Aging is associated with increased Weber ratios

To investigate whether age-associated changes in the human taste system are quality-specific, we compared young and elderly subjects’ suprathreshold discrimination abilities for caffeine and sucrose. The method of constant stimuli was used to obtain just noticeable differences and Weber ratios. The elderly generated larger Weber ratios than did the young for both the medium and high concentrations of caffeine, but not for the low concentration. For example, a 74% increase in .005 M caffeine was required to obtain a perceptible difference for the elderly, whereas a 34% increase produced a perceptible difference for the young. The Weber ratios for sucrose did not differ for the two age groups. The results of this study indicate that age-associated changes in the taste system are quality-specific.

     

Put Yourself at the Helm: Charting New Territory,Correcting Course,and Weathering the Storm of Career Trajectories

What bearing have you set you set your sights on? How do you navigate the ever-changing swells and winds of our professional landscape? Are you feeling a nebulous desire for change, that your career is not going in the direction you were expecting, worry about lack of future opportunities, or even a deep dissatisfaction in your current position? You are not alone. The formation of the Committee on Advanced Training for Certified Genetic Counselors (CATCGC) was partly in response to such sentiments, expressed within a vibrant dialogue amongst members of the genetic counseling community. The CATCGC sought to understand how genetic counselors chart courses for their careers by conducting a Decision Points exercise during a pre-conference symposium (PCS) at the 2014 NSGC Annual Education Conference. Participants were asked to identify a decision point at which they were most satisfied with their careers and one at which they were least satisfied and to describe the situation, their personal goals and intentions, any actions they took, and the outcomes. Qualitative analysis in the constructivist tradition was conducted on participants’ responses and facilitators’ notes from the PCS to explore what personal meanings were made of the decision points; twelve themes related to Career High Points, Low Points, and how genetic counselors made career transitions were identified. Using a constructivist framework, themes are presented in the context of the authors’ personal experiences, and the authors’ share their reflections on these data. We wrote this article to offer you a window into your peers’ experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly - hoping to encourage and challenge you to reflect deeply, no matter where you are on your career journey.     

Metacognitive Therapy Focused on Psychosocial Function in Psychosis

Metacognitive Insight and Reflection Therapy is a manual-based individual psychotherapy aimed at enhancing four metacognitive processes through patient’s personal narratives which may promote recovery by helping individuals suffering from schizophrenia to develop a richer and more integrated sense of self. This study is a single case analysis of the effects of a meta-cognitively oriented CBT on residual psychotic symptoms and functional targets. Outcome measures (PANNS, PDI 21, BAVQ-R, PSP, MAS-A) were collected at two different times: pre-CBT and 1-year. Results showed reductions in the distress, preoccupation and conviction associated with delusions and improvements in metacognitive abilities, social functioning, hopefulness and of the sense of self-confidence to cope with the psychotic symptoms. Adopting a metacognitive perspective during psychotherapy had several benefits: to foster the development of therapeutic alliance, to allow the patient to assess the efficacy and acknowledge the consequences of the different strategies he could use to cope with his symptoms and to question the predominance of his delusions in his life. To conclude, Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy seem particularly adapted to address psychosocial issues, such as social or work functioning.     

The Effects of Physical Manipulatives on Children's Numerical Strategies

This article focuses on how the representational properties of manipulatives affect the strategies children employ in problem solving. Two studies examined the effect of physical materials on 4–7-year-old children's problem solving strategies in a numerical (i.e., additive composition) task. The first study showed how children not only identified more solutions using physical materials compared with no materials, but that using manipulatives fostered conceptually more developed strategies: relating consecutive solutions to each other systematically in exploring the space of permutations. The second study demonstrated the unique benefits of physical manipulation by comparing children's solutions and strategies using materials they could or could not spatially manipulate (i.e., physical versus pictorial). As with the first study, children using the physical materials had more solutions and showed more conceptually developed strategies compared with the children in the pictorial condition. There was no advantage in providing children with a record of all their solutions.     

The systematic identification of content and delivery style of an exercise intervention

Objective: This study explored the utility of using behaviour change taxonomies and checklists to systematically assess the content and delivery of behavioural support for physical activity delivered through an established exercise-referral scheme.

Design: An observation study was conducted whereby 22% of initial consultations were observed and audio-recorded, using quota sampling stratified by exercise-referral advisor.

Main outcome measures: Content was independently coded by two researchers, to assess; (i) completeness in delivering the programme protocol, (ii) behaviour change techniques delivered (defined using the CALO-RE taxonomy) and (iii) delivery style according to the Behaviour Change Counselling Index (BECCI).

Results: Protocol completeness was 63.6% (range 35.6–74.6%). The behaviour change techniques delivered most consistently were ‘providing information about where and when to perform the behavior’ (86%) and ‘setting outcome goals’ (82%). Other evidence-based techniques such as self-monitoring were infrequently observed. Variation in BECCI scores indicated that advisors could, but did not consistently, provide a client-centred service.

Conclusion: This study highlights how theoretically informed taxonomies can be useful in evaluating service delivery within applied practice, providing a meaningful way of assessing the completeness of protocol delivery relative to evidence. The provision of feedback to practitioners based on such objective criteria also facilitated positive academic-practitioner communication.     

Play and cognition: Studies of pretence play and conservation of quantity

Study 1 examined the relative effectiveness of four different training conditions on the attainment of conversation of quantity. Subjects were 75 nonconserving preschoolers, ranging in age from 3.10 to 5.0 years. Treatment consisted of pretense play training, direct conservation training, a combination of pretense play and conservation training, mere exposure to the conservation tasks without the benefits of instruction, and a control condition which provided only conservation pre- and post-tests. The results of the two conservation post-tests indicated that a combination of pretense play and conservation training was the most effective condition, followed by the conservation training and then by the pretense play training. The data also suggested that the effects of the conservation-only training condition might be less stable than those attained with pretense play training. Study 2 compared the effectiveness of child initiated pretense play training with adult initiated play. Subjects were 47 nonconserving children ranging in age from 4.0 to 5.8. Treatment consisted of child initiated pretense play, adult initiated play, a condition which combined both treatments, and a control group. The results of the two conservation post-tests indicated that the child initiated pretense play training was most effective, followed by the combined condition and by the adult initiated training. The three pretense play training conditions induced significantly more conserving responses in previously nonconserving children than the control group.     

Potential for personhood: A measure of life the severely defective newborn,legal implications of a social-medical dilemma

This paper asks for legislation that will remove criminal sanctions from good faith decisions by parents and physicians to allow severely defective newborns to die. In so doing it attempts to bring to satisfactory resolution conflicting points of view in the disciplines of moral philosophy, medicine, and law. This paper argues that euthanasia of severely defective newborns is morally justifiable and legally permissible within reasonable extensions of current interpretations of the Federal Constitution by the Supreme Court. It describes the medical dilemma, evaluates the moral issues involved, and delineates possible legal alternatives.     

Effect of noise distractibility on the spans of apprehension of hyperactive boys

Denton and McIntyre (1978), using a forced-choice letterrecognition procedure, demonstrated increasing reductions in the spans of apprehension of hyperactive as compared to normal boys when a signal letter was embedded within an increasing number of noise letters. In the present study, the effect of variations in the amount of physical signal-noise similarity and noise redundancy upon the spans of apprehension of hyperactive and normal boys was compared to determine whether noise letters act as more potent distractors for the hyperactive boys. Results indicated the spans of both groups were effected equivalently by variations in signal-noise similarity and noise redundancy. No evidence for a distractibility explanation was obtained.