Are the spatial features of bodily threat limited to the exact location where pain is expected?

Previous research has revealed that anticipating pain at a particular location of the body prioritizes somatosensory input presented there. The present study tested whether the spatial features of bodily threat are limited to the exact location of nociception. Participants judged which one of two tactile stimuli, presented to either hand, had been presented first, while occasionally experiencing a painful stimulus. The distance between the pain and tactile locations was manipulated. In Experiment 1, participants expected pain either proximal to one of the tactile stimuli (on the hand; near condition) or more distant on the same body part (arm; far condition). In Experiment 2, the painful stimulus was expected either proximal to one of the tactile stimuli (hand; near) or on a different body-part at the same body side (leg; far). The results revealed that in the near condition of both experiments, participants became aware of tactile stimuli presented to the “threatened” hand more quickly as compared to the “neutral” hand. Of particular interest, the data in the far conditions showed a similar prioritization effect when pain was expected at a different location of the same body part as well as when pain was expected at a different body part at the same body side. In this study, the encoding of spatial features of bodily threat was not limited to the exact location where pain was anticipated but rather generalized to the entire body part and even to different body parts at the same side of the body.     

Predicting Response to Intensive Multimodal Inpatient Treatment: A Comparison of Single- and Multiple-Class Growth Modeling Approaches

In a modest body of research, personality functioning assessed via performance-based instruments has been found to validly predict treatment outcome and, to some extent, differential response to treatment. However, state-of-the-science longitudinal and mixture modeling techniques, which are common in many areas of clinical psychology, have rarely been used. In this article, we compare multilevel growth curve modeling (MLM) and latent class growth modeling (LCGM) approaches with the same data set to illustrate the different research questions that can be addressed by each method. Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores collected at 6 points during the course of a long-term multimodal inpatient treatment of 58 severely and persistently mentally ill adults were used to model the trajectory of treatment outcome. Pretreatment Rorschach-based markers of personality functioning and other markers of psychiatric severity were examined as covariates in each modeling approach. The results of both modeling approaches generally indicated that more psychologically impaired clients responded less favorably to treatment. The LCGM approach revealed 2 unique trajectories of improvement (a persistently low group and a higher starting, improving group). Personality functioning and baseline psychiatric variables significantly predicted group membership and the rate of change within the groups. A side-by-side examination of these 2 methods was found to be useful in predicting differential treatment response with personality functioning variables.     

How does non-nutritive sucking support infant feeding?

Fifty nine premature infants participated in a randomized controlled study to determine the effectiveness of non-nutritive sucking (NNS). It was predicted that NNS would not accelerate the development of full oral feeding or early language skills as sometimes perceived in practice. However, it was predicted that using NNS as a strategy to support parents to identify and respond to early communication and oral readiness signs would increase confidence in infant management and enable quicker discharge home. Infants were aged 26–35 weeks gestation. Infants with no significant difficulties were randomly assigned to one of three groups; Group 1, NNS pre-tube feeding (n = 19); Group 2, NNS on onset of tube feeding (n = 20) and Group 3, Control (n = 20). Follow-up occurred at 6 months. There were no significant differences with number of days to full oral feeding between the groups receiving NNS and the Control group, χ²(2, n = 59) = 4.33, p = .115. A significant difference in number of days in hospital between the Control group and the other two groups was found χ² (2, n = 59) = 7.678, p = .022. Significant changes were noted with the development of more normal sucking patterns in Groups 1–3. At 6 months there were no significant differences in receptive or expressive language skills between all groups. NNS had no significant impact on the transition to full oral feeding or later language development. There was a significant difference in the number of days in hospital between the Control group and the other two groups which involved parents in identification of early communication signs. Possible reasons for this change and future directions are discussed.     

