On the Concept of Comparison in Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded Children

Two adjective pairs in comparative form, more-less and taller-shorter, were tested with moderately mentally retarded (MR) and nonretarded children (NR) matched on verbal mental age (MA) and socioeconomic status (SES) in a show and an act-out experimental condition. The data indicated that all the main effects, the group, the experimental condition, and the unmarked-marked relational terms were significant and so were the interactions of the Group × Experimental Conditions, Group × Unmarked Versus Marked Relational Terms, and Group × Experimental Conditions and Unmarked Versus Marked Relational Terms. A logistic regression analysis (LRA) showed that the relational term shorter in the act-out condition best predicted classification membership for the subjects in either group, suggesting that the MR children were less able to self-regulate behavior. The error types, however, mainly observed in the act-out experimental condition were the same from a semantic point of view in either group. The effect of the unmarked versus marked distinction cannot be considered independent of the experimental conditions applied.     

The impact of illness on the family and the family's impact on illness

This paper discusses the influence that familial relationships can have on illness and the way in which illness can impact on the functioning of the family system. Developmental phases of illness, the family life cycle and chronic illness are all examined in relation to the family and it's functioning. The way in which health behaviours are adopted within families, and behavioural and genetic predispositions to illness are also discussed.     

阅读困难可否补救? 两种理论驱动干预方案的比较(英文)

本研究是一个进行中的纵向实验的一部分,该实验旨在比较一个认知干预方案(PREP:PASS阅读促进方案)和一个主要关注语音、命名速度和意义成分的神经心理方案(DEST-RT:DEST补救工具)在阅读困难补救中的效能。从320位儿童构成的初始样本中,选择4组儿童,并一年级接受四周干预后,对他们在许多认知、语言、阅读和正字法测量上的表现进行比较:两个实验组共28名伴有阅读困难的儿童(每组n=14),平均年龄6岁6个月,分配到PREP和DEST-RT补救方案中,两组儿童基于年龄、性别、父母教育水平、非言语和言语能力进行匹配,同时也考虑他们的认知和语言表现剖面;一个阅读水平匹配组(RA-C,n=19),也存在阅读困难,不接受任何处理;一个实足年龄匹配组(CA-C,n=30)。结果表明,所有四组儿童在所有认知、语言、阅读和正字法测量上均随时间而改善;与CA-C和DEST-RT相比,PREP组在继时性加工上进步显著;在正字法选择,这一在单词加工中利用视觉-字形信息的正字法加工任务上,PREP组的表现也优于DEST-RT组;最后,在语音敏感性、字母数字的RAN、单词阅读(真词和假词)及段落理解等方面,PREP和DEST-RT的表现均显著优于CA-C和RA-C。讨论部分,则着重讨论设计理论驱动的低成本且能有效改善阅读表现的补救方案的必要性。     

“I will accept whatever is meant for us. I wait for that—day and night”: The search for healing at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan

This paper describes an ethnographic perspective on the role of a Muslim shrine in Pakistan. Most shrines in Muslim countries represent the Sufi tradition in Islam where followers seek healing and fulfilment of their wishes using Sufi saints as intermediaries. In Pakistan, the shrine of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ashabi provides a significant religious, social, physical, and psychological resource where people engage in religious rituals, community living and healing rituals to address physical, emotional, and social ailments. In addition to the explanatory models of misfortune described by the informants, gender, poverty, availability of formal health services, and social support seem to play a significant role in emphasizing the position of the Sufi shrine in a Muslim setting.     

