Bayesian PTSD-Trajectory Analysis with Informed Priors Based on a Systematic Literature Search and Expert Elicitation

There is a recent increase in interest of Bayesian analysis. However, little effort has been made thus far to directly incorporate background knowledge via the prior distribution into the analyses. This process might be especially useful in the context of latent growth mixture modeling when one or more of the latent groups are expected to be relatively small due to what we refer to as limited data. We argue that the use of Bayesian statistics has great advantages in limited data situations, but only if background knowledge can be incorporated into the analysis via prior distributions. We highlight these advantages through a data set including patients with burn injuries and analyze trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms using the Bayesian framework following the steps of the WAMBS-checklist. In the included example, we illustrate how to obtain background information using previous literature based on a systematic literature search and by using expert knowledge. Finally, we show how to translate this knowledge into prior distributions and we illustrate the importance of conducting a prior sensitivity analysis. Although our example is from the trauma field, the techniques we illustrate can be applied to any field.     

Language and executive functioning skills of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and in reading comprehension difficulties (RCD)

The aim of this work was to study the specificity of deficits in linguistic and executive functioning of students with ADHD and with RCD and to determine the profile of deficits in the comorbid group (ADHD+RCD). Participants in the study were 84 students, ages 12-16 years divided into four groups with an equal number of subjects (N= 21): ADHD, RCD, ADHD+RCD and comparison group (without ADHD and without RCD). We measured vocabulary, oral comprehension, lexical access, verbal and visual working memory, inhibition and attention. The results show that the ADHD+RCD group presents the most important linguistic deficits, followed by the RCD group. On the other hand, the three clinical groups (ADHD, RCD and ADHD+RCD) display greater performance problems in working memory than the comparison group, whereas the two groups with ADHD had more problems in attention and inhibition. These results suggest the dissociation of linguistic and executive deficits that affect the RCD group and ADHD group to a greater extent, respectively. Lastly, the comorbid group showed deficits both in language and in executive skills. We discuss the implications of these findings for designing interventions.     

"The people I grew up with": the role of sociodemographic factors in early memories in an Italian sample

This within-culture study aimed to investigate the age and density of earliest memories in a sample of Italian young adults. The framework of this study is sociocultural, with an emphasis on family reminiscing as contributing to early memories. In this regard Italy is of interest due to the fact that it is a Western but familial oriented culture, where multi-generational family ties are still strong in comparison with other European counterparts, providing for the opportunity to investigate the offset of childhood amnesia as a function of growing up in an extended family structure. Consistent with Mullen (1994), 90 undergraduate students were interviewed about their earliest memory and about sociodemographic factors in their early childhood years: household composition, gender, birth order, presence of family moves, and significant early childhood experiences. Participants who grew up in an extended family situation reported earlier and denser memories in comparison with those from nuclear families. Results are discussed in light of other cross-cultural work on childhood amnesia and with respect to sociocultural theories of the importance of family reminiscing for one's early memories.     

“Lights on at the end of the party”: Are lads’ mags mainstreaming dangerous sexism?

Research has suggested that some magazines targeted at young men –lads’ mags– are normalizing extreme sexist views by presenting those views in a mainstream context. Consistent with this view, young men in Study 1 (n = 90) identified more with derogatory quotes about women drawn from recent lads’ mags, and from interviews with convicted rapists, when those quotes were attributed to lads’ mags, than when they were attributed to convicted rapists. In Study 2, 40 young women and men could not reliably judge the source of those same quotes. While these participants sometimes voiced the belief that the content of lads’ mags was ‘normal’ while rapists’ talk was ‘extreme’, they categorized quotes from both sources as derogatory with equal frequency. Jointly, the two studies show an overlap in the content of convicted rapists’ talk and the contents of contemporary lads’ mags, and suggest that the framing of such content within lads’ mags may normalize it for young men.     

Body position differentially influences responses to exogenous and endogenous cues

The influence of vestibular inputs on exogenous (Exp. 1) and endogenous (Exp. 2) orienting of visual attention was examined. The vestibular system was manipulated through a change in static body position. Participants engaged in an exogenous or endogenous response task while in a seated position, while lying in a prone position, and while in a prone position with their head down and neck flexed (HDNF). An attenuation of inhibition and facilitation effects during the exogenous task was observed in the HDNF position. However, responses to the cues remained similar in the endogenous task, irrespective of body position. The results reveal a potential dissociation between reflexive and volitional orienting of visual attention that is dependent on vestibular inputs.     

Epistemic justice as a condition of political freedom?

I shall first briefly revisit the broad idea of ‘epistemic injustice’, explaining how it can take either distributive or discriminatory form, in order to put the concepts of ‘testimonial injustice’ and ‘hermeneutical injustice’ in place. In previous work I have explored how the wrong of both kinds of epistemic injustice has both an ethical and an epistemic significance—someone is wronged in their capacity as a knower. But my present aim is to show that this wrong can also have a political significance in relation to non-domination, and so to freedom. While it is only the republican conception of political freedom that presents nondomination as constitutive of freedom, I shall argue that non-domination is best understood as a thoroughly generic liberal ideal of freedom to which even negative libertarians are implicitly committed, for non-domination is negative liberty as of right—secured non-interference. Crucially on this conception, non-domination requires that the citizen can contest interferences. Pettit specifies three conditions of contestation, each of which protects against a salient risk of the would-be contester not getting a ‘proper hearing’. But I shall argue that missing from this list is anything to protect against a fourth salient threat: the threat that either kind of epistemic injustice might disable contestation by way of an unjust deflation of either credibility or intelligibility. Thus we see that both testimonial and hermeneutical injustice can render a would-be contester dominated. Epistemic justice is thereby revealed as a constitutive condition of non-domination, and thus of a central liberal political ideal of freedom.     

A new model of sensorimotor coupling in the development of speech

We present a computational model that learns a coupling between motor parameters and their sensory consequences in vocal production during a babbling phase. Based on the coupling, preferred motor parameters and prototypically perceived sounds develop concurrently. Exposure to an ambient language modifies perception to coincide with the sounds from the language. The model develops motor mirror neurons that are active when an external sound is perceived. An extension to visual mirror neurons for oral gestures is suggested.     

Treatment of children with ADHD: psychopedagogical program at school versus psychostimulant medication

This study examined the impact of medication management compared to a psycho-educational program on parent and teacher ratings of children with combined type ADHD. The study lasted 14 weeks and included 50 children. 17 children took medication, 17 received psycho-educational intervention, and 16 children were assigned to the control group. The measures used were the IOWA Conners Scale, the School Problem Inventory, the Abbreviated Conners, and the DSM-IV Inattention-Disorganization and Hyperactivity-Impulsivity rating scales. Regarding teacher ratings, improvements were observed on: a) inattention and school problems in the medication group versus the control group; and b) hyperactivity symptoms in the psycho-pedagogical group versus the control and medication groups. Regarding to parent ratings, improvements were observed on: a)inattention in the psycho-pedagogical group versus the control and medication groups; and b) hyperactivity symptoms in the psycho-pedagogical group versus the control and the medication groups.