A Pilot Study to Assess the Feasibility of a Multicenter Cluster Randomized Trial for the Management of Asymptomatic Persons with a Thrombophilia

There is controversy whether asymptomatic first-degree relatives (FDRs) of patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) and thrombophilia should be screened, followed, and prescribed prophylaxis during risk periods. We recruited consecutive probands with idiopathic VTE and thrombophilia from our thrombosis clinics. Those FDRs with thrombophilia were randomized in family clusters to receive one-time verbal counseling and no organized follow-up or counseling, educational material, reminder aids and follow-up. Only 203 of 1,129 FDRs were eligible and consented. Dropouts were common; 1 FDR (1.7%) developed VTE. VTE risk, ability to treat and prevent were underestimated by the participants. Patients with VTE and thrombophilia and their FDRs are often not interested in thrombophilia testing. Despite education to inform their knowledge, interest and follow-up were less than ideal. The question of the best educational approach in these patients remains unanswered. The value of testing and following asymptomatic carriers of probands with VTE and thrombophilia remains unknown.     

The role of motor simulation in action perception: a neuropsychological case study

Research on embodied cognition stresses that bodily and motor processes constrain how we perceive others. Regarding action perception the most prominent hypothesis is that observed actions are matched to the observer’s own motor representations. Previous findings demonstrate that the motor laws that constrain one’s performance also constrain one’s perception of others’ actions. The present neuropsychological case study asked whether neurological impairments affect a person’s performance and action perception in the same way. The results showed that patient DS, who suffers from a frontal brain lesion, not only ignored target size when performing movements but also when asked to judge whether others can perform the same movements. In other words DS showed the same violation of Fitts’s law when performing and observing actions. These results further support the assumption of close perception action links and the assumption that these links recruit predictive mechanisms residing in the motor system.     

Effects of Different Telephone Intervention Styles with Suicidal Callers at Two Suicide Prevention Centers: An Empirical Investigation

To determine the relative effectiveness of telephone intervention styles with suicidal callers, researchers listened unobtrusively to 617 calls by suicidal persons at two suicide prevention centers and categorized all 66,953 responses by the 110 volunteer helpers according to a reliable 20-category checklist. Outcome measures showed observer evaluations of decreased depressive mood from the beginning to the end in 14% of calls, decreased suicidal urgency ratings from the beginning to the end in 27% of calls, and reaching a contract in 68% of calls, of which 54% of contracts were upheld according to follow-up data. Within the context of relatively directive interventions, a greater proportion of Rogerian nondirective responses was related to significantly more decreases in depression. Reduction in urgency and reaching a contract were related to greater use of Rogerian response categories only with nonchronic callers.     

The effects of polydrug use with and without cocaine on mother-infant interaction at 3 and 6 months

The face-to-face interactions of 43 polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers and their infants at 3 and 6 months were compared to 17 non-cocaine-but other-drug-using mothers and 21 mothers who used no drugs during their pregnancy. Coders blind to mothers' drug use status scored 3 min of face-to-face interactions for 16 measures of maternal and infant interactive behaviors. A principal component of 7 behaviors formed a measure of maternal attentiveness; a principal component of 5 behaviors formed a measure of mother-infant dyadic organization; and a principal component of 4 behaviors formed a measure of infant readiness to interact. A measure of maternal interruption was computed as the mean standard score of 3 additional interruptive behaviors. At 3 and 6 months, polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers were less attentive to interactions, and polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers and their infants engaged in fewer dyadic interactions than either non-cocaine or non-drug-using mothers. Compared to 3 months, polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers at 6 months were less attentive to interactions and more frequently interrupted interactions by looking away, redirecting the infant, or withdrawing, whereas non-cocaine-using and non-drug- using mothers showed no change or an improvement in attentiveness to interactions and a decrease in interruptions. No differences emerged in the interactive behaviors of the infants of polydrug- with-cocaine-using, non-cocaine-using, or non-drug-using mothers. Cocaine use represents a significant risk for diminished parental attentiveness and responsiveness to infants and for diminished interactiveness in infants.     

Non-linearity,Complexity and Limited Measurement in the Relationship Between Satisfaction with Specific Life Domains and Satisfaction with Life as a Whole

In this article we defend that the adoption of a non-linear approach, theoretically framed on complexity theories can make some contribution to the bottom-up approach, which explains the levels of satisfaction with life as a whole through the combination of the levels of satisfaction in different life domains. Two approaches have been tested: (Rojas in J Happiness Stud 7:467–497, 2006) constant elasticity of substitution model and the model with quadratic terms and interaction effects (González et al. in Soc Indic Res 80:267–295, 2006; González et al. in Qual Quant 42:1–21, 2008). In order to prevent obtaining false non-linear relationships they have been analysed twice taking into account or not limited measurement of satisfaction with life as a whole. Results show that: (a) any of the two non-linear models fits better than the linear one; (b) any of the models failing to take into account limited measurement fits worse; (c) the non-linear model with quadratic terms and interaction effects fits better than Rojas’. The implications for the study of psychological well-being are discussed.     

