The Impact of R-Optimized Administration Modeling Procedures on Brazilian Normative Reference Values for Rorschach Scores

To generate normative reference data for the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R–PAS), modeling procedures were developed to convert the distribution of responses (R) in protocols obtained using Comprehensive System (CS; Exner 2003 Exner, J. E. (2003). The Rorschach: A Comprehensive System. Vol. 1. Basic foundations (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. [Google Scholar]) administration guidelines to match the distribution of R in protocols obtained using R-Optimized Administration (Meyer, Viglione, Mihura, Erard, &; Erdberg, 2011 Meyer, G. J., Viglione, D. J., Mihura, J. L., Erard, R. E., &; Erdberg, P. (2011). Rorschach Performance Assessment System: administration, coding, interpretation, and technical manual. Toledo, OH: Rorschach Performance Assessment System. [Google Scholar]). This study replicates the R–PAS study, examining the impact of modeling R-Optimized Administration on Brazilian normative reference values by comparing a sample of 746 CS administered protocols to its counterpart sample of 343 records modeled to match R-Optimized Administration. The results were strongly consistent with the R–PAS findings, showing the modeled records had a slightly higher mean R and, secondarily, slightly higher means for Complexity and V-Comp, as well as smaller standard deviations for R, Complexity, and R8910%. We also observed 5 other small differences not observed in the R–PAS study. However, when comparing effect sizes for the differences in means and standard deviations observed in this study to the differences found in the R–PAS study, the results were virtually identical. These findings suggest that using R-Optimized Administration in Brazil might produce normative results that are similar to traditional CS norms for Brazil and similar to the international norms used in R–PAS.     

Mental workload and visual impairment: differences between pupil, blink, and subjective rating

This research has two aims: (a) To study the concurrent validity of three measures of mental workload, NASA TLX rating scale, pupil dilation and blink rate, testing the hypothesis that they will provide convergent results using a single-task, and dissociative results for dual-task; and (b) To analyse their capability to predict visual search impairment. These three measures were analyzed in the same cognitive tasks in single-task and dual-task (cognitive task and visual search) conditions in a within-subjects experiment with twenty-nine participants. Mental workload measures showed concurrent validity under single-task condition, but a complex pattern of results arose in the dual-task condition: it is suggested that NASA TLX would be a subjective addition of the rating of each task; pupil dilation would measure the average arousal underlying the cognitive tasks; and the blink rate would produce opposite effects: whereas mental workload of cognitive tasks would increase blink rate, visual demand would inhibit it. All three measures were good predictors of visual impairment. The soundness of these measures is discussed with regard to the applied field of driving and other activities.     

Task dependent modulation of exogenous attention: Effects of target duration and intervening events

Inhibition of return (IOR) consists of slower reaction times in response to stimuli appearing at previously attended or inspected locations. The exact mechanisms underlying the effect have not yet been determined. In the present work, we manipulated two variables, target duration and intervening event (fixation cue between cue and target), through which we modulated the IOR effect as a function of task. When the target was presented until response, the presence of an intervening event made the cueing effect more negative in all tasks, although facilitation in the absence of an intervening event was only observed in discrimination and go–no-go tasks. When the target duration was 50 ms, the effect of the intervening event on cueing was also only observed for the discrimination and go–no-go tasks. Target duration had no effect at all in the discrimination task. Possible mechanisms for these modulations (detection cost and spatial selection benefit, both of which are based on cue–target integration processes) are discussed.     

IMPLICIT MEMORY IN AMNESIC PATIENTS:

Abstract— Amnesic patients generally exhibit spared priming effects on implicit memory tasks despite poor explicit memory In a previous study, we demonstrated normal auditory priming in amnesic patients on an identification-in-noise test in which the magnitude of priming is independent of whether the speaker's voice is the same or different at study and test In the present experiment, we examined auditory priming on a filter identification test in which the magnitude of priming in control subjects is higher when the speaker's voice is the same at study and test than when it is different Amnesic patients, by contrast, failed to exhibit more priming in a same-voice condition than in a different-voice condition Voice-specific priming may depend on a memory system that is impaired in amnesia     

Attention to speed and guide traffic signs with eye movements

The goal of this research is to describe the visual search patterns for diverse traffic signs. Twelve drivers of both genders and different driving experience levels took part in real driving research with an instrumented car provided with an eye-tracking system. Looking at signs has a weak relation with speed reduction in cases where actual driving speed was higher. Nevertheless, among the people who looked at the sign, the percentage of those who reduce the speed below the limit is greater than of those who do not look at the sign. Guide traffic signs, particularly those mounted over the road, are more frequently glanced at than speed limit signs, with a glance duration of more than one second, in sequences of more than two consecutive fixations. Implications for driving and the possibilities and limitations of eye movement analysis for traffic sign research are discussed.     

