The Pan‐African Women's Ecumenical Empowerment Network in the Caribbean

The context of theological formation in the Caribbean is the diversity and crucible of cultures and in which women have played a great role and made a great impact.     

The power of one reinforcer: The effect of a single reinforcer in the context of shaping

During shaping, if the organism is engaged in behaviors other than the current approximation, the amount of time between reinforcers increases. In these situations, the shaper may resort to what is referred to as a “desperation‐driven click.” That is, after a period of no reinforcement, the shaper delivers one reinforcer for a nontarget approximation. Reports from professional animal trainers suggest that the animal may continue performing this new behavior, even if it is reinforced only once. This study attempted to model this phenomenon with college students. Results from the study demonstrated that a desperation‐driven click situation can be reliably produced in a controlled setting. When participants received one reinforcer for interacting with a new object following a period of no reinforcement, they interacted with the new object for a longer or equal amount of time as compared to an object that had a longer history of reinforcement. The results of this study have implications for the understanding of how reinforcement controls behavior.     

Metacognitive scaffolding boosts cognitive and neural benefits following executive attention training in children

Interventions including social scaffolding and metacognitive strategies have been used in educational settings to promote cognition. In addition, increasing evidence shows that computerized process‐based training enhances cognitive skills. However, no prior studies have examined the effect of combining these two training strategies. The goal of this study was to test the combined effect of metacognitive scaffolding and computer‐based training of executive attention in a sample of typically developing preschoolers at the cognitive and brain levels. Compared to children in the regular training protocol and an untrained active control group, children in the metacognitive group showed larger gains on intelligence and significant increases on an electrophysiological index associated with conflict processing. Moreover, changes in the conflict‐related brain activity predicted gains in intelligence in the metacognitive scaffolding group. These results suggest that metacognitive scaffolding boosts the influence of process‐based training on cognitive efficiency and brain plasticity related to executive attention.     

Modelling elderly patients’ perception of the community pharmacist image when providing professional services*

Professional pharmaceutical services may impact on patient’s health behaviour as well as influence on patients’ perceptions of the pharmacist image. The Health Belief Model predicts health-related behaviours using patients’ beliefs. However, health beliefs (HBs) could transcend beyond predicting health behaviour and may have an impact on the patients’ perceptions of the pharmacist image. This study objective was to develop and test a model that relates patients’ HBs to patient’s perception of the image of the pharmacist, and to assess if the provision of pharmacy services (Intervention group-IG) influences this perception compared to usual care (Control group). A qualitative study was undertaken and a questionnaire was created for the development of the model. The content, dimensions, validity and reliability of the questionnaire were pre-tested qualitatively and in a pilot mail survey. The reliability and validity of the proposed model were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to explain relationships between dimensions of the final model and to analyse differences between groups. As a result, a final model was developed. CFA concluded that the model was valid and reliable (Goodness of Fit indices: x²(80) = 125.726, p = .001, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .04, GFI = .997, NFI = .93, CFI = .974). SEM indicated that ‘Perceived benefits’ were significantly associated with ‘Perceived Pharmacist Image’ in the whole sample. Differences were found in the IG with also ‘Self-efficacy’ significantly influencing ‘Perceived pharmacist image’. A model of patients’ HBs related to their image of the pharmacist was developed and tested. When pharmacists deliver professional services, these services modify some patients’ HBs that in turn influence public perception of the pharmacist.     

Automatic auditory disambiguation of visual awareness

Multisensory integration can play a critical role in producing unified and reliable perceptual experience. When sensory information in one modality is degraded or ambiguous, information from other senses can crossmodally resolve perceptual ambiguities. Prior research suggests that auditory information can disambiguate the contents of visual awareness by facilitating perception of intermodally consistent stimuli. However, it is unclear whether these effects are truly due to crossmodal facilitation or are mediated by voluntary selective attention to audiovisually congruent stimuli. Here, we demonstrate that sounds can bias competition in binocular rivalry toward audiovisually congruent percepts, even when participants have no recognition of the congruency. When speech sounds were presented in synchrony with speech-like deformations of rivalling ellipses, ellipses with crossmodally congruent deformations were perceptually dominant over those with incongruent deformations. This effect was observed in participants who could not identify the crossmodal congruency in an open-ended interview (Experiment 1) or detect it in a simple 2AFC task (Experiment 2), suggesting that the effect was not due to voluntary selective attention or response bias. These results suggest that sound can automatically disambiguate the contents of visual awareness by facilitating perception of audiovisually congruent stimuli.     

Psychometric Properties and Normative Data of the Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire in a Psychiatric Outpatient Sample

The Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ; Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, &; Kraft, 1993 Zuckerman, M., Kuhlman, D. M., Joireman, J., Teta, P., &; Kraft, M. (1993). A comparison of three structural models for personality: The big three, the big five, and the alternative five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 757–768. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.65.4.757[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) was designed for the assessment of personality. The goal of this work was to determine the psychometric properties of the ZKPQ, as well as to establish normative data by gender and age in an outpatient sample attending primary mental health care services. We administered the questionnaire to 314 participants (34.7% males) 18 to 81 years old. The most prevalent primary diagnoses were mood (37.9%) and adjustment disorders (35.0%). Concerning the psychometric properties of the ZKPQ, the pattern of internal consistencies was similar to that previously found among general population, student, or clinical samples. Regarding gender differences, a general pattern was found, with women scoring higher on neuroticism and sociability, and lower on aggression-hostility. As for age, in general, scores declined with age. Norm-based decision making has the potential for significant and long-lasting consequences, and the quality of decisions based on score comparisons can be improved when scores are compared to norms fitted to the group of reference. The availability of the ZKPQ norms by gender and age in mental health care will benefit the accuracy of assessment and therapeutic decision making, providing more effective treatment planning overall.     

Normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 Spanish word fragments.

In this article, normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 single-solution Spanish word fragments are presented. The database includes the following indices: difficulty, familiarity, frequency, number of meanings, number of letters given in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks. A factor analysis was performed on difficulty, and two factors were obtained. Frequency, familiarity, and number of meanings loaded highly on the first factor, which we consider to measure lexical processes, whereas number of letters in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks loaded highly on the second factor, which we judge to be determined by perceptual information. Regression analyses using factor scores as predictors showed that both factors accounted for a significant part of the completion probability scores. The full set of these norms may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Web archive at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 Spanish word fragments

In this article, normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 single-solution Spanish word fragments are presented. The database includes the following indices: difficulty, familiarity, frequency, number of meanings, number of letters given in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks. A factor analysis was performed on difficulty, and two factors were obtained. Frequency, familiarity, and number of meanings loaded highly on the first factor, which we consider to measure lexical processes, whereas number of letters in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks loaded highly on the second factor, which we judge to be determined by perceptual information. Regression analyses using factor scores as predictors showed that both factors accounted for a significant part of the completion probability scores. The full set of these norms may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Web archive atwww.psychonomic.org/archive/.