Silent dialogues in the analytic relationship

Abstract

In borderline or even narcissistic patients, the relation to the objects is built on the basis of omnipotent control, so that those patients present difficulties related to mourning for the loss, as well as for the independence, of the objects. Their basic trait is a huge inability to recognize the separateness of others, together with an excessive use of primitive defense mechanisms, such as projective identification. Each experience that contains the danger of re-experiencing the primal separation poses an attack on the analytic setting, in order to avoid such a re-experiencing. Those attacks sometimes take the known form of acting out, whereas other times they are limited to a special use of speech, which lacks any communicational faculty and is used rather as a weapon. This special climate affects the analyst, causing specific countertransferential reactions. Nowadays, we tend to consider such a communication not mostly as an obstacle, but rather as an opportunity, allowing the analyst to comprehend the patient, through his countertransference, and create a meaning to replace the void those patients usually experience. The transference and countertransference enactments, their silent dialogues taking place in the analytic setting, are those which progressively give meaning in this primitive non verbal communication.     

Effects of classroom noise on students and teachers in Greece

Measurements inside 32 occupied high-school classrooms during the courses showed that the measured long-term equivalent noise levels are high. A significant percentage of students and teachers found these levels unacceptable. The observed noise levels depend on the time period of the course, the age, and the number of the students in each classroom. The large reverberation time and the high background noise are responsible for the measured high noise level.     

Strength training effects on physical conditioning and instep kick kinematics in young amateur soccer players during preseason

The purpose of this study was to examine effects of lower limb strength training on physical conditioning and kinematic characteristics of instep kicking in 16 young amateur soccer players who participated in initial and final laboratory tests. In addition to their standard preseason soccer program, 8 players comprised the experimental group, who performed an 8-wk. strength-training program. Maximal and relative isometric force of the lower limbs were significantly improved. Moreover, toe and ankle linear velocity during ball contact, ball velocity, as well as ankle, knee and hip angular velocities of the kicking leg were significantly increased. It is concluded that conditioning and kinematic indices of the kicking performance could be improved after strength training of the lower limbs.     

Location,Location, Location: Effects of Cross-Religious Primes on Prosocial Behavior

Priming with religious concepts is known to have a positive effect on prosocial behavior; however, the effects of religious primes associated with outgroups remain unknown. To explore this, we conducted a field experiment in a multicultural, multireligious setting (the island of Mauritius). Our design used naturally occurring, ecologically relevant contextual primes pertinent to everyday religious and secular life while maintaining full experimental control. We found that both ingroup and outgroup religious contexts increased generosity as measured by a donation task. In accordance with previous research, we also found an interaction between individual religiosity and the efficacy of the religious primes. We discuss these findings and their interpretation, and we suggest potential avenues for further research.     

Effect of simultaneous model observation and self-modeling of volleyball skill acquisition

This study examined the effect of feedback with simultaneous skilled model observation and self-modeling on volleyball skill acquisition. 53 pupils 12 to 15 years old formed two experimental groups and one control group who followed an intervention program with 12 practice sessions for acquisition and retention of how to receive a ball. Groups received different types of feedback before and in the middle of each practice session. Reception performance outcome (score) and technique in every group were assessed before and at the end of the intervention program and during the retention phase. A 3 (Group) x 3 (Measurement Period) multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures was applied to investigate differences. Results showed equivalent improvement in all three groups at the end of the intervention program. In conclusion, types of augmented feedback from the physical education teacher are effective in acquisition and retention of the skill for reception in volleyball.     

Detecting Outliers in Factor Analysis Using the Forward Search Algorithm

Dynamic factor analysis summarizes changes in scores on a battery of manifest variables over repeated measurements in terms of a time series in a substantially smaller number of latent factors. Algebraic formulae for standard errors of parameter estimates are more difficult to obtain than in the usual intersubject factor analysis because of the interdependence of successive observations. Bootstrap methods can fill this need, however. The standard bootstrap of individual timepoints is not appropriate because it destroys their order in time and consequently gives incorrect standard error estimates. Two bootstrap procedures that are appropriate for dynamic factor analysis are described. The moving block bootstrap breaks down the original time series into blocks and draws samples of blocks instead of individual timepoints. A parametric bootstrap is essentially a Monte Carlo study in which the population parameters are taken to be estimates obtained from the available sample. These bootstrap procedures are demonstrated using 103 days of affective mood self-ratings from a pregnant woman, 90 days of personality self-ratings from a psychology freshman, and a simulation study.