Judgment of line orientation depends on gender, education, and type of error

Visuospatial tasks are particularly proficient at eliciting gender differences during neuropsychological performance. Here we tested the hypothesis that gender and education are related to different types of visuospatial errors on a task of line orientation that allowed the independent scoring of correct responses ("hits", or H) and one type of incorrect responses ("commission errors", or CE). We studied 343 volunteers of roughly comparable ages and with different levels of education. Education and gender were significantly associated with H scores, which were higher in men and in the groups with higher education. In contrast, the differences between men and women on CE depended on education. We concluded that (I) the ability to find the correct responses differs from the ability to avoid the wrong responses amidst an array of possible alternatives, and that (II) education interacts with gender to promote a stable performance on CE earlier in men than in women.     

Exploring a Training IRAP as a single participant context for analyzing reversed derived relations and persistent rule-following

Rule-governed behavior and derived stimulus relations have always shared strong conceptual links within behavior analysis. However, experimental analysis linking the two domains remains limited. The current study consisted of three experiments that aimed to continue to bridge this experimental gap. The first experiment sought to establish the extent to which a training version of the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) could be used to establish and successfully reverse experimentally established derived relations. The results suggested that the Training IRAP could successfully produce derived reversals. Experiments 2 and 3 explored the extent to which reversed derived relations would control rule-governed behavior when the contingencies for rule-following competed with the rule. In Experiment 2, the task contingencies were immediately in opposition to the (reversed) derived rule, and participants generally responded in accordance with the task contingencies, rather than the rule. In Experiment 3, the task contingencies were initially rule-consistent before a contingency reversal that later made them rule-inconsistent. Here evidence of rule-persistence emerged. The results of the research are considered within the context of a recent framework that has emerged out of RFT for analyzing the dynamics involved in derived relational responding.     

Cognitive colonialism: Nationality bias in Brazilian academic philosophy

This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to test for nationality bias among members of the Brazilian philosophical community. Faculty members and postgraduate students from philosophy departments at seven Brazilian universities evaluated texts attributed to authors of European and Latin American nationalities. Results showed a clear preference for French nationality over Brazilian. They were inconclusive, however, when contrasting other Latin American nationalities with European nationalities, which likely relates to the academic background of the participants. These overall results support the claim that Brazilian academic philosophers are highly critical of Brazilians who produce theories of their own. The paper calls on philosophers to carefully consider the ways in which Eurocentrism impacts their very ability to reason.     

Implicit open-mindedness: Evidence for and limits on stereotype malleability

Although stereotypes have traditionally been regarded as stable, research has documented their considerable malleability. One potential source of such malleability is intrusion into the stereotype of other concepts also activated when the stereotype is activated. In three experiments we assessed the extent to which stereotypes were influenced by stereotypic, stereotype-unrelated, or counter-stereotypic traits activated in a completely unrelated context immediately prior to stereotype measurement. Across experiments, priming of stereotype-unrelated traits increased their inclusion in the stereotype, whereas priming of counter-stereotypic traits had no effect in the subsequently assessed stereotype. In Experiment 3 we collected perceived dispersion measures and showed that although priming counter-stereotypic traits had no effect on overall characterization of the target group, it boosted perceptions of the group's variability. We accounted for these results by extending Higgins' (1989) Synapse Model of knowledge accessibility to the stereotype domain.     

The Tower of London Test: different scoring criteria for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

The Tower of London (TOL) is used for evaluating planning skills, which is a component of the executive functions. Different versions and scoring criteria were developed for this task, and some of them present with different psychometrical properties. This study aimed to evaluate two specific scoring methods of the TOL in diagnosing Mild Cognitive Impairment and probable Alzheimer's disease. The TOL total scores from 60 patients of each diagnosis were compared with the performance of 60 healthy-aged controls using receiver operating characteristics analysis and multinomial logistic regression. Krikorian method better diagnosed Alzheimer's disease, while Portellas's was better at discriminating healthy controls from Mild Cognitive Impairment, but were not efficient at comparing this last group with Alzheimer's patients. Regression analysis indicates that in addition to screening tests, TOL improves the classification of the three groups. The results suggest the two scoring methods used for this task may be useful for different diagnostic purposes.     

