Relationships between dual-task related changes in stride velocity and stride time variability in healthy older adults

Dual-task related gait changes have been previously reported for healthy older adults, suggesting that gait control requires attention. Compared to balance control, the involvement of attention in the control of the rhythmic stepping mechanism, as reflected by stride time variability, is not well known. In particular, under dual-task, the relative contributions of a second, attention-demanding task and changes in walking speed remain unclear. Thus, the aims of this study were (1) to assess whether walking with a slow-selected speed or walking while performing an attention-demanding task affected stride time variability in a sample of healthy older participants, and (2) to establish whether stride time variability under dual-task conditions is related either to the decrease of walking speed or the simultaneous attention-demanding task, or to both. Forty-five healthy older participants performed four experimental conditions: (1) walking at a normal self-selected speed, (2) walking at a slow self-selected speed, (3) performing a verbal fluency task when sitting on a chair, and (4) performing the verbal fluency task while walking at self-selected walking speed. Gait parameters were recorded across 15 meters, using Physilog. Results showed a significant dual-task related decrease in mean values of stride velocity, as well as a significant increase in mean values and coefficients of variation of stride time. These dual-task related changes in stride time were explained by the simultaneous performance of the verbal fluency task, the decrease of gait speed and the variability between participants. Although a relationship exists between decreased walking speed and increased stride time variability, the dual-task related increase of stride time variability was also significantly associated with the attention-demanding task, suggesting some attentional control for the rhythmic stepping mechanism of walking in healthy older adults.     

The transferential chimera: a clinical approach

The author presents four quite different clinical situations which he believes show the development of an aspect of the transference as a genuinely autonomous psychical neo-reality of the transferential inter-space, which, in the words of Michel de M'Uzan, he calls the transferential chimera. Basing himself on a reading of 'The psychology of the transference', he goes on to propose a more general application of this particular transferential dynamic whose origin lies in matriarchal incest and which develops around the alchemical quaternio of the cross-projective space of the transference-counter transference and in the analytic setting. Finally, he examines the four clinical situations in the light of this application of the transference in order to propound an understanding of his reading, and proposes a hypothesis for the constitution of the transferential chimera out of the intermingling of the de-integrated parts of the self of the analyst and those of the analysand.     

The social-cognitive model of achievement motivation and the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework

Two studies examined hypotheses drawn from a proposed modification of the social-cognitive model of achievement motivation that centered on the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Implicit theories of ability were shown to be direct predictors of performance attainment and intrinsic motivation, and the goals of the 2 x 2 framework were shown to account for these direct relations. Perceived competence was shown to be a direct predictor of achievement goals, not a moderator of relations implicit theory or achievement goal effects. The results highlight the utility of attending to the approach-avoidance distinction in conceptual models of achievement motivation and are fully in line with the hierarchical model of achievement motivation.     

Attentional and perceptual sources of the auditory attentional blink

When a rapid succession of auditory stimuli is listened to, processing of the second of two successive targets among fillers is often impaired, a phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB). Three experiments were conducted to examine the role of filler items in modulating the size of the auditory AB, using a two-alternative forced choice discrimination paradigm. In the first experiment, dual-stream presentations in which low- and high-pitch items were separated by six semitones were tested. A transient deficit in reporting the probe was observed in the presence of fillers that was greater when fillers were in the same stream as the probe. In the absence of a filler, there was a residual deficit, but this was not related to the time lag between the target and the probe. In the second and third experiments, in which single-stream presentations were used, a typical AB was found in the presence of homogeneous fillers, but heterogeneous fillers tended to produce a greater deficit. In the absence of a filler, there was little or no evidence of a blink. The pattern of results suggests that other attentional and perceptual factors contribute to the blink.     

Social Support Mobilization and Deterioration after Mexico’s 1999 Flood: Effects of Context, Gender, and Time

Samples of adults representative of Teziutlán, Puebla, and Villahermosa, Tobasco, were interviewed 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after the devastating 1999 flood and mudslides. The interview contained multiple measures of social support that had been normed for Mexico. Comparisons between sample data and population norms suggested minimal mobilization of received support and substantial deterioration of perceived support and social embeddedness. Social support was lowest in Teziutlán, which had experienced mass casualties and displacement, and among women and persons of lower educational attainment. Disparities according to gender, context, and education grew larger as time passed. The results provide compelling evidence that the international health community must be mindful of social as well as psychological functioning when disasters strike the developing world.     

Auditory attentional capture during serial recall: violations at encoding of an algorithm-based neural model?

A novel attentional capture effect is reported in which visual-verbal serial recall was disrupted if a single deviation in the interstimulus interval occurred within otherwise regularly presented task-irrelevant spoken items. The degree of disruption was the same whether the temporal deviant was embedded in a sequence made up of a repeating item or a sequence of changing items. Moreover, the effect was evident during the presentation of the to-be-remembered sequence but not during rehearsal just prior to recall, suggesting that the encoding of sequences is particularly susceptible. The results suggest that attentional capture is due to a violation of an algorithm rather than an aggregate-based neural model and further undermine an attentional capture-based account of the classical changing-state irrelevant sound effect.     

The effect of deleting schwa (mute e) on spoken word recognition in French]

We studied the processing of two word strings in French made up of a determiner and a noun which contains a schwa (mute e). Depending on the noun, schwa deletion is present ("la tir'lire"), optional ("le ch(e)min") or absent ("la cornemuse"). In a production study, we show that schwa deletion, and the category of the noun, have a large impact on the duration of the strings. We take this into account in two perception studies, which use word repetition and lexical decision, and which show that words in which the schwa has been deleted usually take longer to recognize than words that retain the schwa, but that this depends also on the category of the word. We explain these results by examining the influence of orthography. Based on the model proposed by Grainger and Ferrand (1996), which integrates the written dimension, we suggest that two sources of information, phonological and orthographic, interact during spoken word recognition.     

Picture naming in 3- to 8-year-old French children: Methodological considerations for name agreement

Picture naming has become an important experimental paradigm in cognitive psychology. Young children are more variable than adults in their naming responses and less likely to know the object or its name. A consequence is that the interpretation of the two classical measures used by Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) for scoring name agreement in adults (the percentage of agreement, based on modal name, and theH statistic, based on alternative names) will differ because of the high rate of “don’t know object” responses, common in young children, relative to the low rate of “don’t know object” responses more characteristic of adults. The present study focused on this methodological issue in young French children (3–8 years old), using a set of 145 Snodgrass-Vanderwart pictures. Our results indicate that the percentage of agreement based on the expected name is a better measure of picture-naming performance than are the commonly used measures. The norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.