Investigating trajectories of change in psychological distress amongst patients with depression and generalised anxiety disorder treated with internet cognitive behavioural therapy

Internet based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is efficacious for the treatment of anxiety and depression. The current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of internet based CBT prescribed by primary care clinicians for the treatment of depression and generalised anxiety disorder. Psychological distress data from 302 patients who completed an online CBT course for depression and 361 patients who completed an online CBT course for generalised anxiety disorder were subjected to growth mixture analysis. For both disorders psychological distress decreased across each lesson in a quadratic trend. Two classes of individuals were identified with different trajectories of change: a large group of individuals who responded well to the courses and a smaller group of individuals with a lower response. Both groups were similar with respect to socio-demographic characteristics however the Low Responders tended to have higher levels of symptom severity and psychological distress at baseline in comparison to the responders. For the majority of patients (75-80%) the internet CBT courses for depression and generalised anxiety disorder were effective. Further research is required to identify and effectively treat the smaller proportion of patients who did not improve during internet CBT.     

Nonsymbolic numerical magnitude comparison: reliability and validity of different task variants and outcome measures, and their relationship to arithmetic achievement in adults

The numerical ratio effect (NRE) and the Weber fraction (w) are common metrics of the precision of the approximate numbers sense (ANS), a cognitive mechanism suggested to play a role in the development of numerical and arithmetic skills. The task most commonly used to measure the precision of the ANS is the numerical comparison task. Multiple variants of this task have been employed yet it is currently unclear how these affect metrics of ANS acuity, and how these relate to arithmetic achievement. The present study investigates the reliability, validity and relationship to standardized measures of arithmetic fluency of the NRE and w elicited by three variants of the nonsymbolic number comparison task. Results reveal that the strengths of the NRE and w differ between task variants. Moreover, the reliability and validity of the reaction time NRE and the w were generally significant across task variants, although reliability was stronger for w. None of the task variants revealed a correlation between ANS metrics and arithmetic fluency in adults. These results reveal important consistencies across nonsymbolic number comparison tasks, indicating a shared cognitive foundation. However, the relationship between ANS acuity and arithmetic performance remains unclear.     

Musicians and tone-language speakers share enhanced brainstem encoding but not perceptual benefits for musical pitch

Behavioral and neurophysiological transfer effects from music experience to language processing are well-established but it is currently unclear whether or not linguistic expertise (e.g., speaking a tone language) benefits music-related processing and its perception. Here, we compare brainstem responses of English-speaking musicians/non-musicians and native speakers of Mandarin Chinese elicited by tuned and detuned musical chords, to determine if enhancements in subcortical processing translate to improvements in the perceptual discrimination of musical pitch. Relative to non-musicians, both musicians and Chinese had stronger brainstem representation of the defining pitches of musical sequences. In contrast, two behavioral pitch discrimination tasks revealed that neither Chinese nor non-musicians were able to discriminate subtle changes in musical pitch with the same accuracy as musicians. Pooled across all listeners, brainstem magnitudes predicted behavioral pitch discrimination performance but considering each group individually, only musicians showed connections between neural and behavioral measures. No brain-behavior correlations were found for tone language speakers or non-musicians. These findings point to a dissociation between subcortical neurophysiological processing and behavioral measures of pitch perception in Chinese listeners. We infer that sensory-level enhancement of musical pitch information yields cognitive-level perceptual benefits only when that information is behaviorally relevant to the listener.     

Optimising Employee Mental Health: The Relationship Between Intrinsic Need Satisfaction,Job Crafting,and Employee Well-Being

Organisations are frequently confronted with the issue of how to enhance employee mental health. Based on self-determination theory, a model is proposed that examines the relationships between job crafting, the satisfaction of the intrinsic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work, and employee well-being—defined here as both subjective well-being and psychological well-being. A sample of 253 working adults completed a battery of questionnaires including the Job Crafting Questionnaire, the Intrinsic Need Satisfaction Scale, and the Mental Health Continuum. Using structural equation modelling methods, it was determined that job crafting predicted intrinsic need satisfaction, which, in turn, predicted employee well-being. The results suggest that job crafting may be an important underpinning upon which to base an employee well-being intervention.     

