Identifying bilingual semantic neural representations across languages

The goal of the study was to identify the neural representation of a noun’s meaning in one language based on the neural representation of that same noun in another language. Machine learning methods were used to train classifiers to identify which individual noun bilingual participants were thinking about in one language based solely on their brain activation in the other language. The study shows reliable (p < .05) pattern-based classification accuracies for the classification of brain activity for nouns across languages. It also shows that the stable voxels used to classify the brain activation were located in areas associated with encoding information about semantic dimensions of the words in the study. The identification of the semantic trace of individual nouns from the pattern of cortical activity demonstrates the existence of a multi-voxel pattern of activation across the cortex for a single noun common to both languages in bilinguals.     

A Screening Tool to Assess and Manage Behavioral Risk in the Postoperative Bariatric Surgery Patient: The WATCH

Bariatric surgery is increasingly recognized as a highly effective treatment for individuals who are severely obese. Amount of weight loss and resolution of comorbidities surpass those of nonsurgical approaches; however, suboptimal weight loss and weight regain are not uncommon. These outcomes, though not fully understood, are likely at least partially explained by failure to make long-term behavioral and/or cognitive changes. We are unaware of any established clinical tools to guide providers in assessing postoperative behaviors and identifying those who may require specialized treatment. The goal of this paper is to introduce a brief screening tool, The WATCH, to help clinicians assess and identify patients who may be at risk for poor or untoward outcomes post bariatric surgery. We first review the literature on postoperative outcomes, including weight loss, resolution of comorbidities, suboptimal outcomes, and development of problematic eating behaviors. We then provide an easily-recalled, five-item tool that assesses outcomes, and discuss patient responses that may necessitate further intervention or referral.     

Internal reasons and practical limits on rational deliberation

I argue that agent-causal libertarianism has a strong initial rejoinder to Mele's luck argument against it, but that his claim that it has yet to be explained how agent-causation yields responsibility-conferring control has significant force. I suggest an avenue of response. Subsequently, I raise objections to Mele's criticisms of my four-case manipulation argument against compatibilism.     

Psychometric Properties of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A) Clinical,Content, and Supplementary Scales in a Forensic Sample

In this study, we evaluated the internal psychometric properties and external correlates of scores on the Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales in a forensic sample of 496 adolescents (315 boys and 181 girls) who were court-ordered to receive psychological evaluations. We examined Cronbach's alpha coefficients, scale intercorrelation matrices, and frequencies of scale elevations. Further, we found varying degrees of support for the convergent and discriminant validity of scores on the MMPI–A (Butcher et al., 1992 Butcher, J. N., Williams, C. L., Graham, J. R., Archer, R. P., Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S. and Kaemmer, B. 1992. MMPI–A (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent): Manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]) Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales. This study adds to the body of literature establishing the utility of the MMPI–A in forensic evaluations.     

Theatre Review

DreamPlay. Conceived and directed by Tracy Young. Performed in Los Angeles, June 2002. The ensemble: Daniel T. Parker, Angela King, Evie Peck, Scott Proudfit, Chris Wells, Daniel Passer, Will McFadden, Cynthia Ettinger, Don Luce, Melanie Lora, Alison Tatlock, Gary Kelley     

Understanding age-related reductions in visual working memory capacity: Examining the stages of change detection

Visual working memory (VWM) capacity is reduced in older adults. Research has shown age-related impairments to VWM encoding, but aging is likely to affect multiple stages of VWM. In the present study, we recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) of younger and older adults during VWM maintenance and retrieval. We measured encoding-stage processing with the P1 component, maintenance-stage processing with the contralateral delay activity (CDA), and retrieval-stage processing by comparing the activity for old and new items (old–new effect). Older adults showed lower behavioral capacity estimates (K) than did younger adults, but surprisingly, their P1 components and CDAs were comparable to those of younger adults. This remarkable dissociation between neural activity and behavior in the older adults indicated that the P1 and CDA did not accurately assess their VWM capacity. However, the neural activity evoked during VWM retrieval yielded results that helped clarify the age-related differences. During retrieval, younger adults showed early old–new effects in frontal and occipital areas and a late central–parietal old–new effect, whereas older adults showed a late right-lateralized parietal old–new effect. The younger adults’ early old–new effects strongly resembled an index of perceptual fluency, suggesting that perceptual implicit memory was activated. The activation of implicit memory could have facilitated the younger adults’ behavior, and the lack of these early effects in older adults may suggest that they have much lower-resolution memory than do younger adults. From these data, we speculated that younger and older adults store the same number of items in VWM, but that younger adults store a higher-resolution representation than do older adults.     

A Q Analysis on the Impact of Shadow Education on the Academic Life of High School Students

Shadow education, more commonly known as private tutoring, has been actively supplementing the formal mainstream education system in both developed and developing countries. Using the Q methodology, a quali-quantilogical approach, the study determined how private tutoring has impacted the academic life of high school students by exploring and analyzing their subjective experiences in relation to being part of shadow education. This was done by asking 30 high school students to perform a Q sort of 48 statements that depicts the impact of shadow education or private tutoring. The findings revealed that exposure to shadow education activities affected the general attitude of the participants towards their studies and learning and their perception about their selves and their ability to perform tasks related to their schooling. Likewise, results also showed that exposure to shadow education activities had an effect on the academic performance of the participants. The effect of exposure to shadow education activities are not limited to those commonly reported in literature.     

Automated Integrative Complexity

Integrative complexity is a conceptually unique and very popular measurement of the complexity of human thought. We believe, however, that it is currently being underutilized because it takes quite a bit of time to score. More time‐efficient computer‐based measurements of complexity that are currently available are correlated with integrative complexity at fairly low levels. To help fill in this gap, we developed a novel automated integrative complexity system designed specifically from the integrative complexity theoretical framework. This new automated IC system achieved an alpha of .72 on the standard integrative complexity coding test. In addition, across nine datasets covering over 1,300 paragraphs, this new automated system consistently showed modest relationships with human‐scored integrative complexity (average alpha = .62; average r = .46). Further analyses revealed that this relationship consistently remained significant when controlling for superficial markers of complexity and that the new system accounted for both the differentiation and integration components of integrative complexity. Although the overlap between the automated and human‐scored systems is only modest (and thus suggests the continued usefulness of human scoring), it nonetheless provides the best automated integrative complexity measurement to date.     

An Ecological Model of Professional School Counseling

The 21st century has witnessed a drastic transformation in professional school counseling, fueled by calls for social justice and educational equity and characterized by a movement toward collaboration, advocacy, leadership, and systemic change to promote academic success for all students. The authors describe how this transformation is aligned with an ecological perspective, provide an overview of the basic tenets of ecological thinking, and take a first step toward developing an intentional model of ecological school counseling.