and related treatments disrupt the developing brain and have a cascading impact on core cognitive skills and intellectual (intelligence quotient [IQ]) and academic achievement outcomes. Theoretical models for this cascade have been developed based on the literature, but no studies thus far have empirically evaluated the models. The current study aimed to empirically test the two extant models and generate a new data-driven model of the relationships among neurodevelopmental risk factors, core cognitive skills (i.e., processing speed, attention span, working memory), and IQ and achievement outcomes. Fifty-seven adult survivors of childhood brain tumors and fifty-seven demographically matched neurotypical individuals were included in the current study. The average age at brain tumor diagnosis was 8 years, and the average time since diagnosis was 17 years. Three a priori path models tested the hypothesized relationships among variables. Results of the path analyses revealed that the hybrid model best fit the data for both survivors and controls based on all statistical criteria. For survivors, processing speed was the core cognitive skill most widely associated with neurodevelopmental risk factors and outcomes. However, working memory and attention span also had unique contributions to IQ and academic achievement. Processing speed appears to be the central cognitive skill that disrupts the other core cognitive skills of attention span and working memory, and all three make a unique contribution to IQ and academic achievement. This is best demonstrated by a novel neurodevelopmental model that combines components of two earlier untested theoretical models.     

Effects of induced sad mood on facial emotion perception in young and older adults

Older adults perceive less intense negative emotion in facial expressions compared to younger counterparts. Prior research has also demonstrated that mood alters facial emotion perception. Nevertheless, there is little evidence which evaluates the interactive effects of age and mood on emotion perception. This study investigated the effects of sad mood on younger and older adults’ perception of emotional and neutral faces. Participants rated the intensity of stimuli while listening to sad music and in silence. Measures of mood were administered. Younger and older participants’ rated sad faces as displaying stronger sadness when they experienced sad mood. While younger participants showed no influence of sad mood on happiness ratings of happy faces, older adults rated happy faces as conveying less happiness when they experienced sad mood. This study demonstrates how emotion perception can change when a controlled mood induction procedure is applied to alter mood in young and older participants.     

Enactivism,pragmatism…behaviorism?

Shaun Gallagher applies enactivist thinking to a staggeringly wide range of topics in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, even venturing into the realms of biological anthropology. One prominent point Gallagher makes that the holistic approach of enactivism makes it less amenable to scientific investigation than the cognitivist framework it seeks to replace, and should be seen as a “philosophy of nature” rather than a scientific research program. Gallagher also gives truth to the saying that “if you want new ideas, read old books”, showing how the insights of the American pragmatists, particularly Dewey and Mead, offer a variety of resources and tools that can be brought to bear on modern day enactivism. Here, I suggest that the adoption of enactivist thinking would undermine the assumptions of certain scientific positions, requiring their abandonment, rather than simply making it more difficult to conduct research within an enactivist framework. I then discuss how Mead’s work has been used previously as a “pragmatist intervention” to help resolve problems in a related 4E endeavour, Gibson’s ecological psychology, and make a case for the inclusion of radical behaviorism as another pragmatist resource for 4E cognition. I conclude with a plea for further enactivist intervention in studies of comparative cognition.

     

The development of psychological testing in China

The Chinese have been interested in assessing individual differences for thousands of years. This article traces the development of early psychological measurements in China through to the arrival of modern psychometric techniques in the early 20th century. Following the social disruption caused by the Sino‐Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, the doctrines of the Communist Revolution and finally the Cultural Revolution forced the total abandonment of the idea of measuring individual differences. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, however, the need for psychological measurement has been increasingly recognised, particularly because of needs in the fields of clinical and educational practice. As a result, there are now many university courses for training testing professionals. It is also important to have tests that are suitable to use in China. Simply to translate English‐language tests into Chinese may bias their results because of cultural differences, so tests should be revised in order to make their results equivalent, or new tests appropriate to their culture should be devised by Chinese psychologists. Psychological testing is now used in China in education, mental health, and, increasingly, in personnel selection. The expanding market economy means that effective processes for the selection of managers in business and industry are essential in China. As in many other scientific fields, the Chinese are making progress in psychometric testing and it is likely that psychological measurement of individual differences will make an important contribution to China's continued rapid economic progress in the 21st century.     

The Effects of Performance Monitoring on Emotional Labor and Well-Being in Call Centers

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between performance monitoring and well-being. It also examined a mechanism, namely emotional labor, that might mediate the relationship between them, assessed the effect of the work context on the relationship between performance monitoring and well-being, and examined the relative effects of performance monitoring and work context on well-being. Three aspects of performance monitoring were covered, namely, its performance-related content (i.e., immediacy of feedback, clarity of performance criteria), its beneficial-purpose (i.e., developmental rather than punitive aims), and its perceived intensity. The participants were 347 customer service agents in two U.K. call centers who completed a battery of questionnaire scales. Regression analyses revealed that the performance-related content and the beneficial-purpose of monitoring were positively related to well-being, while perceived intensity had a strong negative association with well-being. Emotional labor did not mediate the relationship between monitoring and well-being in the form hypothesized, although it was related to these two factors. Work context (job control, problem solving demand, supervisory support) did not mediate the relationship between monitoring and well-being, but job control and supervisory support did moderate the relationship between perceived intensity and well-being. Relative to other study variables, perceived intensity showed stronger associations with emotional exhaustion, while job control and supervisory support tended to show stronger associations with depression and job satisfaction. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.     

A comparative study of family therapy in the treatment of opiate users in a London drug clinic

This study presents the results of a randomized treatment trial of family therapy and two control treatments for 119 outpatient opiate users. All treatments were combined with a methadone reduction programme. The control treatments were: (1) a 'standard' treatment (supportive psychotherapy) and (2) a 'low contact' intervention. Treatment outcome was evaluated six and twelve months after the initial assessment. Both the family therapy and minimal intervention groups had a significantly higher number of drug–free days at six and twelve months, compared to the standard treatment, despite receiving fewer treatment sessions. Across all treatments there was evidence for a gender difference in response to therapy in users who were in a couple relationship. In couples where both partners were using drugs women did significantly better than men. Men living with a non–drug–abusing partner fared better than men living with a drug–using partner. Across the treatment groups diminution in drug use was accompanied by improvements in psychosocial functioning. Unemployment, sharing needles and injecting drugs were predictive of poor outcome.     

Tackling Three Of Frege's Problems: Edmund Husserl on Sets and Manifolds

Edmund Husserl was one of the very first to experience the directimpact of challenging problems in set theory and his phenomenology first began to takeshape while he was struggling to solve such problems. Here I study three difficultiesassociated with Frege's use of sets that Husserl explicitly addressed: reference to non-existent, impossible, imaginary objects; the introduction of extensions; and ``Russell's' paradox.I do so within the context of Husserl's struggle to overcome the shortcomings of set theory andto develop his own theory of manifolds. I define certain issues involved and discuss howHusserl's theory of manifolds might confront them. In so doing I hope to help bring Husserl'stheories about sets and manifolds out of the realm of abstract theorizing and promptfurther exploration of uncharted philosophical territory rich in philosophical implications.     

How to play the flute: A commentary on Dreyfus's “Intelligence without representation”

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences -