Executive dysfunction affects word list recall performance: Evidence from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) is widely used in clinical practice to evaluate verbal episodic memory. While there is evidence that RAVLT performance can be influenced by executive dysfunction, the way executive disorders affect the serial position curve (SPC) has not been yet explored. To this aim, we analysed immediate and delayed recall performances of 13 non‐demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with a specific mild executive dysfunction (ALSci) and compared their performances to those of 48 healthy controls (HC) and 13 cognitively normal patients with ALS. Moreover, to control for the impact of a severe dysexecutive syndrome and a genuine episodic memory deficit on the SPC, we enrolled 15 patients with a diagnosis of behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and 18 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results documented that, compared to cognitively normal subjects, ALSci patients had a selective mid‐list impairment for immediate recall scores. The bvFTD group obtained low performances with a selectively increased forgetting rate for terminal items, whereas the AD group showed a disproportionately large memory loss on the primary and middle part of the SPC for immediate recall scores and were severely impaired in the delayed recall trial. These results suggested that subtle executive dysfunctions might influence the recall of mid‐list items, possibly reflecting deficiency in control strategies at retrieval of word lists, whereas severer dysexecutive syndrome might also affect the recall of terminal items possibly due to attention deficit or retroactive interference.     

Cooperation increases bottlenose dolphins’ (Tursiops truncatus) social affiliation

Animal Cognition - Dolphins live in a fission–fusion society, where strong social bonds and alliances can last for decades. However, the mechanism that allows dolphins to form such strong...     

Humanness in times of uncertainty: On the link between perceived job insecurity,self-objectification and well-being

The current work scenario is pervaded by widespread perceptions of job insecurity, which is one of the main stress factors for workers and their well-being. This article aims to investigate the link between these perceptions and a most inner dimension, that is, people's tendency to self-objectify (i.e., self-viewing as objects rather than fully human beings). Furthermore, we aim to verify the role of this self-objectifying process in explaining the well-established relation between perceived job insecurity and well-being. Across four studies and a single-article meta-analysis (total N = 684), we show that perceived job insecurity is consistently linked with self-objectification. Furthermore, this objectifying self-perception is associated with decreased well-being and plays a mediational role in the link between perceived job insecurity and this latter variable.     

Authority relationships between obedience and disobedience

Recent episodes of public dissent (such as the demonstrations against G8 policies) raise the issue of the psychological processes triggered in obeying and disobeying the authority. Even if obedience to authority is an important aspect of social life and it plays a key role in maintaining social order, the concept of obedience has been studied in social psychology mainly in terms of its destructive aspects. Besides, most of the studies have overlooked the role of disobedience in the authority relationship. Disobedience may be conceived of as a protest that undermines the legitimacy of the authority or it can represent an instrument for controlling the legitimacy of the authority's demands, becoming a factor protecting against authoritarianism. In this article, a new perspective on the study of the relationship between the individual and the authority is put forward, considering obedience and disobedience as parallel concepts, each having constructive and destructive aspects.     

Cerebellum and processing of negative facial emotions: cerebellar transcranial DC stimulation specifically enhances the emotional recognition of facial anger and sadness

Some evidence suggests that the cerebellum participates in the complex network processing emotional facial expression. To evaluate the role of the cerebellum in recognising facial expressions we delivered transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex. A facial emotion recognition task was administered to 21 healthy subjects before and after cerebellar tDCS; we also tested subjects with a visual attention task and a visual analogue scale (VAS) for mood. Anodal and cathodal cerebellar tDCS both significantly enhanced sensory processing in response to negative facial expressions (anodal tDCS, p=.0021; cathodal tDCS, p=.018), but left positive emotion and neutral facial expressions unchanged (p>.05). tDCS over the right prefrontal cortex left facial expressions of both negative and positive emotion unchanged. These findings suggest that the cerebellum is specifically involved in processing facial expressions of negative emotion.     