Influences Between Online‐Exclusive,Conjoint and Offline‐Exclusive Friendship Networks: The Moderating Role of Shyness

Prior research has indicated that shy adolescents are more motivated to form friendships online than to form friendships offline. Little is known about whether having friendships found exclusively online may impact self‐esteem and forming offline friendships for these adolescents. This study therefore aimed to provide insight into the moderating role of shyness in the longitudinal interplay between friendships in online and offline contexts in early adolescence. Adolescents and their friends (193 girls, 196 boys; M_age = 13.29) were followed with three consecutive measurements with intervals of eight months. Results showed that particularly for shy adolescents, having friends exclusively online predicted increases in self‐esteem. Self‐esteem, in turn, was found to predict forming more friendships found both offline and online and forming more friendships found exclusively offline. Thus, findings supported the social compensation perspective that shy adolescents may benefit from having friends exclusively online, as these friendships may increase self‐esteem, thereby facilitating the formation of friendships found partially and completely offline. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impaired holistic and analytic face processing in congenital prosopagnosia: Evidence from the eye-contingent mask/window paradigm

There is abundant evidence that face recognition, in comparison to the recognition of other objects, is based on holistic processing rather than analytic processing. One line of research that provides evidence for this hypothesis is based on the study of people who experience pronounced difficulties in visually identifying conspecifics on the basis of their face. Earlier, we developed a behavioural paradigm to directly test analytic vs. holistic face processing. In comparison to a to be remembered reference face stimulus, one of two test stimuli was either presented in full view, with an eye-contingently moving window (only showing the fixated face feature, and therefore only affording analytic processing), or with an eye-contingently moving mask or scotoma (masking the fixated face feature, but still allowing holistic processing). In the present study we use this paradigm (that we used earlier in acquired prosopagnosia) to study face perception in congenital prosopagnosia (people having difficulties recognizing faces from birth on, without demonstrable brain damage). We observe both holistic and analytic face processing deficits in people with congenital prosopagnosia. Implications for a better understanding, both of congenital prosopagnosia and of normal face perception, are discussed.     

A Systemic Analysis of Cheating in an Undergraduate Engineering Mechanics Course

Cheating in the undergraduate classroom is not a new problem, and it is recognized as one that is endemic to the education system. This paper examines the highly normative behavior of using unauthorized assistance (e.g., a solutions manual or a friend) on an individual assignment within the context of an upper division undergraduate course in engineering mechanics. The findings indicate that there are varying levels of accepting responsibility among the students (from denial to tempered to full) and that acceptance of responsibility can lead to identification of learning and necessary behavioral changes. The findings have implications for institutions and engineering faculty, in particular the need for consistent academic integrity education and the teaching of professional integrity and ethics.     

Explaining Variability: Numerical Representations in 4- to 8-Year-Old Children

The present study aims to examine relations between number representations and various sources of individual differences within early stages of development of number representations. The mental number line has been found to develop from a logarithmic to a more linear representation. Sources under investigation are counting skills and executive functions and are set out against mental number lines from 0 to 10 and 0 to 100 in a sample of 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 80). Findings indicate that counting skills, inhibition, and updating are the most important predictors of the shape of the mental number line over and above age-related developmental differences, with number lines from 0 to 10 being linear to a large extent and number lines from 0 to 100 developing from a random pattern toward logarithmic representations. The shape of the mental number line was found to predict scores on the number comparison task only on the smaller-scale comparison task.     

Capacity estimates in working memory: Reliability and interrelationships among tasks

The concept of capacity has become increasingly important in discussions of working memory (WM), in so far as most models of WM conceptualize it as a limited-capacity mechanism for maintaining information in an active state, and as capacity estimates from at least one type of WM task—complex span—are valid predictors of real-world cognitive performance. However, the term capacity is also often used in the context of a distinct set of WM tasks, change detection, and may or may not refer to the same cognitive capability. We here develop maximum-likelihood models of capacity from each of these tasks—as well as from a third WM task that places heavy demands on cognitive control, the self-ordered WM task (SOT)—and show that the capacity estimates from change detection and complex span tasks are not correlated with each other, although capacity estimates from change detection tasks do correlate with those from the SOT. Furthermore, exploratory factor analysis confirmed that performance on the SOT and change detection load on the same factor, with performance on our complex span task loading on its own factor. These findings suggest that at least two distinct cognitive capabilities underlie the concept of WM capacity as it applies to each of these three tasks.