Motor imagery in spinal cord injury patients: Moving makes the difference

Both real action control and execution and motor imagery abilities require knowledge of the spatial location of body parts, in other words efference copy information and feedbacks from the sensory system (Frith et al., 2000, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci., 355, 1771). Spinal cord injuries induce severe motor disability, due to a damage of the descending motor pathways (Cramer et al., 2007, Exp. Brain. Res., 177, 233). Patients' motor imagery competences are variably reported as either normal or defective (Decety & Boisson, 1990, Eur. Arch. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci., 240, 39; Lacourse et al., 1999, Behav. Brain Sci., 104, 73). We explored biomechanical constraint effects in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients, as they are considered the most reliable indexes of motor imagery abilities (Parsons, 1987b, Cogn. Psychol., 19, 178). Sixteen spinal cord injuries patients and 16 neurologically unimpaired subjects have been administered with (1) the Hand Laterality Task (HLT), in which subjects were asked to judge the laterality of a rotated hand; and (2) the Mirror Letter Discrimination Task (MLD), in which subjects were asked to judge if a rotated character was in its correct upright position or mirror‐reversed form. Our patients did not present the effect of stimulus orientation, neither did they show any effect related to biomechanical constraints. Based on these data, the hypothesis is that SCI patients' performance may be ascribed to the use of a different strategy to solve the tasks, based on memory rather than on mental rotation.     

Representational neglect for words as revealed by bisection tasks

In the present study, we showed that a representational disorder for words can dissociate from both representational neglect for objects and neglect dyslexia. This study involved 14 brain-damaged patients with left unilateral spatial neglect and a group of normal subjects. Patients were divided into four groups based on presence of left neglect dyslexia and representational neglect for non-verbal material, as evaluated by the Clock Drawing test. The patients were presented with bisection tasks for words and lines. The word bisection tasks (with words of five and seven letters) comprised the following: (1) representational bisection: the experimenter pronounced a word and then asked the patient to name the letter in the middle position; (2) visual bisection: same as (1) with stimuli presented visually; and (3) motor bisection: the patient was asked to cross out the letter in the middle position. The standard line bisection task was presented using lines of different length. Consistent with the literature, long lines were bisected to the right and short lines, rendered comparable in length to the words of the word bisection test, deviated to the left (crossover effect). Both patients and controls showed the same leftward bias on words in the visual and motor bisection conditions. A significant difference emerged between the groups only in the case of the representational bisection task, whereas the group exhibiting neglect dyslexia associated with representational neglect for objects showed a significant rightward bias, while the other three patient groups and the controls showed a leftward bisection bias. Neither the presence of neglect alone nor the presence of visual neglect dyslexia was sufficient to produce a specific disorder in mental imagery. These results demonstrate a specific representational neglect for words independent of both representational neglect and neglect dyslexia.     

Giving Voice to Patients: Developing a Discussion Method to Involve Patients in Translational Research

Biomedical research policy in recent years has often tried to make such research more ‘translational’, aiming to facilitate the transfer of insights from research and development (R&D) to health care for the benefit of future users. Involving patients in deliberations about and design of biomedical research may increase the quality of R&D and of resulting innovations and thus contribute to translation. However, patient involvement in biomedical research is not an easy feat. This paper discusses the development of a method for involving patients in (translational) biomedical research aiming to address its main challenges.After reviewing the potential challenges of patient involvement, we formulate three requirements for any method to meaningfully involve patients in (translational) biomedical research. It should enable patients (1) to put forward their experiential knowledge, (2) to develop a rich view of what an envisioned innovation might look like and do, and (3) to connect their experiential knowledge with the envisioned innovation. We then describe how we developed the card-based discussion method ‘Voice of patients’, and discuss to what extent the method, when used in four focus groups, satisfied these requirements. We conclude that the method is quite successful in mobilising patients’ experiential knowledge, in stimulating their imaginaries of the innovation under discussion and to some extent also in connecting these two. More work is needed to translate patients’ considerations into recommendations relevant to researchers’ activities. It also seems wise to broaden the audience for patients’ considerations to other actors working on a specific innovation.