Macaque monkeys discriminate pitch relationships

This study demonstrates that non-human primates can categorize the direction of the pitch change of tones in a sequence. Two Macaca fascicularis were trained in a positive-reinforcement behavioral paradigm in which they listened to sequences of a variable number of different acoustic items. The training of discriminating pitch direction was divided into three phases with increasing task complexity. In the first two phases, subjects learned to employ a same/different rule. In phase 1, they discriminated acoustic items of different sound quality. Subjects had to respond when there was a change from repeating noise bursts to repeating click trains or vice versa. In phase II, acoustic items differed along one physical dimension only. Subjects had to respond to a change of the frequency of a repeating series of pure tones. In phase III, sequences consisted of three series of repeating tones of different frequency. Subjects were required to respond when the frequency of the tones changed in a downward direction and to refrain from responding when the frequency remained constant or increased. After several ten thousand trials, subjects categorized pitch direction well above chance level. The discrimination was performed over a 4.5-octave range of frequencies and was largely independent of the temporal and ordinal position of the downward pitch direction within the sequence. These results demonstrate that monkeys can recognize pitch relationships and thus that monkeys have the concept of ordinal relations between acoustic items.     

Affect consciousness or mentalization? A comparison of two concepts with regard to affect development and affect regulation

Affect consciousness refers to the ability to adequately perceive, reflect upon and express affect. The concept is used in clinical work with adults, but lacks an equivalent for children's experience of affect. This paper examines the developmental prerequisites for affect consciousness, as well as the concept's applicability to work with children. The main focus is on the development of affect regulation throughout the first 6 years of life. Special emphasis is put on the role of attachment and the unfolding of mentalization ability in this development. The role of play as an organizing factor for affective experience is discussed. Observation of play is highlighted as a strong indicator of affect consciousness in children.     

Intuition beyond recognition: when less familiar events are liked more

In a laboratory experiment, we compare the relative impact of two possible determinants of intuitive evaluative judgments: ease of recognition and total value of prior encounters with a target. Participants encode daily return values of shares on the stock market while watching videotaped ads on the computer screen. This dual-task procedure ensures that participants subsequently lack relevant event memories and thus have to rely on their intuition when evaluating the targets. In the presentation, the share appearing least frequently produced the highest sum of returns. In contrast, the share appearing most frequently produced the lowest sum of returns. Evaluative judgments reveal a preference for the share with the highest sum of returns, although, as evident from recognition latencies, it was the one that was more difficult to recognize. The results provide evidence for the value-account model of implicit attitude formation (Betsch, Plessner, Schwieren, & Gütig, 2001), which predicts that intuitive evaluative judgments reflect the total value of prior encounters.     

Levels and change in autonomous and controlled work motivation in older workers—The role of proximity to retirement and sense of community at work

Previous studies suggest a preretirement disengagement process from work, which includes reduced work motivation. In this study, we investigated changes in autonomous and controlled work motivation over two years among participants of the Health, Aging and Retirement Transition in Sweden (HEARTS) study. We found stability in both types of motivation; however, those who retired after the study period showed more distinct declines in autonomous motivation. A stronger sense of community at work was related to level, but not change in autonomous motivation. Intra-individual fluctuations in the expected retirement age did not predict work motivation or vice versa. Future studies are needed to better understand the antecedents and consequences of preretirement declines in autonomous work motivation.     

