The Dynamics of a Genetic Counseling Peer Supervision Group

Supervision is a practice that is utilized by a variety of practitioners to hone their counseling skills. Genetic counselors have embraced the supervision process, and some seek out supervision in a group setting with peers. Researchers have described the structure and content of genetic counseling peer supervision groups, and provided evidence for the benefits of seeking peer supervision. This study aimed to describe the interpersonal aspects of one genetic counseling peer supervision group, including personality traits and group dynamics, and how those factors influenced our experiences within the group. We also describe how the process of evaluating these factors impacted us individually and collectively. There was consensus that the group was a safe and trusting one, which was united by similar goals and mutual respect. Members reported gaining insights about how their own personality functioned within the group milieu, and also how the group setting impacted them. Based on our experiences, we recommend that other peer supervision groups consider similar self-evaluations on a periodic basis, both to enhance group functioning and to allow for increased self-awareness and professional growth.     

The role of early visual input in the development of contour interpolation: the case of subjective contours

We tested the effect of early monocular and binocular deprivation of normal visual input on the development of contour interpolation. Patients deprived from birth by dense central cataracts in one or both eyes, and age‐matched controls, discriminated between fat and thin shapes formed by either illusory or luminance‐defined contours. Thresholds indicated the minimum amount of curvature (the fatness or thinness) required for discrimination of the illusory shape, providing a measure of the precision of interpolation. The results show that individuals deprived of visual input in one eye, but not those deprived in both eyes, later show deficits in perceptual interpolation. The deficits were shown mostly for weakly supported contours in which interpolation of contours between the inducers was over a large distance relative to the size of the inducers. Deficits shown for the unilateral but not for the bilateral patients point to the detrimental effect of unequal competition between the eyes for cortical connections on the later development of the mechanisms underlying contour interpolation.     

The effects of reinforcer magnitude in the preceding and upcoming ratios on between‐ratio pausing in multiple,mixed, and single fixed‐ratio schedules

Hens responded under multiple fixed‐ratio schedules with equal response requirements and either a 1‐s or a 6‐s reinforcer. Upcoming reinforcer size was indicated by key color. Components were presented in a quasirandom series so that all four component transitions occurred. Postreinforcement pauses were affected by the upcoming and preceding reinforcer size, with longer pauses after large reinforcers followed by small reinforcers than when followed by large ones, and longer pauses after small reinforcers that were followed by small reinforcers rather than large ones. Pauses increased with fixed‐ratio size and the effects of reinforcer size were larger the larger the ratio. When reinforcer size was not signaled—mixed fixed‐ratio schedules—pauses were shorter after small than after large reinforcers. Signalling the upcoming reinforcer attenuated the effect of the previous reinforcer size on pause duration when small was followed by small and when either small or large by large, but enhanced the effect when large was followed by small. There was no effect of reinforcer size on pause duration when single fixed‐ratio schedules were arranged. The effects of reinforcer size on pauses depends on the size and range of the fixed ratios as well as the exact procedures used in the study.     

Central–peripheral differences in audiovisual and visuotactile event perception

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - We examined audiovisual and visuotactile integration in the central and peripheral visual field using visual fission and fusion illusions induced by...     

Chinese Landscape Painting and the Study of Being: An Imagined Encounter Between Martin Heidegger and Xia Gui

In this paper, we pose a speculative encounter between Heidegger and the Chinese Song Dynasty landscape painter Xia Gui. Our intention is to reassess Heidegger’s theory of the fourfold. By placing the concept in a cross-cultural context, we argue that Heidegger was essentially correct in that the world is structured as a fold between interrelated elements. At the same time, we challenge the quantity and quality of the folded elements. If one turns to the work of Xia Gui in conjunction with relevant Daoist texts, what one finds is a threefold structure to the world, composed of earth, sky, and mortals without Heidegger’s emphasis on divinities. In conclusion, we suggest that studying the folding structure of the world ought to be done through cultural comparisons of philosophical and aesthetic traditions in order to understand the potentiality for worldhood as an xfold.     

A Global Dialogue on Learning and Studying

Studies in Philosophy and Education -