The impact of seductive details and signaling on analogical transfer

This study tests if the seductive details effect on transfer is mitigated by signaling. Preservice teachers (N = 73) were randomly assigned on the basis of two factors, signaling and seductive details. After learning about principles of effective feedback, participants reflected on a narrative text case illustrating the instructional material that either contained or did not contain signals (highlighting key base text) and/or seductive details (interesting but extraneous details). Whereas no group differences for signaling, or signaling by seductive details interaction were found, a significant main effect for seductive details on transfer was found, Cohen's d = 0.51. These results suggest seductive details embedded in narrative cases negatively impact analogical transfer, and the effect is not mitigated by the inclusion of signaling. This lends support to the diversion hypothesis of seductive details, which suggests that seductive details damage learning by preventing meaningful encoding in appropriate schema.     

Differentiation Between School Attendance Problems: Why and How?

School attendance problems (SAPs) are heterogeneous with respect to etiology and presentation. The long history of conceptualizing SAPs has led to a vast array of terms and definitions as well as different perspectives on the most helpful approach to classification. For educators, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, this presents a challenge in understanding, assessing, and intervening with SAPs. This paper outlines evolution in the conceptualization of SAPs, focusing on two contemporary approaches to differentiating between them. One approach draws on the longstanding differentiation between SAP types labeled school refusal, truancy, and school withdrawal. A fourth type of SAP, labeled school exclusion, is also considered. The other approach focuses on the function of absenteeism, measured via the School Refusal Assessment Scale (SRAS). Anecdotal and scientific support for the SAP typology is presented, along with the benefits and shortcomings of the SRAS approach to differentiation. The paper offers suggestions for how to differentiate between SAPs and introduces the SNACK, a brief screening measure that permits differentiation by SAP type.     

Presenting concerns of emerging adults seeking treatment at an early intervention outpatient mood and anxiety program

This study examined presenting concerns and characteristics of emerging adults (EAs) seeking treatment at an early intervention program for mood and anxiety disorders to better understand presenting concerns when treatment is needed. During an intake assessment conducted by a social worker or clinical psychologist, participants (N = 548; 62% female, 38% male) reported their top three current life concerns, which were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing demographic information, symptomatology, and daily functioning. Females presented with significantly higher levels of anxiety, and both females and younger individuals (age 16–18) presented with significantly higher levels of depression compared to males and older individuals (age 19–26), respectively. The two most commonly reported presenting concerns were problems in interpersonal relationships and academics, and females were more likely to report academic concerns than males. The majority of participants reported seeking help for a wide range of problems commonly faced by EAs (83.7%), and participants rarely expressed concerns about particular symptoms of mood and/or anxiety disorders (16.3%). EAs and those supporting EAs may benefit from learning when psychosocial concerns are indicative of mental health challenges warranting professional attention.     

Thirdhand smoke beliefs and behaviors among healthcare professionals

Thirdhand smoke (THS) refers to tobacco smoke contaminants and by-products that remain in the environment after a cigarette is extinguished. The purpose of this study was to assess beliefs and behaviors regarding THS among healthcare professionals, and to examine associations among smoking attitudes/beliefs, provider demographics, and THS beliefs and behaviors. Healthcare professionals (N = 204) at a comprehensive cancer center and affiliated general hospital in a northeastern urban area completed online questionnaires. About one third of the respondents had heard of THS before completing the survey, and more than two thirds of the sample believed that THS issues do not receive enough attention. Being female, likelihood of discussing THS with others, endorsing the belief that smoking affects the quality of parenting, and support for government action towards smoking bans were significantly associated with providers’ belief that THS is harmful. Endorsing the belief that smoking affects the quality of parenting and belief that THS is harmful were significantly associated with the likelihood of discussing THS with others. Findings shed light on THS beliefs and behaviors of healthcare providers (a group of individuals that could be trained to educate and advise patients about THS) and inform recommendations for new tobacco policies and clinical guidelines for best practices in tobacco control and prevention.     

Spirituality and religion in psychiatry: the impact of policy

ABSTRACT

Research and debate on the importance of spirituality and religion in psychiatry has led to a number of national and international policy initiatives, intended to clarify the boundaries of good practice and improve the way in which such matters are managed for the benefit of patients. Significant amongst these is the 2015 position statement of the World Psychiatric Association, the only such policy statement to date which has been internationally agreed. Preliminary evidence available suggests that this is having good effect in generating professional debate and further national policy initiatives in different countries. There is a need for further research on such policy initiatives to confirm whether or not they have the intended impact upon clinical practice and whether or not this in turn is beneficial for patients.     

