Spiritual resources as antecedents of clergy well-being: The importance of occupationally specific variables

This study tests the job demands–resources model's proposal that the prediction of well-being at work is improved by identifying the most salient cohort-specific resources. Spiritual resources, conceptualized as a subcategory of personal resources, are identified as a salient resource for clergy, and their longitudinal influence on the occupational well-being of clergy (n = 399) is examined in three waves of data collection over an 18-month period. Results supported the antecedent role of spiritual resources in relation to well-being at work. Spiritual resources positively predicted future work engagement, which in turn predicted reduced turnover intention. The negative indirect effect of spiritual resources on turnover intention was fully mediated by work engagement. The findings support the need to identify relevant resources for specific work cohorts. For clergy, spiritual resources are important for motivation and vocational longevity, suggesting the need for spiritual interventions among this at-risk and under-researched population.     

Perceptual Fluency and Judgments of Vocal Aesthetics and Stereotypicality

Research has shown that processing dynamics on the perceiver's end determine aesthetic pleasure. Specifically, typical objects, which are processed more fluently, are perceived as more attractive. We extend this notion of perceptual fluency to judgments of vocal aesthetics. Vocal attractiveness has traditionally been examined with respect to sexual dimorphism and the apparent size of a talker, as reconstructed from the acoustic signal, despite evidence that gender‐specific speech patterns are learned social behaviors. In this study, we report on a series of three experiments using 60 voices (30 females) to compare the relationship between judgments of vocal attractiveness, stereotypicality, and gender categorization fluency. Our results indicate that attractiveness and stereotypicality are highly correlated for female and male voices. Stereotypicality and categorization fluency were also correlated for male voices, but not female voices. Crucially, stereotypicality and categorization fluency interacted to predict attractiveness, suggesting the role of perceptual fluency is present, but nuanced, in judgments of human voices.     

Binocular vision enhances a rapidly evolving affordance priming effect: Behavioural and TMS evidence

Extensive research has suggested that simply viewing an object can automatically prime compatible actions for object manipulation, known as affordances. Here we explored the generation of covert motor plans afforded by real objects with precision (‘pinchable’) or whole-hand/power (‘graspable’) grip significance under different types of vision. In Experiment 1, participants viewed real object primes either monocularly or binocularly and responded to orthogonal auditory stimuli by making precision or power grips. Pinchable primes facilitated congruent precision grip responses relative to incongruent power grips, and vice versa for graspable primes, but only in the binocular vision condition. To examine the temporal evolution of the binocular affordance effect, participants in Experiment 2 always viewed the objects binocularly but made no responses, instead receiving a transcranial magnetic stimulation pulse over their primary motor cortex at three different times (150, 300, 450 ms) after prime onset. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) recorded from a pinching muscle were selectively increased when subjects were primed with a pinchable object, whereas MEPs from a muscle associated with power grips were increased when viewing graspable stimuli. This interaction was obtained both 300 and 450 ms (but not 150 ms) after the visual onset of the prime, characterising for the first time the rapid development of binocular grip-specific affordances predicted by functional accounts of the affordance effect.     

Predicting Immigrants' Attitudes Toward Multiculturalism Using a Measure of Its Perceived Benefits

We examined the predictors of attitudes toward multiculturalism in a sample of Asian and African immigrants. Multiculturalism was measured in terms of its perceived benefits as realized through Canadian government policy. As well as replicating past findings, two hypotheses derived from social identity theory are supported: Canadian identity and acculturation into Canadian society were significant predictors of attitudes toward multiculturalism. Counter to previous research findings, perceived discrimination was a negative predictor of these attitudes. The distinction between predicting support for attitudes toward multiculturalism measured as an ideology versus attitudes toward multiculturalism measured in terms of its perceived benefits is discussed.     

Reprint of: technology and the evolution of clinical methods for stuttering

The World Wide Web (WWW) was 20 years old last year. Enormous amounts of information about stuttering are now available to anyone who can access the Internet. Compared to 20 years ago, people who stutter and their families can now make more informed choices about speech-language interventions, from a distance. Blogs and chat rooms provide opportunities for people who stutter to share their experiences from a distance and to support one another. New technologies are also being adopted into speech-language pathology practice and service delivery. Telehealth is an exciting development as it means that treatment can now be made available to many rural and remotely located people who previously did not have access to it. Possible future technological developments for speech-language pathology practice include Internet based treatments and the use of Virtual Reality. Having speech and CBT treatments for stuttering available on the Internet would greatly increase their accessibility. Second Life also has exciting possibilities for people who stutter.Educational objectives: The reader will (1) explain how people who stutter and their families can get information about stuttering from the World Wide Web, (2) discuss how new technologies have been applied in speech-language pathology practice, and (3) summarize the principles and practice of telehealth delivery of services for people who stutter and their families.     

Development and Evaluation of a Decision Aid for BRCA Carriers with Breast Cancer

BRCA+ breast cancer patients face high risk for a second breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Helping these women decide among risk-reducing options requires effectively conveying complex, emotionally-laden, information. To support their decision-making needs, we developed a web-based decision aid (DA) as an adjunct to genetic counseling. Phase 1 used focus groups to determine decision-making needs. These findings and the Ottawa Decision Support Framework guided the DA development. Phase 2 involved nine focus groups of four stakeholder types (BRCA+ breast cancer patients, breast cancer advocates, and genetics and oncology professionals) to evaluate the DA's decision-making utility, information content, visual display, and implementation. Overall, feedback was very favorable about the DA, especially a values and preferences ranking-exercise and an output page displaying personalized responses. Stakeholders were divided as to whether the DA should be offered at-home versus only in a clinical setting. This well-received DA will be further tested to determine accessibility and effectiveness.     

Beta-adrenergic receptor activation rescues theta frequency stimulation-induced LTP deficits in mice expressing C-terminally truncated NMDA receptor GluN2A subunits

Through protein interactions mediated by their cytoplasmic C termini the GluN2A and GluN2B subunits of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) have a key role in the formation of NMDAR signaling complexes at excitatory synapses. Although these signaling complexes are thought to have a crucial role in NMDAR-dependent forms of synaptic plasticity such as long-term potentiation (LTP), the role of the C terminus of GluN2A in coupling NMDARs to LTP enhancing and/or suppressing signaling pathways is unclear. To address this issue we examined the induction of LTP in the hippocampal CA1 region in mice lacking the C terminus of endogenous GluN2A subunits (GluN2AΔC/ΔC). Our results show that truncation of GluN2A subunits produces robust, but highly frequency-dependent, deficits in LTP and a reduction in basal levels of extracellular signal regulated kinase 2 (ERK2) activation and phosphorylation of AMPA receptor GluA1 subunits at a protein kinase A site (serine 845). Consistent with the notion that these signaling deficits contribute to the deficits in LTP in GluN2AΔC/ΔC mice, activating ERK2 and increasing GluA1 S845 phosphorylation through activation of β-adrenergic receptors rescued the induction of LTP in these mutants. Together, our results indicate that the capacity of excitatory synapses to undergo plasticity in response to different patterns of activity is dependent on the coupling of specific signaling pathways to the intracellular domains of the NMDARs and that abnormal plasticity resulting from mutations in NMDARs can be reduced by activation of key neuromodulatory transmitter receptors that engage converging signaling pathways.