Furnishing hypnotic instructions with implementation intentions enhances hypnotic responsiveness

Forming implementation intentions has been consistently shown to be a powerful self-regulatory strategy. As the self-regulation of thoughts is important for the experience of involuntariness in the hypnotic context, investigating the effectiveness of implementation intentions on the suppression of thoughts was the focus of the present study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (hypnotic instruction plus implementation intention, hypnotic instruction, implementation intention, and control condition). Results showed that participants who received information included in the "Carleton Skill Training Program" and in addition formed implementation intentions improved their hypnotic responsiveness as compared to all of the other three groups on measures of objective responding and involuntary responding. Thus, in line with the nonstate or cognitive social-psychological view of hypnosis stating that an individual's hypnotic suggestibility is not dispositional but modifiable, our results suggest that hypnotic responsiveness can be heightened by furnishing hypnotic instructions with ad hoc implementation intentions.     

Can infants’ orientation to social stimuli predict later joint attention skills?

From the moment infants are born, they seem to prefer orienting to social stimuli, over objects and non‐social stimuli. This preference lasts throughout adulthood and is believed to play a crucial role in social‐communicative development. By following up a group of infants at the age of 6, 8, and 12 months, this study explored the role of social orienting in the early development of joint attention skills. The expected association between social orienting and joint attention was partially confirmed. Social orienting in real‐life photographs of everyday situations was not related to later joint attention skills, however fixation to the eyes in a neutral face was related to response to joint attention skills, and fixation to the eyes in a dynamic video clip of a talking person was predictive of initiating joint attention skills. Several alternative interpretations of the results are discussed.     

How do included and excluded students with SEBD function socially and academically after 1,5 year of special education services?

ABSTRACT

The present study tested three conflicting hypotheses as to how students with social/emotional/behavioural difficulties (SEBD), who showed similar social-emotional, behavioural and academic functioning prior to placement, function socially and academically after they have received additional support either in inclusive regular education or in exclusive special education. Thirty-six included and 15 excluded students with SEBD participated. We collected data from students and teachers with classroom surveys, individual testing sessions with students with SEBD, and from application files. Using Bayesian statistics, our results suggest that excluded students are better socially embedded in exclusive special education and that they perform better academically than comparable included students with SEBD. Special education services in exclusive settings may thus afford certain benefits to some students with SEBD, not typically found in regular education, which can be considered a first indication that there may be valid counterarguments against the ‘inclusion for all’ perspective on educational needs.