An inhibition effect in the temporal constrains of attentional selection: the Backward Blink

The study aims at investigating the dynamics of visual information processing during sequential control of attentional selection. By combining two different traditional paradigms we show for the first time that during rapid selection of visual targets, encoding of a new target stimulus is facilitated by suppression of the preceding relevant stimulus category (Backward Blink; BB). Such inhibition would operate to reduce interference from previously stored information, in order to facilitate the instantiation of a new attentional episode. Results suggest that the same underlying inhibitory mechanism might contribute to two different attentional effects, specifically, the switch cost and the Attentional Blink, suggesting a general inhibitory mechanism of attentional control, with broad implications for understanding how the brain perceives any task-relevant stimulus.     

BARBOUR'S TYPOLOGIES AND THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE ON ISLAM AND SCIENCE

Abstract Despite various criticisms, Ian Barbour's fourfold classification of the possible relationships between religion and science remains influential. I compare Barbour's taxonomy with the theories of four authors who, in the last four decades, have addressed the relationship between science and religion from a Muslim perspective. The aim of my analysis is twofold. First, I offer a comparative perspective to the debate on science and Islam. Second, following Barbour's suggestion, I test the general applicability of his categories by comparing them with a discourse on science and religion that is not focused on Christianity. In the first section, I reconstruct Barbour's typologies, recalling some major objections to them, and arguing why despite the latter, Barbour's model is employed for the present analysis. I also reconstruct Barbour's parallel model for the relationships between different religions. In the second section, I reconstruct the discourse on science and religion developed by the Palestinian‐American scholar Ismail Raji al‐Faruqi. The third section is devoted to the ideas of the Persian‐American scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In the fourth section, I examine the views of the Iranian author Mehdi Golshani. The fifth section reconstructs the theories of the Algerian author Nidhal Guessoum. In the final section, I argue that a generalized use of the “integration” concept to refer to the entire debate on Islam and science is unhelpful. While these positions do not appear to instantiate Barbourian integration of science and religion, they do move toward what Barbour (skeptically) describes as integration between religions.     

Comparison between Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2 (GSS2) and Bonn Test of Statement Suggestibility (BTSS) in measuring children’s interrogative suggestibility

Susceptibility of children to leading questions and interrogative pressure is an important forensic issue. The most used techniques for assessing interrogative suggestibility are the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS) and the Bonn Test of Statement Suggestibility (BTSS). Apart from minor differences, the two tests, investigate the same dimensions: Yield, Shift, Immediate Recall, and Total Suggestibility. In this study, to investigate correlation measures for the corresponding variables in the two tests, we individually examined 84 children from the fourth and fifth grades (44 boys and 40 girls). All the participants completed the GSS2 the BTSS-1, the Vocabulary and the Similarity subtests of the WISC-R, and Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices. No significant gender differences were observed for any of the variables studied. Comparison between the corresponding variables for the two tests showed a positive correlation. Yield and Total Suggestibility scores correlated negatively with the three cognitive variables. We conclude that although the two suggestibility scales measure analogous variables, the BTSS seems more suitable than the GSS2 for assessing a child’s suggestibility during police and forensic interviews.     

Positive experiences of doctoral-level supervisors-in-training conducting group-format supervision: a qualitative investigation

Experiential learning opportunities are powerful in shaping positive supervisor behaviours. We were interested in examining the positive experiences of supervisors-in-training during their first practice experience as supervisors. Our study was guided by two research questions: (a) what are the experiences that supervisors-in-training viewed as positive during the course of providing clinical supervision to master's-level counselling trainees? and (b) how did these positive experiences contribute to their professional development? We employed a variation of the consensual qualitative research method developed by Hill, Thompson, and Nutt-Williams (1997) and interviewed 10 supervisors-in-training regarding their positive experiences in supervising master's-level counselling trainees. The results included five major categories of positive experiences: (a) the positive value of feedback; (b) enhanced confidence in using a wider variety of supervision tasks and procedures; (c) the impact of the experience on other aspects of professional practice; (d) increased familiarity with the multiple roles of the supervisor; and (e) for some, increased comfort navigating co-supervision dynamics. Each of these categories included subcategories. We discuss our findings within the context of supervision training in graduate education.