Subjective Well-Being Predictors of Academic Citizenship Behavior

Two studies tested the hypothesis that SWB predicts unique variance in academic citizenship attitudes, even while accounting for personality traits. In Study 1, participants (n?=?2,566) completed an online questionnaire assessing their positive and negative affect, ACBs and personality. The results indicated that positive affect predicted consideration, civic virtue, and conscientiousness, whereas negative affect predicted citizenship conscientiousness and sportsmanship while controlling for personality. In Study 2, participants (n?=?260) completed measures of life satisfaction, ACBs and personality. The results showed that life satisfaction predicted all ACBs while controlling for personality. Based on these results, it can be concluded that SWB is an important predictor of ACBs. Implications for the selection of student aids in academic settings are discussed.     

The impact of informant gender on children’s endorsement of scientific and non-scientific information

By roughly 6 years of age, children acquire the stereotype that men are more competent than women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), potentially leading to greater trust in scientific information provided by men. This study tested whether 3- to 8-year-old children differentially endorsed conflicting information about science and toys presented by male and female informants depicted as a ‘man’ and ‘woman’ (Exp1) or ‘scientists’ (Exp2). Children were expected to endorse toy testimony from gender-matched informants; thus, the key question concerned endorsement of science testimony. In Exp1 (N = 149), boys and girls showed a same-gender informant preference for toy testimony; however, girls endorsed the male informant's testimony more for science than for toys – but only when tested by a male experimenter. In Exp2 (N = 264), boys and girls showed a same-gender preference, irrespective of content. Findings suggest that STEM-related gender stereotypes might lead girls to trust scientific information presented by men over women in certain contexts.     

Do wild New Caledonian crows (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Corvus moneduloides</Emphasis>) attend to the functional properties of their tools?

New Caledonian crows are the most proficient non-hominin tool manufacturers but the cognition behind their remarkable skills remains largely unknown. Here we investigate if they attend to the functional properties of the tools that they routinely use in the wild. Pandanus tools have natural barbs along one edge that enable them to function as hooking implements when the barbs face backwards from the working tip. In experiment 1 we presented eight crows with either a non-functional (‘upside-down’) or a functional pandanus tool in a baited hole. Four of the crows never flipped the tools. The behaviour of the four flipping birds suggested that they had a strategy of flipping a tool when it was not working. Observations of two of the eight crows picking up pandanus tools at feeding tables in the wild supported the lack of attention to barb direction. In experiment 2 we gave six of the eight crows a choice of either a barbed or a barbless pandanus tool. Five of the crows chose tools at random, which further supported the findings in experiment 1 that the crows paid little or no attention to the barbs. In contrast, a third experiment found that seven out of eight crows flipped non-functional stick tools significantly more than functional ones. Our findings indicate that the crows do not consistently attend to the presence or orientation of barbs on pandanus tools. Successful pandanus tool use in the wild seems to rely on behavioural strategies formed through associative learning, including procedural knowledge about the sequence of operations required to make a successful pandanus tool. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Happy thoughts: Enhancing well-being in the classroom with a positive events diary

Positive psychology interventions (PPIs) are effective in increasing well-being across the population. Whilst educators are recognising the importance of well-being in the classroom and of its long-term impact on life trajectory, the transformative potential of PPIs in educational settings is yet to be fully realised. This study investigates, for the first time, the effects of a PPI in school children by means of a daily dairy. Self-report questionnaires were used to measure well-being in school children aged 8–11 years. Across two studies, children kept a positive events diary, recording three experiences every day for a week. The intervention led to an increase in happiness and a decrease in depressive symptoms immediately following the intervention and at a three-month follow-up. Children who had unhappier baseline scores benefitted more from the intervention. This study demonstrates significant scope, in school settings, for targeted light-touch interventions to promote well-being in those with the greatest need.     

A Quanta of Light and the Artistic Process: As Above,So Below

This article seeks to demonstrate that the creation of art is an expression of a fundamental yet elusive truth. It is not a process that draws solely on absolute fictions, but rather, it is a reflection of certain unconscious archetypes and themes that are inherent to experience.