An automated trainer for improving visual acuity in myopic adults

Several studies have found training procedures derived from the experimental analysis of behavior to result in improved visual acuity for myopic adults. The present paper describes an automated trainer that incorporates critical training components and eliminates excessive time demands of the fading and feedback procedures reported in the literature. Implications for standardization and long-term training are discussed.     

Effects of Displacement and Trajectory Length on the Variability Pattern of Reaching Movements

The design of the present study enabled the authors to distinguish between the possible effects of movement displacement and trajectory length on the pattern of final positions of planar reaching movements. With their eyes closed, 9 subjects performed series of fast and accurate movements from different initial positions to the same target. For some series, the movements were unconstrained and were therefore performed along an approximately straight vertical line. For other series, an obstacle was positioned so that trajectory length was increased because of an increase in movement curvature. Ellipses of variability obtained by means of principal component analysis applied to the scatter of movement final positions enabled the authors to assess the pattern of movement variable errors. The results showed that the orientation of the ellipses was not affected by movement displacement or by trajectory length, whereas variable errors increased with movement displacement. An increase in trajectory length as a consequence of increased curvature caused no change in variable error. From the perspective of current motor control theory, that finding was quite unexpected. Further studies are required so that one can distinguish among the possible effects of various kinematics, kinetics, and other variables that could affect the pattern of variable errors of reaching movements.     

What makes people happy? Decoupling the experiential-material continuum

Extant literature suggests that consumers derive more happiness from experiences (e.g., vacations) than from material possessions (e.g., furniture). However, this literature typically pits material against experiential consumption, treating them as a single bipolar construct of their relative dominance: more material or more experiential. This focus on relative dominance leaves unanswered questions regarding how different levels of material and experiential qualities each contribute to happiness. Four preregistered studies (N = 3,288), using hundreds of product categories, measured levels of material and experiential qualities using two unipolar items. These studies investigate recalled, evoked, and anticipated happiness. Results show a more nuanced view of the experiential advantage that is critical for future research and consumer theory: material and experiential qualities both have positive relationships with happiness. Further, there is no inherent trade-off between experiential and material qualities: consumers can enjoy consumption that is high on both (e.g., swimming pools and home improvements).     

Depressed mothers’ infants show less negative affect during non-contingent interactions

Infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers were videotaped interacting with their mothers in the [Nadel, J., Carchon, I., Kervella, C., Marcelli, D., & Reserbat-Plantey, D. (1999). Report: Expectancies for social contingency in 2-month-olds. Developmental Science, 2, 164–173] paradigm which consists of three segments including: (1) a free play, contingent interaction, (2) a non-contingent replay of the mothers’ behavior that had been videotaped during the first segment, and (3) a return to a free play, contingent interaction. As compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, infants of depressed mothers showed less negative change (less increase in frowning) in their behavior during the non-contingent replay segment. This finding was interpreted as the infants of depressed mothers being more accustomed to non-contingent behavior in their mothers, thus experiencing less violation of expectancy in this situation.     

Coping With Academic Problems: An Empirical Examination of Brickman et al.'s Models of Helping and Coping1

According to Brickman et al. (1982), people facing problems make attributions about responsibility for causing and for solving the problem. Four models of helping and coping emerge. The present investigation examined 2 key questions. First, do individuals assign responsibility exclusively to the person or external forces, or do they exhibit a pattern of distributing responsibility among several causes? And second, do the models provide superior explanatory power relative to the individual attributions? College students provided information about their assumptions about causes and solutions to their own academic problems. Students revealed all 3 patterns. Furthermore, those making self‐attributions of responsibility for solutions had higher grade point averages (GPAs) than did those making other attributions. Implications for the Brickman et al. analysis and framework are discussed.     