The association between self-consciousness about appearance and psychological adjustment among newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and survivors: the moderating role of appearance investment

This study examined the moderating role of two facets of appearance investment (self-evaluative salience (SES) and motivational salience (MS)) in the relationship between self-consciousness about appearance and psychological adjustment (depression, anxiety and psychological quality of life (QoL)) in a sample of 134 breast cancer patients (68 newly diagnosed patients and 66 survivors). No significant differences were found between groups on body image variables. Among survivors, the associations between self-consciousness about appearance and the outcome variables were only significant at high (depression, psychological QoL) levels and at moderate (psychological QoL) levels of SES. Self-consciousness about appearance contributed to poor adjustment in both groups. This study demonstrates that appearance investment plays a key role in patients' adjustment and highlights the SES-MS distinction. SES seems to be a vulnerability factor for poor adjustment, and MS seems to be a protective factor that helps women cope with changes in appearance.     

The Disability Paradox Revisited: Quality of Life and Family Caregiving in Pediatric Cerebral Palsy

Parents who have children with cerebral palsy (CP) have been reported to have a more impaired QL and higher levels of burden than parents of typically developing children; however, little is known about the positive dimensions of their caregiving experience. In this study, WHOQOL-Bref and The Revised Burden Measure were administered to a sample of 105 parents of children/adolescents with CP (clinical group) and 117 parents of children/adolescents with no disabilities (control group). Despite the fact that parents of children with CP reported more Subjective Burden and less caregiving Uplifts, there were more similarities than differences in the variables compared between clinical and control groups. For parents of children with CP, the associations between Burden dimensions and QL, and between caregiving Uplifts and QL, were respectively moderate and weak. Caregiving Uplifts were found to moderate the links between Objective Burden and Psychological QL, and between Relationship Burden and Social QL. In addition, differential main effects of Burden dimensions and caregiving Uplifts were verified for Physical, Psychological and Social QL domains. These results highlight the adaptation variability of parents who have children with CP, as well as the importance of acknowledging caregiving uplifts as a resource that may attenuate the impact of burden on their QL.     

Influence of Different Sitting Positions on Healthy Infants' Reaching Movements

The authors analyze the influence of different sitting positions (ring and flexion) on the reaching performance (spatiotemporal variables) of full-term infants 6 and 7 months old. In addition, they correlated level of trunk control, measured by the Segmental Assessment of Trunk Control, with performance during reaching. The different sitting positions only influenced the reaching movements of 6-month-old infants, who showed the best performance in the ring position. However, this influence was observed only for the trunk displacement, deceleration time, movement units, straightness index and mean velocity. In contrast, there was no influence of positions on 7-month-old infants’ reaching performance. Regarding the correlations, it was observed that infants with more level of trunk control showed a better performance when reaching, regardless of position and the age assessed.     

Old Age,Finitude and Meaning: Reflections on the Care of Older Adults Based on Logotherapy

Due to the steady increase in the number of older adults among the Brazilian population, the aim of the present article is to reflect on the care provided to the elderly based on Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy as an alternative approach to understanding more deeply what this life stage means. For this purpose, demographic data on the population of older adults are provided, together with distinct views on aging and its relationship to the quality of life. Next, logotherapy, from its conceptions about the relationship of the person to finitude and to the person’s possibilities for existence, is presented as a psychological theory likely to improve the understanding of aging and to represent a possible approach to the care of older adults. Based on an understanding of humans as beings of power and therefore as self-transcendent and endowed with the will to meaning, the possibility of psychology investing in the relationship with alterity as the grounds for interventions targeting older adults is emphasized.