More capture,more suppression: Distractor suppression due to statistical regularities is determined by the magnitude of attentional capture

Salient yet irrelevant objects often interfere with daily tasks by capturing attention against our best interests and intentions. Recent research has shown that through implicit learning, distraction by a salient object can be reduced by suppressing the location where this distractor is likely to appear. Here, we investigated whether suppression of such high-probability distractor locations is an all-or-none phenomenon or specifically tuned to the degree of interference caused by the distractor. In two experiments, we varied the salience of two task-irrelevant singleton distractors each of which was more likely to appear in one specific location in the visual field. We show that the magnitude of interference by a distractor determines the magnitude of suppression for its high-probability location: The more salient a distractor, the more it becomes suppressed when appearing in its high-probability location. We conclude that distractor suppression emerges as a consequence of the spatial regularities regarding the location of a distractor as well as its potency to interfere with attentional selection.

     

Children Expressing Mixed Emotion in a Nonsocial Context

Abstract

Efforts to demonstrate children’s ability to report experiencing mixed emotions have typically used an allocentric approach, asking children to report on emotions of other individuals in response to stories or movie clips demonstrating social themes. In contrast, literature examining children’s personal experiencing and understanding of their own mixed emotions, typified as an egocentric approach, in nonsocial situations remains underdeveloped. The current study examined the development of children’s reported understanding and experience of mixed emotions egocentrically. By examining a nonsocial context, this investigation extends existing gender- and age-related research on expressing egocentric mixed emotion. Using a computerized game with a disappointing wins paradigm, egocentric mixed emotional experience was elicited in 142 children (80 boys, 62 girls) aged 6 to 12?years. Results revealed that age, but not gender, was a statistically significant predictor of expressing egocentric mixed emotion experience and understanding. When studying mixed emotion development in a nonsocial context, gender did not contribute to differences in child reports. A significant positive relationship between egocentric mixed emotion experiencing and understanding also emerged. These findings contribute to our understanding of children’s emotion development and offer future directions for examining the broad domain of nonsocial contexts in youth expression of mixed emotions.     

Using the antisaccade task to investigate the relationship between the development of inhibition and the development of intelligence

A number of authors have proposed models of cognitive development that explain improvements in intelligence over the course of childhood via changes in the efficiency of inhibitory processes ( Anderson, 2001 ; Bjorklund & Harnishfeger, 1990 ; Dempster, 1991 , 1992 ; Dempster & Corkill, 1999a ; Harnishfeger, 1995 ; Harnishfeger & Bjorklund, 1993 ). A review of the literature reveals little empirical support for the thesis. This is largely due to a failure to distinguish between age‐related and non‐age‐related changes in both inhibitory ability and intelligence. Empirical evidence is presented from a developmental study employing the antisaccade task to provide support for the role of inhibitory processes in the development of intelligence. Additionally, a case is made for a functional difference underlying antisaccade errors that are subsequently corrected and those that remain uncorrected.     

L’adhésion des populations immigrantes à la valeur de l’autonomie véhiculée en santé publique

Autonomy, a basic ethical value in public health, is regularly put under pressure by the demands of empowerment, rights of individuals and healthy communities. This article describes the results of a study about the support of non-immigrants and immigrants subjects (n?=?137) from the Montreal area on the value of autonomy conveyed in six public health programs. The results indicate that non-immigrants Quebecers and longstanding immigrants differ from recent immigrants concerning activities about commitment of fathers, poverty families, screening for sexually transmitted diseases and treatment of tuberculosis.     

the interaction of work adjustment and attachment theory: employment counseling implications

Career development is a lifelong process beginning with career choice. However, career choice alone does not guarantee career success. Rather than focus on choosing a career, the theory of work adjustment (TWA) focuses on the process of becoming an exemplary employee through each stage of an individual's career. Within TWA, employee relationships with peers and bosses create reputations that may help or hinder promotion. Understanding attachment theory in relation to TWA may help clients to become more successful in their career. Case examples explain how employment counselors may integrate TWA and attachment theory with clients.     

