Spatial navigation deficits in amnestic mild cognitive impairment with neuropsychiatric comorbidity

Aims: To find out whether neuropsychiatric comorbidity (comMCI) influences spatial navigation performance in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI).

Methods: We recruited aMCI patients with (n = 21) and without (n = 21) neuropsychiatric comorbidity or alcohol abuse, matched for global cognitive impairment and cognitively healthy elderly participants (HE, n = 22). They completed the Mini-Mental State Examination and a virtual Hidden Goal Task in egocentric, allocentric, and delayed recall subtests.

Results: In allocentric navigation, aMCI and comMCI performed significantly worse than HE and similarly to each other. Although aMCI performed significantly worse at egocentric navigation than HE, they performed significantly better than patients with comMCI.

Conclusions: Despite the growing burden of dementia and the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the elderly population, comMCI remains under-studied. Since trials often assess “pure” aMCI, we may underestimate patients’ navigation and other deficits. This finding emphasizes the importance of taking account of the cognitive effects of psychiatric disorders in aMCI.     

Professionals’ Reflections About the Impact of Digital Technologies on Eating Disorders

The aim of this study was to explore how professionals working with clients who suffer from eating disorders reflect the impact of digital technologies on their clients. Interviews with 30 professionals were conducted. A qualitative analysis revealed the following areas: (a) the attributes of technologies that influence people with eating disorders, (b) the characteristics of people with eating disorders that influence their interaction with digital technologies, (c) the risks of technology usage, and (d) the benefits of technology usage. The results are discussed with respect to the Rodgers’s theoretical model explaining technology–eating disorder relations and the implications for practice.     

Statistical properties of four effect-size measures for mediation models

This project examined the performance of classical and Bayesian estimators of four effect size measures for the indirect effect in a single-mediator model and a two-mediator model. Compared to the proportion and ratio mediation effect sizes, standardized mediation effect-size measures were relatively unbiased and efficient in the single-mediator model and the two-mediator model. Percentile and bias-corrected bootstrap interval estimates of ab/s _Y , and ab(s _X )/s _Y in the single-mediator model outperformed interval estimates of the proportion and ratio effect sizes in terms of power, Type I error rate, coverage, imbalance, and interval width. For the two-mediator model, standardized effect-size measures were superior to the proportion and ratio effect-size measures. Furthermore, it was found that Bayesian point and interval summaries of posterior distributions of standardized effect-size measures reduced excessive relative bias for certain parameter combinations. The standardized effect-size measures are the best effect-size measures for quantifying mediated effects.     

From Teachers’ Work Engagement to Pupils’ Positive Affect: a Weekly Diary Study on the Role of Pupils’ Autonomous Motivation

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there is a crossover effect from teacher’s general (trait-level) work engagement to...     

The Voice and Speech Quality Correlates of Psychological Observations in Jungian Active Imagination Experiment

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Jungian active imagination is a well known and valuable method in analytical psychology and psychotherapy. The present study assessed, for the first time,...     

Individual differences in logical intuitions on reasoning problems presented under two-response paradigm

ABSTRACT

Studies on individual differences in susceptibility to cognitive biases have identified several cognitive dispositions which were thought to predict reasoning by contributing to the efficiency of analytic thought. However, hybrid models suggest that differences between reasoners may arise already in the intuitive stages of the reasoning process. To address this possibility, we examined standard individual difference measures, mindware instantiation, and conflict detection efficiency as predictors of the accuracy on conflict problems presented under a two-response paradigm. We found that almost half of conflict reasoning problems were solved correctly already at the initial response stage and that the individual differences in initial reasoning performance were predicted by participants’ cognitive reflection, mindware instantiation, and detection efficiency. The findings advance the specification of hybrid dual-process models and provide corroborating evidence that a part of the link between bias susceptibility and cognitive dispositions is due to differences in intuitive processing.     

People with physical disability in Serbia: Relationship between internalized stigma,experienced and anticipated discrimination,and empowerment

The aim of present study was to explore relationships between experienced and anticipated discrimination, internalized stigma, and empowerment among people with physical disabilities in Serbia. The convenience sample consisted of persons with different types of physical disabilities. The following scales were administrated: The Discrimination and Stigma Scale, the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, and the Boston University Empowerment Scale. An analysis showed that internalized stigma was correlated with experienced and anticipated discrimination and empowerment, while no correlation was found between empowerment and discrimination. People with physical disabilities who experienced and anticipated discrimination are at higher risk of reporting internalized stigma.     

Logical Foundations and Kant's Principles of Formal Logic

The abstract status of Kant's account of his ‘general logic’ is explained in comparison with Gödel's general definition of a formal logical system and reflections on ‘abstract’ (‘absolute’) concepts. Thereafter, an informal reconstruction of Kant's general logic is given from the aspect of the principles of contradiction, of sufficient reason, and of excluded middle. It is shown that Kant's composition of logic consists in a gradual strengthening of logical principles, starting from a weak principle of contradiction that tolerates a sort of contradictions in predication, and then proceeding to the (constructive) principle of sufficient reason, and to a classical-like logic, which includes the principle of excluded middle. A first-order formalisation is applied to this reconstruction, which reveals implicit modalities in Kant's account of logic, and confirms the implementability of Kant's logic into a sound and complete formal system.