What is the Role of the Arts in Medical Education and Patient Care? A Survey-based Qualitative Study

To inform medical education reform efforts, we systematically collected information on the level of arts and humanities engagement in our medical school community. Attitudes regarding incorporating arts and humanities-based teaching methods into medical education and patient care were also assessed. An IRB-approved survey was electronically distributed to all faculty, residents, fellows, and students at our medical school. Questions focused on personal practice of the arts and/or humanities, as well as perceptions of, and experience with formally incorporating these into medical teaching. Of 13,512 community members surveyed, 2,775 responded (21% overall response rate). A majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that medical education and patient care could be "enhanced" by the integration of the arts (67% and 74% respectively). There was enthusiastic support for the creation of a formal program in the arts at our medical school (72 %). Integration of the arts into medical education may have a role in improving the quality of medical training and would likely be well received by teachers and learners.     

Brexit or Bremain? A person and social analysis of voting decisions in the EU referendum

The period following UK's European Union referendum in 2016 foreshadows significant social and political change in the UK. The current research draws on social psychological theories to empirically examine the drivers of voting decisions during the referendum. We report the results of a prospective study using structural equation modelling with data (N = 244) collected just before, and self‐reported voting behaviour immediately following (N = 197), the European Union referendum. We employ a person and social approach to examine the additive roles of worldview, conservatism, social identity, and intergroup threat as predictors of voting intentions and behaviour. Results showed that person factors (worldview and conservatism) predicted voting intentions through social factors (European identity and realistic threat) and that intentions predicted behaviour. The results highlight the importance of addressing threat‐based intergroup rhetoric and the potential of common in‐group identity to mitigate psychological threat.     

Beyond the broom cupboard: teaching assistants’ reflections upon the wider impact of their specialist dyslexia training

Whilst the government-commissioned Rose Report (2009) on provision and support for dyslexic learners in England called for the deployment of more specialist dyslexia teachers in mainstream schools, the reality seems to be that the job of teaching literacy to children with dyslexia is falling to teaching assistants (TAs). As a result, specialist training courses for TAs have been developed in England. Using the Coldwell and Simkins Training Impact Framework, the present study examines TAs participants’ perceptions of the impact of two such local authority-based training programmes, not just in terms of the impact upon their individual practice, but also in terms of their perceptions of the wider impact of their status as a trained ‘expert’ upon their schools’ policies, culture and practice. ‘Enabling’ and ‘blocking’ factors influencing this wider impact are identified, and implications for the deployment of specialist TAs and the design of their training courses are discussed.     

Do complex models increase prediction of complex behaviours? Predicting driving ability in people with brain disorders

Prediction of complex behavioural tasks via relatively simple modelling techniques, such as logistic regression and discriminant analysis, often has limited success. We hypothesized that to more accurately model complex behaviour, more complex models, such as kernel-based methods, would be needed. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the value of six modelling approaches for predicting driving ability based on performance on computerized sensory-motor and cognitive tests (SMCTests?) in 501 people with brain disorders. The models included three models previously used to predict driving ability (discriminant analysis, DA; binary logistic regression, BLR; and nonlinear causal resource analysis, NCRA) and three kernel methods (support vector machine, SVM; product kernel density, PK; and kernel product density, KP). At the classification level, two kernel methods were substantially more accurate at classifying on-road pass or fail (SVM 99.6%, PK 99.8%) than the other models (DA 76%, BLR 78%, NCRA 74%, KP 81%). However, accuracy decreased substantially for all of the kernel models when cross-validation techniques were used to estimate prediction of on-road pass or fail in an independent referral group (SVM 73-76%, PK 72-73%, KP 71-72%) but decreased only slightly for DA (74-75%) and BLR (75-76%). Cross-validation of NCRA was not possible. In conclusion, while kernel-based models are successful at modelling complex data at a classification level, this is likely to be due to overfitting of the data, which does not lead to an improvement in accuracy in independent data over and above the accuracy of other less complex modelling techniques.     

Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: the role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity

In Studies 1 and 2, after reading an acquaintance-rape but not a stranger-rape scenario, higher benevolent sexist but not hostile sexist participants blamed the victim significantly more. In Study 2, higher hostile sexist but not benevolent sexist male participants showed significantly greater proclivity to commit acquaintance (but not stranger) rape. Studies 3 and 4 supported the hypothesis that the effects of benevolent sexism and hostile sexism are mediated by different perceptions of the victim, as behaving inappropriately and as really wanting sex with the rapist. These findings show that benevolent sexism and hostile sexism underpin different assumptions about women that generate sexist reactions toward rape victims.     

Gaze stability of observers watching Op Art pictures

It has been the matter of some debate why we can experience vivid dynamic illusions when looking at static pictures composed from simple black and white patterns. The impression of illusory motion is particularly strong when viewing some of the works of 'Op Artists, such as Bridget Riley's painting Fall. Explanations of the illusory motion have ranged from retinal to cortical mechanisms, and an important role has been attributed to eye movements. To assess the possible contribution of eye movements to the illusory-motion percept we studied the strength of the illusion under different viewing conditions, and analysed the gaze stability of observers viewing the Riley painting and control patterns that do not produce the illusion. Whereas the illusion was reduced, but not abolished, when watching the painting through a pinhole, which reduces the effects of accommodation, it was not perceived in flash afterimages, suggesting an important role for eye movements in generating the illusion for this image. Recordings of eye movements revealed an abundance of small involuntary saccades when looking at the Riley pattern, despite the fact that gaze was kept within the dedicated fixation region. The frequency and particular characteristics of these rapid eye movements can vary considerably between different observers, but, although there was a tendency for gaze stability to deteriorate while viewing a Riley painting, there was no significant difference in saccade frequency between the stimulus and control patterns. Theoretical considerations indicate that such small image displacements can generate patterns of motion signals in a motion-detector network, which may serve as a simple and sufficient, but not necessarily exclusive, explanation for the illusion. Why such image displacements lead to perceptual results with a group of Op Art and similar patterns, but remain invisible for other stimuli, is discussed.