Talking and driving: applications of crossmodal action reveal a special role for spatial language

Talking reduces attention resulting in real-world crash risks to drivers that talk on a phone and drive. Driving is a behavior that is very demanding on spatial attention, suggesting potentially large interference by spatial codes in language. The current study investigated how different types of verbal codes influence visual attention during dual-task performance. In two experiments, participants performed a spatial or non-spatial verbal task while simultaneously performing a visual attention task. The results showed a larger decrement to visual attention performance when participants were concurrently engaged in a spatial verbal task. The results of the second experiment isolated this effect to the right cerebral hemisphere, consistent with a role for shared right parietal resources. These results are consistent with the idea that processing codes are an important component of coordinating talking and driving but generally inconsistent with a broad class of bottleneck approaches that describes dual-task decrements but treats component tasks as cognitively equivalent.     

Should supportive measures and relational variables be considered a part of psychoanalytic technique? Some empirical considerations

This article presents some quantitative findings from a survey of 89 psychoanalysts (all members of the American Psychoanalytic Association or the International Psychoanalytical Association) about their own experiences in analysis. A comprehensive questionnaire was used to collect retrospective data about (1) how participants felt they benefited from their analyses and (2) how they remembered their analysts’ technique, personality, and style of relating. A correlational analysis found that, according to our participants’ ratings, the most beneficial analyses were associated with having a caring and emotionally engaged analyst who possessed positive relational and personality qualities, used supportive techniques in addition to classical techniques, and pursued therapeutic as well as analytic goals. Outcomes rated as successful were also associated with experiencing a good ‘fit’, a good working relationship, and a positive therapeutic alliance. Our results support the call for an expanded view of acceptable analytic technique (e.g. Schacter and Kächele, 2007) .     

Sleep enhances memory consolidation in the hippocampus-dependent object-place recognition task in rats

The positive impact of sleep on memory consolidation has been shown for human subjects in numerous studies, but there is still sparse knowledge on this topic in rats, one of the most prominent model species in neuroscience research. Here, we examined the role of sleep in the object-place recognition task, a task closely comparable to tasks typically applied for testing human declarative memory: It is a one-trial task, hippocampus-dependent, not stressful and can be repeated within the same animal. A test session consisted of the Sample trial, followed by a 2-h retention interval and a Test trial, the latter examining the memory the rat had for the places of two objects presented at the Sample trial. In Experiment 1, each rat was tested twice, with the retention interval taking place either in the morning or evening, i.e., in the inactive or active phase, respectively. Rats showed significantly (p<0.01) better memory for object place after the Morning session. To control for confounding circadian factors, in Experiment 2 rats were tested four times, i.e., in the morning or in the evening while sleep was or was not deprived. Sleep during the retention interval was recorded polysomnographically. Rats only showed significant memory for the target object place in the Test trial after the Morning retention interval in the absence of sleep deprivation, and recognition performance in this condition was significantly superior to that in the three other conditions (p<0.05). EEG recordings during spontaneous morning sleep revealed increased slow oscillation (0.85-2.0 Hz) and upper delta (2.0-4.0 Hz), but reduced spindle band (10.5-13.5 Hz) activity, as compared to evening sleep. However, spindle band power was increased in the Morning retention interval in comparison to a Morning Baseline period (p<0.05). We conclude that consolidation of object-place memory depends on sleep, and presumably requires NonREM sleep rich in both slow wave and spindle activity.     

An experimental evaluation of school social work

The main results of the Central Lancashire Family and Community Project are reported. The project extended from 1965 to 1973 and attempted to determine experimentally the value of social work undertaken in secondary schools. Significant reductions in juvenile maladjustment and misbehaviour, both short- and long-term, were achieved. While children sent to court showed some behavioural improvement, this was accompanied by a deterioration in measures of adjustment; whereas treatment of a matched sample by school social workers was associated with sustained improvement both in behaviour and in test measures of social adjustment. The school setting was shown to have impeded the workers in a variety of ways: teachers' judgements of what were suitable cases to refer were biassed towards certain kinds of behaviour, and the teachers expected the social workers to achieve unrealistically rapid behavioural improvement. There was also pressure upon the workers to over-identify with the school, its ethos and its staff, and to become too generously involved in school activities, which interfered with their relationships with the children and the time available for social work — especially home visiting. These handicaps, however, were more than offset by the advantages of the school setting in aiding the identification of needy cases at an early stage in the development of their problems, and in undertaking sustained, beneficial casework Furthermore, there were indications that the presence of the worker in itself tended to change the ethos of the school.     

A review of: “Leaky bodies and boundaries: feminism,postmodernism and (Bio) ethics”

Margaret Shildrick (1997) Leaky Bodies and Boundaries: Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio) ethics, London: Routledge, $14.99     

Using a Multicultural Framework to Assess Supervisees' Perceptions of Culturally Competent Supervision

Multicultural competency has been identified as essential to effective and ethical practice, particularly in the area of trainee supervision. Yet little is known about how multicultural issues are addressed in the supervision process. Counseling and psychology trainees who indicated a high degree of interest in multicultural issues were interviewed about their supervisory experiences to assess their perceptions of culturally competent supervision. Constant comparative methodology was used to analyze the data. Limitations and implications for research are discussed.