Heart rate variability and drawing impairment in hypoxemic COPD

We studied 54 patients with hypoxemic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Mini Mental State Examination and the Mental Deterioration Battery were used for neuropsychological assessment. Heart rate variability (HRV) was assessed based on 24-h Holter ECG recording. Mann–Whitney test was used to compare HRV parameters of patients performing normally or abnormally on individual neuropsychological tasks. Spearman’s rho was used to investigate the correlations between HRV parameters and neuropsychological scores, indexes of health status or COPD severity. Patients with defective performance at copying drawings with landmarks (CDL) test (N = 23) had lower very low frequency (VLF) power with respect to patients with normal performance (N = 31) (24 h: median 213; interquartile range 120–282 vs. 309; 188–431 ms², p = 0.043; daytime: 202; 111–292 vs. 342; 194–397 ms², p = 0.039). The CDL score correlated with the VLF power (24 h: ρ = 0.27, p = 0.049; daytime: ρ = 0.30, p = 0.028), and the normalized low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) ratio (24 h: ρ = 0.27, p = 0.05; daytime: ρ = 0.33, p = 0.015). Sympathetic modulation decreased for increasing severity of COPD. In conclusion, drawing impairment correlates with depressed sympathetic modulation in patients with COPD, and both might be indexes of COPD severity.     

Perceptions of Older Versus Younger Workers in Terms of Big Five Facets,Proactive Personality,Cognitive Ability,and Job Performance

We examined whether older and younger workers are perceived differently in terms of job‐related individual differences and dimensions of job performance. Findings across 2 experimental studies indicated that older workers were perceived more positively in terms of crystallized intelligence and facets of conscientiousness, while younger workers were perceived more positively in terms of fluid intelligence and proactive personality. With regard to work performance, older workers were perceived more positively in terms of organizational citizenship behavior directed toward the organization. Similar perceptions were held by older and younger respondents. Results illustrate that job performance dimensions and work‐related individual differences may provide useful frameworks for understanding stereotypes regarding older and younger workers.     

How implicit is visual statistical learning?

In visual statistical learning, participants learn the statistical regularities present in a sequence of visual shapes. A recent study (Kim, Seitz, Feenstra, & Shams, 2009) suggests that visual statistical learning occurs implicitly, as it is not accompanied by conscious awareness of these regularities. However, that interpretation of the data depends on 2 unwarranted assumptions concerning the nature and sensitivity of the tasks used to measure learning. In a replication of this study, we used a 4-choice completion task as a direct measure of learning, in addition to an indirect measure consisting of a rapid serial visual presentation task. Moreover, binary confidence judgments were recorded after each completion trial. This way, we measured systematically the extent to which sequence knowledge was available to consciousness. Supporting the notion that the role of unconscious knowledge was overestimated in Kim et al.'s study, our results reveal that participants' performance cannot be exclusively accounted for by implicit knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Long- and short-term plastic modeling of action prediction abilities in volleyball

Athletes show superior abilities not only in executing complex actions, but also in anticipating others' moves. Here, we explored how visual and motor experiences contribute to forge elite action prediction abilities in volleyball players. Both adult athletes and supporters were more accurate than novices in predicting the fate of volleyball floating services by viewing the initial ball trajectory, while only athletes could base their predictions on body kinematics. Importantly, adolescents assigned to physical practice training improved their ability to predict the fate of the actions by reading body kinematics, while those assigned to the observational practice training improved only in understanding the ball trajectory. The results suggest that physical and observational practice might provide complementary and mutually reinforcing contributions to the superior perceptual abilities of elite athletes. Moreover, direct motor experience is required to establish novel perceptuo-motor representations that are used to predict others' actions ahead of realization.     

Encoding location and serial order in auditory working memory: evidence for separable processes

In this study, we investigated the interactions between temporal and spatial information in auditory working memory. In two experiments, participants were presented with sequences of sounds originating from different locations in space and were then asked to recall either their position or their serial order. In Experiment 1, attention during encoding was manipulated by contrasting 'pure' blocks (i.e., location-only or serial-order-only trials) to 'mixed' blocks (i.e., different percentages of spatial and serial-order trials). In Experiment 2, 'pure' blocks were contrasted to blocks in which spatial and serial-order trials were intermixed with a third task requiring a semantic categorization of sounds. Results from both experiments showed that, whereas serial-order recall is linearly affected by the simultaneous encoding of a concurrent feature, the recall of position is mostly unaffected by concurrent feature encoding. Contrastingly, overall performance level was lower for spatial recall than serial recall. We concluded that serial order and location of items appear to be independently encoded in auditory working memory. Serial order is easier to recall, but strongly affected by the processing of concurrent item dimensions, while item location is more difficult to recall, but relatively automatic, as shown by its strong resistance to interfering dimensions in encoding.     

Private psychotherapy training in Italy: A systematic analysis

This paper examines the results of a systematic analysis, organised by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, of private psychotherapy training in Italy. Since 1989, training in psychotherapy in Italy has been governed by a national law which recognises both public and private institutions. While the public system usually comprises approximately 150 students, the private system has grown significantly over time, registering thousands of students in hundreds of schools (for example, 19,123 students in 212 schools in 2011). Systematic analysis variables included geographical distribution, theoretical approaches, training methods, student and teacher characteristics, student’s personal psychotherapy, supervision and apprenticeships. Data were obtained from 92% of the schools. The primary issues discussed in this paper are as follows: the uneven geographical distribution of the schools; the disorderly amalgamation of traditional scientific paradigms; programmes which concentrate on theory and fail to meet international guidelines. One key issue is the excess supply with regard to demand, meaning that recently graduated psychotherapists (especially women) risk underemployment and financial hardship. Student enrolment is also increasingly problematic. This is the first paper to present an in-depth analysis of one European country’s situation in this field. The authors believe it will foster comparison and discussion internationally.     

From melody to lexical tone: Musical ability enhances specific aspects of foreign language perception

Previous research shows that music ability provides positive effects on language processing. This study aims at better clarifying the involvement of different linguistic subdomains in this cross-domain link, assessing whether or not musicality and music expertise enhance phonological and lexical tone processing of Mandarin Chinese. In two experiments different groups of adults and children with no previous experience in tonal languages, were invited to perform a same–different task trying to detect phonological and tonal variations in pairs of sequences of monosyllabic Mandarin Chinese words. Main results show that all subjects perform significantly better in detecting phonological variations rather than tonal ones. They also show that both melodic proficiency and music expertise are good predictors for a better tonal, but not phonological identification. Data lead to a model of music-to-language transfer effect in which musicality selectively affects linguistic intonation while leaving phonological processing substantially unaffected.