Developing New Academic Programs in the Medical/Health Humanities: A Toolkit to Support Continued Growth

Journal of Medical Humanities - Academic programs in the medical/health humanities have proliferated widely in recent years, and the professional, academic, and cultural drivers of this growth...     

A Comparison of MMPI-2 Profiles Between Parental Alienation Cases and Custody Cases

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The present study aimed at understanding the personality features of mothers and fathers engaged in parental alienation—a family dynamic in which one...     

Interactions between apparent motion rivalry in vision and touch

In multistable perception, the brain alternates between several perceptual explanations of ambiguous sensory signals. It is unknown whether multistable processes can interact across the senses. In the study reported here, we presented subjects with unisensory (visual or tactile), spatially congruent visuotactile, and spatially incongruent visuotactile apparent motion quartets. Congruent stimulation induced pronounced visuotactile interactions, as indicated by increased dominance times for both vision and touch, and an increased percentage bias for the percept already dominant under unisensory stimulation. Thus, the joint evidence from vision and touch stabilizes the more likely perceptual interpretation and thereby decelerates the rivalry dynamics. Yet the temporal dynamics depended also on subjects' attentional focus and was generally slower for tactile than for visual reports. Our results support Bayesian approaches to perceptual inference, in which the probability of a perceptual interpretation is determined by combining visual, tactile, or visuotactile evidence with modality-specific priors that depend on subjects' attentional focus. Critically, the specificity of visuotactile interactions for spatially congruent stimulation indicates multisensory rather than cognitive-bias mechanisms.     

Non-conscious word processing in a mirror-masking paradigm causing attentional distraction: an ERP-study

In this event-related potential (ERP) study a masking technique that prevents conscious perception of words and non-words through attentional distraction was used to reveal the temporal dynamics of word processing under non-conscious and conscious conditions. In the non-conscious condition, ERP responses differed between masked words and non-words from 112 to 160 ms after stimulus-onset over posterior brain areas. The early onset of the word-non-word differences was compatible with previous studies that reported non-conscious access to orthographic information within this time period. Moreover, source localisations provided evidence for automatic activation of prelexical phonological information, whereas no evidence for non-conscious semantic processing was found. When subjects were informed about the masking technique, lexical differences occurred at later time intervals, suggesting conscious access to additional word related information. These results indicate that early visual word processing does not depend entirely on attentional resources, but that non-conscious processing probably is restricted to rather lower-level linguistic information.     

The Role of Family Affect in Juvenile Drug Court Offenders’ Substance Use and HIV Risk

Family-based interventions targeting parenting factors, such as parental monitoring and parent–child communication, have been successful in reducing adolescent offenders’ substance use and delinquency. This pilot, exploratory study focuses on family and parenting factors that may be relevant in reducing juvenile offenders’ substance use and sexual risk taking behavior, and in particular examines the role of family emotional involvement and responsiveness in young offenders’ risk-taking behaviors. Participants included 53 juvenile drug court offenders and their parents. Results indicate that poor parent–child communication is associated with marijuana use and unprotected sexual activity for young offenders; however, family affective responsiveness is also a significant unique predictor of unprotected sexual activity for these youth. Findings suggest that interventions focused on improving parent–child communication may reduce both marijuana use and risky sexual behavior among court-involved youth, but a specific intervention focused on improving parents and young offenders’ ability to connect with and respond to one another emotionally may provide a novel means of reducing unprotected sexual risk behaviors.     

Relating magnitudes: the brain's code for proportions

Whereas much is known about how we categorize and reason based on absolute quantity, data exploring ratios of quantities, as in proportions and fractions, are comparatively sparse. Until recently, it remained elusive whether these two representations of number are connected, how proportions are implemented by neurons and how language shapes this code. New data derived with complementary methods and from different model systems now shed light on the mechanisms of magnitude ratio representations. A coding scheme for proportions has emerged that is remarkably reminiscent of the representation of absolute number. These novel findings suggest a sense for ratios that grants the brain automatic access to proportions independently of language and the format of presentation.     

Rapid naming,not cancellation speed or articulation rate,predicts reading in an orthographically regular language (Italian)

This study examined the influence of rapid automatization naming (RAN) measures on various parameters of reading performance in children who were native speakers of a language with a shallow orthography (Italian). Participants included 281 children enrolled in first-to-sixth grade. They were given a Naming test, in which they had to name rapidly matrices of colors, objects, or digits, a Cancellation test, using the same stimulus materials, and an oral Articulation test. Performance on all tests improved steadily across ages tested. Performance on the Naming test, but not on the Cancellation and Articulation tests, predicted speed and accuracy in reading; none of these measures reliably predicted the reading comprehension measure. Data on a Blending test were also available for a subsample of first- and third-graders. Both RAN and phonological ability contributed independently to the prediction of reading ability (accuracy and speed) in these participants. The results extend observations on RAN to an orthographically shallow language (Italian) and suggest an element of continuity between languages with opaque and transparent orthographies.     

Encoding context and false recognition memories

False recognition of an extralist word that is thematically related to all words of a study list may reflect internal activation of the theme word during encoding followed by impaired source monitoring at retrieval, that is, difficulty in determining whether the word had actually been experienced or merely thought of. To assist source monitoring, distinctive visual or verbal contexts were added to study words at input. Both types of context produced similar effects: False alarms to theme‐word (critical) lures were reduced; remember judgements of critical lures called old were lower; and if contextual information had been added to lists, subjects indicated as much for list items and associated critical foils identified as old. The visual and verbal contexts used in the present studies were held to disrupt semantic categorisation of list words at input and to facilitate source monitoring at output.     

A Video-Based Training Method for Improving Soccer Referees’ Intuitive Decision-Making Skills

The purpose of this study was to investigate coaches’ perceptions on the impact of a coach training program designed to promote youth developmental outcomes. Participants were coaches of youth sport teams. Multiple methods were used to collect data. Coaches reported many benefits for themselves, their athletes, and their teams. They reported an increase in knowledge and a better understanding of their players. Participants perceived that the activities promoted cohesion and communication, while also contributing to the development of athlete competence, confidence, connection, and character/caring. The results provide guidance for creating and delivering coach training programs designed to promote youth developmental outcomes.