Empathy scores in medical school and ratings of empathic behavior in residency training 3 years later

The authors designed the present study to examine the association between individuals' scores on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE; M. Hojat, J. S. Gonnella, S. Mangione, T. J. Nasca, & M. Magee, 2003; M. Hojat, J. S. Gonnella, T. J. Nasca, S. Mangione, M. Vergare, & M. Magee, 2002; M. Hojat, S. Mangione, T. J. Nasca, M. J. M. Cohen, J. S. Gonnella, J. B. Erdmann, J. J. Veloski, & M. Magee, 2001), a self-report empathy scale, during medical school and ratings of their empathic behavior made by directors of their residency training programs 3 years later. Participants were 106 physicians. The authors examined the relationships between scores on the JSPE (with 20 Likert-type items) at the beginning of the students' 3rd year of medical school and ratings of their empathic behavior made by directors of their residency training programs. Top scorers on the JSPE in medical school, compared to Bottom scorers, obtained a significantly higher average rating of empathic behavior in residency 3 years later (p < .05, effect size = 0.50). The findings support the long-term predictive validity of the self-report empathy scale, JSPE, despite different methods of evaluations (self-report and supervisors' ratings) and despite a time interval between evaluations (3 years). Because empathy is relevant to prosocial and helping behavior, it is important for investigators to further enhance our understanding of its correlates and outcomes among health professionals.     

Understanding the structural determinants of object confusion in memory: an assessment of psychophysical approaches to estimating visual similarity

Computer-generated shapes varying on visual dimensions such as curvature, tapering, and thickness have been used to investigate identification deficits in the category-specific visual agnosia (CSVA) Patient E.L.M.. However, whether the implemented variations on each of these dimensions were perceived by novice observers as "similar amounts of change" is unknown. To estimate distance in psychophysical shape space, sets of shapes were developed using two different scaling methods--an objective method based on visual search, and a subjective method based on judgments of similarity--and a third approach that did not involve scaling. How well each method estimated psychophysical shape space was assessed by measuring the confusions within memory among the shapes. The results suggested that, although neither of the approaches perfectly reflected psychophysical shape space, subjective scaling was a better estimator of distance in psychophysical shape space than were other approaches. The number of confusions produced on each set of shapes was used to develop a new set of shapes that accurately estimated distance in psychophysical shape space. These results suggest that a combination of approaches is preferable in order to accurately estimate distance in psychophysical shape space.     

Familiarity influences judgments of sex: the case of voice recognition

Two experiments are reported in which subjects made judgments about the sex or the familiarity of a voice. In experiment 1, subjects were fans of the BBC-radio soap opera, The Archers, and familiar voice clips were taken from this programme. Subjects showed a large reduction in response times when making sex judgments to familiar voices, despite the fact that sex judgments are generally much faster than familiarity judgments. In experiment 2, the same familiar clips were played to subjects unfamiliar with the soap opera, and no difference was observed in times to make sex judgments to Archers or non-Archers voices. We conclude that, unlike the case of face recognition, sex and identity processing of voices are not independent. The findings constrain models of person recognition across multiple modalities.     

The activity of the hypothalamo-neurohypophysial system in response to acute stressor exposure: neuroendocrine and electrophysiological observations

The present mini review focuses on stress-induced alterations of the electrical and secretory activity of vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXT) neurones originating within the supraoptic nucleus (SON) and constituting the hypothalamo-neurohypophysial system (HNS) in the male rat. Previously, it was thought that SON neurones are predominantly activated by osmotic and reproductive stimuli. However, recent findings also suggest a selective activation of AVP and/or OXT neurones in response to specific stressors. Inhibitory amino acids seem to participate at the level of the SON in the control of HNS activity during stress. Taurine, probably of glial origin, selectively inhibits the secretory activity of AVP neurones. In contrast, GABA, probably of neuronal origin, interferes with the release of OXT both from axon terminals into blood and from somata/dendrites into the extracellular fluid of the SON. Depending upon whether a defined stressor triggers taurine and/or GABA release within the SON the secretion of AVP and/or OXT from HNS neurones will be inhibited. These observations shed new light on the neurone-neurone and glial-neurone interactions that ensure an appropriate neuroendocrine stress response.     

