The Interaction of Motivation and Therapist Adherence Predicts Outcome in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Panic Disorder: Preliminary Findings

This report is a post-hoc, exploratory examination of the relationships among patient motivation, therapist protocol adherence, and panic disorder outcome in patients treated with cognitive behavioral therapy within the context of a randomized clinical trial for the treatment of panic disorder (Barlow, Gorman, Shear, & Woods, 2000). Results suggested that motivation and adherence interacted to predict change in panic severity. Among patients rated as less motivated, greater therapist protocol adherence was associated with poorer outcome. Among patients rated as more motivated, adherence was not significantly associated with outcome. Further process research is needed to confirm these preliminary results and to understand the interactions of patient and therapist factors and how they are related to outcome in standardized protocols such as cognitive behavioral therapy for panic disorder.     

Social Identity and Spatial Behaviour: The Relationship between National Category Salience, the Sense of Home, and Labour Mobility across National Boundaries

This study explores the impact of manipulating the salience of national categories upon the willingness of highly identifying Scots to take up either short-term or long-term jobs in Scotland as compared to England. The results support the hypotheses (a) that high-identifying Scots increase preference for intra- over extranational locations when national categories are salient, (b) that this effect is fully mediated by "fitting in"—that is, the sense of being "at home" in Scottish as compared to English locations, and (c) that these relationships only hold for long-term as opposed to short-term jobs. We discuss these results in terms of the impact of identity definitions upon spatialised action and the economic/political importance of this relationship.     

Enlarging the Societal Pie Through Wise Legislation

ABSTRACT— We offer a psychological perspective to explain the failure of governments to create near-Pareto improvements. Our tools for analyzing these failures reflect the difficulties people have trading small losses for large gains: the fixed-pie approach to negotiations, the omission bias and status quo bias, parochialism and dysfunctional competition, and the neglect of secondary effects. We examine the role of human judgment in the failure to find wise trade-offs by discussing diverse applications of citizen and government decision making, including AIDS treatment, organ-donation systems, endangered-species protection, subsidies, and free trade. Our overall goal is to offer a psychological approach for understanding suboptimality in government decision making.     

Effects of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexics

The present study investigated the impact of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexic children. In two experiments, eye movements were recorded while dyslexic children, reading-age, and chronological-age controls, performed an oculomotor lateralized bisection task on words and strings of hashes presented either with default inter-character spacing or with extra spacing between the characters. The results of Experiment 1 showed that (1) only proficient readers had already developed highly automatized procedures for programming both left- and rightward saccades, depending on the discreteness of the stimuli and (2) children of all groups were disrupted (i.e., had trouble to land close to the beginning of the stimuli) by extra spacing between the characters of the stimuli, and particularly for stimuli presented in the left visual field. Experiment 2 was designed to disentangle the role of inter-character spacing and spatial width. Stimuli were made the same physical length in the default and extra-spacing conditions by having more characters in the default spacing condition. Our results showed that inter-letter spacing still influenced saccade programming when controlling for spatial width, thus confirming the detrimental effect of extra spacing for saccade programming. We conclude that the beneficial effect of increased inter-letter spacing on reading can be better explained in terms of decreased visual crowding than improved saccade targeting.     

Development and evaluation of the evidence‐based practice classroom observation measure (EBP‐COM)

Due to the increased emphasis on evidence‐based practices (EBPs) in recent education initiatives, classroom observers need an objective way to measure teacher use of EBPs. Although some measures for this purpose exist, these measures are limited by their reliance on self‐report. Therefore, we created a direct observation tool titled the Evidence‐Based Practice Classroom Observation Measure (EBP‐COM) for observers to assess the use of EBPs by teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We evaluated reliability and validity of the EBP‐COM, as well as whether the assessment tool could detect change in teacher behavior. A measurement refinement process involving six raters collecting 65 data points revealed the EPB‐COM to have sound psychometric properties. With this tool, researchers can conduct comprehensive and objective assessments of teacher EBP use.     

The motor system’s [modest] contribution to speech perception

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Recent evidence suggests that the motor system may have a facilitatory role in speech perception during noisy listening conditions. Studies clearly show an...     

Value Predicate Analysis: A Language‐Based Tool for Diagnosing Behavioral Tendencies of Religious or Value‐Based Groups in Regions of Conflict

This article introduces a language‐based tool for addressing the role of religion in violent conflicts. Value predicate analysis (VPA) is an easily transportable, relatively uncomplicated early warning tool for measuring the probable near‐future behavior of modest‐sized religious groups in settings of potential conflict. We show that it is possible to identify a range of nine types of probable group behavior toward other groups. This approach significantly refines current binary assessments of violent/not‐violent group conduct. The authors (1) provide a warrant for diagnosing religion‐group behavior through performative analysis; (2) present a theoretical overview of VPA; (3) summarize their research, data analysis, and field collection methods; (4) present field test results; and (5) conclude with recommendations for further research.     

The Effect of Paired Muscle Stimulation on Preparation for Movement

Paired muscle stimulation is used clinically to facilitate the performance of motor tasks for individuals with motor dysfunction. However, the optimal temporal relationship between stimuli for enhancing movement remains unknown. We hypothesized that synchronous, muscle stimulation would increase the extent to which stimulated muscles are concurrently prepared for movement. We validated a measure of muscle-specific changes in corticomotor excitability prior to movement. We used this measure to examine the preparation of the first dorsal interosseous (FDI), abductor digiti minimi (ADM), abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscles prior to voluntary muscle contractions before and after paired muscle stimulation at four interstimulus intervals (0, 5, 10, and 75 ms). Paired muscle stimulation increased premovement excitability in the stimulated FDI, but not in the ADM muscle. Interstimulus interval was not a significant factor in determining efficacy of the protocol. Paired stimulation, therefore, did not result in a functional association being formed between the stimulated muscles. Somatosensory potentials evoked by the muscle stimuli were small compared to those commonly elicited by stimulation of peripheral nerves, suggesting that the lack of functional association formation between muscles may be due to the small magnitude of afferent volleys from the stimulated muscles, particularly the ADM, reaching the cortex.