A simple intervention for stereotypical engagement with an augmentative alternative communicative device

Although electronic devices may enhance the effectiveness of some behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders, such devices may also give rise to problem behavior such as repetitious button pressing (i.e., object stereotypy). Results of this study showed that a child with autism spectrum disorder only displayed high levels of object stereotypy on an iPad? when presses generated auditory output. Subsequently, results showed that when the participant used the iPad? without auditory output, his stereotypical behavior decreased and his manding for various items simultaneously increased.     

Meta‐analysis of behavioral self‐management techniques used by students with disabilities in inclusive settings

This comprehensive review synthesizes findings from 29 studies in which students with disabilities utilized behavioral self‐management techniques in inclusive settings. Findings suggest that consistent with 2 earlier reviews of these types of studies, most behavioral self‐management techniques continue to be adaptable in inclusive settings with moderate to strong efficacy. This review identifies strengths as well common limitations of the studies, provides recommendations for future research and practice, and includes behavioral self‐management resources.     

AGSuite: Software to conduct feature analysis of artificial grammar learning performance

To simplify the problem of studying how people learn natural language, researchers use the artificial grammar learning (AGL) task. In this task, participants study letter strings constructed according to the rules of an artificial grammar and subsequently attempt to discriminate grammatical from ungrammatical test strings. Although the data from these experiments are usually analyzed by comparing the mean discrimination performance between experimental conditions, this practice discards information about the individual items and participants that could otherwise help uncover the particular features of strings associated with grammaticality judgments. However, feature analysis is tedious to compute, often complicated, and ill-defined in the literature. Moreover, the data violate the assumption of independence underlying standard linear regression models, leading to Type I error inflation. To solve these problems, we present AGSuite, a free Shiny application for researchers studying AGL. The suite’s intuitive Web-based user interface allows researchers to generate strings from a database of published grammars, compute feature measures (e.g., Levenshtein distance) for each letter string, and conduct a feature analysis on the strings using linear mixed effects (LME) analyses. The LME analysis solves the inflation of Type I errors that afflicts more common methods of repeated measures regression analysis. Finally, the software can generate a number of graphical representations of the data to support an accurate interpretation of results. We hope the ease and availability of these tools will encourage researchers to take full advantage of item-level variance in their datasets in the study of AGL. We moreover discuss the broader applicability of the tools for researchers looking to conduct feature analysis in any field.     

Complexity of online gender confirmation resources surpass patient literacy

Background: Increasing transgender health care coverage has resulted in easier access to gender confirmation surgery. Patients considering surgery consistently access medical information online to improve knowledge regarding surgical options, complications, recovery, and life after transitioning. As a result, national health institutes recommend that patient educational materials be written at a sixth-grade–reading level. The purpose of this study is to assess the complexity of online gender confirmation surgery information.

Methods: An Internet search was performed using the key phrase “transgender surgery”. Health care and non–health care websites were evaluated for pertinent articles regarding gender confirmation surgery. Readability analyses were conducted using Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman-Liau Index, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index, and Automated Readability Index. A two-tailed z test was used to compare means; significance was set at p ≤ 0.05.

Results: A total of 108 articles from 87 websites were analyzed. The average readability for all online gender confirmation-surgery information was at an 11th-grade reading level. Materials written by health care entities were written at a 12th-grade–reading level compared to non–health care articles, which were written at a 10th-grade level (p < 0.001). Male-to-female surgery materials were written at a 12th-grade level, significantly higher than the 11th-grade reading level of female-to-male surgery materials (p = 0.04).

Conclusion: Online information regarding gender confirmation surgery is written at a level that is too complex for patients to understand. Informational materials should be written at lower grade levels to improve patient education, informed consent, and outcomes.     

Increased discriminability of authenticity from multimodal laughter is driven by auditory information

We present an investigation of the perception of authenticity in audiovisual laughter, in which we contrast spontaneous and volitional samples and examine the contributions of unimodal affective information to multimodal percepts. In a pilot study, we demonstrate that listeners perceive spontaneous laughs as more authentic than volitional ones, both in unimodal (audio-only, visual-only) and multimodal contexts (audiovisual). In the main experiment, we show that the discriminability of volitional and spontaneous laughter is enhanced for multimodal laughter. Analyses of relationships between affective ratings and the perception of authenticity show that, while both unimodal percepts significantly predict evaluations of audiovisual laughter, it is auditory affective cues that have the greater influence on multimodal percepts. We discuss differences and potential mismatches in emotion signalling through voices and faces, in the context of spontaneous and volitional behaviour, and highlight issues that should be addressed in future studies of dynamic multimodal emotion processing.