Decision-Making in Mental Healthcare: A Phenomenological Investigation of Service User Perspectives

As Victorian asylums closed down in the United Kingdom, community mental health services were set up to support patients in exercising choice and freedom; in finding a place in society. The success of these services has been questioned, so further policies have been introduced in an effort to protect rights and improve social inclusion. However, capacity to make decisions has been interpreted as no more than a process of rational mental calculation. This article reports on a phenomenological study that explores the decision-making experiences of three men who have endured psychosis. It is not only associated with choice and freedom but also with responsibility, blame, and social exclusion. These men appear to have faced common existential dilemmas, but have sought to express emotional will in conflict with other people and have, perhaps, been placed under more social pressure and become more isolated as individuals, while enduring experiences that are difficult to make meaningful for others. It seems that, paradoxically, efforts have been made to empower these men by controlling them, and medication has been imposed on them so as to regulate thoughts and moods, in attempts to serve their best interests.     

The Use of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy With Older Adults in Mexico: A Preliminary Study

This preliminary study investigated the use of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) with older adults in Mexico. The three session SFBT treatment focused on a self-defined problem, such as relationship issues or psychological well-being. Compared with a waiting list control group, the treatment group showed significant posttest improvements as indicated by the Outcome Questionnaire, the participant and an independent assessor. There was a significant difference between groups on participants' perception of goal achievement and in pre-post change during therapy on the Outcome Questionnaire. This study provides preliminary tentative support for the use of SFBT with the geriatric population in Mexico.     

Combining disparate views of objects: Viewpoint costs are reduced by stereopsis

An issue of central concern in the object recognition literature is whether changes in the viewpoint from which an object is depicted produces systematic costs in performance, or whether performance is (largely) unaffected by such changes. This issue has generated a vigorous and lengthy debate because viewpoint-dependent or viewpoint-independent performance has been seen as a reflection of the underlying object representations. The current experiment shows that the effect of viewpoint differences between objects is strongly affected by whether or not they are depicted with stereoscopic depth, a result that is predicted by neither of the main approaches to object recognition. Instead, it is proposed that viewpoint costs in object recognition experiments are a function of the extent to which the information a subject is provided with generalizes across views, without this holding any necessary implications for the nature of the underlying object representations.     

The role of attention in processing configural and shape information in 3-D novel objects

Recent research suggests that there is an advantage for processing configural information in scenes and objects. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which attention may account for this configural advantage. In Experiment 1, we found that cueing the location of change in single object displays improved detection performance for both configural and shape changes, yet cueing attention away from the location of change was detrimental only for shape change detection. A configural advantage was present for each cueing condition. Experiments 2A and 2B examined whether the configural advantage persisted in conditions where attention was distributed more widely, using a visual search paradigm. Although searches for configural changes were faster than those for shape changes across all set sizes, both types of information appeared to be processed with similar efficiency. Overall, these results suggest that the configural advantage is independent of the location or distribution of visual attention.     

Measuring category intuitiveness in unconstrained categorization tasks

What makes a category seem natural or intuitive? In this paper, an unsupervised categorization task was employed to examine observer agreement concerning the categorization of nine different stimulus sets. The stimulus sets were designed to capture different intuitions about classification structure. The main empirical index of category intuitiveness was the frequency of the preferred classification, for different stimulus sets. With 169 participants, and a within participants design, with some stimulus sets the most frequent classification was produced over 50 times and with others not more than two or three times. The main empirical finding was that cluster tightness was more important in determining category intuitiveness, than cluster separation. The results were considered in relation to the following models of unsupervised categorization: DIVA, the rational model, the simplicity model, SUSTAIN, an Unsupervised version of the Generalized Context Model (UGCM), and a simple geometric model based on similarity. DIVA, the geometric approach, SUSTAIN, and the UGCM provided good, though not perfect, fits. Overall, the present work highlights several theoretical and practical issues regarding unsupervised categorization and reveals weaknesses in some of the corresponding formal models.     

Task characteristics and the contextual interference effect

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the influence of blocked and random practice on the acquisition and retention of a criterion multisegment motor task practiced alongside either two similar-distractors tasks or two different-distractors tasks. The random-practice similar-distractors group made more decision-making errors and performed the criterion task more slowly than the blocked-practice similar-distractors group during the acquisition phase. Following a brief filled retention interval, the blocked-practice similar-distractors group demonstrated a loss of acquired performance capabilities, whereas the random-practice similar-distractors group did not. The blocked- and random-practice different-distractors groups performed similarly throughout the experiment. Results are interpreted within Glenberg's component-levels theory, in which it was argued that random practice must stimulate the differential storage of multilevel contextual components associated with the multiple motor tasks being learned to produce a contextual interference effect. The theoretical and practical implications of differential storage versus nonrepetition as a function of random practice are discussed.     

A priori causal laws

Sober and Elgin defend the claim that there are a priori causal laws in biology. Lange and Rosenberg take issue with this on Humean grounds, among others. I will argue that Sober and Elgin don’t go far enough – there are a priori causal laws in many sciences. Furthermore, I will argue that this thesis is compatible with a Humean metaphysics and an empiricist epistemology.     

Culturally Focused Community‐Centered Service Learning: An International Cultural Immersion Experience

An immersion training model is described that incorporates culturally focused community‐centered service in South Africa as an experiential learning approach. Recommendations for developing international cultural immersion training with a goal of developing cultural competencies are suggested. Se describe un modelo formativo de inmersión que incorpora servicios culturalmente enfocados centrados en la comunidad en Sudáfrica como una aproximación experimental de aprendizaje. Se sugieren recomendaciones para desarrollar programas formativos de inmersión cultural con el objetivo de desarollar competencias culturales.     

Working memory deficits can be overcome: Impacts of training and medication on working memory in children with ADHD

This study evaluated the impact of two interventions—a training program and stimulant medication—on working memory (WM) function in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty‐five children aged between 8 and 11 years participated in training that taxed WM skills to the limit for a minimum of 20 days, and completed other assessments of WM and IQ before and after training, and with and without prescribed drug treatment. While medication significantly improved visuo‐spatial memory performance, training led to substantial gains in all components of WM across untrained tasks. Training gains associated with the central executive persisted over a 6‐month period. IQ scores were unaffected by either intervention. These findings indicate that the WM impairments in children with ADHD can be differentially ameliorated by training and by stimulant medication. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.