Oblique rotation in correspondence analysis: A step forward in the search for the simplest interpretation

Correspondence analysis (CA) is a popular method that can be used to analyse relationships between categorical variables. It is closely related to several popular multivariate analysis methods such as canonical correlation analysis and principal component analysis. Like principal component analysis, CA solutions can be rotated orthogonally as well as obliquely into a simple structure without affecting the total amount of explained inertia. However, some specific aspects of CA prevent standard rotation procedures from being applied in a straightforward fashion. In particular, the role played by weights assigned to points and dimensions and the duality of CA solutions are unique to CA. For orthogonal simple structure rotation, procedures recently have been proposed. In this paper, we construct oblique rotation methods for CA that take into account these specific difficulties. We illustrate the benefits of our oblique rotation procedure by means of two illustrative examples.     

Embodied perception with others’ bodies in mind: Stereotype priming influence on the perception of spatial environment

It has been shown that spatial perception is not only a function of optical variables but also a function of people’s physiological potential. When this potential is reduced, either due to age or fatigue, individuals have been observed to report hills steeper and distances longer. Two studies have demonstrated that the experience of an actual reduction in capacities is not necessary. After being primed with the elderly category, young participants estimated the gradient of various pathways and that of a hill steeper (Study 1) and distances across a grassy field longer (Study 2) than their non-primed counterparts. The activation of a social category has often been found to result in stereotype-congruent behaviors. The present findings indicate that, in addition to this well-documented behavioral mimetism, this activation also leads to perceptual mimetism. I suggest that it helps facilitate social interactions by investing the partners with a shared vision of their environment.     

Three preparatory studies for promoting implementation of outpatient schema therapy for borderline personality disorder in general mental health care

ObjectiveThree studies were conducted to prepare for the implementation of Schema Therapy (ST) for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in general mental healthcare settings. Two were surveys to detect promoting and hindering factors, one was a preliminary test of a training program in ST.MethodsIn 2004, a diagnostic analysis of factors promoting and hindering implementation of a new treatment for BPD was conducted among both managers (n = 23) and therapists (n = 49) of 29 Dutch mental healthcare institutes through a written survey (Study 1). Next, a training program, including a set of DVDs displaying the major therapeutic techniques, was developed and tested among eight therapists. The training program was evaluated by the participants. After the training, three independent raters evaluated therapists' adherence and competence, viewing videos of the therapists completing structured role-plays (Study 2). In 2008, a second written survey was conducted in 22 mental health institutes to study factors for future nationwide implementation of ST (Study 3).ResultsBoth surveys indicated that the situation in most institutes was favorable for implementing a new effective treatment, as participants were not satisfied with the existing treatments, had suitable professional backgrounds, worked in settings with (B)PD-oriented care programs, and expressed a need for change. The surveys yielded clear results for promoting or hindering successful implementation of ST. Promoting factors included scientific evidence for the effectiveness of the treatment, structural changes in the patient's personality, rapidly noticeable effects for the patient, low drop-out rates and a favorable cost-effectiveness. Possible barriers included implementation mandated unilaterally by management, choosing ST based on financial or organizational needs, extending implementation over a lengthy period of time and providing telephone support by therapists beyond office hours. The eight-day training program received very positive ratings. After the training, therapists were rated as sufficiently adherent and competent applying ST to treat BPD patients, with peer supervision and supervision recommended as a supplement to the training.ConclusionThis study showed that the situation in 2005 was advantageous to start implementation of ST. Evaluation of the training and the achieved competence scores of trainees concluded that the training program was a good basis for training therapists in ST. Outcome of the survey in 2008 demonstrated that there was a clear interest for implementation of ST for BPD patients in the future.     

Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview: development, reliability, and validity in an adolescent sample

The authors developed the Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview (SITBI) and evaluated its psychometric properties. The SITBI is a structured interview that assesses the presence, frequency, and characteristics of a wide range of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, including suicidal ideation, suicide plans, suicide gestures, suicide attempts, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). This initial study, based on the administration of the SITBI to 94 adolescents and young adults, suggested that the SITBI has strong interrater reliability (average kappa = .99, r = 1.0) and test-retest reliability (average kappa = .70, intraclass correlation coefficient = .44) over a 6-month period. Moreover, concurrent validity was demonstrated via strong correspondence between the SITBI and other measures of suicidal ideation (average kappa = .54), suicide attempt (kappa = .65), and NSSI (average kappa = .87). The authors concluded that the SITBI uniformly and comprehensively assesses a wide range of self-injury-related constructs and provides a new instrument that can be administered with relative ease in both research and clinical settings.