Influence of the penalty point system on driving behaviour: drivers' point of view

On July 1, 2006 a penalty point system was introduced in Spain. One year later, a reduction of 14.3% was observed in road traffic casualties, whilst the previous year that figure was 4.9%. A national telephone survey was conducted on a sample of 2.014 respondents to explore the drivers' point of view about the influence of the penalty point system on driving behaviour. Results point to a moderate behavioural change, mainly in relation to speeding and mobile phone misuse, this change being slightly more intense in drivers who were fined during the previous year. Awareness of road traffic accidents increased in around 40% of drivers. Lastly, mobility loss stands out as the most worrying and presumably most influential consequence of driving license loss.     

The shape of thought

When children learn the name of a novel object, they tend to extend that name to other objects similar in shape – a phenomenon referred to as the shape bias. Does the shape bias stem from learned associations between names and categories of objects, or does it derive from more general properties of children's understanding of language and the world? We argue here for the second alternative, presenting evidence that the shape bias emerges early in development, is not limited to names, and is intimately related to how children make sense of categories.     

The Implementation of Mindfulness‐Based,Trauma‐Informed Parent Education in an Underserved Latino Community: The Emergence of a Community Workforce

In this practice‐oriented program review, a mindfulness‐based, trauma‐informed parent intervention, called Safe, Secure and Loved? (SSL), designed to strengthen nurturing parenting and children's resilience, was implemented in an underserved Latino community. Across 5 years, a volunteer community workforce of promotoras transformed an academic–community research partnership into a community‐led program partnership and established sustainable agency parent education programming. To better understand this transformation, we used a modified implementation science (IS) framework to structure interviews from members of the academic–community research partnership. Findings suggest that the commitment and cultural expertise of the volunteer community workforce acted as the major leadership drivers to create the community‐led program partnership. Employing mindfulness‐based, trauma‐informed parent education designed to promote nurturing parenting and children's resilience may be an effective training model to engage and mobilize a volunteer community workforce from an underserved community.     

BETWEEN RECEPTION AND SELF-PERCEPTION: TESTIMONIES OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN ISRAEL

Based on survivors’ testimonies the article discusses the encounters of Holocaust survivors in Palestine/Israel between 1945 and 1955. After addressing the issues of the historiography of these Holocaust survivors and the value of using their testimonies, it examines the interactions of survivors with official authorities: work, housing, kibbutzim, education, and the pre-military/IDF. It sheds light on the meaning of silence and the manifestation of stereotyping for the survivors themselves, and it assesses the impact of families and creating families. The article also examines the validity of these testimonies by studying some testimonies of Holocaust survivors who emigrated from Israel and those who immigrated directly from Europe to North America. The study concludes that although contemporary collective views influenced survivors’ perceptions, cases of their ill-treatment were not isolated. They were more the result of the attitudes of individuals than the policy of the state. Veteran Israelis' insensitivity affected survivors. Stigmatizing ostracized them. Lack of empathy and discrimination caused survivors to feel unwanted and lonely, which resulted in many volunteering for the military, or in self-isolation, or in getting married as quickly as possible. Lack of study and job opportunities for women were more difficult to overcome.     

La evaluación de la escritura

Resumen

En este estudio se realiza una revisión de los sistemas de evaluación de la escritura y de estudios relacionados. Se comienza con una visión de conjunto de las dificultades principales en el estudio de la evaluación de la escritura, y de la importancia y utilidad que tiene un sistema de evaluación de la escritura en distintas áreas de conocimiento. Posteriormente se analiza cuál es el objeto de evaluación de los diferentes sistemas y qué medidas se utilizan en las investigaciones acerca de la escritura. A este respecto se expone un modelo del producto de la escritura que permite organizar, de modo prácticamente exhaustivo, las medidas del producto escrito. Tras resumir los requisitos, que según distintos autores debería cumplir cualquier sistema de evaluación de la escritura, se clasifican los sistemas de evaluación en base a si el objeto de análisis es el proceso o el producto de la escritura, definiendo sus características generales. A su vez, se exponen diferentes clasificaciones de los sistemas de evaluación del producto escrito, realizadas principalmente en función de la estrategia de evaluación. Esta revisión muestra la falta de acuerdo existente entre los diferentes autores respecto al objeto y el modo de evalución, así como a la terminología utilizada.