Examining the Relationship Between Genetic Counselors’ Attitudes Toward Deaf People and the Genetic Counseling Session

Given the medical and cultural perspectives on deafness it is important to determine if genetic counselors’ attitudes toward deaf people can affect counseling sessions for deafness genes. One hundred fifty-eight genetic counselors recruited through the National Society of Genetic Counselors Listserv completed an online survey assessing attitudes toward deaf people and scenario-specific comfort levels discussing and offering genetic testing for deafness. Respondents with deaf/Deaf friends or who work in prenatal or pediatric settings had more positive attitudes toward deaf people than those without deaf/Deaf friends or those working in ‘other’ settings. More positive attitudes toward deaf people correlated with higher comfort level talking about genetic testing for the two scenarios involving culturally Deaf clients; and correlated with higher comfort level offering genetic testing to culturally Deaf clients wishing to have a deaf child. Attitudes and comfort level were not correlated in the scenarios involving hearing or non-culturally deaf clients. These results suggest that genetic counselors’ attitudes could affect information provision and the decision making process of culturally Deaf clients. Cultural sensitivity workshops in genetic counseling training programs that incorporate personal interactions with culturally Deaf individuals are recommended. Additional suggestions for fostering personal interactions are provided.     

What's next? New evidence for prediction in human vision

Everyday visual experience involves making implicit predictions, as revealed by our surprise when something disturbs our expectations. Many theories of vision have been premised on the central role played by prediction. Yet, implicit prediction in human vision has been difficult to assess in the laboratory, and many results have not distinguished between the indisputably important role of memory and the future-oriented aspect of prediction. Now, a new and unexpected finding - that humans can resume an interrupted visual search much faster than they can start a new search - offers new hope, because the rapid resumption of a search seems to depend on participants forming an implicit prediction of what they will see after the interruption. These findings combined with results of recent neurophysiology studies provide a framework for studying implicit prediction in perception.     

Consequences of display changes during interrupted visual search: rapid resumption is target specific

Visual search can be resumed more rapidly following a brief interruption to an old display than it can be initiated on a new display, pointing to a critical role for memory in search (Lleras, Rensink, & Enns, 2005). Here, we examine how this rapid resumption is affected by changes made to the display during the interruption of search. Rapid resumption was found to depend on the prior presentation of the target, not merely the distractor items (Experiment 1), and was unaffected by the relocation of all distractor items (Experiment 2). Further, whereas changes to response-irrelevant features of the target did not eliminate rapid resumption (Experiment 3), changes to response-relevant features did (Experiment 4). These results point to the target specificity of rapid resumption and are consistent with reentrant theories of visual awareness.     

A negative compatibility effect in priming of emotional faces

The negative compatibility effect (NCE) is the surprising result that low-visibility prime arrows facilitate responses to opposite-direction target arrows. Here we compare the priming obtained with simple arrows to the priming of emotions when categorizing human faces, which represents a more naturalistic set of stimuli and for which there are no preexisting response biases. When inverted faces with neutral expressions were presented alongside emotional prime and target faces, only strong positive priming occurred. However, when the neutral faces were made to resemble the target faces in geometry (upright orientation), time (flashing briefly), and space (appearing in the same location), positive priming gradually weakened and became negative priming. Implications for theories of the NCE are discussed.     

Assessing self-critical perfectionism in clinical depression

Several facets of perfectionism have been strongly associated with depression and anxiety. Dunkley and Blankstein (2000) combined these maladaptive traits with self-criticism to create a general construct labeled self-critical perfectionism. In this study, we employed confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate a model for assessing self-critical perfectionism in a clinically depressed sample using scales from 3 instruments. Participants were 356 depressed adult outpatients who completed 2 multidimensional measures of perfectionism and a measure of self-criticism. A confirmatory factor model that separated a self-critical perfectionism construct from a more adaptive, achievement-striving component of perfectionism was supported. A composite scale assessing self-critical perfectionism demonstrated much larger correlations with distress measures compared to a composite scale assessing achievement striving and also showed evidence of discriminant validity. In this study, we provided further support for the valid assessment of self-critical perfectionism and extended evidence for its assessment to a clinically depressed sample.     

