Working memory deficit in children with mathematical difficulties: a general or specific deficit?

This study examined whether children with mathematical difficulties (MDs) or comorbid mathematical and reading difficulties have a working memory deficit and whether the hypothesized working memory deficit includes the whole working memory system or only specific components. In the study, 31 10-year-olds with MDs and 37 10-year-olds with both mathematical and reading difficulties were compared with 47 age-matched and 50 younger controls (9-year-olds) on a number of working memory tasks. Compared with the age-matched controls, both groups of children with MDs performed worse on tasks tapping the central executive (e.g., visual matrix span) and the phonological loop (e.g., word span). More important, the MD group performed worse than the younger controls on the counting span task, whereas the group with comorbid mathematical and reading difficulties performed worse on the counting span task and the visual matrix span task. These findings provide support for the assumption that children with MDs have a working memory deficit. More specifically, children with MDs have a central executive deficit connected to concurrent processing and storage of numerical and visual information.     

Personality: a vulnerability factor in rhinitis?

Personality traits were assessed in 63 patients with persistent allergic or non-allergic rhinitis with the Karolinska Scales of Personality, developed with the aim of measuring psychobiological vulnerability factors, and were compared with a reference group comprising a random sample of 400 sex- and age-stratified subjects. The patients' personality profile differed slightly - within one standard deviation - but significantly from the reference group on a number of factors together suggestive of a disinhibitory disposition, an inclination to express anxiety through somatic rather than psychological channels, difficulties in maintaining emotional distance to others, and a limited awareness of aggressive affect, a pattern that suggests that they expose themselves to more stimulation than they can process in terms of thought and feelings, generating sustained physiological arousal that may contribute to the development of their intolerance reactions.     

Perspective-dependence and Critical Thinking

Recent theories of critical thinking have stressed the importance of taking into consideration in critical enquiry the perspectives, or presuppositions, of both the speaker whose statements are under scrutiny and the critic himself. The purpose of the paper is to explore this idea from an epistemological (rather than a pedagogical or psychological) point of view. The problem is first placed within the general context of critical thinking theory. Three types of perspective-dependence are then described, and the consequences of each for the possibility of critical discussion discussed. It is concluded that although it is essential in critical discussion to take the other’s perspective into consideration, perspective-dependence does not exclude the possibility of criticism.     

Clients’ in-session acceptance and cognitive defusion behaviors in acceptance-based treatment of tinnitus distress

Cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) is considered to be an effective treatment of distress associated with tinnitus (perception of internal noises without any outer auditory stimulation), but the processes by which the therapy works remain unclear. Mindfulness and acceptance is receiving increased attention in the treatment literature for chronic medical conditions. However, few studies have examined these and related processes with behavioral or observer measures. In the present study 57 videotapes (a total of 1710 min) from 19 clients who participated in a controlled trial of an acceptance-based treatment for tinnitus distress, were coded for frequency and peak level of verbal behaviors expressing either acceptance or cognitive defusion. Frequency of cognitive defusion behaviors and peak level of cognitive defusion as well as peak level of acceptance rated in Session 2, predicted symptom reduction 6 month following treatment. These relationships were not accounted for by the improvement that had occurred prior to the measurement point of the process variables. Moreover, prior symptom changes could not predict process variables rated later in therapy (after most of the improvement in therapy had occurred). Thus, clients’ in-session acceptance and cognitive defusion behaviors appear to play an important role in the reduction of negative impact of tinnitus.     

Using the Internet to provide cognitive behaviour therapy

A new treatment form has emerged that merges cognitive behaviour therapy with the Internet. By delivering treatment components, mainly in the form of texts presented via web pages, and provide ongoing support using e-mail promising outcomes can be achieved. The literature on this novel form of treatment has grown rapidly over recent years with several controlled trials in the field of anxiety disorders, mood disorders and behavioural medicine. For some of the conditions for which Internet-delivered CBT has been tested, independent replications have shown large effect sizes, for example in the treatment of social anxiety disorder. In some studies, Internet-delivered treatment can achieve similar outcomes as in face-to-face CBT, but the literature thus far is restricted mainly to efficacy trials. This article provides a brief summary of the evidence, comments on the role of the therapist and for which patient and therapist this is suitable. Areas of future research and exploration are identified.     

P1198: Software for tracing decision behavior in lending to small businesses

This paper describes a process-tracing software program specially designed to capture decision behavior in lending to small businesses. The source code was written in Lotus Notes. The software runs in a Web browser and consists of two interacting systems: a database and a user interface. The database includes three realistic loan applications. The user interface consists of different but interacting screens that enable the participant to operate the software. Log files registerthe decision behavior of the participant. An empirical example is presented in order to show the software’s potential in providing insights into judgment and decision making. The implications of the software are discussed.     

Immediate effects of cigarette smoking as related to different smoking habits.

A questionnaire concerning interactions between the need to smoke and the external situation was used to select 8 "low-arousal smokers" and 8 "high-arousal amokers." The former were smokers who generally experienced their strongest need to smoke in low-arousal situations, characterized by e.g., monotony or boredom, while the latter experienced their strongest need to smoke in high-arousal situations, characterized by, e.g., anxiety or excitement. Members of each group were examined under smoking and nonsmoking conditions in a low-arousal situation, i.e., performing a vigilance-type sensorimotor task, and in a high-arousal situation, i.e., performing a complex sensorimotor task. It was shown that the two groups reacted differently to smoking in the two situations. In low-arousal smokers performance and general well-being were favourably affected by smoking in the low-arousal situation only. Conversely, performance and well-bing of the high-arousal smokers were enhanced by smoking in the high-arousal situation only.     

APPROACH AND WITHDRAWAL IN YOUNG OF TILAPIA MOSSAMBICA (CICHLIDAE, PISCES) AS A FUNCTION OF AGE AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCE

G oude G., E dlund B., E ngqvist -E dlund U. & A nderson M. Approach and withdrawal in young of Tilapia mossambica (Cichlidae, Pisces) as a function of age and Social experience. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1972, 13 , 89–97.—In an experiment with eight groups of young of Tilapia mossambica , approach and withdrawal behavior was registered during brief (5 min) periods of stimulation with a moving dummy; the experiment lasted twelwe days (towards the end and immediately after the sensitive period). Four of the groups comprised young which had been isolated from each other until the first stimulation period; in the other four groups the young had been kept together in the experimental tanks. The age of the young when first stimulated was varied experimentally. Changes in approach and withdrawal behavior over time were studied along with e.g. changes in group strength. Age at first stimulation was found to be of some consequence but no clear differences were obtained between groups with different environmental experiences.