Acute and chronic effects of cocaine on the spontaneous behavior of pigeons

The present experiment examined the effects of acute and daily cocaine on spontaneous behavior patterns of pigeons. After determining the acute effects of a range of doses, 9 pigeons were divided into three groups that received one of three doses of cocaine daily, either 1.0, 3.0, or 10.0 mg/kg cocaine. Measures were taken of spontaneous locomotion, pecking, preening, and emesis. Under daily administration, cocaine induced consistent and substantial enhancements of its locomotor effects in all 9 pigeons, consistent with the phenomenon of locomotor sensitization. The maximum locomotor output did not differ according to the size of the daily dose. Locomotion was not elevated following tests of the saline vehicle, suggesting the effect was due to cocaine, not to a change in baseline or reactivity to the injection procedure. Cocaine dose‐dependently decreased preening when given acutely, and those effects were not altered by repeated cocaine administration. Pecking occurred at very low rates and was unresponsive to cocaine treatment. Cocaine‐induced emesis showed a dose‐dependent increase under initial tests with cocaine, and those effects were attenuated following daily exposure. In a final condition, cocaine was replaced with daily saline for 30 days to assess the persistence cocaine‐related increases in locomotion. Approximately half of the pigeons continued to show enhanced effects even after 30 days without cocaine, so although persistence was obtained, it showed marked intersubject variability. The data indicate that the effects of repeated cocaine administration on the behavior of pigeons shows parallels with many effects commonly reported with rodents (i.e., increased locomotion following repeated treatment, decrease in preening or grooming, persistence following drug withdrawal).     

Identification and adaptation of hue: Parallels in the operation of mechanisms that underlie categorical perception in vision and in audition

Summary Four experiments were conducted to examine processes in identification and selective adaptation of hues in color perception that exactly parallel processes in identification and adaptation of auditory detectors that provide information for phonemic perception. The first experiment demonstrated an effect of adaptation on identification of blue and green when a hue category center was used as the adaptor; this experiment also assessed recovery from adaptation. Adaptation to one hue was found to shift identification to favor the alternative hue, implicating a single detector underlying hue categorization. The second experiment demonstrated similar effects of adaptation between green and yellow. The third experiment compared the magnitudes of shift following adaptation with a category center, a near-boundary hue, and variously graded adaptation series. Adaptation was found to be related to the category representativeness of the adaptor(s). Results of the third experiment also provided support for the view that adaptation, rather than response bias, is responsible for shifts in the position of identification functions following extended stimulus exposure. The fourth experiment explored the neural loci of adaptation by an interocular transfer test. Hue adaptation was found to occur at both central and peripheral loci. In the four main experiments, reaction times to identify hues in unadapted and adapted states were also analyzed and compared. Subsidiary experiments assessed the effects of stimulus luminance on the magnitude of adaptation. General principles of categorical perception and its underlying bases, including the sweep, magnitude, and symmetry of adaptation, are discussed. The principal findings of these studies provide new data on hue perception which strikingly parallel findings in speech perception.     

The role of the executive functions in school achievement at the end of Grade 1

The aim of this study was to determine the role of executive functions (EFs) in early school achievement when a variety of potential confounding factors were controlled. Measures of EF (inhibition, flexibility, and working memory) and school readiness were administered to a sample of 85 kindergartners (39 boys and 46 girls, 5-6 years old). School achievement was then assessed at the end of Grade 1. Results show math and reading/writing skills at the end of Grade 1 to be associated with kindergarten EFs. Only working memory contributed uniquely to the variance in school achievement after all covariates (preacademic abilities, affective variables, and family variables) were controlled and, even then, only with respect to math skills. On the other hand, working memory and inhibition had an indirect effect on reading/writing skills via anger-aggression. EF implication in school achievement is discussed in terms of task demands and child age.     

Emotional speech processing: disentangling the effects of prosody and semantic cues

To inform how emotions in speech are implicitly processed and registered in memory, we compared how emotional prosody, emotional semantics, and both cues in tandem prime decisions about conjoined emotional faces. Fifty-two participants rendered facial affect decisions (Pell, 2005a), indicating whether a target face represented an emotion (happiness or sadness) or not (a facial grimace), after passively listening to happy, sad, or neutral prime utterances. Emotional information from primes was conveyed by: (1) prosody only; (2) semantic cues only; or (3) combined prosody and semantic cues. Results indicated that prosody, semantics, and combined prosody-semantic cues facilitate emotional decisions about target faces in an emotion-congruent manner. However, the magnitude of priming did not vary across tasks. Our findings highlight that emotional meanings of prosody and semantic cues are systematically registered during speech processing, but with similar effects on associative knowledge about emotions, which is presumably shared by prosody, semantics, and faces.