McEwen-Induced Modulation of Endocrine History: A Partial Review

In endless facets of physiology, there are points of homeostatic balance, such that too much or too litttle of something can both be deleterious (i.e., an "inverse U" pattern). This is particularly true when considering glucocorticoids (GCs), the adrenals steroid secreted during stress. In the first part of this paper, I review a number of realms in which a paucity and an excess of GCs are both damaging. Some findings are classical (for example, concerning GC effects upon body weight), while some are quite recent and have considerable implications for both physiology and pathophysiology (for example, inverse U's of GC actions in the realm of immunity and neuronal survival). The second part of the review considers the far thornier issue of how such inverse U's of GC actions are generated on a cellular and molecular level. One solution that has evolved, primarily in the hippocampus within the nervous system, involves the presence of two different types of receptors for GCs within the same cells; so long as the two receptors have very different affinities and mediate opposing effects on some cellular endpoint, an inverse U will emerge. The second solution, found in a number of peripheral tissues, involves GCs having opposing effects on the amount of some signal being generated (e.g., an immune cytokine) and the sensitivity of target tissues to that signal; under conditions that appear to be physiologically relevant, inverse U's emerge from this pattern as well. The final section of this review considers the enormous role played by Bruce McEwen in the emergence of this literature. I suggest that while much of this obviously has to do with the facts that have come from his group, another substantial contribution is from his steadying and supportive personality, the veritable embodiment of homeostatic balance.     

The attentional blink: Resource depletion or temporary loss of control?

Identification of the second of two targets is impaired if it is presented less than about 500 ms after the first. Theoretical accounts of this second-target deficit, known as attentional blink (AB), have relied on some form of limited attentional resource that is allocated to the leading target at the expense of the trailing target. Three experiments in the present study reveal a failure of resource-limitation accounts to explain why the AB is absent when the targets consist of a stream of three items belonging to the same category (e.g., letters or digits). The AB is reinstated, however, if an item from a different category is inserted in the target string. This result, and all major results in the AB literature, is explained by the hypothesis that the AB arises from a temporary loss of control over the prevailing attentional set. This lapse in control renders the observer vulnerable to an exogenously-triggered switch in attentional set.     

Are Perfectionism Dimensions Vulnerability Factors for Depressive Symptoms After Controlling for Neuroticism? A Meta‐analysis of 10 Longitudinal Studies

Extensive evidence suggests neuroticism is a higher‐order personality trait that overlaps substantially with perfectionism dimensions and depressive symptoms. Such evidence raises an important question: Which perfectionism dimensions are vulnerability factors for depressive symptoms after controlling for neuroticism? To address this, a meta‐analysis of research testing whether socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, personal standards, perfectionistic attitudes, self‐criticism and self‐oriented perfectionism predict change in depressive symptoms, after controlling for baseline depression and neuroticism, was conducted. A literature search yielded 10 relevant studies (N = 1,758). Meta‐analysis using random‐effects models revealed that all seven perfectionism dimensions had small positive relationships with follow‐up depressive symptoms beyond baseline depression and neuroticism. Perfectionism dimensions appear neither redundant with nor captured by neuroticism. Results lend credence and coherence to theoretical accounts and empirical studies suggesting perfectionism dimensions are part of the premorbid personality of people vulnerable to depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

da Vinci's window facilitates drawings of total and partial occlusion in young children

When two or more objects are present in a scene, children 5 and 6 years of age rarely draw the scene such that one object totally or partially occludes another object. Instead they draw complete objects. The present study separated two components of drawing: perspective taking and graphic skill. Perspective taking was examined by comparing a free viewing condition with a restricted viewing condition in which a model could only be viewed through four apertures. Graphic skill was examined by comparing drawings requiring total occlusion with drawings requiring partial occlusion under both viewing conditions. Experiment 1 showed that 90% of 5- and 6-year-olds drew total occlusions under restricted viewing conditions but only 32% did so in the free viewing condition. Experiment 2 showed that drawings of partial occlusion were unaffected by viewing condition among 5-year-olds, but that restricted viewing increased the number of partial occlusions that 6-year-olds drew. Thus, failures of young children to draw occlusions have less to do with graphic skill than was previously thought. Instead, it is suggested that young children have a more general difficulty selecting one perspective and maintaining it over time.