Super- (and not-so-super-) vision of counsellors-in-training: Supervisee perspectives on broadening and narrowing processes

This study investigated the experiences of broadening and narrowing in the supervisory process from the perspective of supervisees. Ten supervisees who had completed all requirements for a master's degree in counselling were interviewed using a semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed using a consensual qualitative research method. Results included categories of supervisor and supervisee actions that contributed to both broadening and narrowing experiences in supervision. The results are discussed in light of implications for the process of supervision.     

Effect of click trains on duration estimates by people with Parkinson's disease

Patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and age- and IQ-matched controls estimated the duration of short 500-Hz tones (325-1,225 ms), on trials where the tone was either preceded by 3 s of 5-Hz clicks, or presented without clicks. The click manipulation had been shown in earlier studies with student participants to make verbal estimates longer. Patients were tested both on and off their dopaminergic medication, and controls were also tested in two sessions. Verbal estimates were markedly and significantly longer on trials with clicks than on those without clicks for both the patients and the controls, but there were no significant performance differences between patients or controls, nor between the on and off medication sessions in the patients. The study shows that a manipulation of subjective time, which has had small but consistent effects in student participants, also affects timing in patients and adds to a growing body of evidence that timing in patients with Parkinson's disease may in many cases have the same characteristics as those of neurologically intact control groups.     

Habituation to repeated stress: get used to it

Habituation, as described in the landmark paper by Thompson et al. [Thompson, R. F., & Spencer, W. A. (1966). Habituation: A model phenomenon for the study of neuronal substrates of behavior. Psychological Review, 73(1), 16–43], is a form of simple, nonassociative learning in which the magnitude of the response to a specific stimulus decreases with repeated exposure to that stimulus. A variety of neuronal and behavioral responses have been shown to be subject to habituation based on the criteria presented in that paper. It has been known for several decades that the magnitude of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) activation occurring in response to a stressor declines with repeated exposure to that same stressor. For some time this decline has been referred to as “habituation” in the stress neurobiology literature. However, how this usage compares to the definition proposed by Thompson and Spencer has not been systematically addressed. For this special issue, we review the stress neurobiology literature and examine the support available for considering declines in HPA response to repeated stress to be response habituation in the sense defined by Thompson and Spencer. We conclude that habituation of HPA activity meets many, but not all, important criteria for response habituation, supporting the use of this term within the context of repeated stress. However, we also propose that response habituation can, at best, only partially explain the phenomenon of HPA habituation, which also involves well-known negative feedback mechanisms, activation of broad stress-related neural circuitry and potentially more complex associative learning mechanisms.     

Right-hemisphere reading in a case of developmental deep dyslexia

The right-hemisphere hypothesis of deep dyslexia has received support from functional imaging studies of acquired deep dyslexia following damage to the left cerebral hemisphere, but no imaging studies of cases of developmental deep dyslexia, in which brain damage is not suspected, have been reported. In this paper, we report the first evidence of right hyperactivation in an adult case of developmental deep dyslexia. Hyperactivation was observed in the right inferior frontal cortex during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the oral reading of imageable content words and nonwords to which imageable lexical responses were frequently made. No evidence of right hyperactivation was observed in the oral reading of function words, nor during the naming of imageable words in response to pictured objects. The results reveal strategic and selective use of right-hemisphere functions for particular types of written stimuli. We propose that children with developmental deep dyslexia compensate for their lack of phonological skills by accessing right-hemisphere imageable associations that provide a mnemonic for linking written forms to spoken names.     

The control of food-caching behavior by Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica)

Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) did not show extinction when caching behavior was never rewarded and they had no choice of where to cache the food. However, when the jays had the choice of caching items in 2 different locations or during 2 successive episodes, and only 1 of each was always rewarded at recovery, they rapidly learned to cache in the rewarded location or episode. When the jays had learned during training trials that their caches were always moved to 1 of 2 locations they did not cache in, then on the test trial they cached in the location that had been previously rewarded. To test whether these jays avoided the location in which their caches had been pilfered or chose the rewarded location, the procedure was repeated to include a 3rd location that was never rewarded. The jays avoided the pilfered location but cached equally in the rewarded and nonrewarded locations.     

Change in affective state assessed by impaired color-naming of threat-related words

This study investigated the effects of mood induction on Stroop color-naming times for threat-related words. The subjects’ task was to color-name sets of threat-related words and affectively neutral matched control words both before and after mood-induction. Subjects were shown a short film about the medical effects of nuclear war (negative affect manipulation), a humorous cartoon, or no film. A significant and highly reliable color-naming decrement of the threat-related words was observed only after the negative affect manipulation. This indicates that the attentional bias towards the processing of threat-related material observed in clinically anxious or high Trait-Anxious subjects can be induced in initially nonanxious subjects. An incidental recall task included in the procedure provided no evidence of mood state dependent recall.     

Young People's Perceptions of their Vocational Guidance Needs: Ii. Influences and Interventions

Questionnaire responses from 1,366 pupils at 20 schools in England were used to develop a scale tentatively interpreted as reflecting vocational development. This interpretation was evaluated by concurrent assessments from local careers officers and by its predictive value in the first months on the labour market. Influences on scores included reading ability, social and economic factors, and features of the school. Careers interventions were effective in increasing vocational awareness. Schools providing formal careers education in the fourth or fifth years had pupils whose scores suggested a gain of six months' vocational awareness. The input of the Careers Service was also related to the scale, pupils at schools with more active careers officers appearing more advanced in their vocational development.     

SUBJECT TO ROMANCE

Safer sex campaigns directed at heterosexuals have increasingly targeted women to encourage them to take responsibility for condom use. It appears, however, that many women are unable or unwilling to accept this role. In this article we report on one particular kind of obstacle that some women face in initiating condom use. We draw on data from interviews with 14 women, aged 22 to 43 years, about their experiences with, and views of, condoms. There was considerable variability, as well as commonalities, among the women interviewed in the way they regarded condoms. Using a feminist poststructuralist form of discourse analysis, we explored two women's accounts of being unable to initiate condom use despite their stated intentions not to have intercourse without a condom and having condoms in their possession. We suggest that this particular dynamic results from the passivity women can experience through being positioned in a discourse of heterosexual feminine sexuality in general and a discourse of heterosexual romance in particular. We discuss how this passivity can be experienced by women who are otherwise assertive and committed to sexual equality, making it confusing and disconcerting for them and others.     

Odometry and backtracking: social and individual navigation in group foraging desert harvester ants (Veromessor pergandei)

Animal Cognition - Veromessor pergandei harvester ants are group foragers which use a combination of social cues (pheromone-marked columns) and individual cues (e.g., self-generated movement,...