A comparison of the MCMI-III personality disorder and modifier indices with the MMPI-2 clinical and validity scales

In this study, we examined the relationship of the MCMI-III (Millon, Davis, & Millon, 1997; Millon, Millon, & Davis, 1994) modifier indices and personality disorder scales to the validity and basic clinical scales of the MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989). The MCMI-III modifier indices highly correlated with all of the MMPI-2 validity scales except for the F(p) scale. Similarly, the MCMI-III personality disorder scales strongly covaried with the MMPI-2 validity and clinical scales except for the F(p) and 5 (Mf) scales. A factor analysis with Promax rotation revealed substantial relationships between the MMPI-2 and MCMI-III. However, the MMPI-2 F(p) scale did not tend to correlate with MMPI-2 or MCMI-III scales, indicating that F(p) scale variance was largely independent of other scales. The results suggest that clinicians should consider the interrelationship between personality characteristics and dissimulation.     

Middle East and north Africa regional conference of psychology, dubai, United arab emirates

The first Middle East and North Africa Regional Conference of Psychology (MENA RCP) was held in Dubai. United Arab Emirates, December 13–18, 2003, under the auspices of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), and the International Association for Cross–Cultural Psychology (IACCP). It was organized by a local Conference Committee and by the Yemen Psychological Association (YPA), in collaboration with the Egyptian Association for Psychological Studies (EAPS). High attendance, with participation from 35 countries, including 17 from the neighbouring Middle East and North Africa region, was a major achievement of the conference. Conference participants, many of them leaders of their national psychology associations, who also attended the concomitant National Capacity Building Workshop organized by the IUPsyS, signed an official Declaration to create a Regional Council of Arab Psychological Associations during the coming year and to follow this first MENA Conference with a second conference to be held in Amman. Jordan, in 2005.     

Seeing double: the role of meaning in alphanumeric-colour synaesthesia

When PD, an alphanumeric-colour synaesthete, is shown black digits or letters, each grapheme elicits a highly specific colour, called a "photism" (e.g., a 2 induces green, a Z induces brown). Previous experiments showed that photisms interfere with video-colour naming when the photism colour and the video colour are incongruent. Here we used coloured ambiguous graphemes that could be interpreted as either digits or letters depending on context (e.g., an ambiguous grapheme was interpreted as a 2 if presented within a block of digit trials, but as a Z if presented within a block of letter trials). Ambiguous graphemes were presented in video colours that were either congruent or incongruent with PD's photisms. Crucially, what was a congruent trial in one context was an incongruent trial in the other context. PD's pattern of response times indicated that identical graphemes could induce differently coloured photisms depending on their interpretation. This suggests that the meaning of graphemes ultimately determines their synaesthetic colour.     

Backward inhibition as a means of sequential task-set control: evidence for reduction of task competition

Endogenously initiated transitions between tasks are associated with inhibition of the attentional set for the task preceding the transition, as demonstrated by slowed reactions to a task most recently switched away from (U. Mayr & S. W. Keele, 2000). Using an altered methodological approach, the authors found that this backward inhibition counteracts perseverative tendencies when switching to a new task in that it selectively reduces interference exerted by the preceding task set. The reduction of interference was dependent on endogenous preparation for the new task and did not occur for unpredictable task switches or for task switches that were precued without information about the identity of the new task.     

Synaesthetic photisms guide attention

We evaluated whether synaesthetic colour experiences (i.e., photisms) guide or attract attention. An alphanumeric-colour synaesthete, J, and seven non-synaesthetes searched for target digits presented against backgrounds that were either congruent or incongruent with the colours of J's photisms for the target digits. For J, the slope of the search function for detecting the target digits on incongruent trials was shallower than the slope of the search function for detecting the target digits on congruent trials. In contrast, for the seven non-synaesthetes, the slopes of the search functions for detecting the target digits on congruent and incongruent trials were equivalent. These findings suggest that synaesthetic colour experiences influence the efficiency of visual search by guiding or attracting attention.     

'Getting into the spirit': Alcohol-related interpretation bias in heavy-drinking students

Alcohol misuse is characterized by patterns of selective information processing. The present study investigated whether heavy- compared with light-drinking students, show evidence of an alcohol-related interpretation bias to ambiguous, alcohol-related cues. Toward this aim, participants were asked to create continuations for ambiguous, open-ended scenarios that provided either an alcohol-related or neutral context. Results showed that heavy-drinking students generated more alcohol continuations for ambiguous alcohol-related scenarios than light-drinking students. This result was independent of the coding method used, with an interpretation bias found when continuations were coded by either participants themselves or by two independent raters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).