How personal standards perfectionism and evaluative concerns perfectionism affect the error positivity and post-error behavior with varying stimulus visibility

Error detection is required in order to correct or avoid imperfect behavior. Although error detection is beneficial for some people, for others it might be disturbing. We investigated Gaudreau and Thompson’s (Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 532?537, 2010) model, which combines personal standards perfectionism (PSP) and evaluative concerns perfectionism (ECP). In our electrophysiological study, 43 participants performed a combination of a modified Simon task, an error awareness paradigm, and a masking task with a variation of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; 33, 67, and 100 ms). Interestingly, relative to low-ECP participants, high-ECP participants showed a better post-error accuracy (despite a worse classification accuracy) in the high-visibility SOA 100 condition than in the two low-visibility conditions (SOA 33 and SOA 67). Regarding the electrophysiological results, first, we found a positive correlation between ECP and the amplitude of the error positivity (Pe) under conditions of low stimulus visibility. Second, under the condition of high stimulus visibility, we observed a higher Pe amplitude for high-ECP–low-PSP participants than for high-ECP–high-PSP participants. These findings are discussed within the framework of the error-processing avoidance hypothesis of perfectionism (Stahl, Acharki, Kresimon, Völler, & Gibbons, International Journal of Psychophysiology, 97, 153–162, 2015).     

Relation of infant motor development with nonverbal intelligence,language comprehension and neuropsychological functioning in childhood: a population‐based study

Within a population‐based study of 3356 children, we investigated whether infant neuromotor development was associated with cognition in early childhood. Neuromotor development was examined with an adapted version of Touwen's Neurodevelopmental Examination between 9 and 20 weeks. Parents rated their children's executive functioning at 4 years. At age 6 years, children performed intelligence and language comprehension tests, using Dutch test batteries. At age 6–9 years, neuropsychological functioning was assessed in 486 children using the validated NEPSY‐II–NL test battery. We showed that less optimal neurodevelopment in infancy may predict poor mental rotation, immediate memory, shifting, and planning; but not nonverbal intelligence or language comprehension.     

Wie können Langzeittherapien mit kürzeren Behandlungen verglichen werden?

Long-term psychotherapy is not recommended in the current guidelines, which are based on the criteria of evidence-based medicine, as there is a lack of confirmation for long-term psychotherapy by efficacy studies. Using the example of psychoanalytic long-term psychotherapy this article describes six dilemmas which impede the realization of efficacy studies for long-term psychotherapy. Finally, basic elements of a study design are proposed, which are considered as being adequate to compare (psychoanalytic) long-term psychotherapy with shorter treatment forms in terms of outcome and cost-effectiveness. The anxiety and personality disorders (APD) study is briefly described as an example of a study realizing the proposed design.     

Disclosing Academic Dishonesty: Perspectives From Nigerian and New Zealand Health Professional Students

Few cross-national studies have been conducted on academic dishonesty. The aim of this study was to explore students’ disclosed levels of academic dishonesty between New Zealand and Nigeria. The measures obtained included incidence, acceptability, and justification of dishonest action. It was hypothesized that there would be differences between the two groups and that differences could be explained in terms of deontology, cultural relativism, utilitarianism, rational fair exchange, and/or response bias. There were 844 medical and health science students who participated in the study and completed a questionnaire that explored incidence, acceptability, and justification of dishonest action. A binary logistic regression revealed that age and incidence were significant predictors of country allocation. Nigerian students reported more engagement in dishonest behaviors, and it is argued that these students have diverse cultural expectations, language variances, response strategies, norms, beliefs, and values. Educational interventions are essential to address concerns related to academic dishonesty such as promoting cross-cultural discourse, providing study skills programs, utilizing peer mentoring, creating formal exchange strategies, and endorsing honor codes.     

Assessing DSM–5 Level of Personality Functioning From Videotaped Clinical Interviews: A Pilot Study With Untrained and Clinically Inexperienced Students

Several authors have raised the concern that the DSM–5 Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) is relatively complex and theory laden, and thus might put high requirements on raters. We addressed this concern by having 22 untrained and clinically inexperienced students assess the personality functioning of 10 female psychotherapy inpatients from videotaped clinical interviews, using a multi-item version of the LPFS. Individual raters’ LPFS total scores showed acceptable interrater reliability, and were significantly associated with 2 distinct expert-rated measures of the severity of personality pathology. These findings suggest that, contrary to the previously mentioned concerns, successfully applying the LPFS to clinical cases might require neither extensive clinical experience nor training.